We’ve had a lot of wonderful avian visitors to our yard this spring. Dave set up a new feeding station since we suspect that our old one was knocked down by a bear and it’s been quite a hit. There are also now two bluebird boxes in the field so this year we have an Eastern Bluebird pair! Many of our yearly visitors have returned, including the Chipping Sparrows, Gray Catbird pair, American Robin pair, Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Broad-winged Hawk, and the Red-eyed Vireo. Our Northern Cardinal and Pileated Woodpecker pairs have also been making frequent appearances.
Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Gray Catbird (Image by Michelle Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Pileated Woodpecker male (Image by David Horowitz)Yellow-bellied Sapsucker breeding male (Image by David Horowitz)Chipping Sparrow (Image by Michelle Horowitz)
What kind of birds have been visiting your yard/area this spring? Let me know in the comments!
I was looking out the kitchen window the other morning and there was an female American Goldfinch on one of the Purple Coneflowers. American Goldfinches like to eat the seeds of the Coneflower, especially in the fall. However, this female was not looking for seeds. She was pulling the petals off the flowers, but I didn’t see her fly away with them. Later in the afternoon a male was with her pulling petals off as well.
American Goldfinches pulling petals off Coneflowers (Images by Michelle Horowitz)
I’m not exactly sure why there were doing it. I tried looking up some information about why they were specifically focusing on petals and didn’t find much, but it was interesting to watch. Anyone else see this scenario before?
The Coneflowers also attract a lot of butterflies.
If anyone has an explanation let me know in the comments!
Have you ever seen a White-throated Sparrow? White-throated Sparrows spend the winter in forested areas throughout many parts of the the United States in the winter. They are large gray-brown sparrows with long tails, yellow near their eyes, and head stripes. They seem like fairly simple birds, but did you know that their head stripes hold the key to their personalities?
I recently read an interesting article by author/naturalist Kenn Kaufman on Audubon’s website about the White-throats complex sex life. There are 2 morphs of White-throats: ones with white/black head stripes and ones with tan/dark brown stripes. (From this point forward I will refer to them as “white-striped” and “tan-striped”.) For many years scientists thought that the tan-striped birds were juveniles, but later learned that they are one of two permanent morphs.
White-morph White-throated Sparrow at Boundary Creek (Image by BirdNation)
A lot of birds species have different morphs. Who cares, right? Well after much research (that is still ongoing), scientists have learned that these morphs determine a White-throat’s personality and their mating choices.
It may sound like a generalization, but tan-striped sparrows tend to more nurturing and white-striped tend to be more aggressive. Kaufman points out that these broad-sounding conclusions were made after numerous years of involved research. He sites multiple examples, such as white-striped of both sexes tend to sing more with a higher pitch, while tan-striped sing less often. Tan-striped live in denser forests and are not as aggressive with their territories, while white-striped live in more open woodlands and actively chase intruders.
Tan-striped White-throated Sparrow morph (Image by Greg Lavaty via houstonaudubon.org)
Each morph is split pretty close to 50% male/female. Like they say with human relationships, opposites seem to attract in the White-throated Sparrow world. Studies found that pairs tend to consist of one of each morph. White-striped males with usually pair with tan-striped females, and tan-striped males with white-striped females.
Even though these pairings are common, White-throated Sparrows still have their own personal preferences. Females of both morphs prefer tan-striped males, and the more aggressive white-striped female tends to snag the tan males quicker. Males of both morphs prefer white-striped females. Tan-striped birds seem to stay monogamous longer, but white-striped may possibly be promiscuous.
Do the same morphs ever mate together? Studies find that around 95% of mating pairs will be these opposite morph pairs. More studies are needed to find out the results of same morph pairs, but there are some hypotheses of what might happen. It’s likely that a tan-striped nests could fail because of issues with defending their territories. White-striped nests could fail due to too much fighting with each other.
Studies on White-throated Sparrows are still ongoing, but the information we currently know about their complex social lives is fascinating. A bird species, such as White-throated Sparrows, may seem common, but many aspects of their lives are still packed with secrets that scientists are only starting to reveal.
One thing I enjoy about birding is that you can do it anywhere. There are no specific places you need to be. You can find all sorts of interesting birds, and don’t even have to leave your own backyard.
I don’t actually have a “backyard” but I because I live in an apartment complex. But I do have a nice large balcony that looks out over a lawn with some trees and live next to a wooded area, so I see a decent amount of birds.
I don’t really know my human neighbors that well, but I certainly know my avian neighbors. Over time I get to know the resident birds and their habits and am excited when new species move into our area. This spring/summer a new couple has moved into the neighborhood: the House Wrens.
Every morning, one the the wrens (I like to call him my “little friend Wren” haha) sings out from my balcony. I was honored that Wren chose our balconies of all the ones he could have chosen from. Then I noticed that Wren had a plan, and it was sneaky. (Below is a fuzzy cell phone picture of Wren on my balcony)
My little friend Wren on my balcony 🙂 (Image by BirdNation)
Wren is trying to take over my nest box. He likes to sneak in but doesn’t succeed for very long. The male House Sparrow who resides there always kicks him out. Wren is pretty persistent though and usually will try multiple times before flying off. He’s not afraid to put up a fight either. It makes for quite a spectacle.
This has been the summer of the wren for me. I have been seeing Carolina, House, and Marsh Wrens pretty frequently, but my neighbor House Wrens are my favorite so far. So in honor of my little friend Wren and his mate, here are some fun facts about House Wrens.
Despite being a plain-looking brown bird, House Wrens are anything but dull. House Wrens are energetic and bubbly little birds. They move quickly, fluttering about with their tails straight up in the air. Their songs are just as lively as their personalities. They let out an exuberant, trilling song that ascend then descends. (If you’ve never heard a House Wren, I suggest you look up their songs. It’s delightful!)
House Wren (Image via animalia-life.com)
They may only weight about the size of two quarters, but if you’re a bird you better watch out! House Wrens are fierce competitors when it comes to looking for nest sites. If they want a certain spot they will harass larger birds, sometimes even killing the young that is already in the nest.
Breeding House Wrens choose new mating partners each season. To persuade a female to court with him, a male will prepare multiple nests. Single males may try to steal a female from another male after nesting has already begun. If the single male succeeds, he will get rid of the former male’s eggs so he can have his own. Females may leave the male to take care of the chicks to start a nest with a new male.
House Wrens have the largest range of any New World songbird. Their range extends from Central Canada and all throughout North/Central America and can go down to the southernmost tip of South America.
(Map via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
House Wrens earned their names because they tend to live close to humans and in man-made structures.
Who is your favorite avian neighbor? Tell me about them in the comments.
As you know from some previous posts, I really enjoy bird cams. They are fascinating to watch and I learn so much from them. My fiance Dave enjoys them too, and we thought it would be cool to have our own bird cam. Dave constructed a simple box and started working on a camera to put inside. He’s into electronics, so he used a Raspberry Pi (a computer the size of a credit card that can be used from all sorts of projects) to create a webcam. We have residents: House Sparrows!
Nest box (Image by David Horowitz)
Now, House Sparrows get a bad rap. House Sparrows are not native to North America. They were brought over from Europe in the 1850s and have spread across the United States and parts of Canada. You can find them in an urban or suburban environment because they thrive living near humans. You don’t even have to feed House Sparrows to attract them; they will probably move in near you anyway. Many birders think of House Sparrows as pests because sometimes they will displace native birds from nest boxes and other cavities.
Female and male House Sparrows (Image via rio.wikia.com)
I personally like them. I’m happy that they moved in and have a little home. House Sparrows live in small colonies. We have a family living in the bushes, so I’m guess that this pair is part of that group. At the end of February they started checking out the property and decided it was perfect for them. So they started claiming the box with some twigs.
Starting to move in (Image by David Horowitz)
Over the past few weeks they’ve added a lot more nesting material.
(Image by David Horowitz)
Today there was more and it looked like it was starting to turn into a nest shape.
(Image by David Horowitz)
They’ve certainly made a lot of progress over the last two weeks. It’s exciting to be able to watch this process. I’ll keep you updated!
If someone starts talking about spring, what is the first bird that pops into your head? Did you say the American Robin? Most people do. Robins are ubiquitous in springtime. They run in short spurts, then show off their perfect posture while they look for a meal. In spring we enjoy their cheery songs from high in the tree tops. But most people don’t realize that a lot of robins stick around in the winter too, although they are not as obvious.
Male American Robin (Wikimedia Commons/Kristofvt)
Once the weather gets cooler our spring visitors, such as warblers, will migrate south for the winter. Many robins do too, but not everyone leaves. Robins will focus on eating a lot of invertebrates and insects in the spring, but switch to berries and other fruits in the winter. So how does a robin decide to stay or migrate?
It depends more on food sources than the cold temperature. A robin may stick around its breeding range because there is fruit around for it to eat. In the spring we see robins all around fields and lawns because they are out looking for earthworms. Remember the previous blog about winter flocks? We said one of the reasons birds form big flocks is to help each other find food. Since the ground is not thawed out in winter, American Robins will flock together and hang out in more wooded areas looking for fruit. This is why you don’t see them as often in the winter, but they are still around. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s page about robins, in the winter some areas may see flocks of around a quarter-million birds! (and you thought they all disappeared!)
A massive flock of American Robins in Washington (Image by Carl Kjellstrand via birdnote.org)
I recently heard robins singing their spring songs even though it’s the middle of winter. Were they confused? Well, male robins sing at the beginning of the spring to mark their territories. If you hear them singing the spring song now, it is likely because of raging hormones. Breeding season is approaching pretty quickly. However, their songs will be in full force once spring really does arrive. At that point the large flocks will disband.
So here’s another question: is that robin singing in your yard during the spring the same robin as last year? It’s very likely that it is. Like us, birds are also creatures of habit. Many birds will return to the same areas to breed each spring.
Throughout the last few winters I’ve noticed a lot of large robin flocks around my area. I saw a flock hanging around my school today which inspired me to write about this topic. Sometimes I’ll see them when I’m hiking in forests or even when I’m in parking lots. Are you seeing flock of robins in your area this winter?
One week until what you might ask? One of my favorite weekends of the whole year: the Great Backyard Bird Count!
The Great Backyard Bird Count (or GBBC) was created by my two favorite bird organizations: the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. It is a citizen science project where people from all over the world count birds and submit the data in real time. GBBC always takes place the second weekend of February from Friday to Monday (February 12-15 this year).
Here’s how it works:
Go to any location you want to. Despite being called a “backyard” count, you can go birding anywhere.
Count all the birds you see and keep a list of your data The GBBC site recommends you count for at least 15 minutes at each location you choose.
Go to ebird.org and submit your data. It’s super easy to make an eBird account and it’s free.
Go birding as much as you want throughout the 4-day weekend.
Last year, 5,090 species around the world were counted in 100 countries! Over 18 million individual birds were counted in that 4-day period. Participating is a lot of fun, so if you like to bird watch plan on doing in for the GBBC next weekend. If you want to learn more check out the GBBC official website: gbbc.birdcount.org
Yesterday I was talking about winter flocks. When I arrived home from work this afternoon there was a flock of at least 200 European Starling in my parking lot. They were spread between a few surrounding trees and very loudly chittering away. I wonder what they were all talking so loudly about.
European Starlings with a few American Robins mixed in
So the count down to GBBC has begun. In the meantime, the weather should be pretty nice here in New Jersey the next few days, so check back here for more birds! Happy birding!
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