Some of my friends in the Pittsburgh area have noticed a disturbing lack of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) at their feeders this year. “I haven’t seen one since April. They should be here by now.”
Meanwhile other friends aren’t worried at all. Their hummingbird feeder activity is normal. What’s going on?
I pulled ruby-throated hummingbird eBird sightings January-to-June for 2020 through 2025 (inclusive) and put them into the slideshow below. Pick a spot to watch on the map and see it change — or not — as the years pass.
Is your home on or near this map? Are you missing hummingbirds this year? Or not? Leave a comment with your answer.
We tend to take gray catbirds for granted but here are some cool facts you might not know. For instance:
Gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) are monotypic, the only species in their genus. The catbird’s genus name Dumetella means “small thorny thicket” a reference to his habit of singing from inside thorny thickets instead of from a prominent perch.
Males and females look alike except for these subtle differences.
Sexes show similar appearances in all plumages, although females average duller than males and average less-extensive rufous on longest undertail coverts.
Catbirds use their sense of smell to find their way on migration(!) as described in this vintage article: Sniffing Their Way North.
They are present all year in some parts of the U.S. (purple areas below) but most of us see them only in the breeding season. In Pittsburgh they typically arrive in late April and leave in mid October.
Catbirds are rarely parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds because they recognize cowbird eggs in their nests and kick them out. Note the color! described in this vintage article Cat Versus Cow.
Catbird (blue) and cowbird (speckled) eggs (photo by Chuck Tague)
Male catbirds are jazzmen! Their song is an improvisation rather than a direct imitation. Read more at: Virtuoso
Wood-warblers, belonging to the large family Parulidae, are beautiful, dainty birds unique to the Americas. The family has 115 species spread between North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean—56 species can be found in the United States and Canada.
Of those 56 species only two nest in cavities: the prothonotary warbler in eastern North America and Lucy’s warbler in the West.
The prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) is arguably the most gorgeous of all the wood-warblers with a glowing yellow head and chest and gray wings and tail. As a woodland swamp specialist, he prefers to breed where old trees stand in water and woody shrubs overhang it. A great example of his habitat can be found at Conneaut Marsh–McMichael/Brown Hill Rd in Crawford County, PA.
The prothonotary male arrives in the spring ahead of the females and chooses several potential nest sites. He sings from the opening to claim his territory and attract a mate.
p.s. According to Wikipedia, the Francis Beidler Forest in South Carolina has the densest known population of prothonotary warblers and is currently home to more than 2,000 pairs. A good place to look if you’re nearby.
Connecticut warbler at Bellevue Memorial Park, 24 May 2025 (photo by Steve Gosser)
25 May 2025
On 18 May Chris Lituma reported a Connecticut warbler (Oporornis agilis) at Bellevue Memorial Park. By the end of the week Steve Gosser and I were two of about 100 people who looked for the bird. Many of us went twice. I did.
So a Connecticut Warbler has been hanging at Bellevue Park for nearly a week now. Not only are these warblers not common but they are true skulkers that usually stay hidden. I went over a few nights ago and got to hear him sing but no luck with photos. This evening I went back over and I finally got him after waiting nearly 2 hours for him to pop up. Looking back at my archives, the last one I saw and got pics was back in Sept 2016, nearly 9 years ago! Yes this is a very special bird and so thrilled I got some photos.
A hundred Pittsburgh birders showed up for this warbler because he is rare and very hard to find. Crowd sizes varied. This is the midday crowd on Friday.
Birders looking for the Connecticut warbler at Bellevue Memorial Park, 24 May 2025 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Why so many people and why did we come more than once?
Connecticut warblers are skulkers that slowly poke around out of sight in the underbrush and thickets. The male’s song is quite loud and he throws his head back when he sings so the sound bounces off the low canopy.
He’s impossible to find if he’s not singing so if you showed up at 1:00pm on Wednesday, as I did, and the bird is silent and you only have half an hour to wait for him to sing. … Well you’ll have to come back later.
When I returned on Thursday he was singing but it still took an hour to see him. First looks are usually poor but rewarding. Charity Kheshgi visited several times to get a good photograph. Notice how the views improved.
This is a typical view of a Connecticut warbler
Better! But we want more.
Dang, he turned his back! However, notice how chunky he is.
Excellent view, a bit too much sun
Yes!
My best view was this one, captured by Ryder Shelley who was standing next to me on Thursday.
And this view is why everyone comes back, over and over again. It takes a lot of luck to see a Connecticut warbler this well. Phillip Rogers was very, very lucky.
As of 7:50am today (25 May) the warbler is still in Bellevue Memorial Park. Someone heard him this morning and is hoping to see him.
Sooner or later the bird will leave for his breeding grounds up north but we won’t know he’s gone until people try for at least a day with no luck.
UPDATE on Tuesday 27 May 2025: The Connecticut warbler is gone. No one has reported it since the afternoon / evening of Sunday 25 May.
Since leaving Denver we’ve driven through some amazing scenery on our way to Gunnison, Colorado on Sunday night and Grand Junction on Monday. We crossed Monarch Pass, were awed by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and have passed through mountains, basins and valleys. Today we’ll spend part of our time in pinyon-juniper woodlands, nicknamed “PJ.”
Pinyon-juniper woodland dominates the slopes above the sagebrush and below the ponderosa pines in southern and western Colorado (quote from Colorado Birding Trail). To those of us from Pennsylvania this PJ woodland scene at Dominiguez-Escalante suggests an old field reverting to forest. Nope.
According to the Colorado State Forest Service, the most common PJ tree species are the Colorado piñon pine, the Utah juniper and the New Mexico or one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) that thrive in drought-prone, cold areas where annual precipitation is 10-15 inches. The trees cope with these challenges by growing widely spaced and rarely exceeding 10 feet tall.
Colorado piñon pine (Pinus edulis) [or pinyon pine]
Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) have such a symbiotic relationship with pinyon pines that these woodlands are really the only place to find them. Unfortunately the jay is declining dangerously and its disappearance could cause the pine to decline as well. In 2023 USFWS began a study to decide whether to list the pinyon jay as Endangered, described in the video below. As of this writing the jay’s status has not changed.
Though juniper titmice (Baeolophus ridgwayi) have “juniper” in their name they do not have the close relationship with junipers that the pinyon jay has with pines. This bird used to be the plain titmouse (he is definitely plain!) but was named for his preferred habitat when he was split from the oak titmouse in the 1990s. His “oak” cousin is well studied but he is not.
Yesterday morning it was sprinkling when I left for the Duck Hollow outing. It looked like more rain would come so there were only three of us: Andy, John and myself.
At the start we saw a common merganser pair, a flock of three lesser scaup, two wood ducks in flight and one bufflehead (as promised).
The most numerous two species are usually mallards and Canada geese but yesterday they were topped by northern cardinals and red-winged blackbirds conspicuously singing, chasing, eating and chasing again. (The photos are from Wikimedia, not our outing.)
Red-winged blackbird (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Andy found a tiny snail on the move with its antennae leading the way. By the time I took its picture it was hiding under leaves. Its outstretched neck and head are inside the pink circle but it is so dark that it’s hard to see.
Tiny snail on the move, Duck Hollow, 30 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Back at the parking lot John pointed out a northern rough-winged swallow flying over the river, considered “rare” by eBird because it showed up in March.
If you haven’t seen or heard another new arrival yet, the eastern phoebe, visit Duck Hollow. We saw/heard three.
During January’s cold snap, flocks of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) suddenly swarmed backyard bird feeders and everyone wished they would just “Go away!”
As it happens starlings are going away, though maybe not quickly in your backyard.
Despite its success and large numbers, the European Starling is now in steep decline, like so many other species in North America. The current population is half the size it was 50 years ago – down from an estimated 166.2 million breeding birds in 1970 to 85.1 million. The species is also declining in Europe.(*)
In just a decade starlings declined 14.9% in North America, mostly in the Midwest and especially Illinois where they are down 24.5%.
Despite this, many of us worry that starlings are having a negative impact on cavity-nesting native birds — but they are not.
Starlings often take over the nests of native birds, expelling the occupants. With so many starlings around, there is concern about their effect on native bird populations. Nevertheless, a study in 2003 found few actual effects on populations of 27 native species. Only sapsuckers showed declines due to starlings; other species appeared to be holding their own against the invaders.
“Only sapsuckers showed declines?” Fortunately this is not quite the case in Pennsylvania. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers have declined in certain regions of PA but in others they have increased. In areas of overlap with starlings, such as the western I-80 corridor, sapsuckers have increased. [I-80 is under the word “Pennsylvania” on the maps below.]
Meanwhile, starlings have declined more than sapsuckers overall and have not appreciably increased in the sapsuckers’ range. Compare the two Trends maps below.
The Eurasian green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is a bit unusual. Instead of drilling trees he spends most of his time on the ground, poking his beak in the soil.
Predominantly [eats] ants, chiefly meadow-dwelling species of genera Formica (winter) and Lasius (spring to autumn); generally, larger ant species preferred.  …
Uses bill to sweep away moss, dead leaves, other debris, or snow; pecks funnel-shaped holes up to 12 cm (4.7 in) deep in ground, and procures prey with action of the very long tongue; such holes may be exploited in lengthy and repeated visits. When snow cover heavy, can dig tunnels almost 1m (more than 3 feet) long to reach prey.Â
These traits may remind you of a North American woodpecker. Though not closely related, our northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) also forages on the ground for ants and shouts in the spring.
Where have the swallows gone while it’s snowy and cold in Pennsylvania?
In January all the tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in North America are on their wintering grounds from coastal North Carolina to Texas, the Caribbean, and Central America. Most of them are in Florida, as you can see on eBird’s abundance map for the week of 4 January.
If you live in southwestern Pennsylvania you probably think red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) are rare birds as did I until I recorded one yesterday at North Park and eBird did not flag it. Yesterday’s red-headed woodpecker was the second I’ve seen in a week. The first was in Schenley Park during the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count on 28 December.
The North Park bird is an all-winter visitor, hanging out with one or two others at the Elwood Shelter (40.5876006, -79.9854305) since early November 2024. It posed for Justin Kolakowski in late December.
The Schenley Park woodpecker was a One Day Wonder found by Mark VanderVen. I tracked it down when I heard his rattle call, similar to this recording of two birds interacting.
Red-headed woodpeckers are still unusual enough in Pennsylvania to attract a small crowd, particularly after they were labeled “in decline” during Pennsylvania’s Second Breeding Bird Atlas (2004-2009) because their block coverage dropped 46% since the First Atlas (1983-1989).
But you don’t have to go far to see one during the breeding season. Just cross the Ohio border and keep heading west. The pair shown at top was photographed at Sheldon Marsh in Huron County, Ohio.
Red-headed woodpeckers are in fact increasing as their breeding population moves west. Their stronghold now is in the Great Plains. They are far less rare than we think.
