White-breasted nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) are small but spunky. When they have a good spot at the feeder they defend it by puffing up.
Sometimes it’s just a mild warning like this tail-fanning to a house sparrow.
Sometimes it’s an open wing display like this one to a tufted titmouse.
And if it’s really important the nuthatch opens its wings and sways side to side in a mesmerizing display. The bluebird on the other side of this feeder stares for a while and decides not to stick around.
Did you know that white-breasted nuthatches use crushed bugs and other items to lay scent outside the entrance to their nests? Listen to BirdNote to find out more …
… and then watch a nuthatch sweep a bug around its nest hole.
Now that winter is really here, fill your feeders and wait to see a nuthatch tell the other birds, “I’m warning you!”
As I mentioned in Meet the Baypoll, I visited Bird Lab’sHays Woods banding station on Tuesday where I had up close looks at warblers and thrushes. Stars of the show were a bay-breasted warbler and a blackpoll captured in the same mist net. I got good photos of the bay-breasted warbler (Setophaga castanea) both front and back. I think he’s more confusing from the back.
Tuesday was a big day for Tennessee warblers (Leiothlypis peregrina). At least six were banded while I was there. They are hard to identify in autumn because so many of them are unremarkable immature birds without the classic dark olive back and gray head of breeding males. For example …
… and another example, though this one has a dark olive back.
During the banding process the bander fans the bird’s wings to look for its wing molt stage, a method for aging the bird. Here’s a close look at a Tennessee warbler’s wing.
And finally, Tuesday was also a big day for Swainson’s thrushes (Catharus ustulatus). In the hand you can easily see the bird’s identifying feature, its buffy eye ring, but I was surprised by two things I’d never noticed before:
Swainson’s thrushes have a two-tone beak. The lower mandible is not as dark at the face as it is at the tip.
Swainson’s thrushes are small birds, though larger than warblers.
As I said before, if you’d like to see birds up close during fall migration, visit Nick Liadis’ Bird Lab website and scroll down to the list of three banding locations — Hays Woods, Upper St. Clair and Twin Stupas in Butler County — with instructions for contacting him to set up an appointment.
Learn more about Bird Lab on Wednesday 2 October when Nick Liadis presents Studying Migration Across a Landscape Gradient: Bird Banding in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Habitats at the Three Rivers Birding Club meeting at Beechwood Farms (and on Zoom).
Don’t forget to support Nick’s efforts with a donation at Bird Lab’s GoFundMe site.
Two species of North America’s fall warblers are so easy to mistake for each other that the pair has gained a nickname. Meet the “baypoll.”
On Tuesday I visited Bird Lab’sHays Woods banding station for an up-close look at fall migrants. That morning Nick Liadis and Shana banded magnolia warblers, Swainson’s thrushes, Tennessee warblers, ovenbirds and many other species. Best Birds were the two pictured above, found in the same net at the same time: a bay-breasted warbler and a blackpoll warbler. Were they traveling together? Maybe. See yesterday’s blog.
These two species look so much alike in autumn that birders joke that they’ve seen a baypoll when they aren’t sure which one it is. Baypoll = BAY-breasted / blackPOLL. eBird doesn’t accept that designation, of course, but it’s useful for describing our frustration.
How can you tell the two apart?
In non-breeding plumage the bay-breasted warbler (Setophaga castanea) has bold wingbars with a dark bar between them and often, but not always, a faint bay (chestnut) wash on its flanks. It also has dark feet and an unstreaked breast. Compared to other warblers the bay-breasted looks long and bulky, not petite.
Blackpoll warblers (Setophaga striata) are striped, striata, where the bay-breasted is not. Even when the stripes are faint you’ll see them at the sides of the breast. Wingbars on blackpolls are pronounced but not as emphatic as on the bay-breasted. Blackpolls have a more definite eyeline than bay-breasted, but the real clincher for a blackpoll is its yellow-orange feet! The bird may have dark legs but it always wears golden slippers. I have spent many frustrating minutes waiting for a blackpoll to show me its feet.
Notice the feet on both birds in the top photo, sticking out above the bander’s thumb.
So next time you see a baypoll, check out its feet.
If you’d like to see birds up close during fall migration, visit Nick Liadis’ Bird Lab website and scroll down to the list of three banding locations — Hays Woods, Upper St. Clair and Twin Stupas in Butler County — with instructions for contacting him to set up an appointment.
Just because an animal has UV receptors in its eyes does not mean it can see ultraviolet light. A recent BBC video, below, reveals some surprising things about the use and perception of ultraviolet light in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and raptors, especially golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). For instance:
Starlings and golden eagles both have UV receptors in their eyes.
Female starlings have feathers that reflect UV. The more UV a female reflects the more successful she is at breeding. Male starlings like the glow we humans cannot see.
UV light scatters more. If you can see UV light, it makes images blurry.
Raptors have UV receptors in their eyes but they cannot see it because their lenses filter it out. The golden eagle’s vision is sharper because he cannot see UV.
Scientists used to think kestrels hunted by seeing the UV reflective paths of rodent urine. Nope. Kestrel eyes filter out UV so that theory has been disproved.
Interesting conclusions:
Because I thought that raptors could see UV, I used to wonder how flashy UV-reflective songbirds managed to evade predators. Answer, the predators cannot see that flashy stuff!
UV light damages the eye so there is an advantage to not seeing it for most of one’s life.
Human eyes have UV receptors but we cannot see it because our lens filters out UV. There are exceptions based on age and lack of lenses.
Exception#1: Young people up to age 30 can see near UV, the wavelengths closest to our visible color range, per a 2018 Univ of Georgia study.
Exception#2: Those without lenses in their eyes can see near UV. This includes those born without lenses and those who had cataract surgery in the early days. Claude Monet had cataract surgery in 1923 with no lens replacement and could see near UV.
On 31 July my sister watched more than two dozen tree swallows swarm over her yard in Tidewater Virginia. They were feasting on flying bugs for about 20 minutes, and then they were gone.
After they finish breeding, tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) gather in ever-growing flocks in July and August and begin their southward migration. In transit they seek out swarms of insects that may include true flies (Diptera), dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata).
Peak tree swallow migration occurs in early to mid-fall. I was at Cape Cod on 1 October 2017 when I witnessed a huge flock at West Dennis Beach. Abundant bugs attracted the tree swallows; abundant swallows attracted a falcon who captured one in his talons (top right of photo below).
If you live in the Mississippi or Atlantic flyways, or at their wintering grounds in Florida or Louisiana, there’s still time to see swarms of tree swallows. Watch their annual movements in this weekly abundance animation from eBird.
Yesterday there were just four of us on the walk at Lower Frick Park. Charity Kheshgi took the picture so she’s not in it.
Of all the things we saw, a surprising number of them were blue. Chickory was just opening in the morning sun. We saw and heard two indigo buntings.
Ebony jewelwing damselflies were courting above the creek. The female jewelwings looked blueish.
The males glowed iridescent emerald green.
Best Insect Experiment:
On the way upstream I found two funnel spider webs hiding behind the boardwalk railing. Not a great picture but it shows the hole where the spider is hiding. I have never been able to fool a spider by touching its web so I didn’t even try.
On the way back we saw red nymph spotted lanternflies. Of course this invasive insect is expendable so … Would the spider come out if we dropped one on his web? Indeed he did and he was fast! He zipped out, stung(?) the nymph, hid for a moment and then raced out and carried the nymph back to his lair.
Eight of us gathered yesterday morning, 7 July, to look for birds at Duck Hollow. Alas, I forgot to take a group photo.
It was hot.
We stuck to the shade and saw two fly-by ospreys and a host of juvenile songbirds. We also saw a Best Insect — the powdered dancer (Argia moesta) damselfly pictured above — and a Best Mammal sighting of two juvenile muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) swimming in Nine Mile Run creek.
We learned about the immature plumage of northern rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) when several perched on a wire and one turned its back. Through binoculars you can identify immature birds by their reddish-brown wing bars. Click here to see.
We also saw two juvenile northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) — a first for me.
In 90 minutes we tallied 23 species. It was hot and getting hotter so we went home.
Duck Hollow, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US Jul 7, 2024 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM 23 species
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 30 — Youngsters w adults. Adults flightless. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 6 Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1 Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 15 Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) 1 Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 1 Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) 1 Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 1 Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) 1 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 2 Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) 1 Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 1 Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 3 Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 6 Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) 14 — At least 3 immatures Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 3 Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 4 — Two juvenile birds American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 12 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 6 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 3 Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius) 1 Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 5 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 4
Today I’m with a group of friends looking for a bird that sounds like a bug in Clarion County, PA.
We’re at Piney Tract, State Gamelands 330, where we expect to hear — and maybe see — grasshopper, field, Henslow’s and song sparrows.
Many grassland sparrows sound like bugs — hence the name “grasshopper” sparrow — but the bird we’re looking for is a clay-colored sparrow (Spizella pallida) who sounds like this:
This bird is special because he’s outside his normal range.
Here’s one in North Dakota.
Dan Mendenhall saw the bird last Friday so we stand a good chance of finding it. See Dan’s photo here.
During spring warbler migration I try to see as many species as possible as they pass through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Unfortunately, I missed some of my favorites this year, most notably the Canada warbler (Cardellina canadensis), so Charity Kheshgi and I went to Laurel Mountain last Sunday to find them on their breeding grounds.
We thought we’d be able to see at least one of the two Canada warblers we heard singing along Spruce Bog Trail, but not. However, we got lucky on the Picnic Trail when the bird pictured above and below approached us making his warning call.
Here’s an example of what he sounded like:
There was plentiful shade in the forest, but that made the birds harder to see. This ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) is nicely lit but still in the dark.
We found other delights on the mountain. A tiger swallowtail butterfly sipped nectar from pitcher plant flowers at Spruce Bog.
Pennsylvania’s state flower, mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), was in bloom.
This trillium gone to seed showed well in dappled sunlight.
We heard more birds than we could see, ultimately tallying 24 species in our checklist here.
During the breeding season birds try to drive predators away from their nests and young. Though small birds aren’t equipped with sharp beaks and talons, they relentlessly dive bomb raptors to make them leave the area.
In June 2021, Chad+Chris Saladin filmed a pair of blue-gray gnatcatchers (Polioptila caerulea) attacking a recently fledged young peregrine at the Cleveland Zoo. Gnatcatchers are really small so they barely ruffle a peregrine’s feathers.
But the young peregrine was so new to flying that she wanted to stay put for a while. One of the gnatcatchers pecked her head. “Hey!”
Watch the encounter in this video by Chad+Chris Saladin. Chris explains what’s going on to passersby.
You may see chickadees attack blue jays, blue jays attack crows and red-winged blackbirds attack just about anything. This is the time of year when Little attacks Big.
UPDATE on the Pitt Peregrines: Yesterday, 10 June 2024, I was happy to find all four peregrines at the Cathedral of Learning at 12:15pm. Ecco was on camera on the green perch, Carla was on a stone peak at 38NW, one of the juvies was eating on the southwest dining ledge (approx 28th floor) and the other was on a grommet at 25SE. (The adults never perch on the grommets.) The Pitt peregrine juvies have been flying for more than a week now and are learning valuable skills.