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Sparrow bird with white head and black stripes

One of the fun aspects of bird feeding is that you never know who might show up in your yard. Every November in mid-Michigan I wait anxiously for the arrival of the White-crowned Sparrows. At 7 inches, these are some of the largest sparrows that come to our feeding areas.

Their size and the bold black and white racing stripes on their head make the White-crowned Sparrows a happy addition to the usual suspects in the yard. Mainly ground feeders, they scritch and scratch the dirt looking for leftover sunflower seeds and millet. They also eat weed seeds, berries, buds and moss.

Mid-Michigan isn’t a nesting territory for these birds. We only see them from late April to late May and sometime in September to November. White-crowned Sparrows have about 10 different calls. During migration you will usually hear their high thin seet or sharp pink call. They breed all along the upper parts of Canada and winter along the southern United States.

People sometimes confuse them with their close relative the White-throated Sparrow but they do not have the white throat markings.

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Delicious Autumn!

"My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." -  George Eliot
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The best heated bird baths

Hello, is it too early for a heated bird bath? I was so happy when I received a Wild Birds Unlimited heated bath for Christmas last year! It is the best. We had bluebirds and robins and every bird you can think of taking a bath in the middle of the winter. Simply wonderful!! When is the proper time to set up the winter bath? ~ Holly, Michigan

I’m so happy you had plenty of winter guests at your heated bird bath. You can set it up at any time. The Wild Birds Unlimited durable, plastic heated bird bath is made in the USA and provides a reliable source of water when natural sources are frozen, even to temperatures below -20° F. It mounts easily to deck railings or can be placed on our stands. It features a built-in 150 watt, fully grounded heater that is thermostatically controlled to conserve energy. When the temperature is cold enough to freeze water, the bath will turn on automatically.

Water is one of the most important necessities that birds need year-round. Cold weather in northern areas can bring an additional challenge to a bird's survival due to natural water sources being frozen. Providing and maintaining a bird bath with clean water is just one small favor you can offer.

Most people understand the importance of water for drinking but many do not realize just how important it is in bathing for birds. Because feathers are critical for flight and insulation, birds keep them well-maintained. A good part of a bird's day is spent just cleaning and grooming its feathers by bathing, scratching, and preening. The feathers covering the body give the bird a water resistant, aerodynamic shape for efficient flight. The feathers also provide insulation by trapping body heat close to the skin.

Water sources in winter are an easy way to attract a variety of birds, as you noticed, including the American Robin and Eastern Bluebird, that don’t visit feeders normally.

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Why do leaves change color in the fall

There is a tree across the street that has the most beautiful fall coloring every year. Is it the weather, the species, the soil; what makes trees change into a specific color in the fall?

It turns out that there are a lot of factors that determine the color of an autumn leaf. As days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the common green summer foliage is transformed into a vivid red, orange, yellow, or brown before it drops.

Three factors influence autumn leaf color: length of night, leaf pigments, and weather. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin.

The leaf pigments involved in color change include chlorophyll and carotenoids which are present in the leaf cells throughout the growing season and anthocyanins which are produced mainly in the autumn.

During the growing season, chlorophyll is being produced continually and broken down to produce green leaves. As the days shorten in the fall, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops. That’s when the carotenoids and anthocyanins show their colors.

Certain colors are characteristic of particular species. Oaks turn red, or brown; hickories turn golden brown; aspen and yellow-poplar turn yellow; dogwoods turn purplish red; and beech a light tan. Maples differ species by species: red maples turn brilliant scarlet; sugar maples turn orange-red; and black maples are bright yellow.

How bright the colors are is determined by the temperature and moisture. A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays.

During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf and the cool nights result in a gradual closing of veins which prevents the sugars from moving out. When there is a lot of sugar and a lot of light, the brilliant reds, purples, and crimson develop. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.

The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.

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They're Back!

Included in this blog are the last two weeks of October that I've divided separately.



18-23 October

After all the moaning and questioning about our lack of Myrtle Warblers (yellow-rumps), they finally showed up in good numbers on the 18th. I imagine by the end of the season we'll have banded only half of what is typical for us, but it's good to know they didn't abandon us completely. We've noticed them eating the juniper berries and there are plenty of those on the island. So far the 18th was our biggest day with 155 birds captured and 55 of those were yellow-rumps. We handled 23 species including a black-speckled adult male Blackpoll Warbler (92  banded so far),



another Brown Creeper


with it's gorgeous reddish-brown rump,


a hatch year female Black-throated Blue Warbler with a minimal white patch at the base of the primaries,


and another young Swamp Sparrow with it's yellowish wash on the lores.


They have dark centers to their undertail coverts.


We banded two more Yellow-breast Chats, a HY male shown below.


Here is Juliet Lamb, an ornithologist who has been helping out in between jobs, checking the chat for ticks in his ears.


She'll be leaving us soon to study the behavior of Andean Cock-of-the rock birds in South America. Here is a link to these magnificent looking birds! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbAuRzTko5A&noredirect=1
We're surely going to miss her help!


Juliet and I headed out a bit apprehensively on the 19th as rain showed all around on the radar but not in Brewster. We thought we might have time to get a few hours in before the rain and as the skies darkened we started to close the nets at 9 am. As we furled the last nets rain fell lightly and luckily we were able to get all birds processed and ourselves off the island before the rain really started to come down. We ended up with only 27 birds this day including two Northern Bobwhites that were flushed into a net as I approached.


Rain and family obligations prevented me from getting back out into the field again until Sunday, the 23rd. We had 128 birds of 17 species, a nice assortment consisting of this HY Magnolia Warbler of unknown sex,


a HY female Orange-crowned Warbler,




and Lincoln's Sparrow.


We banded a Common Yellowthroat with either an injury or disease on it's breast


and banded 50 more Yellow-rumped Warblers, one of whom had a deformity to both nares (like nostrils in humans) where they were very large and mishapen.


The last week in October appears below after numbers for this week including our special Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow!


Thanks to the following who helped this week- Juliet Lamb, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, Becca Miller, Jessica Rempel, Carolyn Kennedy, and Judith Bruce.


The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) during this time period.


Total birds: 310                      Total species: 52



Total banded species: 28         Birds/100 net-hrs: 71



Great Blue Heron

Brant

Canada Goose

Turkey Vulture

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Peregrine Falcon

Northern Bobwhite- 2

Black-bellied Plover

Greater Yellowlegs

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker- 2

Yellow-shafted Flicker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Fish Crow

Black-capped Chickadee- 8

Tufted Titmouse- 1

Brown Creeper- 2

Carolina Wren- 3

Golden-crowned Kinglet- 7

Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 2

Hermit Thrush- 3

American Robin- 7

Gray Catbird- 7

Cedar Waxwing

European Starling

Red-eyed Vireo- 1

Orange-crowned Warbler- 2

Magnolia Warbler- 1

Black-throated Blue Warbler- 3

Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 126

Palm Warbler- 1

Yellow Palm Warbler- 1

Western Palm Warbler- 7

Blackpoll Warbler- 15

Common Yellowthroat- 5

Yellow-breasted Chat- 4

Northern Cardinal- 23

Song Sparrow- 46

Lincoln's Sparrow- 1

Swamp Sparrow- 16

White-throated Sparrow- 9

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

House Finch

American Goldfinch- 5

House Sparrow



24-31 October



The 24th started out as a calm day with northwest winds but the wind picked up as they changed over to southwest late morning. We don't capture as many birds on windy days as the nets are easily seen. We still managed to capture 118 birds. The best bird of the day had to be this HY Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow!



This is only our second Gambel's that we have banded at this station. The pale grayish upper lores don't contrast in color with the supercilium and the bill is more orange than pink.


Compare to the HY Eastern White-crowned Sparrow from a couple of weeks ago, with it's dark lores and pinkish bill. 


Another sparrow that gave us pause this day was a HY White-throated Sparrow with orange lores instead of yellow. I'm sure the berries it was eating as his feathers were growing played a part in the color.


Among the 53 new Myrtle Warblers banded today was a young bird with pox on it's right leg.


We always band a large number of Northern Cardinals later in the fall and today was no exception. Jo-Anna is using a clothespin that we use to tell what nets the birds are from  to keep this gal occupied while she bands her. Better than having your fingers chomped on! Jo-Anna has been studying with me for the past year and is learning how to age and sex birds of many species.


We didn't get many birds on the 25th, the winds were just too high and had to close a number of nets. The following day on the 26th a storm was approaching, but Jo-Anna and I thought we could get a few hours in before we had to close due to weather. I guess the day before was the calm before the storm. As we made our way around the nets during the first round we had so many birds that we had to close all the nets on our second round. Because of the approaching storm we opened only four nets near our banding table and still the birds were coming fast and furious. This definitely would have been over a 200 bird day had we had enough volunteers and  no worries of bad weather. As it was, Jo-Anna and I had 121 birds with 100 of those being yellow-rumps.  One of those Myrtle Warblers included a very colorful adult male


with very rounded tail feathers.
  
A Blue-headed Vireo was also banded


and a new species for the year, a HY Marsh Wren


with the typical black feathers on it's back. 




The 28th was a cold, cloudy, and windy day but we had enough help to get to the nets quickly and handled 76 birds. A HY robin was one of the first birds to be banded



with an easily seen molt limit in the wing. The first two inner greater coverts (longer and grayer without edging traveling up the feather vein) have been replaced and the others are retained.



 We also had our 2nd Winter Wren,



also with a molt limit in it's wing similar to the robin above although much less consipicuous. The first two inner greater coverts have been replaced with white tipping and darker, grayish coloration near the base as opposed to the beige tipping of the shorter juvenal feathers .



We didn't get out again until Monday the 31st after the nor'easter. Luckily our nets were in good shape with no trees down on the island. Opening took a while to clean out debris, but otherwise there was no damage. The day was sunny and pleasant, although cool, and birds were abundant. Myrtle Warblers are still here in good numbers with 62 handled today. We also banded 6 Hermit Thrushes.  


We've been hearing flocks of Cedar Waxwings most days and found 3 in our nets today, but I was surprised to see them still in juvenal plumage.


Another surprise was this HY female Baltimore Oriole, who we heard vocalizing earlier in the day.


She had replaced her greater coverts, but not the carpal covert, and also a molt limit is seen in the tertials. The last tertial feather (s9) has been replaced, but s7 & 8 are retained. 


We banded 2 House Finches, the bird below while looking female had a reddish rump and a partially ossified skull so I'll probably send it in as sex unknown, while the other one was more colorful and a definite male.


By the end of the day we had handled 133 birds of 22 species, a nice variety for the end of October. We banded 1030 birds of 55 species for the month of October.


Thanks to all who helped this week- Jo-Anna Ghadban, Juliet Lamb and her boyfriend Yvan,  Becca Miller, and Judith Bruce.
The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) during this time period.



Total birds: 488                        Total species: 57

Total banded species: 30          Birds/100 net-hrs: 83



Common Loon

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Brant

Canada Goose

American Black Duck

Common Eider

Black Scoter

Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1 escape!

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Bobwhite

Black-bellied Plover

Greater Yellowlegs

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Great Horned Owl

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker- 1

Yellow-shafted Flicker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Fish Crow

Black-capped Chickadee- 16

Tufted Titmouse- 1

Brown Creeper- 1

Carolina Wren- 3

Winter Wren- 2

Marsh Wren- 1

Golden-crowned Kinglet- 11

Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 9

Eastern Bluebird

Hermit Thrush- 9

American Robin- 7

Gray Catbird- 1

Cedar Waxwing- 3

European Starling

Blue-headed Vireo- 1

Nashville Warbler- 1

Magnolia Warbler- 2

Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 303

Western Palm Warbler- 4

Blackpoll Warbler- 5

Common Yellowthroat- 5

Northern Cardinal- 14

Song Sparrow- 33

Swamp Sparrow- 27

White-throated Sparrow- 16

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow- 1

Slate-colored Junco- 3

Red-winged Blackbird

Baltimore Oriole- 1

House Finch- 2

American Goldfinch- 4

House Sparrow









 

















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Vampire Bird

Image via WikipediaSit down boys and girls and let me tell you a little story about a vampire bird.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Sphyrapicus varius, ...

It is early afternoon and the trees are enjoying the autumn breezes blowing through their leaves. All of a sudden there is a nasal mewing "me-ah" and then a tree finds itself under attack.

The distinctive slow irregular drumming sound of the feathered tree vampire, also known as the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, can be heard as the bird bores shallow parallel wells. Nothing can be done to stop the bird as he laps up the blood (sap) that oozes out of the neck of the tree. The attack is rarely fatal for the victims but BEWARE, repeated attacks can shorten a little tree's life.

Look for the blood red crown:
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Sphyrapicus varius is a little larger than the Downy Woodpecker. Although named yellow-bellied, the light yellow feathers on the birds’ underside aren’t what most bird watchers will see first. They have black and white barring on the back, a wide white stripe on each black wing, a blood red crown, a black line through the eyes and a black bib. The males also have a red throat.

Sap itself makes up only about 20% of the overall diet of this species, though at certain times, the figure can be 100%. They don’t suck sap but actually have a tongue that has a feathery edge to allow the birds to lap sap. Sapsuckers also consume insects, fruit, leaf buds, seeds and suet.

Other birds like the hummingbirds, kinglets, warblers, and waxwings can also take advantage of the sap wells that these woodpeckers drill, especially during migration.

According to AllAboutBirds.com, “The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is completely migratory. Although a few individuals remain throughout much of the winter in the southern part of the breeding range, most head farther south, going as far south as Panama. Females tend to migrate farther south than do males.”

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An owl can turn its head up to 270 degrees

Most birds have eyes at each side of their head. They see a different scene with each eye. But an owl’s eyes are at the front of its head. The owl sees the same scene with both eyes, just as a human does. However, an owl cannot move its eyes in their sockets. In order to see what is beside or behind it, the owl turns its whole head.

An owl's neck has 14 vertebrae, which is twice as many as humans. This allows the owl to turn its head up to 270 degrees left or right from the forward facing position. An owl cannot turn its head full circle as is the common belief.

The stiff feathers around the owls’ eyes act a lot like dish antennas. They reflect sound toward the ear openings. If the sound is louder in one ear than in the other, this tells the owl that the animal is closer on that side. The owl turns its head until the sound is equally loud in both ears. Then it knows it is facing the animal.

An owl can also “hear” the height of a sound. It turns and tilts its head until it gets a perfect “fix.” They hunt mainly for small animals that creep on the ground, and can even locate by sound those animals hiding under snow. 
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