Category Archives: Winter Birds

County Big Year – Good First Day

We awoke to more new snow and a stiff Northwest wind, and a forecast for even colder temperatures.  It stays dark until about 7:00 AM but sure enough, at 7:05 the first Black-capped Chickadee visited with window feeder.  Right after that, a Common Redpoll came to the thistle seed feeder and then the parade of hungry birds started.

Our first bird of 2013 was a Black-capped Chickadee. photo by Mac Mansfield.

Our first bird of 2013 was a Black-capped Chickadee. photo by Mac Mansfield.

Shortly afterwards, I took our Vizsla out on a cold birding snowshoe outing but most of the birds still around were back at the house chowing down.  We then went out and birded for an hour at North Branch Nature Center and got a lot of exercise but few birds.

I had figured that there were about 15 species here in the County this month.  When I returned home, the feeders were alive with redpolls and after studying them for some time, I spotted a Hoary Redpoll right next to a Common Redpoll.  By noontime, I had logged the following birds:

American Crow
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Redpoll
Hoary Redpoll
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Dark-eyed Junco

It was a good first day. Tomorrow’s temperature is supposed to be even colder. Is is OK if I crank up the wood fire and hope for a Downy Woodpecker and a Brown Creeper at the feeders?

I Love Buffleheads

I’ve been watching a small flotilla of hen Buffleheads in the Amesbury section of the Merrimack River this week.

The diving of Buffleheads is magical to watch. photo by ingridtaylar

The diving of Buffleheads is magical to watch. photo by ingridtaylar

It’s Butterballs’ diving that forces me to stop and linger, to observe for understanding.  I watch the thrusts, leaps, propulsion and buoyancy.  Their plumage is pulled tight into their body; then, with a thrust of power and a slight, forward, nearly upward leap, they plunge. Their pink legs and feet force this propulsion. Upon surfacing, they bob cork-like on the surface like a tiny toy used to lure a reluctant toddler to its evening bath.

Buffleheads are one the fastest waterfowl and are easily recognized by their small size, large head and flight cadence.

Buffleheads are one the fastest waterfowl and are easily recognized by their small size, large head and flight cadence.  photo by mikebaird

The smallest of the diving ducks native to North America. They are sexually dimorphic both in plumage and in size. Drakes just exceed a pound in weight, and the hen, even smaller, weighs in at three-quarters of a pound. They’re agile swimmers and divers.  On land, they’re awkward with legs set well back on their bodies.

I’ll never tire of these buoyant, petite ducks ~ the ones that fly low over water and then higher over land.  These black and white ducks are fast in flight with rapid wing beats without even a whistle.  They are one of the fastest waterfowl and are easily recognized by their small size, large head and flight cadence.

While a flock is diving for food, there’s almost always at least one sentinel on the surface alert to danger.  I see them divide their time between shallow dives and rest periods on the surface.  I’ve timed their dives ~ they stay under 10 – 14 seconds.  After the dive, they surface, and their bills are prey less since they consume their prey while underwater. On freshwater, they eat mostly insects, and in waters of salinity, they feed predominantly on crustaceans and mollusks. Aquatic plants and fish eggs are often on the menu too.  Once during the shorter, harsher days of winter, I saw some foraging even after dark.

On the water, when lighting permits, Buffleheads create stunning reflections of symmetrical beauty.  They have dark-chocolate, brown eyes.  Drakes are white with a black back, and their black head has a greenish to purple iridescence and a large, white patch from behind the eye to the top and back of the head. The dark hen sports a single, almond-shaped, white patch behind the eye.

Buffleheads have a woodpecker and boreal forest connection. Buffleheads nest almost exclusively in cavities excavated by Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers. The breeding range of the Bufflehead is restricted to the woodlands of North America. The vast majority of Buffleheads breed in boreal forests and substrates studded with aspen.

The Bufflehead is shy and mostly monogamous, often remaining with the same mate for several years – an admirable trait in today’s world of short-term commitments. The hen lays eggs at a slower interval than most other ducks, commonly with intervals of two or three days between eggs.

I think of the importance of the Northern Flicker and the Pileated Woodpecker and their skills as excavators as I study Buffleheads in local rivers, sheltered waters of Ipswich Bay or the Plum Island estuary area.

The intertwined threads in nature continue to amaze me.  When one pulls one thread, others unravel…

Sue McGrath
Newburyport Birders
Observe ~ Appreciate ~ Identify
Newburyport, MA
www.newburyportbirders.com

Thanks to Sue McGrath for this guest post.  Sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future articles sent to you. 

Redpolls — Where Have You Been?

Redpoll2WCommon Redpolls arrived at our feeders in late November and ate us out of house and home for about a week — and vanished until today.  I’ve not seen any Redpolls in the woods or anywhere around central Vermont but suddenly, about a dozen were chowing down on our sunflower and nijer seeds this morning.

It’s great to have them back — they are just great to watch as they chow down.  You might remember, from this post, that they have a “pocket” in the neck area to store food.  I thought of this today as I watched one grab at least a dozen seeds.  I didn’t stick around to see if it could still lift off with that payload.

So, regardless of whether you are a new group passing through, or an old group coming back to where the food is great, welcome Redpolls.  You perk us up on these short, short days.

Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet

It’s simple physics. In a cold environment, small objects lose heat at a faster rate than large objects. This is why most warm-blooded animals that reside in a northern climate tend to be large in size. Yet, for every rule, there is always an exception and when considering birds, the golden-crowned kinglet is a perplexing anomaly.

The golden-crowned kinglet is the smallest perching bird to inhabit the Adirondacks, as this delicate, olive colored creature is not much larger than a hummingbird, (which is classified in a group that is related to the swifts rather than the perching birds.) However, unlike our other small birds, like the warblers, vireos and wrens, the kinglet often remains in the Adirondacks throughout the dead of winter, traveling in small, loosely knit flocks in dense evergreen forests.

The yellowish-green plumage of the golden-crowned kinglet makes this tiny bird a challenge to see against the backdrop of pine, spruce, fir and cedar boughs as it flits through the canopy in a constant search for food. Yet because the kinglet frequently emits an audible “teez, teez, teez” call as it forages, its presence can be easily noted by a perceptive individual, especially at this time of year, when the sound of the wind through the branches is the only noise that breaks the silence of the deep woods.

Read the whole article

 

Does Your Bird seed Get Eaten or Stored?

All fall, we have watched birds flock to our sunflower seed feeder, our thistle feeder, and our suet containers.  As I wrote last month, our feed store folks love us — we are going through a lot of bird food.

Where does all this food go?  I know that some of our visitors are eating it on the spot but many seem to fly away with one or more seeds in their craw.  Recall our discussion of Common Redpolls and their “pocket.”

It turns out that birds have three options to make it through the time when there is little food.

  1. They can “get out of Dodge” by migrating to places where there is food
  2. They can scratch and scrounge and nearly starve, or
  3. They can store food and hope it’s there when they need it.

White-breasted Nuthatches and their red-breasted brethren also store food for later dining. I often see them nabbing a large seed and flying off.

Our most frequent visitors to the feeders are Black-capped chickadees which are well known for their food-hoarding behavior.  Usually they hoard seeds but they are also known to store insects and spiders may be stored as well.  I’ve seen hundreds of chickadees grab sunflower seeds and pieces of suet from bird feeders. They remove the husk of a seed before caching it.  I’ve seen a few stashing seeds in the bark of our white pines.

The number of seeds stored is staggering. Over 1,000 items may be stored in a single day and, over the course of autumn, 50,000 to 80,000  seeds may be cached.  Sites for food storage are varied. Typical hiding places are cracks or crevices in woody vegetation, under bits of bark (particularly birch bark), in clusters of conifer needles, in the ground and even in the snow.

Other food hogs at the feeder are Blue Jays which are energetic hoarders, storing acorns and other nuts but even invertebrates, small vertebrates or bits of meat. Favored storage sites are cracks and crevices of tree trunks, amid the needles of conifers and in loose soil.

A blue jay can carry up to five acorns at once to be stored. The acorns are swallowed and stored in the upper part of the esophagus. The acorns can then be regurgitated intact when a suitable hoarding site is found.

Several Western birds are known for their hoarding.  Pinon Jays and Clark’s Nutcrackers both rely heavily on hoarding to get through the winter.  Both species store pine seeds, which they laboriously remove from pinecones.  A single Clark’s nutcracker can store up to 100,000 seeds in the fall.  Both nutcrackers and pinon jays do not raid their hoarded seeds until most of the fall seed crop is depleted. One researcher has determined that up to 90 percent of the winter diet of Pinon Jays comes from stored seeds.

Western Scrub Jays take a lot of precautions with their food. When another jay is watching, a scrub jay will store food in difficult to see places (far from an observer, behind a visual barrier, etc.). Often, if observed while hiding food, later, when unobserved, it will move food to another location.

How does a long-term hoarder like Clark’s Nutcracker recover stored seeds when it needs them? Ornithologists at first thought that the food was stored only in certain kinds of areas, and that the birds rediscovered it by later foraging in the same areas. But research shows that individuals can recall where they have cached seeds. The birds remember where the seeds are in relation to certain landmarks, such as rocks. If the landmarks are moved, the areas the birds search are displaced an equivalent amount.

Out of all the species of woodpeckers, only 10 are known to hoard food.  Our Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers are among the ten but only infrequently store food.

As I noted before, Northern Shrikes store food in an interesting way. Small mammals or birds are killed and then impaled on a thorn or barbed wire fence for later consumption, hence the reason for calling these hoarders “butcher birds”.

As we head into serious winter conditions, it’s comforting to know that many of our prior visitors have stashed food away.  in case our buddies are having a brain cramp and like us, forgetting where they put things, we’ll keep the feeders clean and full.

Have you observed a bird hoarding food?  Tell us about it with a comment below.  You should sign up by RSS feed or via email to have future articles sent to you.  Thanks

White-breasted Nuthatch by  Dawn Huczek

Blue Jay by Ingrid Taylar      Western Scrub Jay by jessicafm

Common Redpolls

Here is a wonderful article by Sue McGrath of the Newburyport (MA) Birders:

When I see Common Redpolls, I immediately think of the low-Arctic tundra, the land with short, dwarf-like shrubs that includes willow, alder, birch all of which support the Common Redpoll. These abundant, boreal and taiga region breeders share this habitat with foraging Willow Ptarmigan and patrolling Parasitic Jaegers.

Common Redpolls feed often upside down, hanging on small branches, using their feet to hold food items. As winter visitors to our area, they’re interested in our thistle feeders too. They are social birds that are associated with catkin-bearing trees in brushy and weedy areas. Redpolls are rotund and fluffy, sporting a tiny,  yellow bill. Their characteristic features include dark lores, a black throat and chin and a red forecrown. The dark brown of the wings and tail along with the brown streaking of the nape, back, breast and flanks are offset by the whitish belly.

Characteristic features of Redpolls include dark lores, a black throat and chin and a red forecrown.

Redpolls have been observed on twigs, feeding each other by passing seed from conical bill to conical bill. The sexes are discernible ~ the male has pink on the chest and is less streaked; the female lacks that rosy hue and is heavily streaked. Their tails are forked, and in flight, the wingspan is 7 – 9 inches. They weigh 0.46 of an ounce.

Pete Dunne refers to this bird as “…effervescent pipsqueak of a finch with a small red beret and a black goatee.” What a clever way to remember their field marks!

Recently, I reread Kathleen S. Anderson’s article on Cumberland Farms in a 1996 issue of “Bird Observer” that has Barry W. Van Dusen’s illustration of Common Redpolls on the cover. In that issue, I found in W. E. Davis Jr.’s account of Common Redpolls that their have a specialized “pocket” in the neck area known as an esophageal diverticulum. A diverticulum is a sac or pouch arising from a tubular organ; crossbills also have this storage ability. This is like having an in-flight cupboard for storing seeds. This seed stockroom and the specialized winter-feeding behavior enable this songbird to survive colder  temperatures. “The Birder’s Handbook” by Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye [page 641] refers to this partially bi-lobed pocket as analogous to the crop of gallinaceous birds.

Thermal regulation is also key to their survival. When in a sheltered area, redpolls fluff up their feathers to maximize heat retention. Frank Gill’s “Ornithology” states that Common Redpolls sleep in snow tunnels during the long Arctic night to conserve body heat. These winter visitors will feel more at home in New England when we’ve snow cover; they can insulate themselves against the cold, air temperatures.

Sue McGrath leads bird walks with the Essex County area — contact her if you are looking for a small group experience led by a good teacher/birder.

Northern Shrike — The Butcher Bird

One of the winter birds that I have yet to see and add to my life list is the Northern Shrike.  We’ve been away much of the last three winters but there’s also been a fairly reliable visitor, which we call the “Appleby’s Shrike,” hanging out in the trees near the popular Berlin, VT restaurant.  Most of my birding friends have seen it but for me, it’s just one of those, “Oh, you should have been here an hour ago” birds.  Close encounters during the winter months I’ve been around.

I’ve seen many Loggerhead Shrikes in my Southwest journeys  —  this winter, one of my goals is to see my first Northern Shrike here in Vermont.  I mentioned that in a Winter Birding – Bring It On post last month.

The shrike hunts by perching atop a tall shrub or tree at the edge of a field where it surveys the surrounding area for songbirds, insects, and small mammals.

The Northern Shrike is a songbird that is slightly smaller then a robin. They breed up up in the Arctic Circle of Alaska and Canada. During the winter you may find them around your feeder if you live in the northern half of the United States. Unlike the other birds they are not there for the nyjer thistle, cracked corn or other type of seed.

A predatory songbird, the Northern shrike sits on an exposed perch and watches for insects, small birds and mammals, or reptiles.  They do not have the powerful talons that raptors use to catch their prey — they grab their prey with their feet, and kill by biting through its victim’s neck. They will impale prey, sometimes while still alive,  on the barbs of a fence or large thorns. They often kill more prey then they can eat, which is how they received the scientific name Lanius excubitor, roughly translated this means butcher watchman. This species is known to pierce its prey onto thorns, sticks, fences and other pointed objects where it will either immediately eat its catch, or leave it impaled to be eaten at a later time.

The main field marks which help to easily identify the Northern Shrike are its stout bill which curves at the tip, and its distinctive black mask which goes from the base of the bill through the eye and to the side of its large head.  Generally speaking, its upper portions are gray and the underneath are an off-white/soft gray with a faint barring on its chest.  Its wings are black with white patches.  The Northern Shrike is a medium sized song bird, yet when it flies by, at first glance one generally thinks it may be a out-of-season Northern Mockingbird because of the similar coloring; however, once you see the curved bill and black mask you know that you have seen a rare visitor from the north.  I’m already looking every time I go past the turn for Applely’s.

Note:  Vermonter Tom Slayton wrote a wonderful article on Northern Shrikes last year.

Image by cheepshot

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