Monthly Archives: December 2023

Cardinals are wonderful birds to behold in bleak winter.

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TParadis/Pixabay • A male Northern cardinal braves snow and ice during the winter months when these birds are frequent visitors to backyard bird feeders.

Christmas 2023 is almost upon us. As is my usual custom, I want to share my enthusiasm for the Northern cardinal, one of my favorite birds.

Earlier in the month, I became concerned when December arrived with not a cardinal in sight at my home.

We’ve had a couple of cold spells, however, and that seems to have motivated my cardinals to return. In particular, one male cardinal has learned that I’m his easy meal ticket. When I arrive home in the evenings, I always add some sunflower seeds to the feeders so all the birds can have a quick treat before heading off to their nighttime roosts. This particular cardinal is usually waiting on the edge of the feeder even before I can get outdoors with a canister containing the sunflower seeds.

I have always enjoyed watching cardinals. The beauty of both male and female cardinals is undeniable. They’re usually nervous, twitchy birds, so it has been fun watching this particular male cardinal grow accepting of my presence.

The Northern cardinal, especially the brilliant red male, stands out against a winter backdrop of snow white, deep green or drab gray. Over the years, the cardinal has also become associated with the Christmas season. How many Christmas cards have you received this holiday season with a cardinal featured in the artwork? I’d wager that at least a few cards in any assortment of holiday greetings will feature the likeness of a Northern cardinal.

There is a possible reason that male cardinals try to outshine each other when it comes to their bright red plumage. According to the website Tennessee Watchable Wildlife, brighter red male cardinals are able to hold territories that have denser vegetation, feed young at higher rates and have greater reproductive success than males with feathers of a duller hue.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A total of 15 Northern Cardinals were found the day of the Roan Mountain Christmas Bird Count last month.

The Northern cardinal belongs to a genus of birds known as Cardinalis in the family Cardinalidae. There are only two other species in this genus, and they range across North America and into northern South America. The two relatives are the pyrrhuloxia, or Cardinalis sinuatus, of the southwestern United States, and the Vermilion cardinal, or phoeniceus, a bird found in Colombia and Venezuela.

The Northern cardinal is a native and abundant bird. Cardinals are a widespread species, ranging westward to the Dakotas and south to the Gulf Coast and Texas. The southeastern United States was once the stronghold of the cardinal population. In the past century, however, cardinals have expanded their range into New England and Canada.

The cardinal accepts a wide variety of food at feeders. Sunflower seed is probably their favorite, but they will also sample safflower seed, cracked corn, peanuts, millet, bakery scraps and even suet. While we may get the idea that cardinals feed largely on seed, that is a misconception based on our observation of the birds at our feeders. Cardinals away from our feeders eat insects and fruit, including the berries of mulberry, holly, pokeberry, elderberry, Russian olive, dogwood and sumac.

The cardinal uses its large beak to efficiently hull sunflower seeds or deal with other foods foraged in field and forest away from our feeders. The large, heavy beak hints at the cardinal’s kinship with birds such as tanagers and grosbeaks. In fact, some of America’s early naturalists referred to the bird as “cardinal grosbeak.” Other common names include the apt “redbird” moniker and “Virginia nightingale.”

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Northern cardinals are a favorite for makers of Christmas ornaments.

Even once the holidays are past, there’s nothing like a glimpse of a Northern cardinal to add some cheer to a bleak winter day. It’s not surprising that such a popular bird has also become associated with many trappings of the Christmas season.

“You see cardinals on greeting cards, stationery, paper plates, paper napkins and tablecloths, doormats, light switch plates, candles, candle holders, coffee mugs, plates, glasses, Christmas tree ornaments and lights, bookmarks, mailboxes, Christmas jewelry,” writes June Osborne in “The Cardinal,” a book about this popular bird.

“And the list goes on,” Osborne writes. “Cardinals have become an integral part of the way that many people celebrate the holiday season.”

I can be included among such people. My Christmas decorations include an assortment of cardinal figurines and ornaments. There are other birds — doves and penguins for example — associated with the holiday season, but for me the holidays magnify the importance of one of my favorite birds. The cardinal, in its festive red plumage, appears made to order for a symbol of the holiday season.

Merry Christmas to all the readers of this column and best wishes for 2024.

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To ask a question, share a sighting or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

 

 

Kinglets among winter’s smallest, friendliest birds

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Photo by Jake Bonello/USFWS • A ruby-crowned kinglet living up to its name by displaying its cap of red feathers.

Most of winter’s resident birds have settled in for the season at my home.
From red-shouldered hawk to winter wren to dark-eyed junco and white-throated sparrow, many seasonal residents have all become part of the daily backdrop. These winter arrivals join such year-round residents as Northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, Carolina wren and downy woodpecker.
Some other tiny birds are also a little more abundant this season. I’m hearing kinglets almost everywhere I go.

The ruby-crowned kinglet, one of North America’s smallest birds, is typically about four inches long and doesn’t even weigh half an ounce. A close relative is the golden-crowned kinglet, which is typically just under four inches in length, which makes the species the shortest of North America’s songbirds.

Photo by Beth McPherson • A golden-crowned kinglet being held carefully after a window strike.

How is it that the kinglets, among the smallest of North American birds, invariably choose to spend the harsh cold months of winter in our yards and gardens?
Chickadees, titmice and other familiar winter birds eke out an existence by supplementing some of their diet with fare from bird feeders. Although kinglets often associate with roaming flocks comprise of a mix of different species, the kinglets are not usually interested in the offerings at our feeders.

Kinglets are dedicated to gleaning tiny insects and spiders, as well as insects eggs and larvae, from branches and plantings in our yards. They’re so successful at it that they don’t need to turn to even a well-stocked feeder. A kinglet will on occasion sample an offering of suet or peanut butter, but this bird doesn’t make a habit of visiting feeders.

Kinglets are surprisingly tame at times and often exhibit as much curiosity about us as we display toward them. They’re very active birds, however, constantly moving from perch to perch. These bursts of hyperactivity can make them difficult to observe since they so rarely remain still.

In addition to the two North American species, kinglets, referred to in other parts of the world as firecrests, flamecrests or goldcrests, range throughout temperate North America, Europe and Asia, as well as northernmost Africa, Macaronesia and the Himalayas.

It’s the colorful crest of feathers atop their heads that have given all of them their common names. Kinglets belong to the family, Regulidae, and the genus, Regulus. The family and genus names are derived from a Latin word, regulus, which means “rex,”or “king” The name was apparently inspired by the colorful crown patches, often red, orange or gold, that resemble the royal “crowns” of kings.

This year’s bird calendar features a pair of tree swallows on the cover.

Although small in size, these birds more than compensate for it with a feisty spirit that does them well through the harsher weather of the winter months. It’s that indomitable spirit, curious nature and frantic antics that makes them such welcome companions during the bleak, cold months.

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The Lee & Lois Herndon Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society is taking orders for its 2024 bird calendar.

The calendar will feature a photo of a pair of tree swallows on the front cover. The photo was taken by chapter members Eric Middlemas, who also contributed numerous other photographs for the calendar.

The inside pages of the professionally-produced calendar feature dozens more full-color photographs and an informative and educational grid. These calendars sell for $15 plus $2 for shipping. All sales help the club fund birding programs, public park feeders, conservation efforts and other activities in upper Northeast Tennessee. For more information on how to obtain a calendar, email ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

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To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, please email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

 

Ancient murrelet unexpected state visitor

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Photo Courtesy of Tom and Cathy McNeil • An ancient murrelet found at Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga is the first of its kind ever observed in Tennessee.

Tennessee got a visit from a new bird in late November when an ancient murrelet showed up at Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga. As I’m fond of noting, birds have wings and can use those wings to show up in the most unexpected places.

A bird of the Pacific Northwest, ancient murrelets typically winter off the Pacific Coast, not on a lake in landlocked Tennessee. It’s little surprise that this bird represents the first-ever record of the species for the Volunteer State.

According to the website “All About Birds,” ancient murrelets are sea-going birds that nest in colonies on land, although usually within 1,000 feet of the shoreline.

The website also notes that ancient murrelets construct earthen burrows for nesting but also use existing cavities under logs or tree roots, crevices in rocky areas or gaps between grass tussocks. They’re also adaptable and readily use wooden nest boxes and sometimes even nest in walls or huts.

Readers may remember that I wrote about Tom and Cathy McNeil chasing after some hurricane-driven American flamingos in North Carolina and Tennessee back in August. Turns out, they went after the ancient murrelet, too, again with success, I am pleased to note.

Upon arrival at the Chickamauga Dam Day Use Area, Allan Trently, an East Tennessee State University graduate and a former East Tennessee resident, had a spotting scope already focused on the murrelet. How’s that for convenience?

The reports of the murrelet made me think back to my childhood reading of the books in the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

As it turns out, the Ingalls family members were good amateur naturalists.

Wilder, writing as an adult, wrote about birds and other wildlife. She wrote in a time when birds like prairie chickens were still common on the vast grasslands of states like Kansas, Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

An interesting couple of chapters in her book “The Long Winter” offer details of a strange water bird that literally drops out of the sky into a bale of hay on the family farm near Silver Lake in De Smet, South Dakota.

The family consults a book titled “The Wonders of the Animal World” and conclude that the bird looks like a miniature version of the great auk.

The bird was definitely not a great auk, which went extinct in 1844. But there are some tantalizing clues that the bird might have been an ancient murrelet or a dovekie.

Laura Erickson, author of the blog “For the Birds,” dedicated one of her posts to the mysterious bird found by the Ingalls family. Erickson did her research and discovered records of ancient murrelet in South Dakota from November 1993. South Dakota has no records of murrelets, but neighboring Wisconsin had a few. One visiting ancient murrelet was shot by two boys hunting along Lake Michigan in 1908, and another was found dead under some Tomah power lines in 1949.

And then, along comes Steve Kolbe, who found an ancient murrelet at Stoney Point up the shore between Duluth and Two Harbors in January of 2021.

It was an opportunity too good to miss, and Erickson made the trip to see the rare visitor.

She noted in her blog that she immediately thought of Laura Ingalls Wilder when she learned about the bird. Erickson did get to see the bird, and she wrote that the sighting provided her with “a sense of connection with Laura Ingalls Wilder herself, the woman whose books so enriched my childhood and were so enjoyable to read aloud to my own children.”

The “Little House” books are a treasure trove to a time of abundance for birds. Wilder writes often of awe as she observed birds as the family ventured into new territory. Near Silver Lake, she saw great migrating flocks of geese, ducks, cranes, herons, swans, pelicans and hell-divers (grebes) and mud-hens (coots).

A mournful Charles Ingalls even brought back a swan, shot by accident. He tells the family he had never seen one in flight.

He also shot a pelican so the family could see one up close, but the smell made their examination very quick. If you’ve ever wondered, pelicans are not worth eating, according to Wilder. She wrote that their feathers reek of fish, making them unfit for even the stuffing of pillows.

Wilder also described all the sorts of ducks that migrated across the vast prairies, including mallards, redheads, canvasbacks, teals and bluebills. I’m guessing that the bluebills were scaups, a species of diving duck. In an almost poetic passage, she described “golden autumn days” when “the sky was full of wings.

Another birding story from the books, both humorous and serious in tone, involves an invasion of blackbirds that decimated a crop of corn and oats that Charles Ingalls was trying to raise.

The flocks of blackbirds defeat all their efforts to defend the crops, but there is a “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade” moment when Wilder writes, “For dinner, there is blackbird pie — even better than chicken pie. In addition, there is more bounty from the garden: new potatoes, peas, cucumbers and carrots. There is even cottage cheese and more tomatoes with sugar and cream.”

As Pa Ingalls declared at the end of the chapter, “a flock of pesky blackbirds can’t stop us.”

Considering their location in South Dakota, the blackbirds could have consisted of several species: red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, grackles or cowbirds. It’s a little disappointing Wilder didn’t prove as descriptive in her account of the blackbirds as she did when writing of the waterfowl.

It’s nice to be able to bird vicariously through the exploits of the McNeils, as well as the long-ago stories from the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I do need to get out more and look for my own birds.

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To ask a question, share a sighting or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Bachman’s warbler slips away into extinction 35 years after last sighting

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Louis Agassiz Fuertes, an American ornithologist, illustrator and artist, painted this pair of Bachman’s warblers. He also set the rigorous and current-day standards for ornithological art and naturalist depiction and is considered one of the most prolific American bird artists, second only to his guiding professional predecessor John James Audubon.

Back in mid-October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted 21 species from the Endangered Species Act.

Unfortunately, the action came about not because of a successful recovery for the 21 species, but it was due to extinction.

According to the FWS press release, rigorous reviews of the best available science helped FWS determine these species are extinct and should be removed from the list of species protected under the ESA.

Most of these species were listed under the ESA in the 1970s and 1980s. Even at the time of their listing, some of these species had seen their numbers dwindle to very low levels. Others were probably already extinct at the time of listing.

The extinct species include eight of Hawaii’s honeycreepers, Guam’s bridled white-eye and little Mariana fruit bat, a species of fish from Texas and nine species of mussels.

The sad story of the decimation of birds and other species in Hawaii is a natural apocalypse of truly tragic dimensions. But one of the other birds recently declared extinct lived thousands of miles from the Hawaiian islands. That bird — Bachman’s warbler — holds an enigmatic place among my favorite family of birds.

I’ve always been fascinated with the Bachman’s warbler, possibly due to the fact it has a similar appearance to my favorite warbler, the hooded warbler. This small bird was also a fellow inhabitant of the southeastern United States, although it resided in cane brakes and flooded, forested swamps, not in the hollows and woodlands of Northeast Tennessee.

But to me, Bachman’s warbler remained only a painting in a book. When I began birding, I began making actual sightings of the real birds that had existed for a long time as mere images. Alas, Bachman’s warbler remained only an image, not a reality.

Early naturalist and artist John James Audubon produced the most famous painting of the species, but even his work was not based on real life observations.

This warbler was first recorded in 1832 by the Rev. John Bachman, who found the species near Charleston, South Carolina. Bachman later presented study skins and descriptions to Audubon, his friend and collaborator. The famed naturalist and artist never saw the bird alive but named it in honor of Bachman in 1833.

Some 19th century authors also referred to the bird as Bachman’s swamp warbler.

Experts believe that Bachman’s warbler bred primarily in two distinct regions: the southern Atlantic coastal plain and the Gulf Coast states north along the Mississippi River watershed to Kentucky.

In the southern Atlantic coastal plain, the bird bred in South Carolina near Charleston, though it is believed to have once bred as far north as Virginia and south into Georgia.

The Gulf Coast breeding habitat is located primarily in central Alabama, though reports from northern Mississippi and Louisiana are known. The species bred north of Alabama along Arkansas’s and Missouri’s St. Francis River.

Interestingly, there are some unaccepted records of successful nestings in Tennessee, as well as eastern Texas and Oklahoma.

“Federal protection came too late to reverse these species’ decline, and it’s a wake-up call on the importance of conserving imperiled species before it’s too late,” said USFWS Director Martha Williams in the release. “As we commemorate 50 years of the Endangered Species Act this year, we are reminded of the Act’s purpose to be a safety net that stops the journey toward extinction. The ultimate goal is to recover these species, so they no longer need the Act’s protection.”

In September 2021, the Service proposed delisting 23 species from the ESA due to extinction. Following public comment on the proposed rule, the Service withdrew the delisting proposal for a Hawaiian perennial herb in the mint family that has no common name. The plant’s reprieve was due to recent surveys identifying new, potentially suitable habitats for the species.

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=587524955&q=last+sighting+of+Bachman%27s+warbler&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWwrbFo_SCAxXPg2oFHeAoAmgQ0pQJegQIDxAB&biw=1249&bih=439&dpr=1.5#imgrc=I4lV-MgPIjqdRM&imgdii=867BLpmCYA7KDM

Once again, another elusive bird of the southeastern United States escaped a final declaration of extinction. FWS will continue to analyze and review information before deciding whether to delist the ivory-billed woodpecker. Bachman’s warbler and the ivory-billed woodpeckers may very well have been neighbors in some of their favored habitats. My own opinion on the likelihood of the largest native woodpecker still surviving is one of skeptical optimism.

According to the release, the 21 species extinctions highlight the importance of the ESA and efforts to conserve species before declines become irreversible. The circumstances of each also underscore how human activity can drive species into decline and eventual extinction by contributing to habitat loss, overuse and the introduction of invasive species and diseases.

The announcement came as the Endangered Species Act turns 50 years old. Throughout the year, the Department of the Interior has celebrated the ESA’s importance in preventing imperiled species’ extinction, promoting wildlife recovery and conserving the habitats they depend on. The ESA has been highly effective and credited with saving 99% of listed species from extinction.

The final rule to delist 21 species from the ESA due to extinction was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 17 and became effective 30 days after publication.

So, why the slim glimmer of hope for the ivory-billed woodpecker and the sad finality of the fate of Bachman’s warbler?

For people familiar with the bird who knew where to look, Bachman’s warbler continued to be observed from the mid-1880s to 1910. About that time, clear-cutting of southern forests began replacing selective logging, resulting in a much more devastating loss of habitat.

By the 1930s, sightings were rare, and in 1940 the last definite winter sighting was recorded. The last male specimen was collected on March 21, 1941, on Deer Island, Mississippi, while the last female specimen was collected on Feb. 28, 1940, on Ship Island, Mississippi.

Reports of birds from the Missouri and Arkansas breeding grounds lasted through the 1940s, while birds were reported breeding in South Carolina’s I’on Swamp until 1953. Individuals were reported from Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1954 and 1958, and a male was seen singing near I’on Swamp in April 1962.

On March 30, 1977, an immature female was seen in Brevard County, Florida. The last confirmed observation was in Louisiana in 1988.

Warblers are short-lived birds, so populations, although diminished, must have continued to exist to allow these sporadic appearances.

Unfortunately, no intensive effort was ever launched to save the species, at least not on the scale of projects to save whooping cranes, California condors, bald eagles and peregrine falcons.

Two other warblers — the golden-cheeked warbler of Texas and the Kirtland’s warbler of Michigan — remain endangered. Others, including cerulean warbler, are close to the edge.

Why this profile on a bird none of us will ever get to see? That’s simple. No creature should be allowed to simply blink out of existence. The Bachman’s warbler, like everything else in creation, was a marvel. Remember this fragile little bird and maybe we can be certain no others ever have to be added to a list of extinct species.

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To ask a question, share a sighting or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.