Tag Archives: birds

Elizabethton Bird Club announces speakers for fall programs

Leave a reply

Brayden Paulk will speak to the Elizabethton Bird Club on Sept. 3 on the topic of microfishing.

The Lee and Lois Herndon Chapter of Tennessee Ornithological Society, also known as the Elizabethton Bird Club, will soon begin its schedule of monthly meetings for 2024-25.

The brief business meetings are always accompanied by an informative and entertaining program on birds, birding or other subjects from the natural world.

These programs are a great way to learn more about our feathered friends as well as other related subjects from the natural world. They are free, open to the public and hosted by a welcoming group of people.

Here’s the schedule for Fall 2024:

September

Brayden Paulk, a young naturalist with family ties in Unicoi County, will present the first program on Tuesday, Sept. 3, with a talk on “Microfishing,” which involves anglers focusing on a diverse array of tiny species of fish.

Paulk has also been working as a naturalist with Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park this summer and fall. He gave a program a couple of years ago for the club on “Trash Fishing,” which explored other angling options other than the typical gamefish species. As both fishing and birding are among his interests, he will no doubt find a way to work something into his program about birds.

October

The guest speaker for the meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 1, will be Mark Stevens. A former publisher for The Erwin Record, he will present a program titled “Building a Birding Festival” that will focus on his development of the Hammock Coast Birding Festival in South Carolina. Stevens, who works as tourism director for the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce, will be giving the program remotely from his home in South Carolina, but the hybrid meeting also offers a chance to attend in-person with other birding enthusiasts. The festival is organized by the South Carolina Hammock Coast, the marketing arm for the Georgetown County Chamber. The third annual Hammock Coast Birding Festival is scheduled for Feb. 6-9, 2025.

November

Vern Maddux, the treasurer for the club, will be the speaker on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Maddux is a world traveler when it comes to seeing birds and will present a program on one of his recent international birding adventures to South Georgia and Falklands. South Georgia is a mountainous barren island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles east-southeast of the remote South Atlantic archipelago that makes up the Falkland Islands. With rugged terrain and cliff-lined coasts, the hundreds of islands and islets in the Falklands are home to sheep farms and abundant birdlife.

December

In the busy month of December, yours truly will give the program. I will present a powerpoint presentation titled “What’s in a Name?” on North American birds named after people. Among our native birds, we have quail, woodpeckers, sparrows, finches, warblers, hawks and other birds are known by names of historical figures ranging from John James Audubon to William Clark and Meriwether Lewis.

My program will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 3. I will discuss the American Ornithological Society’s decision in 2023 to end what are known as eponyms, in which species names honor people. The renaming of dozens of species will be a gradual process.

The club’s 2025 schedule has not been completed, but will include a program by local naturalist Lewis Tester in the spring on dragonflies.

The public is always welcome to attend these programs. Programs begin at 7 p.m.

The club meets at the Elizabethton campus of Northeast State Community College in Room 135 when the school’s schedule permits. When school is not in session, meetings are held on Zoom or at other announced locations. To receive updates on the club’s schedule, events and activities, email elizabethtonbirtdingclub@gmail.com and ask to be placed on a free mailing list.

The Elizabethton Bird Club holds seasonal birds count in spring, summer, fall and winter. The club also organizes and sponsors regular field trips to destinations through Northeast Tennessee. These activities are also open to interested members of the public.

•••

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

Seeing Yellow: Visit from an odd cardinal surprises local couple

Leave a reply

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male Northern cardinal leads a young cardinal to food sources.

Unicoi resident Bobby Davis called me last week to share news about a sighting of a yellow cardinal. Bobby said that he and his wife, Tressa, have two bird baths and a hummingbird feeder in their yard and are in the habit of watching the comings and goings of their feathered friends. At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, they noticed a yellow cardinal in the yard near some rhododendrons.

A “yellow” cardinal is simply a Northern cardinal that has inherited a rare genetic condition that causes the bird’s feathers to turn yellow instead of red.

A news item posted to a website for The Wood Thrush Shop in Nashville relates the story of a backyard feeding station in Harriman, Tennessee, in Roane County that was visited by a yellow Northern cardinal on a regular basis.

Yellow Northern cardinals have been seen in at least four different states the last 10 years but remain a rarity.

The article explained that the yellow coloration in affected cardinals is caused by a rare genetic mutation. The colors red, orange and yellow in a bird’s feathers are created with carotenoid pigments derived from the foods they eat. In the male Northern cardinal, yellow pigments from the diet apparently are converted to red by a specific enzyme. In a very rare genetic mutation, probably affecting fewer than one in a million cardinals, that enzyme is lacking, so the conversion to red doesn’t occur and the feathers are bright yellow instead.

Back in May of this year, a yellow cardinal given the name Maize was spotted in Alabama. That sighting took place less than 15 miles from a location that hosted another yellow cardinal in 2018. Was Maize a descendant of that yellow cardinal spotted six years ago?

Perhaps the yellow cardinal will stick around at Bobby and Tressa’s home. Bobby informed me that they have an ordinary pair of red cardinals that resides in their yard, but he noted that the three birds have not interacted.

•••

Interestingly enough, there is a bird with the actual name yellow cardinal, but it is not closely related to the Northern cardinal. This South American bird has the scientific name of Gubernatrix cristata and is a member of the tanager family.

The yellow cardinal was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the binomial name Coccothraustes cristata. The word “cristata” means crested or plumed.

This yellow cardinal ranges in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, temperate shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland and temperate grasslands. The yellow cardinal is threatened by habitat loss and from pet trade trappers for sale as exotic pets. Males are trapped at a higher rate than females, and the yellow cardinal is considered endangered due to the constant entrapment. If recent counts are accurate, only about 1,000 t0 2,000 of these birds still exist.

Photo by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Pyrrhuloxia, also known as desert cardinal, is related to the Northern cardinal. 

The Northern Cardinal, on the other hand, is an abundant, beloved songbird. There’s additional evidence to put forward as testimony to the popularity of the Northern cardinal. It’s the official state bird of seven states: Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Only the Northern mockingbird, which represents five states as official state bird, even comes close to the Northern cardinal in this respect.

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. These birds have even been introduced to Hawaii.

The Northern cardinal has only two close relative in the genus Cardinalis. The pyrrhuloxia, also known as the desert cardinal, ranges throughout Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, as well as in Mexico. The third relative is known as vermilion cardinal and is found in Colombia and Venezuela. This bird suffers some losses to the exotic pet trade, but its numbers have managed to remain fairly stable.

•••

I’ve been an active birder since the early 1990s. To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Native wading birds wander widely in late summer

Leave a reply

 

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A great egret captures a frog from a pond’s edge in South Carolina.

The fish pond at my home has attracted a stalker. Amid the cattails and beneath the drooping branches of tall bald cypress trees, a lurking great blue heron has patiently been stalking fish, frogs and anything else that comes within striking reach of the bird’s sturdy dagger-shaped beak.

The heron’s visits have prompted me to dig into my archived columns this week. Please enjoy this column, which was previously published in July of 2019, about summer’s wading birds.

•••

North America’s stately wading birds — egrets, herons, bitterns, ibises and their kin — are well-known wanderers in late summer. As with all birds capable of flight, a pair of strong wings cannot be underestimated. Birds can show up in the most likely places.

Take for instance the first confirmed sighting of an American flamingo in Tennessee. This particular flamingo — an almost unthinkable bird for the Volunteer State — showed up along Highway 78 in Lake County on July 13, 2019.

Ruben Stoll and Alan Troyer found the flamingo, backing up their discovery with photographs of the large pink bird associating with great egrets and other wading birds. The flamingo created considerable buzz on rare bird alerts in several nearby states. Many birders rushed to add this exceptional visitor to their state and life lists.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • White ibises occasionally meander away from the coast in late summer. Immature birds will be brown instead of white.

In summers past, other exciting wading birds ranging from little blue herons to wood storks have excited the region’s birders. I recently celebrated my own sighting of one of these wanderers that made a stop at my fish pond on July 10.

I had stepped outside my house and let the door slam a little too loudly behind me, causing a stately great egret near my fish pond to take flight and fly over the roof of my house. I regretted instantly not having a camera with me.

Two days later, I got another chance. The great egret made another appearance. Unfortunately for the tall bird, he attracted the ire of the resident red-winged blackbirds. In a most inhospitable manner, the blackbirds attacked and dived at the egret, which made some awkward attempts to evade the angry blackbirds. Blackbirds are protective of their territory and have swooped at me several times when I’ve ventured too close to their favored cattails.

More prepared on this occasion, I had my camera with me and managed to get a few photographs of the egret.

The next day, only a few miles from my home, Lauri Sneyd Vance took a photograph of a great egret that stopped at her home in Limestone Cove in Unicoi County, Tennessee. Having seen my Facebook post, she notified me that she had also received a visit from an egret. Was it the same bird? Perhaps.

Oddly enough, the bird is actually the second great egret to visit my fish pond. The first one made an unseasonable stop several years ago on a snowy December afternoon — hardly a time of year I might have expected a visit from an egret in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee.

The great egret stands 3.3 feet tall. With an all-white plumage, a long yellow bill and dark legs, this egret is often described as graceful and elegant. Its likeness was incorporated into the logo for the National Audubon Society, an organization formed to protect egrets and other wading birds from a wanton slaughter in the late 1800s when millions of the birds were killed so their feathers could be used in women’s fashions.

During the breeding season, adult great egrets sprout long plumes on their back. These frilly feathers are known as aigrettes, which are used to attract the attention of prospective mates in elaborate mating displays.

According to the All About Birds website, great egrets feed mostly on fish, but they also eat amphibians, reptiles, rodents, songbirds and crustaceans. On visits to the South Carolina coast, I’ve observed great egrets dining on frogs and small fish. In prime habitat, flocks of great egrets will gather to forage together in wetlands or around ponds. More sociable than some herons, great egrets also nest and roost communally.

The other North American egrets include snowy egret, reddish egret and cattle egret. Other egrets found around the world include the intermediate egret, little egret, slaty egret, black egret,dimorphic egret and Chinese egret.

As summer advances, keep your eye on area rivers, lakes and ponds. It’s the best time of year to see egrets, herons and other long-legged wading birds. In the case of the American flamingo, I realize that lightning rarely strikes twice, but if you do happen to see a gangly pink bird, let me know.

•••

Share sightings, ask questions or make comments by emailing me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Photo by Bryan Stevens
A Great Blue Heron moves stealthily through a wetland.

Goldfinches much more than another pretty bird

Leave a reply

Miles Moody from Pixabay • A male American goldfinch in summer nesting plumage is one of the region’s most vibrant songbirds. 

Johnson City resident Jo Wheeler posted a comment on Facebook on July 15 under a weekly posting promoting the “Feathered Friends” weekly column.

“We saw the American goldfinch in out backyard over the weekend,” Jo wrote. “It was amazing.”

I was so pleased to hear Jo’s excitement about the goldfinch. The American goldfinch is a commonplace bird, but once you take a close look at this bird it’s readily apparent that there’s really noting common about it at all. 

Goldfinches are extraordinary in appearance, particularly at this time of the year. The plumage of the male goldfinch during the nesting season is a bold pattern of black and white against a backdrop of golden-yellow feathers. These birds also form fussy but sociable flocks that congregate at bird feeders or bird baths in many a backyard. 

A sighting of a goldfinch can be memorable. I still retain vivid imagery of these birds from childhood, long before I could identify them by name. They would always appear in late summer, perching atop the three blue spruces in our yard. The trees are no longer standing, but the memories of those colorful yellow and black birds endure.

Summer is the season of plenty for American goldfinches. Roadside ditches are choked with chicory, evening primrose and other seed-producing plants often dismissed as “weeds.” Simply driving local roads can, and often does, produce sightings of flocks of American goldfinches as they forage for seeds.

These small, colorful finches are also regular visitors to my feeders, although they don’t really need my offering of black oil sunflower seeds to supplement the natural smorgasbord available to them.

Their fondness for seeds has inspired many of the common names for this bird, including lettuce bird, thistle-bird, yellow-bird and wild canary. My late grandmother, Bertha Sneyd, introduced me to the term “lettuce bird” as an alternative name for goldfinch. As she explained, the finches would come to gardens once lettuce had gone to seed. 

This fondness and dependence on seeds for its dietary needs has even shaped the nesting habits of this species. The American goldfinch is also one of the last songbirds to nest each season. 

According to a profile of the American goldfinch posted at the website for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, goldfinches don’t even start to think about nesting until late July and early August. Their nesting season is timed deliberately to coincide with this season of natural abundance. Goldfinches feed their young mostly on seeds, as opposed to most songbirds that work so hard to gather insects to feed their young a protein-rich diet.

It’s a satisfying irony that, although brown-headed cowbird females sometimes slip their eggs into a goldfinch nest, any cowbirds hatched in those nests rarely survive. While goldfinch hatchlings are adapted to thrive on a diet of seeds, the fostered young cowbirds fail to thrive on a diet so lacking in the protein derived from insects.

While the male American goldfinch during the breeding season is unmistakable in his bright yellow, black and white plumage, the female goldfinch is more subdued in coloration. Males also sing a bubbly, cheerful song when seeking to win the attention of a potential mate.  

According to the profile on the TWRA website, the goldfinch’s song is a variable series of musical trills and twitters, often interspersed with a bay beephrase. The distinctive flight call is described as sounding like “potato chip” or “per chicory.”

For these and other reasons, goldfinches are favorites of many bird lovers. There are actually three species of goldfinches in North America. The two related species are Lawrence’s goldfinch of California and the lesser goldfinch, which ranges through the southwestern United States as well as Central and South America.

Lawrence’s goldfinch was named by John Cassin in 1850 for his colleague George Lawrence, a New York businessman and amateur ornithologist. His enthusiasm for birds must have impressed his colleagues. One bird genus and 20 species were named in his honor. Lawrence’s goldfinch, known by the scientific name Spinus lawrencei, honors him doubly with both the scientific and common names for the bird.

The American goldfinch is also known by other common names, including wild canary, yellowbird and willow goldfinch. I’ve also heard the goldfinch referred to as “lettuce bird.” This nickname, which was one my maternal grandmother applied to the bird, relates to the bird’s fondness for seeds. Apparently the goldfinches would flock to lettuce plants in the garden once they had gone to seed.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male American goldfinch perched.

Come winter, this vibrant American goldfinch undergoes a transformation into a dull, drab bird with grayish feather. In fact, this annual molt usually begins in September. During the fall and winter, the American goldfinch looks almost like an entirely different bird.

It’s understandable why people love to entertain flocks of these finches in their yards and gardens. Three states — Washington, Iowa and New Jersey — have gone so far as to make the American goldfinch their official state bird.

The best strategy for attracting goldfinches is to provide some of their favorite foods. Black oil sunflower seed and the seeds of nyjer thistle are highly favored. The tiny thistle seeds require special feeders. Mesh “socks” can also be used to dispense the thistle seed.

An alternative is to plant a garden that offers an abundance of fresh seeds. A stand of sunflowers will attract goldfinches, as well as other birds such as indigo bunting and house finch. Liatris, also known as gay feather, produces flower spikes that are sought out by goldfinches for their seeds. Other favorites include asters and coneflowers. The bonus is that even after the beautiful blooms are past, the birds can still benefit from the seeds left behind after flowering.

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

Surprise! Hummingbirds come in variety of sizes

1 Reply

This week’s column is about hummingbirds, the big and the small ones. Frances Lamberts in Jonesborough sent me an email earlier this month that got the ball rolling for this week’s hummingbird column.

“Two hummingbirds were here for a good week long,

at the end of April,” Frances wrote. “Then they were gone, and I haven’t seen any since. Despite the heat/drought (and with some watering), the

property has many favorite flowers in bloom, including the blue salvia, red pole beans, monarda, many others come and gone, the cardinal flowers about to bloom.”

Her question was a simple one: “Where are the hummers?”

She noted that she has kept a “first sightings” record for about 20 year. One year the hummingbirds didn’t arrive until mid June, which worried her at the time.

“What is happening now?” Frances asked.

The simple and honest answer is that it’s not really possible to land on any single answer. Birds have wings, and hummingbirds are capable to long-distance flights.

Still, a setting such as the one Frances described with such a wide variety of blooms should be teeming with hummingbirds.

Personally, it’s been a perplexing season. My hummingbirds arrived back in April, stuck around for perhaps a week, and then almost disappeared. They returned in mid-June, remained visible for a couple of weeks, but have since pulled another vanishing act.

In any given year, the numbers of hummingbirds passing thorough is going to fluctuate. Some years, these tiny flying gems will be present in good numbers on an almost daily basis. Other years, hummingbirds can become quite scarce.

I usually enjoy my best hummingbird numbers in the fall as these little birds begin their leisurely journey back south. Late August and the month of September is usually a great time to watch hummingbirds. I’m optimistic that the same will hold true this fall.

In some other hummingbird news, the world added another species of hummingbird this year when the giant hummingbird of South America got split into two distinct species.

Abi Cole, writing for Audubon Magazine, reported in an article on June 7, 2024, that scientists have considered two distinct populations of giant hummingbird — a migratory southern population in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, and a non-migratory northern population in Chile, Ecuador and Peru — to be the same species.

Now, scientists have reconsidered that belief and learned that the two species have been able to fool scientists for so long by basically, as Cole’s article phrases it, by hiding in plain sight.

Cole’s article details the elaborate process by which giant hummingbirds were captured and fitted with geolocator devices. The article credits Jessie Williamson, lead author of the new study and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow, with unraveling the mystery.

Williamson did so by intensively studying the Chilean population. The resulting research also revealed some huge surprises.

For centuries, there has been speculation about where the Chilean giant hummingbirds go to spend the winter. Now we know – they make an astonishing, record-breaking 5,200-mile round trip to spend several months with their cousins in the Peruvian Andes.

Because the Chilean and Peruvian birds look so much alike, no one had ever realized that they were co-existing with each other during the winter season.

Of course, the name “giant hummingbird” is almost an oxymoron for a family of birds famous for their diminutive size. Now that we have two species of giant hummingbirds, they can’t both hold the title of world’s biggest hummingbird.

So, which is the bigger bird? As it turns out, the giant hummingbirds living year round in the Andes, now known as the northern giant hummingbird, is slightly bigger than the migratory southern giant hummingbird.

The article about these discoveries is fascinating. To read it for yourself, visit http://www.audubon.org/magazine/scientists-discover-worlds-largest-hummingbird-hiding-plain-sight.

The giant hummingbird does earn the right to that name. Both of the two species weigh between 18 and 24 grams and have a wingspan of about 8.5 inches. They have a body length of 9.1 inches. For a useful comparison, they are about equal to the size of a European starling or a Northern cardinal.

They are not the dazzling beauties most people associate with hummingbirds. Giant hummingbirds have a drab greenish plumage above with a whitish rump patch and dingy coloration below with variable rusty tones and dusky spotting. They do have the long bills and overall physical shape of other hummingbirds. The scientific name is Patagona gigas, roughly translated as the giant of Patagonia.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Welcoming hummingbirds also involves making sure that they remain healthy and safe while spending time in our yards and gardens.

Count the giant hummingbird (either of the two species) as birds I’d like to see some day. The world’s diversity of hummingbirds is dazzling, but I feel fortunate to enjoy the ruby-throated hummingbird from April to October every year. As anyone knows who hosts these tiny birds, ruby-throated hummingbirds are dazzling and engaging guests during their all-too-brief.

•••

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

 

Unicoi County summer bird count finds 109 species

Leave a reply

Photo Hans Toom/ Pixabay • The aptly named yellow warbler was one of 18 warbler species found on this year’s Unicoi County Summer Bird Count.

The 11th annual Unicoi County summer bird count was held Saturday, June 8, with 19 observers in seven parties. The count has been conducted yearly since its inception by members of the Elizabethton Bird Club.

I have taken part on this count from the first one held, missing only once when I was out of town. It’s an enjoyable count and, for me, it’s very close to home. This count also provides a reliable snapshot of the birds present in Unicoi County in early summer. 

Counters tallied 109 species which is slightly above the average of 108 species. The all-time high was 112 species in 2016. 

Abundant birds included European starling (314), American robin (246), song sparrow (175), American crow (174), red-eyed vireo (172), Northern cardinal (128) and cliff swallow, 126. Eighteen species of warblers were found, the most abundant being hooded warbler with 84 individuals tallied. 

As always a few low-density or very localized species were missed, including yellow-billed cuckoo, bald eagle, great horned owl, American kestrel, grasshopper sparrow, golden-winged warbler and prairie warbler.

The list:

Canada goose, 18; wood duck, 3; mallard, 20; wild turkey, 7; and ruffed grouse, 1.

Rock pigeon, 61; mourning dove, 56; chuck-will’s-widow,1; Eastern whip-poor-will, 18; chimney swift, 29; and ruby-throated hummingbird, 8.

Killdeer, 8; great blue heron, 3; and green heron, 2.

Photo by Bryan Stevens
A green heron elevates a shaggy crest of feathers, a behavior often initiated when the bird feels alarmed.

Black vulture, 1; turkey vulture 37; sharp-shinned hawk, 1;

Cooper’s hawk 3; red-shouldered hawk, 4; broad-winged hawk, 10; red-tailed hawk, 2; Eastern screech-owl, 5; barred owl, 4; and Northern saw-whet owl, 1.

Belted kingfisher, 5; red-bellied woodpecker, 15; yellow-bellied sapsucker, 9;

downy woodpecker, 8; hairy woodpecker, 5; Northern flicker, 10; and pileated woodpecker, 20.

Great crested flycatcher, 3; Eastern kingbird, 11; Eastern wood-pewee, 10; Acadian flycatcher, 32; least flycatcher, 5; and Eastern phoebe, 65.

White-eyed vireo, 3; yellow-throated vireo, 1; blue-headed vireo, 38; warbling vireo, 3; and red-eyed vireo, 172.

Blue jay, 61; American crow, 174; fish crow, 5; common raven, 8; Carolina chickadee, 71; and tufted titmouse, 60.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A tree swallow visits a nest box to check on young.

Tree swallow, 49; Northern rough-winged swallow, 20; purple martin, 25; barn swallow, 78; and cliff swallow, 126.

Golden-crowned kinglet, 2; cedar waxwing, 36; red-breasted nuthatch, 2; white-breasted nuthatch, 18; brown creeper, 4; and blue-gray gnatcatcher, 23.

Carolina wren, 84; house wren, 31; and winter wren, 3.

Gray catbird, 34; brown thrasher, 14; Northern mockingbird, 17; European starling, 314; Eastern bluebird, 59; veery, 12; hermit thrush, 2; wood thrush, 34; and American robin, 246.

House sparrow, 14; house finch, 33; American goldfinch, 56; chipping sparrow, 54; field sparrow, 6; dark-eyed junco, 20; song sparrow, 175; Eastern towhee, 6; and yellow-breasted chat, 1.

Eastern meadowlark, 14; orchard oriole, 4; Baltimore oriole, 1; red-winged blackbird, 60; brown-headed cowbird, 16; and common grackle, 63.

Ovenbird, 38; worm-eating warbler, 10; Louisiana waterthrush, 10; black-and-white warbler, 19; Swainson’s warbler, 16; Kentucky warbler, 1; common yellowthroat, 6; hooded warbler, 84; American redstart, 12; Northern parula, 41; magnolia warbler, 2; Blackburnian warbler, 10; yellow warbler, 3; chestnut-sided warbler, 17; black-throated blue warbler, 45; yellow-throated warbler, 17; black-throated green warbler, 45; and Canada warbler, 13.

Scarlet tanager, 20; Northern cardinal, 128; rose-breasted grosbeak, 4; blue grosbeak, 1; and indigo bunting, 77.

•••

Bryan Stevens has birded since the early 1990s and has written about birds and birding since 1995. To ask a question, make a comment or share a sighting, email him at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

 

Indigo buntings speak to the summer season

Leave a reply

Photo courtesy of George Stone • Indigo buntings range from southern Canada to northern Florida during the summer months, occasionally even expanding beyond this wide range.

George Stone emailed me after finding my weekly bird column online.

“I live approximately 90 miles west of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,” he wrote in his email. “This morning (June 6) I had my first ever sighting of an indigo bunting at my feeder!”

He also asked a question, wanting to know if indigo buntings are rare in his location in Canada.

I did some digging online and found that indigo buntings range from southern Canada to northern Florida in the summer. I relayed this information to George in a reply to his email, congratulating him on his sighting.

I informed him that I reside in Northeast Tennessee, close to the borders with Virginia and North Carolina. I also told him that in summer, indigo bunting is not rare at all here in Northeast Tennessee. I saw and heard several while doing a summer bird count on June 8 in the Limestone Cove community of Unicoi County.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • The male indigo bunting is a resplendent bird.

The male indigo bunting is the only solid blue bird in the eastern United States, but it’s all an illusion — literally a trick of the light. The indigo bunting’s feathers are not really blue; the male’s brilliant azure plumage is caused by the process of diffraction of light around the structure of the bird’s feathers. This process scatters all but the blue light, and the resulting color shifts from black to blue to turquoise as the angle of reflected light changes. In bright light, it can even look unnaturally vivid blue. In poor light, however, an indigo bunting male can appear black. Fortunately, indigo buntings have both a characteristic body shape and song, so even if the birds are not seen in their best light, they can still be recognized.

For such a bright blue bird, indigo buntings are not easy to detect. Males like to find an elevated perch and sing to proclaim their territory and pitch their availability to potential mates. Learn the song, which consists of a burst of jumbled, high-pitched notes, and use that knowledge to help pinpoint singing males. Once you zero in on the singing bird’s location, it’s easy to focus binoculars and enjoy peeking at such a pretty bird.

The indigo bunting belongs to a genus of birds known as Passerina, which is included the family Cardinalidae, which includes birds like Northern cardinal and rose-breasted grosbeak. They are often lumped into a group known as North American buntings, although they are not closely related to such birds as snow bunting and lark bunting. The latter is even recognized as the official state bird for Colorado, a unique honor for this group of birds. The other members of the Passerina genus include lazuli bunting, varied bunting, painted bunting, rose-bellied bunting, orange-breasted bunting and blue grosbeak.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Newly-returned neotropical migrants, such as this Indigo Bunting, increased the total number of species for the annual spring count.

Worldwide, other birds known as buntings include such descriptively named species as slaty bunting, corn bunting, white-capped bunting, gray-necked bunting, cinereous bunting, lark-like bunting, cinnamon-breasted bunting, chestnut-eared bunting, little bunting, yellow-throated bunting, golden-breasted bunting, black-headed bunting, red-headed bunting and yellow bunting.

For me, the indigo bunting has always been a bird of the summer season. Not even the heat of mid-day tires out a persistently singing male indigo bunting. They linger into the early October, but later in the season the bird begin to molt feathers and take on a more shabby look. Enjoy them while they’re here.

•••

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

 

 

 

Great auk’s story ended 180 years ago this week

Leave a reply

Although he never saw the species in person, famous naturalist and artist John James Audubon painted this pair of great auks about the time the species was heading toward extinction.

It’s summer and the birds are busy nesting in the mountains and valleys of the Southern Appalachians. Eighteen decades ago, during a summer nesting season far away in the North Atlantic, the story of an unusual seabird came to a brutal end.
The last pair of great auks was killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, on June 3, 1844. This little-known tragedy ended the last known breeding attempt for the species 180 years ago this week.


The great auk, also known as the great Northern penguin, once inhabited the Atlantic coasts of both North America and Europe. This flightless bird achieved the status of “great” due to its size. Adult great auks reached a height of about 32 inches and could weigh as much as 11 pounds, making them much larger than any of their close relatives. This bird had a black back and a white belly in a two-tone plumage that does indeed resemble the appearance of many penguins. The bird’s black beak was heavy and hooked, with grooves on its surface, excellent for catching fish.


The great auk belonged to the bird family of Alcidae, which also includes such birds as auks, auklets, murres, murrelets, puffins, razorbills and guillemots. The family is not closely related to penguins, which are only found in the Southern Hemisphere. The great auk’s scientific name – Pinguinus impennis – has reinforced the misconception that penguins and the great auk were closely related.

Photo by Kevin/Pixabay • The razorbill, also known as the lesser auk, is probably the member of the Alcidae that most resembles the great auk, albeit on a diminished scale.


Today, one close relative of the great auk still swims in the North Atlantic off the coasts of both North America and Europe. The razorbill (Alca torda) is the sole species in the genus Alca since the extinction of the great auk in the mid-19th century.


Razorbills, as did their larger relative, nest in colonies. Razorbill nesting colonies exist off the coasts of Canada, Iceland, Norway, Wales and the United Kingdom. After the nesting season, razorbills abandon the land and spend the winter months at sea. Razorbills are occasionally spotted as far south as the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida during the winter season.
Razorbills have a body length of almost 17 inches and weigh from one to two pounds, placing them well shy of the size of their extinct relative.


Great auks figured prominently in the cultures of some native sea-going tribes. Although Native Americans did hunt the birds, their efforts had been sustainable.
The coming of European explorers and settlers threw the balance out of whack for this species, which nested in large colonies. Explorers in North America plundered the great auks as a food source and also used the flesh of the birds as fish bait. In Europe, a demand developed for the great auk’s down, those dense, insulating feathers that provided a warm, protective layer against the chill of North Atlantic waters.


These factors quickly led to a steep decline in numbers as early as the 1700s. Sadly, museums and private collectors began to clamor for specimens as the great auk became more rare. The collecting of the birds, as well as their eggs, for this purpose is blamed by some experts with the ultimate extinction of the species.


Pairs of great auk, which mated for life, focused their nesting efforts on raising one chick at a time, which made the species even more vulnerable. A report of a single great auk in 1852 off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland is accepted by some experts, which means this bird was the last known individual of its kind.


The bird’s legacy has lived on, especially with naturalists and birders. The scientific journal of the American Ornithological Society was titled “The Auk” in honor of the species until 2021 when the name of the publication changed to simply “Ornithology.”
The presence of skins and bones in museums around the world have encouraged speculation that modern technological advances in genetics and cloning could possibly revive the great auk from preserved DNA.


Such scenarios seem a little too Hollywood and reminiscent of the “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” films. The reality is that the great auk is part of a lamentable extinction club with such members as Labrador duck, passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, Bachman’s warbler and many others, dating back to birds like the moas and the dodos.


It would be nice, especially for birders, if cruises in the North Atlantic could still offer the opportunity to view these fantastic birds swimming in the cold waters. It is still possible to view nesting colonies of birds like the Atlantic puffin, black guillemot and razorbill. If I do get the chance to view these sea-going birds some day, I’ll be thinking of the great auk when I do so.


•••


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

Hooded warbler easily wins fans among birders

Leave a reply

Photo by Jean Potter • A male hooded warbler flits through the foliage of a rhododendron thicket.

The woods surrounding my home have been alive with birdsong. We’re almost ready to turn the calendar to June, but there’s been no diminishment in the fervor of the daily chorus.

The main members of the feathered choir are warblers. I’ve heard yellow-throated warbler, black-throated green warbler, black-and-white warbler, Northern parula, ovenbird, common yellowthroat and, my favorite, hooded warbler, morning and evening.

During the winter months when the hooded warbler absents itself from Northeast Tennessee, the species resides in the forests of Mexico, as well as in Belize, Costa Rica and other Central American nations.

Like many of the ruby-throated hummingbirds that make their home in the United States for the summer, the hooded warbler’s seasonal migrations take it across the vast open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. After that amazing crossing, these small songbirds disperse throughout the southeastern United States.

That birds as small as hummingbirds and warblers make this incredible migration twice yearly is one of nature’s most phenomenal feats of endurance. In a presentation by Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman that I attended six years ago, I learned that these tiny birds put on incredible fat reserves to help fuel their valiant Gulf crossings.

The warblers, also known as wood-warblers, are an exclusively New World family, numbering approximately 116 species. About 50 of these species make their home in the eastern United States and Canada for the spring and summer, departing in the fall and returning to tropical wintering grounds. Some are extremely bright and colorful birds. The hooded warbler is somewhere in the middle in a sliding scale that goes from dull to wow.

Other colorful warblers that share similar tastes in range and habitat with the hooded warbler include the American redstart, black-throated blue warbler and black-throated green warbler.

Readers who make it to the end of this weekly column will know that even my email address is a testament to my enthusiasm for the hooded warbler.

Hooded warblers nest in the woodlands around my home. So, from the time my favorite warbler returns in April until the last individual departs in October, I enjoy regular glimpses of this colorful and interesting bird. Like all warblers, the hooded warbler is quite energetic, dashing after tiny insects in the branches of shrubs and trees. Hooded warblers often forage close to the ground, which makes observing them easier.

Of course, birds are free to break the rules. One of my most memorable sightings of a hooded warbler involved a male singing from the upper branches of a dead pine tree. I’d estimate that the bird was at least 40 feet off the ground, singing his little heart out to attract a mate. I was standing on an elevated rise of land while the tree providing the warbler its perch was lower in a gully that actually placed bird and observer on a roughly level playing field.

The bird sang for many moments, which is not always the case with warblers. These birds tend to dash for cover at the slightest disturbance, but this enthusiastic male didn’t seem to pay and heed to the fact that most of its kin prefer to skulk in shrubs and dense rhododendron thickets no more than a few feet off the ground.

Back in the late 1990s, when I had just started out in birding, I observed two adult hooded warblers feeding a couple of young birds only recently out of the nest.

I was enjoying observing the sweet scene as the parent birds carried foods to the young birds, which begged incessantly and loudly when, unexpectedly, a song sparrow wandered into the scene.

The sparrow was brutally beset by the parent warblers, which attacked the intruder from all sides. The poor sparrow, having no clue to the reason for their ire, beat a hasty retreat. Sparrows are no threat, but that didn’t matter to these zealous parents.

When I first began birding, I was only dimly aware there was a family of birds known as warblers, which are now hands-down my overall favorite birds. The hooded warbler was one of the first birds I managed to identify on my own.

It’s one bird unlikely to be mistaken for any other. Every time I behold a hooded warbler, I marvel at the bird’s exquisite appearance. The gold and green feathers seem to glow brightly in the dim light of the shadowy thickets of rhododendron they prefer to inhabit. The black hood and bib surrounding the male’s yellow face stands out by virtue of its stark contrast from the brighter feathers. Large coal-black eyes complete the effect. The appearance of the male bird provides this species with its common name. The female has an identical yellow-green coloration as the male, although she is slightly more drab. She lacks the black hood and bib, although older females may acquire some dark plumage on the head and around the face. Both sexes also show white tail feathers that they constantly fan and flick as they move about in thick vegetation and shrubbery.

The warblers are, in short, an incredible family of birds. I’ve seen all but a handful of the species that reside for part of the year in the eastern United States. I still want to see a Connecticut warbler and cerulean warbler, as well as the endangered Kirtland’s warbler of Michigan and the golden-cheeked warbler of Texas.

I’ve come to think of the hooded warblers at my home as “my warblers.” There may be a kernel of truth to my belief. The website All About Birds in a profile on the species notes that a seven-year study conducted in Pennsylvania gave evidence that male hooded warblers are faithful to nesting territories from previous years. Approximately 50% of banded males were shown to return to the same area to breed again year after year.

So, some of those hooded warblers singing from the rhododendron thickets at my home are probably birds returning for consecutive spring seasons. Some of the warblers that returned back in April could be great-great-great grandchildren of those warblers that attacked the unfortunate song sparrow. At the least, it gives me pleasure to think so.

•••

To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com, an address that shows my profound fascination for this particular bird.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male hooded warbler peers from a tangle of branches.

Annual spring bird count finds 151 species

Leave a reply

 

Photo by Hans Toom/Pixabay • A male common yellowthroat, a species of warbler, is resident in the region spring through fall. The black mask of the males makes this bird quite distinctive.

The 81st consecutive Elizabethton Spring Bird Count was held on Saturday, May 4, with 40 observers in 16 parties.

Participants covered Carter County plus parts of adjacent Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington counties. Temperatures were mild with little wind;

however, light rain just before sunrise and light to moderate rain during much of the afternoon hampered birding to some degree. Despite these conditions, good numbers were counted.

This year’s count tallied 151 species, including 28 species of warblers. The average number of

species over the last 20 years was 153 species. The all-time high was 166 species in 2016.

These yearly spring counts provide an amazing snapshot of the birds that can be found living in or migrating through the region. Some exceptional finds for this year’s count included Virginia rail, green-winged teal, grasshopper sparrow, golden-winged warbler and dickcissel.

The most abundant birds included cliff swallow (790), American robisparrown (742), European starling (500), Canada goose (391), red-eyed vireo (343), song sparrow (338), Northern Cardinal (321), Common Grackle (315), Red-winged Blackbird (282), American Crow (280), American Goldfinch (279), Hooded warbler (231) and Mourning Dove (223).

The list:

Canada goose, 391; wood duck, 35; blue-winged teal, 4; mallard, 96; green-winged teal,1; and common merganser, 2. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp-CrM–HSU

Wild turkey, 23; ruffed grouse, 1; pied-billed grebe, 1; rock pigeon, 117; Eurasian collared-dove, 1; mourning dove, 223; yellow-billed cuckoo, 4; chuck-will’s-widow, 8; Eastern whip-poor-will, 28; chimney swift, 168; and ruby-throated hummingbird, 9.

Virginia rail, 1; killdeer, 29; least sandpiper, 27; pectoral sandpiper, 2; semipalmated sandpiper, 3; spotted sandpiper, 49; solitary sandpiper, 27; lesser yellowlegs 5; and greater yellowlegs, 1.

Double-crested cormorant, 80; great blue heron, 76; great egret, 2; green heron, 21; and yellow-crowned night-heron, 4.

Black vulture, 111; turkey vulture, 96; osprey, 13;

Cooper’s hawk, 3; bald eagle, 7; red-shouldered hawk, 6; broad-winged hawk, 8; red-tailed hawk, 14; Eastern screech-owl, 11; great horned owl,1; and barred owl, 8.

Belted kingfisher, 25; red-headed woodpecker, 16; red-bellied woodpecker, 87; yellow-bellied sapsucker, 9; downy woodpecker, 31; hairy woodpecker, 8; Northern flicker, 52; and pileated woodpecker, 46.

American kestrel, 9; great crested flycatcher, 30; Eastern kingbird, 66; Eastern wood-pewee, 31; Acadian flycatcher, 16; least flycatcher, 15; and Eastern phoebe, 96.

White-eyed vireo, 18; yellow-throated vireo, 12; blue-headed vireo, 49; warbling vireo, 15; and red-eyed vireo, 343.

Blue jay, 151; American crow, 280; fish crow, 12;  common raven, 13. Carolina chickadee, 143; tufted titmouse, 158; tree swallow, 154; Northern rough-winged swallow, 49; purple martin, 68; barn swallow, 213; and cliff swallow, 780.

Ruby-crowned kinglet, 3; golden-crowned kinglet, 2; cedar waxwing, 64; red-breasted nuthatch, 8; white-breasted nuthatch, 27; brown creeper, 2; blue-gray gnatcatcher, 77; Carolina wren, 203; house wren, 50; winter wren, 5; and marsh wren, 1.

Gray catbird, 54; brown thrasher, 64; Northern nockingbird, 94; European starling, 500; Eastern bluebird, 134; veery, 14; gray-cheeked thrush, 2; Swainson’s thrush, 9; Hermit thrush, 1; Wood thrush, 118; and American robin, 742.

House sparrow 30; house finch, 79; pine siskin, 1; American goldfinch, 279; grasshopper sparrow, 1; chipping sparrow, 123; field sparrow, 43;

dark-eyed junco, 48; white-crowned sparrow, 1;

White-throated sparrow, 5; Savannah sparrow, 6; song sparrow, 338; swamp sparrow, 1; and Eastern towhee, 179.

Yellow-breasted chat, 11; Eastern meadowlark, 81; orchard oriole, 24; Baltimore oriole, 18; red-winged blackbird, 282; brown-headed cowbird, 61; and common grackle, 315.

Ovenbird, 162; worm-eating warbler, 28; Louisiana waterthrush, 34; Northern waterthrush, 4; golden-winged warbler, 1; black-and-white warbler, 103; Swainson’s warbler,15; Tennessee warbler, 15; Kentucky warbler, 7; common yellowthroat, 48; hooded warbler, 231; American redstart, 33; Cape May warbler, 9; Northern parula, 89; magnolia warbler, 4; bay-breasted warbler, 7; Blackburnian warbler, 24; yellow warbler, 15; chestnut-sided warbler, 30; blackpoll warbler, 8; black-throated blue warbler, 89; palm warbler, 3; pine warbler, 8; yellow-rumped warbler, 21; yellow-throated warbler, 54; prairie warbler, 1; black-throated green warbler, 81; and Canada warbler, 37.

Summer tanager, 1; scarlet tanager, 97; Northern cardinal, 321; rose-breasted grosbeak, 30; blue grosbeak, 10; indigo bunting, 184; and dickcissel, 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3pZ3t2i4E

•••

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