Monthly Archives: July 2015

Slightly In Arizona

Travel
Arizona Woodpecker (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Arizona Woodpecker (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

31 July 2015  

NOTE as of December 2020:  Since this was written in 2015 the Picoides genus has been split. The American three-toed and Black-backed woodpeckers are two of only three species in genus Picoides. All others listed below are in genus Dryobates.

Though he’s called the Arizona woodpecker this brown-and-white bird is slightly misnamed.  Most of his range is in Mexico.

He’s one of nine Picoides woodpeckers found in North America, each with its own special habitat.  Some of them are familiar and wide ranging.  Others have such specific needs that you must travel to see them.

Here’s how they’ve divided up the continent.  At least one of them lives near you.

  • American Three-toed: in the Rockies and Canada in boreal and coniferous forests disturbed by disease or fire.
  • Black-backed: in Canada and northern U.S. in boreal and coniferous forests with burned trees.
  • Downy woodpecker: found in most of North America in open woodlands and along streams.
  • Hairy: found in most of North America in mature woodlands.
  • Ladder-backed: in desert and desert scrub among cactus in the Southwest.
  • Nuttall’s: in California’s oak woodlands.
  • Red-cockaded: found in mature longleaf pine forests in the southeastern U.S.;  endangered.
  • White-headed: in pine forests in Pacific Northwest and California mountains.
  • Arizona: in pine-oak forests in the mountains of Mexico and southeastern Arizona.

Like his familiar Downy and Hairy relatives in Pennsylvania, this woodpecker visits suet feeders.  That’s where I saw him for the first time at Madera Canyon.

In Arizona.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)

Magnificent!

Songbirds, Travel
Magnificent hummingbird (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Magnificent hummingbird (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

If you want to see a really magnificent hummingbird in the U.S. the only place to find one is in the mountains of southeastern Arizona.

Magnificent isn’t just an adjective, it’s part of his name:  The Magnificent Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens).

Arizona is the northern edge of his range which extends south to Panama.  According to Wikipedia you can find him “at the edges and clearings of oak forests from about 2000 m altitude [6,500 feet] up to the timberline.”  He’s listed as common at the Southwest Wings Festival.

Common, but not a common size.  He’s the second largest hummingbird north of Mexico and can be twice as big as a ruby-throated hummingbird.

And he’s uncommonly dark.  Though he has a tiny white patch behind his eye, both males and females look black until the light shines on their iridescent feathers.

When you see one of these hummingbirds, you hope for a splash of sunshine.

The photo above is one of those magnificent moments when a black bird flashes color and takes your breath away.

 

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)

p.s. I saw this Life Bird yesterday at Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon.  His throat flashed bright green, much greener than this photo.  🙂

How Big Is An Elegant Trogon?

Songbirds, Travel
Male Elegant Trogon (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Male Elegant Trogon (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Today I’m at the Southwest Wings Festival hoping to see the holy grail of Arizona birding: an elegant trogon (Trogon elegans).

In my imagination these birds are huge — the size of crows — but they’re really only as big as American robins.  Their bulky necks, long tails and upright posture make them look big in photographs. The male’s red breast and deep voice add to the illusion.

Elegant trogons range from southeastern Arizona through Mexico to Costa Rica where they live in deciduous forests and nest in natural cavities in sycamores or unused woodpecker holes.  They leave Arizona for the winter(*) but are still present in July … which is why I’m here.

If I’m lucky enough to see this Life Bird I’ll let you know if he “shrank” to his normal size.  😉

 

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)

(*) I heard yesterday that because of warmer winters at least one pair of elegant trogons now stays in the area year-round.

p.s.  On July 31 in Huachuca Canyon I saw four elegant trogons.  Wow!

Are You Nuts?

Travel
High temperatures in Arizona, 26 July 2015 (image from NOAA National Weather Service)
High temperatures in Arizona, 26 July 2015 (image from NOAA National Weather Service)

When I tell people I’m going to Arizona in July I’m sure they wonder, “Are you nuts?”

Today I’m on my way to the Southwest Wings Festival, July 29 to August 1 in Sierra Vista, Arizona.  It’s one of the top 10 birding festivals in the U.S. and happens to be in one of the cooler places in the state.

“Cooler” in two ways:  cool birds and cooler temperatures than Phoenix.

The festival is held in the mountains of southeastern Arizona where it never gets as hot as Phoenix.  The arrow shows where it is.

The birds at this location are definitely cool.  The area is the northernmost range of many Central American mountain species and the only place in the U.S. where you can find them including 15 species of hummingbirds, the elegant trogon, the Arizona woodpecker, yellow-eyed juncoes and much, much more.

Many of the best birds are migratory so the festival is held in late July during southeastern Arizona’s “second spring” — the monsoon season.  I’m looking forward to a lot of new Life Birds and getting reacquainted with birds I saw the last time I was in Arizona in 1997.

Am I crazy?  Well, I’m the only one in the house who’s crazy enough to go to Minnesota in the winter and Arizona in the summer.  My non-birder husband is wisely staying home. 😉

 

(image from the National Weather Service)

Butterflies Taste With Their Feet

Insects
Gulf Fritillary on passion vine (photo Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)
Gulf Fritillary on passion vine (photo by Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)

27 July 2015

We normally see butterflies visiting flowers but they also flit from leaf to leaf.

Adult butterflies are on a mission to reproduce.  They sip nectar along the way, but the males are looking for females and the females are looking for host plants on which to lay their eggs.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae will eat the host leaves and grow into ever-larger caterpillars.

Each species has one or more hosts for their larvae.  Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed leaves.  Red Admirals eat nettle.  Gulf Fritillaries eat passionflower vine.

Butterflies “taste” with their feet, so when the female is ready to lay an egg she flits and lands on leaf after leaf.  Standing there she asks herself, “Does this taste good?”  If so, she lays an egg.

Sometimes butterflies are fooled. To a West Virginia White butterfly (Pieris virginiensis) the invasive alien garlic mustard tastes like her host plant toothwort so she lays her eggs on garlic mustard and her hatchlings die of starvation.

Tastes can be pretty subtle, too.  Monica Miller (my go-to butterfly expert) told me that if a food plant touches a nearby leaf, that leaf might taste good enough to be mistaken by a butterfly.

Here, a female Gulf Fritillary lands on her host plant (tasting it) and a male comes to court her.

Gulf Fritillary courtship on passion vine (photo Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)
Gulf Fritillary courtship on passion vine (photo by Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)

And here’s what she was aiming for:  She laid an egg on the passion vine.

Gulf Fritillary butterfly egg on passion vine leaf (photo by Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)
Gulf Fritillary butterfly egg on passion vine leaf (photo by Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons)

Watch butterflies “taste” with their feet and you may see one lay an egg.

(photos by Edward Rooks via Wikimedia Commons. Click on each image to see its original)

Quickweed

Plants & Fungi

Galinsoga or Quickweed, flower closeup (photo by Kate St.John)
Galinsoga or Quickweed, flower closeup (photo by Kate St.John)

This flower is blooming everywhere right now but we never notice it.  Its beauty is tiny and the plant is a weed so we pass it by.

Galinsoga or Quickweed is an annual in the Aster family with small daisy-like flowers with five notched petals.  The leaves are opposite and toothed in a jumbled mass below the long, branching flower stems that give the plant a messy “leggy” appearance, 6-18 inches high.

Look closely and you’ll see the leaves and stems are both hairy.  But no one looks closely unless they want to eat it (yes it’s edible).

Here’s what we typically see when walk past Galinsoga on the street.

Galinsoga flowers (photo by Kate St. John)
A patch of Quickweed by the street (photo by Kate St. John)

Once you start looking, Quickweed is everywhere: growing in the sidewalk cracks, sprouting in gardens, covering an abandoned lot where its density makes it pretty.  Local gardeners call it “Pittsburgh Pest.”

It earned the name Quickweed or Raceweed because it produces seed rapidly (7,500 seeds per plant per year) and has many generations in the same season.

When it’s gone to seed it looks like this.

Galinsoga gone to seed (photo by Kate St. John)
Galinsoga gone to seed (photo by Kate St. John)

The genus is Galinsoga but what is the species?

Good question!  My Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide lists only Galinsoga ciliata = Galinsoga quadriradiata.  Richard Nugent and Flora Pittsburghensis both identify it as Galinsoga parviflora.  Quadriradiata is from Mexico, parviflora is from South America.  In any case, it didn’t jump an ocean to find us.

But it jumped an ocean to Europe.  Galinsoga parviflora was taken from Peru to Kew Gardens in 1796 where it escaped to the wild and quickly became a weed.

Aha!  Quickweed.

 

(photos by Kate St.John)

Turk’s Cap

Deer, Plants & Fungi

Turk's Cap Lily, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Turk’s Cap Lily, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Turk’s cap lilies are blooming in the Laurel Highlands this week.

I counted 35 flowers along two miles of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail but there should have been more. Deer love to eat them so the majority are topped off like this.

Turk's Cap Lily - eaten by deer, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Turk’s Cap Lily – eaten by deer, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Lillium superbum stand three to seven feet high but can be amazingly hard to notice in the dappled forest light.

Here are more views of these superb lilies.

Turk's Cap Lily, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Turk’s Cap Lily, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Turk's Cap Lily duo, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Turk’s Cap Lily duo from a distance, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

Turk's Cap Lily from the side, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)
Turk’s Cap Lily from the side, 23 July 2015 (photo by Kate St. John)

 

(photos by Kate St. John)

Learn About Burrowing Owls

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey

This week a cute video of burrowing owls in Florida went viral on the web and prompted some questions about these adorable raptors.

Where do burrowing owls live?  What do they eat?  Was the Florida video taken in the wild?

Burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) range from North to South America in dry, open areas with short vegetation and no trees.  In the U.S. they live year-round in Florida, the Southwest and California and breed in the Western dry plains and high plateau.

These owls need wide open spaces but are not picky about humans nearby.  They’ll happily dig or take over an existing burrow in remote locations as well as parks, vacant lots, pastures and campuses (Florida Atlantic University).  So yes, that video in Florida with people in the background was taken in the wild.

Burrowing owls eat insects, rodents, snakes and whatever they can catch, but they are small so they are wary.  They look cute when they stand tall but they’re actually watching for large raptors and mammals that might eat them.

How small are they?  The video above shows a research project last summer at Boise State University in which the students learn to hold, measure and band the owls.  What a privilege to learn about burrowing owls up close!

Don’t miss the end of the video when the owlets are released near their burrow.  Yes, they really are cute.

p.s.  Click here if you haven’t seen the Florida video.

(YouTube video from Boise State University, Boise, Idaho)

Mistaken For A Bug

Insects, Songbirds

Ruby-throated hummingbird compared to a cicada (photo by Kate St. John)
Ruby-throated hummingbird (left) compared to a cicada (right) — photo by Kate St. John

There’s a moth called the hummingbird clearwing moth that we sometimes mistake for a hummingbird, but did you know that a hummingbird can be mistaken for a bug?

On Saturday at the Cunkelman’s Neighborhood Nestwatch banding I found an annual cicada caught in one of the mist nets.  I brought it back to the banding area and Bob Mulvihill held up a hummingbird next to it for comparison.  The two are amazingly similar when held in this position.

We rarely confuse hummingbirds with bugs but Bob has seen a bug — a cicada killer — mistake a hummingbird caught in a mist net for a cicada.

Cicada killers (Sphecius speciosus) are large, solitary wasps that feed on nectar as adults.  Each female digs an underground nest with chambers where she plans to lay her eggs.  Then she patrols the area looking for cicadas to collect as food for her young.  When she finds one she stings it with a venom that paralyzes it, then carries the cicada back to the nest where she places it in a chamber, lays one egg on it, and seals the chamber.  When the egg hatches the larva eats the paralyzed cicada.  (Yes, I’ll say it.  Ewwww!)

Cicada killer with subdued cicada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Eastern cicada killer wasp with subdued cicada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Because cicada killers are solitary, they aren’t aggressive toward humans.  You have to work very hard to make one sting you and when it does the sting is reported on Wikipedia to be as harmless as a pinprick.  However see the comments below for more on pain.

Bob told us the cicada killer tried to subdue the hummingbird with a sting but the venom did not affect the bird.  Whew!

 

(comparison photo of hummingbird and cicada by Kate St. John, cicada killer wasp photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)