Category Archives: Bird Behavior

Owl Siblings Update in Schenley Park

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Schenley Park
Great horned owl siblings at Schenley Park on a cold morning, 1 April 2025 (photo by Dana Nesiti)

2 April 2025

Dana Nesiti visits Schenley Park every day to record the progress of the great horned owl family: mother, father, Muppet who was rescued in Feb and returned in March, and Sibling. (Read the back story in this 28 March article: Schenley Park Owl Update)

On Monday 31 March, Sibling made a big leap in development that allowed Dana to photograph three family members in one shot!

Muppet, Sibling and mother great horned owl at Schenley Park, 31 March 2025 (photo by Dana Nesiti)

Dana describes how big a deal this was:

4/1/2025. In today’s episode of the owlet’s development and behavioral series we find the owlets eating before daylight and then puffing themselves up against the cold wind. Video is a bit over 5 minutes.

Confirming with citizen scientist friends that yesterday’s [31 March] capture of Sibling finally making it up into the canopy with the adult and Muppet was a first for it. Today [1 April] was the first we saw it feeding with Muppet and the adult.

— Dana Nesiti Facebook post on 1 April 2025

Yesterday was windy and cold so the two siblings ate and then puffed up and huddled together. Here’s Dana’s five-minute video of their morning activities.

video embedded from Dana Nesiti’s canonusr YouTube account

Follow Dana Nesiti here on Facebook for the latest owl news.

Subscribe to Dana’s (“canonusr”) YouTube channel for video updates.

Schenley Park Owl Update

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Schenley Park
Great horned owl youngsters in Schenley Park, 25 March 2025. Muppet the rescued female + Sibling (photos by Dana Nesiti)

27 March 2025

This week Dana Nesiti is having a great time observing Schenley Park’s great horned owl family. Yesterday was exceptional when he found and photographed all four family members and confirmed the well-being of both youngsters. See the complete story in Dana’s Facebook post here.

Composite photo of the great horned owl family in Schenley Park by Dana Nesiti

Dana’s photo contains:

  • Top left: Historical perspective: Mother and two youngsters more than a month ago approx 23 Feb.
  • Top right: Mother owl and Muppet on the same branch on 26 March.
  • Bottom left: Father owl perched high above Sibling on 26 March.
  • Bottom right: Sibling on 26 March.
Who is Schenley Park’s great horned owl family?

We don’t know much about the parents except that a pair of great horned owls has nested year after year in various locations in or near the park. In late March 2016 an owlet was rescued in Schenley after it fluttered to the ground from the nearby Anderson Bridge.

This year’s two owlets are celebrities, easy to tell apart because they have different markings and even different personalities.

Great horned owl youngsters, Schenley Park 25 March 2025. Muppet the rescued female + Sibling (photos by Dana Nesiti)

Muppet a.k.a. “Muppet the Marauder” is the whiter of the two youngsters. She fell 100′ from the nest on 27 February and was rescued and taken to Tamarack Wildlife Center where she acquired her nickname. Tamarack returned her to Schenley Park on 11 March where she branched for a couple of days and soon began making short flights from branch to branch and tree to tree. Tamarack says she has the personality of an avid explorer. At this point Muppet has been flying for about two weeks.

Sibling, whose sex is unknown, stayed in the nest until 24 March and was seen making short flights the next day. Sibling is cautious compared to Muppet. Dana captured him/her making a flying leap.

video embedded from Dana Nesiti, Canonusr on YouTube

True to her personality Muppet flew much sooner than I expected. Sibling more is in line with my flight-date predictions.

If you want to find the owls in Schenley Park I suggest you look for the photographers or listen for blue jays. Both are good indications that an owl is nearby. 😉

Owlet Flying + Peregrines Not Incubating Yet

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Schenley Park great horned owlet, 19 March 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

20 March 2025

Schenley Owlet flying

The Schenley Park owlet, who spent two weeks in rehab at Tamarack and came home on 11 March, has been making fast progress. Many have seen her roosting in trees this week and assume she must have flown to get there, but we never see it. She only moves in the dark. Fortunately, Dana Nesiti captured a video of her in flight before sunrise on Tuesday. He slowed down the video so you can see her.

video embedded from Dana Nesiti, Canonusr on YouTube)

And click here for Dana’s 10 minute video of her chilling in Schenley Park.

Pitt peregrines not incubating yet

Carla laid two eggs at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest on 16 and 18 March and a third egg is due this evening.

However, we’ve seen both parents cover the eggs and we know incubation begins when the next to last egg is laid. Are they incubating? Is Carla going to lay only 3 eggs?

As of this morning, 20 March, we have nighttime evidence that the peregrines are not incubating yet. Both were off the eggs the majority of the time last night as seen in this time lapse video.

Nighttime timelapse at Pitt peregrine nest, 19 March 7pm to 20 March 2025 7am ()

When peregrines are truly incubating they open the feathers that cover their brood patches before laying down to place their skin on the eggs. If they don’t, those feathers keep the eggs from reaching incubation temperature.

On the falconcam it is impossible to see if their skin is touching eggs but we can tell if they are opening the feathers. Watch for them to bob their bodies before they lay down. Ecco does this in a more exaggerated way than Carla.

Speaking of Ecco, did you notice that he relieved Carla around 3am? The literature says that the female incubates all night, but not last night. Peregrines can always surprise us.

Last Night at the Pitt Peregrine Nest

Bird Behavior, Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Carla at the nest at night, 15 March 2025 11:28pm (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

16 March 2025

When a female peregrine is getting ready to lay eggs she spends the night at the nest ledge. As egg laying becomes imminent she doesn’t have far to go to crouch over the scrape.

Last night Carla spent five hours at the nest and, from the start Ecco encouraged her to do so.

This Day-in-a-Minute timelapse video shows nest activity from 10:30 on Saturday night through 7:00am Sunday morning, 15-16 March, as follows:

  • 15 March 2025: The nest is empty from sunset until 10:30pm, not shown in the video.
  • When Ecco arrives he pops in and out so fast that you might not realize it’s him. Carla arrives soon after.
  • Carla stands on the gravel or the green perch for most of the night; she leaves at 4:40am.
  • A few minutes later Ecco arrives, checks the scrape and spends a while on the green perch.
  • Ecco leaves near dawn.
(Timelapse video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

The real time video clip below shows the most interesting segments. With audio on you can hear Carla calling before she leaves the nest, perhaps wailing to Ecco for a snack. After a short gap with no peregrines, Ecco comes to the nest.

(Real time video clip from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Fingers crossed we’ll see the first egg this week. Watch for it at the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning.

p.s. Nighttime activity is not unusual among peregrines. Fifteen years ago Louie was famous for it at the Gulf Tower. See Remembering Louie: 2002-2019

Cool Corvids: Raven Pairs on Territory

Bird Behavior, Crows & Ravens
Raven pair in flight (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

14 March 2025

I’ve seen a lot of ravens in the past two weeks — 11 in Minnesota, two as we landed at Pittsburgh airport, and one over Aspinwall on Tuesday. When I found Vance Crofoot’s 3-minute video explaining raven territories I was fascinated.

video embedded from Exploring wildlife with Vance Crofoot on YouTube

Here’s what we learned:

  • Immature ravens spend 3 to 4 years in large flocks of young ravens. On reaching adulthood, ravens pick a mate and go off to claim a territory.
  • Adult pairs display their territorial boundary by flying along the border.
  • Ravens know their neighbors and will sometimes fly with them along the mutual border.
  • Ravens help their neighbors drive out predatory threats.
  • Other ravens are not allowed to land in an adult pair’s territory. If they do they are challenged.
  • When a pair has chicks they aggressively drive out predators.
  • Once the chicks can fly, neighboring families meet up for “play dates” with their kids.
  • Youngsters also can bring friends home to play with.
  • Juvenile ravens stay with their parents for about 7 months. At the end of that time their parents aggressively drive them out of the territory.

The first comment on the video points out how different ravens are from crows!

Very informative! It’s interesting that the intergenerational behaviour is different from crows whose juveniles hang around longer and actively assist their parents in raising the next chicks and fledglings. The ravens’ cooperative behaviours are very well adapted to their needs and types of threats.

— Comment on the video from @julieprior3126

And why are there so many ravens in this video? Southern California has a lot more ravens than we do in the East, as shown on this eBird map.

Sightings of common ravens in North American in the past 10 years, 14 March 2025 (map from eBird)

Ravens Hate A Cheater

Bird Behavior, Crows & Ravens
Raven shouting, Feb 2017 (photo by J.Maughn via Flickr Creative Commons license)

20 February 2025

Ravens have moral standards, they understand fair play, and when someone breaks their trust they refuse to deal with them again. Ravens hate a cheater.

We know this because researchers conducted a trading experiment in 2017 in which they built trust with ravens (Corvus corax). When a raven offered bread, the human gave him his favorite food, cheese.

Then one of the researchers accepted the bread but ate the cheese she was supposed to give to the raven, in effect saying, “Hah Hah Hah! Fooled you!”

The ravens were outraged! Find out what happened next in this vintage article.

Fool Me Once …

p.s. Are we humans as smart as ravens when it comes to trust? Alas, some are not and the cheaters become bold.

Peregrine Tap Dance in Slow Motion

Bird Behavior, Peregrines
Peregrine falcon, Gusto, in flight in 2022 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)

13 February 2025

Though it’s been cold and snowy, Chad+Chris Saladin are busy monitoring peregrine territories in northeastern Ohio to see who’s present and who is not.

On Sunday 9 February they caught up with Gusto, the male peregrine who’s been resident at the Hilliard Road Bridge site over the Rocky River since 2021. While Chad took photos Chris captured a video of Gusto watching and preening on a branch, then doing a tap dance on the ice before he took off.

Here he is in slow motion.

video embedded from C&C Saladin on YouTube

p.s. You probably noticed that Gusto pooted before he took off. Birds typically lighten their load before takeoff by getting rid of useless “baggage.” So they poot before they fly.

Plucky Crows Harass Bald Eagles

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey, Crows & Ravens
Crow pulls the tail of an immature bald eagle, Delta, BC, Canada (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

4 February 2025

Bald eagles are top predators who will eat crow nestlings, fledglings and unwary adults if the opportunity arises, so crows learn from a very young age to watch out for eagles.

Even in the nest young crows hear and see their parents drive off hawks and eagles. In their first year of life, which they spend with their parents, they learn the rules of harassment.

  • When a lone crow sees an avian predator he perches prominently and calls for reinforcements.
  • When his buddies arrive the crows work as a mob to drive away the predator.
Crows mobbing a bald eagle in Bremerton, WA (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
American crows harassing a bald eagle in Alaska (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
  • When the situation is acute and the mob is left behind, a solo crow may harass an eagle even though he’s the only one left. Sometimes he does something daring.

Ten years ago photographer Phoo Chan went to the shore at Seabeck, Washington to photograph the bald eagles who arrive in large number during the midshipman fish run (Porichthys sp). He was very lucky to capture photos of a lone crow riding on an eagle’s back. See more in his article below.

The Story Behind the Photo of a Crow Riding an Eagle – Part 2

Crows keep the world safe for crows. 😉

Green Woodpecker Murmurs and Shouts

Bird Behavior, Songbirds

Green woodpecker in France (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

19 January 2025

The Eurasian green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is a bit unusual. Instead of drilling trees he spends most of his time on the ground, poking his beak in the soil.

Eurasian green woodpecker foraging on ground (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

That’s because he …

Predominantly [eats] ants, chiefly meadow-dwelling species of genera Formica (winter) and Lasius (spring to autumn); generally, larger ant species preferred.  …

Uses bill to sweep away moss, dead leaves, other debris, or snow; pecks funnel-shaped holes up to 12 cm (4.7 in) deep in ground, and procures prey with action of the very long tongue; such holes may be exploited in lengthy and repeated visits. When snow cover heavy, can dig tunnels almost 1m (more than 3 feet) long to reach prey. 

— Green Woodpecker account at Birds of the World

About That Tongue: When Shaun Robson in Dorset, England worried that green woodpeckers were disappearing from his area, Jason Miller (@jasonmillerart) answered with a video that proved they’re still around. Can you hear the green woodpecker murmuring?

embedded video from Jason Miller Jason Miller @jasonmillerart on X (Twitter)

He can also be quite loud.

video embedded from European Wildlife by Lukáš Pich on YouTube

These traits may remind you of a North American woodpecker. Though not closely related, our northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) also forages on the ground for ants and shouts in the spring.

Northern flicker foraging on ground (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
video embedded from MyBackyardBirding on YouTube

… and he murmurs “wika wika wika” with his lady. (Note: In the audio below you’ll also hear the chattering of an upset wren.)

Short-Eared Owls Bring Joy to Winter

Bird Behavior, Birds of Prey
Short-eared owl in Lawrence County, Jan 2025 (photo by Steve Gosser)

17 January 2025

When Debbie and I went to Lawrence County last Sunday we knew we would see sandhill cranes but our real target, our Fingers Crossed hope, was to see a short-eared owl (Asio flammeus). Friends had told us about them and we’d seen Steve Gosser‘s stunning photos on Facebook.

We were very lucky. While we were watching the cranes a photographer drove by and told us where to find a female (dark plumage) roosting near the ground. On our way there we saw a paler bird, probably male, perched on playground equipment.

Short-eared owl, female, 14 Dec 2024 (photo by Steve Gosser)

But we weren’t lucky enough to see this!

I also re-learned a valuable lesson: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.“

I wore the wrong boots last Sunday because I forgot how much we would stand in the snow to watch birds. My feet were cold. It made me grumpy. I was not liking winter at that point.

But when I got home I put the bad boots away and pulled out my Sorrels and I’ve been happy ever since. Winter has some big advantages. Steve describes it perfectly.

Follow Steve Gosser on Facebook here. He also has a 2025 calendar featuring his photos.

p.s. The weather next week will be particularly challenging, especially on Monday 20 January when Pittsburgh’s high will be 9°F with a low of -5°F. Bundle up!