14 March 2024
Did you know that male house sparrows can tell who’s dominant by looking at each other from afar?
It’s in the size of the bib. Big bib dominates little bib.
Watch for this behavior at your feeder. Learn more in this vintage blog:
(credits are in the captions with link to the original photos on Wikimedia Commons)
13 March 2024
Have you seen coils or fluttering tags on power lines? Not related to power transmission, these accessories are visual cues that alert birds to the presence of wires.
Bird diverters come in many shapes and have changed over the years as new products come to market and are approved by government agencies. California commissioned a 2008 study to evaluate the orange and fluorescent swinging tag below for use in the Sacramento Valley where hundreds of thousands of waterfowl spend the winter.
This (newer than 2008) model from Power Sentry glows in the dark and is visible in fog.
It is also less expensive to install because it can be done by drones.
Those devices are for the birds.
These are for pilots.
Red ball markers make power lines visible to airplane and helicopter pilots and are usually installed near airports and on long lines over rivers and canyons.
Ironically, they have to be installed from helicopters. This 6-minute video filmed in West Virginia shows a job I could never do.
Wondering about cones? They are also visual cues for pilots.
p.s. Some of you know more about this than I do. If I got it wrong, please leave a comment.
(credits are in the captions)
8 March 2024
How does a bird that nests on lily pads protect its tiny chicks when they are too small to jump from pad to pad?
You would think that mother birds would be the protectors but in the social structure of African jacanas (Actophilornis africanus) the females can have multiple mates and never settle down, so it’s up to the fathers to build the nest, hatch the eggs and protect their kids.
Watch how this dad protects his young.
Wait for it… pic.twitter.com/LFWUMWof8W
— Nature is Amazing ?? (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 3, 2024
1 March 2024
One week ago today, on 23 Feb 2024, the most famous owl in New York City hit a window on West 89th Street and died.
Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) escaped his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo more than a year ago after a vandal damaged it on 2 Feb 2023. The zoo tried to recapture him and worried that he would starve or be hit by a car. Instead Flaco thrived on his own and became a symbol of freedom to many New Yorkers.
He endeared himself to apartment dwellers by sometimes visiting their highrise windows or perching on their fire escapes.
Sadly a window was Flaco’s undoing. Flaco’s biggest fan, David Lei (@davidlei), reported:
As you may have already seen, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl has passed away. I am sad beyond words. Flaco defied the odds and made quite a life for himself in the city over the past year. Along the way he came to mean so much to so many, including me. ??? pic.twitter.com/gJnby3TtvB
— David Lei (@davidlei) February 24, 2024
Memorials sprung up instantly.
Flaco’s death was covered in the New York Times: Flaco, Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl and Defier of Doubts, Is Dead and commented on by the zoo where he lived most of his life.
His story should not be over, though. Flaco was not the only bird to die of a window strike in North America. He was merely the most famous. Nearly one billion birds per year hit windows in the U.S.
If your home has ever experienced a window strike please implement one of these techniques to prevent further collisions and deaths.
Find out more at this vintage blog, written after one of our young peregrines died of a window strike.
I hope Flaco’s death inspires everyone to do more to prevent bird deaths at windows.
(credits are in the captions)
16 February 2024
Why is this magpie annoying the cat?
Magpie following a cat pretending it’s not
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 14, 2024
pic.twitter.com/NftmN9Jq3b
When they aren’t viewing cats as threats to their young, Eurasian magpies (Pica pica) will follow them to sources of food.
As soon as this cat found a snack …
… the magpie showed up to wait.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons, tweet embedded)
7 January 2024
It’s been 10 years since the spectacular winter of 2013-2014 when snowy owls irrupted in the Lower 48 States. That winter they invaded the Northeastern U.S. and traveled as far south as coastal North Carolina, Florida and Bermuda!
This year a few snowies are visiting the Great Lakes region but the only concentration of owls is in western Canada. You can see the difference in their eBird sightings in these maps of 2013-2014 versus 2023-2024. (Click here to see the eBird Explore map.)
In 2013-2014 there were so many snowy owls that photographers often saw peregrine falcons attacking them. Steve Gosser captured this still shot at Presque Isle State Park in December 2013.
Tom Johnson filmed two peregrines harassing snowy owls at Stone Harbor, New Jersey in January 2014.
It was also a snowy weather winter. 2013-2014 was very cold with enduring snow on the ground because of the “Polar Vortex.”
This year is much warmer — so much so that yesterday’s snow melted overnight, as seen at the Pitt peregrine nestbox.
This winter we’re missing both snowies and snow.
(credits are in the captions)
23 December 2023
Early this week a big flock of American robins came to my neighborhood, ate all the fruit they could find, and left.
On Monday morning, 18 December, they were frantically eating this pyracantha fruit outside my window. At one point I counted 45 but they were moving so fast I think there were more.
The birds were frantic because they knew bad weather was coming. In mid afternoon it snowed.
The next morning the fruit was gone and so were the robins.
American robins are still in Pittsburgh but they’re feasting in other locations. When the fruit is gone and the ground is frozen, the robins will leave.
p.s. Today’s title reminds me of the 2006 bestselling book on punctuation by Lynne Truss called Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The comma in her book title is really important. Did the panda eat, shoot a gun, and then leave? Or did the panda eat two things — shoots and leaves? … In the case of today’s blog title: Robins don’t eat leaves. They eat fruit and leave the neighborhood.
18 December 2023
For the past several years Claire Staples and I have counted crows for the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count (CBC). In a good year we count 20,000. In a bad year, 220. Stunning, isn’t it. The difference is not in the actual number of crows. It’s whether we can find them.
Please help. Let me know where you see crows overnight or after sunset, especially next week (after Christmas)!
You would think that 20,000 crows would be hard to miss but in late December they get tricky. Just before the CBC the crows change their roost several times or they split the roost and, suddenly, we can’t find half of them.
Several of you responded to Why Do 1000’s of Crows Roost in Town? with dates and locations. Your reports helped me figure out the crows moved on 11 December.
Carol’s 16 December sighting matches a roost they used back in February 2021 (photo above) but they didn’t stay there long and I fear they won’t stay now. And this is only half of them.
Where will the crows be 12 days from now?
I know I’m going to miss their next move because I’ll be out of town December 21-28. Your help is really crucial. Please let me know where you see crows overnight or after sunset. Let me know where you see a big flock swirling. Claire & I also need to find a good vantage point for counting them.
Fingers crossed that we’ll successfully count the crows on Saturday 30 December.
10 December 2023
When 20,000 crows come to Pittsburgh for the winter, they have to sleep somewhere and they inevitably make a mess. Why do they roost near us where the mess will get on our nerves? Why don’t they sleep in the woods? Let’s take a look the reasons crows choose one location over another when it’s time to sleep.
Crows have a few simple requirements for a roost and they all have to come together at the same place. Safety is a big one. Crows want:
1. Tall trees for roosting: Crows prefer to roost at the very top of mature trees. They perch on the highest twigs that support their weight.
2. Warmth when it’s cold: When the weather is well below freezing trees are too exposed for a good night’s sleep so crows may choose rooftops instead. Cities are warmer than the surrounding countryside due to the urban heat island effect.
3. No great horned owls! Crows are terrified of great horned owls who can hunt them in the dark. They prefer places that great horned owls avoid.
4. Safety in numbers: Crows sleep in a crowd so that someone’s always awake to watch for owls. It also lowers the odds of an individual being eaten.
5. Night lights. Lots of them: Crows like to sleep with the lights on. It’s easier to watch for owls when you can see them coming. There are no nightlights in the woods.
6. White noise at the roost: In addition to night lights, crows want white noise at the roost(*), the sound of running water or traffic. This location along Fifth Avenue at the University of Pittsburgh combines all their requirements in one place. Except that the mess bothers humans.
7. No harassment from humans: The perfect roost is usually near humans but crows make an enormous mess that people have to clean up. When the crows wear out their welcome, people figure out ways to get them to leave. This includes loud abrupt noises such as clappers and bangers, flashing lights, and harassment by falconers’ birds.
Now that we know what crows want at a roost we can figure out where they’re likely to be. Convincing them to leave is much easier to do before they land. 😉
(*) p.s. Why do crows want white noise when they sleep? No one has explained it but I have a theory that great horned owls avoid white noise. Owls need to hear their prey when they’re hunting and white noise makes that impossible.
4 December 2023
Lots of animals don’t sleep for long periods like we do but a new study has found a polar opposite in Antarctica (pun intended) where chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) take 10,000 4-second naps each day during the breeding season. In this way they accrue 11 hours of daily sleep.
For us, the micronaps would be a form of sleep torture since we cannot enter restorative deep sleep in such a short time. But the chinstrap penguins do.
Researchers led by Won Young Lee, a behavioral ecologist at the Korea Polar Research Institute, captured 14 penguins at the King Georges Island breeding colony and fitted them with data loggers to measure brain activity and accelerometers to record muscle movements and body positions. They also set up cameras to watch for closing eyes and drooping heads.
Brain waves showed the penguins experience slow wave (deep) sleep during those micro-naps. They nap while incubating or guarding their chicks and even while floating on the ocean.
So now I’m looking at group photos of chinstrap penguins and, sure enough, in every photo some of the adults are sleeping. They’re getting their beauty rest 4 seconds at a time.
Read more in Science Magazine: This Antarctic penguin sleeps 11 hours a day—a few seconds at a time.