Northern mockingbird blocks a northern cardinal (photo by Marge Van Tassel)
This week I wrote about northern mockingbirds having knock-down drag-out fights during the breeding season. Did you know that mockingbirds are also territorial in the winter? Even though they’ve migrated far from their breeding territory they vigorously defend their wintering zone.
Last winter Marge Van Tassel had a pushy mockingbird in her Armstrong County yard. She sent this photo saying, “The male of the pair in our yard chased all birds away from the food bowl last year when he was in it. He even chased this female cardinal back to a bush.”
Squirrels eventually figure out a puzzling bird feeder, but have you ever noticed that birds do too? Lone songbirds usually can’t do it, but scientists have proven that a flock can. The bigger the flock the better.
I learned this years ago when I set up a “goldfinch-only” thistle feeder whose holes forced birds to perch upside down to eat the seeds. This is easy for American goldfinches but not for the birds I meant to foil — house sparrows. Lone house sparrows gave up on this feeder but the flock tried a lot of methods. A few of them would land right-side up and slowly fall forward until they were upside down. One of them put out his wing to grab the feeder. The rest of the flock followed.
On Throw Back Thursday, learn how songbird flocks can solve puzzles faster than individuals in this vintage article: Two Heads Are Better Than One.
The more birds at our feeders the merrier we are … and so are they.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #1 (photo by Beth Signorini)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #2 (photo by Beth Signorini)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #3 (photo by Beth Signorini)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #4 (photo by Beth Signorini)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #5 (photo by Beth Signorini)
Northern Mockingbirds fighting #6 (photo by Beth Signorini)
In case you think that songbirds are meek and innocent creatures consider the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottus). He always has “attitude” and he’s willing to engage in a knock down drag out fight.
Beth Signorini captured these two during the breeding season.
Evidence of a peregrine meal. What is it? (photo by Kate St. John)
Early this month when Bob Mulvihill stepped out on the ledge to clean the Cathedral of Learning falconcams, he found this evidence of a peregrine’s meal. What species is it? Did the peregrines eat a crow?
The remaining head feathers are black and slightly iridescent. The beak is big and a bit down-curved. The feet look rather large for the bird’s body. Obviously the bird has plastic color-bands but there was no USFW band on its right leg so there’s no way to trace it.
Here’s a closer look:
Crow beaks are 2.5 inches long. How long is the beak on this bird? Less than 1 inch.
The iridescent head feathers and slightly down-curved one-inch bill point to a common grackle rather than a crow.
I’m still not sure what this bird was, but I do know the peregrines did not eat crow. 😉
A normal house finch with an orange one (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
House finches normally have rosy red foreheads, chests, and rumps but occasionally you’ll see an orange one. He’s not a new species, he’s just a color variant.
The orange color might be temporary. Depending on what the house finch eats and how his body processes it he may be red next year.
Find out how this happens in this vintage article entitled “Orange?“
Townsend’s solitaire at Yellow Creek, Indiana County, PA (photo by Steve Gosser)
The Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) is a thrush that lives in western North America, from Alaska to Mexico and only as far east as Nebraska and Kansas in the winter.
He’s considered a short distance migrant but every winter a few individuals break the mold and come to the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada. This one was found at Yellow Creek State Park during the Indiana PA Christmas Bird Count on 26 December 2018.
Townsend’s solitaires are easy to identify by their soft gray color, white eye ring, long tail and buffy wing patches. Under certain light conditions his gray color looks brown.
The bird’s common name comes from John Kirk Townsend who first collected it and from its solitary habits. Solitaires are usually alone but will hang out with other species near food. This one was eating fruit with a flock of American robins at the Boy Scout Camp.
Townsend’s solitaire and American robin at Yellow Creek (photo by Glenn Koppel)
Since Townsend’s solitaires are rare in western Pennsylvania, birders from miles around have come to see and photograph him. When I went to Yellow Creek State Park on New Year’s Eve (a 1.5 hour drive) I found the solitaire and six other birders, four of whom I knew by sight or name. I missed Steve Gosser and Glenn Koppel who took these pictures on New Year’s Day.
The bird may be solitary but he generates a crowd.
The word pileated comes from the name of a brimless felt hat, the conically shaped pileus of Ancient Greece and Rome. Those who wore the hat were pileated just as those who wear caps are capped.
In Ancient Rome the pileus was a sign of one’s place in society since it was normally worn only by freed slaves. However, that practice was turned on its head during Saturnalia celebrations.
To celebrate, here’s the soundtrack of a backyard bird singing the first notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. (Song begins at 8 seconds; bird is not visible.)
This beautiful swallow, native to sub-Saharan Africa and southern and southeast Asia, is very similar to our barn swallow except for its two wire-like tail feathers and its preference to live near water.
The wire-tailed swallow’s (Hirundo smithii) family life is similar, too. When the fledglings beg for food, the parents deliver it on the wing.
Here’s a bird you’re bound to see this month in southwestern Pennsylvania. Brown creepers live year round north and east of Pittsburgh but only come here in the winter. I saw one last week in Greenfield.
The brown creeper (Certhia americana) is a tiny brown bird with a long tail and down-curved bill. He eats insects and spiders which he gleans from the bark of large tree trunks, spiraling upward and checking under the bark as he goes.
When he sits still he’s hard to see. His colors match the bark.
The video below shows him spiraling upward, clinging to the bark with his large feet splayed. Sometimes he hitches sideways to grab a tidbit. When he reaches the top, he will drop like a leaf to the base of another tree trunk and start again.
If you can identify birds by ear, here’s a challenge for you. List the species singing in the video. I identified five species but I’m unable hear brown creepers anymore. Is the brown creeper singing?
p.s. At backyard feeders, brown creepers don’t eat seeds but they’ll come to suet feeders.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons, click on the captions to see the originals. video by Abnerthewonderdog on YouTube)
