If you’re wondering whether to go birding, don’t wait! Spring migration has been exceptionally good in the past few days migration. The slideshow, above, shows just a few of the 58 species Charity Kheshgi and I saw at Schenley and Frick Parks on Sunday 5 May.
The birds are here right now and they’re fairly easy to see despite the early leaf cover. They’re on the move. Don’t miss them. It’s time to get outdoors!
p.s. Did you notice that the first two birds in the slideshow are “Nashville” and “Tennessee” ?
I happened to be on a quiet section of the boardwalk when I noticed a crowd forming ahead. Many people were focusing binoculars and cameras at the spot where two guides were pointing and explaining a bird. I rushed over to find out what was up.
On my first look at the bird, I thought “golden-winged warbler” because of its yellow wing, yellow crown, and whitish chest (see example at top), but something wasn’t quite right. Word was spreading through the crowd that this was a Brewster’s warbler, the hybrid offspring of golden-winged x blue-winged warblers. Though not technically a species, for me it was a Life Bird.
The big difference between a Brewster’s and a golden-winged is that the Brewster’s looks pale with a white throat (not black) and a black eyeline (not a wider face patch). Here’s a side-by-side comparison of a male golden-winged warbler vs. a Brewster’s warbler.
This diagram embedded from Cornell Lab’s All About Birds shows the warbler’s parents on the left and the Brewster’s in the top right corner. The parents can also produce another variation: a Lawrence’s warbler (bottom right) which I have never seen. Click on the caption to read about their genetics.
I left Magee Marsh yesterday morning while it was raining steadily so I missed the Brewster’s reappearance but my friend Kathy Saunders saw him on 3 May in the same place as the day before.
Now that the breeding season is here the air is filled with birdsong from dawn to dusk. Birds sing to claim territory and attract a mate, but they also appear to sing for the joy of joining others in song. Is the dawn chorus actually a community performance?
In the 1920s British cellist Beatrice Harrison discovered that when she played her cello in the garden the birds responded, approached, and sang along.
Fast forward to modern times. Two decades ago in Chicago, musician Lisa Rest lived in a third floor apartment whose windows were level with the tree canopy. On warm days she played her piano with the window open and eventually noticed that birds approached her window and sang while she was practicing.
Because Lisa has perfect pitch she could tell the birds were singing in key with her music. Soon she became interested in birds, continued playing music with them, and started a blog named Goldbird Variations. The birds were especially drawn when she played Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Read how her journey began at her blog post below or click here to listen to Aria to the Goldberg by Lisa Rest in which she’s accompanied by house sparrow, house finch, white-throated sparrow and northern cardinal.
Last month my friends and I were debating the identity of a woodpecker photographed by Donna Foyle during the Backyard Bird Count. Is this a downy woodpecker or a hairy? The photo’s partial view and low light conditions make it an interesting ID challenge.
First let’s look at two clear photos of both birds, downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) and hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus), then talk about the field marks.
The downy woodpecker is 3/4 the length of a hairy woodpecker and weighs less than half. However, this is a tricky field mark when you don’t have both birds next to each other. (*Thank you, Laura, for reminding me in the comments.)
The easiest field mark when you’re looking at a solo bird is the length of the beak relative to length of the head.
Downy vs hairy beak lengths compared to the head length front-to-back (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
The downy’s beak is shorter than his head front-to-back.
The hairy’s beak is the same length as his head front-to-back.
Unfortunately the bird in Donna’s photo seems to have an intermediate bill length. Perhaps it was the angle.
The size of the white patch on the downy woodpecker’s neck is larger than the one on the hairy. David Sibley illustrated this clue to their identity in an article in 2011. The clue is subtle in my comparison photos but the bird in Donna’s photo seems to have a large white patch on its neck. Downy?
Downy vs hairy white face patches compared (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
The fourth clue is on the back of the male’s head but you need a photo to see this.
The red on the back of the male downy’s head is a continuous line.
The red on the back of the hairy’s head is broken by a vertical black patch.
Downy vs hairy red on back of the head compared (photos from Wikimedia Commons)
And finally, downy woodpeckers have dots on their outer tail feathers while hairy woodpeckers have all-white outer tail feathers. Photos of missing white dots were not useful so there is only this illustration.
Like our chickadees, Eurasian blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) are cavity nesters who may nest in backyard boxes.
The nest box shown below was lovingly decorated by the landlord and equipped with a camera to view the comings and goings of prospective renters. This bird seems satisfied and will soon take up residence.
There have been quite a lot of viewings here, but this client was keen to have a better look around inside. Feedback was positive. They felt it was more spacious than they had thought and they were keen on this furnished option. Great views from the front door!#GwylltHollowpic.twitter.com/i90DKbZXFf
The great-tailed grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus), a close relative of our common grackle, is so numerous and annoying in Austin, Texas in the winter that there are always news stories about them. This interview with a grackle researcher revealed a very cool fact about great-tailed grackles that probably applies to our grackles as well.
Great-tailed grackles can move their eyes independently to keep watch in two different directions at the same time! Check out the video below.
Tricky chipping sparrow, Frick Park, 7 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
10 October 2023
Migrating chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina) have just begun to arrive in Pittsburgh and they look different than they did last spring. The adults are fading and the juveniles, which never did match the adults, now resemble other species. We have a category for Confusing Fall Warblers. There ought to be one for Confusing Fall Sparrows.
From mid-March to mid-April chipping sparrows molt rapidly into breeding plumage with a rusty cap, a sharp white swatch above the black eyeline and rusty-orange tones on the wings.
Chipping sparrow in breeding plumage, April 2020 (photo by Lauri Shaffer)
In mid-August the adults being two and a half months of molting into duller non-breeding plumage, looking ragged in September and ending up with the brownish cap and muted facial markings of non-breeding plumage.
Adult chipping sparrow in October 2012 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Meanwhile the juveniles lose the spotted breast they fledged with and gain sharper facial markings. Sometimes they look like clay-colored sparrows which are indeed rare in Pittsburgh.
Let’s compare the young chipping sparrow at Frick Park to an October clay-colored sparrow: chipping on the left, clay-colored on the right below. These small photos are just like the long distance view in the field.
The chipping sparrow has a strong black eyeline that extends all the way to its beak and its face patch has muted edges.
The clay-colored sparrow has no black between its eye and beak but it does have a dark “moustache” outlining the front edge of its face patch.
If you can see the top of the head, the young chipping sparrow may have thin white stripes but the clay-colored has a distinctly wide white crown-stripe.
And just to shake things up, there was a leucistic adult chipping sparrow at Frick last Saturday who looked as if he had been dunked face-first in white paint. His forehead, cheeks and throat were so white that it the camera had a hard time picking up the details.
Leucistic adult chipping sparrow, Frick Park, 7 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)Leucistic adult chipping sparrow, Frick Park, 7 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)Leucistic adult chipping sparrow, Frick Park, 7 Oct 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
Theorectically leucism (lack of pigment) is in his genes so his face will always looks like this no matter what plumage he’s in. He’s the only chipping sparrow I can identify as an individual.
p.s. More confusion: When American tree sparrows arrive later this fall they’ll resemble chipping sparrows in breeding plumage, except that the chipping sparrows will be in non-breeding plumage. Click here and scroll down to see American tree sparrows compared to chipping sparrows at All About Birds.
Fallen leaves in Schenley Park, Nov 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
6 October 2023
In October we see woolly bear caterpillars (Pyrrharctia isabella) out in the open crossing the trails. Woolly bears overwinter as caterpillars so this month they’re busy looking for the perfect place to spend the winter in leaf litter, under bark, or beneath a fallen log.
Woolly bear, Isabella Tiger Moth caterpillar, 3 Oct 2018 (photo by Kate St. John)
Leaf litter is key winter habitat for a lot of insects including springtails, millipedes, earthworms, butterflies and moths.
Millipede(*) Hays Woods, Sept 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
If you’ve been thinking about “wilding” your yard — even just a little bit — now is a great time to start. Leave the leaves. You don’t have to leave it messy. Here’s advice on what to do.
Leaving the leaves and other plant debris doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your yard to the wilderness. The leaves don’t need to be left exactly where they fall. You can rake them into garden beds, around tree bases, or into other designated areas. Too many leaves can kill grass, but in soil they can suppress weeds, retain moisture, and boost nutrition.
Avoid shredding leaves with a mower. Raking or blowing are alternatives that will keep leaves whole for the best cover and protect the insects and eggs already living there.
If you decide you need to clean up the leaves and debris in spring, make sure you wait until late in the season so as not to destroy all the life you’ve worked to protect.
Take a break this weekend. Don’t bag those leaves! Just push them aside for wildlife.
(photos by Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons)
(*) p.s. The millipede was easy to photograph because it was dead, probably the victim of a parasitic fungus that prompts the millipede to climb high on a twig before it dies. I wrote down the name of the fungus when I took the picture but cannot read my writing. Perhaps it’s Anthrophaga myriapodia.
