2 December 2022

In mid November hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American robins (Turdus migratorius) were in the east end of Pittsburgh but left abruptly when the weather dropped below freezing on November 18th. By the 21st it was 17 degrees F and the robins were long gone.

Robins can cope with cold weather but not with frozen ground so they stay just south of the freeze line as winter approaches.

Those that nest in Canada and Alaska may leapfrog over the local slowpokes who wait for truly awful weather.

eBird distribution maps for June-July and December-February show that robins vacate the north to populate temperate zones in winter. June-July is dark purple with robins everywhere except for the hottest southern U.S. In Dec-Feb they’re concentrated in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast including Florida.

Robins were on the move here in November. Now they’re south of us, wrapping up.

(photos by Robin Agarwal and Douglas on Flickr via Creative Commons license; click on the captions to see the originals)

21 November 2022

In September the Finch Research Network’s Winter Finch Forecast predicted that evening grosbeaks and pine siskins would irrupt southward this winter. In the past week Pennsylvania Rare Bird Alerts reported 55 sightings of evening grosbeaks and 11 of pine siskins in the state. Some are in western Pennsylvania right now and both are seed-eaters so you might see them at your feeders. Here’s what to look for.

Evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus)

Evening grosbeaks are big bulky finches, larger than northern cardinals, that are shaped like rose-breasted grosbeaks. The male is bright yellow with black accents and white wing patches. When you see him at your feeder you’ll fall in love.

The females and immature males are not as striking but still beautiful. In bright light they look like enormous goldfinches with fat necks and big beaks.

On gray days the females and immatures look drab but unmistakable for their size and huge beaks.

Evening grosbeaks love sunflower seeds so keep some on hand to attract any that might be flying over. Doug Gross says they also love these wild foods: Seeds of box elder, ash, elm, tulip poplar, hackberry, pine, spruce, larch. Fruits of cherries, apples, crabapples, poison ivy, hawthorn, juniper (red cedar), Russian olive.

This PA map shows where evening grosbeaks have been reported in eBird this month through 20 Nov.

p.s. How rare are evening grosbeaks? Their population has declined 90% in the past 50 years! Watch this video by Wild Excellence Films called Irruption: An Opportunity For Evening Grosbeak Conservation about David Yeany’s project to tag and track evening grosbeaks and learn more about the threats they face.

Pine siskin (Spinus pinus)

Pine siskins resemble female house finches but are warm brown in color (not gray-brown) and have sharp pointy beaks with a faint touch of yellow on their wings. They often hang out with goldfinches.

They love niger at the feeder and pull seeds from alder and arborvitae cones.

Though petite in size, pine siskins strenuously defend their feeder perches against other birds. Here one shouts at a male house finch.

Keep your niger feeder filled and look hard at those goldfinches. This PA map shows where pine siskins have been reported in eBird this month through 20 Nov.

Watch your feeders for two rare birds. You may get lucky!

(photos by Steve Gosser, Lauri Shaffer, Tom Moeller and from Wikimedia Commons, maps from eBird; click on the linked captions to see the originals)

17 October 2022

In just two days the mix of songbirds at Frick Park changed from warblers to thrushes and sparrows.

On Friday 14 October Charity Kheshgi and I found three northern parulas (Setophaga americana) along Nine Mile Run at Frick Park. eBird said they were worthy of a Rare Bird Alert. Fortunately Charity got photos of all three, shown in the slideshow below with three photos of each. Two of them are very easy to tell apart because they are at the extremes of bright vs. pale colors.

On Saturday night migration was intense which often means that all the birds leave Pittsburgh. Instead, on chilly Sunday morning we found a new mix of songbirds including those pictured below.

• Blue-headed vireo (Vireo solitarius)

• Golden-crowned kinglets (Regulus satrapa)

• Thrushes including hermit thrushes (Catharus guttatus), a veery (Catharus fuscescens, no photo), and …

• Gray-cheeked thrush (Catharus minimus)

There were many more American robins [50 instead of 7] and white-thoated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) [36 instead of none] and we even heard a fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca) (example below). I wish we could have seen it.

Meanwhile we’re still waiting for dark-eyed juncos but not the snow that comes with them.

(photos by Charity Kheshgi)

14 October 2022

Songbirds are attracted to water — to streams, puddles, marshes, ponds — especially on migration.

Watch a soothing video of birds enjoying the water in Richard Hall’s backyard in Athens, Georgia.

I was shocked/thrilled at how many folks over the world enjoyed the #WarblerPartyPond video, so here’s another 90 seconds of heaven, highlighting the migrant and resident birds flocking to bathe in my small in-town yard this weekend. How many can you ID? Species list in comments. pic.twitter.com/AOeeSyWLak

— Richard Hall (@richhallecology) October 11, 2022

Want to set up your own water feature? Here are three resources.

• Richard Hall describes of his backyard setup in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/richhallecology/status/1580509204640845825
• HGTV: How to Use Water Features to Attract Birds to Your Yard
• PerkyPet: How to Choose the Perfect Birdbath or Water Feature for Birds.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons, embedded tweet by @richhallecology)

12 October 2022

Eastern North America has only one hummingbird, the ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), but in late fall after the ruby-throats have left for the tropics a few western hummingbirds come east.

Rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) breed in the Pacific Northwest to Alaska and spend the winter along the Gulf Coast and in Mexico. Their range map says they don’t occur in the eastern U.S., not even on migration.

However, beginning in late October, a few show up in Pennsylvania. Some even reach the Atlantic Coast. An eBird map of rufous hummingbird reports from October to February, 2019-2022, shows them dotted across the eastern U.S.

So don’t take down your hummingbird feeders yet. Watch for a very special rare hummingbird — so rare that ornithologists will want to band it(*).

See a closeup of a banded rufous hummingbird, learn about their habits, and find out about the even rarer Allen’s hummingbird at:

(*) Information on who to call in Pittsburgh if you get a rufous hummingbird at your feeder is in the article above.

(photo and range map from Wikimedia Commons; screenshot map of eBird reports; click on the captions to see the originals)

11 October 2022

As the September wave of migrating warblers disappears to our south the next wave of birds has arrived from the north, among them ruby-crowned kinglets (Corthylio calendula). These tiny dynamos resemble the plainest warblers and vireos but are so unique that it’s worth taking a closer look at them.

For starters, though ruby-crowns are called kinglets they are no longer in the same genus as golden-crowned kinglets (Regulus satrapa). In 2021, thanks to DNA and some very unique traits, the AOS placed them in a genus all their own: Corthylio.

Smaller than any warbler, ruby-crowned kinglets are olive-green with somewhat whitish bellies. Their most reliable trait is their constant wing-flicking, punctuated by rapid darting to and fro. They also have:

• Two white wingbars,
• Big white eyerings broken above and below,
• A tiny beak
• No neck
• A proportionally larger head compared to the look of a warbler
• Thin black legs with golden feet
• A dry call note and a rousing song
• Males have red or orange feathers hidden atop their heads which they raise when agitated.

On any particular bird you may never see a ruby crown. The females don’t have them and the males are not always agitated. However if you keep watching, a bird may come close to watch you, then raise his crown when he figures out who you are. Maybe this curious ruby-crown is female.

Ruby-crowned kinglets are short-distance migrants that breed in spruce-fir forests in Canada and the northern/mountainous U.S. They spend the winter in southeastern Pennsylvania but are rare in western PA outside of migration. October is the time to see them in Pittsburgh.

Learn about these energetic birds in an 8-minute video by Lesley The Bird Nerd. Watch for the wing-flicking!

(photos by ChristopherT and Steve Gosser, map from Wikimedia Commons)