Daffodil buds swelling, 13 Feb 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
18 February 2023
Since a low temperature of 6°F two weeks ago, this month’s weather barely dipped below freezing (until this morning) and twice reached more than 70°F. This week I found signs of an early spring, some of which will survive today’s low of 22°F.
The swelling buds of daffodils, above, and tulip leaves, below, were evident six days ago. Both will probably survive today’s frost.
Tulip and lily leaves spring up, 12 Feb 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Yesterday I found early flowers that won’t fare so well.
A few early blossoms of Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas)
Cornelian cherry in bloom, 17 Feb 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
It’s that time of year again when Southwestern Pennsylvania’s bald eagles refurbish their nests and start to lay eggs. Two Pittsburgh area nests, Hays and USS Irvin, are in the midst of Egg Watch.
Stop by the Hays Bald Eagle Viewing Area on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. Click here for directions.
As soon as an egg is laid, visit eaglestreamer.org for the hatch and fledge countdown clock.
USS Irvin Bald Eagles:
This pair has been on site since 2019 and on camera since December 2021. There is no in-person viewing location so check them out on the USS Irvin eaglecam. UPDATES:
Vultures used to abandon the Pittsburgh area in winter but as the climate heated up small groups of turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) began to stay through the coldest months. Then about two years ago black vultures (Coragyps atratus), which are rare here at any time of year, changed their winter habits one bird at a time.
This winter a single black vulture has been roosting with turkey vultures on a cell tower near Audubon of Western PA’s Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. Every time someone reports him to eBird he pops up in a Rare Bird Alert.
Pennsylvania is the northern fringe of the black vulture’s winter range while the heartland is in Central and South America (see Jan-Feb eBird map below). In Ecuador I saw black vultures every day.
If you want to see huge flocks of black vultures in winter, Florida is the place to be. They perch on buildings or stand around on dikes with their wings open.
Only as big as a European starling, this accipiter native to Central and South America is aptly named the tiny hawk (Microspizias superciliosus).
Why is he so little? Because he eats the smallest birds.
Like all accipiters, the tiny hawk feeds primarily on birds. It hunts hummingbirds and small songbirds, by darting out from a place of concealment to snatch them as they pass by, but also ambushing them when the smaller birds are perched. There is some evidence that it learns the regular perches of some hummingbirds and hunts for them there. Some individuals also hunt rodents and bats.
At first I misread the word as “supercilious” meaning arrogant or haughty. There’s a connection between the two words. Arrogant or haughty people sometimes raise one eyebrow to show their attitude toward others.
We didn’t see the tiny hawk during our Ecuador birding trip because we were in Mindo & the northwest highlands while he lives in the lowlands and foothills.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)
Female cardinal in lopsided pose (at left) as male cardinal approaches (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
The male or female cardinal tilts one side of its body up, raises its wing and exposes its belly. This “come hither” signal happens quickly. You’ll be lucky to see it.
Nuts seem an unlikely food for blue jays but in fact they make up 67% of their diet in winter. Acorns are their favorites but they also eat beechnuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts and hazelnuts depending on availability.
Jays pluck acorns from the trees in autumn and eat them on site or cache them for later consumption. You would think acorns are too hard for a blue jay to open but Birds of the World (Cyanocitta cristata) explains how they do it:
Hard foods such as acorns, dry dog food, eggs, etc., are rendered by holding them against a branch or other substrate with one (usually) or both feet, and hammering with the mandible.
To cache the nuts — as much as 2.5 miles away — blue jays stuff their faces. The blue jay at top is carrying two acorns in his throat and one in his beak. The blue jay below is going overboard with peanuts. When they reach their cache sites they dump the nuts in a pile and bury them individually.
If they don’t retrieve all of them, no problem. The acorns germinate and become new trees. Studies have shown that “This tendency may account for the rapid post-glacial dispersal of oaks indicated by pollen analysis,” according to Birds of the World. With this in mind, the Agassiz Audubon Society in Minnesota enlisted the help of blue jays ten years ago to “plant” oaks after volunteers collected and dispersed thousands of native acorns in an area that needed new trees.
To retrieve their cached food, blue jays dig it up with their beaks but this doesn’t work when the ground is frozen. It’s just one more reason why blue jays migrate south for the winter.
If your neighborhood doesn’t have any blue jays right now, it may be because they migrated. But check out the local trees. If there aren’t any oaks or nut trees in your neighborhood that may explain why you haven’t seen any blue jays lately.
This vintage article still gets a lot of comments because people miss seeing blue jays.
Cloud forest near Alambi Reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador (photo by Kate St. John)
12 February 2023
While listening to birdsong in the cloud forest near Mindo, Ecuador I heard two songs that reminded me of home. Neither bird is colorful. Their songs are beautiful.
As soon as I heard the Andean solitaire (Myadestes ralloides) his voice reminded me of the wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina). The solitaire’s syrinx allows him to harmonize with himself just like a wood thrush and his cadence is similar though his voice is higher. In my field notes I dubbed him “The Wood Thrush of the Andes.” Listen to him below and see what you think.
For comparison, here’s a wood thrush in Schenley Park last spring.
Wood thrush in Schenley Park, 13 May 2022 (video by Kate St. John)
The Ecuadorian thrush (Turdus maculirostris) looks like a large dull-colored American robin (Turdus migratorius) while his song is similar but better. It’s no wonder they are similar, they’re in the same genus. Listen to the Ecuadorian thrush below and see if you agree that he’s the “Robin of the Andes.”
Ecuadorian thrush singing in the rain:
Ecuadorian thrush morning chorus:
For comparison, here’s the spring song of an American robin during the morning chorus.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons, audio from Xeno Canto; click on the captions to see the originals)
Evidence of flowerpiercer on a passionflower (Passiflora sp.), Yanacocha, 30 Jan 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
11 February 2023
On our first day in Ecuador, 30 Jan 2023, we traveled to Yanacocha Biological Reserve 11,500 feet up on the Pichincha Volcano. We were wowed by the huge passionflowers (Passiflora sp.) dangling from vines along the trail but on close examination found a hole in this flower tube. It was made by a bird.
Passionflowers hanging from the vine, Yanacocha, 30 Jan 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)The face of the same passionflower pictured at top, Yanacocha, 30 Jan 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
These passionflowers evolved long tubes in an arms race against hummingbirds who developed ever-longer beaks to reach the nectar. However members of the Tanager family eat nectar, too, even though that have short beaks and cannot hover at the flower opening. Flowerpiercers (Diglossa sp.) land on the flower and bypass the flower’s defenses by poking a hole in the tube.
Masked flowerpiercer, Yanacocha, 30 Jan 2023 (photo by Mary Eyman)
Masked flowerpiercers (Diglossa cyanea) and glossy flowerpiercers (Diglossa lafresnayii) were abundant at Yanacocha. We could hear them chattering in the forest …
… and see them at the nectar dishes. (The glossy flowerpiercer is black with a white shoulder at left below.)
Glossy (black at left) and masked flowerpiercers (blue), Yanacocha, 30 Jan 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
Flowerpiercers are specially equipped for piercing flowers with a hook at the tip of their beaks. This photo from Wikimedia Commons shows the hooked tip.
In Pennsylvania it’s the hummingbirds that eat nectar and insects that make holes in flowers. It’s amazing to think there is so much nectar in Ecuador that birds bother to pierce the flowers.
(photos by Kate St. John, Mary Eyman and Wikimedia Commons)
Chickadee and American goldfinches at the feeder (photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
10 February 2023
Have you ever wondered how many wild birds live on Earth? Scientists came up with a very good estimate in 2021 by using data algorithms on the sightings logged in Cornell Lab’s eBird database. The answer two years ago was 50 billion — six birds for every human — but the numbers change so they plan to rerun the analysis every couple of years. And that’s where we come in. They need our help by counting birds.
Every sighting logged in eBird contributes to the global knowledge of birds. Like an individual raindrop each sighting is added to the river of data that tells the story. Three times a year we create a momentary global deluge during the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) in February, Migratory Bird Count Day in May and the Christmas Bird Counts at year end.
So here comes our opportunity. Join people around the world for the Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday to Monday, 17-20 February 2023.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is more than just backyard birding. You can count birds anywhere — from your window, while on a trail, on the beach, or parked to count from your car.
“Participating is easy, fun to do alone or with others, and can be done anywhere you find birds.
Step 1: Decide where you will watch birds.
Step 2: Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, 17-20 February 2023.
Step 3: Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings:
If you are a beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to tell us what birds you are seeing or hearing.
If you have participated in the count before and want to record numbers of birds, use the eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website (desktop/laptop).
If you already contribute to eBird or Merlin, continue what you are doing! All entries over the 4-days count towards the GBBC.”
First a big thank you to WINGS Birding Tours, our superb group leader Jon Feenstra, skilled driver Edwin (who was also a great bird finder), and fellow participants Bob, Mary, Peter, Gail, Jeff, David and Kay. We all had a great time and became friends. It was hard to leave.
Even though I’d seen some of Ecuador’s birds in Costa Rica and Panama I came away with 206 Life Birds!
I was hard to pick only a few Best Birds.
Best Hummingbird: I saw 31 species of hummingbirds on the trip so it was hard to choose a Best one, however … The crowned woodnymphs (Thalurania colombica) I’d seen in Panama had purple crowns but in the Mindo area they are quite impressive with emerald green hoods and purple chests, shown at top. You have to see this bird move its body to appreciate that it usually looks dull and dark, then catches the light to reveal its stunning green head and brilliant purple chest. The best views were at Alambi Reserve where this video was filmed in 2018.
Best Tanager: Of the 40 species of tanagers I saw in Ecuador, my Best one was a three-way tie: Black-capped (Tangara heinei) and beryl spangled tanagers (Tangara nigroviridis) are similar but different …
Best Big Birds were the swallow-tailed kites (Elanoides forficatus) that live in Ecuador year round. Though not a Life Bird they were exhilarating to watch and there were lots of them. This image is a plate from the Crossley ID Guide.
Unexpected Lifer: Water birds are few and far between in the Andes but Jon knew where to find them. On the way back to Puembo Birding Garden we stopped by the side of the road near Quito Airport and scoped the drainage pond. Ta dah! The gull of the mountains: Andean gull (Chroicocephalus serranus).
p.s. A surprising discovery: There are no crows in Ecuador but there are many free-ranging dogs. Dogs lounged in the middle of village streets and on the pavement of quiet streets in Quito. Without scavenger crows, free ranging dogs were the ones to break into garbage bags on garbage day. To prevent this people in the countryside placed their garbage bags on waist high platforms and in Quito on the median of busy streets but the dogs crossed in front of traffic to get at the garbage. Dogs partially filled the crow niche.
Perhaps dogs make it a dangerous place for cats. In 8 days we saw only two cats.
p.s. Looking back at the hummingbirds I’d say the velvet-purple coronet (Boissonneaua jardini) is a contender for first place.
