Snow Bunting

Yesterday, I drove John Holden to see the Snowy Owls photographed in the last two posts. The morning was gorgeous but, at -10 degrees Fahrenheit and with a wind chill probably around -20, temperatures were unpleasant. The good news is that we had no problem finding one; the bad news was, to our surprise, the owl was perched on the ground right next to the road and quickly flew.

Twice during the morning we happened upon large flocks of Snow Buntings. We wondered how the buntings handled extreme weather. These Snow Buntings voraciously consumed weed seeds. The species roosts in open areas in small impressions in the snow. When temperatures drop below 20 degrees F, they block the wind by perching behind snowdrifts. They are not known, however, to huddle in tight-knit groups. During blizzards, buntings get covered with snow and, during extreme conditions (like when temperatures drop below -30 degrees), they burrow into the snow (Montgomerie and Lyon 2011).

Snowy Owl 2

Yesterday I took Erika to see the New Year’s Day Snowy Owl. I believe this individual is not the same bird we saw on Thursday—the back and breast seem to be definitely heavier barred. Nevertheless, both individuals appear to be males (see previous post). Although somewhat closer to the road than the first bird, both were in the same quarter-section. This photo is also greatly enlarged.

Snowy Owl

On New Year’s Day, Dave Bartkey reported seeing a Snowy Owl just south of Nerstrand, Rice County, Minnesota. Gene and Susan Bauer and I gave chase laster that morning. I really don’t know how Gene spied the owl. If you can’t find it in the first photo, try enlarging the image on your computer screen. I took the first photo at a smaller magnification than the second photo, knowing that it would make a good blog image. The second photo is taken at about 500 mm and greatly enlarged. Following owl-watching ethics, we did not chase the owl across the field. 

Snowy Owls range from small, almost pure-white males to heavily barred, large females. Males and females at the far ends of this spectrum are fairly easy to tell apart. Intermediately sized and barred individuals are often questionable as to sex. Kevin McGowan has posted an excellent review of Snowy Owl variation, which is worth reading if you are interested. I have photos (taken in previous years) of what I believe to be a slightly darker male as well as an individual that is, due to her extensively barred underparts, probably a female.

2014 Banding Report

Let me assure my gentle readers that neither this juvenal Northern Saw-whet Owl nor the bander were in any way injured while taking this photograph. I banded this owl on 23 June 1983 in western South Dakota, at the confluence of the Cheyenne and Bell Fourche rivers.  At this location, some 70 miles east of the Black Hills, stands a remnant grove of Ponderosa Pines. I led a summer field trip with about a dozen college students to study the plants and animals found in the area. Banding not only tells you where birds go, but also what birds inhabit an area and, sometimes, their breeding condition.

I post this photo both because this plumage is rarely seen and to let you know that I have updated my annual banding reports to include 2014, and to compare those totals with statistics from 2008-2013. This year, 2014, saw 789 individual birds banded, the lowest in my seven year’s of banding near Northfield. The average is 1207 per year. Species showing above average numbers include American Goldfinch, Tennessee Warbler, and Hermit Thrush. Birds with below average numbers include American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, and Chipping Sparrow. Just click on the tab below the banner at the head of this blog to see the complete details.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Yesterday, Gerald Hoekstra and I drove to a bird feeder south of Hastings in nearby Dakota County, Minnesota. For the last few days, an Eurasian Tree Sparrow was reported from that location. Gerry and I spent over an hour trying to spy the bird among a plethora of House Sparrows at the feeder. We finally noted its chestnut crown (not gray like the House Sparrow’s) and black ear patches. After seeing it a few times, we also recognized the Eurasian Tree Sparrow by the bird's slightly smaller size and paler overall coloration.

The weather—a frigid -5 degrees F., with wind chill warnings posted—did not help finding the bird or taking decent photographs. We had permission by the landowners to watch from the road, but not to enter their property. This was decent of them, but did not allow us an opportunity for closeups. Also not helpful were a flock of Blue Jays that bullied the sparrows from the feeders. These photos are our best effort, the top one by me, and the bottom two digiscoped by Gerry, who very kindly gave me permission to post them here. (The last photo is of the bird in flight, bounding from the feeders to either the ground or to a nearby bush.)

Eurasian Tree Sparrows were introduced to North America from Germany in April 1870. They were released in an effort to "enhance the native North American avidfauna" in Lafayette Park, in St. Louis, Missouri. This initial introduction may have been augmented by subsequent releases. The sparrows rapidly became established in St. Louis, but House Sparrows outcompeted them in the countryside. Eurasian Tree Sparrows slowly spread into Illinois and Iowa—the main breeding range now encompasses about 250 kms from north to south.

This expansion more or less follows the Mississippi River. The species prefers wooded city parks and woodlots. A quick look at eBird illustrates their range and various extralimital sightings. Birds have been sighted around the northern midwest, and as far afield as British Columbia, Oregon, and the East Coast. Ornithologist do not know if these distant sightings are of escaped cage birds, sparrows arriving by ship from Europe or Asia, or individuals originating from their expected range in North America.

The source for most of the information and the quote in this post is Barlow and Leckie (2000). Not included in their account in The Birds of North America is a specimen from Huron, South Dakota, of an Eurasian Tree Sparrow collected on 19 April 2005 by a Purple Martin enthusiast clearing his bird houses of House Sparrows.

Ferruginous Hawk

The mostly white underparts, dark leg feathering extending to the toes, and pale head, all indicate that this raptor is a Ferruginous Hawk. This individual perched on a high-tension pole near Pierre, South Dakota; the photo was taken several years ago.

Ferruginous Hawks are found dry grasslands in the northern Great Plains and adjacent Canadian prairie provinces, and western Washington south to northern Arizona and New Mexico. They winter in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Their primary prey consists of rabbits, ground squirrels and prairie dogs. The hawks’ numbers fluctuate with their prey.

Ornithologists are uncertain about how well Ferruginous Hawks are faring. Populations appear to be declining in several regions, but there are few data and even fewer hypotheses for the causes. Numbers have definitely declined in some ares of the Canadian prairie provinces and in North Dakota (where they are now absent). More southern populations seem to be holding steady. Some western populations are increasing, while others, in northern Utah and eastern Nevada are decreasing (Bechard and Schmutz 1995).

Swallow Tanager

The third in my tanager series of photographs from my youth is this Swallow Tanager from Limoncocha, Ecuador, taken on 28 June 1976. Regular readers of my blog may correctly guess that this photo is one of a series taken of captive birds in a holding box.

This tanager is so strange that, until recently, it was considered to be in a family of its own, the Tersinidae. Unlike tanagers, this species has a broad, swallow-like bill, long wings, and it nests in holes rather than making uncovered nests. Molecular studies, however, place Swallow Tanagers firmly within the tanagers in the family Thraupidae.

Although the birds are usually at least seasonally common, Ornithologists do not know much about the distribution of Swallow Tanagers across the Amazon Basin and northern South America. Scientists are not clear as to the degree of migration, if any at all, exhibited by this bird.  Some populations may be residents, others short-distance migrants, while still others may be nomadic. Erika and I have records of Swallow Tanagers from eastern Peru in the Andean foothills (Tingo Maria) on 19 June 1972, 14 October 1972, and 1, 2 and 7 December 1972. SwallowTanagers are found forest clearings, coffee plantations, and in canopy tree tops. They consume fruits and arthropods (Handbook of Birds—Alive!).

Review: The Warbler Guide App

This amazing app is available at the iTunes Store for $12.99 for iPhones and iPads, and it is worth every penny. (An Android version is coming.) If you make this purchase, be sure you are buying the app and not the book with the same name (unless, of course, you want both formats). 

Some people say, “There is nothing new on this Earth,” but they have never seen The Warbler Guide App. This app is a fast, intuitive way to identify the warblers of the United States and Canada by visuals and/or song. You can quickly access images of all species with comparisons to similar warblers.  Side, face, underside, and head-on views are all available. Similar species are shown on the bottom of the screen.

You can filter the images by region of North America, color, and season. You can even fill in, almost like "painting by numbers," the colors of the parts of the bird you’ve seen, and the app will give you identification suggestions. You can combine this with a description of the song—is it buzzy, clear, or what?  Does the song descend or go up?  The result is that you are presented with just a few of the most likely warblers based on your description.

The app contains a library of songs, with multiple variations for each species. You can set the songs to play at half speed, which may help you to learn them. (The songs’ pitches do not seem to be affected.)

What sets this app apart from anything else I have seen is its 3-D images. You can view a bird portrait and rotate it anyway you want—sideways, upside down (good for under-tail coverts), straight-on, or fleeing.  You can get both close-up and far-way views. You can pick two similar species and rotate them simultaneously.  It’s worth the $12.99 just to see this one feature alone!

The app contains all the information found in The Warbler Guide book, which I have previously recommended in this blog. Range maps, habitat, and behavior of each species are easily accessed. The birds can be arranged by general color, alphabetically, or taxonomically.

You have to see this app—welcome to the new world of field guides….

Hepatic Tanager

The second tanager among my old photographs was this Hepatic Tanager, seen at my aunt’s ranch near El Galpon in northwestern Argentina. The date was 27 July 1965. I listed Hepatic Tanagers again in Big Bend National Park on 17 July 1966, and many times in Peru in 1972 and 1973.

I took a double-take when I looked at this photo after all these years. It seems way too red on the head, compared in Hepatic Tanagers in the United States. Our birds have much more dusky ear coverts. A review of Eddleman (2002) reveals that, what we now call Hepatic Tanagers, may actually be three species. The Hepatic Tanager inhabits North and Central America, the Tooth-billed Tanager is found from Costa Rica to Bolivia, and the Red Tanager, like the one in my photograph, encountered in open areas of the Amazon Basin to northern Argentina. (Handbook of Birds—Alive! recognizes these three species, calling them Northern Hepatic, Highland Hepatic, and Lowland Hepatic tanagers.)

Tanager taxonomy is further confused at the genus level. Molecular work indicates that Hepatic Tanagers are closely related to Western and Flame-colored Tanagers, and less so to Summer or Scarlet Tanagers. Furthermore, the genus to which Hepatic Tanagers belong, Piranga, appears to be more closely related to grosbeaks than they are to other tanagers (Handbook of Birds—Alive!).

Blue-gray Tanager

Recently I discovered photographs of three South American tanagers in my digital files. This first is a Blue-gray Tanager, found in northern South America, north into Mexico. In July 1965, my father sent my brother and me to visit our recently widowed Argentine aunt. We had spent the previous year earning half the trip’s fare. I was 18, my brother 16—we’d both been birding perhaps three years. I took photos during the journey, but with only a 300 mm lens, few of the images are worth sharing. Time has also not been kind to the Kodachrome.

This Blue-gray tanager visited a papaya slice on our balcony in the city of Belem, Brazil. This bird was not a lifer—we boys had already listed it in Trinidad a few days earlier. Blue-gray Tanagers are often found in non-forested habitats, including city parks and gardens and, in fact, thrives in human-altered areas (Handbook of Birds—Alive!). They are known to nest in crevices in buildings.

This tanager’s diet includes fruits, nectar, and arthropods. They are often found in pairs, mixed-species flocks, and loosely associated groups of other Blue-gray Tanagers. This individual appears to be the nominate race, Thraupis episcopus episcopus, found in the Guianas and eastern Brazil, and first described by Linnaeus in 1766. The species is widespread and abundant across its range.