Showing posts with label christine southwick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christine southwick. Show all posts

For the Birds: Fourth of July -- The Red White and Blue Bird

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Lazuli Bunting singing in Redmond, WA during N. migration
 Photo by Kazuto Shibata

By Christine Southwick

Which bird in Washington wears the colors of our flag? The dazzling Lazuli Bunting (even the name sounds patriotic) holds that honor.

Each second-year male Lazuli Bunting, upon returning from his first migration, independently creates his individual song, made of Lazuli syllables and song fragments. He uses this one song for rest of his life. Because his song is influenced by those he heard growing up, his song has what is called the “neighborhood effect” much like our regional accents.

Male with bug had been eating blackberries
Photo by Winston "Rocky" Rockwell

If this distinctness isn’t enough, all Lazuli Buntings have an unusual molting and migration pattern. They start their yearly feather replacement (called molting) before leaving their usually dry-country, shrubby-hillside breeding grounds. But then they stop their molt, fly down to one of two Lazuli Bunting molting hotspots located in the southwestern US, where they finish renewing their feathers. Covered with a full set of new feathers they continue their migration to their wintering grounds in western Mexico.

Lazuli Buntings are food-adaptable; gleaning insects from trees and shrubs, hopping on the ground to harvest seeds, or even perching on stems to remove seeds and fruits with their thick beaks.

Lazuli Bunting portrait
Photo by William Fletcher

When it comes to sensational colors, the Lazuli female prefers to blend into the vegetation with her grayish-brown head and blue-tinted feathers. Even when fly-catching, she launches from low sheltered perches, preferring to let her loudly long-singing mate fly-catch and claim territory from prominent tree-top and shrub-top perches.

These birds are monogamous. The female selects the site, 2-4 foot from the ground, and builds her cup-shaped nest for 3-4 eggs, wrapping the outside of the nest with tent caterpillar silk. She incubates and broods the young (hence the duller coloring) while the male brings the meals of invertebrates and insects. The nestlings leave the nest 9-11 days after hatching, but stay close by in thick undergrowth. They are fed by both parents for at least two weeks. If the female starts a second brood, the male takes over feeding the fledglings; a common occurrence in our local birds — Spotted Towhee and Oregon Junco fathers are often seen feeding their fledglings while the female is nesting again.

Male eating seeds on ground, note bi-colored bill
Photo by Mike Denny

These dramatic birds will come to bird feeders, but only if you are in the dryer parts of the western United States. Look and listen for them in eastern Washington in riparian canopies to sage-type brush.




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For the Birds: Missing Hummingbirds -- Really?

Monday, March 17, 2014

Anna's female sipping nectar by Doug Parrott

By Christine Southwick

Have your Anna’s Hummingbirds all of a sudden gone missing? Are you afraid that something has happened to them? You are not alone—several people have asked me this question just this week.

Feeding the nestlings by Dennis Paulson

What you are probably noticing is the lack of females drinking the nectar. Right now, many of our local female Anna’s are on nests, and starting to feed their nestlings. One of the reasons that Anna’s can survive here year-round is because the Anna’s Hummingbird eat more bugs (think tiny) daily, than any other North American hummingbird. Female Anna’s only feed their nestlings regurgitated bugs by sticking their long bill down the throats of their young (It’s really quite a frightful sight the first time you see the mother feeding her nestlings.) While they are feeding their young they are also eating enough bugs for themselves.

Male Anna's by Jon Timmer

Another part of the picture is that a female on a nest, when she does want some nectar, will usually start using the closest nectar feeder, instead of visiting all the neighborhood feeders as both the males and females do the rest of the year. I have one feeder back near tall evergreens that every year about this time goes down faster than any other time of the year. That also means that my other feeder goes down much more slowly—so slowly, in fact, that I sometimes think the feeder isn’t being used. Then, almost at dark, I will see a handsome male gulping down nectar until the feeder burps an air bubble. Maybe the reason it is so hard to notice the males drinking nectar is that the males tend to dart in, often staying on the wing, whereas the females will usually perch while drinking thus making their stops longer.

Female Anna's on nest by Doug Parrott

Hummingbird nests are quite amazing. By using strands from spider webs, the female is able to build a petite nest small enough to snugly hold the one to two eggs, and that expands to hold two full-sized nestlings. That’s quite an engineering feat. She will twine plant fibers, feathers, and small leaves into her cup-shaped nest. She often camouflages the outside with lichens and mosses, making the nest hard to find.

So those of you worried about your hummers vanishing, relax. The females will be back soon, along with the juveniles who haven’t a clue about how to use a feeder.


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For the Birds columnist featured in BirdWatching magazine

Monday, March 3, 2014

The back yard of Christine Southwick, known to Shoreline Area News readers as the For the Birds columnist, was featured in the April 2014 edition of BirdWatching magazine under the title "Native oasis".

The focus was on the number and kind of plants added to her backyard to attract birds. Her personal backyard bird list includes 80 different species.

She was quoted as saying "I may not be able to save as much habitat as I wish, but I can help by making my yard an oasis."

See her columns by going to the Features section in the first column on the front page and clicking "For the Birds."


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How To Attract Birds to your Garden —Molbak’s seminar February 22

Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Twinberry blooms mid summer
and is a favorite of hummingbirds
Photo by Christine Southwick

For the Birds Columnist Christine Southwick will be giving a seminar on “How to Attract Birds to Your Garden” next Saturday, February 22, 2014 from 11:00am-12:00pm at Molbak's Garden + Home in Woodinville, 13625 NE 175th St, Woodinville 98072. 

Create an oasis for both yourself and the birds. Learn the five things that birds need, and the plants that can help give the birds what they want. Christine talks about easily grown attractive native plants, and the birds that are attracted to them, with pictures showing both.

Christine is well versed on which feeders, seeds, berries, mini-habitats, and planting practices will bring in the three types of songbirds — generalists, specialists, and generalized-specialists. 

Anna's Hummingbird with pollen from Twinberry on bill
Photo by Christine Southwick

Knowing which birds you want to attract will help guide which plants you plant first. Even gardens with cutting flowers and other non-natives can become bird friendly by your gardening methods.

Come hear Christine talk enthusiastically about the wild birds she loves and respects, and the plants and habitats that gardeners can create.


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For the birds: Golden-crowned Kinglets - the olive-green birds with the strikingly marked face

Monday, January 20, 2014

Golden-crowned Kinglet at bath
Photo by Christine Southwick
By Christine Southwick

Which is the smallest local songbird you are likely to see in your yard?  (Hummingbirds are not considered songbirds, even though our Anna’s are quite vocal.) 

This local bird is even smaller than Bushtits. Give up? It’s the kinglet with the black stripe through the eye and a white eyebrow, the Golden-crowned Kinglet. Both male and female Golden-crowned Kinglets have a yellow crown, but only the male has an orange center that is usually hidden. That center is only erected when the male becomes excited.

Crown of male Golden-crowned Kinglet
Photo by Christine Southwick

Golden-crowned Kinglets are active little birds that usually stay in the upper canopy of dense coniferous forest, or densely wooded urban areas. Golden-crowned Kinglets, with their narrow insectivorous bills are considered important predators of insects, insect eggs, and small spiders that are found in evergreens. They prefer to build their nests 50 feet up, making their nests for five to ten eggs hard to find. Seasonally monogamous, the male feeds the female while she broods her eggs, then both parents feed their off-spring.

They are more easily seen in the winter, when they often forage with other birds and when their insect meals are found lower. In cold weather they may be sighted foraging on the ground, which always surprises local viewers. Some of the Golden-crowned Kinglets are year-round residents here, but others come from northern Canada and Alaska to winter here.

Female Golden-crowned Kinglet, Note yellow feet.
Photo courtesy Puget Sound Bird Observ.

Classified songbirds, they really don’t have a song — they have a single high-pitched call note, which they repeat. Golden-crowned Kinglets are a study in motion, constantly flicking their wings which have two wingbars. They are able to hover under or in front of branches, and often fly out to catch insects. Their flight is quick and fluttery, and their quick movements make focusing binoculars on a Golden-crowned Kinglet a challenge. If one stays stationary long enough, you might even be able to see their yellow feet at the end of their black legs.

Flowering trees, willows, both small and large, and evergreen shrubs and trees will make your yard attractive to these birds. Since they eat lots of tiny insects, don’t use insecticides. And if you want them to nest in your area, keep those tall coniferous trees, so that they can build their nests at their preferred height of 50 feet or more. Moving water will also bring them down where you can see them.


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For the Birds: Northern Flickers—The Woodpecker with the Flashy Wardrobe

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Male Red-shafted Flicker taking bath. Note red mustache line.
Photo by Christine Southwick

By Christine Southwick

Northern flickers are basically brown-colored woodpeckers, whereas most North American woodpeckers are combinations of black and white. What makes Northern Flickers so delightful is the black barring on their brown wings, a dark crescent at their neckline, and black centers on their brown breasts. Red-shafted Flickers, our predominate flicker, have a tan cap, with a sienna eye patch, and if it is a male, a red-colored mustache line.

Add to that a white rump patch, and red-shafted (salmon-colored really) or yellow-shafted feathers showing on the under-side of their wings as they fly away in their roller-coaster pattern, and you have quite a spiffy  bird.

female Northern Flicker using suet feeder
designed for woodpeckers
Photo by Christine Southwick
Since ants are Northern Flickers' favorite food, they can often be found on the ground, an unusual place to find a woodpecker. In the spring, males can be found on resonating surfaces, like your chimney cap, drumming away to attract females.

Males excavate the nest for 5-8 eggs, with some help from the female. Both parents feed their young, and the fledglings are taught where the best foods are found. It is quite a treat to watch the parent teaching its young how to harvest suet, while the youngsters hang on at the same time.

Red-shafted Flickers commonly stay on their breeding grounds; some come down from higher elevations in the winter. Yellow-shafted Flickers migrate much further, and become more common here during the winter. Many of the yellow-shafted that winter here migrate from Alaska and the northern Rocky Mountains.

This blending of populations has created intergrades—flickers that have some combination of both Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted—pictures of which you won’t find in most birding books. One of the most common result is a Red-shafted with the red nape-spot of the yellow-shafted; another expression is a yellow-shafted with the red-shafted red moustache, instead of its normal black mustache.

Close up showing barring and spotting. It is a Red-Shafted
 since it has no spot on nape of neck. Sex not identifiable in picture,
Photo by Christine Southwick

Because their abandoned nests are later used by other birds, mammals and reptiles that are unable to make their own holes, the Northern Flicker is an important species of our open woods.

Flickers will use nest boxes, and if you fill it with wood shavings, the flickers will  use the box, and the starlings will ignore it.

Presently Northern Flickers are the most common woodpecker in North American. Loss of habitat, specifically loss of large dead or dying trees, and fragmentation of habitat appear to be reducing their population.

Previous 'For the Birds' columns can be found on our main webpage under Features.


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For the birds: Anna’s Hummingbird — help our resident hummers during the cold

Monday, December 2, 2013

Male Anna's showing rose-red head and gorget
Photo by Christine Southwick

By Christine Southwick

Anna’s Hummingbirds have become year-long residents in our area. No one really knows exactly why they have spread their territory north to our area — more planting of plants that hummingbirds use is the favorite belief; or maybe global warming (Our winters are usually about the same as San Francisco’s — except for brief cold spells, like what is here now). Hummingbird feeders are not to blame (Rufus Hummingbirds can’t be enticed to stay even with feeders); they just help our Anna’s over-winter, especially during cold spells.

Female Anna's with pollen on her bill
Photo by Christine Southwick

If you have feeders, now is the time to strategize about how you are going to keep your feeders from freezing.  Many people have two feeders which they rotate, so that one is always liquid. That works until there is a cold spell when even the days don’t get much above freezing.

Female Anna's bathing in fountain
Photo by Christine Southwick

My favorite way during really cold spells is to wrap Christmas lights (the old style, not-LED) against and around the feeder, making sure that the ports are clear. The heat from the lights is enough to keep a full feeder from freezing, down to about 18-19 degrees F, which is plenty for this cold spell. My second favorite way is to tape an eight-hour hand warmer to the bottom of the feeder (duct tape works well), and then take the feeders in at night, but that means that you have to remember to put them out, with a new hand warmer, early in the morning, because the hummers will come in early.

One of the reasons that Anna’s can survive here is that they eat more insects (including small spiders) than any other North American Hummingbird. It is thought that insects metabolize slower, helping the Anna’s to survive the long nights.

Male Anna's molting in feathers-note band on leg
Photo by Christine Southwick

Hummingbirds go into a torpor (a state of regulated metabolic suppression) during cold nights in order to conserve energy. They can drop their normal body temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit down to as low as 48 degrees F. Their heart rate and breathing slow, using less calories. That means when they come out of their torpor, they need to find food readily. So have their feeders ready—by 6:00am if possible.

Anna’s and other birds need liquid water in birdbaths. Birdbath heaters come on when water would freeze, and go off when it warms up.  Wild Birds Unlimited, and other birding stores carry these units.


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For the Birds: Oregon Junco

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Male Oregon Junco


Oregon Juncos, Our Local Dark-eyed Junco
By Christine Southwick
Photos by Christine Southwick

A startled bird dives into a bush, showing a flash of white tail-feathers as a warning. That’s a sure sign that you just saw a junco. Stand still, watch for movement and flashes of white on or near the ground and listen for their contact call, a kind of a clicking sound.

The juncos we have here are Oregon Juncos, with an occasional Slate-colored Junco thrown in. These juncos are a sub-species of Dark-eyed Juncos (that’s how they are listed in bird books), which are members of the Sparrow family.

Female Oregon Junco

Juncos prefer edges of mixed forests, until late fall when they form small flocks, become less picky, and can be found out in more open areas. Because they become obvious in the winter they are nicknamed the “Snowbird” in the east.

Unless you have an area with dense shrubs with trees, you probably only have juncos in your yard from about September until March, at which time they migrate higher up, or further north to breed.

If you do have good cover in and around your yard, you may have juncos all year round, although they seem scarce in August. The rapid trill of the mate-seeking, territorial male is delightful, and if you find a nest in a hanging basket, it is probably a junco’s. Juncos do not use nest boxes, preferring to hide their nests on or near the ground. I’ve had juncos nesting in evergreen clematis and on a low branch of a pine tree. The female, who sometimes sings, hides her nest for 3-5 eggs, usually in a clump of grass, behind a log, rock or tree root. Both parents feed their young, and often raise a second brood here.

Slate-colored Junco

Since juncos are ground feeders and nesters, cats are especially dangerous to juncos, and should be kept indoors, even at nights. Because ground nests are so vulnerable, juncos leave the nest 9-12 days after hatching, before they can fly.

If you want juncos in your yard, plant flowers and put up a feeder. Provide water and shrubs, and evergreen trees for shade. Juncos like escape routes using multi–stemmed shrubs, like rhodys and snowberry. Besides, it’s fun to watch them plummet from a small branch, and brake just before certain destruction.

In August, don’t deadhead all your flowers. Leave the seed for the juncos and other birds, and you may have your own Snowbirds with their flashing white bellies and startling white outer tail-feathers.

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For the Birds: Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Chestnut-backed chickadee
Photo by Christine Southwick


By Christine Southwick

Do you have chickadees that have brown on their backs instead of black, and their “dee-dee-dees” sound like they have a high Scottish burr?

That’s a chickadee only found on the West Coast, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.  Their warm chestnut brown backs, dark brown caps coupled with their white cheeks makes these active bug-gleaning little birds welcome additions to your yard and feeders.

Chestnut-backed Chickadees prefer dark, damp, closed-canopy coniferous forests, for living and breeding.   Sixty-five per cent of their food is composed of spiders, caterpillars, scale insects, aphids, and wasp larvae and other insects.  In the fall, they often store food for eating later.

Chestnut-backed Chickadees build their nests in old woodpecker holes; in snags in which they excavate their own cavity; or in nest boxes.  The female makes a foundation using moss and strips of bark. The rest of the nest is made mostly out of animal fur woven with bark, grass, and feathers. Rabbit, deer, coyote, skunk, horses, cattle, and cat fur are candidates for inclusion in the one-to-six inch deep nest. The female often uses a flap of fur to cover the one to eleven eggs when she leaves the nest.

Black-capped on left, Chestnut-backed Chickadee on right
Photo by Christine Southwick

The smallest chickadees in North America, Chestnut-backed Chickadees glean insects from twigs and limbs high up in the canopy.  These chickadees often hang up-side-down on cones like Black-capped Chickadee do. These two species can co-exist because each species has found their own feeding niche. Chestnut-backed Chickadees feed high, often 45-50 feet above ground, whereas Black-capped Chickadees feed much lower, and forage mostly on thicker branches and trunks.

Chestnut-backed Chickadees are territorial only during breeding time.  Other times they co-mingle with other small birds. During the winter Chestnut-backed Chickadees travel with Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and maybe a Downy Woodpecker or two.

Because Chestnut-backed Chickadees depend on evergreen canopies, clearcuts and urban development destroy the habitat they need by cutting down the large tall trees they use. The Chestnut-backed Chickadee population has declined dramatically in Seattle and in other local city areas.  Audubon-Washington has added this chickadee to its “Species-at-Risk” list. 

Keep local evergreens, especially tall ones, offer black-oil sunflower, suet, and water, put up a nest box, and with enough evergreen trees and shrubs, these chickadees can be persuaded into your yard to eat your bugs and make you smile.


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Birds at the Burke Saturday

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Puget Sound Bird Observatory is partnering with the Burke Museum for an annual event about birds from your backyard, and around the world.

Birds at the Burke, Saturday, October 19, 2013, 10 am – 4 pm
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members or with UW ID

Join the Burke Museum for a new annual event all about our feathered friends! See and touch hundreds of birds from the Burke’s ornithology collection, from hummingbirds to hornbills.

Activities include:

  • See beautiful nests with eggs from the Burke’s bird collection – on public view for the first time ever.
  • Also learn about the most common nests you can find in your backyard.
  • Meet a live macaw from Cougar Mountain Zoo (10 am - 12 pm) and a live owl from Woodland Park Zoo (1-3pm).
  • Discover how scientists safely capture and band wild birds for research with mist net demonstrations, and practice with toy birds.
  • Examine how birds are prepared for museum collections by viewing bird specimen preparation.
  • Hands-on bird crafts and family activities.
  • 11:30am & 1pm: join Neil Zimmerman from Seattle Audubon for a short bird walk around the museum grounds. Bring your Binoculars!
  • Talks throughout the day ranging from how birds learn to sing, to the lives of owls

Our "For the Birds" columnist Christine Southwick, President of the PSBO, will be at the event with exhibits on local birds and what they eat.



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For the birds: Northern Saw-whet Owl

Sunday, September 29, 2013

By Christine Southwick

Here's a great little native owl, that needs our help -- at least we think it does....

Northern Saw-whet owl
Photo by Scott Ramos
Northern Saw-whet Owl

A small owl, only 8 inches in height, the Saw-whet Owl gets its name from its alarm call, which reminds people of a large saw being sharpened. This mostly silent owl only vocalizes during the March thru July breeding season. The rest of the year it is silent unless alarmed.

Hard to find the first time
Photo by Bill Anderson

This little owl’s favorite food is mice, especially deer mice, which it usually catches by dropping down from a low cedar, or other evergreen branch. Northern Saw-whet Owls are strictly nocturnal hunters, with their highest activity being in late dusk and early dawn. They also eat shrews, voles, moles, squirrels, house mice, and sometimes small birds. When the hunting is really good, Northern Saw-whet Owls have been known to kill up to six mice in rapid succession, and then cache them in safe places to be eaten later.

These little owls nests in abandoned woodpecker holes, usually found in deciduous tree snags, , with the female incubating the 3-7 eggs, and the male feeding her during this four week period. The young leave the nest at one-to-two day intervals, and the parents feed and teach their single brood for the next several weeks.

Elongating to look like a limb
Photo by Jeff Kozma

Some Northern Saw-whet Owls are resident, but the majority in WA migrate into Canada in the spring, and return to the damper Pacific Northwest lowlands for the winter, where they often roost near forest openings or garden edges with dense evergreens.  They will use the same low (four to ten feet from the ground) daytime roost for extended periods of time, and if found will elongate their profile to evade detection, and then sit still rather than fly.  This has led some people into thinking of them as being tame.

Because these owls are silent most of the year, it is hard to determine their population.   Their numbers may be dwindling locally, but more study is needed.

Photo by Jamie Acker

One of the greatest dangers for these little owls is lack of nesting sites.  As people cut down dead trees eight inches or larger in diameter, there are less places for woodpeckers to make nests, and therefore less old nest holes suitable for saw-whets to make into their next nesting site.

NSWO will readily use nest boxes, and the Puget Sound Bird Observatory has owl box kits for sale. People are encouraged to hang boxes to aid these small native owls and report their nesting to PSBO.


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For the Birds: Olive-sided Flycatcher

Friday, August 2, 2013

Olive-sided Flycatcher
Photo by John Hopkins
By Christine Southwick

Which bird wears a pale tuxedo while loudly demanding his three beers?

This large (7 and 1/2 inches) flycatcher really is olive-sided with a white breast, but because it is always seen high up at the top of the tallest tree or snag, its sides look darker, and its breast looks very white.

Sitting straight up, the Olive-sided Flycatcher sallies forth from the top of the tallest branch to catch its larger insect meals.

The female hides her nest for 3-4 eggs on a horizontal coniferous branch. Both parents feed their young, and are vigorous defenders of their nest — noisily taking on would-be predators, and usually winning. The family group normally stays together until they start their migration southward.

Olive-sided Flycatchers have one of the longest migrations of Washington State birds. They usually pass through the City of Shoreline in late April-June and mostly breed in the Cascades or Canada’s boreal forests. We see them usually in August- September, at the start of their southern migration to Panama or even the Andes in northern South America. 

Olive-sided Flycatcher
Photo by Robert and Carolyn Howson

With a documented decline of 72% (from 1966-2002), the Olive-sided Flycatcher population appears to be diminishing rapidly due to loss of preferred habitat, possibly at both their winter grounds in South America, and their breeding grounds here in the States and Canada. Further study is required. What is known is that habitat is vitally important because of these contributing factors:

  • small brood size
  • long, drawn-out migration (with habitat destruction of feeding-rest stops along migration routes)
  • and short breeding season

Olive-sided Flycatcher
Photo by Bill Anderson

Currently, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Olive-sided Flycatcher as a “Species of Concern”;  Partners-In-Flight considers them “a priority Species for Conservation”; and Canada has listed this species as “Species at Risk”.

So, listen for a loud “whip weedeeer”—“Quick, Three Beers”. When you hear that sound, distinct from other local birds, look for the highest branch in tall trees for a large straight-up bird wearing a tuxedo. You will have found a migrating Olive-sided Flycatcher.




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For the Birds: Birds gotta sing

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Oregon Junco nestlings about two days old
They left by seven days
Photo by K. Wennstrom


Birds gotta sing--babies gotta learn…

By Christine Southwick

When I walk in my yard I hear lots of baby birds babbling. It is not the peeping sound that they make in the nest. Fledglings start out with almost a crying, insistent, “Feed Me”. Then they go into a babbling, learning bird-talk kind of sound. Babies learn by listening and mimicking the local male(s). Studies have shown that Song Sparrow youngsters (and probably other species) who heard two competing males learned faster, and had a local dialect. Like human babies, sometimes they get their song wrong.

Spotted Towhee male with young fledgling he just fed.
Photo by Christine Southwick

There are two basic types of sounds birds make: call notes, and songs.

Call notes are usually short: chips, clicks, piks, etc., and include their alarm calls. The chips or single notes are used to maintain contact with other flock/family members — the constant chatter of a foraging flock of bushtits is an excellent example. Alarm calls are not used to defend territory.  They are used to alert the birds within their territory of impending danger: hawks, cats, corvids, humans…

Our local chickadees only have one song, but they have a variety of calls that are used to convey info: the familiar “chickadee dee dee” can be both a contact call, or if delivered rapidly and repeatedly, an alarm call. The “fee bee” one hears in the spring has to do with courting and nesting.  And they have a quiet call just before they reach the nest.

Older Spotted Towhee fledgling feeding self
Photo by Christine Southwick

Songs are longer, with repeatable notes and melodies.  These are used to defend a territory or to attract a mate. Usually only males sing, although with some North American species, like the Northern Cardinals, both males and females sing.

Amazingly, the Cedar Waxwing has no discernible song — only high call notes. At the far end of the spectrum, Gray Catbirds have approximately 400 songs.

Female Spotted Towhee calling
Photo by Christine Southwick

There are clear notes, whistles, warbles, trills, and combinations. Additionally there are differences in pitch that make some birds easier to ID than others. For me, the Olive-sided Flycatcher has a distinctive pitch that allows me to identify it just from a call note, even before its “Quick, three beers”. And volume also is important. Did you know that the Pacific Wren (AKA Winter Wren) has ten times more volume than a crowing rooster?

Recently it has been found that baby birds and baby humans share the same gene type for learning language.  Maybe that is why birds and humans are known as “singing species.” (From the mouths of babes and birds: clues to language)

Christine Southwick is a Board member of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and is their Winter Urban Color-banding Project Manager. She has completed the 40-hour class to become a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Steward.

For previous For the Birds columns, click the link under the Features section on the main webpage.




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For the Birds: The Swallows are coming… The Swallows are coming…

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Barn Swallow by Kelly Sagen


The Swallows are coming… The Swallows are coming…
By Christine Southwick

Locally, some of the swallows have already completed their trip from Central or South America. Swallows migrate depending solely on insects, and since cold weather reduces the number of flying insects, the northward migration may be slower some years than others. Swallows catch insects during the day, and therefore migrate during day-light, whereas most other songbirds migrate at night.

Tree Swallow by Scott Ramos

In the Shoreline/greater Seattle area/Lake Forest Park area, we have Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Violet-Green Swallows, Northern Rough-winged Swallows, Cliff Swallows, and Bank Swallows. Tree Swallows arrive first, in early April; Bank Swallows usually arrive in May. The other species arrive sometime between these two species.  Even though the six species can often be found flying /resting together, they each have their own feeding niche—either by being selective as to preferred insects, or by height from ground.

Barn Swallows are the easiest to recognize—they are the only local species with a long forked tail.

Cliff Swallow in nest by Max Warner

Look for swallows flying low over bodies of water (Lake Ballinger/Twin Ponds/ Ronald Bog/Green Lake), rivers, creeks, or marshy areas, with their short wide bills open above the water, catching their flying-insect-meals using amazingly agile aerial techniques. These aerial insectivores spend more time on the wing than any other songbirds in the world. Another place to look for them is resting on telephone wires near boggy/marshy areas—often more than one species can be found resting on the same wires.

Some local species, like the Barn Swallows, and Cliff Swallows, have evolved to nesting on man-made structures. Other species may use nest boxes.  Most male swallows spend some time helping incubate the 3-4 eggs. Monogamous, most swallow species return to the same breeding area each year, and may use the same site, if their last effort was successful. This is called “site fidelity”. First-year breeders usually choose a nesting site near where they were born.

Barn Swallow nestling opening up for next meal by Joe Sweeney

Last year, because we had such a long rainy spring with few insects, there were a number of failed nests due to starvation of adults and nestlings. 
Loss of habitat, including habitat-trees called snags, and the wide-spread use of pesticides has decreased many swallow species.

These aerial acrobats are a joy to watch, and by snatching up to an insect per minute, are veritable vacuum cleaners of the skies. They munch on mosquitoes, gnats, flying ants, termites, and other aggravating-to-human insects.


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For the Birds columnist speaks at Molbak's seminar

Friday, March 15, 2013

Purple Finch
Photo by Christine Southwick
For the second year in a row, Molbak’s Garden and Home, in Woodinville, invited Shoreline Area News columnist and PSBO President, Christine Southwick, to speak on Creating a Bird-friendly Habitat: How to Make Your Garden a Sanctuary for Both You and Our Native Birds.


Evening grosbeak warbler
Photo by Christine Southwick

March 9th opened as a sunny, spring-like day to welcome the sixty-three people who attended this talk, filled with lively discussion and questions, and proven tips on how to attract birds into your back yard. 

Her talk had examples, pictures, and tips on how to grow fourteen of the native plants Christine has used to draw birds into her yard, coupled with pictures of 30 species that actually use these plants.

Townsend's Warbler
Photo by Christine Southwick

She emphasized the five requirements for a bird-friendly habitat: food, year-round water, shelter, places for raising young, and that the yard needs to be pesticide-free.

Varied Thrush, male
Photo by Christine Southwick

Christine stated that garden practices, such as making a brush pile, leaving seed-heads during winter, and mulching areas with wood chips or leaves provide shelter and food for many of our local birds.  Running water, plus trees such as Cascara, crab apples or willows, will bring in many of the migrating warblers. 

Presently, Christine’s yard count is 80 species, including such birds as Black-throated Gray Warblers, MacGillivray's Warblers, American Goldfinches, Purple Finches, Black-headed and Evening Grosbeaks, Band-tailed Pigeons, and all five local woodpecker species.


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For the Birds: The Great Blue Heron- Four Feet Tall

Friday, February 15, 2013

Great Blue Heron in flight
Photo by John Riegsecker 


By Christine Southwick

Which bird has a six foot wing-span, catches live food without flying, and weighs less than seven pounds?

Huge slow wing beats, long neck pulled back into an aerodynamic  “S”, and long yellow legs trailing behind is the sight of the Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron with fish.
Photo by Doug Parrott

Great Blue Herons prefer shallow bays, estuaries, and wetlands- the wilder, the better. These largest herons of North America are solitary hunters. The males claim the prime hunting spots, with females and juvies mostly relegated to drainage ditches, smaller wetlands, or fields with nearby water.

A hunting Great Blue Heron is a study in patience. Standing at the water’s edge, or in water up to 20 inches deep, this heron will stand statue-like, or move Tai-Chi slow until it sees its next meal. With its neck adapted for lightning speed strikes, it spears or catches its prey—fish, insects, amphibians, frogs, snakes, small mammals, or an unlucky bird. It juggles the food around until it can swallow it whole. GBH’s have been known to choke to death when the prey was too large.

Great Blue Herons usually nest in tall trees in/near mature forests, in marshes or islands, but are very adaptive. I once saw Great Blue Herons nesting on a large cactus overlooking the Sea of Cortez! 

Feeding time
Photo by Doug Parrott

Usually they nest in groups from a 100 up to 500 nests. Males bring long sticks to the females who then incorporate them into the nest platform. These colonies are a noisy place, especially when an eagle flies nearby, and most of the adults call the alarm and take wing. The two-to-six nestlings also noisily demand their feedings of regurgitated food from both their parents.

Here in the Puget Sound area these heronries have recently become smaller, more often having 20-50 nests. It is believed that three factors may be contributing to these smaller heronries:
  • Increased population of Bald Eagles, with reduced habitat for Bald Eagle foraging;
  • Reduced habitat wild enough/ remote enough to suit large heronry needs;
  • Increased noise and human disturbance to cause abandonment of larger heronries.

There are several heronries nearby, and if you have a chance, go watch the magnificent Great Blue Herons as they take off, and land in amongst branches. You’ll long remember this sight.  If you do go, talk softly, and leave your dogs at home.

Christine Southwick is a Board member of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and is their Winter Urban Color-banding Project Manager. She has completed the 40-hour class to become a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Steward.


For previous For the Birds columns, click the link under the Features section on the main webpage.



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For the Birds: So Many Birds—So Many Bird Festivals

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Snow geese
Photo by Doug Parrott

So Many Birds—So Many Bird Festivals
By Christine Southwick

Did you know that Washington is on the migration routes of Snow Geese; Trumpeter Swans;  Bald Eagles; Sandhill Cranes; hundreds of thousands of shorebirds; many raptors such as Peregrine Falcons and Northern Saw-whet Owls; and is part of the Pacific Flyway for many of North America’s songbirds?

To celebrate these amazingly beautiful displays of survival adaptations, Washington State has at least eight annual bird festivals.

Right now hundreds of Bald Eagles can be seen on the Skagit River eating the salmon which have died after spawning their next generation of salmon. You can see them by just driving up the Skagit River to the town of Concrete. Every weekend in January, Concrete has the Skagit Eagle Festival activities.

On the Skagit flats, around the Mt. Vernon area, there are thousands of Snow Geese, with some Trumpeter Swans mixed in. The Port Susan Snow Goose Festival is February 23-24. 

Bald Eagle dines on fish
Photo by Patricia Damron

The first weekend of April there are two bird fests: The Othello  Sandhill Crane Festival, where you can watch Sandhill Cranes perform their mating dance; or you can go to Sequim to the Olympic Peninsula Bird Fest and see the migrating song birds that use the Olympic Peninsula.

Hundreds of thousands of shorebirds stop to feed and rest in the Grays Harbor Estuary on their migration northward.  This spectacular event, the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival, is April 26-28. Our beaches and mudflats areas are vitally important feeding grounds for these long-distance migrators, and this festival helps maintain healthy resting/feeding coastal areas.

May 16-19th, Leavenworth holds their bird festival, the Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest, This is a great opportunity to see higher elevation birds.

September 6-8th, Edmonds has the Puget Sound Bird Fest which watches birds on their southward bound migrations. And further down the Washington coast, the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge has its fall migration bird fest in October.  

This bird will be in the backyard count
Migrating Golden-crowned Kinglet stopping for bath
Photo by Christine Southwick

And this year, during the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 15-18th, the Puget Sound Bird Observatory (PSBO) will be leading a “progressive backyard bird count, which will be great fun and let you see how other birders encourage birds into their yards.

International Migratory Bird Day, May 11th, PSBO will be leading a local activity to celebrate the  2013I” Life Cycle of Migratory Birds: Conservation Across the Americas.”

Protect the prairies, farmlands, watering holes, forests and coastal beaches, and you will be helping these birds. Go to our local festivals and you will be helping our economy.



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