Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts

For the Birds: Save the birds - Protect their nests

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Dark-eyed Junco nest with eggs in planter box

By Christine Southwick
Photos by Craig Kerns

Many local birds are now on nests, others are just starting their nests. 

Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, Song Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows and other sparrows make their nests on the ground, hidden in clumps of grass, bases of shrubs or ferns, brush piles, or a depression in the ground hidden from view, perhaps by a rock.

Even some warblers like the Wilson’s Warbler build their nests in clumps of tall grass behind the base of a tree or shrub (0-3 feet above the ground). 

Many other birds, not usually found in our yards, also nest on the ground -- Killdeer, MacGillivray’s Warblers, and Townsend’s Solitaires come to mind.

Red-breasted Nuthatch with bug

If you are working in your yard right now, it is vitally important that you protect birds and their nests from disturbances either by you or your dogs and cats. 

When walking your dogs, please keep them on leashes, especially in parks

Canine noses will find unseen nests and disturb and often destroy them by stepping on the eggs and even the parent. 

 For the same reason, cats must also be controlled.

Watch where you clear weeds, especially when weed-whacking. Be alert for a startled low-flying bird, or a bird making alarm calls. Stop, and maybe leave that area wilder than usual. The rewards will be great.

Black-capped Chickadee with grub

Resist the easy application of herbicides and pesticides. 

Herbicides kill weeds in your lawns and curbs plus beneficial creatures like worms, beetles and spiders. 

Pesticides kill almost all bugs, including good bugs like bees and butterflies, plus all the caterpillars and grubs that birds feed their babies. 

This puts all birds in danger of dying from those strong, deadly, labor-reducing products, and makes it harder for the parents to find enough bugs for themselves and their offspring.

A neighbor found a dead adult bird on eggs when she was cleaning out a nest box and asked me what could have caused its death. 

Since usually only healthy birds lay eggs, and this bird didn’t appear injured, I told her that bird may have eaten a bug that had been sprayed, and died from pesticide poisoning, thus killing her and her unhatched eggs.

Golden-crowned Kinglets fledged less than a week (by gape)

Save Birds -- remove weeds and bugs by hand instead.

Which would you rather have -- pristine lawns and plants that have been poisoned and that don’t supply nutrition for birds and their young?

...or yards with flying, singing birds, that are feeding their young and taking care of most of the local bugs?




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For the Birds: Bewick’s Wren, neighborhood singer and chatterbox

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Singing Bewick's Wren
Photo by Elaine Chuang
By Christine Southwick

Some Bewick’s Wrens are nesting now. Since our Bewick’s Wrens are residents, and many stay paired, they are usually the first passerines (perching birds) to nest here in our area.

Their lively buzzes, trills, warbles and bubbly songs bring such joy to my ears. 

Plus, these happy notes and contact sounds help me find these brown little birds with the bright white eyebrow.

The male Bewick’s Wren sings to protect his territory, and to attract a mate. This is a full-time effort, especially since he must endeavor to win a mate by excelling melodiously.

Bewick's Wren with grub
Photo by Craig Kerns

And once he has won the affection of this year’s mate, the male fashions three to four nests for the female’s approval. 

When the female has selected the preferred nest, she will finish it with feathers, hair, leaves and mosses.

These wrens nest in the most unusual places, boots, pockets, hose bib covers, nest boxes, usually near to human habitation.

While the female sits on her 4-6 eggs the male brings food to her, and then helps feed their offspring. Usually monogamous, the female often has a second brood.

Bewick's Wren with small butterfly
Photo by Craig Kerns

These spunky hyperactive little birds, with their tails cocked over their backs, can be found climbing on branches, skulking in blackberry brambles, and investigating the leaves on the ground, looking for their buggy delicacies, especially those tasty spiders.

They can even hang upside down to reach their next meal. 

If you go too close to them while they are searching for food, they may scold you.

I have an active nest on my front porch — nestlings are already being fed. I’m looking forward to seeing the four or so nestlings fledge.

Bewick's Wren fledgling
Photo by Elaine Chuang


Unlike ducks, passerines are the same size or slightly larger than their parents when they leave their nests, only their tail feathers still need to finish growing. 

Fledgling Bewick’s molt their body feathers after about a month and start to look more like the adults. 

The eyebrow of a first year Bewick’s is rough and uneven, not well defined like the adults.

If you hear a bubbly song that seems to change, or a loud scolding buzz, you probably have a Bewick’s Wren in your yard.



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For the Birds: Jewels in Shoreline

Monday, March 23, 2020

Female Anna's

By Christine Southwick

Hummingbirds, a highly adaptive and specialized jewel-like family of birds, are only found in North and South America! 

Hummingbirds have the unique ability to hover backwards — the hummingbird name was labeled for the sound of hovering.

Here in Shoreline, we have resident Anna’s Hummingbirds, migrating Rufous Hummingbirds (with a tiny number stopping their summer migration here) and occasionally an errant Costa's Hummingbird.

Male Anna's

Hummingbird iridescence is created by specialized feather barbules that act like prisms, which can create brilliant displays. 

When a male Anna’s courts a female he always begins and ends his impressive flight dive with the female between him and the shining sun, so that his neck (gorget) and head will appear that dazzling signature rosy red. 

When not refracting sunlight the male Anna’s heads and necks may appear black. Females often have minor iridescence on their bodies.

Female Rufous

Compared to most hummingbirds, Anna’s are very vocal, with both sexes making buzzy and clicking sounds, especially the male.

“Anna's hummingbirds eat more insects than any other North American hummingbird, and this may help them in bad weather. 
It is thought that Anna's hummingbirds are able to spend the winter so far north because they eat more insects and spiders than most hummingbirds.” (SandieGoZoo)

As residents, they drink nectar from flowers like fuchsias, eat insects on native plants like red flowering currants and snowberries and drink sap from sapsucker holes. 

They usually visit several feeders regularly a day, a practice called trap-lining.

They will also use bird baths repeatedly — a good way to see these fast-moving flyers.

Male Rufous

The female builds the nest and feeds her two young. Her nest is only about the size of a 50-cent piece with the eggs the size of jelly beans. 

She uses spider webbing and lichens, which allows the nest to expand as the nestlings grow. 

The male doesn’t help at all.

The male does have a distinctive flight dive. He may fly 100 ft up and then plummet in front of a female, ending in a “J” flight path with a loud sound made by his tail feathers. 

It sounds to me like a fire alarm low battery warning. 

So, if you hear that sound, try to find a female sitting on a limb watching this display (the male may be hard to find since he is moving so fast.)

--All Photos by Craig Kerns



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For the Birds: Our Winter Warblers

Monday, March 16, 2020

Female Townsend's Warbler
Photo by Craig Kerns
By Christine Southwick

Are you seeing warblers in your yard in the wintertime, really?

YESS!

As a rule, warblers go south in the winter—at least most of them do.

The majority of Townsend’s Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers migrate south, but there are sub-groups of these two species that have decided they would hunker down here rather than undertake the arduous journeys southward and back.

The ones who do migrate long distances may start late, be spread over extended periods, and spring migration is often late compared to other warblers. Additionally, some of the Townsend’s Warblers that breed in British Columbia only migrate as far south as here.

In our local area, many Townsend’s and Yellow-rumped eat suet as they replace their now-scarce summer-diet of insects. These warblers are often seen at bird baths, drinking and cleaning their feathers (so keep your bird baths liquid in cold weather).

Male Townsend's Warbler
Photo by Craig Kerns
Both species will eat fruit during the wintertime, including shriveled blackberries, and can be found in yards with bushes and trees.

It isn’t until winter that these two species venture into more open areas and lower elevations in search of food, and milder weather.

Another reason we notice them in the winter more than the rest of the year is that both Townsend’s Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers usually stay in dense evergreens the rest of the year and breed high up in conifers.

Townsend’s Warblers need large dense conifer forests. Unfortunately, their mid-elevation forested habitat has been heavily timbered causing large habitat loss for the Townsend’s, thus putting them a risk. Yellow-rumped Warblers, being a little more flexible habitat-wise, are currently doing well in Washington.

Female Yellow-rumped Warbler
Photo by Greg Lavaty
Both species form monogamous seasonal pairs, hide their cup-shaped nests in conifers, and the males of each species help feed up to five young.

In good years females may have a second brood, while the males feed and teach the first brood.

Both species stay in somewhat solitary pairs most of the year, only forming small flocks during migrations.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are a little larger than Townsend’s Warblers, weighing in at .5 ounces versus .3 ounces, but the Townsend’s have more yellow than the Yellow-rumped.

The Pacific Northwest does not have as many warbler species as the east coast, but we do have two warblers that visit us in the wintertime — something most of the east coast can’t claim.




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For the Birds: Band-tailed Pigeon - Do You Have Some?

Monday, February 3, 2020

Distinctive collar of Band-tailed Pigeon
By Christine Southwick
Photos by Craig Kerns

Which bird is larger than a robin, has shades of gray all over and has a yellow bill and yellow feet?

Band-tail Pigeons are our native pigeon, and we are lucky to still have them around (they were almost hunted to extinction like the Passenger Pigeons).

They are the largest pigeon in Washington and have distinctive lighter gray bands on their tails which gave them their name. 

The males and females look alike (monomorphic), with a white collar at the nape of their neck, and an iridescent green patch below. The juveniles do not have that coloring until their second year.

Band-tailed Pigeon
These West Coast pigeons prefer edge areas thick with tall conifers, like clear cut edges, and parks and cities and towns located in low to mid-elevations. 

There is a second breeding population in the mountain forests of the Southwest.

They clumsily land and take off from bare branches on tall treetops. Look for 3-10 chunky-looking birds sitting on these exposed branches. 

Both mates build their 8-inch saucer-shaped nests hidden on sturdy tree limbs anywhere from 10-180 feet up, often in small colonies. 

They usually only lay one egg at a time, but may have two or three broods each season, with the same mate.

Eating local berries
Band-tailed Pigeons eat seeds and corn kernels at feeders, and berries, acorns, and nuts on bushes. 

Though our Band-tails live here year-round, some migrate to find food, and in the spring they search for mineral springs. 

They usually fly in small flocks here in Shoreline but can fly in larger flocks while looking for long-distance food sources.

In the wintertime many resident Band-tails rely on food supplied in ground, hopper, or fly-through feeders.

Some people really enjoy these big birds, and others think they eat too much food, and so discourage them.

Feasting at feeder
Note the bands on the pigeons tails

Band-tailed Pigeons, Merlins and flycatchers are some of the species known to use local bare treetops for roosting. That’s why tall conifers here in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park with open tops need to be saved.



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For the Birds: Winter’s Cold and the Living Is Hard

Monday, January 13, 2020

Pileated woodpecker
Photo by craig kerns

Reprinted from November 2014
By Christine Southwick

Birds used to have lots of dense native habitats into which they could hunker down during cold spells.

These habitats provided shelter, food, and water.

The leading cause of avian deaths and the decline of many species is habitat elimination due to development, whether it be housing, commercial expansion, mining, or diversion of water. 

Therefore, it seems fitting that we help birds (and other pollinators and wildlife) by providing food, shelter, and usable water, especially during cold weather.

If you see a bird all fluffed up it is trying to stay warm by creating warm air pockets around its body with its feathers.


Blackcapped chickadee fluffed up to keep warm
Photo by craig kerns


For all warm-blooded creatures, fuel in the form of calories is needed to create warmth.

High-energy black-oil sunflower seeds, suet, and good quality shelled-seeds can provide the margin between survival and death. 

Feeders offer quick, certain sources of good calories, allowing birds to conserve their calories for warmth, not expending energy searching for their next meal.

Watch your feeders for clumping of seeds during damp weather. 

If seeds clump, throw the seed out and wash the feeders with 10% bleach, rinse well, and dry before filling; or use cheap feeders and replace feeders when dirty.

Fox Sparrow and Spotted Towhee drawn to usable water
Photo by Christine Southwick

If you feed hummingbirds, winter is an important time to feed them. Anna’s eat more bugs than any other North American hummingbird, but freezing temperatures kill the bugs, so nectar is important. Even though they go into torpor (they slow their heart rate and breathing), they still need lots of quick energy early in the morning, and late in the evening. 

Song Sparrow with part of bath warmer shown behind it
Photo by Christine Southwick

One of the best ways to keep their feeders liquid is to wrap non-LED Christmas lights around the feeder, making sure that the ports are easily accessed. 

This method allows them to come whenever they want to, without worrying about missing a much needed visit.

For liquid water, invest in a birdbath warmer (with an automatic thermostat). Wild Birds Unlimited in Lake Forest Park has them, and Seattle Audubon on 35th Street sells them too. 

Liquid water is hard to find since so many creeks and rivulets have been diverted into drainpipes.

Give your yard birds a fighting chance. Create shelter, and safe places for them to nestle down, provide liquid water and food during the winter, and they will reward you with bubbly songs and bug elimination in the spring.



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For the Birds: What will be your 2020 Bird Totem?

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Bewick's Wren feeding bug to nestlings
Photo by Greg Pluth


By Christine Southwick

Look outside — what is the first bird that you see New Year’s Day?

That is your 2020 bird totem!

What does that mean? Get your kids to help you find out everything you can about this bird species (We need young birders).

Fox Sparrow in heated bath
Photo by Chris Southwick
How many eggs does the female lay? What do the eggs look like; color, size? What does the nest look like? 

What does that bird use to make its nest — grasses, moss, spider webbing, feathers, dog or cat hair? 

Do both the parents build the nest, or does the female do all the work? 

Some birds will have more than one brood — is the species you saw one of those?

Is it a ground nester or a cavity nester? If it is a ground nester, you need to protect them from cats (and loose dogs); if it is a cavity nester, it will need trees in which to nest -- you can put up an appropriate nest box.

Does this bird feed and rest in bushes and branches, or does it mainly forage on the ground? Native plants, especially those with berries and flowers will help and draw in the most birds. Some birds need evergreen trees (like Chestnut-backed Chickadees), others need more open areas (like Dark-eyed Juncos and most sparrows).

Oregon Junco finding food in lawn
Photo by Chris Southwick
Pesticides and herbicides poison bugs that birds need, and don’t make our environment better — some of these herbicides even cause cancer in humans and probably pets.

In the wintertime, giving birds seed or suet will help many individuals survive cold and wet times. 

We humans have taken away so much of their habitats that it is only fair that we make our yards the best habitats for birds that we can.

Where can you find all these answers about your 2020 totem? We have several great local bird books:

Birds of Puget Sound by Dennis Paulson, 2016; 

Birds of Washington by Stan Tekiela, 2001; and 

Kenn Kaufman has a great book, Field Guide to Birds of North America which clearly shows identifying points.

Townsend's Warbler- a year-round resident
Photo by Chris Southwick
Also, here are two websites that can help: Bird Web and All About Birds

Get to know your totem bird — watch it and learn its mannerisms — you’ll be amazed at how much you will enjoy getting to know this species.

I can’t wait to see who my totem will be this year!


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For the Birds: The local Bush Flitters

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Female Bushtit emerging from top hole of nest
Photo by Elaine Chuang


By Christine Southwick


First one brave little bird flits across open space from a tree to a nearby shrub, and calls for the others to follow, which they do one or two at a time, accompanied by flock-wide encouragement.

This delightful spectacle is the typical movement of a foraging flock of Bushtits.

These tiny gray birds with brownish foreheads have long tails, and they each weigh about the same as a nickel.

They flit around the edges of western forests with open canopies and into shrubby suburban areas. Their range has expanded into the mature forests which have become fragmented by developments.

Bushtit looking for bugs in cherry blossoms
Photo by Elaine Chuang


Bushtits travel in gregarious groups up to 40 birds, communicating all the time, searching twigs and leaves for their meat meals of spiders and tiny insects. With their upside-down probing, they almost best the acrobatic chickadees, which sometimes join the Bushtit winter flocks.

It is a real treat to see your suet feeder covered with these little puffs of fluff, chattering away, never quite still. If you see any with white irises, you have spotted the females.

Their nests are a marvel, looking like a foot-long windsock hanging vertically from a tree fork anywhere between 3-100 feet up. The outside of their nests is made of spider webs, moss and lichen, with fur, feathers, and plant materials inside.

Both parents claim a loose territory and make their nest for 4-10 eggs, with two openings: one on the side near the top, and one at the bottom. Sometimes there may be a family helper, usually a male. Bushtits can have up to two broods a year but will abandon a nest if they are disturbed before eggs are laid.

Typical Bushtit mob on winter suet
Photo by Lyn Topinka
(Find female on front left side)


An interesting fact is that an entire Bushtit family will sleep in the nest until the young has fledged; after that they sleep on branches and will huddle together for warmth in the wintertime.

Bushtits have territorial feeding routes, often arriving regularly at specific bushes in the summer; that schedule may change a little the winter, but they are still around.

So, when you hear the twittering of a flock of Bushtits, go stand where you can watch them as they crowd the backyard fountain or suet feeder, constantly moving about, seemingly in friendly agreement. We humans could learn sociability from the diminutive Bushtit.



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For the Birds: One in four birds have perished - but you can help

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Wilson's Warbler looking for danger
Photo by Elaine Chuang
By Christine Southwick

Bird populations within the US and Canada have drastically declined by more than 2.9 billion birds across hundreds of species in just the last fifty years!

This list shows bird family losses:
  • 145 million FINCHES lost (including 6 out of 10 Purple Finches)
  • 182 million LARKS
  • 862 million SPARROWS (1 in 3 Dark-eyed Juncos have been lost)
  • 440 million Blackbirds (Red-winged Blackbird down one third of its population)
  • 618 million WOOD-Warblers (half of all Wilson’s Warblers are gone)

American Goldfinch feeding mate
Photo by Doug Parrott
What has caused these losses and what can we do to help change this deadly spiral?

The number one cause of these declines is destruction of bird-friendly habitat such as:

Large areas of habitat have been destroyed by large-scale farming which clears wide areas of all bushes, trees and hedgerows, including often filling-in inconveniently located wetlands 53% of our grassland birds have been lost as a result.

The clear-cutting of forests and roads bisecting dense forests has caused one billion forest birds to vanish since 1970 which is 29% of our Western Forest Birds.

Urban sprawl cutting down trees and paving over open fields needed for food, roosting and nesting.

Male Purple Finch
Photo by Christine Southwick


Action:
  • Keep as many trees in your yard as you can
  • Plant more trees
  • Plant native plants and shrubs
  • Don't use pesticides
  • Reduce lawns and fertilizers
  • Voice your conservation concerns

The second major cause comes from outdoor cats killing birds. 

Both feral and house cats kill birds.

“The total is large because of the sheer number of cats in the U.S. that hunt outdoors—up to 100 million unowned cats plus about 50 million owned cats that are allowed outside.”  -- (See article)

Action: 

Keep your cats indoors or create an outdoor containment like a catio. This way, your cat can't kill any birds or small garden mammals. 

This step alone would save at least 50 million birds a year, if each loose house cat only killed one bird a year.)

Female Dark-eyed Junco
Photo by Christine Southwick

The third major cause is window strikes. 

Over 50% of all birds that hit windows die on impact or later due to brain/breast injuries. Up to 1 billion birds die each year from window strikes.

Action: 

Reduce window foliage reflections.

Birds think they are seeing bushes and trees that they can use and fly into the invisible windowpanes.

Install:
  • Screens
  • UV decals
  • Hanging ribbons
  • Anything to break up the false views and save millions of lives.

You can help save birds by being proactive with these actions.

Read report and see graphs HERE


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For the Birds: The Ubiquitous Song Sparrow

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Song sparrow
Photo by Elaine Chuang

By Christine Southwick

If you have native plants, lots of shrubs, and/or a little Himalayan Blackberries in your yard, then you undoubtedly have Song Sparrows. 

Considered habitat generalists, about the only place you won’t find them is within forests.

Song Sparrows belong to the sparrow family. 

Because many sparrows look similar at first glance, they are often called “LBJs” (Little Brown Jobs). 

Song Sparrows are found throughout the US with 29 sub-species. In the Puget Sound area we have the dark form below 4,000 feet, with a smaller paler sub-species migrating here in the wintertime from interior British Columbia.

Photo by Elaine Chuang

Our Song Sparrows are large chunky dark sparrows, with a long tail that they pump while eating and while flying low from one shrub to the next cover. 

Their head is streaked with rich browns and light grays between, with a distinct eyeline running from the bill to the shoulders. 

The back and shoulders are streaked, and the breast usually has a dark center.

Song Sparrows are aptly named. They often sing all year long. 

Males sing to proclaim their territory and attract a mate. They learn their songs from listening to their neighbor birds, so birds in different regions have variations of the basic song sparrow song. Females may also occasionally sing.

Photo by Christine Southwick

Because they stay low to the ground eating insects and seeds, and while nesting, cats are their main predators, with hawks, owls, coyotes, and dogs also reducing their numbers.

Cowbirds will lay an egg in a Song Sparrow nest, resulting in most of the 3-5 Song Sparrow nestlings not surviving, since the Cowbird nestling is larger and more demanding than Song Sparrow nestlings.

Fortunately, Song Sparrows usually have two broods a year. 

Tailless juvenile
Photo by Christine Southwick

 
If you have a breeding pair that bring their young to your feeders and bird baths, you will be treated to the hilarious sight of juvenile Song Sparrows without tail feathers trying to fly, bottom heavy, from one shrub to the next. 

It gives the expression “low rider” a new relevancy.

Song Sparrows are often ignored much the same way as robins. 

Because they are so common here, people often say, “Oh, it’s a Song Sparrow”, and then they look for other birds.

Once you start watching and listening to our Song Sparrows you’ll realize that they are a real treasure, especially when a male is up on a branch singing with all his heart.



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For the Birds: Dark-Eyed Juncos - the Snowbirds

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Oregon Junco, male, singing in the rain
Photo by Elaine Chuang

By Christine Southwick

Every September song-sparrow-sized svelte birds appear in our neighborhoods. The Dark-eyed Juncos have arrived to winter-over in our milder climate. Back East they call these birds Snowbirds.

Whether darting a couple of feet, or flying into a shrub or tree, their bright-white outer-tail feathers declare their identity “I’m a junco.”.Juncos have pink bills and legs, with the males having darker heads than the females.

In Western Washington, almost all juncos are Oregon Juncos (males have black heads, females gray heads), with an occasional Slate-colored Junco in the small junco flocks. Usually solitary or in individual family groups, winter juncos form small flocks and forage in more open areas than during the rest of the year.

Oregon Junco, female
Photo by Christine Southwick
Juncos feed on the ground all year long eating seeds, insects, arthropods, and berries when available.

If your yard is mostly grass without dense shrubs and trees, you probably only have juncos in your yard from September through late March, at which time they migrate higher up, or further north into forests to breed.

In yards with native shrubs, trees and cover, juncos may stay all year long. The rapid thrill of the mate-seeking, territorial male is delightful. Females may also sing.
Oregon Junco, stripy juvenile
Photo by Christine Southwick

The female builds her nest for 3-5 eggs, on the ground, hidden under grass, behind a log, rock, or tree root. Juncos do not use nest boxes. If you find a nest in a hanging basket, it is probably a junco’s. I have had juncos nest on the ground below my shrubs, low in my evergreen clematis, and in a low hanging branch of a small pine tree.

The stripy juveniles fool me every year until I see their diagnostic white tail feathers.

Monogamous, both parents feed their young, with the male often feeding the first fledglings while the female is on the second brood. Because ground nests are so vulnerable, junco nestlings leave their nest 9-12 days after hatching, before they can fly.

Oregon Junco white outer tail feathers
Help juncos thrive by planting flowers like zinnias and coneflowers, and let them go to seed. 

Provide water and multi-stemmed shrubs, like snowberries and rhodys. It is fun to watch juncos plummet head-first from a small branch, and brake just before certain destruction.

Their ground feeding and nesting or near the ground make juncos, especially their babies, very susceptible to cat attacks. Keep your cats indoor or in a catio.



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For the Birds: May You Have the Heart of a Chickadee

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Two Black-capped Chickadees nearby
Photo by Elaine Chuang

By Christine Southwick

Black-capped Chickadees are a favorite with most birders. The title (Heart of a Chickadee) comes from First Nation peoples who think so highly of the moxie of Black-capped Chickadees that they created that expression.

These acrobatic, feisty little birds with their pleasant calls and dee-dee-dee alarms, have distinct black-and-white faces, and often seem to look at you with intelligence, weighing whether it is necessary, or not, to abandon going after that heaviest seed at the feeder.

Black-capped Chickadee on blackberries
 -- eating bugs and fruit
Photo by Elaine Chuang
Black-capped Chickadees have the most complex social order of all our local birds. The dominant bird eats first, followed by its partner, then the next ranked pair down and so forth, thus making it fun to watch as flock members dart singly from close-by branches, snatch the best seed, and then fly back to the cover, always in order.

If you were lucky enough to watch a feeder with color-banded chickadees, you would be able to see which individuals followed whom.

Inquisitive and friendly, chickadees will be the first to find your new feeder and announce their find to the neighborhood birds. In the winter, nuthatches, kinglets, and Downy Woodpeckers will tag along with chickadees because they know that these non-migrating bundles of energy will find all the winter tidbits.

Here's looking at you
Photo by Elaine Chuang
Chickadees are the local watch-birds. They are the first to sound the alarm, “Predator!” The more loud “dee-dee-dees” there are at the end of their call, the more danger they have perceived.

Humans too close rate an extra “dee-dee”.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk elicits four or five extra “dee-dees, prompting every bird within hearing to dive in the bushes, no questions asked.

Want these up-side-down bug-seekers in your yard? 

Serve black-oil sunflower seeds. Hang a suet feeder where you can watch it, and you will have chickadee visitors. Plant flowering current shrubs, trees like serviceberries, dogwood, or small crabapples, keep your evergreens, and add year-round water, and you WILL have resident Black-capped Chickadees.

Chickadees will readily use nest boxes with 1 1/8” holes and some wood chips within. The male feeds the female while she broods her four-five eggs, and he helps feed their fledglings. While the young will fly away, making their only long-distance flight of their life, the bonded pair will stay in your yard, and will raise a brood year after year, as long as you keep native trees and plants for their shelter and bug hunting.

Welcome birds, like these cute Black-capped Chickadees, to control your bugs. You will be pleased and entertained at the same time, while helping make the earth healthier by not using manufactured pesticides.



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For the Birds: Barred owls

Monday, September 16, 2019

Barred Owl. Note barring at neck and chest.
Photo by John Riegsecker

By Christine Southwick

Barred Owls want to know, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?”

But don’t answer near the nest tree — they will strafe invaders with their strong talons — the only defense they have. 

Unlike other raptors, owls rarely tear their food, preferring to swallow it whole, and then cough up the un-digestible parts in tidy packets, called pellets, which can often be found underneath their roost trees.

Barred Owl away from trunk
Photo by Doug Parrott

Barred Owls are closely related to Spotted Owls, and will hybridize with them where their territories overlap. Barred Owls are larger and fiercer than Spotted Owls, with the females weighing up to two pounds, but looking bigger because of all the feathers.

Barred Owls are generalist hunters, meaning that they have a wider range of prey choices than the Spotted Owls, which allows the Barred to live in mature second growth, and the edges of logged old growth, where they out-compete the pickier Spotted Owls. Barred Owls have learned to use abandoned hawk, crow, or squirrels nests, in addition to their traditional nests in large tree cavities. They will often use the same nest for a number of years.

Barred owl
Photo by John Riegsecker

Barred Owls are recent arrivals in Washington State, having been long established on the East Coast. They did not arrive in eastern Washington until 1965, and western Washington in 1973. This has put extra pressure on the already threatened Spotted Owls.

Barred Owls form long-term monogamous pair bonds, and both defend their territories throughout the year, but especially in early spring when they begin raising their two-to-four young. Reports of owl attacks usually occur during late fall, when people are still jogging and using trails late in the day, within the actively-defended Barred Owl territory. In the early spring, fewer people are running during the times the owls are active.

My, what a big foot you have
Photo by Doug Parrott

Usually it is hard to see any owl. Barred Owls mostly hunt at night, but will call, and hunt during the day, if the prey comes where they are sitting, waiting. Crows, jays and other birds will mob an owl, and will often be your best Barred Owl locator during the day. Look for owls high up in tall trees, near the trunks. Whitewash on the trunk or nearby branches, and pellets at the base of trees, are also good clues.

So, next time you hear, “Who cooks for you?," look for your successful local Barred Owl.

Article originally published in 2012



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For the Birds: Ravens in Shoreline?

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Ravens can be twice as big as crows
with very large beaks.
Stock photo
By Christine Southwick

Have you been hearing a deeper sounding croaking in your neighborhood?

You too could be hearing and seeing Common Ravens! 

Ravens often pass through the Shoreline area during winter months, usually from about November off and on thru March, but I have not heard/seen a pair this early in the year, nor for over three continuous weeks. 

Maybe they have found somewhere to stay here. Wouldn’t that be great!

Ravens look a lot like our American Crows, but they can be twice as large as local crows.

Here are a couple of ways to tell the difference:

Their voice is one of the best clues — their call is a hoarse crooaaak. They also make a deep wonk-wonk croaking.

When flying, Raven tails are long and wedge-shaped versus crows that have tails that appear to end with a straight edge across when they fly. 

Raven wings are longer than crows and the “fingers” on the ends of their wings are more obvious. Plus, Ravens tend to soar and glide, unlike crows that have mostly constant wing strokes.

Ravens have a large bill with a bump near the end, and shaggy feathers on their throat, and they are more massive than any other corvid, sometimes weighing more than four times that of a crow in this area.

Wedge shaped tail and
"fingers" on wings
identify ravens
Stock photo
Plus, ravens fly by themselves, or with their partner. The only time you will see more than two is on a carcass or landfill.

Ravens build their nests for 3-7 young in cliffs, tall trees or even power-line towers and bridges. In tall trees they wedge their nest in a strong crotch, using the three-foot branches the male brings. The female then weaves a basket-like inner nest for her eggs.

Ravens are one of the smartest birds, easily able to solve complicated problems while often inventing tools to do so. They will often help other ravens solve a hard problem.

These birds are human tolerant, and often follow hunters to find left-overs of a kill. Ravens have long been featured in myths around the world. First Nation peoples call the Raven a creator and a trickster.

Personally, I think that any time I see or hear a raven I am having a really great day.



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