Archive | Birds

Shovelers Don’t Shovel

By Dan Greaney on January 31, 2023 in Birds, BirdWords

Northern Shoveler Pair

Who would have thought it? Shovelers have been around much longer than shovels! The oldest known shovels, rough tools made of wood and sometimes a shoulder blade, are less than 4000 years old, whippersnappers like the folks who made them. Shovelers, on the other hand, are ducks, which, allowing for some evolution, date back to sixty-five million years ago, about the time dinosaurs proper were going extinct.

Of course, for purposes of our understanding and communication, we are the ones giving out names, and shoveler bills are broad, reminding us of our digging tools, and thus the name we use for them.

Northern Shoveler Drake

But shoveler bills are not for digging. Their broad bills, like those of many dabbling ducks, are edged with comb-like ridges. No, ducks don’t have teeth. Crowns and root canals are not required. Rather their bills are bony cores covered in keratin sheathes–think fingernail material. The keratin edge is scalloped into ridges that catch small aquatic crustaceans and seeds as the ducks squeeze water through, just as on a larger scale whales net krill in their baleen. Shoveler bills are for filter-feeding, not digging.

In their long history of acquiring food, shovelers have learned a further trick: the benefit of cooperation. As they squeeze water through their bills they often paddle in a tight circle with a friend, or twenty or more friends. Apparently this action creates a tornado-current that pulls up foodstuff from deeper in the water, making the foraging more profitable for everyone involved. One can only imagine how they learned that stratagem.

It seems to have worked. Our species, the northern shoveler, prospers at mid-northern latitudes around the globe, mainly from western North America through Siberia to Scandinavia. Each summer a mated pair settles on a quiet pond or wetland. As with other ducks, the female raises the young on her own. She forms a scrape in the reeds or fields nearby, and there lays about ten eggs, which she incubates for over three weeks. When the young hatch, she quickly leads them to the water, where they feed and grow under her watchful eye, until they fledge after about seven weeks more.

Now that winter and water have returned to the North State, so have the northern shovelers. You can spot them, in small groups or by the hundreds, on quiet waters–the males with rusty red flanks and tuxedo-white breasts, the females in dappled browns. Her bill is orange, his black. The bills of both are noticeably large–but they remain bills, not shovels.

Brewer’s Blackbirds

By Dan Greaney on October 27, 2021 in Birds, BirdWords

Brewer’s Blackbird Male

We mostly see blackbirds in suburban settings, but they are not limited to our neighborhoods. Blackbirds now returning to local parks and parking lots may have just finished a nesting season in the sagebrush of the Great Basin or in marshy alpine meadows. But even when they’re here, it’s easy to overlook them. They seem a common and ordinary part of the background, too plain to attract attention.

But the blackbird tribe is varied and beautiful. Male red-winged blackbirds strike the eye with their bright scarlet wing patches. Starlings, the stumpy-tailed birds in the group, shed their shiny black feathers for new winter plumage, a gala coat of black and brown speckles. Brewer’s blackbirds look slightly more elegant–no speckles, and they stand more erect and seem more considerate in their movements.

Brewer’s blackbirds might be a soft brown, tip to tail. Those are the females, matte-finished for camouflaged child-rearing. Others might peer at you with a golden eye from glossy black feathers that gleam in sunlight with a purple and green wash. Those are the ones you’ll notice, the males, designed by nature to catch the eye and perhaps draw predators. It is the males’ hapless duty to guard the nest while the females incubate their young.

Blackbirds nest in colonies. The first females to settle into nesting set the trend, choosing almost any sort of habitat, but mostly in brush or trees near water. Other females select nearby sites to build their nests; they all incubate their eggs for about two weeks. More like raptors than songbirds, sometimes Brewer’s blackbirds begin incubating before all the eggs are laid. This results in eggs hatching over several days instead of all at once, a condition that typically favors the eldest nestlings if food gets scarce.

During incubation, the males chase predators from the vicinity and may bring food to their mates on the nest. Once their young hatch, blind and naked, males and females together feed them insects along with some seeds and fruit, until the nestlings fledge and can feed themselves.

In winter, mated pairs may separate into the huge flocks that blackbirds often form for foraging and roosting. But most will rejoin their partners for the following nesting season.

The ability of blackbirds to live in a wide variety of habitats–arid scrubland, high mountain meadows, cattails, golf courses, city parks–usually bodes well for species to thrive through changes. It is not surprising that blackbirds are among our most numerous songbirds.

Still, they have not been able to escape the world’s massive declines in habitat. In 1966 the global number of Brewer’s blackbirds was estimated at nearly seventy million, three and a half times California’s human population at the time. Now the blackbirds, down to about twenty million, number just half our increased state population.

House Finches: Loud and Brown and Red All Over

By Dan Greaney on August 29, 2020 in Birds, BirdWords

Male and Female House Finches at Feeder

If you have a bird feeder in the continental United States you have almost certainly been visited by house finches. On both sides of the Mississippi their hungry flocks coat feeders like displays of cherry and root beer lollipops. They park themselves at providential feeding ports or flutter at their neighbors to win better ones. Off the feeders, they are singers who greet mornings with ubiquitous cheery notes, mixing reedy discord with melodious clarity, any time of year. They seem perfectly comfortable making our houses their homes.

House finches fledge from the nest dressed in brown, heavily streaked on their undersides. But as they molt, the males develop a bright red wash over their head, breast, and rump. Young females, too, may briefly wear red on their rumps. As adults, females prefer brightly colored males.

Male House Finch

Bright colors, however, are not genetically inherited. Like most birds, finches can’t actually make red or yellow pigment. Rather, these molting males incorporate pigments from the foods they eat. In addition to black oil sunflower seeds at feeders, they savor a variety of fruits and vegetables that contain the carotenoids–yellows, reds, and purples–that they absorb into feather-paint.

House Finch Male courtesy Kevin Gill creative commons – Click on photo for full sized image!

Because their food varies geographically, male finches in some areas will wear, instead of red feathers, a more orange or even yellow hue. Further, because the birds don’t migrate, you may be establishing a particular finch color in your neighborhood with your local blend of fruit trees, berries, and vegetable gardens.

Female House Finch

The males, no matter their brightness, are famous for singing exuberantly near their mates while the female does the work of nest-building, laying eggs, and incubating them. He may bring food to his mate during this period, and fully assists in tending their nestlings. The system works for them: house finches lay 2-6 eggs in each clutch, and will clutch as many as six times a year. With human help they have spread far and wide.

House Finch Nest with Eggs

Native to the western US and Mexico, these desert-lovers were introduced to New York in 1940. From there they expanded quickly throughout the east, substantially replacing the purple finch of the declining eastern forests. Before conquering the east they were introduced into Oahu, and became abundant throughout Hawaii over a century ago.

House Finch Nestlings

Hawaiian birds are famously fitted to particular plants or lifestyles, and have not done well as their world has changed. House finches, on the other hand, are generalists, typical of birds that thrive in new situations. They nest freely in not just their traditional western scrub and cacti but now in shrubs, trees, hanging plant-pots, on building ledges, or over porch lights. They readily flock to feeders when their fields of seeds are transformed. Strung wires serve for their singing posts. House finches roll with the punches, and that has allowed them to prosper.

Redding’s Miracle of the Swallows

By Dan Greaney on July 28, 2018 in Birds, BirdWords

Cliff Swallow photo courtesy David Bogener

Late July, and you may see no more of Cliff Swallows than their orange rumps, heading south.

For a couple of months they have eddied around North State bridges like summer snowflakes. But now nesting is done. Roomfuls of flying insects have been caught and turned into feathers and warm heartbeats. Winter remains distant, so young birds and vagrant souls may roam with no sense of urgency.

Cliff Swallows In Flight

But the flocks will tend south, to the clime that history tells them is home. For cliff swallows this is deep into South America, a 6000 mile flight to where they may be seen hawking insects over Argentinian grasslands.

Cliff Swallow In Flight

Throughout most of North America, these are the swallows that build their gourd-shaped nests of mud, cemented under eaves, sills, and bridges. In Redding, they have long colonized the old Monolith at Turtle Bay. With recent developments, house sparrows have taken over those nests, and the swallows have moved to both the Sundial and Highway 44 bridges.

Cliff Swallow at Nest

Architecture like the Sundial Bridge is a boon to cliff swallows. The bridge provides the ceilings and cornices where the birds can construct their nests beyond reach of terrestrial predators. The shoreline provides mud that the swallows can carry, one beakload at a time, to form their crèches. The river also hosts its salmon-fest of insects, which the swirling clouds of swallows catch in flight to feed their young.

Similar conditions made them and the Mission of San Juan Capistrano famous a century ago through the legend created by Fr. O’Sullivan, and recorded in his book Capistrano Nights:

One day, while walking through town, Father O’Sullivan saw a shopkeeper, broomstick in hand, knocking down the conically shaped mud swallow nests that were under the eaves of his shop. The birds were darting back and forth through the air squealing over the destruction of their homes.

“What in the world are you doing?” O’Sullivan asked.

“Why, these dirty birds are a nuisance and I am getting rid of them!” the shopkeeper responded.

“But where can they go?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” he replied, slashing away with his pole. “But they’ve no business here, destroying my property.”

Father O’Sullivan then said, “Come on swallows, I’ll give you shelter. Come to the Mission. There’s room enough there for all.”

The very next morning, Father O’Sullivan discovered the swallows busy building their nests outside Father Junípero Serra’s Church.

Since then, generations of tourists have marveled at the annual “Miracle of the Swallows.” Indeed, when 1990’s renovation cleaned out the nests and chased the swallows off, Capistrano undertook substantial efforts to coax the birds back.

Here in the North State our development has created our own “Miracle of the Swallows.” Their nesting success allows the hope that we will see them swirling here again each spring!

Lassen Volcanic National Park Outing 2018

By Larry Jordan on June 21, 2018 in Birds, Events

Mount Lassen and Manzanita Lake

One of the best things about our annual Lassen Park campout is that we get to see several species of birds that are rarely, if ever, seen in the valley. Many of those species also nest in the park. According to their website, Lassen Volcanic National Park provides habitat for approximately 216 species of birds in which 96 have been known to actually breed in the park.

For those of you that have never been to Lassen Volcanic National Park, I thought I would post some photos I have taken inside the park of some of the bird and animal species we may encounter during our annual campout.

One of my favorite species is the Water Ouzel, more commonly known now as the American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus). This is a photo I took at King’s Creek picnic area of an adult feeding its nestlings. Click on photos for full sized images.

and a short video of the nestlings begging for food and being fed.

Of course, LVNP has a great variety of woodpeckers on their bird list, eight of them known to nest in the area, including the White-headed Woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus.) This is a male with some treats for the youngsters.

and a short video of the adults feeding the nestling and drumming.

We will hopefully see the rare Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) as well.

and maybe hear it drum!

There are Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) that hang out just adjacent to our campground in an old burn.

And Red-breasted Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus ruber) are common.

Near Summit Lake we have been able to witness Williamson’s Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) raising their young in a snag near the campground. The handsome male…

and the not as recognizable female.

Another of my favorite Lassen Park nesting birds is the Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)…

This is a video of the nesting activity of a pair of Brown Creepers at Summit Lake. Their nest is concealed in the narrow space behind loose bark on a tree.

Mountain Chickadees (Poecile sclateri) are one of the many secondary cavity nesters at the park. This is a nestling waiting to be fed at Hat Lake.

Also seen at Hat Creek, Red-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta canadensis) tending their nestlings.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

And the video accompaniment.

Other secondary cavity nesters at the park include the Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea)…

the Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), the male seen here…

Mountain Bluebird Male

and the Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola).

Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the few places that this incredible cavity nesting duck breeds in Northern California.

This is a video of a female Bufflehead searching Manzanita Lake for a cavity to nest in for the following nesting season. She is in a snag, at least forty feet up!

American Coots (Fulica americana) raise their young at the park also. If you have never seen a American Coot chick, Manzanita Lake is a good spot to find them.

American Coot Chick

Since we’re checking out the youngsters of the park, I found this juvenile Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) at Bumpass Hell. Note the remaining flesh colored gape below the eye at the corner of the beak.

Other species that nest at the park include the Cassin’s Finch (Carpodacus cassinii). The male seen here…

and the female.

You would be hard pressed to miss the boisterous Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)

But if you are really lucky, you might find a young Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) at Hat Lake!

You gotta see this…

Or a Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) that also nests here.

Of course there are more than just birds at Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park is home to approximately 57 species of mammals ranging is size from the tiny shrew to the North American black bear. We are most likely to see the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)…

the American Pika (Ochotona princeps)…

and the Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris).

I hope this post intrigues you enough to consider joining us this year at Lassen Volcanic National Park for our 2018 annual campout. As always we will be camping with our friends and fellow Audubon members from other Northern California chapters. As with all of our activities, the Lassen Park Campout is posted on our calendar for more information. You are welcome to campout beginning Friday, July 27th, anytime past noon, or drive up Saturday morning to join us for the hike around Manzanita Lake.

Want more information on Lassen Volcanic National Park? Visit their website! And here is an interactive map of the park.