This week in birds - #47

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Vermilion Flycatcher photographed at Big Bend National Park.

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Five of the six young Whooping Cranes that started out on their first fall migration from Wisconsin to Florida arrived safely at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge, their winter home, last week and are now settling in. One of the young cranes, unfortunately, died in an accident along the way. Meantime, fourteen young cranes have been released at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area site in Louisiana where wildlife officials are attempting to reestablish a wild population of the birds. The efforts have encountered some difficulties from hunters who don't seem to have understood the concept of "protected endangered species."

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House Sparrows are known to use all kinds of detritus that they pick up in the construction of their nests. If you've ever cleaned one of those nests out of a bluebird or martin box, you'll understand what I mean. But the annoying little birds may actually be smarter than I gave them credit for. It seems that they sometimes line their nests with cigarette butts, when they can find them, and these help to foil parasitic mites which attack the birds and their nestlings.

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Planting even small patches of native plants to attract local pollinators can increase the rate of pollination on big farms.

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On a somewhat related subject, one way to help birds is to leave an area of your yard natural and leaf litter unraked to encourage the production of insects which in turn attract and feed the birds.

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Early snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is triggering the earlier and earlier bloom of plants before pollinators like bees and hummingbirds are around to take advantage of them. This could have a long-term detrimental effect on the plants if there are insufficient pollinators to assist their reproduction. It may have an equally serious effect on the pollinators who miss a food source.

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The male Great Bowerbirds of Australia and New Guinea construct elaborate bowers to attract females. It seems they are even cleverer than we knew. They are able to use the artistic principle of forced perspective to make their constructions more enticing to prospective mates.

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It is very likely that, in the future, water will be more valuable than gold or oil, as Earth continues to heat up and water reserves are depleted by drought. In the city of Atlanta, for example, the water supply is presently at a three-year low because of a long two-year drought, and rationing may have to instituted. It is a dilemma that will be faced by more and more cities. And still we refuse to acknowledge the problem of global warming and attempt to do anything to slow it.

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The wild bird population of the UK fell by 1.9% in 2011. The birds that were most adversely affected were those which are specialists in their feeding habits, while the generalists fared somewhat better.

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The tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl is being tracked to learn more about the bird's population density and geographic distribution. Scientists are finding that the little raptor is probably more widespread and numerous than previously thought. Its tiny size and nighttime hunting habits make it virtually invisible to many birders and scientists as well.

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The retreat of seasonal ice cover in the Arctic is having an effect on a seabird called the Black Guillemot. The guillemot feeds its young on cod that it finds hugging the underside of ice floes. As the ice melts, this food source is no longer accessible and the birds must adopt other fishing habits. Or die.

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The terrible wildfires in the western United States in recent years have been abetted by an invasive grass called cheatgrass. This grass dries out faster and burns more rapidly than other grasses, providing tinder to feed and spread the fires.

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Around the backyard:

A few Northern Cardinals, like this beautiful female that I saw today, continue to return to the yard and to the feeders. I've seen and heard more of them this week than at any time in several weeks.

The stars of the backyard again this week, though, have been the hummingbirds. There have been at least three here: the adult female Rufous, a juvenile male Rufous, and another that may be a Rufous but I haven't been able to get a good enough look to be sure yet. I spent hours this week trying to get good pictures of the birds.

The juvenile male Rufous is a particularly pugnacious little guy who immediately attacks any other hummer who dares to invade the space that he claims as his own.

He always keeps an eye open for interlopers.

Including this Rufous female who was, after all, here first. She is every bit as pugnacious as he is so the hummingbird war continues unabated. And I am vastly entertained by it!