White-eyed Vireo

Since early this month, I've been hearing the distinctive songs of the White-eyed Vireo in trees and shrubs around my yard. The males are incessant singers at this time of year, so it is easy to know when they are around. It's not always so easy to actually see them though. They tend to stay in dense cover and so they are often hidden from view. Today, I finally managed to observe one in  the sycamore tree in my backyard.

(White-eyed Vireo photo by Lloyd Spitalnik.)

The reason for the bird's presence in the sycamore tree was very evident. The tree is just full of small green caterpillars right now. They're the larvae of a small moth. Vireos love caterpillars and the bird I watched today was stuffing his face with them! He moved up and down the limbs and twigs, turning over leaves as he went, searching for those juicy caterpillars and he was finding plenty of them.

These vireos do nest in our area and I'm hoping to have a pair in my yard this summer.They build a well-constructed nest that is a deep, hanging cup made of such things as twigs, roots, shreds of bark, grass stems, leaves, plant down, lichen, moss, and sometimes even fragments of wasp nests. They bind the nest together with spider webs and line it with fine grass and fibers. Usually the nest is built relatively low to the ground in a shrub.

The female generally lays four eggs in the nest and both parents take turns incubating for about 13-15 days. Unfortunately, these birds are often parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds that lay their own eggs in the vireos' nest. The White-eyed Vireo may have as many as two broods during our long, long summers.

They are lovely birds and great fun to watch when you can manage to find them among the dense leaves. Today, I got lucky.

This week in birds - #16

(Photo courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.)

The American Bird Conservancy's bird of the week is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. The little woodpecker is declining in numbers and its status is threatened as the longleaf pine savannas that it requires for its habitat are cut down or ravaged by pine beetles, disease and drought. This bird was once endemic throughout the Southeast but now is confined to a few isolated locations. It is most numerous in South Carolina and Texas, including here in Montgomery County.

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There is an old proverb that says that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago and the second best time to plant a tree is today. In a piece in The New York Times this week, Jim Robbins explains "Why Trees Matter."

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Did you ever wonder how Homing Pigeons, or indeed, pigeons in general, are able to find their way home? There has been a persistent theory that it is due to iron-rich cells in their beaks that make them sensitive to magnetic fields. Well, apparently you can scratch that theory. A report of a new study just published in Nature pretty thoroughly disproves it.

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Another new study says that the familiar backyard bird, the White-breasted Nuthatch, may actually be four distinct species.

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Last month was the warmest March in U.S. history, with 25 states east of the Rockies recording their warmest March on record and 15 more reaching the top ten of their warmest month of March.

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Conservationists have been very concerned about the effect of wind farms on migrating birds, but a new study in the United Kingdom did not find notably adverse effects to ten species that were included in the study. It should be noted though that those ten species did not include any large raptors which are of most concern in this country.  

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The Bermuda Petrel, or Cahow, was thought to be extinct for over 300 years, but there are now known to be at least 100 breeding pairs in the world.

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White-nose syndrome is a disease that has been devastating to bats in the Northeast and in Canada and it is spreading to other parts of the country. It has now been confirmed that the origin of the fungus which causes the disease is Europe.

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Scientists have used geolocators to track the Golden-crowned Sparrow for the first time from its wintering grounds in California to its breeding range in Alaska.

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The American chestnut tree was once an iconic image of towns and countrysides, but it was virtually wiped out by a pathogenic fungus. Now an attempt is being made to reintroduce genetically-modified forms of the tree in the eastern U.S. which, it is hoped, will be resistant to the disease.  

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Blogger Bug Girl is concerned about the GOP war on caterpillars. 

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Around the backyard: Nesting is well under way although I haven't seen any fledglings yet. I do hear their voices though, in the hedgerows and trees around the yard, and I expect they'll be making an appearance soon.

As I noted earlier this week, the first Indigo Buntings of spring have arrived. Beautiful birds with a joyous song - it's such a pleasure to have them around.

The male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are still passing through, but I haven't seen any females yet. I'm hoping that the little female that has nested here in recent years will be returning. Time will tell.

Wordless Wednesday: The color of April is Indigo

The end of FeederWatch

Last Friday marked the end of Project FeederWatch for this season. The citizen science project runs from the second week of November through the first week in April. My last report period was March 31 - April 1.

It was an interesting 21 weeks, marked by less diversity of species in the yard and at the feeders than we have in many winters, but, as always, there were a few delightfully unexpected visitors to keep things interesting.

For example, this was the first winter in which I have had Rufous Hummingbirds in my yard. One of the birds showed up the first week in January and was last seen in the yard on the 27th of March. Throughout most of this period, two of the birds were in my yard and visiting my feeders. Moreover, the migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds lingered in the yard until December 3 and then made their reappearance earlier than ever before on March 17.

This FeederWatch season marked my first ever sighting of a Dickcissel in my yard. The lone bird visited my feeders on November 26.

Another non-typical sighting was that of the Brown Creeper on March 17.

But perhaps the most notable aspect of this FeederWatch was the birds who were absent. There were no Pine Siskins or Red-breasted Nuthatches. The Orange-crowned Warblers that are plentiful here in some winters did not make a single appearance at my feeders during any of my FeederWatch observation days and I saw only a few of the birds at other times during the winter. Even the Yellow-rumped Warblers were fewer in number than usual. The first Common Grackle was not noted in the yard until March 17 and the birds only appeared on my reports for that date and for March 24. For many years, a Red-shouldered Hawk pair lived in my neighborhood and appeared on practically every report I submitted to any citizen science project.  This year, a single Red-shouldered only appeared twice, on December 3 and February 11, while the Red-tailed Hawks were much more likely to be seen and a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk appeared nearly every week.

My most productive weekend of feeder watching was February 18-19 when I found 29 species of birds feeding in or over my yard. It was not a coincidence that that was a part of the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend which is my most intensive weekend of bird watching during the year. The fewest number of birds were seen on the first weekend of watching, November 12-13, when I only found 13 species.

So this season of feeder watching is in the books but the project is already signing up participants for the next season beginning in November. If you've never participated before, please consider signing up. It's an excellent way to learn more about the birds in your yard and also to provide valuable data to the scientists which can be instrumental in protecting and conserving all birds. The birds need all the help we can give them.

Happy weekend

There were still plenty of American Robins in the backyard this week. 

The blog will be quiet for a couple of days while I take a long holiday weekend. I hope you enjoy your weekend and that you will be able to spend some part of it outside enjoying the birds and the other beauties of Nature. See you next week.

The Scissor-tails are here!

Driving into Houston this afternoon, I discovered that another of our favorite migrants has arrived on the scene. Yes, the lovely Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are here!

This is not one of the birds that I saw today, but one seen in a previous year. Today I saw three of the beauties perched on a utility wire along the roadway, a common place for them to sit. It's where I often see them all during the long summer months.

It's quite likely that these birds have been in the area for a while, but these are the first ones that I've actually seen. It's always a thrill to see that first one each spring and to welcome them back. I'll make sure to report this first sighting of the year to eBird.

Another early migrant: Whooping Cranes

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo of Whooping Cranes

You can add yet another species to the list of birds that are heading north earlier than usual this year. The endangered Whooping Cranes are leaving their winter home on the Texas coast at least a month earlier than usual. Some of the birds have already made their way as far north as South Dakota, on their way to their summer home in Canada.

It was an unusual winter all way around for the cranes. First, the flock that arrived in Texas was larger than it had been in the memory of living observers. Second, when they got here, they found a landscape, including their habitat, that had been devastated by drought and wildfires. That was a bad combination that did not bode well for a successful winter, but the cranes proved themselves adaptable. They responded by expanding their ranges to areas where they had not been seen before in winter. Mostly, they moved out into areas adjoining their usual ranges at Aransas Wildlife Refuge, but nine of the big birds - six adults and three chicks - even spent the winter in Central Texas near Granger Lake!

This winter's experience of the cranes is just more evidence for my theory about why birds are among the most successful animals on earth: They are adaptable. Even more importantly, they can fly. If things are not working out for them in one location, they move on in search of a more amenable spot. And they can readily respond to changing climate conditions.

So, now we've heard from the smallest North American birds, the hummingbirds, and the largest, the cranes, both of which started their migration earlier than usual this year. Moreover, birds up and down the size spectrum in between those two extremes are also on the move. It will be interesting to see what effects this might have on the breeding season, as well as whether this represents a new trend in migration.