Wild Side Ornithology Club

[beautress]

Cornell webcam sows more Pine grosbeaks and Redpolls at the feeder. The blue jay made his reappearance briefly now and then..

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[beautress]

This video, designed especially for cats is a big hit with the household feline, ms. piccolo. She purred more watching this one than ever she has any other.

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[beautress]

If we can just add one bird a day to our recognition list, it's a good thing. Here's help from youtube, as usual.

All the videos are a little more fun if you follow them by clicking to "youtube" and then going to full screen. Hope you find that as awesome as Ms. Piccolo does.​

 

[Pogo]

If we can just add one bird a day to our recognition list, it's a good thing. Here's help from youtube, as usual.

All the videos are a little more fun if you follow them by clicking to "youtube" and then going to full screen. Hope you find that as awesome as Ms. Piccolo does.​

This is a great collection of shots, Becki. I have most of these here with exceptions of redwing blackbirds and warblers, though I've caught them elsewhere to the north. I'd say chickadees and titmice with the occasional nuthatch are the most common with the occasional roaming Cardinal. And of course I love my finches, I keep them supplied with thistleseed. They are picky about freshness though.

We had 21" of snow a week ago so in preparation I put out a cake of insecty suet. It's been very popular.

 

[beautress]

Morning Becki. I came across this video and immediately thought of you.

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I love the woodpeckers' antics and song thrush, too in your video, and was amazed their bison greatly resemble those huge herds that now roam the Yellowstone Park, which became one of my favorite places on earth in 35 years of living in the Equality State, where indeed, the buffalo roam.

 

[beautress]

If we can just add one bird a day to our recognition list, it's a good thing. Here's help from youtube, as usual.

All the videos are a little more fun if you follow them by clicking to "youtube" and then going to full screen. Hope you find that as awesome as Ms. Piccolo does.​

This is a great collection of shots, Becki. I have most of these here with exceptions of redwing blackbirds and warblers, though I've caught them elsewhere to the north. I'd say chickadees and titmice with the occasional nuthatch are the most common with the occasional roaming Cardinal. And of course I love my finches, I keep them supplied with thistleseed. They are picky about freshness though.

We had 21" of snow a week ago so in preparation I put out a cake of insecty suet. It's been very popular.

Thanks, Pogo.
Insecty suet? You da man! I bet you have the happiest birds for miles around, even though picky, as they become accustomed to the snows and adjust to winter's weather if they are not birds that migrate to avoid freezing weather. Glad to see you back on the bird forums. You have a gift for understanding birds, and it blesses everyone who comes here.

 

[Pogo]

If we can just add one bird a day to our recognition list, it's a good thing. Here's help from youtube, as usual.

All the videos are a little more fun if you follow them by clicking to "youtube" and then going to full screen. Hope you find that as awesome as Ms. Piccolo does.​

This is a great collection of shots, Becki. I have most of these here with exceptions of redwing blackbirds and warblers, though I've caught them elsewhere to the north. I'd say chickadees and titmice with the occasional nuthatch are the most common with the occasional roaming Cardinal. And of course I love my finches, I keep them supplied with thistleseed. They are picky about freshness though.

We had 21" of snow a week ago so in preparation I put out a cake of insecty suet. It's been very popular.

Thanks, Pogo.
Insecty suet? You da man! I bet you have the happiest birds for miles around, even though picky, as they become accustomed to the snows and adjust to winter's weather if they are not birds that migrate to avoid freezing weather. Glad to see you back on the bird forums. You have a gift for understanding birds, and it blesses everyone who comes here.

Yeah I came across it by chance in one of my closeout-discount stores. Don't think I had seen that before. Fortuitous timing.

You're too kind Becki, if there's a blessing here it's your thread and your dedication.

 

[beautress]

Pogo, there was something about the red-winged blackbirds a few years back, that diminished their numbers in the US, I think. Something about a virus that took out a lot of birds was really harsh on the red-winged blackbird. Oh, what was it? Seems like I associate it with a virus that's harsh on humans too, but not sure if some kind of virus with the words West Nile virus may have the culprit. It seems it was pinpointed to have spread from Cuba or an area close thereto. There's always gossip that blames people in a region in the world, but of course, with bird flu, occasionally a likely bird infects some migratory bird, which may account for its pinpointing to be so close to the US, and many of our birds don't pay any attention to human politics and use their forever winter playgrounds whether we prohibit Cuban cigars or not. I used to be a lot more paranoid about stuff like that, but the longer I'm around, the more I realize that most threats come from accidents of nature. It's like the black guillemots I mentioned a while back that showed up in Freedom Lake a few years back, and was guessing a storm may have thrown them off track, as birds will cluster in the eye of a hurricane or other storm and escape when the storm comes inland and dissipates. Those birds may be a single flock flying around, looking for suitable food, and they may clean out one small area, move onto the next, and having so much fun they forget about making their way back to Northern European/arctic wetlands, and finding pathways in the New World, just like humans did 500 years ago. I'm just grateful I got to see the frenetic aspect of them flying in masse, once in my lifetime. (The white mark on their sides/wings may cause this appearance by the motion and metronome aspect of their wings moving up and down in staccato).

Anyway, Pogo, I just remembered you saying something about not having seen many red-winged blackbirds where you are. I surely hope they make a comeback if their numbers are sparse. It could be that I just haven't tracked them after having moved back home to Texas after the weather in Wyoming exacerbated my fibromyalgia pain, and it was truly unbearable to stay there another winter. By the time I got here, West Nile Virus had been around probably less than 5 years, but I know it was more than 2 years, because an acquaintance of the family there got West Nile Virus and almost died from it, but somehow worked his way back to health. He must have had a mighty good physician, because initially, it hit people and birds (I think) pretty hard.

By the way, I saw red-winged blackbirds at least once a year while living in Wyoming, and I noticed from the times we drove home to visit relatives in Texas, they were seen on the road back. Once we drove through Kansas and Oklahoma, another time through Western Colorado and the Oklahoma panhandle, and straight down through Amarillo, Texas, and onto the greater Houston area. We also just went directly south through the Colorado rocky mountains, a corner of New Mexico at Raton Pass,, and again, through Amarillo. I eventually gave up on going through Denver due to its perpetual tendency to rearrange I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs, and the result was so bad, traffic and long waits was worrisome to people from the seventh largest state that had under 500,000 people in the whole state due to the horizontal snows and harsh, cold, windy arctic desert conditions. Brrrr! The only birds brave enough to stay the winter there were the pigeons, who got massacred in the downtown areas due to their tendency to cluster near the banks and shopping district.

 

[Pogo]

Pogo, there was something about the red-winged blackbirds a few years back, that diminished their numbers in the US, I think. Something about a virus that took out a lot of birds was really harsh on the red-winged blackbird. Oh, what was it? Seems like I associate it with a virus that's harsh on humans too, but not sure if some kind of virus with the words West Nile virus may have the culprit. It seems it was pinpointed to have spread from Cuba or an area close thereto. There's always gossip that blames people in a region in the world, but of course, with bird flu, occasionally a likely bird infects some migratory bird, which may account for its pinpointing to be so close to the US, and many of our birds don't pay any attention to human politics and use their forever winter playgrounds whether we prohibit Cuban cigars or not. I used to be a lot more paranoid about stuff like that, but the longer I'm around, the more I realize that most threats come from accidents of nature. It's like the black guillemots I mentioned a while back that showed up in Freedom Lake a few years back, and was guessing a storm may have thrown them off track, as birds will cluster in the eye of a hurricane or other storm and escape when the storm comes inland and dissipates. Those birds may be a single flock flying around, looking for suitable food, and they may clean out one small area, move onto the next, and having so much fun they forget about making their way back to Northern European/arctic wetlands, and finding pathways in the New World, just like humans did 500 years ago. I'm just grateful I got to see the frenetic aspect of them flying in masse, once in my lifetime. (The white mark on their sides/wings may cause this appearance by the motion and metronome aspect of their wings moving up and down in staccato).

Anyway, Pogo, I just remembered you saying something about not having seen many red-winged blackbirds where you are. I surely hope they make a comeback if their numbers are sparse. It could be that I just haven't tracked them after having moved back home to Texas after the weather in Wyoming exacerbated my fibromyalgia pain, and it was truly unbearable to stay there another winter. By the time I got here, West Nile Virus had been around probably less than 5 years, but I know it was more than 2 years, because an acquaintance of the family there got West Nile Virus and almost died from it, but somehow worked his way back to health. He must have had a mighty good physician, because initially, it hit people and birds (I think) pretty hard.

By the way, I saw red-winged blackbirds at least once a year while living in Wyoming, and I noticed from the times we drove home to visit relatives in Texas, they were seen on the road back. Once we drove through Kansas and Oklahoma, another time through Western Colorado and the Oklahoma panhandle, and straight down through Amarillo, Texas, and onto the greater Houston area. We also just went directly south through the Colorado rocky mountains, a corner of New Mexico at Raton Pass,, and again, through Amarillo. I eventually gave up on going through Denver due to its perpetual tendency to rearrange I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs, and the result was so bad, traffic and long waits was worrisome to people from the seventh largest state that had under 500,000 people in the whole state due to the horizontal snows and harsh, cold, windy arctic desert conditions. Brrrr! The only birds brave enough to stay the winter there were the pigeons, who got massacred in the downtown areas due to their tendency to cluster near the banks and shopping district.

No actually I just don't see Redwings here because I'm in heavily forested mountains, and the redwings are more a wetlands bird, so they don't hang here I think they like marshes and lakes and such, which is where I have seen them. So no worries about population implosions. I don't see (or hear) mockingbirds around here either because they're more of a city bird. Soon as I travel to a city though, there they are.

I wonder if you're thinking of the time in Arkansas where four to five thousand redwings were suddenly found dead. Turned out they were scared by the loud (and mindless) bangs of a New Year's Eve and panicked, and with such poor night vision that many collided with trees and other various objects that they couldn't see. The roost they called home however was comprised of over a million and a half birds, so relatively speaking it wasn't a significant number ---- but it does provide an ironic answer to your observation that 'most threats come from accidents of nature' --- here's one that came from humans, and one that was and is totally unnecessary, "celebrating" the occasion of a midnight that we all knew was going to happen.

I'm not a big fan of "New Year's Eve" as you might gather. The best one I can remember was actually here, last year. Because I sat out on my porch and as midnight struck I heard........... absolutely nothing. As it should be.

 

[beautress]

'Disorientated' birds found dead in town

'Disorientated' birds found dead in town

10 hrs ago
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A number of "disoriented" wading birds from a threatened species have died in Jersey.

Bird enthusiast Mick Dryden said about 10 woodcocks had been found in unusual parts of St Helier.

He said possibly the birds had become confused by artificial lights in the town, causing them to fly into nearby glass buildings.

The RSPB said people should interfere "as little as possible" with injured woodcocks they might come across.

Mr Dryden, Chairman of the Ornithology Section of the Societe Jersiaise, said the birds were not a common sight in St Helier.

However, he added: "Most birds are attracted by bright light at night...they will fly around them".

Mr Dryden accepted the issue could be due to more of the birds visiting the island than usual in 2018.

However, he observed the levels of ambient lighting around the Esplanade and waterfront areas of St Helier "seemed to be going up".

The birds, he said, were likely to have been blinded by lights in glass panelled office buildings in the area.​

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What is a woodcock?
According to the RSPB charity a woodcock or scolopax rusticola is a "large, bulky, wading bird" with "short legs and a long, straight, tapering bill.
'Disorientated' birds found dead in town

 

[beautress]

American Woodcock

American Woodcock Range Map, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology​

 

[beautress]

Oh, the lovely birds on December 30, 2018 Audubon Calendar:

Believe it or not, Sunday and Monday, Dec. 23, 24, 30, and 31 share the same picture of A Chestnut-backed Chickadee. Dec. 25 was a beautiful Red-bellied Woodpecker, the 26th was a Common Redpoll, the 27th was a cute Carolina Wren, and Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th was this cool Blue Jay in his winter light-blue and slightly whitish grey chest. See what the net brings up and will post asap.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee: ……….....Red-bellied Woodpecker...……………Common Redpoll​

...[

..​

Carolina Wren

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.

 

[beautress]

Happy New Bird Calendar Year, birdlovers everywhere!

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This year's Audubon page-a-day calendar for 2019 is featuring a lovely bird of Africa, Coracias caudatus, aka Lilac-breasted Roller. Hope I can find as pretty and colorful of a bird online, I am looking at a lovely songbird that has a mauve (lilac with some hot pink thrown in) chest from under his eye to the underside of his wing. Underwings are this light turquoise with a black outer wing, and golden feet, charcoal beak and a matching line through the eye area from beak to back of head. Like I said, the right picture would show you In the meantime, Wikipedia had this to say about this charmingly most wonderful colorful bird that fits the "eye candy" category any day.

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The lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus) is an African member of the roller (or Coraciidae) family of birds.
It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, and is a vagrant to the southern Arabian Peninsula.
It prefers open woodland and savanna, and it is for the most part absent from treeless places.

Take a trip to a South African website to hear the call/chatter of this lively, lovely bird: Sound recordings of Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) | the Internet Bird Collection (IBC) | HBW Alive​

 

[beautress]

When you just want to flake out and relax sometime in the new year, here's some birdsong for background music.
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[beautress]

Day II of the new Calendar Page-a-Day calendar I got from the Audubon Society. Unlike the American songbird calendar, this page-a-day celebrates the little feathered friends of other parts of the world that we never get to see. Today's bird (Wednesday, January 2, 2019) shows the Malayan Banded Pitta, aka Hydrornis irena, reminds me of a little bird near my northwest pasture fence a few years back known as Killdeer, although the coloration shows little bands of dark against orange tiny feathers. I'll hope I can find a picture online that is available to show this cute little critter's garb, as distinctive as a tuxedo of years when they were always black.

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Just for fun, here's an American Killdeer that the Malayan Banded Pita reminded me of. I had a little tribe of these who loved to next near the northwest fencepost of my little farmstead in northern Walker County, Texas.: Haven't seen killdeer lately, but I must've found them when they were nesting, or somehow, the plants they liked in that area were not present after horses left the pastures when we got here because my husband hated horses, so we never owned any of them, and he didn't want to care for them as the people who were using the pasture from the earlier owner wanted the owner to oversee their well-being while they did other things. So we did not continue to pasture the horses. Not sure what if any relationship there was between the two species..

 

[Marion Morrison]

What's the smallest bird? There's some small flocks of these extremely tiny birds out in the yard right now.

About 1/3 to 1/4 the size of a Finch. Never seen them before.

 

[beautress]

Marion, if you like an accurate identification of what birds you saw, it pays to get a notepad and describe what you are seeing:

(1) Do the birds look alike? If they were together, different characters may have been due to dimorphism, but some things will likely be the same: Are their beaks pointed, fat, or somewhere in between? What color are the beaks? What color are the legs? Any distinguishing marks on the birds (barring of chest, shoulders, or wings (barring means the light and dark coloring or unique lines made by rows of light colored feathers and rows of dark colored feathers. Are there identifying on the top of the birds' heads (white crown, black crown, etc.) Were some of the birds a different color? A lot of times, a pretty blue bird or a pretty red bird will have a duller brown or gray mate in order to disguise her nesting in similar-colored grasses or trees that she would blend in with (or not). Your best bet would be to search for the smallest known bird by loading what information you have into a search engine. Chances are, you will wind up with a lot of hummingbirds... But if they look like sparrows, wrens, or other familiar bird, they may be a specific specie. The confusion all of us have with identification of birds is the failure to pay attention to the details of the bird. Some behaviors are so prevalent in a specie that you will find them common to a specific kind of bird. Other birds are only around for a short duration if they are migrating. I guessing that since you saw so many of them, they were a migrant flock, keeping together until they reached their target area (or not), writing a list down of how they acted or what their calls sounded like are your only hope of determining what they are. Sparrows can be small, and so can some other little birds. If you have a way to record them, some birders are so bright they can tell you what they are just by hearing them. You could send your info to where it would be appreciated--Cornell lab for birds, Audubon society, etc., or even a nearby university that has a good bird man (ornithologist) as a resident professor, or a zoo if your birds are thought to be exotic. If you live in an area that has an aviary someone there might be able to know what you are seeing if your record the date of your sighting, since migratory birds are tracable in some instances. If not, write everything down you remember about the birds and ask someone at the National Aviary: The National Aviary - The Nation's Premier Bird Zoo

If you take really good notes, you can probably find them all by yourself with the aid of a good image group. I personally love Bing! and use Images constantly to show the bird I am looking at. It takes a lot of time to educate yourself on something like the "smallest bird" and give an idea of their size in inches or centimeters, you're a step ahead onto realizing what you just saw. But nothing is better than that eye color, underwing color, barring, supercilium (or not), and the colors of the markings or their shade of light or dark. Did they spend the night or disappear as quickly as they descended upon your watchman's blind?

Size is only one characteristic leg color, body color, beak color, wingspan size, sounds, personality--they're all characteristics and key to identification of unknown flocks. I hope you find your birds. There is joy in knowing what you are seeing, but when you know the markings, time, characteristics--and being able to separate who they are from say crows, cardinals, wrens, titmice (pretty small grey birds), etc, I know you can do it. That's how you can put these tidbits of knowing into an identification focus you can find with a good search engine and image file, as Bing.

 

[Marion Morrison]

Marion, if you like an accurate identification of what birds you saw, it pays to get a notepad and describe what you are seeing:

(1) Do the birds look alike? If they were together, different characters may have been due to dimorphism, but some things will likely be the same: Are their beaks pointed, fat, or somewhere in between? What color are the beaks? What color are the legs? Any distinguishing marks on the birds (barring of chest, shoulders, or wings (barring means the light and dark coloring or unique lines made by rows of light colored feathers and rows of dark colored feathers. Are there identifying on the top of the birds' heads (white crown, black crown, etc.) Were some of the birds a different color? A lot of times, a pretty blue bird or a pretty red bird will have a duller brown or gray mate in order to disguise her nesting in similar-colored grasses or trees that she would blend in with (or not). Your best bet would be to search for the smallest known bird by loading what information you have into a search engine. Chances are, you will wind up with a lot of hummingbirds... But if they look like sparrows, wrens, or other familiar bird, they may be a specific specie. The confusion all of us have with identification of birds is the failure to pay attention to the details of the bird. Some behaviors are so prevalent in a specie that you will find them common to a specific kind of bird. Other birds are only around for a short duration if they are migrating. I guessing that since you saw so many of them, they were a migrant flock, keeping together until they reached their target area (or not), writing a list down of how they acted or what their calls sounded like are your only hope of determining what they are. Sparrows can be small, and so can some other little birds. If you have a way to record them, some birders are so bright they can tell you what they are just by hearing them. You could send your info to where it would be appreciated--Cornell lab for birds, Audubon society, etc., or even a nearby university that has a good bird man (ornithologist) as a resident professor, or a zoo if your birds are thought to be exotic. If you live in an area that has an aviary someone there might be able to know what you are seeing if your record the date of your sighting, since migratory birds are tracable in some instances. If not, write everything down you remember about the birds and ask someone at the National Aviary: The National Aviary - The Nation's Premier Bird Zoo

If you take really good notes, you can probably find them all by yourself with the aid of a good image group. I personally love Bing! and use Images constantly to show the bird I am looking at. It takes a lot of time to educate yourself on something like the "smallest bird" and give an idea of their size in inches or centimeters, you're a step ahead onto realizing what you just saw. But nothing is better than that eye color, underwing color, barring, supercilium (or not), and the colors of the markings or their shade of light or dark. Did they spend the night or disappear as quickly as they descended upon your watchman's blind?

Size is only one characteristic leg color, body color, beak color, wingspan size, sounds, personality--they're all characteristics and key to identification of unknown flocks. I hope you find your birds. There is joy in knowing what you are seeing, but when you know the markings, time, characteristics--and being able to separate who they are from say crows, cardinals, wrens, titmice (pretty small grey birds), etc, I know you can do it. That's how you can put these tidbits of knowing into an identification focus you can find with a good search engine and image file, as Bing.

TL;DR. Teeniest birds ever, small flock, dark color, eat yard bugs and poof.

Maybe up to 3 1/2 inches long, less than 1 1/2 inch diameter.

There can't be that many varieties of birds that flock and are smaller than a Hummingbird. Well..they might be 20% bigger than a hummingbird.

Smallest bird I've ever seen..in decades. Yes, they're smaller than Hummingbirds.

That should narrow it down a bit. Migrates, smaller than hummingbird, eats ground bugs.

 

[beautress]

Gee, Marion, I'm just a sideliner in the world of Ornithology. I love birds, but I dont' know all their markings, sizes, etc. Saying your birds are sparrows may or may not hit the mark. They are small, but ornithologists weigh birds, and nothing is lighter than a hummingbird to the best of my recollection, although again, I just love birds a lot, and there are dozens if not hundreds of subspecies of sparrows, all with names. I'm sorry my post was too long and boring, but if you truly are wanting to know what you saw, you need either the willingness to go to the best places listed on the first post of this thread (freedombecki) and sift through their search engines, which may or may not be able to list all the birds that are 3" from head to tail v. 2 3/4" head to tail. This may be a case of "next time." I went through a phase until someone I read told about writing down the characteristics. This in the case of tiny birds may take you putting a binocular hanging on a nail by the back or front door to be handy when you're wondering what bird you are looking at. Note pad. Pencil. Recording details.

I now know about your birds:
came in large flock
dark shade of feathers
unusually small birds
carnivorous eaters
birds not commonly seen before
forage insects available exhausted in short time
viewer impressed by what he saw

sighting: early morning, Jan 2, 2019

I do not know:
if there were bird feeders?
bird bath or water source around?
color of "dark" feathers
Streaked with brown, gray, gold, rust,?
Any white or light areas on bird?
time viewer spends outdoors--sustained v. seldom
color of beaks
color of legs
Approximate population of "large" flock (dozens, hundreds, a thousand?)




​

 

[Marion Morrison]

Gee, Marion, I'm just a sideliner in the world of Ornithology. I love birds, but I dont' know all their markings, sizes, etc. Saying your birds are sparrows may or may not hit the mark. They are small, but ornithologists weigh birds, and nothing is lighter than a hummingbird to the best of my recollection, although again, I just love birds a lot, and there are dozens if not hundreds of subspecies of sparrows, all with names. I'm sorry my post was too long and boring, but if you truly are wanting to know what you saw, you need either the willingness to go to the best places listed on the first post of this thread (freedombecki) and sift through their search engines, which may or may not be able to list all the birds that are 3" from head to tail v. 2 3/4" head to tail. This may be a case of "next time." I went through a phase until someone I read told about writing down the characteristics. This in the case of tiny birds may take you putting a binocular hanging on a nail by the back or front door to be handy when you're wondering what bird you are looking at. Note pad. Pencil. Recording details.

I now know about your birds:
came in large flock
dark shade of feathers
unusually small birds
carnivorous eaters
birds not commonly seen before
forage insects available exhausted in short time
viewer impressed by what he saw

sighting: early morning, Jan 2, 2019

I do not know:
if there were bird feeders?
bird bath or water source around?
color of "dark" feathers
Streaked with brown, gray, gold, rust,?
Any white or light areas on bird?
time viewer spends outdoors--sustained v. seldom
color of beaks
color of legs
Approximate population of "large" flock (dozens, hundreds, a thousand?)




​

Dark brown feathers, less than 2 dozen in a flock. Short pointy dark beak. Very skittish, getting a pic is doubtful. Nothing is light colored on them. Yes, I have a birdbath and critter water. I have a view of section of yard all day almost. These birds don't stay in 1 area long. They come, eat a few bugs, and on to the next place. They're shorter than the grass.