Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2019 från BirdWatching

An individual Stresemann’s Bristlefront, one of the world’s most endangered birds, was recently observed in Brazil after months of fruitless searching. Sightings of the female bristlefront on December 12 and 14, 2018, in fragments of habitat in Bahia, Brazil, have renewed hope that there is still time to save this remarkable, ground-nesting songbird from extinction. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its partner organization in Brazil, Fundação Biodiversitas, have been on high alert about the species’ population, which numbered as few as 15 individuals in recent years. In an attempt to assess the current population, Fundação Biodiversitas, supported by ABC, sent a team last fall to scour the species’ remaining habitat, which includes forest within and outside of the Mata do Passarinho, or “Songbird Forest,” Reserve. After several unsuccessful searches, Alexander…

On a spring evening in 1966, biologist Al Geis took Columbia, Maryland’s founder, Jim Rouse, to a clearing in the woods. They hunkered down. As the embers of daylight faded, they witnessed the acrobatic, shuffling, twittering showcase of the American Woodcock’s courtship display. Rouse, the innovative designer of this new suburban community between Baltimore and Washington, was so inspired that he preserved an extra 500 acres of open space in Columbia’s footprint. That tract is now permanently protected in what became the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. Fifty years later, I joined 10 other birders in Patuxent River State Park, west of Columbia, on a similar mission. The wide, mowed horseshoe-furrowed trail allowed our group to easily reach the site where we suspected woodcocks would show. The evening program, coordinated by…

I lay in a darkness diminished by subtle hints of the impending dawn, listening intently as an unfamiliar world came to life around me. A beautiful, melodic song — cheerful, insistent, persistent — that of a thrush, perhaps, led the morning chorus. A somber, sonorous, whoot whoot that sounded like the muted cheers of white-wigged judges interrupted with quiet regularity. Then a bubbling, watery, gurgling sound like that of a Brown-headed Cowbird on steroids momentarily drowned out the surrounding voices. My alarm sounded again, and I happily embraced the day, having enjoyed one of my favorite things: waking up in a new place, where the bird songs are unfamiliar and the hallmarks of a tropical birding adventure — bright colors, new sounds, unfamiliar forms, and intriguing behaviors — await. Upon…

What to look for Overall color. Quite drab. Midwestern birds show olive on back and yellow wash on flanks, while southwestern birds are grayer. Wing pattern. Two very narrow whitish wingbars, the upper one often quite faint. Face. Weak pattern with broken eye-ring, stronger above eye than below, and short, narrow eyebrow, mostly above the lores. Tail. Varies with geography. Longer in California and Arizona, where birds often flip tail from side to side. Shorter in Midwest, where birds often hold tail still or bob it up and down. At the age of 58, his fame already assured by publication of his great Birds of America, John James Audubon set out in 1843 on one last expedition to look for new birds. Traveling up the Missouri River with a team…

When I learned that just outside of my backyard I could find a quarter to half the world’s Sanderling population along with a variety of threatened species such as Piping Plover, I jumped at the chance to tour the area of Chaplin during spring migration. Shorebirds flock to Chaplin each year thanks to a nearby salt mine and a once-thriving brine shrimp industry. Many stay to nest, and others stop to fatten up and rest for the next leg of migration. With a bounty of food to choose from, shorebirds saunter the salty shores and shallow waters, feasting on masses of brine shrimp. The lake is a principal breeding area in the province for the endangered Piping Plover. It’s a special place that makes the chances of seeing one really…

In late 2018, BirdLife International and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature announced they had updated the conservation status of 93 bird species around the world on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. The Red List, dubbed the “barometer of life,” keeps a record of how close species are to extinction. Scientists updated the listings for no fewer than 21 bird species that are found in various parts of the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas, raising the threat status for most of them and lowering it for others. Here’s a summary of the changes. Up-listed to Critically Endangered: Newell’s Shearwater. This seabird nests principally on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i while small colonies occur elsewhere in the state. Its population size is estimated between 10,000 and 20,000…

Black-and-white Warbler Black-and-white Warbler is distinctive in several ways, from its striking black and white streaks to its unusual (for a wood-warbler) foraging behavior, in which it creeps along trunks and large tree branches, probing like a nuthatch. In January, during the nonbreeding season, the warbler is found primarily from Mexico to northern South America and in most of the Caribbean. Some individuals winter in portions of the southern United States, represented by purple squares on the January map. The species is fairly hardy, and there are winter records in places like coastal Oregon and New England. Black-and-white Warbler is one of our earlier spring migrant wood-warblers, and by April, a flood of individuals will have crossed the Gulf of Mexico reaching practically all of the eastern U.S. and portions…

Stretching along Lake Erie’s northern shore for more than 350 miles is Canada’s most temperate region, one that can aptly be dubbed “Canada’s Riviera.” The similarities of the area to the Mediterranean seacoast are surprising. Both lie along a latitude of roughly 42 degrees and enjoy a balmy summertime average temperature of 73°F. With roughly a dozen provincial and national parks along the lakeshore, Canada’s Riviera is a popular summer destination. The shoreline is dotted with quaint fishing villages and follows the edge of rich agricultural fields. Most of these parks have languished in the shadow of their more famous cousin, Point Pelee National Park, and await discovery by adventurous birders willing to explore their rich habitats. If you follow the shoreline along King’s Highway 3 (commonly referred to as…

The success of individual birds is measured by their contribution to the gene pool determined by the number of surviving offspring they produce. To determine the rate of offspring production, population biologists study fecundity — the number of eggs per nest (clutch size) and nests per year (broods). Following are two examples. A female bobwhite leads her 12 newly hatched chicks from the nest to a secluded habitat with good cover and abundant food. Because they feed themselves, mom mostly needs to keep them together. After the youngsters have grown and dispersed, she may mate again and bring up another brood. Perhaps she’ll raise 15-20 youngsters in one summer. That’s huge, and she could live another five to 10 years. This reproductive strategy yields great production with minimal investment of…

I have been in the environmental trenches for 42 years now, striving like so many other ardent defenders of nature to move the agenda forward. The question is always the same: How do we engage Society’s Rank and File, make them advocates of this verdant world? I’ve come to realize that the solution has been under our noses the whole time: Simply make everyone a birder. Birds are nature’s most obvious envoys. They are everywhere. They enjoy universal acclaim. They link people to nature. The trick is not selling birds. I have unbridled faith that birds sell themselves. You are a case in point. I am a case in point. All we need to do is help our environmentally estranged brethren engage them. That is where you come in. What…

IN ANY GIVEN YEAR, around 160 birding festivals take place throughout North America. We listed 70 fall and winter festivals in our September/October 2018 issue, and now we’re pleased to feature no fewer than 87 events slated to take place this spring and summer. They’re held in big cities and small towns, at wildlife refuges and state and national parks. Festivals can help birdwatchers find new birds, learn birding skills, and shop for binoculars, feeders, and other products. We hope this list inspires you to attend one (or more!) of these great events. ➽ APRIL A Celebration of Swans April 1-30 Whitehorse, Yukon yukon.ca/en/outdoor-recreation-and-wildlife/wildlife-viewing Alaska Hummingbird Festival April 1-30 Ketchikan, Alaska alaskacenters.gov/event/hummingbird-festival Mackinaw Raptor Fest April 5-7 Mackinaw City, Michigan mackinawraptorfest.org Great Louisiana BirdFest April 5-8 Mandeville, Louisiana northlakenature.org/birdfest Lesser…

WHEN BIRDERS THINK OF the most important places in the Americas for shorebirds, we would likely name places like New Jersey’s Delaware Bay, Washington’s Grays Harbor, and Alaska’s Copper River Delta. All are famed for huge concentrations of shorebirds, especially during migratory periods, and they’re all recognized by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network as sites of hemispheric importance. Another site that should be on our radar is Chaplin Lake in southwestern Saskatchewan, along with nearby Old Wives and Reed Lakes. They also have the hemispheric-importance ranking from the WHSRN, due to the fact that more than 30 percent of all Sanderlings use the area as a spring stopover. All told, more than 100,000 shorebirds of more than 30 species, including significant numbers of Piping Plover and Stilt Sandpiper, visit…

When I learned that just outside of my backyard I could find a quarter to half the world’s Sanderling population along with a variety of threatened species such as Piping Plover, I jumped at the chance to tour the area of Chaplin during spring migration. Shorebirds flock to Chaplin each year thanks to a nearby salt mine and a once-thriving brine shrimp industry. Many stay to nest, and others stop to fatten up and rest for the next leg of migration. With a bounty of food to choose from, shorebirds saunter the salty shores and shallow waters, feasting on masses of brine shrimp. The lake is a principal breeding area in the province for the endangered Piping Plover. It’s a special place that makes the chances of seeing one really…

One autumn morning a few years ago, when I was birding at the “Magic Hedge,” a rare-bird magnet in Chicago’s Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, I found a lovely collection of birds feeding on the ground in a flower bed. Panning with binoculars, I identified one Song Sparrow, several White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, a pair of Mourning Doves, a Harris’s Sparrow, more doves, a rat, and…a rat! I almost dropped my binoculars in shock. My own city, Duluth, Minnesota, has longstanding rat problems in the harbor, where grain is stored and transported and in the heated subterranean world beneath downtown, but neighborhoods like mine have been rat-free thanks to frigid winters and well-sealed houses. But with milder winters, rats are spreading. Last spring, one Duluth elementary school became so infested that…

Beginning birders quickly learn the concept of habitat preferences. It’s a pretty straightforward idea — each species seeks out a place with a particular set of conditions and spends its time there. This is helpful for identification at a very basic level, and as we gain experience, we continue to refine our knowledge of birds’ preferences (and our ability to distinguish subtle differences in habitat). For a beginner, it’s helpful to know that you should look for sandpipers on mudflats and sparrows in hedgerows, never the other way around. More experienced birders learn that each sandpiper species likes different kinds of mudflats, and sparrows tend to sort themselves out around the hedgerow. As we learn this, it is helpful not just for identifying the birds that we find in those…