Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2020 från BirdWatching

Cats. It’s the four-letter word of bird conservation. For over a century, ornithologists have been sounding the alarm about cats and their impacts on the environment. Whether owned, stray, or feral, roaming domestic cats hunt and kill the wild creatures that we value. To date, at least 40 bird species have been driven to extinction in the wild due, at least in part, to cats. Cats’ predatory instinct means we must be responsible about how we manage our pets. Learning this lesson, however, can take time. Growing up in suburban Ohio, I long believed that preventing a cat from running outdoors was cruel. To me, cats’ predatory behavior was “only natural.” But, like a growing number of cat owners, I began to see things differently. I learned that cats kept…

“You know…” said Roger Tory Peterson, in response to my assertion that North America’s bird population was faltering, “…I saw the first Forster’s Terns return to New York Harbor in the 1930s.” At the time, I found the celebrated ornithologist’s observation naive. Unsettled by what I perceived to be a wholesale decline in bird numbers, I was talking about the sky falling, and Roger was offering me a history lesson. But Roger’s observation was apt, and it is only now, as I approach an age when I, too, can look back with the wisdom of compounded experience, that I appre-ciate Roger’s tempered understanding. The recent estimate that North America’s bird population has seen a 3 billion-bird decline came as a shock to many and should serve as a wakeup call…

As the sun crept over the frosted sagebrush hills, I huffed along on my morning run, pushing against an unrelenting headwind. Traces of snow, the cold bite of a late March wind, and the stark landscape all hinted at winter’s reluctance to loosen its grip on the land. And then I heard it. A clear, haunting, whistled pit-tseew that stopped me in my tracks and prompted a broad smile. One of my favorite harbingers of spring had just announced itself. The somberly elegant Say’s Phoebe had returned from its winter haunts and was sweetly, soulfully announcing the coming of spring in sagebrush country. Hoping for my first glimpse of the new arrival for the year, I scanned the tops of sagebrush bushes, fence posts, and the roof lines of nearby…

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Over the last two decades, about five or six new bird species on average have been described each year. In January, however, a research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) made a quantum leap in the discovery of cryptic avian diversity by uncovering five species and five subspecies new to science. The team found the birds in three small island groups off the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The islands are situated in Indonesia’s Wallacea region, an archipelago at the interface between the Oriental and Australian biogeographical realms, named after Sir Alfred Wallace, who was the most famous historical collector exploring the area. During six weeks of fieldwork from November 2013 to January 2014, the researchers led by Frank Rheindt, an associate…

A study published in January in the journal Evolution explains why hummingbird feathers are so iridescent; that is, why they shimmer in the light and shift as you look at the birds from different angles. Other birds like ducks and grackles have iridescent feathers, of course, but hummingbirds take the trait to another level. Chad Eliason, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago, and an international team of colleagues conducted the largest-ever optical study of hummingbird feathers. They examined the feathers of 35 species with transmission electron microscopes and compared them with the feathers of other brightly colored birds, like green-headed Mallards, to look for differences in their make-up. The key difference, the researchers say, are structures called melanosomes in hummingbird feathers. Ducks have log-shaped melanosomes without any…

In the November/December 2019 issue of BirdWatching, Pete Dunne wrote the intriguing article “My Take on Listing” (pages 14-15). I did not realize that none other than Roger Tory Peterson may have been responsible for kicking off the idea of a life list, at least in this hemisphere, in the second edition of A Field Guide to the Birds (1947). I have that field guide. “My Life List” begins on page xxi with Common Loon, for which I had provided a “sanctifying checkmark” in 1958. I keep a life list, probably because I believed early on that’s one of the things real birders do. Why would I doubt RTP? A life list is the only type of list I keep. For me, it’s what I see on planet Earth in…

The Say’s Phoebe shares its Sayornis genus with two slightly smaller phoebes: the much-loved, drably dressed Eastern Phoebe, which inhabits deciduous forests in eastern and central North America and often builds its nest over doorways, and the aptly named, diminutively dapper Black Phoebe, which is typically found close to waterways in the Southwest and along the Pacific Coast. The Black Phoebe’s range extends southward through Central America and western South America to as far as northwestern Argentina. Part of the large bird family known as the tyrant flycatchers, which occur only in North and South America and number over 400 species, the insect-eating phoebes build open-cup nests — often on human structures — and are frequently seen raising and lowering their tails while perched. Like other flycatchers, phoebes lack the…

Bread may be the “food of life” for some human cultures, but it’s not nutritious for birds. What should you be feeding your backyard birds? Black-oil sunflower, easy to open with its thin shell and packing more oil and calories, is the single best choice for birdseed. Striped sunflower has a thicker shell, harder for House Sparrows and starlings to open, so is a good choice where they are a problem. White millet is excellent for native sparrows and doves. Many other tiny seeds used as filler in seed mixtures are often left uneaten and get moldy. If you notice that birds are mostly picking out the sunflower, try a different mixture or switch to plain sunflower. Many species prefer corn and especially peanuts. But when they get wet, both…

Northern Saw-whet Owl The Northern Saw-whet Owl is most commonly seen by North American birders during the non-breeding season and migration, when individuals can be found roosting in conifer stands and clumps of ornamental cedars in parks, gardens, and even backyards. Much has been learned about the ecology and movements of this species during recent decades thanks to the efforts of owl banders across North America. In April, as the map at left shows, Northern Saw-whet Owl occurs across much of the western United States and Canada and from the Great Lakes east to New England. Owls that spend the winter south of breeding areas move toward nesting regions at this time. The January map shows that in winter, some owls remain resident across the breeding range, while others move…

For many years, birders have traveled the highways and back roads to birdwatch the Upper Texas Coast (UTC) from the Louisiana state line to the southwest end of the Brazosport complex of wildlife refuges. The area covers roughly 100 miles of isolated forests called hammocks, cheniers, or mottes, plus coastal sand- or mudflats, inland freshwater marshes often in national wildlife refuges, rice fields, and open pastures and fields attracting myriads of grassland birds. The wide variety of habitats yields a bounty of birds normally exceeding 100 species in a day. During migration, especially in April, daily lists can exceed 150 species, including two dozen varieties either of sandpipers or warblers. At certain times of the year, select groups of birds may be expected at specific locations, such as rails at…

Florida has always beckoned as an escape for winter-weary northerners, but it beckons to birdwatchers, too, especially in spring. It’s perennially regarded as one of the top destinations for traveling birders. Isolated by water on three sides, the Florida peninsula has allowed the evolution of many bird subspecies found nowhere else in the world. One of the most distinctive races is the “Cape Sable” Seaside Sparrow, limited to the southern tip of the peninsula. It was regarded as a full species from its discovery in 1918 until it was lumped with other Seaside Sparrow races in 1973. Currently it is isolated by both distance and habitat: Unlike other Seaside Sparrows that are limited to salt marshes, the Cape Sable nests in freshwater marshes. However, the “Dusky” Seaside Sparrow, an extinct…

THE HANDSOME BIRD ABOVE with a rufous, white, and black head and yellow throat is a Rufous-capped Warbler. Its range covers much of Mexico south through Central America and into northern South America, and it does occur in small numbers in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. On the next page, our friend Jim Burns writes about one spot in southeastern Arizona, Florida Canyon, where you can look for Rufous-capped. It’s located not far from popular Madera Canyon. “The ever-popular Madera can be crowded, but the more remote Florida is lonesome and inviting with the prospect of many good birds, one of them very special,” Jim says. Don’t miss it or the other hotspot we’re featuring, Ray Roberts Lake State Park. It’s top-notch year-round and is located just north of the…

Predatory birds like hawks are always scarce — much less numerous than their prey species — and they often move through an area quickly and stealthily. To us, spotting a raptor is fun, but to birds like doves and sparrows, it is a matter of life or death. They will almost always find a bird of prey before we do, so if we can learn to recognize the signs that they’ve spotted one, it can help us see more raptors. Anyone who has a bird feeder will learn the sounds of a raptor attack: the bustling “conversation” of birds at the feeder suddenly switches to a flurry of wings and a few urgent-sounding calls from chickadees and finches, then silence. It’s time to scan for an accipiter. More distant hawks…