For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

List of podcasts discussed:

BirdNote Daliy

Threatened

The Science of Birds

Songbirding

The American Birding Podcast

The Warblers

Bring Back Birds

Ten Things I Like About…

All of these can be found on all major podcast outlets

Further recommendations involving more animals than birds:

Just the Zoo of Us, by Ellen and Christian Weatherford

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

Transcript 

Kiersten: Intro: Welcome to the Feathered Desert. This is our final episode, so it’s a bittersweet moment for us both. We’re sad to go, but we’re so happy that we were able to create this podcast that brought enjoyment and education to our listeners. We won’t leave you high and dry with nothing to listen to, though. In this episode we’ll recommend a few other podcasts that we enjoy listening to and we hope you’ll enjoy, as well.

Cheryl: We’re going to start off with one of our favorites, both Kiersten and I listen to this one and we think you’ll love it too. BirdNote Daily is a three-minute podcast that posts daily episodes. This podcast is all about what’s happening in the bird world. New discoveries, how birds impact our mental health, female bird song, great bird dads. These are only some of the great topics you can hear on this show. It’s actually inspired several of our own episodes.

Kiersten: BirdNote also produces another podcast called Threatened. This series has longer episodes and talk about threatened species of birds and everything related to that species. They talk about the research being done to help their survival. They discuss why they are threatened in the first place. It’s a fascinating podcast that shows how birds and people are linked.

Cheryl: Another of my favorites is The Science of Birds. This one is hosted by a gentleman that loves his birds. He writes episodes about birds of all kinds and reveals the fascinating things that make them special.

Kiersten: I just discovered this next a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it! Songbirding takes you on birding outings with the host. He records himself hiking and birding by ear in various natural spaces. I know it sounds boring and weird but he points out the bird’s song when he hears them and tells you what species they are. It’s actually really cool and very relaxing.

Cheryl: The American Birding Podcast keeps you informed on everything that is happening in the birding world. This one focuses a bit more on the art of birding but it does have some pretty interesting interviews with prominent bird personalities and authors and scientists.

Kiersten: The Warblers is a podcast by Birds Canada, a non-profit organization that works to protect birds and their habitat in Canada. They do talk about birds that are not often found in the Southwest but it’s all fascinating information about birds. It’s a great podcast to help you expand your knowledge of bird species.

Cheryl: Bring Back Birds is another podcast from BirdNote that talks about the declining bird populations, but doesn’t leave you crying. It highlights programs of conservation that make the future of birds look hopeful.

Kiersten: I can’t end this episode without a shameless plug for my new podcast called Ten Things I Like About… For those of you that can’t get enough of me, check out this podcast. It’s a ten-minute, ten-episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood creature in nature. This one doesn’t focus specifically on birds but there are bird series included. And Cheryl joins me for some episodes and will probably join me for more in the future!

            Well, that’s all for The Feathered Desert, listeners. We are signing off for the last time. We hope you’ve enjoyed our show as much as we enjoyed making it.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Arizona’s Winter Finches,” by Charles Babbitt The Cactus Wren-Dition Winter 2023

Transcript

Cheryl-Intro

         Some finch species are highly prone to irruptions-which are occasions when large numbers of birds take flight and regularly move hundreds of miles beyond their normal winter ranges in response to food scarcity especially cone and seed crop failures.  Kiersten and I did a podcast last year about irruption in the bird world so check out that podcast to get more information. 

         In the winter of 2022-2023 was such a situation when Evening Grosbeaks, Cassin’s Finches, Red Crossbills, Pine Siskins, and Lawernce Goldfinches were reported in large, unprecedented numbers at many locations around the state of Arizona.  These are the nomadic winter finches of Arizona.

Kiersten-Red Crossbills

The Red Crossbills are the oddest of the group.  When you get a close look at their bill you will see what looks like a deformed beak with the lower mandible crossing under the upper mandible.  This allows the crossbill o pry open tightly closed cones to extract the seeds, an evolutionary adaption that gives them access to a unique food source.  Red Crossbills are resident breeders in much of Arizona’s upper elevation forests.  In flight years, however, irruptions can bring roving flocks from out of the state swelling numbers in mountainous areas and sometimes bringing these boreal invaders into the lowlands such as the Phoenix Valley.

Cheryl-Pine Siskins

         Pine Siskins are one of the smaller winter finches often confused with the House finch.  These little birds are year-round residents in Arizona’s high country they are famous for their periodic irruptions.  Movements are irregular and sporadic with birds being quite common some years and entirely absent other years. 

         Pine Siskins have sharp narrow bills they use to extract seeds from the cones of a variety of conifers. In winter, flocks are often seen at feeders, with the Lesser Goldfinch and the House finch, or in weedy fields.  These birds are quite personable and a person can get quite close to them before they will take flight.    Pine Siskins are recognized by their steaky breasts and the bright yellow markings on their wings.  In flight they show a distinctive yellow wing stripe.

Kiersten-Evening Grosbeaks

         Of the winter finches, Evening Grosbeaks are the most striking.  These stocky birds have evolved massive cream-colored beaks which are unmistakable and which are used like nutcrackers to feed on a variety of large seeds, catkins and even small fruit pits.  In northern Arizona these birds might be seen feeding in winter on Russian olive fruits and juniper berries.

         Male Evening Grosbeaks are yellow and black with a distinct yellow forehead and eye brow and large white patches.  Females are mostly gray with a yellowish-green collar and black and white wing markings.

         In Arizona Evening Grosbeaks breed very locally in the high country.  In the winter they form large noisy flocks.  Like the other winter finches Evening Grosbeaks have irruptive years, and when they do these birds delight bird watchers and the bird feeding hobbyists by crowded around seed feeders to eat sunflower seeds.

Cheryl-Cassin’s Finch

         Cassin’s Finches are restricted to northern Arizona mostly the regions of the Kaibab Plateau and higher elevations of the Hopi and Navajo tribal lands.  In the summer you are most likely to see them in pine and mixed conifer forests on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Males are easily recognized by their bright raspberry red caps and rosy tinged faces and breasts.  Females are plainer with streaked breasts. 

         Cassin’s finches are migratory and irruptive with great variability in distribution and abundance.  In some winters they can be quite common and be found in the low foothills of the phoenix Valley.

When they are around, they visit finch feeders, often mixing with Pine Siskins, and other local finches.  As spring warms the foothills you can spot these hardy finches gathered in trees where they sing incessantly.

Kiersten-Lawrence’s Goldfinches

         Some years Arizona is visited by winter finches not by the north but from the west.  These are Lawrence’s goldfinches, colorful birds whose breeding range is mostly the coastal ranges and foothills of the Sierra Nevada of California.  There these birds occupy a variety of habitats including dry foothills, open woodlands and adjacent grasslands.  In sporadic and unpredictable flight years some depart their breeding range, heading eastward in the southern part of Arizona.

         Lawrence’s Goldfinches are a soft gray color with gold markings on the wings and chest.  Males have black faces with contrasting pink bills while females tend to be less colorful.

         Lawrence Goldfinches are seed eaters.  As with the other winter finches, seed crop failures due to drought or even more recently, massive wildfires are probably the principal driver of this birds’ periodic movements into Arizona. 

Cheryl-Closing

         The question has been asked if scientists will ever be able to predict winter finch irruptions.  Maybe.  East of the Mississippi River, with the data compiled and the network of observers, the bird world enthusiasts attempt predictions of which winter finch will have a flight year.  But in the west and especially the southwest with our mountainous terrain, diverse and widely separated habitats, and the lack of a network of observers, predictions are unlikely.  Truly the unpredictability of the Arizona’s winter finches is what keeps the mystery and excitement in the sightings of these birds when they appear.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People,” AOS Leadrership, https://americanornithology.org

“These American birds and dozens more will be renamed, to remove human monikers,” by Nell Greenfield-Boyce. NPR Morning Edition, November 1, 2023.

https://www.npr.org

Transcript

Kiersten: Intro: Quoting the bard, William Shakespeare “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” I hope all you birders out there believe this quote to be true, because some changes are a’comin where common bird names are concerned. The American Ornithological Society has decided to change the English names of bird species named after people.

Cheryl: In November of 2023 the AOS announced that birds named after people would be renamed. Birds such as Anna’s Hummingbird, Bullock’s Oriole, Abert’s Towhee, Gambel’s Quail and Bewick’s Wren will all be renamed. Scientists will form a multi-disciplinary committee that will seek public input when they begin renaming the birds. They will focus on birds that are in the AOS’s jurisdiction which is the United States and Canada. Beginning in 2024, they will start with 70 to 80 species.

Kiersten: Why are they doing this? Quoting Dr. Collen Handel, president of the American Ornithological Society and a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focusses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves.”

            For example, in 2020 McGown’s Longspur, a small prairie songbird from the Great Plains, was renamed to the thick-billed Longspur. This name focuses on the characteristics of the bird instead of using the birds to honor a human being. I like this thought process. This is what the scientists are going to do with all those names.

Cheryl: By doing this, the AOS is admitting that the previous process for naming birds comtained some bias. There are three guidelines they will be using for the renaming process and for future newly discovered bird species.

1. The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people, along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada.

Kiersten: The second guideline:

2. The AOS commits to establishing a new committee to oversee the assignment of all English common names for species within the AOS’s jurisdiction: this committee will broaden participation by including a diverse representation of individuals with expertise in the social sciences, communications, ornithology, and taxonomy.

Within the scientific community, AOS will include a broader representation of scientists this go around, instead of just a bunch of old white guys.

Cheryl: The third guideline:

3. The AOS commits to actively involving the public in the process of selecting new English bird names.

So, instead of just involving scientists on the naming process, the AOS will reach out to the communities where these birds are found as ask for comments and suggestions.

Kiersten: Quoting Dr. Judith Scarl, AOS Executive Director and CEO, “As scientists, we work to eliminate bias in science. But there has been historic bias in how birds are named, and who might have a bird named in their honor. Exclusionary naming conventions developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, don’t work for us today, and the time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs.”

Cheryl: We know that there will be a lot of push back from birders who have been birding for many years, but this is a necessary step to opening up birding to everyone. Because birding is for everyone. Ken Kaufman, author of many widely used bird ID guides, weighed in on this decision in a recent NPR article. He’s been using these names for the last 60 years and was initially upset by the decision because he knows some of the people these birds are named after, but he’s come around to the idea. He was quoted as saying, “It’s an exciting opportunity to give these birds names that celebrate them, rather than some person in the past.”

Kiersten: I think Ken’s quote about sums it up. Remember that the only thing changing here is the name of the bird, they are still as beautiful and as fun to watch regardless of what call them.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Desert Deliverance”, by Margo Rosenbaum, Audubon Magazine Fall 2023, pg 18-19

“Home Away From Home”, by Daniel Grossman, Audubon Magazine Fall 2022, pg 30-35

“The Mysterious Decline of the American Kestrel,” by Jillian Mock, Audubon Magazine Spring 2023, pg 20-27

“Keeping Up with the Grosbeaks,” by Zoe Grueskin, Audubon Magazine Winter 2023, pg 15

Transcript

Cheryl-Intro:

            Recently, we posted a podcast about MOTUS.  What it is-radio tracking system-more towers being placed in Arizona, one possibly at the Gilbert Riparian Water Ranch.  I wanted to revisit this because I found actual research studies using MOTUS that has an impact on Arizona birds.  It is exciting to see the impacts of this new technology and how it is advancing research in bird studies.

Keirsten: Purple Martins

            If you have lived on the east coast or in the mid-west of U.S. you have seen Purple Martins, and the colonial-style bird houses that they like to nest in.  A little back story about this bird, Purple Martins are insectivorous (insect eaters) which has made them vulnerable to the pesticides we use on our yards.  So, their numbers were really in decline here in the U.S. until citizen science got involved.  People who enjoyed seeing the birds and understood their importance to local insect control started placing the correct nest boxes these birds like.  These citizen scientists monitored the boxes, eliminated pesticide use on their properties, kept cats indoors etc.

 Over time the populations of Purple Martins bounced back in the Untied States.  So why are we talking about them…because their numbers are still in decline, and scientists don’t really know why.  Purple Martins have been studied extensively In North America; scientific knowledge tapers off when they fly south.  Just where do they go, Wat routes they take, and what critical habitat lies Along the way remain largely a mystery.  The marathon journeys these birds undertake every year compounds the risk to their survival.

Arizona has its own sub-species of Purple Martins that prefer to nest in Saguaro cacti in the southern part of our state.  Arizona’s Purple Martins spend the winter where?  They take a similar marathon journey as those who summer east of the Mississippi River.

Cheryl: Get to the point-Brazil.

            Just off a slice of land sitting mid-stream in Brazil’s Rio Negro, is an island locally known as Ilha do Comaru, every year this island is submerged in March and only the tree tops poke above the surface.  There in those treetops are Purple Martins.  Now, Motus helped to locate this tiny island of 12 acres (slightly larger than Yankee Stadium).  How you ask?  Back in the U.S., scientists with the help of volunteers tagged nesting Purple Martins (adults and fledglings) with radio tags that will ping a receiver, that by chance was placed near this island. 

Scientists looked at the MOTUS network tracking and thought huh?  Where is that?  It turns out that MOTUS revealed to scientists a space that is host to a concentration of roughly 250,000 birds between February and April, it’s one of the largest Purple Martin roost ever discovered.  Its significance isn’t just its size, however, but also the pivotal role the roost may play in the bird’s long-distance migration.  Comaru could be the staging ground, or launch pad, for many of the 9.3 million Purple Martins that funnel through from South to North America. 

Scientists are tagging Purple Martins on this tiny island, so they can trace birds coming and going to see where these birds’ journey to breed.  Some head to Arizona, and some head towards the east coast of the U.S. This is important to Arizona Purple Martins because our sub-species like to nest in Saguaros that are 40 ft high.  It is easier for everyone if the tagging is done on this tiny island.

Scientists are excited to trace the movements of these birds to figure out what they’re eating and analyze whether they’ve been contaminated by pesticides and other pollutants, we can learn something about how they’re doing in Brazil.

Scientists feel that by taking a closer look at the birds onto this small isle, they hope to glean insights that can help secure the future of the entire species, and any discoveries they make will help uncover what’s behind the decline of other songbirds, especially other aerial insectivores.

Keirsten: The American Kestrel

            Arizona hosts the American Kestrel all year long.  It just moves within the state.  This bird is on the decline here due to loss of habitat, pesticide use, and the increase in population of Cooper’s Hawks, to name a few challenges this small falcon must face daily.  Scientists are racing to understand why this bird is continuing to disappear from our skies.

            Let’s move to Texas where there is a project that outfits kestrels with radio trackers to glean how they move on their wintering grounds and where they breed come spring.  The exact paths kestrels take and the ultimate winter destinations for many populations are mysteries.  Their smaller scale movements are also an enigma:  researcher Maddy Kaleta stated in an article for Audubon Society “We know kestrels need open space, but we don’t know enough about where they prefer to hunt, how big their territories are, or what they do when their preferred habitat disappears. Kestrels that spend one winter hunting in a field may return to find it has disappeared under concrete and new shopping attractions the next winter.  MOTUS is helping answer these questions.

            Data from this study indicates sharpest kestrel declines are in the East.   For the birds that show up in the nest boxes placed by citizen scientists, their success rates are very high.  A single kestrel pair fledges three to four chicks on average.  The puzzling problem is that they are not showing up. 

            In the west, kestrels are showing up, but they are breeding weeks earlier than they did in the 1990’s and scientists discovered that farmers are taking advantage of significantly warmer winters by planting crops earlier to avoid the hotter summers.  The change in planting draws insects and rodents which is a bounty for the kestrels, and kestrels are taking advantage of this change. 

            All this data collected will help Arizona protect the American Kestrels that choose Arizona as their home.

Cheryl: Evening Grosbeaks

            This beautiful bird winters here in the lower part of Arizona on occasion but spends most of its time up in Arizona’s boreal forests.  But since 1970, the once common species has sharply declined in the EAST, making irruptions less frequent and grosbeak visits increasingly rare. 

            Scientists started out with a small number of tagged birds aiming to discover where these birds go in spring. Then with numbers declining they scaled up their tagging and tracking to over 200 birds so far.  Using radio and satellite tags, scientists plan to expand across more of the species U.S. Range because Evening Grosbeakshave unpredictable roving patterns and this makes it vital and challenging to understand their movements.  These birds are somewhat secretive and breed in remote areas, so trying to find where they’re nesting isn’t easy.  So once a bird is tagged in winter scientists can follow its journey.   This data collected from MOTUS will help answer questions and could reveal bottlenecks or pressure points for the species and clues about what’s driving the decline.

            Researchers have found evidence of climate change is stressing spruce and fir forests where these birds like to nest, and diseases such as conjunctivitis, West Nile virus, or salmonella infections may all play into Evening Grosbeaks and their decline.  Tagging and tracking birds has highlighted the vulnerability of birds and window strikes.

            All this data, even if it is collected on the East coast will help Arizona fast track efforts to protect our population of Evening Grosbeaks with MOTUS’ help.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

MOTUS: https://motus.org

“What is MOTUS?” by Rebecca Stephenson. Desert Rivers Audubon Magazine, Winter 2023.

As of the recording of this podcast, we have not been able to find a link with volunteer information for MOTUS but the article on this site tells you how to reach out if you’re interested: https://sonoranjv.org/building-capacity-motus/

Transcript

Cheryl:  Intro

It has been a constant challenge for scientists to study migrating birds.  They do not stay in one place for long.  Where these birds go, stop over, and end up on their journeys? What scientists would love to have available to them s a way to fly along with these birds so they have a complete picture of how these birds live.  This complete picture is what an amazing wildlife tracking system called Motus does.

Kiersten: What exactly is Motus?

Well, it was started by the non-profit Birds Canada in 2014.  Motus is Latin for movement and the system seeks to track the precise travels of birds and other winged creatures, like bats, bees, and monarch butterflies through digital radio telemetry.  This is how it works; birds and other winged animals are carefully fitted with a small, lightweight transmitter, called a nanotag.  These nanotags are attached using minimalistic harnessing or glue.  Then the animals are released.  There is no need to recapture them to obtain the data collected, instead the transmitter on the bird sends back a unique ping out into the atmosphere on a shared radio frequency.  The pings transmit in a 12-mile radius around the bird as it goes about its life.  The motus tower stations tuned to this frequency then picks up the pings and relays the data to the database headquarters in Canada, where it is processed, analyzed, and shared with researchers.

Cheryl:

When tracking wildlife with automated radio telemetry over vast distances, the challenge of deploying enough receivers to detect the tracking information grows exponentially. To be able to share this information between researchers MOTUS remedies that so basically everyone is sharing the same data.  This greatly expands the potential to track birds with high temporal and geographic precision over great distances which put Motus so far ahead of the more commonly used tracking methods. These methods Kiersten and I have talked about in one of our migration podcasts.  There’s the GPS or geolocator tracking device, this device stores data over time or as you may have seen on TV a person following an animal with a handheld receiver.  In order for stored data to be useful it has to be recovered.  This involves recapturing the animal/bird and removing it.  A lot of variables at play, and long hours for the researchers. 

Like anything in life things don’t always go as planned even with Motus.  There are the transmitters, the large ones are solar-powered, this eliminates the need to change batteries, but the smaller ones, these fit on small songbirds, hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies must rely on battery power.  Once the battery goes dead the transmitting of data stops, there’s also nature getting in the way like a bird dies, or the transmitter falls off.

Kiersten: Then there are the tower stations.

The tower stations for Motus are just small antennae connected to a receiver and power supply.  Each station detects pings from any transmitter within a nine-mile radius of it, in optimal conditions.  As impressive as that may be, it is still limiting as far as being a wide-ranging migration tool.  To effectively track wildlife in real time requires a lot of stations.  The stations have to be installed, then diligently maintained, which can be a difficult job considering that they are often placed in remote locations, subjected to environmental havoc such as lighting strikes, or sometimes rendered in operable by an animal’s teeth. 

But it is all so worth it, because through the data collected by Motus scientists get a complete picture of a bird’s migration journey: where it goes, how fast it travels, where it stops to rest and for how long, and where it ends up.  This information can help scientists to know how birds migrate, such as what areas they rly on during stopovers, how long they stay at each spot, when and where they begin their journey, and where it ends.  This information also, expands on the nuances of migration and what specific populations do.

As of 2023, over 1,500 Motus tower stations have been deployed in a total of 31 countries, including Canada and the United States. Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Chile.

Cheryl:  Motus is growing.

Even though Motus is still in its infancy, it is growing rapidly through the international conservation communities.  Motus has shed light on the lives of endangered birds such as the Pacific Red Knot, Snowy Plover, Tricolored Blackbird, and grassland birds, and the mysterious Lewis Woodpecker.

A third of migrating bird species in North America are on the verge of extinction.  That is alarming, but with this powerful conservation tool we can learn about the potential problems birds face at both ends of their full annual range.  Motus collects the kind of data that ells biologists precisely how each and every bird survives year to year-what waterways, or other landscapes birds are using to make their survival happen.  Motus also shows us what areas birds are not using or avoiding.  This data will help researchers to know what areas need to be protected to help birds survive and thrive.

Kiersten:  Arizona on the map.

As of 2023, Arizona only had a modest handful of three Motus tower stations, including one attached to a defunct windmill-now that is changing.  There are plans to currently build more towers, with the possibility of one being placed at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve and outfitting more birds with transmitters.  Arizona had its first Motus Tag application certification training course to teach volunteers how to safely handle and tag birds in February of 2023.  There are plans to host many more in the coming months.  Running Motus takes volunteers, and experts working together.

Cheryl: Closing

So, the more volunteers, the more transmitters that are airborne, the more transmitters that get deployed, and the more towers there are to move the data the bigger, and more complete the picture of bird migration patterns will be.  As the saying goes the more the merrier… it’s true with Motus.

 For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Kenn Kaufman Article: https://www.audubon.org/news.i-became-better-birder-when-i-stopped-focusing-males

Female Bird Day Blog: https://femalebirdday.wordpress.com

Transcript

Kiersten: Intro: This episode is about Female Bird Day. In 2024 Female Bird Day will be May 25-27. We going to talk about why this is a day. Why do we need a Female Bird Day.

Cheryl: In 2018, Kenn Kaufman wrote an article for Audubon Magazine titled, “I Became a Better Birder When I Stopped Focusing on the Males.” For those of you who don’t know who Kenn Kaufman is, he is the author of some of the most well-known Bird ID guides used in North America. Quoting from his article, Kenn says “…an unconscious bias against female birds is widespread in birding.” He is correct! If you look at the names of birds that describe what sexually dimorphic birds look like, they always describe the male’s coloration not the female. For example, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird describes the red-colored gular feathers that the male possesses. The Cinnamon Teal, a species of duck, describes the male’s coloration during breeding season. Red-winged Blackbirds describes the wing bars seen on adult males during breeding season.

            Furthermore, the names of birds used to honor well-known ornithologists is always named after a man. Audubon’s Warbler, Harris’s Hawk, Abert’s Towhee, Allen’s Hummingbird. They are all named after men. You can count on one hand how many of the 10,000 identified bird species in the world are named after women. Lucy’s Warbler is just one example and this bird was named after the daughter of a well-known male ornithologist.

Kiersten: It doesn’t stop with just the names of birds. We all but ignore the fact that females also sing. For many years, most of the history of ornithology actually, male bird songs have been the only ones studied and recorded, even after we discovered that females sing. The first few scientists that discovered this wrote it off as just an anomaly and didn’t put it in any reports. In 2014, a study focusing on avian song worldwide revealed that female bird song is both common and critical in evolution. 2014! We’ve been studying birds since the written word was developed.

            A study published in 2019 recorded two female Cerulean Warblers singing a different song than the males.  Of course, this is also one of those birds that is named for the male’s blue color. The scientists that heard the females sing were surprised to say the least. But they documented their findings which is one step toward us truly understanding the purpose of bird song. Since we have based all our hypotheses and theories on only half the population, could we have misinterpreted why birds sing?

Cheryl: Female Bird Day is a challenge started by five amazing women interested in birds. Three work for various levels of Audubon: Brooke Bateman, Stephanie Beilke, and Martha Harbison. Joanna Wu is another ornithologist with UCLA and Purbita Saha is the editor of Popular Science. During the Covid lockdown days, these women issued a challenge to birders all over North America to focus on female birds. This challenge continues this year. In 2024, May 25 through May 27 is Female Bird Day. So, all you birders out there mark your calendars and focus on female bird identification and bird song on these days. To report your findings, you can go to femalebirdday.wordpress.com and fill out the google forms that will be delivered directly to The Galbatross Project.

Kiersten: And keep it up all year long. Don’t just focus on the female birds on those days only. Do it all year long. In his Audubon article Kenn Kaufman states that when he included female birds in his searching repertoire he became a better birder and, quoting directly, “…there’s a whole world of birds out there, and it just wouldn’t make sense to ignore half of them.”

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Why Do Birds Flick Their Tails?” Bird Note, June 13, 2023

“Why Do Phoebes Pump Their Tails?” David Sibley, https://sibleyguides.com

“Tail Movements in Birds – Current Evidence and New Concepts,” by Christoph Randler. Ornithological Science 15: 1-14 (2016).

Transcript

Kiersten: Welcome to the Feathered Desert. Have you ever been bird watching and wondered why that bird is flicking its tail? I know I have, so today we’re going to discover why birds flick their tails.

Cheryl: Let’s start off by defining a tail flick. Because, believe it or not, there is an actual definition of a tail flick. Tail flicking refers to the vertical up and down movement of the tail. Tail flashing is the horizontal movement of the tail that often includes spreading of the tail feathers. These tail movements are described with several different names such as tail flick, tail wag, tail flash, tail pump, and tail up display. So, I’m not sure how much our definition REALLY matters.

Researchers believe that most intentional tail movement has to do with communication. That can mean communication to other birds of the same species, or communication to a predator, or to a prey item.

Kiersten:  There are several hypotheses about intra species communication. That is communication between the same species of bird.

            One hypothesis is communication between possible mates during breeding season. Does tail flicking help find a mate? If you’re the common Moorhen, it just might. The Common Moorhen, also known as the Waterhen and Swamp Chicken, is a member of the Rail family. They are commonly found in wetland areas all around the world. Unlike most species of birds, female moorhens are the ones that fight for the attention of a mate. Tail flicking plays a role in her acquiring a mate. Females will flick their tail to attract a mate’s attention. Researchers found that females with better body condition flicked their tails faster than those with less fat store.

Cheryl: Some birds may be using their tail flicks to coordinate flock behavior. Mallards, a duck found all over the world, but native to North and South America, increase tail flicking before anf after flight. Scientists documented increased tail movement pre-flight and post-flight in the Mallard. They may be using this to let flock members know when to leave and when to settle in.

            White-throated Dippers, a European song bird always found near water, also increases its tail movement before and after changing locations.

Kiersten: Some birds use their tail flicks to let predators know they,ve been spotted. This is called perception advertisement. A great example of this is the Eastern Phoebe. I’ve always wondered why I see this bird pumping its tail on occasion when it’s perched. I used to think it was for balance because they sit on the edges of branches to scout for insects. Turns out the tail pumping may used to tell a predator, such as a Cooper’s Hawk, “I see you!” Studies have shown the tail pumps increased in the presence of a predator. That doesn’t mean they only pump their tails when predators are present but it definitely increases when a predator is near.

            Dusky Moorhens also use this signal. But the really cool thing is that the rate of their tail flicks changed based on the distance of the predator. As the predator increases distance from the Dusky Moorhen, the tail flicking increases. It increases until the predator is at a far enough distance that the moorhen feels it is safe enough to stop flicking and flee.

Cheryl: The last use for tail flicking that we’ll talk about is movement used to flush prey out of a hiding place. Several bird species that eat insects may use their tail flicks to flush prey out into the open where they are easier to catch. The Northern Mockingbird, Painted Redstart, Slate-throated Redstart, American Redstart, Hooded Warbler, and Willie Wagtail all show behavior that are used to flush insects from their hiding spots. According to researchers, Willie Wagtails only move their tails during feeding and rarely during perching. Tail movements also increased in the shade versus bright sun.  

            There is good experimental evidence from the redstarts as well. The tail feathers of the redstarts are white. In an experiment, researchers discovered that redstarts with artificially darkened tails were significantly less successful in flush foraging.

Kiersten:  Research into tail flicking has certainly answered a lot of questions for us, but keep in mind these movements may be used for many different reasons. There are plenty of hypotheses out there about tail flicks that have yet to be proven or disproven. We have a long was to go to understand this bird behavior.

Show Notes:

Audubon Magazine Winter 2019

“Why Birds and Their Songs are Good for Our Metal Health,” by Richard Sima

“How Bird Songs Improve Mental Health,” by Arthur Dobrin D.S.W.

“Birding with Benefits: How Nature Improves Our Mental Mindsets,” by Jill U. Adams

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Special Delivery,” by Zoe Grueskin, Audubon Magazine Fall 2023, pages 20-27

Transcript:

Cheryl Intro:

            The Arizona’s flock of southwest condors is about 115 birds. These birds roost and roam from the Grand Canyon to Zion National Park.  Each bird has a number and most have GPS or a radio tracker so that they may be found if injured or otherwise in need.  The spring of 2023 the avian influenza hit the state’s flock of condors killing 21 of these iconic, endangered species.  (We have a podcast highlighting the California Condor that was carefully researched by Kiersten, so we are not going to go into the detail descriptions or other details about this bird.) We are going to move forward with our story.

            Kiersten:

            One of the condors lost this past spring was 316.  A 20-year-old female who had succumbed to the avian influenza shortly after laying her egg on a high cliff edge.  The egg was being cared for by her mate 680, a 10-year-old male.  The odds were against this young male of successfully hatching let alone raising his offspring to young adulthood, especially since the space it inhabited was probably infected with the virus, and biologists didn’t know if the chick inside the egg had the avian flu.  So, to save the life of the young male 680, conservation biologists climbed that very high cliff and carefully collected the egg.

            Cheryl:

            Once the gg was safely transported down off the cliff’s edge it was taken Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.  The clinic staff typically treat a couple of condors a year, usually for lead poisoning.  Veterinary staff had little hope for 316’s chick at first.  It had been three weeks since 316 had perished, and 680 had been incubating the egg alone.  Usually, parents alternate egg sitting duties to maintain a consistent warm temperature for the egg, and to keep each parent healthy.  So, the veterinary staff “candled” the egg, illuminating the contents with a bright light.   They were looking for blood vessels, or an embryo-any signs of life.  What appeared in the rosy glow of the egg’s interior was an embryo that was moving.

            Kiersten:

            Now, caring for an unhatched chick is round-the-clock work, an all-hands-on deck operation. Condor’s egg is about the size of a soft ball, and was too big for the clinic’s brooder, which will mechanically mimic how adult birds shift their eggs in the nest.  Instead, staff gently rotated it four times a day and carefully monitored its development.  In May, the chick started hatching but it was pipping at the end of the egg -not the center-the avian version of a breech baby.  To survive its eggshell birth, the bird needed assistance.  So, using surgical pliers pieces of the shell were carefully, and quickly removed to free the tiny condor.  The hatchling was alive, but its fate was uncertain since it was not known if it was infected with the flu.  If infected with the flu the chick could not be transferred to the captive breeding facility, a critical step if this chick was to be released into the wild one day.  If it had the flu the baby condor would be dead within a week.

            Cheryl:

            Avian flu has been around for centuries, but in recent decades the virus has evolved to become lethal to wild birds as well as domesticated poultry.  A mild version, called low pathogenic avian influenza, is present year-around in some species, particularly in waterfowl, and typically doesn’t cause serious illness.  But the virus can travel through waste, infect farmed birds, and mutate into a more aggressive form.  The highly pathogenic avian flu, called H5N1, can pass back to wild ducks, geese, and swans, which can carry the virus across oceans and over thousands of miles as they migrate.  The last major outbreak in the US 2014-2015, causing the deaths of more than 50 million domestic chickens and turkeys along with a few dozen wild birds, mostly geese before it died out.

            Kiersten:

            The avian flu that is circulating since 2021 causes severe neurological and respiratory issues and has affected more that 400 bird species in 81 countries.  In the Untied States alone, it is responsible for a record 58 million domestic poultry deaths, and FWS has confirmed or suspected avian flu in more than 33,000 wild birds.  the virus has killed raptors and swans, ravens and egrets, hundreds of seabirds, and thousands of ducks.  This flu has called mammals too such as raccoons, black bears, other meat eaters.

            Trying to contain a virus is a formidable challenge-even more so when it is carried by organisms that can fly.  It has really impacted conservation and conservationists.  There was alarm when Arizona’s condors started getting sick.  Condors are in such imperil that they have some advantages that helped them to weather this flu.  There are five wild flocks of condors that are intentionally separated by hundreds of miles or more as a safety measure to help ensure that a single disaster or threat doesn’t knock down every group.  Each individual bird is monitored, and condors are used to being handled by humans, since the wild birds are trapped annually for health checks.  This created an opportunity where there normally would not be one.

            Cheryl:

            FWS officials briefly discussed bringing every wild condor into captivity as they did 40 years ago, but they opted not to after weighing the daunting logistics, the possible danger from concentrating the entire species during an outbreak, and the fact that the virus was so far restricted to the southwest flock.  Instead, biologists watched the birds very closely for signs of illness and tightened biosecurity measures, such s not providing food and water for wild condors.  By the time 316’s chick hatched, the tide of death had ebbed.

            FWS officials began planning to provide a more dramatic intervention: by vaccinating every single condor against the virus.  Now, all condors were vaccinated against West Nile virus in the early 2000’s.  So, officials proceeded with caution by first vaccinating a test group of 16 Black Vultures.  Black vultures are relative with strong populations, to make sure it is safe and to ensure there was a good immune response.  The trial was a success, and this past summer 16 captive condors were vaccinated.  Next, will be to vaccinate all the wild condors before the flu picks up again.

Kiersten:

What happened to our little miracle condor chick??  Well, the female chick tested negative for the avian flu.  She was transferred to Boise, Idaho, where she was placed with her adoptive parents.  Her adoptive parents will raise her to be a condor so she will thrive in the wild.  The little condor chick, who is number 1221, will stay with her adoptive family for 7 months then she will join the rest of 2023’s captive-hatched chicks for condor school.  A mentor bird will teach the youngsters to strengthen their flight muscles, to eat communally, and to navigate social hierarchy.  Then the young condors will be released into the wild in their second summer.

Cheryl: Closing

Where condors are released is determined mainly by each bird’s DNA.  Biologists carefully consider which population is the best fit to maintain genetic diversity- which is a crucial concern in a species with so few individuals.  For reasons, biologists don’t fully understand males outnumber females making our miracle chick even more important to the story. So, our heroine #1221 may be able to return to her wild roots in the southwest, and play a key role in rebuilding her battered flock.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Huge decline in songbirds linked to common insecticide.” National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com

“A neonicotinoid insecticide reduces fueling and delays migration in songbirds,” by Margaret L. Eng, Bridget J. M. Stutchbury, and Christy A. Morrissey. Science, Vol 365, Issue 6458, pp. 1177-1180.

“Take Flight From Lawn Pesticides: Tips for Organic, Bird-Friendly Gardening,” by Hardy Kern, April 12, 2022. https://abcbirds.org

DIY Pesticides: Lawn Love, https://lawnlove.com

Natural Lawn Care Products: Jonathan Green, https://www.jonathangreen.com

For more information on rodenticides and birds please listen to our episode titled: Rodenticides: A Deadly Decision

Transcript:

Kiersten: Intro – Pesticides and birds do not mix. They have a long and devastating history ever since humans have begun using synthetic chemicals. In this episode we’re going to look at some of that history, current issues, and what we can do to help in our own backyard.

Cheryl: As Kiersten likes to do, we’re starting off with the definition of a pesticide.  A pesticide is anything that kills off something that humans have decided is a pest. They can be classified into insecticides that kill insects, rodenticides that kill rodents, herbicides that kill unwanted weeds, and fungicides that kill fungus. Every kind of pesticide affects birds. Usually in a detrimental way.  Since the 1940s, since the use of synthetic pesticides became more widely used, bird populations have continuously declined. Today around 1 billion pounds of pesticides are sprayed into the environment just in the United States.

Kiersten: Let’s take a look at what brought our attention to the fact that pesticides that we were using in the environment were killing off birds. Some of you may have heard of or read the book Silent Spring. Written by Rachel Carson this book brought attention to what pesticides such as organochlorines were doing to our environment. It focused on a specific pesticide known as DDT. It was used to kill off insects on crops and it was very effective. What we didn’t initially know was the long-lasting devastation that these chemicals could cause in the environment.

            All chemicals break down and when DDT breaks down it leaves behind DDE. DDE wreaked havoc on the lives of birds. Organochlorides are extremely persistent. They remain active for a long time and they are fat soluble which means they can accumulate in the fatty cells of organisms that are exposed to them and accumulate over time. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Birds that ingested insects sprayed with DDT didn’t just poop out the chemicals, they absorbed them into their system. Then when those birds were eaten by predators, the chemical was passed on to them. This is a process called biomagnification and with each step the contaminants become more concentrated.

            All birds were greatly impacted, but raptors were affected most of all because they were consistently eating contaminated food. DDT impacted their entire lifecycle. They died from ingesting the chemical, it was also passed onto the embryos in eggs causing them to never develop, but the most heart-wrenching side effect was the leaching of calcium from eggs shells. Birds were laying eggs with shells so thin that when females sat on the eggs to incubated them, they were crushing their own young.

            Because of DDT many species of birds were pushed to the brink of extinction, and we did learn our lesson. Organochlorides have been banned from use in the United States, but other pesticides have taken their place.

Cheryl: The effects of DDT were recognized almost sixty years ago, but today birds are facing threats from another pesticide. Chemicals known as “neonics” are now causing just as many problems as DDT. Neonics are a pesticide used mainly in the farming industry. It is sprayed extensively on crops. It is also used as a coating on seeds so that when the plant grows it will incorporate the neonic throughout the entire plant. It’s great for the plant but it has presented more hurdles for our birds.

            The neonics are especially devastating to our migrating songbirds. A research paper published in 2019 has shown that migrating birds that eat seeds covered in neonics lose wait drastically and delay their migration travels. In the study, white-crowned sparrows were monitored with radio telemetry. Researchers found that birds that ate seeds covered in neonics lost 6% of their body weight in six hours and delayed their migration by 3 and ½ days. This is a significant amount of time to delay causing them to miss out on finding mates and territories which can mean they do not breed for the year.

            Neonics affect the nervous system of animals that ingest the chemicals. These chemicals are also contributing to the decline of honey bees. The bees lose their ability to navigate back to their hives and eventually starve to death. Neonics may also be harming us. These pesticides are designed to remain in the plant for the entirety of their lives which means the produce from those plants also have neonics in them. Studies are currently on going about how these pesticides affect humans.

Kiersten: Okay! What can we do to help? We can start by looking in our own backyards. If you are a gardener or you have friends or family that garden, you typically take pride in how lovely it looks. As you should! But there are a few small things we can do to help curb the reach of these chemicals.

Here are some tips from the American Bird Conservancy on how to garden responsibly:

1. Avoid using neonicotinoids, glyphosate, and carbaryl pesticides. Avoid anything that says it is a systemic pesticide.
2. Weed by hand
3. Use DIY pesticides. A mixture of diluted white vinegar, salt, and dish soap is a great way to rid your yard of weeds without using synthetic chemicals. According to Lawn Love, you can make a large supply for continued use by combining a gallon of vinegar with a cup of salt and one tablespoon of dish soap. Put this in a spray bottle fro easy use and store in your garage.
4. You can prevent weeds by sprinkling corn gluten around established plants.
5. You can get rid of weeds near the pavement by pouring boiling water on them. Do be careful of splash back.
6. Use organic insecticides that use essential oils to combat insects. Check out a company called Jonathan Green for some great options.
7. And our absolute favorite method. Plant native plants. These plants already know how to combat insects and are best suited for the area in which you live, and attract native birds by offering them what they need to survive.

Cheryl: Another way to help is let local, state, and federal agencies know that you are not okay with these chemicals being sprayed on our farmlands. The EPA and FDA have the power to ban the use of these neonics. Other countries have done so, and so can the United States. With all the political craziness going on around us, we often forget that we have a voice. But don’t forget we do have a voice and we can make a difference with votes and petitions.

Kiersten: Thanks everyone for listening and helping our backyard songbirds. Cheryl and I do have an announcement. This is the first episode of our last ten episodes. We will be ending The Feathered Desert. I think I can speak for both of us by saying we’ve have a wonderful time writing and producing this podcast. We’ve learned a lot and we hope you’ve learned a lot, as well.  Stick with us for our final episodes though!

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Rose Ann Rowlett.

Show Notes:

iBird Ultimate: Ultimate Guide to Birds App

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; broad-tailed hummingbird call recorded by Brett Gleitsman and flight jingle recorded by Paul Marvin; Crested Caracara recorded by Ann Denburgh; Sandhill Crane recorded by Laurens Halsey, white-breasted nuthatch recorded by Wil Hershberger; and Bald Eagle recorded by Scott Olmstead

Show Notes:

www.Allaboutbirds.org (Pinyon Jay)

“Spirit of Persistence,” by Anna Johnson and Edwin Juarez, Arizona Wildlife Views PeriodicalSeptember/October 2023 page 17-20

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Paul Suchanek.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Birdhouse Features: Features of a Good Birdhouse: https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/features-of-a-good-birdhouse

Find the birds near you and the best house for them: Right Bird, Right House:  https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/right-bird-right-house/

Nest Box designs by species: https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses

Troubleshooting birdhouses for landlords: https://nestwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/nest_box_troubleshooting_20110126_final.pdf

Winter Roost Boxes: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/will-birds-use-nest-boxes-to-roost-in-for-warmth-during-the-winter/

Transcript 

Kiersten: Intro: We started The Feathered Desert to inform listeners in the southwest about how to feed wild birds successfully and responsibly. We wanted our listeners to know what kind of food to feed to attract the kinds of birds you wanted to see in your backyard. It occurred to me the other day that Cheryl and I have yet to talk about the other way to attract birds to the backyard and that is using nest boxes. So, today’s episode is all about the nest box.

Cheryl: Just like bird feeding, putting up birdhouses in your yard has evolved over the years to incorporate seasonal bird behavior and new scientific discoveries. To truly give the birds outside the best chance at surviving our constantly changing world, there are new guidelines for putting up birdhouses. It’s not a one size fits all device any more. You don’t just put up something that looks great to you and has a hole with a perch under it and see what happens. By observing bird behavior in the wild we’ve determined the best ways to offer birds a safe and secure home for raising young. Following these guidelines is the best way for you to attract even more birds to your yard and enjoy them for generations to come.

Kiersten: First of all, let’s start off with features of a good birdhouse. These features are specific to birdhouses used for nesting, also referred to as nest boxes. There are a few important features for usable nest boxes and they apply to a box you make yourself or one that you purchase.

1. First make sure the wood is untreated and unpainted. The best woods to use are cedar, pine, cypress, or for larger boxes, non-pressure treated CDX exterior grade plywood.
2. Second, use galvanized screws for construction. These hold up better than nails and are easier to remove when repairs are needed.
3. Third, make sure the roof is sloped and hangs over the main body of the house by 2-4 inches over the opening and 2 inches along the sides. This will help keep out rain even when it gets heavy and the wind is whipping wildly and will also help defend against predators. Adding ¼” cuts under all three edges of the roof will help funnel water away from the house, like rain gutters on our own houses.
4. Fourth, a recessed floor helps keep the nest dry and prolongs the life of the box.
5. Drainage holes on the floor are important, just in case water gets in. You can cut away the corners of the floor if you’re making it yourself or drill 4 holes approximately 3/8” to ½” in diameter on the floor of a premade box.
6. Sixth, to regulate the temperature the walls should be at least ¾” thick. We also want ventilation holes in both side walls, this is especially important in the heat of the southwest. There should be two holes at the top of each wall with 5/8” diameter.

Cheryl:

7. Seventh, predator prevention. Predators are something that birds have to deal with naturally, but remember we are offering them a house that they are not making themselves. When they make their own nest, they disguise it from the predators such as snakes, raccoons, chipmunks, and outdoor domestic cats. The box that we’re offering can stick out like a sore thumb so we need to take a few precautions. First, no perches under the opening! The birds don’t need them and it’s like a welcome mat for predators. Add baffles to the structure where you’ve mounted the nest box. Using collar baffles or stovepipe baffles work great on poles and smaller trees. Noel guards, a wire mesh tube attached to the front of the house, is a good way to protect an opening on a box mounted on a tree that is too large for a baffle.
8. Eight, make sure the opening of the box is the correct size for the birds you want to attract. Remember before when I said there are no one size fits all birdhouses? This is where some of our new information comes in to play. Each species of bird desires a specific size hole for their house. It is very important that the hole in the house is the correct size for the species of bird you want to attract. For example, an American Kestrel needs a hole 3” in diameter, a Northern Flicker needs a hole 2 ½” in diameter, and chickadees need a hole 1 1/8” in diameter. Hole size is also important in deterring non-native birds such as European Starlings and House Sparrows.
9. Nine, rough up the interior wall beneath the opening. Rough walls help the chicks get out when it’s time to fledge. You can use course sandpaper or cut long horizontal grooves into the wood below the opening.
10. Tenth, make sure the back is slightly extended above and below the box to give you room to easily mount it on your pole or tree.
11. Eleventh, last but not least you want one side to be hinged so it can be opened after nesting season for easy cleaning access. Now, we know this is a lot to remember but we’ll share a link in our show notes so you can look up this list later.

Kiersten: That’s a perfect segue way into cleaning! This is also new and different from when we used to put up those cutesy birdhouses many moons ago. Do you need to clean your nest box out in between seasons? Yes! It’s very important to clean out old nesting material every year. That why we’re making one of the walls hinged. Removing old nesting material makes sure bacteria and detrimental insects are not passed from one family to the next. Typically, just opening the side panel and removing any plant matter that you find inside is enough, but if you had some especially dirty tenants, using a little warm water and plant-based soap (something like Simple Green or Seventh Generation) to remove poop is a good idea. Clean out your nest box after the last fledgling has left and you don’t see any activity around the box for about ten days. When cleaning remember to protect yourself, as well. Use a dust mask and gloves to prevent any zoonotic disease transfer.  

Cheryl: Speaking of seasonal activities, when should I put out my nest box? In the southwest have your nest box mounted and ready for visitors by mid-February. This is typically when our year-round residents begin looking for nesting sites and when our part-time residents are migrating in.

            You can leave your nest box up year-round once you’ve found the perfect spot. To prevent unwanted guests such as European Starlings, bees, wasps, or squirrels from taking up residence in the off season you can close up your house. Plug up the opening and cover the ventilation holes like you might do for a cabin you only use in the spring or summer. To prevent honey bees or wasps from colonizing the nest box spray some non-stick cooking spray on the inside of the top of the box. This makes it too slippery for the insects to climb on. When it comes time for nesting season again, open everything up and give it a quick spring cleaning.

Kiersten: Where should I put my nest box?

            This all depends on what bird species your box is made for. Every species has a preferred habitat. To help you decide which species you may want to attract go to nestwatch.org (I’ll put the link in our show notes) and they have an interactive page called Right Bird, Right House. This is so cool! You put in what region you live in and what habitat surrounds your house. I put in the Southwest and the desert and it showed me which birds are in my area, where to attach my house, and what kind of house to build or buy. It tells you everything you need to know such as when they nest, how high the box should be, which direction it should be facing, and if they are in decline in your area. Some of the birds they show for the desert southwest are the barn owl, the Bewick’s wren, brown-crested flycatcher, the elf owl, and the Say’s Phoebe. If you live in the White Mountains or summer in a cabin you might put up a house for the black-crested titmouse, the bridled titmouse, the mountain bluebird, or the pygmy nuthatch.

            Now a note of caution in the Phoenix Valley, in the severe heat that we get here you need to be extra careful with where you put up a nest box. It should be in an area that is shaded almost all day. If you don’t have any area like that or you can’t put up a device to add shade, you may not want to place a nest box in your yard.

Cheryl: If you put up a nest box but no one seems to be moving in, be patient. It can take up to a year for a nest box to be noticed and used. If you see some interested parties that just aren’t buying, maybe you’ve put it in the wrong place or maybe mounted it too high or too low. There could be other things wrong that we don’t see but the birds do. Nest Watch from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a trouble-shooting guide for nest box landlords that you can access online. And we’ll post that link in our show notes.

Kiersten: One last thing about nest boxes that I didn’t even think about until I did the research for this episode. The question came up as to whether birds would use a nest box to roost in the winter? I’d never even thought about that, but as we just discussed we should be closing them up outside of breeding season.  So… you can actually have a roosting box for your overwintering birds!

What’s the difference between a nest box and a roosting box? The design of each box is vastly different. A well-designed roost box prevents the birds’ body heat from escaping, so it will have fewer ventilation holes than a nest box. The entrance hole will be near the bottom of the box to prevent the rising warm air from escaping which is opposite of the nesting box. Inside the roosting box there will be several perches to allow multiple birds to roost as opposed to an open area in a nest box where a nest can be made. Staggering the perching will allow for everyone to have their own spot but still be close enough to snuggle for warmth. Roughing up the sides is a great way to encourage clinging birds such as woodpeckers or creepers to use the box. Roosting boxes are usually larger than a single-family nest box to accommodate species that huddle in the winter. Hinging the top panel allows for easy cleaning after the winter season.

This could be a great option for our Phoenix Valley residents who can’t use a nest box because their yards are short on shade. These are not as readily available to purchase already made, but we’ll post a few links that have blueprints for making your own.

Cheryl: Just like feeding birds, placing nest and roost boxes in your yard should only be done if you are willing to take the time to do it right. You must have the time and motivation to use the correct products, place it in the best place, provide predator prevention, and be willing and able to clean it properly. If this is not something you can do in your own yard, reach out to your local birding groups and see if there are any community nest projects you could help with. Schools and daycares often get students to create nest boxes and mount them near their facilities. Maybe you can offer to help them out.

            If you do decide to put up a nest box, consider taking the next step and joining Project Nest Watch at Cornell. This is a citizen scientist program that teachs you how to monitor nest boxes for scientific studies. The data you record watching the birds you’re already watching can help further our understanding of bird behavior.

Kiersten: That’s Nest Boxes in a nutshell. If you’re interested in putting one up in your yard please check out our show notes and use the links we’ve provided to get more information to help you successfully offer your backyard birds a great place to raise a family.

A future note: We will be taking a break in September 2023 but we’ll be back with new  full-length episodes in October!

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.audubon.org/news/how-to-help-birds-beat-the-heat/

www.audubon.org/news/the-many-ways-birds-beat-the-heat/

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201112144038.htm

www.birdlife.org/news/2023/08/02/what-ongoing-heatwaves-could-mean-for -bird-populations/

www.audubon.org/news/when-it-gets-too-hot-phoenixs-lovebirds-turn-air-conditioning/

Transcript

Cheryl: Intro:

         Extreme temperatures add stress to an already fragile existence yours, mine and our birds.

Heat extreme is threatening bird populations, with the hottest July on record here in Phoenix behind us let’s look at how birds handle the heat, wildfires, and how we may help.

Kiersten: The adaptions birds have to keep cool.

         Birds in general are well insulated and just like us they heat up when they exercise.  Imagine wearing a down jacket all the time, even when you exercise.  Yep! That’s a bird.  Wild birds are always, in a way, exercising, so birds have to be careful not to overheat.

• Anatomical adaptions: Shorebirds wade in cool water, this helps their bodies to release heat. Waterfowl also use water to regulate their body temperature. 
• Dark Plumage can actually be cooler than white or light-colored feathers. It may seem counterintuitive that so many birds in hot climates are black or darker colored, but studies have found that there are advantages to having these drabber colors.
• 1)Darker feathers do get hotter than white feathers, but because these feathers provide such good insulation very little heat reaches the bird’s skin.
• 2) Dark feathers absorb light and heat at the surface, where it can easily radiate back to the air.  Dark feathers are more resistant to wear and help block UV radiation, dark feathers also allow birds to be more inconspicuous when resting in the shade, but visible to their flock mates.
• Birds don’t sweat, they generally cool off by panting. Gular flutter
• Desert birds have evolved to avoid exertion during the hottest part of the day.
• Many desert bird species have long-term pair bonds and maintain year-round territories, reducing the need for energetic displays. Fighting is relatively rare.  And there are many mechanisms to shelter eggs and chicks from the heat and to provide water.

Cheryl: Heat and baby birds

         Extreme heat in the southwest can be devastating to young birds.  Baby birds will jump from nests to find relief from the heat.  Sometimes they find something soft to break their fall, other times not.  A nestling’s tiny body is still in development, and the tiny bird struggles to regulate its temperature-which is one reason why parents sit on their young, to help buffer the cold and the heat. Not only are baby birds less efficient at relieving heat stress, but they also have limited mobility, and this can lead to nestlings in open nests like hawks, some owls, even our curve-billed thrasher babies exposed to direct sunlight.  This sometimes, leads to these birds leaving the nest too early because they are too hot.

         Birds don’t sweat, they pant instead.  Unfortunately, panting is an active process that requires a lot of muscle movement.  So, it is a double-edged sword; to offload heat by panting, birds basically have no choice but to produce heat.  Scientists are concerned that chronic heat stress is going to lead to nest failures.  This could risk the future of 389 North American bird species.

Kiersten:  Wildfires

          Wildfires are becoming hotter, more numerous, and fiercer with the warming of the climate, we can see that with the most recent wildfire on Maui.  A wildfire refers to an unintentional, uncontrolled fire. 

How do wildfires impact wildlife and their habitats?  After a wildfire in Flagstaff, two porcupines were seen walking slow and funny, more so than they usually do.  They were picked up by wildlife rescuers.  It was discovered that these animals had burns on their feet from walking on the hot coals.  So, what is happening in the aftermath of fires -just animals having a hard time and being pushed into areas they are not traditionally in. 

Birds, if they can fly, will fly away from the fire, but young birds like nestlings cannot fly, and are left to perish.  Wildlife rehab centers are filled with birds that have had their feathers singed, or melted from the heat of wildfires when flying overhead to get out of the way. 

Scientists are studying the effects of climate change wildfires to better understand how birds and other wildlife manage once their homes have been burned.

Cheryl: Pros and Cons of the effects of fire on wilderness areas.

Cons:

• Burn and damage vegetation communities, such as rainforests and deserts that take up to hundreds of years to recover.
• Kill or injure individual plants and wildlife, including birds.
• Causes erosion and subsequent sedimentation of creek and wetlands.
• Open up areas to the impacts of weed, invasive plants, and feral animal invasion as well as human access and vandalism.

Pros:

• Heats the soil, cracking seed coats and triggering germination.
• Triggers woody seed pods held in the canopy to open, releasing seed onto a fresh and fertile ash bed.
• Clears thick understory reducing competition for seedlings.
• Encourages new growth that provides food for many animals.
• Creates hollows in logs and trees that can be used by animals for nesting and shelter.

Native animals can escape fire by fleeing to “unburnt islands” within a burn area or to surrounding unburnt vegetation.  Insects, reptiles, and small mammals may be unable to hide underground, and animals that live in trees can move to treetops and escape low to moderate intensity fires.  Birds are the least impacted by fire as they can fly away, but their babies and the eggs can be impacted depending upon the season of the fire or heatwave.  There have been “events” where a large mass of birds has suffered and been lost due to fire.  Several years ago, migratory birds were falling out of the sky over New Mexico due to smoke damage, and starvation.

Kiersten:  Lovebirds and the Phoenix heat.

         Rosy-faced lovebirds are pet trade escapee’s native to southwestern Africa that were first documented in the 1980’s in the Phoenix Valley.  They have flourished in the city where they nest in cavities of ornamental plants and cacti.  Their population is now estimated at more than 2000 individuals.  But the parrots haven’t ventured far outside the city’s urban areas.  This suggests that these birds relay on humans to survive in a desert hotter and drier than their home turf. 

         Phoenix lovebirds have figured out a creative way to beat the heat, by perching on buildings near air-conditioning vents, or swamp cooler vents taking advantage of the cool air that is leaking out through the cracks.  These parrots find their water sources at golf courses, bird baths, fountains and parks with ponds or lakes.  Phoenix’s lovebirds’ inventive adaptions to extreme heat are an example of how birds, and wildlife in general, is going to have to change their behavior to cool in the heat.

Cheryl:  How can we help birds to beat the heat?

• Offer water. The higher the air temperature is the more water they have to evaporate, and the more frequently they have to drink.  Birds cool down by bathing.  The water directly lowers their temperatures and absorbs heat energy as the liquid evaporates from their skin.
• Provide shade. In addition to panting and bathing birds beat the heat simply by avoiding it.  Many species will stop foraging during the hottest part of the day, choosing instead to shelter in cooler, shady spots.
• Supply food. Native plants provide plenty of seeds, berries, and fruit, as well as hosting insects-food resources that can become scarce during periods of extreme heat.
• Heat waves typically happen during breeding season, when 96 percent of native North American bird species depend on butterfly and moth caterpillars to feed their young. You can help those birds feed their babies when temperatures spike by cultivating native plants.
• For some species, bird feeders can also help supplement food resources.
• Take action. Advocating for native plants in parks, and municipal landscapes.  Work with in your community for change to lower temps in your city.

Closing:

Humans are impacted by extreme heat just as birds are.  If we make it more comfortable…more survivable for birds on Earth, then humans benefit too.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife, by John Marzluff.

Transcript 

Cheryl Intro:

         Ever wonder who moves into the neighborhood?  Birds, as adaptable as they are do not always want to live with humans, nor do they always benefit by sharing space with humans. In the book Welcome to Subirdia, the author, John Marzluff, a professor of Wildlife Science writes about this.  His team of graduate students studied urban, Subarian, and forested areas to identify and count the bird species in areas around Seattle, Washington.  Let’s take a look at our region of the southwest; which birds thrive in our presence, which birds adapt to living with us, and which birds choose to stay clear of human activity.

Kiersten: Avoiders

Avoiders are those native bird species that are extinguished or decline over time as urbanization intensifies.  Birds like Burrowing Owls, Green heron, Orange- crowned warblers, Scarlet Tanager, or even the Scott’s Oriole, and the Hairy Woodpecker.  These birds all have varying degrees of sensitivity to human development.  They move farther and farther away from it.  This is true of the hairy woodpecker.  It builds its nest in dead trees.  What HOA allows dead trees? 

Burrowing owls are susceptible to predation by people’s pets, and feral cats.  So, these ground dwelling owls of our local desert are pushed farther and farther out.  Some birds like the Green Heron just likes its privacy, so it has a low tolerance for our activities.  Scott’s Oriole, and the Scarlet Tanager enjoy forested areas, and hunt insects.  Orange-crowned Warblers enjoy riparian areas.  So, we can appreciate why these birds find their choice habitats not in our backyards.

Cheryl: Exploiters

         Exploiters are species that thrive in our presence, often coevolving with humans and rarely occurring where people do not exist.  Birds such as the American Crow, Northern Mockingbird, Barn Swallows, Barn Owls, Mallards, Canada goose, house finches, and house wrens, house sparrows, European Starling, our beloved lovebirds, and pigeons (Rock Doves).  I was surprised by some of the birds on the list.  These birds move into the niches vacated by those birds who find themselves more of an avoider.  A few of these birds’ humans are responsible for introducing into the urban areas they are thriving in.  Each species soars in abundance as soon as clearing begins and increases over time.  Most of these species are not present in forested areas in large numbers.  The ability of these species to capitalize on the lawns, lakes, and nesting niches created in built environments likely explains their success. 

Kiersten: Adapters

         “Adapters are mostly native species that thrive on natural, young, open shrubby, and dissected habitats.” (Quote from Welcome to Subirdia,) An interesting description of our neighborhoods and backyards.  Adapters find and adjust to situations in our cities, urban, or suburban areas even if the natural habitat is man made. 

This is the largest group of birds, which is encouraging, but these birds decline when the areas grow too close to forested habitats, or yards become overgrown, or trees too mature.  Birds like Anna’s hummingbird, White-crowned sparrow, American goldfinches, Lesser goldfinch, Song sparrows, rock wrens, Curve-billed thrasher, Killdeer, and the Yellow-rumped warbler are all birds that adapt to human changes in their habitat as long as the changes are within reason.

Kiersten:  Why is this information important you ask.

         It is important to know how birds are adapting or not adapting to human activity so that we may better understand how we may improve our living spaces so that we make room for birds to live, too.  Birds can move from one category to another for example: a bird could be an adapter until the stresses of human activity pushes it to be an avoider, or it could move from adapter to being an exploiter, like the Northern Mockingbird it all depends on how a particular species handles what humans do to their habitats.

         Cheryl: Closing

         It is not surprising that birds can handle many of the challenges of living people, given that they have wings to propel them away from humans, if need be, and they are linked to dinosaurs, adding their engaging personalities, flexible behaviors, and short generation times, all these things help birds to succeed in even the toughest parts of our human-dominated world. 

         We are capable of applying this knowledge to our backyard living spaces, parks and recreation areas, and make the adjustments necessary to support the bird life that is present now, and to build toward greater diversity in the future.

For our hearing-impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“The Amazing Secrets of Woodpecker Tongues,” by Rebecca Heisman, June 10, 2021. American Bird Conservancy. https://abcbirds.org

“Geese Inspire New Airbus Formation Flying Technology,” by Kathleen Bangs, December 2, 2021. https://airlinegeeks.com

“How the wings of owls and hummingbirds inspire drones, wind turbines and technology,” by Ilias Berberi, Carleton University, The Conversation, May 11, 2020. https://theconversation.com

“Next-gen e-readers: Improved ‘peacock’ technology could lock in color for high-res displays,” February 5, 2013, University of Michigan. https://www.sciencedaily.com

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter podcast, episode 1-Kingfisher and bullet train and episode 4-Woodpecker and black box. BBC World Service, bbc.co.uk

Transcript 

Kiersten: Intro – Sometimes we take birds for granted. They are just a part of our daily lives that we don’t focus on, but occasionally we notice their extraordinary characteristics. When the right person, such as an engineer, notices these amazing attributes they are often inspired by the birds and create or improve man made devices. In this episode Cheryl and I are talking about biomimicry and how birds influence us.

Cheryl: Let’s start off with a definition of biomimicry. According to the Oxford Languages dictionary the definition of biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. The word itself literally means imitation of the living. So basically, we learn from nature how to create things that work well. For example: those burrs that get stuck on your socks in summer influenced the creator of Velcro, shark skin led to more hydro-dynamic swimwear that Olympic athletes now use, and dragonflies influenced the design of helicopters.

Kiersten: When we listen to what nature can teach us, we can invent some pretty spectacular things. Let’s look at a few creations that birds influenced.

            Japan’s Bullet Train: The bullet train can reach speeds of up to 300 mph. It’s a modern marvel of human engineering and has made travel in certain regions of Japan very efficient. There was a problem with the first design though, a rather seriously annoying problem. The flat faced design of most passenger trains is fine for trains that travel at more typical speeds of 60 mph or so, but that design at 300mph creates a sonic boom noise when exiting a train tunnel. This was a big problem because it was causing serious noise pollution. As the train passed through the tunnel, the air built up in front of the train and then exploded upon exiting the tunnel. People that lived along the route of the train were being awoken at night and were disturbed during the day. It was also scaring local wildlife. Something needed to be done and fast.

One of the engineers on the project was a birdwatcher. One day when he was birding at a lake, he saw a kingfisher diving into the water to catch a fish. As the bird entered the water, the surface of the water was only slightly disturbed. It was like the kingfisher’s bill cut through the water. The engineer thought about this when the noise problem presented itself. Using the kingfisher’s long, sharp beak as a model, he restructured the nose of the bullet train and reduced the noise to almost nothing. It also increased the energy efficiency by 10-15%. So, thank you kingfisher!

Cheryl: Silent Flight

            The silent flight of owls is one of their most useful adaptations. Sneaking up on their prey in the dark of night is what makes them extremely successful predators. Recently researchers have looked to the structure of owl feathers to help solve a problem with wind turbines.

The development of wind turbines is one of mankind’s brilliant attempts toward eco-friendly energy production. We know that this source is not perfect but engineers are constantly working on improvement. One of the complaints is how noisy wind turbine farms can be, so scientists have looked to the owl for a solution.  

They looked at the structure of the owl’s feathers to determine how they are so quiet in flight. Owl feathers have sharp edges, also known as serrations, along the front edge of the feather. This sharp edge breaks up the air turbulence created during flight. Breaking up wind turbulence reduces the noise caused by the turbulence. The back ends of owl feathers are fringed. The fringe structures disperse even more air turbulence once again reducing the sound created in flight. Both of these structures help owls fly silently.

To combat noisy wind turbines, researchers are attempting to apply the structure of the owl’s feathers to the blades of the wind turbine.

Kiersten: Hummingbirds and drones

            We all know and love the hummingbird here at The Feathered Desert. Everything about the hummingbird is a miracle of nature. One of the most fascinating things to engineers and scientists is how hummingbirds fly. They don’t just flap their wings up and down like other birds do, they actually flick their wrists which allows them to produce a figure eight pattern. This allows hummingbirds to fly forward, backwards, hover, and even fly sideways.

            Drones have become a fixture of modern society, whether we all like it or not. Drones can be used for all sorts of things such as surveillance of terrain that humans cannot get to on foot, getting accurate counts of wildlife without disturbing them, and even delivering sperm from endangered birds to waiting scientists. (For more on this check out our episode Conservation Technology). Drone engineers are always looking for ways to improve their creations. In the last decade, they have taken notice of the hummingbird’s gravity defying abilities.

            Creating drones that can maneuver through the air like a hummingbird could be the next step in drone technology.

Cheryl: Geese V-formation

            For generations we’ve known that the v-formation of geese helps them survive the long migration flights they perform twice a year. The leader at the front of the v-formation takes on most of the energy expense while those flanking the leader are able to draft off of their hard work. They share the burden by rotating who is in the leading position. It’s a great way to conserve energy on long trips.

            A group of students at Stanford University used this lesson from nature to propose a way to conserve energy in the airline industry. Airbus is a company that designs and builds airplanes and other aerospace technology. Always looking for ways to improve airplanes and air travel, they host competitions for innovative ideas. The group of students at Stanford entered an idea based on the v-formation of geese. They said if airplanes flying cross country could draft off of each other they could save fuel and reduce carbon emissions.

            The students didn’t win the competition but Airbus loved the idea so much that they tried it out. They launched two Airbus jets from Toulouse, France. Once airborne, they maneuvered into a tandem formation and flew across the Atlantic Ocean landing in Montreal, Canada. The flight was a success. The planes flew and landed safely, saved more than 5% of fuel, and reduced their carbon emissions by over 6 tons.

Kiersten: Woodpecker and collisions:

Woodpeckers have incredible collision absorption abilities. We’ve all heard woodpeckers banging away on wooden or metal surfaces, but have you ever stopped to think of how much force the woodpecker creates when they do that and how do they survive constantly beating their face on hard surfaces.

Woodpeckers actually beat their beaks against a surface 22 times a second without causing any damage to their brain. They are creating immense G-forces when they do this. G-force stands for gravitational force. This is the force that impacts beings as they move through space. An airplane take-off creates 2 Gs, fast roller coasters create 5 Gs, humans pass out at 6 Gs. Woodpeckers peck at trees at a force of 1,200 Gs.  So how do they survive such a force without their head crushing?

They have four shock absorbing adaptations. 1- their chisel-shaped beak is tough but elastic. It is slightly malleable and able to absorb vibration. 2- their hyoid bone, which anchors the tongue, wraps around the entire skull like rubber tubing, 3- the bone of the skull is actually spongey. The bone is thick and packed with microscopic plates creating a woven mesh that stops low frequency vibrations from passing through. 4- the skull hugs the brain snuggly. They don’t have fluid in skull like us. The fluid actually makes us highly susceptible to concussive forces. They woodpecker’s brain won’t knock around inside its skull when it bangs it’s beak against a hard surface.

            Two researchers from UC Berkely used the woodpecker’s collision adaptations to improve protection for electronic devices such as black boxes on airplanes. They built a protective system that mimics the four-layer protection of the woodpecker. 1- They designed a cylindrical structure for the outer most layer that was like the beak. 2-They added a layer of rubber inside like the hyoid. 3- They added glass beads inside that mimic the spongey bone and 4- a second layer of metal directly around the electronics. This design protected the electronics up to 60,000 Gs. Thanks woodpecker!

The woodpecker also inspired a student to design a better bike helmet. This student was an avid biker and he suffered a concussion after involvement in a bike accident. He was wearing a bike helmet but it cracked and he suffered a concussion. He was inspired by the hyoid bone of the woodpecker that wraps around the skull and the spongey bone of the skull. He invented a dual density cardboard with a honey comb patterned (also inspired by nature) liner for bike helmets. It was light and performed very well at absorbing impact. And its recyclable! 

Cheryl: Peacock feathers and digital screens

            Our last example of biomimicry involves one of the most beautiful birds, the peacock. Their feathers are an iconic image used for so many things in our human cultures. The colors are eye popping and we often try to mimic the beauty of the male peacock’s tail feathers in our art.            Their beauty relies on iridescence, a sheen that shifts color depending on your viewing angle. Peacock feathers never lose their bright vibrant colors, and that’s because the color is created by structure not pigment. Since the first high-resolution screen was invented, researchers have been trying to improve the color images that they display. They have now looked to the peacock for inspiration.

            Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to lock in structural color by using texture instead of chemicals. The peacock’s tail reflects light off of small grooves on the surface of the feather. The grooves only reflect certain wavelengths of light depending on the angle of the light to the groove. That’s why peacock feathers are shimmery. The University of Michigan researchers have discovered how to trap the reflected colors of light in metallic grooves making them permanent. This could lead to advanced color ebooks, electronic paper, and color reflective screens that don’t need their own light to be readable. Reflective displays would also use much less energy than our current backlit digital screens.

Kiersten:  It is amazing what we can learn from nature, if we just let ourselves listen.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Bird Eye Color” A Rainbow of Variation, a Spectrum of Explanations,” by Eamon C. Corbett, Robb T. Brumfield, Brant C. Faircloth. https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/object/3682/download/7316

“Bird Eyes Come In an Amazing Array of Colors – but Why is a Mystery,” by Meghan Bartels; Audubon February 2023. www.audubon.org

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Kiersten: Intro: Eye color in birds is often something we might overlook. But it’s incredibly fascinating. Bird’s eyes come in a variety of colors and can even vary throughout one individual’s life. Today Cheryl and I are going to talk about eye color in birds.

Cheryl: We all know how colorful bird’s feathers appear. They can be blue, red, yellow, even green. This is one of the reasons birds have been studied by scientists for so long and one of the main reasons we want to attract birds to our backyards. We want so see those bright, fabulous colors. Scientists want to know what’s up with all the colorful feathers, and while this is fascinating and important research, it has overshadowed the other amazing colorful characteristic of birds: their eyes.

            Here in the southwest, the Curve-billed Thrasher, is an example of bird with a brightly colored eye. Adults have bright orange eyes. It’s an iconic characteristic and a great way to distinguish them from other types of thrashers.

            Birds’ eyes come in many different colors from dark-brown to light-brown to reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and even white. Within these colors, a range of hues exist such as the turquoise of the Double-crested cormorant, the emerald green of the Black-and-red Broadbill, the crimson red of the Bronzed cowbird, the sunset orange of the Painted buttonquail, and the school bus yellow of the Short-eared owl.

            Birds even have multi-colored irises. Our Curved-billed Thrasher’s orange eye is actually a combination of an outer ring of orange with an inner ring of yellow to red near the pupil. The underappreciated Rock Pigeon actually has a beautiful eye with a ring of red on the edge and a ring of yellow around the pupil. The Greater Roadrunner, another of our southwest residents, has an eye with rings of brown and yellow around the pupil. Most of the birds with multi-colored iris have symmetrical coloration, but a few have asymmetrical coloration.

            The Bank Cormorant’s eye is an earthy orange on top while the bottom looks like a turquoise stone. Looking at this bird’s eye is like looking at an Arizona sunset. Some female oystercatchers have dark eye flecks on only one side of the pupil giving their eye a keyhole appearance.

Kiersten: It is amazing the colors that are found in the avian world, but the light bright colors are less prevalent than the darker colors. A study released early this year, in 2023, has compiled information previously researched about eye color and they noticed some trends.

            It appears that more birds have darker eye color, such as brown and black, than light eye color. Birds, as a whole, have darker eyes on average than other vertebrate groups including mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Looking at passerines, such our songbirds, 64% had black to dark brown eyes, 19% had light brown to red eyes, and 17% had the lightest eye colors including yellow, orange, white, pink, blue, and light gray.

            Non-passerine birds, such as hawks, owls, ducks and other water birds, have lighter eyes than passerines. 40% were dark, 22% were the intermediate light browns and red, while 38% were light. The dark versus light hues found in birds do tend to follow phylogenetic lines. Birds in related families tend to have the same level of eye color. They may not always have the same eye color exactly but they are often categorized the same as dark, medium, or light. What we’ve talked about so far is differences of eye color between species but there are differences in eye color within species.

Cheryl: There are typically three reasons eye color will vary within a species. Number 1: Some birds are born with a darker eye color that will lighten as they age. For example, our Curve-billed Thrasher is born with brown eyes that change to orange only when they are adults. Spotted towhees have dark brown eyes as juveniles that turn red when they are adults. Osprey chicks are born with orange eyes that lighten to yellow when they are adults.

Number 2: Twenty-four species of birds have been shown to have differences in eye color between sexes. Essentially males and females of the same species will have different colored eyes. Common grackles are a good example of this. The males have bright yellow eyes, while the females have brown eyes. Brewer’s blackbird females have dark brown eyes while the males have a bright yellow. In a reversal, Saddle-billed Stork males have dark brown eyes while the females have bright yellow eyes.

Number 3: Eye color can vary seasonally. A small handful of birds that we currently know about will change eye color during breeding season. The Brown Pelican male’s eyes will change from a brown color to a light blue at the beginning of breeding season and remain blue until incubation begins. The male Great Blue Heron’s eyes will turn red during breeding season and be yellow the rest of the year. Female chickens eye color may change when they are laying eggs.

            There are a few birds that are able to change their eye color based on their mood. They can expand or contract the blood vessels in their eyes to change the color of the iris. We actually have a bird in our own backyard that can do this, the Inca Dove.

            For those of you who are cross-country birders, you may be familiar with one last reason that the same species of birds can have varied eye color, population differences. Species that have a large habitat range can develop differences in eye colored based on the eye color that is most popular in a specific region. For example, a House Finch from Arizona might have a slightly different eye color from a House Finch born in New Jersey. They will most likely be in the same range of color but they can vary.

Kiersten: Now that we know what kind of colors exist in birds’ eyes, let’s look at how these colors are created. In humans’ eyes different levels of melanin create our eye color. Melanin is also involved in creating color in bird feathers, for more on this please check out our previous podcast on feathers. If you are thinking melanin is involved in creating bird eye color, you’re partially right!

            There are a variety of pigments, blood vessel dilation, colorless oil droplets, collagen fibers, and other structural features that create the colors that we see in bird eyes. According to the 2023 research paper, color created by chemical pigments are created by living cells called chromatophores which is unique to avian eyes.

To further amaze us, we cannot assume that one bird with a red eye created by the carotenoid pigment means that all birds with red eyes have carotenoids making their eyes red. For example, Canvasbacks, Red-eyed Vireos, and Bronzed Cowbirds all have red eyes but they are all produced by different means. Canvasbacks red eyes are created by carotenoids, Red-eyed Vireos are created by another pigment called pteridines, and the red eyes of Bronzed Cowbirds are caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the eye.

The known mechanical contributors of bird eye color are carotenoids, melanins, purines, pteridines which are all pigments, and blood vessels, collagen fibers, oil droplets, and cholesterols. Birds can have reflective structures such as a crystalline pteridine or purine, colorless oil droplets, or collagen bundle in the eye that often creates the lighter colors. To create, color birds can have one or a combination of any of these. Species with only pigments present in the eye typically have a duller eye color such as the Northern Flicker and the Cactus Wren. Now, I’m not saying their eyes aren’t a nice color or even a pretty color, I mean more like the difference between a shiny new penny versus an older well-worn penny.  Birds with only reflective structures in the eye have a white iris, like the Acorn Woodpecker.

            Generally speaking, birds with darker eyes have more melanins while birds with lighter eyes have more purines and pteridines. Birds with bright, almost sparkling eyes have reflective structures such as crystalline purines or pteridines, collagen bundles or oil in the eye. The next question is why do birds have so many different eye colors?

Cheryl: The answer is….. we don’t really know. Very little research has actually been done on eye color in birds. What we can do is generalize about eye color based on other attributes of birds. We know that birds that molt into adult colors do not breed until they have their adult color pattern, that could be a reason for juvenile change of eye color as well. The change of eye color may indicate readiness to breed. The same can be said for changing colors before breeding season. A male with a good head of feathers can indicate a healthy male and attract female attention. This might be the same reason for the change of eye color before breeding season begins.

            Other reasons could be survival. The birds with a particular eye color survive best and they are the ones to pass down their genetics. Maybe the eye color allows them to camouflage better than other individuals. Maybe it’s based on how they obtain food. Foragers versus hunters? Is there a pattern to who has which eye color? What about their habitat? We do know that birds that live in sunnier places have more melanin in their feathers because it makes them last longer. Maybe this is also true for their eye color? Maybe the melanin protects their eyes. Does the eye color have anything to do with communication between individuals of the same species? We know that wing postures, feather color, and sound are all important in communication, maybe eye color is as well. Or does none of this have anything to do with eye  color at all?

            Sadly, we don’t have the answers because no long-term research has been done on bird eye color. It is definitely a topic that needs much more attention in the future.

Kiersten: One of the things we can do as citizen scientists to help this research along is take pictures! Especially those of you with the patience for wild bird photography. Taking pictures of birds eyes with your telephoto lenses and uploading them to eBird will help these scientists move forward in their research. 

Closing: What we’ve talked about in this podcast probably seems like a lot of information, but this research was only done on a small portion of bird families. We need much more research done concerning bird eye color. And, we don’t know yet, but this could be the next big epiphany we have in animal behavior. What we know today is terribly fascinating, but I think many more amazing discoveries await us in the future.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Cassowaries: Crucial to Rainforest Ecology,” The University of Waikato, https:blog.waikato.ac.nz/bioblog/2009/12/cassowaries-crucial-to-rainfor/

www.allaboutbirds.org

American Bird Conservancy, https://abcbirds.org

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Cheryl: Intro

         Have you ever heard the expression “You eat like a bird.”  What did that really mean?  I personally never got it, but I heard many times.  If the person who coined that phrase really knew what birds ate, I don’t think that it would have been said at the dinner table.  Today let’s look at the weird things’ birds eat and a little about how they do it.

         So, there’s the Phainopepla that consumes mistletoe berries, and a lot of them; this bird can do this because they have a specialized digestive tract to accommodate this particular berry.  Then there is the American Robin, that changes it digestive system to be able to adjust to the transition from protein-rich invertebrates in spring and summer to fruits and berries in winter.

         Kiersten:  Worm-Eating Warbler

This warbler is small, rather drab in color with a black and buffy head stripes on its flat head.  This flat head helps it to get into all the nooks and crannies of the forest floor where it consumes caterpillars and slugs, insect larvae but not earth worms like the name suggest.  This warbler has a beautiful song that helps it live up to the warbler part of its name even if its drab in color.

         Cheryl: Shore birds and Sapsuckers

         Birds like the Black-necked Stilt, and the American Avocet are shore birds that eat mollusks such as clams, oysters, snails, and slugs found in the muddy water along the edges of creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds and irrigated fields and agricultural fields.

         Then there are birds that feed on the mucus of plants and trees, namely sap.  These birds are woodpeckers, waxwings, kinglets, and warblers which all have a component of sap/mucus in their diet.

         Kiersten: Red-tail Hawk and Great Horned Owl

         Rattlesnakes and Red-tail hawks, two very capable predators, but if an adult red-tail hawk locates a rattlesnake out in the open, it’s a dead snake crawling.  Rattlesnakes are a favorite meal for this hawk.   Red-tail hawk doesn’t sneak up on a rattlesnake, if it did that it would actually give the rattler the advantage.  Instead, the hawk flies down and perches right in front of the snake.  There by taking the lead in what is often called the “dance of death.”

• The hawk will fan out its feathers, exhibiting its 5 ft wing span.
• In response, the rattlesnake will rattle it’s tail in a warning, and will puff up to look bigger and more formidable. This might work.
• If not, the hawk will then hop or walk around, essentially trying to divert the snake’s attention.
• This will likely trigger the rattlesnake to snap open its mouth and display it 5-7” long fangs, and with the coiling motion, it will lunge forward.
• Then the hawk hops onto the snake and end the snake’s life. Red-tail hawks don’t eat the head of the snake therefore avoiding ingesting any venom.

Great Horned Owls have excellent night vision and a poor sense of smell, which helps it deal with one of its favorite meals- skunk.  So, when you are out in the wilds of Great Horned Owl habitat and you smell skunk, but don’t see one you could be in the area of a Great Horned Owl nest.

Cheryl: Scott’s Oriole and Western Tanager and the Cassowary

         Scott’s Oriole is a fruit eater, not only do these birds eat dagger cactus fruit, but also cultivated fruits such as apricots, peaches and figs.  The Western Tanager lives off of insects such as bees and wasps in the spring and summer.  Then in the winter months it will enjoy berries…all kinds like hawthorn, wild cherries, elderberries, blackberries, mulberries and service berries.

         All the above-mentioned birds may be found in our state of Arizona, but there is one fruit eater that lives in Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Cassowary.  This bird is the third largest bird in the world with an adult standing up to six feet tall.  These birds live in the rainforests and are considered keystone species because of their role as a major seed dispenser of up to 238 rainforest plant species.  Over a 100 of these plants’ species depend entirely on Cassowaries to dispense their seeds.

         In some cases, cassowaries are the only bird to be able to digest the fruit of certain plants such as the Cassowary Plum.  This fruit contains a sap that is poisonous to humans and most other animals.

         The Cassowary’s unique digestive system which is short and fast,  to digest the fruit.  The Cassowary plum is an important food source for the Cassowary, and in turn the bird than distributes and helps germinate the seeds of the plant.

Cheryl: Closing

         Now doesn’t this make you think twice about that old expression” You eat like bird”.  Really do you?

Summary:Window strikes are scary for us and can be deadly for birds. Cheryl and Kiersten shed some light on why it happens and how we can prevent it.

Show Notes: https://abcbirds.org

www.thezoologicalworld.com/how-birds-see/

www.featherfriendly.com

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

This week we're talking about the Desert Willow!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

iBird Ultimate app

Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, House Finch recorded by Ryan O’Donnell,  House Sparrow recorded by Pat Goltz, Phainopepla recorded by Paul Suchanek, Pyrruhuloxia recorded by James McNamara, and Spotted Towhee recorded by Paul Marvin.

 Transcript

Birding by Ear in the Southwest Part 5

Kiersten: Intro – Welcome everyone. This week we are continuing our birding by ear series. We’ll discuss another five species, how to identify them by sight and more importantly how to identify them by sound. This is an interactive episode so take a moment to grab your bird ID guide so you can pair a picture of the bird while we play their song. Pairing the image with the sound will help imprint the information into your memory. Cheryl and I both believe this is an underappreciated but very important part of birding, so listen up!

Cheryl: House Finch

            We’re going to start off with a common bird that many of you have seen and probably have heard but may not have realized it. The House finch is a medium-sized, widespread finch that is a year-round resident of the southwest. House finches have brown-streaked backs, wings and brown-streaked and white underparts. The male will have a reddish-pink head, throat, and rump. During breeding season, the males will be very bright red. Females lack the red coloration but do have the brown steaking over their entire chest and back with a brown head. The beak is small and gray and made for cracking open seeds and picking berries. The tail is longish and has a very slight notch.

            The coloration of the male house finch is influenced by diet. The more nutritious the diet the redder the color of feathers. The color can vary from red to yellow based on the food available during molting. The red color is important for catching a female because a female wants a strong male to contribute his DNA to her young and to help her raise the chicks. If you are a bright red male, it means you are capable of finding and fighting for good quality food and are a healthy adult; therefore, you are more attractive to the ladies.

            House finches are found all over the United States, southern Canada, and all of Mexico. They can be found in almost every type of habitat, but in the West, they prefer chaparral, desert, orchards, and suburban areas. Originally, they were a western bird, but in 1940 a small population was transported to Long Island, New York where they were released and flourished.

            House finches are common bird feeder visitors so most likely you have seen them. Next time you see this pretty bird listen for this song ____ and you’ll be able to recognize them by ear.

Kiersten: House Sparrow

            The next medium-sized bird is also common all across the United States and is often seen in cities. You’ve probably seen the House Sparrow at your local hardware store or grocery store hanging in the parking lot searching for food scraps and nesting in the signs above the doors.

             This urban bird is actually quite handsome. Both sexes have light gray underparts and chest. The males have a black throat and upper breast with black around the eye. They have a charcoal gray cap on the head with a chestnut brown nape on the back of the head. They have lighter gray cheeks and brown and black wings. The handsome black and brown head coloration will fade in winter.

Females are a bit darker gray on the chest and underparts, some may even look brown. They have brown and black wings with a brown head. They have a thick cream-colored eye stripe that helps you differentiate between a female house sparrow and a female house finch. They have a thicker heavier beak than the house finch. The male’s beak with be black during breeding season and yellow in winter. Females are yellow all year.

This sparrow is found all over the world. They are native to Europe but were introduced to the rest of the world except Antarctica. They are found in cities, towns, and agricultural areas. They are omnivores eating grains, fruits, and insects, but they especially like grains and will eat both wild and domestic seeds.

Their song and chatter are background noise to our lives that we all probably take for granted. When you hear this ____ take a moment to look around for this sparrow.

Many people, especially in the US, see this bird as a pest because they were introduced to our continent and take resources from our native species. We need to remember though we made that decision for these birds and they have adapted to the environment we brought them into. Next time you see this little bird think about how they are seen in Japan and maybe you’ll see them in a slightly different light. Sparrows, including the house sparrow, are traditionally a symbol of loyalty because of their social nature and their ability to get along in large groups. (Maybe we can learn a little something from their behavior!)

These birds actually return to their birthplace after every migration. Since they visit the same place every year, they want to make sure they blend in well. Because of this characteristic, called philopatric behavior, they have developed fourteen distinct population colors in the West. So, there are 14 individual House sparrow subspecies in the western world.

Cheryl: Phainopepla

            The phainopepla is a striking bird found only in the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is a medium-sized songbird with a slim body, head crest, long tail and bright red eyes. The male is all black while the female is a slate gray.  When the male is in flight large white wing patches can be seen on the tops of the wings. Locally, people often refer to the phainopepla as the black cardinal, but it’s not a cardinal and it’s not even in the same family as the cardinal.

            These amazing birds are fond of washes and riparian areas with arid scrubs. They eat insects that they catch on the wing and mistletoe berries. Most animals cannot eat these berries because they are poisonous but phainopepla can eat 1,100 berries a day when they are in season.

            Speaking of mistletoe, this is a great way to look for phainopepla because they nest in mistletoe bunches during breeding season. They take advantage of the berries being readily available and they also eat the spiders that live in the mistletoe, as well. Unlike most songbirds, the phainopepla breeds twice a year. And even more unusual they do so in two different nesting sites.

            Their song is quiet, and you really need to listen closely to detect these birds by ear. (Insert song) If you hear this take a moment to look around and find this supercool bird. The phainopepla does have its own song and calls, but when they are pursued by predators or handled by humans, they may mimic the calls of other birds. Imitations of 13 different species have been recorded. We don’t yet know why they do this, but it is interesting.

Kiersten: Pyrrhuloxia

            First things first with this next bird, how do we say the name? Pyrrhuloxia is actually on the National Audubon Society’s list of 17 tricky names of North American bird. It is pronounced peer-uh-LOX-ee-a. I’ve heard it pronounced peer-oo-LEE-a, but apparently you do pronounce the X.

            The pyrrhuloxia is a medium-sized songbird that is often mistaken for a cardinal that is having a bad molting year, but they are separate birds. Unlike the phainopepla, they are related but they are separate species. The pyrrhuloxia is predominantly gray with red splashes on the crest, around the eyes and beak, down the chest, on the edge of the wings, and outer edges of the tail. Females are gray but with less red. What really sets them apart from cardinals is their beak. The beak is bright yellow and is deeper at the base than a cardinal’s with a downward curve. 

            The pyrrhuloxia is found only in the southwest including southern Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, and Mexico. It can sometimes stray north of these areas but they prefer habitat with thorny thickets and desert brush near streambeds. Their diet consists of flower spikes, fruit, berries, seeds, and insects.

            Their calls and songs are usually quite distinctive and can carry a nice distance. Listen for this ____ when you’re in their favored habitat and hopefully you’ll catch a glimpse of this amazing songbird.

            Sometimes this bird is called the desert cardinal but we’re sticking with the pyrrhuloxia because we don’t want the confusion that this local name can cause, and pyrrhuloxia makes you sound super smart to other birders!

Cheryl: Spotted Towhee

            Our last bird of this episode is the Spotted Towhee.

            The spotted towhee is a large sparrow that is predominantly black, white, and reddish brown. Males and females are very similar with the female being slightly duller black. The spotted towhee’s head, back, throat, wings, and tail are black with white spots on the wings and back. The sides are reddish brown and the underbelly is white. The tail is long. Both the male’s and female’s eyes are red.

            The spotted towhee is found throughout the western portion of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. They do migrate spending winter in Texas and spring and summer in the north. A large population from New Mexico to California and Oregon are year-round residents. They like forest edges, thickets, gardens, and shrubby park areas.

            The calls of the spotted towhee can be variable and recognizing their calls and songs can take some practice, but if you hear this ­­____ take a moment to look around for this beautiful bird. You’ll want to check out the ground under the bushes because they are often seen scratching up insects and seeds on the ground. They have a double scratch pattern that helps them unearth insects and have been known to munch on a lizard or two.

            If you come too close to a nest during nesting season you may see the female running away. She does this to attract predators away from the nest to protect her young. She makes herself vulnerable to being caught by running until she feels the predator is far enough away from the nest and will then take flight to save herself.

            Kiersten: Closing – That’s all for this episode of Birding by Ear in the Southwest. Pairing sound and images together is the next step to becoming an expert birder, not to mention it helps keep your brain healthy. So, use your eyes and your ears next time you’re out and about.

            Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, House Finch recorded by Ryan O’Donnell,  House Sparrow recorded by Pat Goltz, Phainopepla recorded by Paul Suchanek, Pyrruhuloxia recorded by James McNamara, and Spotted Towhee recorded by Paul Marvin.

This week we're talking about Watson's Dutchman's Pipe!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

https://allaboutbirds.org/brain-power-wins-over-brawn-when-male-hermit-humingbirds

https://audubon.org/magazine/march-april-2016/meet-bird-brainiacs-american-crow

https://learnbirdwatching.com/do-birds-have-a-good-memory

https://theconversation.com/inner-gps-of-bird-brains-may-be-better-than-that-of humans-32648

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Cheryl: Intro

When I decided on bird Memory as a topic for this podcast, I really wanted it to be about a bird’s memory.  Sometimes, when we are observing a bird’s behavior we think “oh, that is so smart”, or “how did it know to do that?”  Our thought process leans towards intelligence of the bird, but sometimes it’s the bird’s ability to remember things and not its smarts that we should be impressed with.  Birds and mammals, yes-that includes humans, have what is called a “Hippocampus”. 

Kiersten: What is a hippocampus?

Well, hippocampus is a neural structure located in the medial temporal lobe of the brain.  It is responsible for the formation and retrieval of memories.  Birds possess a hippocampus that senses many of the same spatial and mnemonic functions as the mammalian hippocampus but achieves these outcomes with a dramatically different neuroanatomical organization.

Cheryl:

Studies have found that some types of birds can remember details about their environment for up to two years. Birds have been observed exhibiting signs of recall related behaviors, such as recognizing people or objects from previous encounters.

Songbirds can remember the melodies they heard earlier in life.  Recent studies suggest that birds are capable of long-term memory, meaning they can store and recall specific memories over an extended period of time.  This is largely due to the fact that their brains contain a region known as ‘song nuclei’ that helps them to store information related to songs and other vocalizations.

Kiersten:

It is clear that birds possess an impressive ability to remember details about their environment over extended periods of time which makes them adept problem solvers.   Some birds participate in a   behavior known as caching, and it allows birds to store food for later.  The birds that cache food need to remember where they have stored their food.  Birds that cache have-well developed hippocampus (responsible for spatial memory).  Birds that do not need to remember the location of stored food won’t have the same memory power as a bird that does.

 So, the question was asked by researchers “Are Black-capped Chickadees smarter in Alaska than their relatives in the lower forty-eight? (Colorado) In 2016, a study was done comparing the caching behavior and memory of Black-Capped Chickadees from Alaska and then from Colorado, as well as the size of their hippocampi (again the brain regions associated with learning and memory) and how many neurons they contained.  Thought behind the study was that because Alaska birds experience harsher winters, they would need to be better at caching and recovering food.  When the study was over it was clear that the higher the elevation-harsher the winter – the more neurons-dense the bird’s hippocampus was.

Cheryl:

In 2014 the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine was awarded to three neuroscientists for their pioneering work on the brain’s “inner GPS system”.  Over the course of four decades, they revealed that a small part in the brain called the hippocampus stores a map of animals’ surroundings and helps them navigate.

  The award-winning work was done in mice, but it was shown to be true in seed-caching birds.  Seed-caching birds store food in hundreds or even thousands of sites, like the fore-mentioned Chickadees, the Clark Nutcracker is the most remarkable example of this because it displays a striking caching behavior, making more than 5,000 caches of seeds in the autumn and recovering them seven to nine months later in the spring.  These birds remember 95-97% of their caches. 

This surpasses our own capacity for long-term memory.  Other birds may possess longer term memory as well, but none are known to store and retrieve such large amounts of information so accurately.  The Clark’s Nutcracker has a much larger hippocampus size than most other species in its genus. Which may be partially responsible for their superior long-term memory.  The Clark’s Nutcracker is in the Corvidae family.

Another bird found to have an extra spacious hippocampus is the Brown-head cowbird.  The female has a larger hippocampus than the male Brown-headed cowbird.  Brown-headed cowbirds do not raise their own young.  These birds trick other birds into raising their young for them.  So, the female will perform, a meticulous daily examination of various nests before making a decision and returning to the selected one a few days later.

 The reason for this is in order for her ruse to work the timing of her egg hatching and of the host eggs hatching have to be in tune.  The female cowbird can only lay her eggs in the host’s nests when the host is also laying her own eggs, making the nest briefly available to the cowbird.  Nests must therefore be erased from the cowbird’s memory as “potential” targets once they are no longer available, just as seed-caching birds have to discard sites once they have recovered the food stored in it.

Kiersten:

In the case of small but mighty, brains win over brawn when hermit Hummingbirds of Costa Rica compete for a female’s attention.  Researchers found that the dominant male Long-billed Hermits have better spatial memories and sing more consistent songs than less successful males.  The benefit of a good spatial memory even outweighs the advantage of bigger body size and extra flight power.

The Long-billed Hermit is common in the rainforest of costa Rica.  It’s about twice the size of the familiar Anna’s or ruby-throated Hummingbird, with a long, curved bill just right for sipping nectar from brilliant-orange heliconia flowers.  Males perch in the forest understory and sing incessantly, every day during their 8-month breeding season, at display sites known as leks.  The dominant males fight over coveted singing perches. 

Displaying males risk losing their spot each time they leave to refuel, so there’s a premium on getting to nectar-rich flowers quickly.  But feeding trips are like giant games of concentration, with each bird often flying for a mile and having to choose among thousands of blooms to get their fill.  Males who could remember where the reliable food sources were consistently more likely to be dominant birds with perches at the lek.  So, males with good spatial memories did better in the mating market. 

The spatial memory could help in two ways- by making foraging trips faster, or by helping the males keep track of where their rivals sat within the lek, making it easier to defend against them.  Males with better spatial memory also sang more consistent songs.  It’s thought this ability is attractive to females, because it means the singer sounds less like an inexperienced youngster and more like a veteran survivor.

Cheryl: Closing

The more I learn about birds the more I find there is to know.  Crows needs only one experience to form a long-lasting memory of who can be trusted and who can’t-essential knowledge when you are dealing with humans who might either feed you or shoot you.  We always think we are the smart species—we are the ones with game -changing intelligence, but it’s a matter of degree, and we are more similar to the other species such as birds- then we think.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Laurens Halsey.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.allaboutbirds.org

Personal observations and experiences.

Transcript

Cheryl: Intro

Arizona is known for its’s dry heat, and desert landscapes but, this state has waterways natural, and man -made that have attracted a bird family known for its skilled fishing, and water wading, Herons.  Kiersten and I are going to be talking about just three different herons that live Arizona year-round.  Our state is host to several other lesser known herons that migrate here in the summer to breed.  The first one is one of my favorite birds to watch -the Green Heron.

Kiersten: Green Heron

         This small and stocky bird with a dagger-like bill, and a thick neck that is often drawn into their body.  Adults have a deep green back and crown, and a chestnut neck and breast.  Juveniles are small and compact but they are browner overall, with pale streaking on the neck and spots on the wings with a dark cap.

         This small heron usually hunts from shore rather than by wading like other larger herons, so green heron bird is often over looked by some because it is tucked away or hunched on slender yellow legs at the water’s edge, often hidden behind a tangle of leaves.  The green heron is well aware of its surroundings and knows when it has been discovered.  If you are lucky to have it tolerate your presence then you will see it crouch down patiently to surprise a fish with a snatch and grab of its dagger-like bill.

         The green heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species.  You may learn more on this subject by listening to our Birds and Tools podcast.  Green herons often create fishing lures with bread crusts, insects, or feathers by dropping these items on the surface of the water to entice small fish.  Occasionally, green herons will dive for deep-water prey and need to swim back to shore.

         Green herons are year-round residents in Arizona, and are found along inland wetlands here in Arizona that would be lakes, ponds, riverways and other wet habitats such as golf courses with trees and shrubs to provide secluded nest sites.  Green herons eat a variety of small fish, insects, spiders, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles and small rodents.

         When it is time to pair up for breeding season the male selects a secluded site within his territory and starts the nest, but once he finds a mate, the male heron will turn the construction over to the female.  The nest is made of long, thin sticks that the female fashions in a home about 12 inches in diameter.  Both sexes brood and feed the chicks, which may stay with their parents for more than a month after leaving the nest, as they learn to forage.  Green herons are territorial and will defend their nest site. 

         The overall population of these herons has declined by 51% due to habitat loss and contaminates in wetlands that it thrives in.

Cheryl: Black-crowned Night Heron

         Black-crowned Night Heron is a stocky and compact bird that often tucks its neck into its body creating a hunch backed look.  Adults have a black cap and back which contrasts with its whitish to pale gray belly and gray wings.  Juveniles are brown and streaky overall with a pale yellowish bill.

         These birds are most active at night or at dusk giving them a ghostly appearance as they come flapping out from their daytime roosts to forage along the waterways they inhabit.

         These are social birds that breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water.  They live along waterways of fresh, salt or brackish wetlands such as streams, rivers lakes, ponds, lagoons, and canals here in Arizona, and are the widespread heron in the world.

         Night herons are opportunistic feeders that may eat many kinds of terrestrial, fresh water and marine animals.  Their diets consist of leeches, earthworms, insects, crayfish, clams, mussels, fish, amphibians, lizards, snakes, turtles, rodents, birds and eggs.  They avoid eating during the day so as not to compete with longer-legged heron species.

         When it comes time to start a family, the male chooses a nest site in a tree or in cattails usually in an area safe from predators.  Night herons are colony nesters, often dozens nest together in an area. 

The male starts building a platform nest out of sticks, twigs and woody vegetation, and when he finds a mate, he will pass the job of nest building to her just like with the green herons.  The male and female work together to provide for the family until the fledglings disperse out into the world.

         It is surprising that this bird’s population is stable across most of the U.S. since it lives along the waters edge which exposes the bird to contaminates in the water as well as development and draining of its watery habitat.  Night herons are tolerant of disturbances such as traffic, and other human activities so they are especially useful for revealing environmental deterioration in urban environments.

Kiersten: Great Blue Heron

         This stately heron often stands motionless as it scans for prey or wades belly deep with long deliberate steps.  These birds may move slowly, but Great Blue herons can strike like lightning to grab a fish or snap up a gopher.  The adults are very large and tall, with a long neck.  They are grayish-blue overall with a long orangish-yellow bill.  Adults have a black crown and black head plumes.  Juveniles are grayish-blue with pale belly, dark streaking on neck, and its bill is long and dusky colored.  Despite their size Great Blue Heron adults only weigh about 5-6 pounds.  This is in part to their hollow bones- a feature all birds share.  Another interesting fact is the Great Blue herons have excellent night vision so no one is safe when it is on the hunt.

         These large herons live in both fresh water and salt water habitats, and also forage in grasslands and agricultural fields, where they stalk frogs and small mammals.  Here in Arizona, Great Blue Herons may be found along rivers and streams, lakes, canals, golf course ponds, agricultural and irrigation fields.  Great Blue herons have benefited from the reintroduction and recovery of the beaver population in North America because of the wetlands these large water engineers create.

         In flight, the Great Blue heron folds it’s neck into an “S” shape and trails its long legs behind, dangling them as it prepares to land.  When watching this bird fly with its slow, deep wingbeats is like watching a pterodactyl flying out of over a primordial swamp. 

         Great Blue herons nest mainly in trees, but will also nest on the ground, or on bushes, on mangroves, and on structures such as duck blinds, channel markers, or artificial nest platforms.  These large birds are colony nesters like the Black-crowned Night Heron.  Nest are generally made out of sticks gathered by the male.  The female will line the nest with plant material such as pine needles, moss, reeds, or dry grass.  Colonies of Great Blue herons can get quite large with up to 50 or more pairs in an area.  These colonies once established can last for over 50 years.  Great Blue Herons have elaborate courtship and pair-bonding displays that include ritualized greetings, stick transfers and more.

         Because the Great Blue Heron depends on wetlands for feeding and on relatively undisturbed sites for breeding, they are vulnerable to habitat loss and human impacts such as traffic, logging, motorboats, chemical pollutants or other causes of reduced water quality.

Cheryl: Closing

         Today Kiersten and shared with interesting facts and descriptions about three amazing shore/wading birds that reside in Arizona.  The Great Blue Heron was the first bird that opened me up to the majesty and marvel of the bird world.  I was 8 years old, on a very early morning bird walk along the saltwater marshes of the Long Island sound in New York.  It was sunrise, there was a mist rising off the water, then out into the open moves this huge bird as tall as I was.  I still can see it all these year later.

The Black-crowned Night heron is an intense discovery when you are out birding along the water’s edge.  It is rarely flustered by humans so I have many times come across it just as it is about to snag a meal.  This bird tolerance for people in its space is one of the reasons its population is more stable than the green heron. 

Last but one least, the green heron elusive behavior of skulking among the grasses and reeds as water laps at its feet make it a joyous discovery when spotted.  It is reluctant to have an audience so it is rare to get any really time to watch it, but it one of my favorites to look for when I am out birding at the Gilbert Water Ranch.  The green heron croaking like call makes it even more of an oddity and worth the search.

Hopefully, this has intrigued some of our listeners if not all to get up and out to water this summer to wade along with these herons who know just where to find the best fish.

Show Notes: 

Emperor Penguins - earthsky.org

Cassowary - https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/12/02/2580070.htm

Emu - https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/emu-parenthood

Ostrich - https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/birds/ostrich-facts/

Rhea - https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rhea_americana/

https://www.audubon.org/news/five-fathers-day-lessons-really-great-bird-dads

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes: 

https://aznps.com/wp-content/uploads/Stinknet-Brochure-English-Feb2020.pdf

https://sdcwma.org/docs/stinknet_desert_plants.pdf

Transcript

(Music plays) Host Voice: Welcome to Plant Spotlight, a three-minute podcast brought to you by The Feathered Desert all about native plants of the southwestern desert.

Kiersten: Welcome to our pilot episode of Plant Spotlight. For those of you that have been listening to The Feathered Desert from the beginning, this title may sound familiar. In some of our first episodes we highlighted native southwest desert plants and we wanted to make this information a little more accessible. Both Cheryl and I believe that planting native plants is how we will save the planet, so this podcast will focus on some of our favorite native plants and some of our most devious non-native invasive plants.

Speaking of which, we are starting off with Stinknet, also known as Globe Chamomile, which is an invasive weed from South Africa. This plant was introduced to the United States in the 1970’s. It grows exceptionally well in our dry climate and is actually quite a handsome plant. It is a dark green with lace like leaves and when it blooms it has pretty little, bright  yellow sphere-shaped flowers. It has a musky scent like chamomile when it’s in bloom. Don’t be fooled by this lovely plant though, it spreads like wildfire pushing out important native plants that support our local native insects. And as we all know, insects run the world. It can have twenty or more blooms on each plant and when those blooms dry, the seeds, which can number in the thousands per plant, will blow away into the landscape reseeding itself for the next year.

The last few years stinknet has become a serious problem in the southwest desert. Our late summer rains have encouraged more stinknet to grow. The young plants emerge in February and grow through the spring, going to seed in the summer. Once they dry out, the plants become a serious fire hazard because it has grown between the creosote, the palo verde, and the various cacti of the desert landscape. The desert guards itself against fire by spreading its plants far apart keeping fire localised so it doesn’t speed across the landscape. Stinknet is nothing but fuel for the fire.

What can we do to help our native flora and fauna? We can get rid of this plant. As most of you know, we at The Feathered Desert support chemical free yards.  Stinknet doesn’t respond to most weed killer anyway, so we have to go old school. This past year my yard was covered in it, so I went out with a simple hula hoe and ripped it out of the ground. Jump on it as soon as you see it popping up in February and you can get ahead of it for the year. Tell your neighbors about it at your next HOA meeting or neighborhood gathering. Check out the show notes for this episode to print out or forward a great pamphlet created by the Arizona Parks and Wildlife that can help you identify this plant. Join The Tonto National Forest Friends of the Desert. They have days scheduled for volunteers to remove stinknet from our national forests. Also, if you are hiking or birding in a state or national park and you see it, tell the park rangers so they can remove it as soon as possible. They will be happy to hear from you.

I think I went a little over time with this one but as you can probably tell, stinknet sure gets under my skin. Thanks for listening and keep an eye out for this invasive plant.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

“Chapter 13: Taste in Birds,” by Shira L. Chelend Shoval, Zehava Uni, and Colin G. Scanes, Sturkie’s Avian Physiology (7th Edition) 2022, pg205-222.

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Taste in Birds

Kiersten: Intro: Hello Feathered Desert listeners. Today Cheryl and I are here to talk about the sense of taste in birds. Now, if you’re anything like me, you grew up thinking birds had no sense of taste, but how come they always spit out that nasty tasting caterpillar? Well, we’re wrong! Birds, including songbirds, DO have a sense of taste and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Cheryl: If birds have a sense of taste, they have to have taste buds. And they do! Compared to mammals they have far fewer taste buds but they do have them.

Humans have taste buds on their tongue, and if you remember from grade school science, each type of taste has a different spot on the tongue. A spot for sweet, and spot for sour, and so on. Birds’ taste buds are found throughout their mouth not on their tongue. The greatest concentration of avian taste buds is found in the skin around the salivary glands of the mouth and the back of the tongue, and in the back of the mouth at the beginning of the throat.

How many taste buds do birds have? That answer depends on the species so, let’s look at the numbers.

            One day old domestic chicken – 5 to 12 taste buds

            Adult chicken – 24 taste buds

            Blue tit – 24 taste buds

            Bullfinch – 41 taste buds

            Pigeon – 59 taste buds

            European Starling – 200 taste buds

            Parrot – 300 to 400 taste buds

Let’s compare these numbers to some other animals to give us some perspective.

            Adult domestic cat – 2755 taste buds

            Human – 6974 taste buds

                        Rabbit – 17,000 taste buds

                        Ox – 35,000 taste buds

                        Catfish – 100,000 taste buds

Kiersten: The study of taste in birds didn’t get off the ground until the 1970’s. It began with research into ducks. We found that ducks have 400 taste buds and if they used the tips of their beaks to pick up a pea, they could tell the difference between a normal pea and one that was unpleasant tasting. Research continued from there and one of the questions that scientists ask now is what different flavor profiles can birds recognize.

            There are five recognized flavor profiles that humans can taste sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Scientists studied these five flavor profiles to see if birds could detect them in their food. Let’s start with the sweet profile.

            Frugivores, birds that eat mainly fruit, and omnivores, birds that eat fruit, meat, and seeds, appear to prefer sweet more than other birds that are mainly seed foragers. They can actually tell the difference between different types of sugars. For instance, sucrose versus glucose versus fructose versus xylose. In scientific experiments, the birds tested, such as European starlings, Cape sugarbirds, and Lesser double-collard sunbirds, preferred certain types of sugars over other types. Overall, it appears that the main preference was for sucrose. The sunbirds and the sugarbirds didn’t even bother absorbing the xylose when offered that, it was simply excreted.

            Preference was based on concentration levels when mixed with filtered water. Each species had different preferences based on which solution offered them the best caloric intake in regards to their specific lifestyle needs. And, yes, they tested hummingbirds! As we know they are one of the most famous nectar drinking birds in the world and they are picky about what they choose. It has to be just right for them to revisit a feeder and they can tell when the mixture is off by only 1%. So, remember 1 cup of granulated sugar to 4 cups of water. It’s the magic solution.

Cheryl: After sweet, one of humans’ favorite taste profiles is salty. This is actually the only real craving our body ever physically tells us about since sodium is extremely important to proper nerve function. Sorry, but your craving for chocolate is not a true physical craving.

            When it comes to birds, the salty taste acts more as a deterrent than something that they favor. It’s important for birds to monitor how much salt is in their diet because too much can be dangerous and even deadly. In experiments, parrots rejected solutions with 0.35% salt levels or above and pine siskins rejected solutions of 37.5% or higher. The difference here is probably based on their dietary lifestyle. Parrots eat a lot of fruits while pine siskins eat mostly seeds and insects. Pine siskins can tolerate more salt in their diet. Red winged blackbirds and European starlings actually preferred water with a tiny bit of salt. They chose a sodium solution with 0.1% to 1% salt over clear, distilled water.

            Pigeons are even more sensitive to salt solutions and they very quickly learn to tell the difference. Pigeons were presented a solution with a tiny amount of salt that was safe for them to drink and a solution with a toxic level of sodium. In under five minutes, they determined which one was okay to drink. That’s a pretty smart bird! This also proves that the pigeon was basing its decision on taste not side effects from drinking the toxic solution.

            Sour is the next taste profile. Sour taste is typically associated with fermentation and, in birds, usually results in rejection of the food. The sourness detection level in various bird species is different which is, once again, most likely related to their natural diet. The red-winged blackbird and female starlings actually preferred their water with a tiny bit of citric acid even though most birds reject sour foods.

Kiersten: Let’s move on to bitter. I think this is the taste that started everything because, like I said in the opening, why do birds spit out bitter tasting caterpillars if they can’t taste? For that matter, why does the caterpillar bother making itself taste bad to ward off one of its most numerous predators if that predator can’t taste the bitterness.

            To test the bitter palate scientists used quinine in a solution. It’s harmless to the birds but has a bitter taste. The threshold for bitter in birds was way lower than the sweet and salt. Birds do not want to eat anything bitter. This is most likely because bitter food often means poisonous food. Even European starlings, who preferred slightly salty and slightly sour solutions, completely rejected anything with even a tiny level of bitter. 14-day old domestic chickens could tell the difference between untreated food and food treated with 0.2% quinine solution. This shows how important avoiding bitter food is to bird survival.

Cheryl: Umami is the last flavor profile and we only have a little information about the ability for birds to detect umami. It was only accepted by scientists as an actual flavor profile in 2008, so research involving umami is lacking in more than just birds. What we do know is that male starlings prefer solutions with 0.7% to 1% umami over clear, distilled water. We also know that the umami receptor gene has been found in chickens’ genetic code.

Kiersten: Conclusion: In closing, birds do have a well-developed sense of taste that corresponds to their feeding behavior. So even though birds have fewer taste buds than other animals they definitely have a well-balanced sense of taste that helps them pick just the right food to flourish.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.allaboutbirds.org

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Cheryl: Intro

Arizona sits in the middle of thrasher territory.  Our corner of the southwest has four different thrashers that call our deserts home.  All four of these thrashers are non-migratory, territorial, mate for life, and eat insects and spiders. Their territories might overlap only if they are not of the same species, such as the Curve-billed Thrasher would share territory with a Crissal Thrasher pair but not with another Curve-billed Thrasher pair.  They are similar, yet not.  As the saying goes so close yet so far…

Our first one is the Curve-billed Thrasher which is the most widely dispersed and most adapted to living with humans.

Kiersten: Curve-billed Thrasher

Strong legs and a long, decurved bill give the Curve-billed thrashers the perfect tool for hunting insects in the punishing deserts, canyons, and brush lands that are its home.  That long bill also keeps that  insect prey at a safe distance and comes in handy for foraging and nesting among spiny plants, especially, cacti.  This species is so typical of the deserts of the American southwest and northern Mexico that its whistled “whit-wheet” call is often the first vocalization that visiting bird watchers learn.

The Curve-billed thrasher, actually has two different looks. The Curve-billed thrasher of the Chihuahuan desert of Texas/central Mexico has a lighter breast, more contrasting spots, pale wing bars, and white tail corners.

The Arizona (western) bird of the Sonoran Desert has grayer breast with less obvious spots and inconspicuous wing bars, and smaller, more grayish tail corners.  It’s up for debate whether they are two separate species.

The Curve-billed thrasher of Arizona-Sonoran Desert population favors creosote bushes, Saguaro and cholla cacti, and Paloverde trees.  These birds forage on the ground for a variety of insects, spiders and snails along with fruit and seeds.  They use their bills to sweep back and forth through leaf litter and soil, tossing large pieces of vegetation to one side to uncover insect prey including “flipping cow chips”.   Curve-billed thrashers do not use their strong legs for scratching in leaves, instead the legs provide leverage, and the tail provides support.  Not cavity nesters, these birds build stick nests in cactus such as ocotillo, cholla or in creosote bushes.   These birds’ mate for life, and maintain a territory all year-round of about 5-11 acres.

Cheryl: Crissal Thrasher

A lanky, gray-brown bird of desert washes, the Crissal Thrasher generally stays hidden and close to the ground as it probes for insects and seeds with its long, curved-bill.  It may be easily mistaken for a curve-billed thrasher with its long tail and light orange eyes, except for a subtle black and white mustache, rich cinnamon patch under the tail, and pale, unspotted belly.  Its mellow, musical song makes it one of the finest desert songsters.

Crissal thrashers are sedentary creatures.  They almost never venture more than a mile or so from their home point.  The Crissal thrasher walks and runs around its territory more than it flies.  Even when disturbed by a predator, this thrasher is most likely to run away to cover.

Crissal thrashers live in desert and dry scrubby or brushy habitats, especially along dry creek beds, or in canyons and foothills.  Also, brushy riparian corridors and mesquite thickets.   Crissal thrasher habitats overlap Curve-billed thrasher habitats, but truly stays very much in the southwest corner of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southeastern corner of California.

  Crissal thrashers are an insect and spider eater, like the curve-billed thrasher the Crissal uses its legs as leverage when foraging for insects. 

Crissal thrasher pairs usually defend nesting territories year-round, and males sing anytime of the  year to mark their territory.  Crissal thrashers have nests that are set in very dense shrubs or trees about 4ft off the ground.  These thrashers will not be attracted to bird feeding stations.

Kiersten: Bendire’s Thrasher

Bendire’s thrasher is a secretive bird of open desert habitats; it is a lanky, dusty brown songster with a curved bill that is somewhat shorter than the other thrashers on our list today.

Bendire’s thrasher spends most of its time on the ground, catching insects or digging them out of crevices in the ground.  Bendire’s thrasher’s range overlaps with the curved-billed thrasher’s but they are more comfortable in open areas with shorter vegetation while curve-billed thrashers use cactus forests and stream corridors.  Bendire’s has a bill almost like a woodpecker and they use it to extract insects lodged in the ground. It will hammer away until it frees its prey.  Bendire’s thrasher builds bowl shaped nests lined neatly with grasses, animal hair and feathers.  Crissal thrashers are non-migratory and their population is on the decline due to habitat loss.

Cheryl: Le Conte’s Thrasher

A pale, sandy gray colored bird with unmarked wings, a dark eye, and a cured-bill,  Le conte’s thrasher is a ghost of a bird that often runs on the ground with its tail held up across the desert flats.  Le conte’s thrasher when alarmed chooses to flee on foot, like a miniature roadrunner.  This thrasher lives in low sandy, open deserts that are home to few bird species.  Over most of their range are plants like cholla, cactus, creosote, yucca and mesquite spread very thinly over open flats or sand dunes.   These birds thrive in desert habitats with very little rain fall and air temperatures that are among the highest recorded on earth, such as Death Valley.

Le conte’s thrashers eat insects and spiders along with lizards, snakes, and an occasional bird’s egg.

Le Conte’s thrasher breeding season begins in December.  The female builds a twiggy cup nest in a thorny bush.  This bird lives in remote, forbidding habitats making it difficult to track their population trends.  It is on conservationist’s watch list due to destruction of its desert habitat by development, cattle grazing, off-road vehicles and fire.  The Le Conte’s has the smallest range of all four thrashers occupying just a sliver of SE California, a southern corner of Nevada, the very SW corner of Arizona and a slip of Mexico.

Closing: As I said at the beginning, so close yet so far… two of the four southwest thrashers’ bird populations are in decline, so hopefully putting this information out will help draw some attention their way so that they have a chance of adapting and overcoming man’s intrusion into their landscapes.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Beginner Birding Tips

Kiersten - Intro:  Cheryl and I always get people asking us to identify the birds they see in their backyards. We love helping people figure out which feathered friend is visiting their feeders, but we thought we’d share some beginner birding tips with our listeners that will help you identify the birds when we not there to help you. Beware though once you master these tips the addiction has begun and you’ll use them everywhere you go, not just in your backyard!

Cheryl – I know when I see a new bird in my backyard, my heart beats a little faster at the prospect of identifying a new species I’ve never seen before. So, I run to get my ID guide to figure out who has come to visit, and by the time I get back to the window, the bird is gone. Of course!

But don’t worry, there are a few quick identifying markers you can take note of when you first see the bird that can help you when you’re able to access your ID guide.

The first one we’ll start with seems obvious but it’s super helpful and that is color. Whether it’s brown, blue, black, yellow, or red; color can be a great start to identifying your visitor. Initially you only have to make note of the main color of the bird. This will give you a good base to build your identification notes. When you get more confident you can add in striping, spotting, and other color markers.

Kiersten - Now that you’ve made note of the color, take a look at the body shape of the bird. This is one of the most important identifiers that will help you find which family of birds you should be looking at to ID your visitor.

            There are three qualities you need to notice when looking at body shape. First is the size of the bird. Trying to decide whether a bird is small, medium, or large can be difficult when you first get started. So, I recommend picking a bird you are already familiar with such as a House Finch or Mourning Dove. Whatever you like, it’s doesn’t matter. Then when you’re trying to ID a new bird compare it to the size of your familiar bird. Is it bigger or smaller than a the House Finch? Then you have an idea of what size bird you need to look for in your ID guide.

            Second look at the basic shape of the body. Is it small and round? Is it sleek and long? Is it stout? These are subjective terms but by making yourself memorize the shape of the body as you look at your visitor, you’ll recognize it when you look in your ID guide. Also, a lot of quick refence ID guides have a page where you can begin ID’s with the body shape. Or, if using an app, this may be an option as well.

            Third, make special note of the tail. Is it long? Is it short? Is it v-shaped or square? Can you see a split in it? These three qualities combined will get you well on your way to finding your bird.

Cheryl – Once you’ve mastered these first two markers. Challenge yourself to add a few more easily seen characteristics. Look closely at the bird’s eye and see if there is a ring around it. If the bird has one, it will typically be a white, or other pale color. What you want to take note of is whether it goes all the way around, if it’s on the top only, the bottom only, or looks more like the letter C. The eye ring, as it’s called, is a great way to widdle down what bird you’ve seen once you’ve used color, shape, and size to get to the correct family.

Kiersten – One last characteristic to look for is bars on the wings. If the bird has wing bars they are often a lighter color than the main color of the wing. They can be very distinctive like bright slashes across the wings or a bit more faded. They can have one or two. These also may vary depending on the season. Adding this to your identification notes can pinpoint your bird!

Cheryl – We want to offer you a few other tips to make IDing new birds as easy as possible.

Be prepared. If you have a set of binoculars, place them near the window you can see your birdfeeders from. Having them readily at hand will improve your chances of getting a better look at the bird.

Place a pad of paper and pen next to the window as well. Then you can scribble down the identifiers we just talked about. 

I know it sounds like a lot of things to remember, but don’t worry once you train your brain it will process all this information in a matter of moments.

Kiersten – Speaking of training your brain!

Scientific studies have proven that identifying birds can improve brain function! Neuroscientists have shown that gaining expertise in a subject area can rewire your brain. When choosing people to participate in their studies the scientists recruited from all levels of birdwatchers. The more you practice identifying birds the more neurons fire in your brain. As you gain expertise the pathway you are developing in your brain become quicker and easier to traverse.

Over time expertise can change the structure of your brain! Parts of the cerebral cortex can actually grow thicker as you gain more visual and auditory knowledge. This makes it easier for you to add new information in the future. For example, if you’re an expert at IDing birds in Arizoan and you travel to Maine, you may not be able to automatically ID brand new bird species but, it does help you remember them better. You’ve already opened those pathways so adding new information is easy and lasts longer. Now if you’re an expert birder that doesn’t mean you’re going to be great at everything new you try, but it could mean that you might be better at learning new visual skills. The research has also shown that sharpening your birding skills can help you sharpen your focus in other areas. I think this sounds like a great excuse to carry your binoculars everywhere you go!

Closing – Kiersten – So remember color, size, shape, and tail when you see a new bird and you’re on your way to becoming an expert bird watcher! Also pair this podcast with our Birding by Ear episodes and you’ll also work out your auditory brain muscles!

Show Notes:

"Why a Hawk is a Hummingbird's Best Friend," by Ashley P. Taylor, Audubon, September 2015.

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Marky Mutchler.

Summary: Doves driving you crazy? Pigeons eating you out of house and home? Grackles taking over your backyard? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they reveal ways to outsmart these pesky visitors.

Show Notes:

dentification: www.allaboutbirds.org

Pigeon guards, feeders, and seed: Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Summary:Cheryl and Kiersten talk about bird-friendly breakfast items! Yes, just drinking a cup of coffee or tea and eating pancakes with maple syrup can help save the future of our songbirds. Listen as our co-hosts tell you all about bird-friendly coffee, eco-friendly tea, and bird-friendly maple syrup.

Show Notes:  Bird-friendly coffee links: https://nationalzoo.edu/migratory-birds/about-bird-friendly-coffee

https://nationalzoo.edu/migratory-birds/about-bird-friendly-coffee-online

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.emeraldology.com/9-best-certified-bird-friendly-and-organic-coffee-roasters/

Eco-friendly Tea links: www.goingzerowaste.com/sustainable-and-eco-friendly-tea-brands/

www.rainforest-alliance.org

https://elephantfriendlytea.com

www.fairtrade.net

https://www.ethicalteapartnership.org

https://inttea.com

This blog was also used in our research: www.abirdylife.com

Maple Syrup links: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/04/turning-maple-syrup-forests-bird-friendly-habitat

https://vt.audubon.org/conservation/working-lands/landing/bird-friendly-maple-project

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Summary: Cheryl and Kiersten dive into complicated topic of water in Arizona. Find out where Arizona’s water comes from, how important it is to our birds, and learn how we can do our part to conserve water for all our futures.

Show Notes:

A big Thank You to Rob Clarkson, wildlife biologist, for answering some questions about water conservation in Arizona.

Also a big Thank You to Gretchen Beaubier, local naturalist, who contributed information for his podcast as well.

“Welcome to Subirdia” by John Marzluff

Understanding Arizona’s Groundwater: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories

Data Center in Mesa, AZ article: www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/huge-data-center-arizona-water-concerns

Audubon Near you: www.Audubon.org

The Nature Conservancy: www.nature.org

American Rivers: www.americanrivers.org

Center for Biological Diversity: www.biologicaldiversity.org

Water for Arizona Coalition: www.waterforarizona.com

Desert Four o’clock pictures: www.wildflower.org

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Summary:Disease is a part of nature but we can help keep our feeding areas healthy for our feathered friends. Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they discuss the types of diseases we can see at our feeders and how to keep our backyard birds healthy when visiting our feeders.

Show Notes:

https://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-diseases.html

https://feederwatch.org/learn/sick-birds-and-diseases/

https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/birds/bird-diseases-parasites

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Summary: It’s fledging season! Cheryl and Kiersten talk about the Do’s and Don’ts of what to do when we see a fledging bird out of their nest. Join them to find out how to identify a fledgling vs. a hatchling and how we can best help our backyard songbirds.

Show Notes:

PDF of Wild Bird Rehabbers in Phoenix Area: https://azwildlife.org/resources/Documents/Wildlife%20Rehab%20Contact%20List.pdf

IDing Baby Birds: https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-identify-babybirds

A Few articles on outdoor cat alternatives: https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blog/leash-walk-my-cat-ask-the-cat-daddy/

https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blog/indoor-cat-vs-outdoor-cat/

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.allaboutbirds.org

“Western Chatterboxes” by Ken Keffer, Birds and Blooms Magazine pg 26-32.

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Cheryl: Intro

Wrens are small birds but what they do not have in size they make up for in personality, chatter, and curiosity.  Our Sonoran Desert has several wrens flit through our desert and urban landscapes.

Kiersten:  Cactus Wren

         The Cactus wren is a large, chunky wren with a long heavy bill, a long rounded tail, and short, rounded wings.  The Cactus wren is the largest wren in the U.S. It also has the distinction of being the state bird of Arizona. 

         This wren is a speckled brown bird with bright white eyebrows that extend from the bill across and above their red eyes to the sides of the neck.  They have pale cinnamon sides and a white chest with dark speckles.  The back is brown with heavy white streaks, and the tail is barred white and black.  Males and females look alike. 

         Unlike other wrens that typically hide in vegetation, the cactus wren seems to have no fear.  They perch a top cacti and other shrubs to announce their presence and forage out in the open.  These birds do not cock their tails over their back the way other wrens do.  Instead, Cactus wrens fan their tail feathers, flashing white tail tips.

         Cactus wrens, as we have mentioned in previous podcasts, make more than one nest a year, its spherical, with males and females occupying different nests through out the year.  Cactus Wren is an insect eater.  When feeding its nestlings it will pull the wings of the grasshopper before it feeds it to its baby.  That’s a lot of wings because one Cactus Wren nestling eats 14 grasshoppers a day.

         Cactus Wrens live in desert, arid foothills, coastal sage scrub and urban areas of the southwest.  They especially love areas with thorny shrubs like the Cholla and Prickly pear.

Cheryl: Rock Wren

         Medium-sized wren with a long tail and thin bill.  Pale brown above and whitish below with slight buffy or peachy wash on the lower belly. Back and wings are finely speckled.  Underpants are finely streaked, but often look whitish. 

         The small industrious Rock Wren constantly hops around rocks, investigating crannies for insects and spiders, which they extract with their delicate bill.  This resourceful species thrives even in bleak desert settings occupied by few other birds.  The rock wren is not known to drink water but instead gets all it needs from its food.

         Male Rock wren is a truly remarkable singer and can have a large song repertoire of 100 or more songs, many it has learned from its neighbors.

         Rock Wrens are on of the few bird species that uses landscapes significantly altered by industry or tother human activity.  Nesting is road cuts, railroad tunnels, gravel pits, clearcuts, coalmine spoils, and refuse heaps.

Kiersten: Canyon Wren

         A tiny bird with a big voice, the Canyon Wren, sings a gorgeous series of sweet, cascading whistles that echo off the rocky walls of its canyon habitat.  Canyon Wrens are incredibly agile birds that hunt for insects mostly among rocks, scaling cliff faces and using their long slender bills to probe into crevices with surgical precision.

         They are a warm cinnamon -brown with a salt and pepper pattern on their head, and neat white throat patch.  The vertebral column of the Canyon Wren is attached higher on the skull than it is on most birds.  This modification, along with a slightly flattened skull, allows a Canyon Wren to probe for food in tight crevices without bumping its head.  Canyon Wrens sometimes steal insects trapped in spiderwebs or stowed in wasp nests.

Cheryl: Bewick’s Wren-pronounced Bu-ick’s

         The Bewick’s Wren is a medium-size brown wren with a long tail that is often held up.  The bill is long and slightly curved.  Note the white eyebrows and dark barring on the tail.  These are boisterous and curious birds.  Their plumage varies regionally from rusty-brown in humid areas to grayish- brown in drier regions.

         Bewick’s Wrens are noisy, hyperactive little birds.  They are master vocalists that belt out a string of short whistles, warblers, burrs, and trills to attract mates and defend their territory, or scold visitors with raspy calls.   A young male Bewick’s wren learns to sing from neighboring adult males while he is coming of age in his parents territory.  The songs he develops differ from his father’s, with a note changed here or a syllable there.  The melodious signature he acquires between the ages of about 30 and 60 days will be his for life.

These wrens are common in much of the western North America.  Bewick’s wrens eat insects, but will eat fruits, seeds and other plant matter especially in winter.  Bewick’s wrens build their nests in cavities or on ledges about 30 ft off the ground.

Kiersten:  House Wrens

         The house wren is a small, nondescript brown bird with a short tail, thin bill and dark barring on wings and tail with a paler throat.  House wrens have a effervescent voice and is a common visitor to backyards.  Spending its time zipping through shrubs and low tree branches snatching at insects.   Because they are cavity nesters, house wrens thrive around buildings, yards, farms, and other human habitations with their many nooks and crannies.

         House wrens eat a variety of insects and spiders, including beetles, caterpillars, earwigs and daddy long legs, also small snails for the grit to aid in digestion and calcium. 

         The house wren has on of the largest ranges of any song bird in  North or South America because it breeds from Canada through the west indies and Central America, southward to the southern most point of South America.  Generally, Bewick’s wrens and House wrens will not nest in the same areas.  So you can imagine the pressure the Bewick’s wren is under with the success of the House wren.

Cheryl: Closing

These amazing small birds are full of personality and big voices so it is a joy to spend time with them here in the Phoenix Valley where it is  home to a variety of these wrens.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:  

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States.  (bird calls and songs play)

Kiersten: Intro – This episode will be posted during spring bird migration and Cheryl and I thought we’d discuss a few birds that pass through the southwest and phoenix valley area that you should be on the lookout for!

Cheryl – To clarify, spring migration in the southwestern United States begins at the end of March through April and even into the beginning of May. The birds we’re going to discuss today are ones that will fly through from Central and South America to their summer breeding grounds in Northern United States and Canada. We are lucky enough that in the southwestern United States and the Phoenix Valley we’re in their flight path.

Kiersten – Let’s start off with some flashy visitors that we’ve been lucky enough to see the last few years, orioles! Two species of orioles are commonly seen in the Phoenix valley as they migrate through to California, Oregon, and Washington state. The Hooded Oriole and the Bullock’s Oriole are both seen in the Southwest during spring migration.

The hooded oriole male will be either a bright sunset orange or yellow with a deep black throat patch and black wings and tail. The female is yellow with gray wings and no throat patch. They are attracted to tubular flowers, like ocotillo, and sugar water feeders. You can put out sugar feeders made specifically for orioles or just use your hummingbird feeder.

The Bullock’s Oriole male will have an orange face with a bright yellow body, black on the head and small black bib under the beak. They have a wide white wing bar with black shoulders and a yellow and black tail. The female has a paler yellow face and body with dark gray wings. Both species of orioles will have sharp, thin beaks that allow them to get inside tubular flowers and to peck at the bottom of flowers to get to the nectar. When you’re out hiking or just running errands and you see a medium size bright yellow bird with a long beak and long tail, you’re probably looking at an oriole.

Cheryl - Hummingbirds

            In Arizona we can see 16 different species of hummingbirds at some point during the year. Many of them will over summer with us in the White Mountains and the Sky Island Mountains and, of course, we have two to three species that live in the southwest, especially Arizona, all year.  But one species only migrates through on their way to California and the upper states. This is the Rufous Hummingbird. This hummer gets its name from the orange color that dominates the male’s coloration. Males are orange on their head, back, tail, and chest with green on their shoulders. Their gorget feathers are reddish-orange. Females are green on the head, back, and wings with orange on their flanks and upper tail. Their chest is white with a tiny patch of red on the chin.

They’re a smaller size hummer at 3.75 inches but they are big on attitude. Keep an eye out for them during spring migration at you feeders or blooming plants. If you see a streak of orange the size of a hummingbird you’ve just seen a Rufous Hummingbird.

Kiersten – Wilson’s Warbler

            Our next songbird is a small flash of yellow that overwinters in Central America and can breed as far north as the boreal forests of Newfoundland, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Males and females look virtually the same with bright yellow faces, chests, and bellies. The top of the head is black with olive green on the neck, back, and wings. This little one is just under 5 inches and consumes mainly insects. They like wooded areas around streams and can be seen refueling in places where insects are plentiful.

            If you have a bird bath in your back yard and have a pesticide free yard with native plants that attract insects you very well may see this songbird visiting as they fly through. Sometimes they can be seen eating mealworms offered in an open feeder or maybe taking advantage of some easily seen suet.   

            Keep watch for a bright flash of yellow as you’re bird watching this spring and you may spot the Wilson’s Warbler. A great place to look for them in the Phoenix Valley could be the Gilbert Riparian Area in the city of Gilbert.

Cheryl – Solitary Sandpiper

            This is our first water bird. This sandpiper overwinters in lower Central America and breeds in Northern Canada. They migrate through the United States in spring and fall. This is a long, yellow legged water bird with a long beak and medium sized body. Their belly is bright white while the rest of their body is a mottled brown and white with an eye-pleasing spotted pattern.

            They migrate at night, individually or in small groups. They are not easily seen during migration but you might be able to catch a glimpse of them at a local pond or lake. They can be found at almost any body of water including brackish ponds, freshwater ponds, and woodland streams. You’ll see them wading in the water dipping their beaks under the surface of the water searching for aquatic insects and crustaceans. A great place to find them in the Phoenix Valley will be the Gilbert Riparian Area if they make a stopover here in Arizona.

Kiersten – Lazuli Bunting

            This beautiful blue songbird overwinters in western Mexico and breeds in the northwestern United States. Some can be found in Northern Arizona during the spring and summer but they mostly fly through during spring migration. The Lazuli Bunting male is a brilliant, almost aquamarine blue on the head, back, and tail with a rusty brown chest. The female is a dusty brown all over. They have a small beak that helps them eat small seeds from weeds and trees. 

            At almost six inches this bird can be seen in various types of landscapes including brushy areas as well as pasture. They don’t stay here in the Phoenix Valley during the summer but might take a quick refueling break in an inviting backyard with a birdbath or seed feeder. You may also see them in one of our natural parks. Keep your eyes open for a pop of blue this spring and you might catch a glimpse of this amazing bunting.

Cheryl – Olive-sided Flycatcher

            This is a large flycatcher at 7.5 inches and is essentially olive colored from head to tail. The chin is bright white while the belly is more of a buff color. It has a small crest on the head. This flycatcher has the longest migration of any North American flycatcher migrating from southern central America to the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska.

            They prefer forested areas where they catch insects on the wing. With such as long migration, they will make several stops to refuel on their long journey. We do have two other flycatchers that over summer with us in Arizona. The Olive-sided flycatcher is two inches larger that the Dusky flycatcher and is darker in coloring than the Ash-throated flycatcher. These tips can help you identify this spring visitor.

Kiersten – Now these are not all the migratory birds that you can see here in the southwestern US and the Phoenix Valley, but these are a few that you can put on your bird list this year. A great resource to find out what migratory birds may be near you is eBird. You can download the app or check out the website developed and run by Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. It uses real time information downloaded by birders to identify where they are seeing birds. What great motivation to grab your binoculars and get out there!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

https://www.fws.gov

https://epa.gov

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States.  (bird calls and songs play)

Kiersten: Intro - 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act and Cheryl and I thought it was the perfect time to talk about what this act is and what it has done for our feathered friends.

Cheryl: What exactly is the Endangered Species Act?

Quoting directly from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website: the ESA is a federal law passed in 1973 that “provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found.” The lead federal agencies for implementing the ESA are the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service. “The law requires federal agencies, in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the NOAA Fisheries Service, to ensure that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of such species. The law also prohibits any action that causes a taking of any listed species of endangered fish or wildlife. Also import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all generally prohibited.”

That’s quite a mouthful! In layman’s terms this act protects and recovers species at risk of extinction and promotes the conservation of the habitats they need to survive.

Kiersten: Next question is how does a plant or animal get listed as threatened or endangered so they can receive protection under the Endangered Species Act?

            According to the NOAA Fisheries Service website it is a many stepped process that can take several years to accomplish. First, there are five factors that must be determined before a plant or animal can be listed as threatened or endangered.

1. Is there present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range?
2. Has there been overutilization of the species for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes?
3. Is it being threatened by disease or predation?
4. Is there an inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms?
5. Are natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence?

If the answers to these five questions are all yes, which must be supported by current scientific evidence, then action must be taken to determine if the organism needs to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. To determine this NOAA and US Fish and Wildlife starts a listing process. This can begin in one of two ways:

1. They receive a petition from a private organization or person requesting a species be listed as threatened or endangered.
2. NOAA or US Fish and Wildlife chooses to examine the status of a species themselves.

After receiving a petition, the next step is a 90-day period in which they decide to accept the petition or deny the petition. The decision must be publicly announced.  If it is denied, that’s the end of the road for the time being. If it’s a yes, then we move onto the next step that can take up to 12 months.

            In this step scientific data is gathered from all sources private and public and this is peer-reviewed for accuracy. Once the evidence is read the petition is either classified as not warranted, which means these agencies publish a negative 12-month finding and that’s all she wrote for this attempt. If it’s deemed warranted, they publish this finding and request public comment on the proposal to list the species as threatened or endangered. The final ruling is generally determined and published within one year of the date of the proposed rule. That results in being listed as endangered or threatened in all or part of the species range.

            Whoosh! That’s quite a few steps.

Cheryl: What’s the difference between threatened and endangered?

            Endangered means an animal or plant is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.  State and Federal statuses can be different from each other. The federal status takes precedence but states can have their own classifications. For example, a species can be considered threatened federally but can be endangered in the state of Arizona. That species would receive protection under the Endangered Species Act as well as state protection laws.

Kiersten: Let’s look at how the Endangered Species Act has helped some of our feathered friends throughout the years.

            The most famous and well-known example is the Bald Eagle. In the mid-1900s the bald eagle was at risk for extinction. Habitat loss and degradation, illegal shooting, and poisoning from the pesticide DDT was at fault. All of these causes were man-made issues. The bald eagle was listed as endangered in 1978 throughout the lower 48 states with the exception of Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin where they were listed as threatened. The Bald Eagle was adopted as the national symbol in 1782 and it is estimated at that time there were approximately 100,000 nesting pairs. In the mid to late 1800s their numbers began to decline at the same time that overhunting was causing a decline in waterfowl numbers, which is a major prey items for these eagles.

            Due to the incorrect belief that eagles killed chickens, lamb and other domesticated livestock, shootings took many of their lives, as well as the discovery of DDT as a great way to get rid of mosquitos. DDT coated everything and was ingested by wildlife which made its way into the food eagles ate killing them and weakening their egg shells causing incubating mothers to crush their own eggs. By 1963 there were only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles known to exist in the US. Listing the Bald Eagle as endangered under the Endangered Species Act allowed federal agencies to band together to begin the conservation efforts that included establishing captive breeding programs, enforcing protections legally, protecting nest sites during breeding season, and reintroduction programs.

            Because of these efforts, in 1995 Bald Eagles were reclassified as threatened. In 2007 they were removed from the Endangered Species Act all together because their population was now estimated at least 9,789 nesting pairs in the contiguous United States. In 2019 an estimated 316,700 individuals existed with 71,467 of those being breeding pairs. The Bald eagle is an ESA success story and without these protections they would most likely have gone extinct. 

Cheryl: Our next example is one you may not have heard of, and that is the Kirtland’s Warbler.

This is a small yellow-breasted warbler that migrates between their breeding grounds in Northern Michigan and winter grounds in the Bahamas. They only nest in large areas of dense, young jack pines. These habitats are typically produced through natural wildfires. Years of preventing cyclical wildfires through human efforts led to a decline in their preferred habitat. And the invasion of the parasitic brown-headed cowbird, due to the change in habitat, greatly diminished their population. In 1973, the Kirtland’s Warbler was one of the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Efforts to recover this bird had been going on since the 1950s but without success. The listing allowed several forces to ban together to create a program that would be more successful.  To address the issues of habitat loss, the USDA Forest Service and Michigan Department of Natural Resources developed a program to harvest old jack pine forests and then plant new jack pines to provide those young trees the warblers needed. In 1980, Nature also helped out with a natural wildfire that burned 10,000 acres of jack pine habitat making way for new growth.

In 1981 there existed only 232 pairs of Kirtland’s warblers, five years later the numbers had dropped to 170. By the 1990’s with the increase in available habitat the numbers began to rise. In 2001, their breeding pairs exceeding 1,000. In 2019 they hit 2300 breeding pairs and were removed from the Endangered Species Act.  Another success story for the ESA that Phil Huber, a national forest biologist, contributes to the teamwork of biologists, foresters, researchers, and volunteers made possible by the listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Kiersten: Our third example is the fastest creature on Earth, the Peregrine Falcon.

            Prior to 1940 it was estimated that there were 3,875 nesting pairs of Peregrine Falcons in North America. By the 1960s peregrines had disappeared from the eastern United States and by the 1970s their population in the western United States had declined by 90%. By 1975 only 324 pairs existed in the United States. Loss of habitat, shooting, and egg collection plagued these falcons for years, but the truly devastating blow was the use of the pesticide DDT. Use of this chemical had the same impact on the peregrine as it did on the Bald Eagle. Brooding mothers were crushing their eggs due to a lack of calcium in the shell. American peregrines were quickly on their way to extinction.

            This bird was classified as endangered in 1970 under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 and this listing was rolled over to the Endangered Species Act in 1973. When DDT was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972, recovering the peregrine falcon population became a real possibility. In 1974, The Peregrine Fund, national and state agencies in the United States and Canada, and private volunteers banned together to embark on a reintroduction program. Researchers at Cornell University successfully devised a plan to breed adults in captivity and with the help of state and federal wildlife services reintroduced these birds into the wild.

            Because of these efforts, more than 6000 American peregrine falcons have been released in North America. In 1999, their numbers were so well recovered they were removed from the Endangered Species Act. The American Peregrine Falcon is the most dramatic success story of the Endangered Species Act.

Cheryl: These are just three dramatic examples of the success stories of the Endangered Species Act. As of 2016, there were 120 bird species protected under this act. According to a review published by the Center for Biological Diversity, 85% of continental U.S. birds protected by the Endangered Species Act have increased or stabilized since being protected. The average increase was 624%. Current recovering species include California Condor in California and Arizona that are up 391% since 1968, whooping cranes in the central U.S. that are up 923% since 1967, wood storks in the Southeast that are up 61% since 1984, California least terns that are up 1,835% since 1970, and Puerto Rican parrots that are up 354% since 1967.

            These are amazing results! Currently there are 1,300 species of plants and animals listed as endangered or threatened in the United States under the Endangered Species Act. If the last 50 years show us anything, these species have a good shot at beating extinction as long as we all continue to work together.

            As a side note, the birds in the success stories we talk about that have been removed from the ESA are still protected by federal law under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. For more on this act, please check out or episode titled Bird Laws.

Kiersten: Closing - The Audubon Society calls the Endangered Species Act the strongest federal safeguard against the extinction of species in the United States. The examples we’ve just talked about prove how this legislation does work. Reluctantly, in recent years there have been grumblings in Congress about limiting the effectiveness of this act. To protect our feathered friends we must make our feelings known by supporting the continued use of the Endangered Species Act so we can have another 50 years of success stories.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Sue Riffe.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

https://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm

https://www.npa.gov/sagu/learn/nature/birds.htm

The Arizona Republic Sunday, March 12, 2023

"Why saguaro is so important to Arizona" by Sarah Lapidus

The Arizona Republic, Sunday, June 21, 2020

"So Long, Saguaro?" by Debra Utacia Krol

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States.  (bird calls and songs play)

Cheryl: Intro

We have all seen these iconic cacti as we travel through the Phoenix Valley.  Maybe you done think twice about it, but you should because this huge tree-like cactus is a vital part of the desert we live in.

         Kiersten:  Saguaros have ecological importance to all species that live near them including us.  The saguaro is important to the survival of desert species: everything from Big Horn sheep to native bees; from coyotes to the countless birds that depend on it.

         Now, most of us are aware that the Gila Woodpecker and the Gilded Flicker excavate their nests in the saguaro cactus.  What you may not be aware of is that these birds do not harm the cactus.  Since these birds make a new hole/nest each year.  Last year’s excavated hole is prime real estate to a long list of desert birds such as: Elf owls, Ferruginous Pygmy owl, Purple Martins, Brown-crested, and Ash-throated flycatchers.

         Now, Harris hawks, Great horned owls, Red-tail hawks, and White-winged doves build nests among the arms of these tall cacti.

         Cheryl:  Saguaro cactus provides a buffet during the toughest part of the year in our desert-summer.

         The saguaro is a keystone species that provides food many desert animals, Saguaros have hundreds of flowers that bloom several per day from late April to early June.  The flowers open at night and close the following afternoon.  Saguaros synchronize their blooming so the giant cacti are not blooming all at the same time. 

         Lesser Long nosed bats visit the flowers at night.  Birds like the white-winged dove and the Gila Woodpecker visit the flowers the following morning. 

         Kiersten:  that’s not all for this buffet table…

The fruit of the saguaro cactus is mature in June and early July.  The rind splits open into 3-4 sections that peel back to expose the juicy red pulp embedded with up to 2,000 tiny seeds.  1 out of a million seeds will become a cactus with arms.  The fruit ripen during the peak of drought in early summer and are about the only moist food source for many birds, mammals, and insects during this part of the year.

Cheryl:  How the saguaro helps us-humans

Saguaros and other cacti photosynthesis at night to reduce water loss.  This large cactus takes in carbon dioxide and holds in for its whole life.   When you see an expired cactus-saguaro and it looks ashy- that’s because of the stored carbon dioxide it pulled out of the air so that people can breathe cleaner air.

Kiersten:  Challenges facing this giant.

Climate change-Saguaros ae not freeze tolerant, nor do they handle high night time temperatures very well.  Because they take so long to grow, a lot of younger saguaros don’t make it. Wildfires, invasive plants that suck up water, drought, extreme temps, and a reduction in nurse plants.  Saguaros seedlings require species such as mesquite, palo verde, and ironwood trees to make it through those first critical decades.  Nurse trees create a microenvironment that is more conducive for the seedlings to survive.  But fewer and fewer of these woody plants are on the landscape for the saguaro to grow under due to cattle ranching and woodcutting.

Cheryl: Closing

         This amazing plant does it part to better the desert community it thrives in.  So many birds check into its massive high rise to setup house to raise their babies. Because, of its importance to our desert the Saguaro is protected by Arizona law.  Next time you are driving across town take a second look at this beautiful, stately cactus.  It deserves it.

Summary: It's Nesting Season again! Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they talk about some of the different types of nests our desert birds make and how we can help them be successful this year.

Show Notes:

Nest Box Sizes: www.nestwatch.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Seed Block Recipe:

Bird Seed Block Recipe

Ingredients                                                    Tools

5 cups birdseed                                             Large mixing bowl

½ cup Bark Butter (optional)*                     Whisk or Fork

1 cup warm water                                         Spoon

2 packets unflavored gelatin                        Mold-muffin tin

No sugar added dried fruit (optional)                                

Directions

1. Arrange dried fruit in tin in desired pattern. (optional)
2. Place warm water in mixing bowl. Sprinkle in gelatin. Whisk until dissolved.
3. Whisk in Bark Butter until mostly dispersed (may have few chunks). Mix in birdseed and more dried fruit if desired. Stir until well combined.
4. Spoon mixture into mold and press. Let sit for 24 hours.
5. Gently flip over mold to release cakes. Let sit another 24 hours to dry completely. Store in dry area.
6. Place on flat, heavy plate or flat paving stone. Enjoy watching your birds!

*Please do not substitute peanut butter for Bark Butter. Peanut butter has too much sugar and peanut oils which are not good for the birds. Bark Butter is formulated specifically to give birds balanced high protein nutrition with added calcium. You do not need to add it if you don’t like.

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States.  (bird calls and songs play)

Kiersten – Intro: Today’s Feathered Desert episode is about a slightly controversial topic and that is ground feeding birds. We’re going to talk about should we do it or should we not. It is a very polarized issue especially in the Phoenix Valley where many areas have bans on bird feeding.

Cheryl- First let’s start off with a definition of what ground feeding birds is. When we talk about ground feeding birds, we mean putting food on the ground to intentionally attract birds to a specific area. Whether that is loose seed, block seed, or bread (which we do not recommend), if you are placing it on the ground or in a dish on the ground, this is considered ground feeding.

Kiersten – The title of the episode is Ground Feeding: Yah or Nah so let’s look at some of the Yah first. When you do ground feed you will get a lot of birds. So, if your goal is to attract birds to your yard, you will definitely do it with ground feeding. The types of birds you can attract in the Phoenix Valley will include House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Inca Doves, Collared Doves, and Rock Pigeons when you ground feed. If you live in the right area, you could attract Gambel’s Quail as well. That’s all I’ve got for the Yah, honestly.

Cheryl – Let’s move on to the Nah’s, then. The first Nah is that you’ll attract a lot of House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Inca Doves, Collared Doves, and Rock Pigeons when you ground feed.  These are the types of birds that most people don’t want to attract to their yards. They are large, eat a lot of food and leave behind a lot of poo.

Kiersten – Speaking of poo that leads us to Nah number two. When you ground feed, you’re encouraging birds to walk through their own, and other birds’, feces. Birds are actually very clean animals. They do not want to get their feet or feathers soiled because that directly affects their health and ability to fly well. In the wild, they do not walk through their own feces to get to food nor do they overcrowd an area with a limited amount of food. When we offer them a resource that they cannot turn down, such as a large quantity of food in one place it attracts too many birds that will stay too long and come in contact with a lot of poo. Coming in contact with this poo facilitates the transmission of diseases.

 Disease transmission is Nah number three. Ground feeding birds can transmit diseases like avian flu, aspergillosis, salmonellosis, avian pox, and mycoplasmal conjunctivitis aka House Finch Eye Disease. These diseases can spread between birds easily at a ground feeding site because it attracts a lot of birds to one area that might not encounter each other in the wild. The other problem it that many of these diseases are zoonotic which means they can be transmitted from birds to people. People with a compromised immune system are especially susceptible.

Cheryl – Nah Number 4 is how much your neighbors are going to hate you. The larger doves and pigeons that you will be attracting to our yard with ground feeding will not just stay in your yard. They will sit on your neighbor’s roof, fence, or trees just as they will do in your yard. When they begin to poo in large quantities or make a lot of noise, your neighbors may get a it upset. Also depending on where you live, the city may have a ban on ground feeding birds. If your neighbor complains the city will get involved.

 So…our recommendation is to avoid ground feeding. Using feeders that hang, either tube feeders or cylinder feeders, reduces the number of birds that can eat in one area at one time and limits the amount of food they have access to at one time. Birds that forage on the ground will have access to some of this food also because some of the food will fall on the ground as birds eat. When using hanging feeders, you will attract fewer ground feeding birds.

Kiersten – Now we know some of you really like ground feeding, especially when you have quail that visit your yard, so we have a few tips to allow you to continue enjoying your bird feeding hobby while keeping the birds and yourself healthy and keeping your neighbors happy, too.

            One thing you can do is use a good quality food with no fillers or shells that attract nothing but doves and pigeons. Something like a No-Mess food, carried by Wild Birds Unlimited or other specialty bird feeding stores, that contains shelled black oil sunflower seeds, peanut chips, and a bit of millet or a No-Mess Quail Blend that is shelled millet, a tiny amount of cracked corn, and some shelled black oil sunflowers. When you use this food only sprinkle a handful at a time, not the entire 20-pound bag at once. This will limit the resource which in turn limits the number of birds that will visit the area at one time, but you’ll still get to see the birds that you love to see.

Cheryl - Another way to responsibly ground feed is to use smaller seed blocks than what are typically sold in stores. The ground feeding blocks typically sold are usually about 4 pounds of seed and attract too many birds. Either break down the larger blocks and use only small pieces at a time, or make your own using a recipe with good quality seed, unflavored gelatin, and Bark Butter. We’ll include a recipe in our show notes that is easy to make and healthy for the birds! Put your small, muffin sized seed blocks out when you know the quail will be visiting. This will let the quail eat the block and prevent too many doves and pigeons from showing up.

Kiersten – It think we both side on the side of Nah for ground feeding birds. There is definitely more cons than pros, so we will encourage all our listeners to use hanging feeders when feeding the birds. For a good discussion of tube feeders versus cylinder feeders check out our episode by that name. For those of you who just can’t give up ground feeding please consider our tips and check out the recipe for seed blocks in our show notes.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Plant Sale Info: https://btarboretum.org

www.gardenia.net/plant/calliadras-california-baja-fairy-duster

Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest by Marcy Scott

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States.  (bird calls and songs play)

Cheryl Into:  when Kiersten and I first started to do these podcasts, we included a plant spotlight at the end.  Now that spring is on the horizon here in the Phoenix area, I thought we would highlight some of our favorite and most successful native plants to attract birds and butterflies.

Kiersten:  Perennials Hummingbirds love.

Firecracker Penstemon:  This is a showy plant with blossoms of fiery red (a color hummingbirds see very well) tubular flowers.  This plant is an important nectar source for hummingbirds nesting and migrating though your yard.  For much of the year it is a tidy evergreen until the stems start to grow and the blossoms appear.  it requires excellent drainage, full sun, and it heat tolerant.

Chluparosa – Is a semi-evergreen shrub with long -blooming tubular flowers in various shades of soft red.  Not only is this plant an extremely important source of nectar for hummingbirds but it is known to attract orioles, warblers, goldfinches, house finches and White-crowned sparrows.  It is also the host plant for the larva of the checkered spot butterfly.

Mexican Honeysuckle- Is a handsome hummingbird plant that is a real workhorse, cranking out blooms most of the year.  Red-orange tubular flowers with a distinctive three-lobed lower lips, are extremely valuable for wintering hummingbirds. It has a graceful upward spreading form and bright green heart-shaped leaves. It is a Sonoran Desert native found in sandy washes and rocky canyons bottoms at lower elevations 1,500-3,500 feet.  It is fast growing and likes well-drained fertile soil part to filtered sun depending on the elevations.

Cheryl:  Now let’s highlight two trees that hummingbirds love.

Baja Fairy duster-This is one of my personal favorites, the fairy duster is an evergreen woody shrub/tree with bright red, powder puff flowers.  Blooming year-around with a peak display from spring through fall, the long-lasting and attractive blooms are highly attractive to birds such as verdins, and warblers, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies too.  It is extremely heat tolerant once established, needs well-drained soil, and its water demands are low.  It is virtually pest-free and disease free.  Pruning is generally unnecessary.

Desert willow-this graceful tree both perching sites and nectar flowers for hummingbirds.  It has ruffled orchid-like, pale pink to rich burgundy flowers that peak in springtime but often continue throughout the summer.  This lovely tree is visited by hummingbirds and lesser goldfinches.  Lesser goldfinches feed on the fringed seed pods.  With light green willow like leaves and big blossoms this is a lovely addition to the front landscape.  Desert willows tolerate most soils and it is quite drought tolerant, it blossoms best in full sun.  If you water it once or twice a month in the summer that will prolong the tree’s blooming.  So, let’s talk about butterflies…

Kiersten:  Butterfly weed-milkweed VS Butterfly Bush…

Butterfly weed-Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and south western North America.  It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by it’s color ad its copious production of nectar.  Clump-forming perennial grows from tuberous roots to a height of one to two feet and is characterized by glossy-green, lance-shaped leaves and clusters of bright- orange- to -yellow blooms that are rich with nectar and pollen.

Butterfly bush- Buddleja Davidii or more commonly seen in nurseries as Butterfly Bush is an invasive plant from China. We do not want you to confuse it with the above-mentioned plant Butterfly weed which is a type of milkweed.  It is deciduous shrub that can grow up to 15 ft high.  This bush cone shaped flower clusters at the ends of branches and has been cultivated over the years into many attractive colors such as pink, blue, magenta, purple, and yellow.  In nurseries it is advertised as being a wonderful

Plant to attract butterflies and it does attract them but many of the cultivars have lost any real nutrition in their nectar offerings.  It is also only useful to the adult butterfly.  Any native NA butterflies cannot use it as a host plant because it is unfamiliar.  It is highly invasive and grows well in our country.  It’s not quite as good at withstanding our desert heat but I have seen it offered in many nurseries in the valley.

Once established in your yard it will seed after blooming and those seeds will spread and choke out any native plants nearby that are essential to a butterfly’s life cycle.  One more thing it attracts the male Asian mosquito who drink the nectar from the flowers and where the male goes a female follows…waiting to suck your blood.

Cheryl-I have two natives to the southwest that will do well in your backyard.  The first one is chocolate flower.  It is a fast-growing bush, grows to 1ftx2ft, full to partial shade, low water once it’s established, well-draining soil.  This pretty, yellow daisy-like flower blooms from spring thru fall.  It has no thorns but the flowers have a distinctive chocolate scent.  Great for native bees and butterflies, birds eat the seeds in the fall, great native flower to add some color to a garden.  Right up there with Blanket flower and the Desert marigold.

Next is Flattop buckwheat.  I like the name.  this is a shrub that is ever-green and it grows to about 1 foot tall and two feet wide.  It blooms from march to November with a white or pale pink flower.  It prefers full sun and well-drained soil.  It will need only a little water once established with supplemental water during the heat of summer.  Its naturally round form is useful on slopes for controlling soil erosion and needs very little if any pruning.  In the fall its seeds will provide food for birds and other desert animals and it is the host plant for the metalmark Butterfly and the Acmon blue butterfly.  Wonderful for native bees.

Kiersten- here’s one for the Bats!

Parry’s Agave (Agave parryi) This plant is native to AZ, NM, and Mexico this agave will produce gray green rosettes that grow 7-20 inches.  The leaves do have marginal teeth and a sharp tip but it makes a great accent plant in the desert as is needs little water and is very low maintenance.  It is a slow grower, so you’re in this for the long haul, but when it blooms it is spectacular.  Twenty-foot-tall blooms with 20-30 offshoots that are red in buds and yellow when in full bloom.  It can take full sun and may need water every two weeks in the drought portions of the summer.  Needs very little water in the winter.

The main plant will produce offshoots that will grow near by and do well if allowed to spread out a bit.  The off shoots can be dug up and removed if desired, after 5-10 years the agave will bloom and then die.  The off shoots will remain if left alone.  This is a great plant for the Lesser-long Nosed Bat and other nighttime pollinators.

Cheryl- So I have a sticky one but its short.

Desert hackberry- this is a shrub that is a host plant for several butterflies in the southwest including the American Snout, hackberry Emperor, and the Empress Leilia.  It also has berries that birds such as verdin, Northern mocking bird and Cedar Waxwings love.  This shrub requires low water once established, full sun, good drainage, and room. It can grow to be 8ft high, 10 feet wide but with pruning it will stay contained.  It does have thorns but birds love thorny bushes to keep them safe from predators.

Kiersten-Our last plant is the Scrub oak.  We saved the best for last.

This is a smaller oak at 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide.  It has leathery gray-green leaves that cover rigid branches.  This oak is native to AZ.  It does best at higher altitudes but can grow in the valley.  It will need supplemental water in the heat of summer and afternoon shade is beneficial but can take full sun at higher altitudes.  Like most sols and should be pruned only to remove dead leaves.  It can make an excellent hedge but it is slow growing.  Dense foliage provides shelter for birds and small reptiles and mammals.  Many desert animals eat the acorns and it is host plant to several desert butterflies.  Just a note of caution:  it is not a good choice for horse properties because acorns are poisonous to horses.

Cheryl-Closing

What a list!  Remember to think native when you are planning your spring gardening.  You cannot go wrong.  The birds, bees and butterflies will thank you and reward your efforts.  Happy Spring!

Show Notes:

If you have a bird that needs help, please take them to Liberty Wildlife at:

2600 E Elwood St.

Phoenix, AZ 85040

Intake Window Hours are 8am – 6pm daily

Liberty Wildlife Hotline: 480-998-5550, hours 8am-830pm daily

They are always looking for volunteers: https://libertywildlife.org

For more information about hummingbird friendly native plants, check out our podcasts on Gardening for Wildlife.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Yellow-rumped Warbler recorded by Silvan Laan, Black-throated Sparrow recorded by Paul Marvin, Acorn Woodpecker recorded by Harriette Barker, and Eared Quetzal recorded by Andrew Spencer.

Https://www.audubon.org

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/going-nutty-for-acorn-woodpeckers/#

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Todd Alfes.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.interesting-facts.com/bald-eagle-facts/

www.pbs.org/nova/article/what-birdsong-can-teach-us-about-creativity

https://zuckermanninstitute.columbia.edu/how-birds-learn-sig-annd-waht-reveals-about-human-communication

www.allaboutbirds.org

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bowerbirds

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Cheryl: Intro:

When scientists look for creativity in birds it’s along the idea of innovation.  Birds using their strengths to adapt and survive in the habitat they call home.  I wanted to look at creativity in a different way, through the artist and the art.

I choose nest building and bird song to help highlight the insight into the nature of bird’s creativity and into their learning process.  Let’s look at nest building first.

Kiersten: The Cactus Wren has it own unique way of designing a nest along with choosing unique nesting material.  Instead of using twigs and grasses to build its nest, the Cactus wren builds her nest with cactus spines.  I didn’t know that the FEMALE made the nest that they use to raise the chicks.

Cheryl: I was surprised too!

Kiersten: Yeah! The female Cactus Wren uses up to 1,000 prickly spines to build the orb shaped nest she will lay her eggs in.  She will line it with soft plant material, feathers, animal hair and grasses. Who wants to be your bum on a spine!

Cheryl: (laughs) When you think of that though she has to lay it where it’s not privkly on the inside!

Kiersten: The male Cactus wren builds the same type of nest, but his nests are to distract predators from his family.  So, they are decoy nests.  These large wrens are OCD about snakes.  This is why they build nests in cactus using cactus spines.  Yes, that is smart.  Yes, innovative but if you have ever watched a Cactus Wren build her nest you will see her making choices about placement, how tall, how wide, prickly spines facing out not in.  Then choosing the materials to line her nest …just the right ones for her comfort and pleasure.  These spiny orbs are truly worthy of being called art. It’s not just about usefulness, maybe it’s also about aesthetics! We don’t know!

Cheryl: Yes! That’s what I was thinking! And it’s not instinctual. Younger birds watch older birds to learn how to make nest successfully.  That’s all part of the growing up process before you go out on your own. There is so much more going on than we know!

Kiersten: Yes!

Cheryl: Two more examples:

Have you ever come across a hummingbird nest or better yet watch a female hummingbird build her nest.  Finding just the right place not too hot, not too cold, not in high traffic but with a fairly direct line of flight in and out.  She carefully picks the spiderweb material, collecting plant material, lichen and such to weave together a wonder of nature that stretches as her babies grow.  The decisions the little female hummingbird makes not only provides her with comfort but it is camouflaged, a neatly tucked away work of craftsmanship. And Kiersten has an interesting fact to add to that!

Kiersten: Yes! Since we are talking about art…each species of hummingbird makes their nest in the colors of their own feathers! So, a Rufous versus and Anna’s nest will look different reflecting the birds own colors! The materials that they are picking will be the same color of their own bodies.

Cheryl: It’s so cool! That open it up to the fact that the birds are aware of what they look like!

Kiersten: It does beg the question of why they do it? Is it for camouflage? Is it to help recognize another species’ nest?

Cheryl: It could be that they just like their colors.

Kiersten: Exactly! It could be fashion!

Cheryl: (laughs)

Kiersten: It rolls right into looking through a bird’s nest the artist’s eye.

Cheryl: My next example is the Bald eagle nest. Bald Eagles build a nest together.  A pair’s nest is up to 13 feet deep and 8.5 feet wide.  It can weight a bout 1.1 tons.  Nest sites typically include at least one perch with a view of the water, where they forge.  Eagle nests are constructed with large sticks and may be lined with moss, grass, plant stalks, lichens and seaweed or sod.  Eagles add greenery for their viewing pleasure based on different bird’s artistic tastes.

Kiersten: Wow!

Cheryl: The greenry is added based on the females taste. If she doesn’t like it he has to go find another piece. That’s his way of helping with the nesting process.

Kiersten: Nice! I wonder if anyone has done a study on which type of greenery they prefer. Is it like all bald eagles like honeysuckle? Or is it different for each individual?

Cheryl: That’s interesting because the tidbit I found on it says that the female seems to prefer plants that she is familiar with from the area around her.

Kiersten: Ohhhh!

Cheryl: That open the door to the fact that she is able to distinguish between plants.

Kiersten: Very cool!

Cheryl: Both sexes bring materials to the nest, but the female does most of the placement and selecting as they work together weaving their chosen sticks in with the grasses and sod to fill in the cracks.  All of this sounds practical, but again if you watch these build their nest there is definite decision making about what goes where.  Who knows it could be like us when we rearrange the living room furniture.

Kiersten: It’s so interesting! I wonder what experiments we could do to determine why she likes it this way or that way, or what criteria she’s using for certain sticks.

Cheryl: The only scientific experiments done on a similar subject is with bowerbirds. They are very color selective. These birds are what inspired this podcast. I took the idea and applied it to Southwest birds.

Kiersten: For those of you that don’t know what a bowerbird is we’ll put a link in the show notes for you to check them out. They are great builders and choose specific colored objects to use in their nest!

Cheryl: Next is bird song!

Kiersten: Birdsong is a structured form of expression, similar to writing a poem, or more directly, composing a song: most species have a characteristic song that they learn from their fathers early in life.  Young birds imitate sounds when their synapses are still malleable, kind of like a human child’s babbling stage.

         Northern Mocking Birds are the bird most studied by scientists when it comes to birdsong.  Actually, before the MBTA of 1918 the Northern Mocking bird was on its way to becoming extinct due to males being caught and kept in cages for their gift of song. 

         Northern Mocking birds are able to produce up to 200 different calls.  Their songs are composed of phrases that repeat 2-6 times before shifting to a new series of phrases with songs going on for 20 seconds or more.  They add new sounds to repertories throughout entire their lives.

Both male and female mocking birds sing.  They mimic the sounds of birds, frogs, and other sounds they hear around them.  They have been known to mimic birds such as:  the Red-tail hawk, blue jays, certain sparrows, red-winged black birds, orioles, killdeer, woodpeckers.

What I find interesting here is that all these birds are very ear-catching!

Cheryl: Yes!

         Kiersten: The mocking bird picks and chooses what phases or sounds it is going to learn, use, and repeat.   Scientists don’t really know what about the male mocking bird’s song is the most appealing to a female when she answers the male. Some of what I have seen indicates that larger the repertoire a male has the better a female likes him. But why? How does she pick between two males that sing the same amount of song? What is it that she likes?

        Cheryl: Yeah! It’s not like we can ask her!

         Kiersten: No! I would be interested to find out.

         Unmated males are the most insistent singers. The ability to sing well proves critical as the young birds mature, as females choose mates based on the quality of the song. Young mocking birds carry on all day and late into the night, especially on full moons.

         And talking about birds that repeat song…here in the southwest the Curved-bill Thrasher is a mimic as well, but they havn’t been studies as much.

Cheryl:  Yes! When I was researching this episode I couldn’t find much on them, but I do know that they also have their own song.

Kiersten: Yes! That’s what makes them different from Northern Mockingbirds. They have their own song that they learn when they are young and then pick up song as they get older, but we don’t know how long they do that.

         So…those of you at ASU studying ornithology, maybe this can be a topic or study!

Cheryl: Maybe he mimics the Cactus Wren, his nemesis, or the Gila woodpecker, or other Thrashers!

Kiersten: It would be interesting to know what the malleability of their brain is like. Is it like the Norther Mockingbird?

Cheryl: Closing

         Many of our southwest birds are not just superb at surviving in our desert, but in their own right they are truly artists using the gifts and materials nature provides to make the desert we share together that much more artful.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Tube and Cylinder Feeders: www.wbu.com/mesa

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Cylinder Feeders versus Tube Feeders

Kiersten: Intro: Welcome to the Feathered Desert. Today we’re talking bird feeders. There seems to be two camps in the backyard bird feeding world when it comes to preferences of feeders and that is cylinder feeders and tube feeders. Sometimes people prefer one or the other and sometimes people use both. So, we’re going to talk about the differences today!

Cheryl: Let’s start off talking about what each feeder actually is. The cylinder feeders hold seed cylinders that are cylindrical in shape, are made of various seed mixtures, and are held together with unflavored gelatin. At Wild Birds Unlimited store, you can find feeders that hold cylinders of three different sizes, the stackable that looks like a hockey puck, the small cylinder which looks like a pillar candle and is 1.75 pounds of seed, and the large cylinder that is four pounds of seed.

            The tube feeder is what you use loose seeds in and those are the feeders with the clear tube and perches for the birds to sit on. There are typically two types of tube feeder. One will have larger ports for seed mixes with larger seeds such as sunflower seeds and peanuts. The other tube feeder is aimed at finches and will have a tiny port that allows only Nyjer seed to come through. You don’t want to get these two mixed up because the seeds cannot fit through the port properly.

Kiersten: Okay now that we know what each feeder actually is, let’s talk about each one in a bit more detail. I know when we are working at the WBU in Mesa we often get customers who ask which is better. The best answer for that is whichever fits easily into your lifestyle, but there are a few pros and cons to each type of feeder.

Looking at cylinder feeders.

Pros:

• Very easy to replace the food. No messy seed you are scooping. Just open the top of your feeder and plop a new cylinder inside.
• You can change up the type of seed mixture very easily. Just buy a new flavor of cylinder. No need to use up a 20 lbs bag of seed before you try something new.
• Less seeds fall on the ground to attract unwanted larger birds that will remain nameless.
• Seed cylinders can last longer than one full tube feeder. Sometimes, depending on which birds you are feeding.
• Most cylinder feeders are a grid design or open to give birds access to the food, so cleaning these feeders is much simpler than a tube feeder. Although you still need to make sure you are cleaning them.
• The gris design is also helpful for cutting back on larger birds getting to the food because only smaller birds are good at clinging. Not 100%.

Cons:

• Buying cylinders can be more expensive than buying loose seed.
• The seed cylinder will dissolve in heavy or all-day rain.
• It may take the birds a little bit longer to try out this kind of feeder if they are not used to it, but once they know what it is they’ll be all over it.

Cheryl: Now let’s look at the tube feeders.

Pros:

• You can buy four different sizes at WBU stores and that lets you determine how much food you wish to give the birds access to at a time.
• You can mix your own seed blends if you like. If you don’t like a pre-made seed blend you can custom make your own.
• The style is pretty universal so birds may be attracted to it a bit faster than a cylinder feeder. Although remember that any new feeder can take the birds a little while to use.
• More nuisance animal deterrent options available.
• The tube offers better protection against the rain.

Cons:

• It is typically easier for larger birds to use the perches. Depending on how you feel about that you may not like this feeder as well.
• It can be a bit messier with the seed falling through the ports when a heavy wind blows or a large bird jostles the feeder.
• Birds can typically eat through the food faster because they don’t have to work at getting the seed off of a cylinder of seed.
• Can be more difficult to clean, but you can use a bottle brush to get down the tube and into the port holes.

Kiersten: Those are some pros and cons to both cylinder feeders and tube feeders that will hopefully make choosing a style easier for you. When you go to your local Wild Birds Unlimited or bird feeding hobby store look at both styles and see which one you like. Ultimately, the best feeder is the one that fits into you lifestyle and is the easiest for you to clean.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Paul Marvin.

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten: The yellow-breasted chat is the only bird in the Icteriidae family and is found only in North America. As the name implies, they have a bright yellow breast and chin with a white belly and undertail. Their head, back, wings, and tail are a dark olive green. They have a white eye ring and two white stripes on the face. Males and females look similar. The juveniles will have a dusting of gray on their breast. This is a small warbler sized bird that can be found throughout North and Central America. They will be found all over Arizona in the summer time. This is a migratory bird that will spend spring and summer in NA and fly to Central and South America for winter. Occasionally some do show up in the Northeastern United States in fall and will over winter in the New England area.

            Yellow-breasted Chats eat mainly insects including bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, and beetles. They will also eat berries and wild grapes and are often found foraging in shrubs and trees.

            The best time to see a yellow-breasted chat is during breeding season at the beginning of spring. To win a mate, males will perform display flights that entail swooping down from a high perch while singing, waving their wings in an exaggerated wingbeat with their tail and legs drooping beneath. At the conclusion of the flight, they will make a thumping noise, presumably with their wings.

Males typically mate with one female per season, but some males have been known to take two mates per season. They choose new mates every year. The female remains on the nest during incubation and DNA testing has shown that quite frequently the chicks are fathered by more than just her chosen mate.

 During this time of year, the males are extremely chatty, which is where they get their name, producing an eclectic song that includes croaks, whistles, and repeated phrases. (song) Listening for their call during breeding season is often the best way to find them as they are quiet and hide in foliage during the rest of the year.

           Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Paul Marvin.

Show Notes: Birds of Arizona by Richard Cachor Taylor

***Follow Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa on Facebook and Instagram for updates on when Rick will be signing his book in February 2023.

WBU, Mesa is also currently carrying Rick’s book. Call or stop by to get a copy! 480-507-2473, www.wbu.com/mesa

Desert Rivers Audubon – www.desertriversaudubon.org

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.naturalrestorations.org/lower-salt-river-restoration-2022

https://www.friendsofthetontonationalforest.org/projects

https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2021-11-12/national-forest-nears-end-of-seed-planting-project-to-defend-against-parasitic-mistletoe

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Cheryl Intro:

         I picked up a wilderness/wildlife conservation magazine the other day, and found it filled with amazing people doing amazing things to help their wilderness areas in their states, especially after the wild fires we have had in the west in the last few years.  Without reforesting and replanting of our wild areas after intense fire storms well birds and people would be in trouble.  So, I wanted to know what was happening in my state of Arizona?  I was pleasantly surprised by what I uncovered when I went looking for the unsung heroes/heroines of restoration. 

         Kiersten:  Let’s start with the Lower Salt River Restoration project.  Now we have talked about the restoration of the Verde River up by Cottonwood, (Earth Day Podcast), shared information about the San Pedro River, and the actions being taken to protect it (Southeastern Region of Arizona Podcast) now it is time to give some notice to the Salt River. 

         The Salt River is about 200 miles long and it flows through eastern Arizona starting at Roosevelt Lake.  It makes it way through the mountains to Apache Lake, then Canyon Lake, and finally Saguaro Lake.  Then lower Salt River weaves it way through Mesa, Tempe, and then south Phoenix. The Salt River provides metropolitan Phoenix area with up to 60% of its irrigation and drinking water needs.  The Salt River is home to wildlife and bird life and wild horses. It is known for the outdoor activities like kayaking, fishing, hiking, and tubing.

         In 2017, a fire burned the lower Salt River on the Tonto national Forest.  The fire lasted 4 days and burned 800 acres.  It was spurned on by invasive plant species such as tamarisk, which had been established in the area for decades.  Seeing a need a volunteer organization called Natural Resources.org was started in 2017.  With the help of U.S. Forest Service staff this volunteer group has removed 1,489 million pounds (744 tons) of trash, removed 41,950 square feet of graffiti off of rocks and boulders from the lower Salt River wilderness areas.  This group launched a replanting program in 2020 and they have planted more than 27,900 tree & cacti in the Salt River wilderness areas.

         Cheryl: There are erosion and soil mitigation projects going on in the Tonto National Forest starting in spring.  Boyce Thompson Arboretum-near Superior has a replanting program within the property around it to help with erosion after the fires in 2021.  I did find one reforesting project that is in its final phase in the Tonto National Forest. The U.S. Forest service is continuing a project to plant 500 Southwestern White Pine Seedlings on the Pleasant Valley Ranger District.  The U.S. Forest Service says the 25-acre project is part of a management plan to treat dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant native to western forests.  It’s been infecting Ponderosa Pine Trees within the Colcord Campground area.  150Ponderosa Pines are lightly to moderately infected and 350 trees are severely infected.  Dwarf mistletoe survives only on living trees by taking water and nutrients from them often leading to the tree’s death.  The newly planted southwestern White Pines aren’t susceptible to the mistletoe infection.

Ponderosa Pines’ can not catch a break between fires, drought and dwarf mistletoe…what’s a pine tree to do?  Alright, I found a group that has some truly outstanding projects going on and they are always looking for volunteers.

Kiersten:  Friends of the Tonto National Forest, is a volunteer organization that truly works hard for our wild life and wilderness areas. 

         One of the projects they have under their organizations watchful eye is Milkweed for Monarchs.  The project’s goal is to assist the Tonto National Forest staff create habitat for monarch butterflies.  A key element in the life of Monarch Butterflies is the milkweed plant.  This project focuses on the cultivation of native milkweeds in designated areas.

  The plan is to help Monarchs (and other butterflies) by planting native milkweed plants.  Monarchs have an international migration from Canada to Mexico, so Arizona is a small part of a much larger picture.  In order to establish monarch breeding habitat and support migrating monarch butterflies, friends of the Tonto National Forest work with forest service staff to plant milkweed in select locations.

 These plantings started in 2016 and they currently have nearly 200 milkweed plants growing in the Mesa and Cave Creek Ranger districts of the Tonto National Forest.  Milkweed seedlings are grown each summer by the volunteers, planted on the Tinto National Forest in November and are watered during their first year.  Every spring and fall trained volunteers monitor the milkweed for butterfly eggs, larvae, pupae and adults (Monarchs).  The findings are reported to the Monarch Larva Monitoring project, a national database used y scientific researchers from many fields.

Cheryl: Riparian Photo Point Program

         The first riparian specialist, hired by the Tonto National Forest knew the value of repeat photography in documenting resource conditions so 33 years ago he had the fore sight to initiate a riparian photo point program in 1988-finding important reaches of streamside vegetation and streambanks, annually, if possible, at the exact same sites each year.  Forest staff and researchers have come to depend on the information these photos provide-impacts by livestock, or improvement conditions through live stock management, wildlife impacts, results of flooding, firs and drought.  These photos provide documentation for resource conditions, which is used for natural resource management decisions.  While data is important, it’s true that nothing tells a story like a good photography.  Friends of Tonto National Forest runs the programs now is looking for volunteer photographers between the months of April to the end of June 2023.

         Kiersten:  Invasive Plant management is one many Friends of the Tonto National Forest support and help the U.S. Forest to reduce the fire risk in the Tonto National Forest.  This is done by mapping and removing plants that are not native to the Tonto National Forest, and monitoring the removal areas.

This project focuses on two prevalent species-Fountain grass and Buffel grass.  These plants are commonly found along roadsides and in home and business landscaping. Seeds are easily transported by wind, water, animals, vehicles, hikers, bikers, and equestrians.  By removing invasive plants, the volunteers are reducing the threat of wildfire to nearby communities. 

Historically, the Sonoran Desert portion of the Tonto National Forest was considered a low fire risk environment; lightening, and other natural causes could ignite a fire, but the natural spacing of the native plants generally carried low intensity fires and for short distances.  Most plants native to the Sonoran Desert, including the iconic Saguaro, are not fire adapted.  They do not recover from the effects of a fire.

         Cheryl- Closing:

When I stated my research for this podcast, I did not know what I would find. What I found was quite a few hard-working people who are working with each other, and governments on all levels to protect our amazing wilderness areas. When we protect wild places, we protect the wild life and bird life we so enjoy.  We benefit as well. Please check our show notes for the links to these volunteer organizations if you would like to participate or donate.  I know that I will be out there doing my part in 2023.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Kiersten Gibizov

www.allaboutbirds.org

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Liberty Wildlife: https://libertywildlife.org

Wild at Heart: https://wildatheartraptors.org

Parrots as pets: https://naturalencounters.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/companion-parrots-final.pdf

https://avalonaviary.com/is-a-parrot-right-for-you.aspx

High Quality Bird Food: www.wbu.com/mesa

New Podcast: tenthingsilikeabout.podbean.com; or search Apple podcast and Spotify for Ten Things I Like About...

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten - Hello everyone! We thought we’d end the year with a listener questions episode. These are some questions we’ve heard several times from different listeners. We’re going to jump in feet first with Cheryl and our first question.

Cheryl – Can I buy an owl as a pet here in Phoenix?

            We know it sounds crazy but we have had more than one person ask us this. You cannot legally buy any bird protected under the Migratory Bird Act as a pet in the United States. That includes Barn Owls, Screech Owls, Great Horned Owls, or any other owls naturally found here in Arizona. It is a federal offensive to own the birds or house them in your home without proper permits from Arizona Game and Fish and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. If you are seeing advertisements or have heard from people that it’s legal, you are being misinformed. People who are trying to sell them to you are breaking the law and have most likely taken them out of the wild illegally, as well. Besides being illegal, it’s also a great disservice to these beautiful animals to take them away from their homes.

            Beyond this being illegal, we don’t really know why someone wants an owl in their house as a pet. You have to feed them mice, baby chicks, and ground up horse meat to provide them a well balanced diet. If you do not, they can develop metabolic bone disease which makes their bones brittle and is a terrible way to slowly die. We know this is a harsh topic but we want to make it very clear why having an owl as a pet is a bad idea.

            Remember these birds are also called raptors for a reason. They have large, sharp talons on their feet that they use to catch prey. Those don’t stop being sharp or dangerous just because you decided to keep them as a pet.

            There are so many other reasons why they make bad pets. Basically, we wanted to let you know that owls as pets are illegal and are an extremely bad idea, as well as unfair to the bird. If you see advertisements for owls for sale here in the Phoenix Valley, please report it to Arizona Game and Fish so they can get these birds back to where they need to be. If you are interested in working as a rehabilitator for owls you can help at organizations such as Liberty Wildlife and Wild at Heart and become a licensed rehabber. We will list contact information in our show notes.

Kiersten – Do the wild lovebirds found in the Phoenix Valley make good pets?

            The answer to this is definitely no. Our resident lovebirds do descend from pet birds but they have lived in the wild for many generations and have re-wilded themselves. They are now wild birds that have no interest in living in our homes nor do they need our help to survive. They know just how to make it on their own out there in the desert. It is completely okay to offer supplementary bird feeding stations in your yard as many WBU customers do.

            We have had some reports that people may be capturing wild lovebirds and selling them as pet birds. There is no law against this as there is with the owls because these lovebirds are not native to North America. They are native parrots of Africa that were released in small numbers about 35 years ago here in the Valley. But they are still wild animals that do not deserve to be taken out of the wild and forced to live out the rest of their lives in a cage in someone’s house.

            If you are interested in lovebirds as pets, please seek out a reputable breeder who breeds captive born lovebirds responsibly. These will make better pets because they are used to people interacting with them closely and have never experienced life in the wild. Capturing wild individuals will stress them to the point that it can impact their health, leaving them open to disease and shortening their lives. To make sure you are purchasing from a breeder on the up and up, ask to see their breeding setup and the parents of the birds you will be purchasing. You should see obvious signs of the birds pairing with each other such as living in a cage together, making their own nests, and even raising the young themselves. If the person you are buying from refuses this request move on to someone else. Also, if the price of the birds is too good to be true, it probably is someone who is capturing them from the wild and wants to sell the birds as soon as possible.

            Choosing to have a bird for a pet is something that is not for every household. I know there are a ton of social media videos that make it seem like it’s easy and super fun to have birds living in your house, but it’s not for everyone. Please do your homework before you chose this animal as a pet. We will post some links in our show notes to a few insightful websites that can help you make an informed decision.

Cheryl – What should I do about my bird feeders when it rains?

            This is a great question but not often one we have to think about outside of monsoon season here in the Phoenix Valley. If the day calls for light, passing showers you don’t have to do much of anything. Both tube feeders that hold loose seed and cylinders that are exposed to the rain will be fine, if it is only light rain. After the weather has settled, go out and shake your tube feeders with the loose seed. If the seed shakes and does not clump, no moisture has gotten inside and the seed will be fine for the birds to continue to eat. If you have clumping seeds, you need to throw those seeds out, clean your feeder and put fresh seed in. This will help prevent the growth of mold that can be detrimental to the bird’s health and yours.  

            If we have a heavy rain or rain that lasts all day, cylinders made with seeds and gelatin will dissolve. Plan ahead and take those feeders in or you will have a messy, goopy clump of food on the ground the next day that no one wants to eat. For tube feeders, it depends on where you have them hanging. If they are under a tree or awning that gives them some shelter from the weather, they will probably be fine. Just check them once the weather calms down as we discussed before. The same advice goes for your suet feeders. If they are in an area where the rain will get to it, the suet will crumble out of the feeder. Purchasing a weather guard for use during monsoon season can also be a great way to shelter food if you have a pole system in the middle of your yard.

            Do not worry about the birds during the rain. Most often they are hunkering down in a tree somewhere waiting out the rain themselves.

            While we are on the subject of cleaning, after a rain you should also clean out and refill your bird baths. In case something has washed off a roof or trees that might have chemicals in them that are bad for the birds, you don’t want them drinking that or bathing in it.

Kiersten – What is the difference between Wild Birds Unlimited seed and seed I find at the grocery store or hardware stores?

            Cheryl and I have gotten this question a lot over the years. We both use seed from Wild Birds Unlimited and as many of our longtime listeners know we are both currently employees of a WBU store. Having said that, we both used seed from WBU before we began working at a store because they have a no-waste guarantee and use human grade seed in their mixes.

            So, the difference is that WBU does not allow any seed that will not readily be eaten by songbirds in the seed they sell. Other stores, and by other stores I mean stores that do not focus on outdoor bird feeding, because there are other specialty stores out there besides WBU that carry excellent seed as well, other stores do not care how much inedible seed is in their mixes. Seeds such as milo, cracked corn, wheat, and canary seed are all items that the songbirds we want to attract will not eat. They will just sit at the feeder and toss it to the ground digging through the mix for the handful of seeds they will eat.

            Then this attracts doves and pigeons which most of us do not want flocks of in our yards.

            The seed at WBU will be more expensive but you are paying for seed that they birds will eat and not filler they will not eat.

            Let’s talk specifically about Nyjer seed, now. This is the small black seeds that fit in finch feeders and are often sold inside socks already at other stores. Is WBU Nyjer better than other stores? Without any bias on my part, the answer is yes. WBU imports Nyjer from India which is where this aster plant grows natively. The plants are healthy there and abundant which makes their seeds robust and full of nutrients. Some farmers have figured out how to grow this seed in NA in large enough fields to make it worth their while and birds will eat these seeds but the aster plant does not grow as well here, so the seeds lack some of the nutrients of the India seeds. If you give the finches a choice between the India seeds and the NA seeds they will pick the India seeds. I’ve seen this in my own backyard!

Cheryl – Why do the birds in the city eat French fries and potato chips but the ones in my yard leave that stuff alone and only eat the seeds I offer in my feeder?

            This was a question from one of our co-workers and such an insightful one we thought it demanded a bit of discussion. We believe there are two reasons for this difference. One is that many of the birds that have adapted to living in the city are grain eating birds such as House Sparrows, Grackles, and Starlings. In the wild, these birds will eat different types of grains as well as seeds. French fries and potato chips are only a hop, skip, and jump away from a grain.

            Many of us do have house sparrows at our backyard feeders but why would they eat poor quality food, like French fries, when they have the high-quality stuff, like black oil sunflowers seeds, that is in the feeder.

            A second reason is probably cultural. The city birds learn to eat French fries and potato chips from their parents, while the backyard birds learn to eat from our native plants and our bird feeders.

Kiersten – Closing – We hope this episode has answered a few questions for all our listeners and as we say goodbye to 2022, we hope you’ll keep enjoying the birds in 2023 by getting outdoors to watch our feathered friends, maybe join a citizen scientist group or two, and keep listening to The Feathered Desert.

            Before we sign off Cheryl, do you mind if I make a shameless plug for the other podcast I started at the end of this year?

            For those of you who like learning new things about all types of nature, I’ve started a podcast called Ten Things I Like About…and it’s all about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. I’ll be talking about the pangolin, the vaquita, and many other animals you’ve probably never heard of. Each topic consists of ten-episodes that are ten-minutes a piece and Cheryl occasionally co-hosts with me! So, check it out in 2023.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes: Ornithology by Frank B. Gill

Birds of The World: The visual guide to more than 800 species, covering the entire range of bird families by Colin Harrison and Alan Greensmith

The Book of Eggs: A life-size guide to the eggs of six hundred of the world’s bird species edited by John Bates and Barbara Becker

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Kiersten: Welcome everyone to The Feathered Desert. I felt it was about time we talked about the largest bird in Arizona, actually the largest bird in North America, the California Condor. So this episode is titled: California Condor: Giants of the Sky.

Cheryl: That’s a good title.

Kiersten: Thank you!

Now, of course, this is not a bird we will be attracting to our backyard through bird feeding but it is one amazing bird that I think we can all appreciate.

Cheryl: Let’s start off with what this condor looks like. They have a featherless head and neck that is pink to orange in color. Juveniles have grayish-black heads. The skin on the head of adults will turn a deep red-pink during breeding season or during times of alarm.

            Huh! I don’t know that.

Kiersten: Yeah!

Cheryl: Their beak is black and hooked at the end. The majority of their feathers are black with large, white wing patches that can be seen in flight. Their legs and feet are large and gray with small black claws. They come in at a height of just about 4 feet tall when standing with a 9-foot wingspan in flight. They can weigh up to 25 pounds!

These are large birds; although, based on wing span they don’t even make it into the top ten largest in the world, but they are the largest land birds in North America.  (I know you’re going to ask! The largest flighted bird based on wing span is the Wandering Albatross with a 12-foot wingspan and the largest bird in the world is the ostrich.)

            I knew that but I didn’t know the albatross has a larger wing span.

Kiersten: What exactly is a condor?

The California condor is in family Cathartidae. Their scientific name is Gymnogyps californianus.

Cheryl: I’m so glad you’re saying this part!

Kiersten: (laughs) Gymnogyps is Greek from the word gymnos meaning naked and gyps meaning vulture. Californianus is Latin and refers to the birds’ range. The word condor comes from cuntur, the Inca name for the Andean Condor. Cathartidae Family contains the New World Vultures. So, yes! The California Condor is technically a vulture.

Cheryl: Okay, I have a question. Are the California Condor and the Andean Condor basically the same except for the range?

Kiersten: No.

Cheryl: Is there a size difference?

Kiersten: Yes. The Andean Condor is MUCH larger and they cannot interbreed, so they are a different species all together.

Being vultures means they do eat carrion, or dead animals, as their main diet. They prefer larger animals such as deer, elk, pigs, sea lions, whales, and domestic cattle.

Being a four-foot-tall bird, you certainly aren’t eating mice all day! (laughs)

Cheryl: (laughs)

Kiersten: Because they like domestic cattle, this is what got them in trouble with ranchers and put them on the Endangered Species List. Since they are such large birds, when people saw them on a dead cattle carcass they thought, incorrectly, that the condor had killed the cow and then began to eat it. When, in reality, they were only attracted to the cow after it was dead. Just like other vultures they are the clean-up crew of the planet. Keeping dead animals from rotting in the environment helps contain the spread of disease, so the condor’s job in extremely important to the health of the environment, which, by the way, includes us.

When a condor come across a food source, they will gorge themselves on the carcass because they never know when they will find food again. They can hold up to 3 pounds of meat in their crop, which can help them survive from one to two weeks before they need to find more food.

Cheryl: How do they find their food?

            California Condors are considered soaring birds. Their large flight muscles are not anchored to a correspondingly large sternum and this limits them to mainly soaring. This means that once they are in the air, they catch the warm thermals with their vast wingspan and do not need to flap their wings to stay aloft. They tend to perch on high outcroppings so they can open their wings and catch the wind with as little flapping as possible. When it is a cold windless day, they are restricted to their perches.

Soaring allows them to search wide swaths of land for food without using a lot of energy. They mainly find their food through sight. Unlike their cousins, the Turkey Vulture, they do not have a keen sense of smell. Once they have spotted an appropriate carcass, they use their hooked beaks to tear it into small enough pieces to easily swallow. They use their large heavy feet to help hold the carcass down. When other scavengers are around, they give way to the California Condor because of their large size, with the exception of Golden Eagles. California Condors get out of their way because of their large powerful talons.

I was just running that through my head because they don’t use their feet to intimidate. They use their size ad don’t need to be assertive.

Kiersten: Yes! They just use their feet to hold the carcass down.

Kiersten: What happens during breeding season?

            California Condors will reach sexual maturity at the age of six. That’s quite a ways into their life, considering our little verdin becomee sexually mature at six months! That is when they will begin looking for a mate. To attract a mate the male will puff up his neck feathers and redden the skin on his head. He will then open his wings and hold them out as he slowly approaches the female. If she accepts him by lowering her head, they mate and seal their life-long pair bond. The courtship may also continue in the air with the couple flying in tandem.

            The female will lay one egg in a cave near a cliff or on a cliff side with nearby trees and open spaces for easy landing. No discernable nest is made, the female just lays the egg righton the ground. The egg is a light bluish-white color and is about 4 ¼ inches in length, 2 5/8 inches wide, and weighs about 280 grams. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April. Both parents will share incubation duties which last almost 2 months. The parents bring food home to the nest for 5 to 6 months until the chicks are able to fly. The offspring will commonly stay with their parents for almost 2 years. Because of this, condor couples will only lay eggs every other year.

Cheryl: Two questions? Is the females larger than the male?

Kiersten: None of the information I came across indicated that there was a large difference in size, so I don’t know for sure. But I don’t think so.

Cheryl: How can the chicks learn to fly if they can’t flap their wings?

Kiersten: They can flap their wings a bit. They do have to build up their flight muscles but it’s not something they are doing a lot of. Flapping, I mean. They are not like out little gold finches that flap a lot in flight, but they can flap to get up and when landing.

Cheryl: Where are they found?

            California Condors are currently found in only three places in North America, the arid foothills of southern California near Big Sur, a small area in Northern Baja Mexico, and the border of northern Arizona and southern Utah in the Grand Canyon Area. Historically they were found all across North America from California to Florida and Western Canada to Mexico. Illegal shooting due to misunderstanding their behaviors, as mentioned above, and lead poisoning from eating carcasses riddled with lead bullet fragments was the cause of their decline.

            By 1967 they were listed as an endangered species by the federal government and by 1982 there were only 23 individuals left alive world-wide. This included captive and wild condors. In 1987, we made the very tough decision to capture all those left in the wild, approximately 17 individuals, and keep them all in captivity. This began the California Condor Recovery Program.

Kiersten: The California Condor Recovery Program

            This program was a bit controversial in the beginning. Two sides argued about how much intervention we should provide. One side said none at all, just let the condors be free and let whatever happens happen even if that is extinction. The other side said we need to keep them alive at any cost even if that means they survive in captivity only, since we were the ones who led them to near extinction. The goal of the program that was officially approved by the United States in 1987 was to establish two geographically separate breeding populations, one in California and one in Arizona, each site with 150 individuals including 15 breeding pairs.

            A captive breeding program was the approved way to accomplish that goal. The captive breeding program was slow going at first due to the mating habits of the condors. They need space and the ability to fly to successfully chose mates and that was not something that could be offered in a captive situation. But with some patience things got moving. In the wild, if a couple losses an egg they will lay another. This is called “double clutching”. The captive breeding program used this to their advantage by removing the first egg from the nest and sending it to be raised by humans, while the mated condors laid a second egg that they would raise themselves. The chicks raised by humans would be exposed to puppets made to look just like adult condors to keep them from imprinting on humans. The whole goal of the captive breeding program was to release these animals back into the wild.

            You certainly cannot release a 4-foot bird that has imprinted on humans back into the wild. That would be a BIG mistake.

Cheryl: (laughs) True!

Kiersten: In 1991 and 1992, California Condors were released back into the wild at Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park, and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge. In 1996, more were released at Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. In 2003, the first chick fledged in the wild since 1981.  I think that’s amazing!

Cheryl: That just makes me excited!

Kiersten: With the success of reintroduction in California and Arizona, a site in Mexico was chosen near Baja California, Mexico. In 2007 a California Condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since the 1930s.

Cheryl: It gives me chills!

Kiersten: I know! It’s amazing!

In 2010 the California wild population was 100 individuals with 73 individuals in Arizona. A milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were hatched in the wild than ones that died. In 2021, the total world population of California Condors was 537 with 203 in captivity and 334 flying free in the wild.

Cheryl: Wow! How awesome is that!

Kiersten: Absolutely the coolest thing ever!

Cheryl: What can we keep doing to helping California Condors?

            The biggest threat to these majestic birds now is lead poisoning from lead bullets. What happens is that when hunters hunting in the condors’ territory kill animals with lead bullets and do not retrieve the entire carcass, condors will do their jobs and end up consuming the fragment of the lead bullets still in the carcass. So, please use non-lead ammunition when hunting in the condors’ territory. This type of ammunition is readily available. In 2008, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act was passed which requires the use of non-lead bullets by hunters hunting in the condor’s territory and it seems to be helping. The levels of lead in blood tested by scientists in resident birds has gone down.

            Another thing we can do is when we go camping, be clean. Take all of your trash with you when you leave. Small bits of plastic, glass, and metal have also been found in the stomach of some dead condors.

Kiersten: I think those are easy things to do.

Cheryl: Those are definite two things we can do.

Kiersten: The California Condor is an amazing conservation success story and we are so lucky to have this awe-inspiring bird in our state. When we put our minds to it we can make a positive difference in the world around us.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-crowned-kinglet/overview

www.birdsandbloom.com/birding/birding-basics/irrutions-forecast

www.donnallog.com/winter-bird-migration-and-irruptions

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Cheryl: Welcome to the Feathered Desert. Today we’re are taking about irruptions in birds.

Perhaps, you wake up one morning and there is a flock of unexpected birds gathered at your

backyard feeder, what?!  This is exactly what happen to me last week, I looked out my window in the morning and I saw 3 Ruby-Crowned Kinglets eating seeds from my feeder.  This is not one of our typical winter visitors, so I asked the question why?  Kiersten is my go-to for that and she has the answer!

Kiersten:

I do! But first I want to be clear we are talking about irruptions with an I not eruptions! We have no exploding birds here! (laughs)

Well, occasionally a sudden surge of unexpected birds can wander outside their typical winter range.  This is called an irruption, I-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N.  An irruption is unpredictable mass migration of birds.  An irruptive event is called a flight year.

Cheryl:

Usually, this type of event happens in the winter with generally non-migrating birds.  See when food is plentiful populations increase and birds remain in their normal winter ranges.  Birds can tell in late summer or early autumn that food production is not what they need to survive the winter.  So, they evacuate when they decide the time is right.  These birds move to areas where food is still available.

Kiersten: I think that’s a solid plan!

Cheryl: Yes!

Kiersten: It’s not just food supplies that can cause a bird species to leave its winter home, unpredictable weather

Can play apart in the decision to relocate.  A sudden cold spell or unseasonably cold weather in area that is generally has mild winters can push a bird species to move further south from their northern homes. I think this is what’s happening now, right? In our 2022 December?

Cheryl: Right.

Kiersten: Okay! Sometimes migrating birds are pushed off course by unexpected bad weather putting these migrants in areas that they normally don’t visit.

         This happens all the time off the coast of Texas. There is a small island off the coast that birds love during hurricane season. It’s a great site for seeing birds thrown off by bad weather. It’s a birders paradise!

Cheryl: Isn’t that how we got the Rosette Spoonbill at the Gilbert Riparian area?

Kiersten: Yes, I think so. He got thrown off a few years ago and now he comes back ever year because it’s so nice here!

Cheryl: These irruptive events don’t happen every year but on average every two to three years.   It is not always the same birds that have these events.  The most common are seed eaters such as Pine Siskins, Red Polls, and Red-breasted Nuthatches.  These irruptions can be difficult to predict ahead of time.  The reasons behind these surprising sporadic migrations aren’t straight forward it varies from species to species.

Kiersten: I think it happens a lot more with the seed eaters because they lay more eggs per clutch and when every chick survives the population skyrockets. Many of the individuals will leave the area.

Cheryl: Yes. I think so. Last year we had an irruption of Pine Siskins.

Kiersten: Raptor (birds of prey) which feed on small mammals and small birds may also have to leave their winter ranges to find food.    Those raptors that eat small birds may follow their food source to a more southern location.  Some raptors are known for their own irruptions like the Snowy Owl. 

This one is so weird. One day you’re in Maryland and there’s a Snowy Owl! It’s crazy seeing this bird where it’s usually not found!

Then there’s the Short-eared Owl which has been known to show up just before there a over abundance of mice in a field.  It kinda makes them seem omniscient, but they’re not it just goes with the season.

Northern Goshawks and Great -Horned Owls don’t usually leave their territories but on occasion these birds have given up their territories in the northern forests when the snowshoe hares are few and far between. That makes a lot of sense. These hares are big lagomorphs, so if you can catch a few you’re good to go but if not, you won’t survive the winter.

Cheryl: Yes. And they can’t compete with the lynxes that also hunt the hares.

Food was scarce for the Northern birds of the mountains across the west and some of them are wintering with us like the American Robin, Juniper Titmouse, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Cedar Waxwings and Western birds, plus the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  All these northern forest dwellers had to move south this year in a multiple bird species irruptions.

Now, Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a tiny songbird with an equally tiny tail and bill.  Its olive green overall with a prominent white eyeing and white wing bar.  The adult male when excited displays a flash of brilliant red of feathers on the top of his head.  It’s a treat to see this bird and others unexpectedly this winter in our backyards.

Kiersten: We will be posting the All About Birds link for the Ruby-crowned Kinglet in our Show Notes so you can check out what they look like!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Audubon Christmas Bird Count Maps: https://audubon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html

Audubon Christmas Bid Count Home: https://www.audubon.org/science/christmas-bird-count

Phoenix Valley Christmas Count Sign-up:

Kathy and Rowyn Balman nerdyforbirdies@gmail.com

Nerdy for Birdies:

https://educatingchildrenoutdoors.com/nerdy-for-birdies

***Due to unforeseen personal matters Mo Walters will be handling The CBC for Phoenix Area this year. You can reach her at Molina.Walters@asu.edu.*****

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten: Hello, Feathered Deserts listeners. This is Kiersten and I wanted to talk to you about the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. It’s a citizen science project that you can participate in right here in the Phoenix Valley!

            The Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is the nation’s longest running community science bird project. It began in the late 1800’s as an event called the Christmas “Side Hunt”. Groups of participants would choose sides and whoever came back from the hunt with the largest pile of feathered, or furred, animals won. This was the time that conservation was in its infancy but naturalists were already beginning to understand that populations of some animals were in decline in the wild. So, in 1900 an ornithologist named Frank M. Chapman, an early officer of the Audubon Society, proposed a different holiday tradition, a Christmas Bird Census! Instead of shooting birds, they would count them!

            Thus began the Christmas Bird Count! Each Year this project runs from December 14-January 5 and is open to anyone that wants to help count bids! When you participate in this bird count all the information you gather about the birds you are seeing in your chosen locations goes to Audubon to be compiled. This data provides ornithologists and scientific researchers with information about the long-term populations of birds in North America. According to the Audubon website, “To date over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers have resulted in analysis done with Christmas Bird Count data.”

            That’s a lot of papers and that’s a lot of research about birds!

            This season the 2022-2023 Christmas Bird Count in the Phoenix Metro Area will be coordinated by Educating Children Outdoors, Nerdy for Birdies, and the Maricopa County Parks Master Naturalists. There is a 15-mile circle that has been chosen for the count including Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Tempe. They will be offering three zoom meetings about how and where to count before the count officially starts and will also offer a Question and Answer day. Kathy and Rowyn Balman are in charge of distributing information about how to participate in our area and can be reached via email at nerdyforbirdies@gmail.com.  If you do not live in the area but would still like to participate, you can always take a day trip to one of the sites in the radius or check out the Audubon Christmas Count Website, go to the maps page, and look for a radius near you. There are active sites all over the Phoenix Valley.

            Check out the show notes for this episode for a list of all the websites. We have perfect winter weather for birding in Arizona so grab your binoculars and get out there!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

Ornithology by Frank B. Gill

 Https://corvidresearch.blog/catergory/jay-behavior/

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Corvidae Family Part Four: Jays

Kiersten: Intro – Welcome to the Feathered Desert, everyone!  This is part four of Family Corvidae, our final episode on this amazing bird family. In part four we are discussing Jays. This is my second favorite bird in the Corvidae family. My first is Ravens and I know Cheryl is extremely partial to crows.

Cheryl: Yes, I am!

Kiersten: If you have listened to the previous three parts you know that this bird family is celebrated for its complicated behaviors and problem-solving skills. Jays are no exception to this and the one attribute they are most well-known for is their spatial memory capacity.

            First question is, what exactly is spatial memory? Spatial memory is a form of memory responsible for the recording and recovery of information needed to plan a course to a location and to recall the location of an object or the occurrence of an event.

Cheryl: Something that humans need more of! (laughs)

Kiersten: Spatial memory is necessary for orientation in space. In layman’s terms, it means you can recall where you put your car keys or remember the route to the grocery store. Without this kind of memory, you just stumble through life coming across things randomly.

            The part of the brain that processes spatial memory is the hippocampus. The hippocampus of both mammals and birds are functionally identical, meaning they both process the same kind of information in the same way. Birds that rely heavily on seed-caching, like our Jays, have an enlarged hippocampus. Their enlarged hippocampus helps jays remember all the places they’ve hidden seeds for future use. In general, they have an 85% retrieval rate. The size of the hippocampus in jays was quite a surprise when scientists discovered it, but has led to a whole variety of questions about bird memory and social relationships.

Cheryl: Birds! The never-ending amazing facts! How I marvel at them!

Canada Jay

            We’re going to start off with the Canada Jay and I’m kinda excited because I didn’t know we had them in Arizona. My first experience with a Canada Jay was when I was up in Yellowstone National Park.

We are lucky to have five different jays in Arizona and we’re going to talk about one that is found in only a small portion of Northeast Arizona first, the Canada Jay. There are several subspecies of the Canada Jay that range across the northern North American continent. The one we will see most commonly in Arizona is a medium sized bird at approximately 11.5 inches with gray wings and tail, white chest, and pale gray underparts. The head is white with a gray stipe that circles the head from eye to eye. The beak and legs are both black. The Canada jay has no crest and a short, small beak. Juveniles are all gray. This jay is also known as the Gray Jay, Camp Robber, and Whiskey Jack.

I have a story to go with the Camp Robber!

They are found mainly in coniferous forests in Arizona. They eat insects, berries, seeds, carrion, bird eggs, and fungi. They forage in trees, shrubs, on the ground, and can catch insects on the wing.

            As we talked about before, this jay caches food but they have something that sets them apart from other jays. They have super sticky saliva! When they find food that they want to cache, such as seeds, they coat it in their sticky saliva and they deposit it on the sides of a tree trunk or the bottom of a tree branch. Once the saliva dries, it hardens around the food and keeps it safe for later use. The reason they place it on tree trunks is to keep it available when the snow covers the ground, especially in the northern regions where they are found. They are a non-migratory bird so they tough out the winter where ever they live. Placing their caches above the snow allows them to survive the winter and awards them the most northernly jay on the continent.

            When we were in Yellowstone we were cooking outside at the fire and had a run-in with Camp Robber! We were cooking chicken kabobs that you would cook over the campfire and these birds began to collect over our campsite. One swooped down and snagged a piece of un-cooked chicken off the cutting board! By the time we organized to get everything covered them took green pepper, potato, carrot, a few chips, and a roll! Talk about a Camp Robber!

Kiersten: Mexican Jay

            Next, we’re travelling down to the Southeastern corner of Arizona to talk about the Mexican Jay. Once again, there are several subspecies of this jay and their coloration can vary by population. The one found in Arizona ranges between 11-13 inches in length. The face, head, neck, back, wings, and tail are a bright sky-blue color while the throat, chest, and belly are white. They have no visible crest. The beak is long and wider at the head tapering down to the end. It is black, as are their legs. They prefer pine, oak, and juniper woodlands. They eat fruits, insects, seeds, carrion, bird eggs, and acorns. Acorns are especially coveted and are often cached for later use. They find about 85% of these cached acorns, but the ones they forget about are extremely important to the environment because those will grow into mighty oaks.

Mexican Jays are very family-oriented jays and can live in groups of 5-25 that often contain parents, siblings, and other relatives in the same territory or in an adjacent territory. They can live up to 20 years surrounded by family. With the warming temperatures brought on by Climate Change, Mexican Jays in Arizona now lay eggs 10 days earlier than they used to back in the 1970s.

Cheryl: Pinyon Jay

            Our next amazing jay is found throughout most of Arizona except the southwestern portion of the state. The Pinyon Jay is approximately 10.5 inches in length and is a lovely azure blue from head to tail. They have no visible crest. The beak and legs are both black. Clear leg feathers can be seen giving them the look of pants. The beak is thin but great for cracking open seeds. They prefer habitats with ponderosa pines, pinyon-junipers, and mixed forests of oak and pine. They eat nuts, pine seeds, grass seeds, berries, fruits, insects, and eggs. They forage in trees mostly but will go to ground for something worth their while, and have been seen searching for food in coniferous forests at elevation of 3,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level.

            Unlike other jays, the pinyon jay does not have feathers that cover their nostrils. This is because they probe deep into pitch-covered pinecones to extract the seeds and if they had feathers covering their nostrils, they would get goopy. It is also why this jay’s beak is so slender compared to other corvids. Breeding season in pinyon jays is closely correlated to the seeding time of the pinyon pine and when green pinecones appear it can trigger their breeding hormones. These birds can live in flocks up to 500 and they often stay in that flock their entire lives.

So those aren’t necessarily family groups?

Kiersten: Definitely! I’m sure there is some family but this is a big enough group you’ll find someone you’re not related to.

Cheryl: They have a strict dominance hierarchy that they abide by that is decided through observation alone, not direct interaction. For example, if Jay H sees Jay T, a dominant bird to Jay H, respect Jay F’s dominance, Jay H will also concede to Jay F’s dominance without having to physically interact with him.

That’s like mutual respect.

Kiersten: It is and it makes a whole lot of sense! If you are living in a group of 500 and are constantly jostling for position, you’d be fighting all the time and never get anything done. It’s so amazing!

Cheryl: We could learn something from birds there. They get more done than we do!

Kiersten: Steller’s Jay

            Our next jay is our most strikingly colored jay, in my opinion. The Steller’s Jay is approximately 11.5 inches in length with a black head, face, neck, and back and light blue underbelly and dark blue wings and tail that have black striping. This jay has a prominent black crest that they can raise or lower. In Arizona they are found in the eastern portion of the state with some residents in the northwestern areas,  as well. We are in the eastern half of their North American range and our populations often have thin, white stripes on the face above the eye and on the forehead. Like most of our other jays they prefer wooded forests as their chosen habitat. They eat nuts, seeds, acorns, small invertebrates, and bird eggs.

            The crest on the Steller’s jay is used to communicate with other jays. When the crest is raised to 90 degrees this can indicate an imminent attack, but if the crest is lowered flat the jay will most likely retreat. The length of the crest will vary by population and it is determined by the openness of the vegetation in their habitat and the effectiveness of the crests as social cues. There are several subspecies of this jay ranging somewhere between 15-17 different subspecies but all are found in the western portion of the US. They get their name from Georg Steller, the European naturalist who discovered the species in 1741.

Cheryl: Okay. I have a question. It has to do with subspecies. What exactly is that?

Kiersten: A subspecies is usually a population difference. Different regions will have slightly different versions of the species. It is most often determined by isolation. Coloration or size will differ in the entire population and scientists will determine whether they are considered a subspecies or not. They are all Steller’s Jays but with slight regional differences that are common enough in a population to make them a subspecies.

Cheryl: Thank you!

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

            Our final Arizona jay is Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay. Their approximate length is 11.5 inches and they have a blue head with a thin, white eyebrow stripe and gray cheek patch. Their neck, wings, and tail are blue. The upper back is dark gray. The throat is white and the underparts are light gray. Beak and legs are black. They have no crest. They are found in the majority of Arizona with the exception of the southwestern corner. They are found only in the Southwestern region of the United States and Central Mexico. It prefers pinyon pines and juniper forests but can also be found in oak woodlands and mixed forests. They eat insects, grains, small lizards, frogs, fruits, and bird eggs.  They have been seen picking ticks off the backs of Mule Deer.

            The Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay used to be lumped together with other species of scrub jays all called the Western Scrub Jay, but as time has gone by and populations of birds become more isolated scientists have broken the Western scrub jay into different species such as the California Scrub Jay and the Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay. When these birds ranged across the entire United States the Florida Scrub Jay was also included in this group and all were just called Scrub Jays. There is also the Island Scrub-Jay that lives only on the island of Santa Cruz off the coast of California. This particular jay is helping scientists replant trees that were burned from wildfires.

Kiersten: Replanting forests is actually one of the most important jobs that all jays across the continent have. When the birds cache their nuts and seeds, they don’t just cache any nuts and seeds, they must be just right, kind of like Goldie Locks. These birds look for the perfect nuts by shaking their heads after they’ve picked up the nut with their beaks. This motion helps them determine the weight of the nut. The weight of the nut can tell them exactly how many seeds are in the shell and whether it’s worth their effort to cache it. This also means these are healthy seeds that, if left buried, will grow into new trees, and as we mentioned before, jays have great memories but they always miss a few caches. I think that’s by design!

Cheryl: Yes!

Kiersten: Researchers on the Island of Santa Cruz have put the Island Scrub-Jay to work replanting the island’s lost trees by offering them acorns to cache. For a more in-depth look at this project check out our Groundbreaking Women of Ornithology Part 1.

We hope you’ve learned some new things from our Family Corvidae series. I know we both learned a lot as we researched and wrote each episode. This family of birds never stops amazing us!

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.Allaboutbirds/guide/Canada_Goose

www.birdnote.org

 Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Cheryl:

Welcome to the Feathered Desert! Today Kiersten and I are going to totlak about the Canada Goose.

It is what I wait for when fall is just around the corner, to look up and see these large, bodied birds in their v-formation flying over my head.  Sometimes, so low I can hear their wings flapping as they propel themselves through the air to their nighttime resting spot along a water’s edge.

I decided to find out a little more about these geese that to me represent a change in the seasons.

Kiersten: Description:

I love this idea because the Canada Goose always mean Fall is coming!

There are at least 11 subspecies of Canada Goose.  In general, the geese get smaller as you move northward, and darker as you go westward.  The 4 smallest forms are now considered a different species: the Cackling Goose. I love that name! (laughs)

These big water birds with a long black neck, large tan breast and, or large gray/brown body, with a large, webbed feet, and a wide flat bill.  They have a white cheek and a white chinstrap. This is the more prominent identification Canada Geese have a smoothly sloping transition between bill and forehead.

Very statuesque birds!

Cheryl:  Habitat and food sources

Canada Geese in habitat many habitats near water, grassy fields, and grain fields.  These large waterfowl are particularly drawn to lawns for two reasons:  they can digest grass and when they are feeding with their young, manicured lawns give them a wide unobstructed view of any approaching predators.

Thank you very much golf courses!

 So, they are especially abundant in parks, airports, golf courses and other areas with expansive lawns.  Two subspecies have adapted to urban environments and graze on domesticated grasses year-round.

Kiersten: That’s smart!

Cheryl: Birds are always one-step ahead!

In spring and Summer, geese concentrate their feeding on grasses and sedges, including skunk cabbage leaves and eel grass.  During fall and winter, they rely more on berries and seeds including agricultural grains, and seem especially fond of blueberries.  This fascinates me that scientists know they like blueberries.

Kiersten: I know I like blueberries, so I don’t blame them at all.

Cheryl: They are efficient at removing kernels from dry corn cobs.

Kiersten: That fascinates me! They have a lot more strength in those beaks than you might think!

Cheryl: Yes! You don’t want to be nipped by one of those.

Kiersten:  Social behavior

Canada Geese mate for life with a very low divorce rate (we could learn a lesson there!), and pairs remain together throughout the year.

Canada geese are known to be very devoted to each other.  These geese mate “assertively”- larger birds choosing larger mates and smaller geese choosing smaller mates.  Canada geese do not breed until their fourth year of life. That’s which too! You need to know who you are before you get involved.

Baby Geese or goslings (I love that name!) are quick learners.  These impressionable young birds use their mimicking skills to mimic the adult birds. Which is smart! You are on the ground and need to get your stuff together quick! Goslings learn how to swim just 24 hours after hatching.  Parents teach their young ones how to fly when the goslings are 2-3 months old. That’s when their flight feathers have grown in. It’s kind of hard to fly when you’re covered in downy feathers.

Cheryl: It’s fascinating that they teach their young how to fly, I thought they just instinctively knew what to do.

Kiersten: They do have to figure out what to do with their arms, or wings.

Migrating flocks generally include family groups and individuals.  Young geese often remain with their parents for their entire first year, especially in the larger species.

Cheryl:  Territorial behavior

Although usually very social during breeding season Canada Geese are highly territorial. Don’t approach those gosling! Territorial threat displayed by these geese may involve head pumping, bill opened with tongue raised, hissing, honking, and vibrating neck feathers.  If the interloper does not retreat geese may grab each other and hit each other with their wings.

You don’t want to get nipped by one of these geese. When I was young, my mom had to flee to the top of our station wagon when we accidentally got in between him and his goslings and mate! He went after my mom and she climbed on top of the car but he was still able to bite her and she got a big bruise!

Kiersten: Oh yes! My husband walked to school as a child and they had to walk by a pond. During breeding season, they knew to steer clear of the lake and avoid the geese. They’d walk almost a mile out of their way to make sure they didn’t get bit!

Kiersten:  V-Formation

That’s what everyone thinks about when we think of geese. The v-formation is a kind of synchronized aerial tailgating and marks the flight of flocks of larger birds, like geese.  Observers believe that each bird behind the leader is taking advantage of the lift of a corkscrew of air coming off the wingtips of the bird in front.  Each bird flies a little higher than the bird in front of it. This corkscrew updraft is called a tip vortex, and it enables the geese to save considerable energy during long flights.  This formation also helps the weaker of the flyers to have support through the migration flights. The V-formation may also enhance birds’ ability to see and hear each other, thus avoiding mid-air collisions. That is super smart!

Smaller birds probably do not create enough of an updraft to help others in the flock and don’t fly in vees.

It’s a bit controversial, but there does seem to be a lot of research supporting it. The older birds will switch places from the front giving the leaders a break during flight. The smaller, younger birds will not because of their size and that they are still earning the route.

Cheryl: This is all learned, as well! And they work well together as a team.

Kiersten: Yes! We could learn another lesson here!

Cheryl:  Whiffling in for a landing.

When a flock of Canada Geese comes in for a landing at a lake and you might be surprised by their appearance of laissez faire attitude toward landing on the waters surface.  But that is only the perception of you as an observer, if the flock comes in too fast or too high above the water, geese have a little trick to slow themselves down for a safe landing. The geese stop flapping and then quickly roll their bodies upside down, while twisting their long necks the right way up. 

That sounds like a yoga pose I could not do!

Finally, they rotate again to right themselves just in time to gently splash down.  This maneuver is called whiffling and it seems to help these birds to slow down quickly-but it might just be for fun.

Kiersten: It does sound like fun! Maybe it is both!

Cheryl: Yes! Fun and useful!

Kiersten:  Migratory or not?

If Canada geese are supposedly migratory than why do we see them here all year round?  Good question.

Up until the early 1900’s Canada Geese were almost hunted to extinction.  Yes, that’s right this large bodied bird that is so abundant was very close to being not.   

In the early 1900’s non-migratory geese were brought in by the hundreds to populate wildlife refuges.  Many of the geese that stay year-round are the descendants of birds introduced by game management authorities in an effort to revive some of the original wild populations that had been decimated by hunting.  I say that Canada Geese re-wilding was a success!

Cheryl:

When you hear that very familiar honking and look up to see these amazing birds flying in their V-formation hopefully this information helps to feel more awe inspired.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.avibirds.com/owls-of-arizona/

www.a-z-animals.com/blog/true-owls-vs-barn-owls-what-are-the-diffrences/

Owling: Enter the World of the Mysterious Birds of the Night, by Mark Wilson

Liberty Wildlife:

(480)998-5550

2600 E Elmwood St. Phoenix, AZ 85040

https://Libertywildlife.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Cheryl: Intro-Welcome to Owls of Arizona part two.  So, it does bears repeating that Arizona with it diverse landscapes and abundant wildlife is home to 13 different species of owl.  In part one we covered only four owls, and we are going to cover the other nine in this podcast, and Kiersten has our first one.

Kiersten: Western Screech Owl

A well camouflaged owl with large ear tufts and streaked plumage in a variety of brown or gray.  They are about 7-10 inches in height.  These owls weigh about 3.5-10.8 ounces and have a wingspan 21-25 inches across.  Western Screech Owls occur all across the western states in U.S., and their range extends down into Central America. 

They live in forests, open woodlands, deserts, shrublands, and open fields in the countryside.  You may find them in your local park.  They nest in tree holes and in cacti in desert regions.  These non-migratory owls will often reuse nest sites for years.  Western Screech Owls are active from dusk, through the night, into the dawn.  They are opportunistic predators; if they can catch it- they will eat it, but their prey is mainly rodents, birds, and insects. 

Deforestation and development are threatening the habitats for these owls.  These owls have a whistling call and a high-pitched screech.  The song of the Western Screech Owl is a series of descending hoots.

Cheryl: Northern Saw-Whet Owl

The Northern Saw-Whet owl is one of the smallest and most adorable owls on the continent.  It has a large round head and a compact body.  Its plumage is a rich brown with small white spots on the upper parts and blotchy white streaks below.  The facial disc is paler brown, and it has a white Y-shape from the brows to the bill, between its huge yellow eyes.  This owl is 7-9 inches in height.  It weighs 2.2-5.4 ounces and the wingspan is 17-22 inches across.

They inhabit coniferous forests.  During the winter, they also take to deciduous or mixed woodlands.  They nest in tree holes excavated by woodpeckers or in the old nests of other birds.  They are nocturnal owls with exceptional hearing, and can detect prey purely by sound.  Their diet consists mainly of rodents, but will prey on small birds, bats, amphibians, and insects.  May cache mice for the winter.

Although, fairly common these owls are hard to spot.  In Arizona, they are more numerous in the winter months as northern populations migrate south.  Listen for their call it is a whistly repetitive toots.

Kiersten: Long -Eared owl

The Long-eared owl is named for its prominent ear tufts.  It has a dark, patterned plumage which is a mix of brown, gray and buff.  The underparts are buff with dark brown streaks.  Its facial disc is buff with white in the middle.  It has orange-yellow eyes and a grayish-black bill. 

Long-eared owls have a wide distribution across the continent.  Arizona lies within their breeding range.  These owls inhabit forests and woodlands near densely vegetated open areas such as grasslands and shrublands.  They have adapted to semi desert environments where they hunt across dry, open landscapes.   Prey animals for these owls includes cottontail rabbits, red squirrels, bats, small birds, and snakes.

In Arizona, you may see these owls nesting in forks or cavities of Saguaro cacti.  This is a shy elusive owl and is not easy to spot.  It is often misidentified as a Great Horned Owl due to the ear tufts.  The National Audubon Society believes this owl is undercounted in its national Christmas bird counts.  Populations of this species of owl are in decline due to habitat loss.

Long-eared owls have a wide range of vocalizations that vary by region.  The long-eared owl is silent during the winter but often roost communally, making them easier to spot despite their excellent camouflage.  These owls will also roost on the ground.

In Arizona, Long-eared owls may show-up in mass when there are irruptions of mice.

Cheryl: Short-eared Owl

Now I put this owl back-to-back with the Long-eared owl because they are often misidentified as each other.  So, the short-eared owl is a medium-size owl about 15-17 inches in height.  It weighs approx. a 1.5 lb. and the wingspan is 38-44 inches across.  It has a rounded head with small ear tufts, hence the name.  Its feathers are mottled brown, buff, and white above and buff below with dark streaks on the breast.  The face is white in the center, with a brown facial disc edged with a pale rim. It’s piercing yellow eyes are encircled by dark eye patches.  (Long-eared owls have rusty-orange feathering round the eyes.)

These owls occur all across North America, with the majority of the population breeding in the north and migrating south for the winter.  So, in Arizona it would be the winter months that we would have an opportunity to see them.

Short-eared owls inhabit large, sparsely vegetated open areas.  They nest on the ground, partially concealed amidst low vegetation.  Unlike other owls, short-eared owls build their own nests.  The female constructs a bowl-shaped nest using grasses, weeds and feathers.  These owls sometimes roost in groups, and on occasion will roost in trees with Long-eared owls.

Short-eared owls eat mostly rodents, especially voles, rats and mice.  They also take birds and nestlings.  These owls breed up in the arctic so the birds they prey on are shorebirds and gulls with the occasional crow thrown in.

These owls are on the decline mainly due to habitat loss.  Look for them in open fields and grasslands around dawn and dusk in the winter.  Unlike the Long-eared owl, the short-eared owl hunts during the day on the ground or flying low to the ground.  They have a floppy bat-like flight.  The short-eared owl is mostly silent in the winter.  Their common call is a raspy bark.

Kiersten:  Northern Pygmy owl

The Northern pygmy owl Is a small, plump owl with a large, round head and a fairly long tail.  It is brown above with white spots and white below with dark brown streaks. As with other pygmy owls, it has eye-spots on the back of the neck which may function to deter predators attacking from behind.  This owl has feathered legs down to the toes.  It is 6-7 inches in height.  It weighs 2.1-2.5 ounces and has a wingspan of 12-15 inches across.  This owl has one of the shortest life spans of just 3 years whether in captivity or not.

They are found all across north America and inhabit forest and woodlands.  They nest in tree holes, often excavated by woodpeckers.  Pygmy owls are diurnal, but also hunt at dawn and dusk.  They eat small birds, mammals and insects.  Northern Pygmy Owl is a fierce hunter known to often kill birds and rodents larger than themselves.

These owls are prevalent in the eastern part of Arizona, and since they are active during the day that makes them easier to spot then most owls.  Still these owls largely go unnoticed.  Northern Pygmy Owl migrates in some regions from the higher to the lower elevations in the winter.

The call of the Northern Pygmy Owl is a high-pitched trill or a one note toot.

Cheryl: Elf Owl

This tiny raptor is the smallest member of its family in the world.  It is a small sparrow-sized owl.  The plumage of the elf owl is patterned gray-brown and white.  It has a buff-colored face and large, yellow eyes.  Females are more rusty-red in color, and the males are grayer.

Elf Owls are nocturnal and mainly insectivorous, feeding on insects and other invertebrates.  Their prey includes moths, beetles, crickets, and arachnids like scorpions.  They may occasionally take a lizard or a small vertebrate animal. 

Many Elf Owls breed in the southwestern U.S. then migrate south to Mexico for the winter where sedentary populations reside.  Elf owls is comfortable in diverse habitats, including mesquite and paloverde trees along desert washes, mountain pine-oak forests, oak forests, and forests along river and canyon bottoms.  They nest in tree holes of hardwoods and often in the Saguaro cacti.  Look for them in our desert around dusk.  Their voice is loud, and their call a high-pitched whiny or throaty chuckle, or a variety of barks, squeaks and whistles.

Kiersten: Burrowing Owl

The Burrowing Owl is an owl we have talked about before in an earlier podcast titled” Burrowing Owls”.  The Burrowing Owl is a small, spotted owl with long gray legs.  Its feathers are brown above and pale below with brown streaks.  It has large yellow eyes, hooded by thick, pale brows. The height of this owl is 7-11 inches, its weight is 4.8-8.5 ounces.  It has a wingspan of 20-24 inches across.  Burrowing Owls are different from other raptors because males and females are the same size. Although, they have a wide, variable diet, they mainly prey on insects and rodents.

These owls hunt at night and during the day.  Females mostly hunt insects during the day whereas males hunt more at night and catch small animals. 

Most Burrowing Owls are sedentary, in their range but those owls that breed in the northern parts of their regions will migrate south during the winter.  They inhabit open grasslands, prairie, and other open areas of golf courses, farm fields, airports, and housing developments.  These owls’ nest and roost in burrows usually made by prairie dogs or ground squirrels, or other burrowing mammals.

This owl has a defensive strategy to mimic the behavior of rattlesnake’s rattling tail.  Burrowing Owls make a rattling or hissing noise to ward off potential threats. 

These owls are endangered due to habitat loss and decline of burrowing mammals.  They are often killed by cars and people’s pet-cats and dogs.  Burrowing Owls are often active during the day and are fairly tolerant of human presence.  This owl has a large range of smooth-sounding musical notes.

Cheryl: Spotted owl

The Mexican spotted Owl is medium-size forest owl.  Its height is 18-19 inches and its weight is 1.1-1.7 lbs.  Its wingspan is 42-45inches across.  This medium-size owl has dark eyes set in a large rounded head with no ear tufts.  It has dark brown feathers with white spots.  The spots on the underparts are oblong, giving it a Barred owl appearance. It has a prominent white x-shape on the face against the brown facial disc.  That being stated there are three subspecies of the Spotted owl: the Northwest Spotted Owl, the California Spotted Owl, and the Mexican Spotted Owl.  The Mexican Spotted Owl is the palest of the three in color.  It is also the one only that calls Arizona home.

It must be noted that although the Mexican Spotted owls looks like the Barred owl in appearance the Spotted owl will not be found in any area near barred owls.  Barred owls are highly competitive with Spotted owls.  Barred owls will hunt the Spotted Owl.

In Arizona, the Mexican Spotted Owl may be found in Pinyon Pine woodlands and canyons.  They nest in tree holes, abandoned nests of other birds, cliffs and ledges.  These owls hunt mostly at night and occasionally during the day.  They are essentially ambush predators, and typically hunt from a perch, where they wait for prey to draw close enough to launch a surprise attack.  Their prey is mainly woodrats, squirrels, bats, birds, reptiles, insects and amphibians.  Populations of Mexican spotted Owls are in decline due to destruction of habitat due to drought, development and wildfires.  These owls don’t dissipate body heat very well so they prefer the cooler temps of southeastern mountain ranges in Arizona.  These owls are classified as threatened.  The Mexican Spotted owl may be tricky to find visually.  Listen for its three-part hoot.

Kiersten: Ferruginous Pygmy Owl

The Ferruginous Pygmy owl is critically endangered in the United States and is protected under the Endangered Species Act.  This owl is threatened by habitat loss of Saguaro Cacti.  The eradication of Arizona’s cottonwood groves and contiguous Saguaro stands, plus wildfires, drought, and the wall at the state border with Mexico.

A small, round-headed owl with a streaked crown.  It has the false eye spots that all pygmy owls display.  The owl has yellow eyes with black pupils.  The tail is banded with rusty-red bars.  It stands about 6-7 inches in height and weighs 1.6-5.6 ounces.  It has a wingspan of 12 inches across.

These little owls nest almost exclusively in Saguaro cacti cavities.  They can be found in the Sonoran Desert region among their favorite cacti.  They have a woodpecker -like undulating flight pattern and can be spotted during the day as well as at dawn and dusk.

Their prey consists of mice, small birds, scorpions, moths, crickets and grasshoppers.

In 2006 researchers documented only 26 individual owls in the wild in the state of Arizona.  Wild at Heart a non-profit group, began a reintroduction program in 2016.

Their vocalizing is kept to a minimum to not draw attention to their location. So, others small birds won’t mob them and drive them away.  Their call is a quick series of whistled toots.

Cheryl: Spotting Owls

Spotting owls can be tricky since most species are not active during the day.  Owls by nature are shy and elusive creatures.  Here ae some tips:

The best time to see an owl is during the day.  The best time to hear an owl is at night.

Learn about the species of owls in the area you are looking.

Listen -familiarize yourself with the vocalizations of the different owls in your area.  Actively listen when you are out at night.  You will most likely hear an owl before you see it.

Look for signs of owls like their pellets or white washing on trees.

Be respectful- Be still and silent and refrain from using bright lights, so as not to disturb or frighten them away.

Who knew Owls were so Cool?  Who, who the owls knew.

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Kiersten Gibizov

www.allaboutbirds.org

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

https://pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/

https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/science/various-ways-that-birds-around-the-world-use-tools/

“Bait-fishing by Birds: A Fascinating Example of Tool Use” by William E. Davis and Julie Zickefoose -  https://sora.unm.edu/

https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Tool_Using.html

“Tool Use in Birds: An Overview of Reported Cases, Ontogeny, and Underlying Cognitive Abilities” Thesis by Yvonne Christina Roelofs, University of Groningen

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Tool Use in Birds

Kiersten: Welcome to the Feathered Desert this episode will open your mind to the amazing abilities of birds. Cheryl and I are going to talk about tool use in birds! As humans one of the abilities that we thought separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom was our use of tools, but as researchers continue to study the natural world, we have discovered that we are not the only ones capable of using tools.

            To research this controversial topic, scientists first started off with an accepted definition of true tool use. The definition states that true tool use is “the exertion of control over a freely manipulable external object (the tool) with the goal of (1) altering the physical properties of another object, substance, surface, or medium (the target) via a dynamic mechanical interaction, or (2) mediating the flow of information between the tool user and the environment or other organisms in the environment.”

Cheryl: We’re going to start this conversation off with baiting. Baiting is the deliberate use of an item to lure prey to a predator, like when humans go fishing. We use a lure to attract fish to our hook and catch them. This is a pretty advanced form of fore-thought that many scientists didn’t think birds were capable of performing, but we have two examples of baiting in birds.

1. The first example is herons using various items to attract fish to their fishing spot. The Striated heron uses bits of bread, insects, twigs, or other vegetation to lure fish close to the branches that hang over the water that they use as hunting spots. Green herons have been seen using bread crumbs to lure fish close enough to easily catch them and chasing away coots that tried to eat their bread lure indicating the heron’s understanding that the bread was helping lure fish. Use of luring has also been reported In the Great Egret, Black-crowned Night-heron, Great Blue Heron, Black Kite, Sun Bittern, and the Pied Kingfisher.
2. Another bird that is one of our favorite Valley birds is also on our tool use list. The Burrowing Owl will line the entrance of its burrow with dung to attract one of its favorite insects to eat, the Dung Beetle. Scientists did a few experiments and discovered that owls using the dung as a lure ate 10 times more dung beetles as owls not using the lure. It’s cheaper than using UberEats!

Kiersten: Anting is another example of true tool use but it involves other live animals such as insects. Anting is when a bird rubs an ant, caterpillar, centipede, snail, or other insect all over its body. It happens most often in passerines, aka songbirds, but no one really knows why they do it. One guess is that they use the chemicals in the insect as bug repellent. Another guess is that it could be a way to prepare the insect before eating, since most often the bird eats the insect after the rubbing activity.

Cheryl: Egyptian vultures love to eat ostrich eggs, but the shell is so thick they cannot crack it open with their own beaks. So, they fly up to 50 yards away to find the perfect rock to help them crack open the ostrich egg. When they find just the right rock, they hold it in their beak, stand next to the egg, and throw the stone at the egg. They only hit the target 40-60% of the time but they persist until they crack it open. The perfect rock is often an egg-shaped rock and this leads scientists to hypothesis that this behavior evolved from a time when the vultures threw eggs to crack them open instead of the other way around.

Kiersten:  An example closer to home is the Brown-headed Nuthatch. And this is a regional example of tool use. The Brown-headed nuthatches from a specific longleaf pine forest of Louisiana use bits of bark to pry off other pieces of bark in search of hidden treasures. They are looking for insects and cached pine nuts. They do this most often when the hunger quotient is high and resources are low.

Cheryl: Our next example for true tool use is drumming. Palm cockatoo males will remove twigs from trees to drum on tree trunks. They chose specific twigs that must be between 10-12 cm and they will remove any leaves or offshoots on those twigs until it’s just the way they want it. Then they will beat it against the tree truck and each male has a different rhythm. We’re not one hundred percent sure why they do it but it seems likely that they do it to advertise their territory and to attract a mate. The twig is often added to the nest after a successful pairing. I guess it really is true that the drummer always gets the girl!

Kiersten: Drumming actually takes us up a notch to creating tools out of available items. This is one of the most remarkable behaviors we’ve discovered in the bird world. The Woodpecker finch of the Galapagos Islands is an insect eating bird that loves to eat grubs. These grubs burrow into the bark of trees to protect themselves from predators, but the woodpecker finch has designed a way to outsmart them. They use a cactus spine to dig the grubs out of their hiding space and they are particular about which spine they use. They will look for just the right spine or twig and if that fails, they will snap one down to the right size. Once they have fashioned the perfect tool they will keep it with them, flying from place to place holding it in their beak.

Cheryl: One of the most amazing examples of tool making is the New Caledonia crow. This crow can make a tool out of almost anything! They break down twigs to the right size and even fashion wire into the perfect tool by bending the ends into the perfect curve. The leaf tools they develop have diversified over time on the island of New Caledonia, which is an unexpected accomplishment. A quote from Ornithology by Frank B. Gill states “The crow has developed the cultural capacity to evolve its tools in ways that resemble the feats of the early ancestors of modern humans.”

These birds are also sequential tool users which means they use multiple tools in a row to reach their objective. This is seen in captive experiments where the crow is presented with a puzzle with the reward being food. To solve the puzzle the birds must use different tools to solve each step to finally open the portion with the food. It’s a behavior rarely seen in animals outside of primates.

Kiersten: I saved my favorite for last. It’s not as complicated at the New Caledonia crow but it is pretty mind-blowing. The Black Kite of Australia, a type of raptor, has been seen by Aborigines for generations picking up burning sticks on the edges of wild fires and then dropping them further afield to make small prey items, such a mice, run in the direction they want them to go to catch them. This is an amazing example of tool use, but even more incredible it’s the only other example of an animal using fire besides humans!

We both hope that this episode of the Feathered Desert stays with you and next time you are watching your favorite birds at your feeder you remember these examples of bird intelligence and how similar birds really are to us.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes.

Show Notes:

https://www.fws.gov/law/migratory-bird-treaty-act-1918

https://www.audubon.org/news/migratory-bird-treaty-act

https://www.fws.gov/media/list-birds-protected-migratory-bird-treaty-act-2020

https://cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/wildlifelegalstatus.html

https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/arizona/az-laws/arizona_laws_17-236

https://azdot.gov/adot-blog/nesting-birds-are-protected-during-construction

https://phoenix.municipal.codes/CC/8-7.02

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-law-bans-feeding-ducks-in-arizona-city

https://www.mesaazpolice.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/43871

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2018/05/05/tempe-regulation-takes-aim-overfeeding-birds/574426002/

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Kiersten – Intro – Today we’re talking about laws that protect birds. We’ll look at federal laws and state regulations and then we’ll discuss some controversial bird feeding bans that affect our local Valley area. Cheryl is going to start us off with one of the most important bird laws!

Cheryl – Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

            Most people don’t even know that there are federal laws protecting birds in this country. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is such a law and it applies to the entire United States, every state must abide by this law.  You go Migratory Bird Treay Act!

Kiersten – Yes!

Cheryl - I know that seems redundant to say but it never hurts to repeat something important.

            What exactly is the Migratory Bird Treaty Act?

            This Act implements four international treaties that the US entered into with Canada in 1916, Mexico in 1936, Japan in 1972, and with Russia in 1976. It ensures the sustainability of populations of all protected migratory bird species. What this means is that it prohibits the taking of migratory bird species without proper and prior authorization from the Department of Interior U.S Fish and Wildlife service.  It sounds sooo important!

Kiersten – It does.

Cheryl - A quote from the US Fish and Wildlife Service “The MBTA provides that it is unlawful to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, possess, sell, purchase, barter, import, export, or transport any migratory bird, OR any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, unless authorized under a permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior. Take is defined as: pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or, collect, or attempt to pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect.” I think that covers everything!

Kiersten – Yes! (laughs)

Cheryl - Who does the law protect?

            There is a list of bird species generally based on bird families and individual species that are protected. There are three criteria that a species must meet to be included.

1. It must occur in the United States or U.S Territories by natural biological or ecological processes. That means that it is native to the country or territory or that its natural migratory path brings it through the US or its territories.
2. It must be in a family that is currently or previous included in a treaty or revised taxonomy rolls it into a protected family.

Kiersten – They are constanstyl revising taxonomy. That means the family and genera that they are in.

Cheryl- I was just going to clarify that. Thanks!

3.New evidence has arisen that proves the bird species or family is native to the US and US territories. Like Kiersten said they are always clarifying and revising.

In a nutshell, it protects any bird that is or was found here without the help of human transport. For example, the Inca dove is native to the SW United States so they are protected; whereas, the rock dove, AKA pigeons, are not native to this country and are not protected by this law.

Kiersten did I cover everything?

Kiersten – I think you go it!

Over the years the Treaty has been updated and expanded and the government is required to release a list of all species protected under the law. The last revision was in 2020 and that is the most current list of protected animals.

            Some of you may be thinking that this is just a law, what has it really done to help birds in reality. Since its inception it has actually saved many species from extinction at the hands of humans. Some examples include the Snowy Egret, that was being hunted for its pretty feathers the Wood Duck, that was being hunted for sport and the Sandhill Crane, that was also being hunted for feathers and spot. An example right here in our own backyard is the Burrowing Owl. Without its designation of a protected species the city of Phoenix would not have had to take all the extensive steps to protect them from the sprawl of housing construction.

            One last thing I want to reiterate about this law is that it also makes it illegal to own feathers, bones, beaks, claws, nests, and eggs from these birds, as well. That does apply to any of these items being found on the ground in your front yard or on a hike or anywhere. You cannot legally own them.

            “But I didn’t kill the bird to get it, I just found it on the ground!” I have heard that argument a lot, but you have no way of proving it to USFWS and people who are not honest can go out and kill the bird for those things and they’ll use the same argument. So, this law applies to everyone.

            Now there are some exceptions, but these are only valid with permitting. People who help birds to recover from injuries or illness are licensed rehabilitators. Liberty Wildlife, East Valley Wildlife, Wild at Heart are all licensed rehabbers. They get permitting through the state and federal agencies after taking hours and hours of classes and working as an apprentice. You cannot take a bird into you home with the intention of nursing them back to health and re-releasing them without these permits.

            Falconers, people who hunt with a bird of prey, are also licensed to do so. You cannot house raptors without permission from USFWS and only after working with a licensed falconer for years. Generally five years. You will also have to have visits from inspectors to determine if the housing you are providing meets regulations. And those regulations are strict. Then there are all the rules you must follow such as catching males versus females and how long you are allowed to keep them and hunt with them. All of this is to protect the sustainability of the species.

Cheryl – I find is so interesting that falconers have a limited time to work with them and then release them.

Kiersten – Yes! That’s why you have to work with a Master falconer for so many years. These birds have to know how to hunt on their own and beable to teach their young.

For a bit more on how the Migratory Bird Treaty Act came to be, please listen to our first episode of Groundbreaking Women of Ornithology and learn how a few fashion forward women influenced the creation of this life saving law.

Cheryl – State Laws

I got state laws! Our state laws follow the federal laws and can be found under Arizona Laws Title 17, Chapter 2, Article 3, 17-236.

These laws do take it a step further in saying that you cannot intentionally harass a protected bird or intentionally destroy a nest of a protected bird. Which includes woodpecker!

Kiersten – Yes! It does include a lot of birds that people are annoyed with. (laughs) I forgot to put this one in here. ADOT, Arizona Department of Transportation had a question from a jogger near the 101 that asked about the cliff swallow nests. ADOT takes care to not disturb the nests while the birds are nesting but, once the birds have fledged they knock down the nests to encourage them to nest elsewhere. They only do it when the nests are no longer is use or before the nests are complete. ADOT has a Biologist that inspects projects before they get started for nests. It’s okay to do that before a nest is in use.

The other state laws involving birds are mainly based around hunting. There is a specific hunting season for birds that are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and you must have a hunting license to hunt during this season.

Arizona Game and Fish is in charge of distributing these permits. The regulations for each year can change because they are always assessing the population size of a species approved for hunting. Each season has a maximum bag number for how many individuals you can kill and they have strict regulations about hunting outside of specified seasons. I know we have Dove hunting and quail hunting.

Kiersten – Our next topic is one that Cheryl and I have kind of avoided talking about for some time. I mean we’re doing a podcast about bird feeding, so this one is a bit counter-intuitive to what we talk about each episode. It’s important but it’s also a bit controversial. I think the time has come and we’re going to have to just rip the band-aid off and get to it.

            And that is City Bans on bird feeding.

            The main cities in the Phoenix Valley we’ll discuss today are Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, and Phoenix. These are the ones that have officially passed bans at the recording of this podcast, but other cities out there may be considering them.

            Let’s look at Mesa first. In 2019, the Mesa city council approved an amendment to the city’s nuisance code prohibiting feeding wild birds. Many customers of the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Mesa that sells products specifically to feed wild birds were pretty concerned, but you need to dig a little deeper into the code to get the whole story.

            This change was certainly inspired by people feeding wild birds and attracting too many pigeons and doves. I am now quoting from a Code Compliance brochure from the Mesa police website that states “It is a violation in the City of Mesa to feed pigeons and doves on private or public property. An exemption is provided for feeding of other species of birds from a feeder intended to prevent pigeons and doves from feeding.” End quote.

            The key here is that you can still feed the birds as long as you are doing it with a feeder that prevents large bird from taking over. You can get just the right feeder and the correct food that will cut down on the number of larger birds, such as pigeons and doves, that you attract. This is essentially what we preach with the podcast as well. Responsible bird feeding.

            Tempe. In 2018, the city of Tempe did essentially the same thing. Their ordinance was aimed at reining in people who were putting out large amounts of bird seed and attracting flocks of pigeons and doves. Some feared they wouldn’t be able to put out bird feeders anymore but Councilman Kolby Granville was quoted by the AZCentral as saying “We’re not talking about a bird feeder, we’re talking about a bag of food a week.” End quote.

Cheryl – Let’s talk about Phoenix. In the Phoenix City Code Section 8-7.02 it states that feeding pigeons is prohibited. It states “It is unlawful for any person to feed pigeons within the City. The prohibition does not prohibit the feeding of other birds using practices or devices designed to prevent pigeons from obtaining food.”

            Once again, this city is trying to cut down on larger birds like pigeons and doves coming in droves to food but is not opposed to smaller birds coming to appropriate feeders.

            Scottsdale - Now Scottsdale’s ban is a bit different. In 2014, the city of Scottsdale banned the feeding of ducks and other birds at public parks. It seems that people were bringing whole loaves of bread, sometimes garbage bags full of stale bread, to the park and dumping them on the pathways or in ponds. I think Kiersten and I are both onboard with this ban since bread is terrible food for ducks, birds, and any wildlife. It has no nutrition in it and is not a natural food for them to eat.

When you break it down like this it’s not scary and it’s what we want our bird feeding enthusiasts to do anyway! Feed responsibly.

Kiersten – I have to admit I’m kinda on board with all of these bans, really. They all help protect our birds by limiting the amount if food available, which cuts down on the number of birds in one place at one time, which decreases the likely hood of spreading diseases. It also encourages people to use hanging feeders and not ground feed which is another way to cut down on spreading diseases.

 Laws are not scary and are here to help protect our birds and ourselves.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes.

Show Notes:

www.avibirds.com/owls-of-arizona/

www.a-z-animals.com/blog/true-owls-vs-barn-owls-what-are-the-diffrences/

Owling: Enter the World of the Mysterious Birds of the Night, by Mark Wilson

Liberty Wildlife:

(480)998-5550

2600 E Elmwood St. Phoenix, AZ 85040

https://Libertywildlife.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (Various bird calls play)

Cheryl-Intro:  Welcome to The Feathered Desert! Arizona is a haven for birdlife.  It is a state with a multitude of diverse landscapes that range from deserts to conifer forests, to incredibly very different types of landscaped mountain ranges.  It has breathtaking canyons, riparian areas with cottonwoods and willows very much untouched by man.  This landscape diversity supports a very diverse selection of birdlife including (are you ready) thirteen different owls. I was floored! I thought maybe six species but no it’s thirteen. That’s why it’s in two parts.

Kiersten: Few general facts:

Owls live in a variety of habitats.  For every type of bird habitat there is an owl that fits into it.

Owls are nocturnal raptors, specialized for hunting in the dark, and are equipped with excellent night vision; but there are a few owls that are active during the day. There is always an exception to the rule!

To be more specific:

Diurnal-by definition diurnal means happening or active during the daytime.  Animals that are diurnal are usually awake and active during the daytime. Burrowing Owls, Short-eared Owls, Snowy Owls

Crepuscular-cre-pus-cu-lar: means relating to twilight, referring to animals that are active in the twilight—active at dawn and dusk.  A few of our owls that do that are Northern Pygmy Owl and Ferrugious Pygmy Owl

Nocturnal-done, occurring, or active at night. Northern Saw-whet Owl, Barn Owl, Boreal Owl

One of my favorite things about owl is that they all have specialized feathers for silent flight.  That mean you will not hear them ehThat being said: the tiny Elf owl is the nosiest when in flight.  That is saying quite a lot. You’ll probably just barely hear him as he flies overhead. Which is interesting because it hunts insects, and some insects can hear. It begs the question of why this owl evolved to be a little bit louder than other owls but is so small.

Cheryl: I don’t know but I thought it was interesting!

Kiersten: Like most birds, owls have 4 toes on each foot.  2 toes point forward and 2 toes point backward.  However, owls have a special ability -they can swing one of their back toes to the front.  Helps it to grip wiggling prey.  Ospreys, woodpeckers, and parrots can do this as well.

Owls have good spatial memory, probably better than us, for sure better than me!

(Cheryl and Kiersten both laugh)

Kiersten:   Owls carry detailed mental maps of their surroundings.  This helps an owl remember where things are and where they left things. Which is super important!

Cheryl: It is because they store food! Who knew?

Kiersten: Yeah! There are 19 species of owls that breed and nest in the United States and Canada.  13 of these species may be found in Arizona!

Cheryl:  So, Owls are split into two family groups. Every time I do research for a podcast I learn so much that I didn’t know! The first group is Strigidae-which are true owls and the Tytonidae-the Barn Owls.

True Owls VS Barn Owls some of the differences are

Physical Appearance:  Many true owl species have ear tufts on their heads covered in feathers.  They have large heads, round facial discs around their eyes.  They have yellow or orange eyes.

Barn Owls have a great heart-shaped facial disc.  Presence of long strong legs with powerful talons.

Dark eyes and the absence of ear tufts. They have ears but not tufts.

Calls:  True owls make hooting calls.  Barn owls don’t hoot, rather they make eerie-sounding screams.

Habitats:  True owls are found worldwide except in Antarctica.

Barn Owls occur everywhere except in the cold temperate, and Arctic regions.  They prefer open places and live away from humans.

Kiersten: They are found on every continent!

Cheryl: Behavior:  True owls exhibit nocturnal behaviors and have specialized morphology for their wings. Barn Owls are nocturnal birds.

Color:  they have brown or gray vertical markings, and their underbellies are usually white. Barn owls are usually an orange-black color.  Their breasts are white.

Hunting Styles:  True Owls are mostly seen by people as tame since they show no movement unless you

 are very close to them.  They are ambush predators. Although they are elusive they are relatively not shy towards people.

Kiersten: Yes, but were not saying for you to go up to one because they are not tame! They are just good at their jobs which is to be calm and still and ambush prey or fly away.

Cheryl: Right!

Barn Owls are opportunistic hunters.  They fly in open areas gliding across the low grasses locating prey

by sound.

Lifespan: Ture Owls lifespans very depending on the species, on average these owls have longer lifespans than Barn Owls.  Barn Owls live 5-10 years and that is being generous. They can live longer in captivity.

Kiersten:  The Great Horned Owl-

Great Horned Owl is Arizona’s largest and most widespread owl.  Known as the “Tiger of the Sky”, the Great Horned Owl is probably the most familiar to our listeners of all the Arizona owls.  We both have them in our yards. This owl has mottled grayish-brown feathers on its wings, head, and body. It has pale cream to white underneath with brown barring, and it has a reddish-brown to gray facial feathers, and a white throat patch. This will all be hard to see in the dark but if you catch them in a flashlight or see them in a tree during the day you might get to see the colors better. Great Horned Owls have long feathers covering their legs and feet. Great horned owls are 17-25 inches in height.   Average weight of an adult is 2.6 – 3.5 lbs.  The females will be larger and heavier. The wingspan of this raptor is on average 3-5 feet across. That’s a nice wingspan!

Cheryl: That’s also pretty heavy for an owl!

Kiersten: Yep! Great Horned Owls are highly adaptable birds with an incredibly diverse diet comprising of over 200 species of mammals, and 300 species of birds, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians and fish.   Why pick just one thing when you have all this stuff to eat? Why not just eat it all

Cheryl: (laughs) I don’t think we missed anything on that list!

Kiersten: The favorite meal of these birds are skunks.  I mean…yeah?

(Both co-hosts laugh)

Cheryl: Well skunks are cute.

Kiersten: They are cute! And the owls keep their population in check. The Great Horned Owl is the only owl to regularly eat skunk. I think they may not have to best sense of smell, if they don’t mind eating skunk!

Cheryl: (laughs)

Kiersten: Great Horned Owls do migrate.  They live in their territory their whole lives.  Historically, they were once intensively hunted.  Their feathers a really beautiful and there is always the myth that they eat your sheep, which is completely false. They are not s bog enough bird to do that. But now the biggest threat is indirect poisoning by harmful rodenticides. Which is a terrible shame! For more information on that, please, reference our Rodenticide: A Deadly Decision podcast.

Fun Fact:  Great Horned Owls will defend their nests fiercely by hooting, hissing, grunting, and screaming. It is quite terrifying to see! You don’t want to encounter this!

Cheryl: They really do impress me. Every time I encounter one or watch them on a webcam.

Kiersten: They really are impressive. These are the ones that have that wise look on theor faces. The one that the phrase wise old owl comes from but…they are not wise. They’re great at being owls bt not great problem solvers!

Cheryl: (laughs)

Kiersten: One other thing about the Great Horned Owl. They are definitely one of the owl that have ear tufts. We are not exactly sure why they have ear tufts. Some scientists say it’s for checking the changing wind, or they are used to make decisions on the wing but we not entirely sure what they are for. But the tufts are just feathers not ears. They have ears but the feathers that stick up are not their ears.

Cheryl: Sometime I think it’s for communication between owls because they can flatten them or hold them up straight. They do things with them if you ever have the opportunity to watch them.

Kiersten: That’s a good thought! Owls are solitary hunters, so they could potentially hurt another owl. I don’t necessary want to cozy up to my neighbor that might kill me! So maybe they are used to communicate from a distance.

Cheryl :  And with eye color. All 19 different owl species have a different eye color and scientist don’t know why! Mabe it’s for communication as well.

Kiersten: Maybe!

Cheryl: Barn Owl

The Barn Owl is an unusual beauty.  It is a medium sized owl with a heart-shaped face and a characteristic pale speckled plumage.  The upperparts are rusty brown with dark patches.  The face and underparts range from cream to white.  It has slender, feathered legs and long broad wings that enable sharp, agile movements.  This owl is 13-15 inches in height.  It weighs about 1 -1.5 lbs. 

Kiersten: The female is definitely a bit bigger. The females need more weight to incubate eggs and more skeletal width to lay eggs, but of all the raptors they have the least difference between male and female.

Cheryl:  Barn Owls wingspan is 31-37 inches across. 

Barn Owls occur in the open grasslands, farmlands, open meadows in woodlands and woodland edges. They are nocturnal.  Barn Owls roost or nest in old buildings, barns, silos, steeples, sheds, mine and well shafts, tree cavities, caves and stacks of baled hay.   It is an unmissable bird.  Look out for a flash of white in the open country at night.  Barn Owls has an undulating flight pattern.  They hunt by gliding low above the ground using sight and sound to locate prey.  Barn Owls have asymmetric ears which means one ear is a little higher than the eyes while the opposite one sits a little lower than the eyes.  This helps Barn owls to quickly and accurately locate faint sounds.  The sounds strike each ear at slightly different times.

One Barn Owl will eat 8 mice/voles a night.   That’s 2,920 rodents a year.  

Kiersten: That’s good rodent control, right there!

Cheryl: Barn owls have been known to stockpile prey animals, especially, during nesting season.  Barn Owls are typically solitary birds but will live in pairs.  Barn owls are non-violent, altruistic and family-oriented birds.  Barn Owl siblings care for one another while they are together.

Barn owls often are the victims of vehicle collisions, but their greatest threat is indirect poisoning by harmful rodenticides.

Kiersten:  This is the Flammulated Owl

Cheryl: I’m gla you said that word!

Kiersten: It’s not a pretty word. (laughs)

Cheryl: I don’t know who names these birds!

Kiersten: they could have picked a prettier word, for sure!

This little owl has flame-like markings on its wings, for which it is named.  However, grayer variants lack this feature.  Its plumage is a mix of dark brown, gray, buff, and white providing the perfect camouflage.  It has large, dark eyes, and small ear tufts that are often held flat against the head.  It is 6-7 inches in height.  Weighs about 1.5-2 ounces and has a wingspan of 14-16 inches across. 

Flammulated Owls are migratory.  Wintering here in Arizona from September-March.  Flammulated Owls can be found in Arizona’s old Ponderosa Pine forests, Douglas Fir, and mixed conifer forests, and in amongst the Aspen trees at higher elevations.   Flammulated owls are considered the most abundant of the forest dwelling owls in Arizona.   These owls are heavily dependent on mature forests.  Habitat loss and rodenticides are the greatest threats to these owls.it vocalizes with twittery noises, mews, and in hoots.  Smaller than the Western Screech Owl this little owl often roosts in old woodpecker or sapsucker holes.  Flammulated owl eats insect like grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, ants I can’t believe they eat ants, that seems like a lot of work for such a small reward, dragonflies, and moths. Probably one of their favorite is those big, fat moths in the silk moth family. That would tide you or for days.

Cheryl: I was surprised at what insects they eat because they are nocturnal. The dragonflies.

Kiersten: Dragonflies might be easier to catch at night though because they’ll be stationary.

Cheryl: I don’t know how they do it!

Kiersten: Me neither but they always seem to know what they are doing!

Cheryl:  Whiskered Screech Owl

I think this one is so cute. I remember watching a video of one and thinking how cute he was and then it snatched a hummingbird! Then I thought he’s not so cute anyone!

Kiersten: (laughs) Predators always do that to us!

Cheryl: (laughs) The Whiskered Screech Owl is named for the wispy bristles at the base of their beak.  It is a small owl with streaked plumage and a rounded head with short ear tufts.  There is a gray morph and rufous colored morph.  It has golden- yellow eyes and a yellow-green bill.   I also found it interesting that owl beaks can be different colors! Its height is 6-8 inches, and it weighs 2.4-4.2 ounces.  This owl’s wingspan is 16-20 inches across.

These owls inhabit southeastern Arizona in the dense oak woodlands and mountains forests of the Madrean Sky Island Mountain Range.  The very southeastern tip of Arizona.  They are active from dusk through the night.  They mainly prey on arthropods, including locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, moths, caterpillars, centipedes, spiders and scorpions. I always like a bird that can catch a scorpion! They occasionally hunt small mammals and small birds.  Your best chance to look for Whiskered Screech owl is in the Sycamore groves alongside canyons in the popular birding area of Madera Canyon.  Listen for the evenly spaced boo-hoots of the small owls.

That’s just four of the thirteen owls we have in Arizona. Part two is coming soon! Please I would just like to remind everyone that the Phoenix Valley is home to a great raptor rehab facility.  Liberty Wildlife offers rehabilitation to injured raptors such as the owls here in Arizona.  So, if you would like a close -up with an owl you may visit their education center for a tour.  If you find an injured owl please keep visual contact with the injured bird, and call Liberty Wildlife.  A volunteer will come out and rescue the bird.  We will include Liberty Wildlife’s contact information in our show notes.

Stay tuned for part two coming in the near future!

Show Notes:

Cheryl's personal experience 

www.nationalparks.org/explore/parks/grand-canyon-national-park

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Micheal O'Brien

www.allaboutbirds.org

Show Notes:

www.audubon.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Summary: Creating a wildlife habitat is easier than you think. Wild Birds Unlimited and National Wildlife Federation are pairing up to promote neighborhood wildlife habitats. Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they walk you through the five simple steps to help you help our feathered friends.

Show Notes:

NWF Native Plant finder nwf.org/nativeplantfinder

Certify your yard as a wildlife habitat: wbu.com/certify-your-yard

Native Plant Nursery Directory: plantnative.org

Audubon Native Plant Database: audubon.org/native-plants

National Wildlife Federation website:nwf.org/WBUgarden

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Paul Marvin.

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

 Kiersten - The Great Blue Heron is the largest heron in North America with a height of 4.5 feet and a wing span of six feet. The name comes from the blue-gray feathers that cover most of the body. The face is white with a white stripe down the middle of the head. A black cap on the head with a black plume that curves delicately off the nape of the neck, adds to its regal look. The long neck is a brownish gray with longer feathers creating a fringed look at the base of the throat. The long dagger shaped beak is yellow on the bottom mandible and darker on the top mandible. An all-white version of the Great Blue Heron can be seen in Florida. Scientists are still debating whether this is a separate species or a color morph. In flight, the Great Blue Heron folds its neck into an S-shape and holds its long, gray legs straight back creating an easily identifiable silhouette.

            This large bird is found throughout NA. Many live year-round through the mid-range of the United States from California to New England. Others spend the colder winters in Mexico and migrate to the upper United States and mid-Canadian ranges in summer. Their preferred habitat revolves around water as they are a wading bird which means they stand in water up to their knees hunting for fish, amphibians, and small water mammals. They can often be seen standing patiently on the edges of rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes waiting for the perfect moment to catch a bite to eat. They locate prey by sight and swallow food whole. Within the drier areas of the SW, herons are attracted to man made lakes and golf courses with water traps.

            When humans encounter herons, they are often silent and many people believe they do not make any noise at all, but they are capable of sound. It is quite shocking to hear their rattling call but once you know what you’re hearing, it’s quite distinctive. (Heron call plays)

During breeding season these herons nest in colonies near water. They create shallow platform nests in trees using larger sticks as the base and finer, softer material as the lining. Nests can sometimes be found on the ground and in reed beds but are most often in trees. Nests are reused year after year and herons will return to the same breeding areas every spring. Pairs are monogamous within a breeding season but usually pick a new mate every year. Males will arrive at the nesting sites before the females, chose a nest, and court the females as they arrive. These nesting sites can include anywhere from 5 to 500 nesting pairs.

             Song provided by Macauly Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Paul Marvin.

Show Notes:

Audubon Magazine Spring 2022: The Wonder of Migration

“Have Wings Will Travel” by Alisa Opar, 20-27

“A Matter of Timing” by Scott Weidensaul, 29-33

“Birds of a Feather” by Barry Yeoman, 48-53

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird by Rosemary Mosco

https://mymodernmet.com/homing-pigeons-climate-data/

https://www.si.edu/object/cher-ami%3Anmah_425415

https://nonstoptravelling.com/2017/02/15/leather-tanning-pigeon-poop-and-palaces-in-fez-morocco/

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1996/01/mighty-morphin-pigeon-watchers-learn-science-city-cornell-ornithology-labs-project

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-scientists-confirmed-big-bang-theory-owe-it-all-to-a-pigeon-trap-180949741/

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Tom Barnwell.

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes: 

https://www.audubon.org/news/the-amazing-wold-hybrid-birds

https://www.allaboutbirds.org

“A Deep Dive into the Oriole Genome Tackles the Mystery of Hybridization” by Rebecca Heisman

“Analysis: Hybrid Birds are Supercolliders of Speciation” by Irby Lovette

“One Species or Two? A Winner Emerges in the Great Oriole Debate” by Pat Leonard and Marc Devokaittis

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Bird Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of ornithology recorded by Pat Goltz - Canyon Wren, Mary Mutchler - Black-chinned Hummingbird, Mike Hearell - Vermilion Flycatcher, Ryan O'Donnell - Elf Owl, and Andrew Spencer - Gilded Flicker

iBird Ultimate: Ultimate Guide to Birds App

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited in Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Rose Ann Rowlett

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide

https://audubon.org

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

www.allaboutbirds.org

https://www.nps.gov/sagu/what-to-know-before-you-visit.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saguaro

https://sonoranjv.org/desert-purple-martin

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/buenos-aires/visit-us-activities-wildlife-watching

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

https://riosalado.audubon.org/downtown-owls-0

https://www.desertusa.com/birds/burrowing-owls-rescue.html

https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/speciesofgreatestconservneed/raptor-management/burrowing-owl-management/

https://az.audubon.org/conservation/downtown-owls

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Nick Athanas

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

https://fws.gov/press-release/2022/-06/service-lists-arizona-eryngo-endangered-critical-habitat

https://www.maricopaaudubon.org/bird-checklist-for-san-pedro-riparian-natural-conservation-area

https://en.wikipedia.og/wiki/mader_canyon_(Arizona)

https://www.nature.org/.../san-pedro-river

https://azaudubon.org/conservation/san-pedro-river

Arizona Republic: 'Cattle Grazing May Spur Lawsuit' by Lindsey Botts, April 17, 2022

Audubon Magazine: 'The Last Stand on the San Pedro' by Noah Gallagher Shannon, Winter 2022

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Ornithology by Frank B. Gill

https://birdfact.com/articles/how-do-birds-sleep

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12468

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526132/

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0703452105

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Stephen Chase

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/verdin/overview

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/verdin

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten - The verdin is a very small songbird at only 3.5 to 4.5 inches and is found strictly in the southwest, ranging through western Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, the extreme southern tip of Nevada, southern California, and northern Mexico. Adults have distinctive coloring with a yellow face, head, and throat, gray body, red shoulder patches, a small, sharply pointed black beak and black legs. Juveniles will be all gray. The verdin ties with the bushtit as the smallest passerine in NA.

            They eat all stages of small insects including spiders. They are considered gleaners, which means they snatch insects off of leaf surfaces. Occasionally, they can be seen hanging upside down from a branch as they search the underside of leaves for a suitable meal. They also eat fruit and are especially partial to berries. They are often mistaken for hummingbirds as they do visit hummingbird feeders. As soon as they hang upside down from the feeder’s perch you know it’s a verdin. Suprisingly, they are not after the liquid nectar, most often they are searching for the sugar water that crystalizes on the ports of the feeder. When you hear this call (Verdin call plays) you know a Verdin is nearby.

Verdin choose dense bushes, shrubs, and thickets to nest and roost. In the desert, one of their favorite trees is the Palo Verde. During the breeding season, a mated pair will make an enclosed nest of sticks, leaves, and grass held together with spider webs. The male focuses on the outside construction while the female lines the nest with soft grass, feathers, and plant down. This enclosed nest will open toward the prevailing winds to help keep it cool in the heat of summer. During winter, verdin will build another nest but roost alone. These roosting nests will also be enclosed but are insulated with thicker materials to help them stay warm during cold winter nights. The winter roosting nests reduce the energy required to stay warm by 50%. Verdin may build more than two nests a year. One pair of verdin in Arizona was observed building 11 nests in one year.

Verdin are non-migratory birds that are fairly common in the Sonoran desert. They have adapted well to urbanization but, recently, their numbers have dropped drastically due to habitat loss. Planting native trees and shrubs in your yard can offer a much-needed oasis for these small songbirds.

Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Stephen Chase.

Show Notes:

Fascinating reading:

Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haunt

https://vivadifferences.com/differnce-between-crows-and-ravens

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com 

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Pat Goltz

https://birdfeederhub.com/facts-about-house-sparrow

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/house-sparrow

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

Speed and Feathers - https://www.thayerbirding.com/how-do-birds-fly/

How Birds Learn: https://www.hhmi.org/news/birds-brains-show-how

Cowbirds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/if-brown=headed-cowbirds-are-reared-by-other-species-how-do-they-know-they-are-cowbirds-when-they-grow-up

Doves: https://libertywildlife.org/pub;ications/blog/

Ruddy Duck: https://www.academy.allaboutbirds.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

www.whitemountainaudubon.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes: 

https://owlcation.com/stem/the-American-Coot-Interesting-Facys-and-Information

www.allaboutbirds.org/american-coot/life-history

www.skyenimals.com/animal_index.cgi?animal-coot

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes: Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Tim Flood.

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

www.islandconservation.org/conservation-dogs-birds-best-friend

https://slate.comtechnology/2021/10/detection-dogs-conservation-endangered-species-science.html

Audubon Magazine Fall 2021: "The New Bird Dogs" by Annie Roth; pigs 26-29

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes: Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Paul Marvin.

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten - The Loggerhead Shrike is a medium sized bird ranging from 5 to 9 inches in length. It’s a strikingly colored bird with a color bock pattern of white, black, and gray. The underbelly from chin to tail is a bright white to pale gray, a black mask covers the face from the heavy, slightly hooked beak to just behind the eye. The top of the head down the back is a darker gray with black wings and white wing patches. A long blacktail helps balance the bird in flight.

            The loggerhead Shrike is found in AZ year round but is a rare bird to see. It is the only shrike found in North America and nowhere else.

            This is an unusual songbird because its diet consists mainly of meat including amphibians, insects, lizards, small mammals, and small birds. Because of its carnivorous tendencies this bird is nicknamed the butcherbird. Its heavy, slightly hooked beak is the main tool for dispatching its prey. They are ambush predators, sitting on a high perch such as a telephone wire and waiting for prey to come their way. Once they have spotted their target they swoop down and strike hard with the beak and sever the neck of their prey. They have be known to take prey larger then themselves including venomous snakes such as the water adder. To eat larger food sources the loggerhead shrike has developed a curious behavior of impaling prey items on barbed wire or cactus spines.  This helps anchor it making dismemberment easier. They may also use the wire or spine as a larder to keep food for a later date.

            If you hear this call (Loggerhead Shrike call plays) look up and you may see this striking predator high above you.

            Before the 1960s the Loggerhead Shrike was plentiful across S Canada, the lower 48 states of the US, and Mexico, but its numbers have declined rapidly since then. Loss of habitat seems to be the number one reason. This shrike needs high perches and wide-open spaces for hunting. When nesting they like red cedar and Hawthorne trees. Pines and thorns of these specific trees help protect and hid nests.

Decreased survival during winter and collisions with cars is another contributing factor in their decline. In Maryland and Virginia they are listed as endangered. Florida is the only region they are still fond in abundance.

            Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Paul Marvin.

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

https://wildatheartraptors.org/rescue

https://cisa.asu.edu/owls

https://www.pinalcentral.com/arizona_news/asu-builds-habitat-to-monitor-burrowing-owls-who-need-relocating/article

https://verderiver.org

https://www.srpnet.com/environment/wildlife-protection.aspx

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Susan Drown.

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-certified-bird-friendly-seal-gets-bird-friendlier

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Bird Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of ornithology recorded by Paul Marvin, Rose Ann Rowlett, Nate Peterson, and Stephen Chase

iBird Ultimate: Ultimate Guide to Birds App

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

www.raptorsarethesolution.org

www.azwildlifesupport.org

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Paul Marvin.

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

References:

The Bird Wayby Jennifer Ackerman

Karan Odom:

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4379.pdf?origin=ppub

https://americanornithology.org/2019-early-professional-award-winners-karan-odom-kyle-horton-david-toews/

https://femalebirdsong.org

Jessica McLachlan:

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/aug/02/birds-learn-another-language-by-eavesdropping-on-n/

https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/honeyeaters-send-lightning-fast-warning-signals

Mary Caswell Stoddard:

https://www.marycstoddard.com

Gabrielle Nevitt:

https://www.nuttallclub.org/meetings/gabrielle-nevitt-following-the-scent-of-avian-olfaction-2/

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

iBird Ultimate: Ultimate Guide to Birds App

Ornithologyby Frank B. Gill

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:Bird song provided by Kiersten Gibizov

www.allaboutbirds.org

Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Show Notes:

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Ornithologyby Frank B. Gill

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-do-birds-survive-the-winter

https://www.audubon.org/how-do-birds-cope-cold-winter

https://www.aznps.com/blog/landscape-plants

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

Costa’s Hummingbird Courtship Video: https://www.audubon.org/news/watch-male-costas-hummingbird-puts-one-wild-mating-display

Courtship Information:

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/mourning-dove

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/cactus_wren/lifehistory

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-do-birds-fall-in-love-a-look-at-courtship-displays/

https://abcbirds.org/cactus-wren/

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/western_burrowing_owl/natural_history.html

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/aberts_towhee/lifehistory

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/greater-roadrunner

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes: Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Pat Goltz

Ornithology by Frank Gill 

“Migration Pattern of Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow Along the Pacific Flyway” by Simeon Lisovski, Zoltan Nemeth, John C. Wingfield, Jesse S. Krause, Keith A. Hobson, Nathaniel E. Seavy, Jennifer Gee, and Marilyn Ramenofsky

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

Transcript

Host voice - Welcome to the Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds that we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Kiersten - This small ground bird is a winter resident of Arizona (a true snowbird) but is found all across the North American continent from the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska down to Central Mexico. It is a medium sized sparrow with an orange beak and brown streaking on the wings and back and gray underparts. The male has a black and white striped pattern on the crown of the head while females and juveniles have rusty brown and gray stripes on the crown of the head.

            They are most often found on the ground scratching for fallen seeds, fruits, buds, and small insects.

            The white-crowned sparrow is one of the most studied birds in North America. The majority of our knowledge of bird song and song development is due to the studies of these birds.  (White-crowned sparrow song plays) The white crowned sparrow song included the melody in this recording, the chipping call is another bird.

Males learn their songs as they grow up. They memorize phrases that they hear from 10 to 50 days old.  Birdsong can vary within the same species. Just as the same human language within a country can develop regional accents, so can bird song.  One well-known dialect of a population of White-crowned sparrow found in California is the Berkley Dialect and has been heard for over 60 years. Males that live near a territory border can learn two dialects and sing both songs. Female white-crowned sparrows also learn and use song.

There are five subspecies of white crowned sparrows in NA, four of them are migratory and may travel g reat distances such as the white crown sparrow that over winters in Arizona. This subspecies winters in the lower southwestern United States and Mexico but travels all the way to the artic tundra for breeding season. The females often overwinter farther south than the males. To make the most of their travel time they employ what is known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. That means one half of their brain rests while the other half remains alert. White crowned sparrows have been known to utilize this sleep pattern for up to two weeks during migration.

Bird song provided by Macauly Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Pat Goltz.

Show Notes:

The Joy of Bird Feeding by Jim Carpenter

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products. 

Show Notes:

https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/carthamus_tinctorius.html

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/safflower.html

To see a great shot of safflower flowers just search ‘safflower’ and chose images and plant will come up.

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com

Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.