GUNNISON SAGE-GROUSE // AMAZING WOODPECKERS OCTOBER 2021
C H EC K OU T OUR NEW LOOK INSIDE!
Uncommon
GOSHAWK Plus! A GAME-CHANGING APP FOR BIRD RESEARCH HELPING BIRDS DURING HEATWAVES PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS
→ Sightings of NORTHERN GOSHAWK, a widespread and revered forest raptor, are prized by birders. Page 16
Have you taken show-stopping portraits of wild birds? Submit them to our 2021 Bird Portrait Contest! You could win great prizes, including: Sony Alpha a6400 Mirrorless Digital Camera Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD Lens for Sony E Gura Gear 45 Kiboko v2.0 22L backpack Gura Gear 45 Et Cetera 2L case Nikon 10×42 Monarch 5 Binoculars (Black) ...and so much more!
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INSIDE
S E P TE M B E R /OCTOB E R 2021 • VOL .3 5 NO. 5
22 FEATURES
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A forest raptor extraordinaire Finding a Northern Goshawk, the powerful woodland raptor, is a special moment for any birder. BY BILL MUELLER
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Sagebrush superstar The Gunnison Sage-Grouse, a marvel of nature often overshadowed by its larger cousin, faces numerous threats in the sagebrush of southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah. BY ALEXANDER CLARK
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A new frontier How a smartphone app is revolutionizing birders’ ability to contribute to scientific research.
UP FRONT
BY SNEED B. COLLARD III
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A spring shorebird spectacle in South Carolina, how Piping Plovers are connected to foxes, Arizona’s low trogon count, how old windmills stymie bird conservation, updates to the North American bird checklist, and more.
Hotspots Near You Maps, tips, and directions to hawk watches in West Virginia and New Mexico. BY JIM PHILLIPS AND JESSICA TAYLOR
Noppadol Paothong
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Contest winners The top three images from our 2021 BirdWatching Photography Awards.
BIRDING BRIEFS
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ON THE WIRE A microphone for our yards, finding hope in the extinction crisis, Laura Erickson’s splendid podcast, Rosemary Mosco’s colorful guide to pigeons, and an introduction to the lead artist on the first book to feature all of the world’s birds.
COVER PHOTO Northern Goshawk by Tim Fitzharris/Minden Pictures
BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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14 FROM THE EXPERTS
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ATTRACTING BIRDS How to help birds during heat waves. BY LAURA ERICKSON
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BIRDER AT LARGE
More to read on BirdWatchingDaily.com
Learning your shorebirds. MEMBERS
BY PETE DUNNE
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ID TIPS Eastern Bluebird. BY KENN KAUFMAN
ID TOOLKIT How lighting conditions can trick birders. BY DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY
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PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS The wonders of shooting from a floating blind. BY JOHN GERLACH
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THOSE AMAZING BIRDS
CONSERVATION
BIRD IDENTIFICATION
For the first time in 13 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has updated its list of Birds of Conservation Concern. It identifies 269 bird species, subspecies, or populations that represent high conservation priorities, including Chimney Swift, Painted Bunting, and Belted Kingfisher.
From our December 2017 issue, Kenn Kaufman writes about the huge population increase and range expansion of white geese in recent decades and how they complicate identifying Snow and Ross’s Geese. And he describes field marks for whiteand blue-morph Snow Geese.
Do woodpeckers sustain brain damage from hammering trees?
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BY ELDON GREIJ
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FINAL FRAME
FACEBOOK: BirdWatchingMagazine INSTAGRAM: @birdwatchingmagazine TWITTER: @BirdWatchDaily FLICKR: BirdWatching group photo pool
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
FotoRequest/Shutterstock (top left); John Gerlach (top right)
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FROM THE EDITOR Editor Matt Mendenhall Founding Editor Eldon D. Greij Contributing Editors Pete Dunne, Laura Erickson, Kenn Kaufman, David Allen Sibley, Brian E. Small Editorial Consultant Lee Mergner ART & PRODUCTION Graphic Designer Jaron Cote
Fresh and new WELCOME TO THE first issue of our new look! For the first time in more than a decade, we have given BirdWatching a top-to-bottom makeover. The content that you have come to know and appreciate remains largely the same, but thanks to our talented designer Jaron Cote, the packaging is fresh and new. The front news section, “Birding Briefs,” remains. Right after it is “On the Wire,” a new section where we highlight all kinds of bird-related media and gear, including books, podcasts, and more. You’ll find Laura Erickson’s “Attracting Birds” column in a new spot, between “On the Wire” and Pete Dunne’s “Birder at Large.” Kenn Kaufman and Brian Small’s “ID Tips” column is in the same place, after the feature stories, but it’s now four pages instead of three and features seven of Brian’s photos instead of five. And David Sibley’s “ID Toolkit” follows “ID Tips” rather than anchoring the magazine on the back page. After Sibley, we have our photography column, then “Hotspots Near You,” and Eldon Greij’s “Those Amazing Birds.” As you may know, we run photo contests on our website, and we’re now doing four per year! The three winners of our latest contest, the 2021 BirdWatching Photography Awards, appear in this issue, beginning on page 52. They’re all incredible images! Lastly, we’ve added a featured photo on the back page titled “Final Frame.” This one depicts a scene from the momentous nesting this year of Piping Plovers on a beach in Ohio — the first of their species in the Buckeye State in more than 80 years. That’s something to celebrate!
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Corporate Headquarters Madavor Media, LLC 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184 BirdWatching (ISSN 2158-3838) is published bimonthly by Madavor Media, LLC, 35 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 101 Braintree, MA 02184. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send changes of address to BirdWatching, P.O. Box 460700, Escondido, CA 92046. Subscribers allow 4-6 weeks for change of address to become effective. Subscriptions ordered are noncancelable and nonrefundable unless otherwise promoted. Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings and photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited materials. All rights in letters sent to BirdWatching Magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and as subject to unrestricted right to edit and to comment editorially. Requests for permission to reprint should be sent to the Permissions and Reprints Department. The title Birder’s World DBA BirdWatching Magazine is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Contents copyright © 2021 by Madavor Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Nothing can be reprinted in whole or in part without permission from the publisher. Printed in the U.S.A.
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BIRDING BRIEFS SCIENCE • CONSERVATION • NEWS • EVENTS • LETTERS
Whimbrels fly at sunset at Deveaux Bank, a small island on the South Carolina coast. In spring, approximately 20,000 Whimbrels stop on the island during their northward migration.
It’s not every day that someone discovers a new-to-science bird migration spectacle. It’s even more unexpected that such an encounter — in this case, tens of thousands of shorebirds gathering during their annual journey north — would be just a stone’s throw from a metropolitan area. But two years ago, that’s exactly what happened in coastal South Carolina. In May 2019, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources biologist Felicia Sanders and a team of researchers confirmed that approximately 20,000 Whimbrels were roosting at night on a small island during their spring migration. The team documented similar numbers again in 2020. This single flock includes nearly half of the declining 4
shorebird’s estimated eastern population: a staggering spectacle hiding in plain sight. The findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Wader Study. Sanders has devoted her career to protecting South Carolina’s coastal birds. She spent decades exploring the coast, and few are more familiar with the way shorebirds and seabirds use the state’s salt marshes, tidal creeks, and barrier islands. But when Sanders pursued a hunch about the large numbers of Whimbrels she saw congregating at Deveaux Bank, a small island just 20 miles south of Charleston, she could barely believe what she’d found. “A lot of people were skeptical, but after tallying results from coordinated
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
surveys by fellow ornithologists and video documentation, we are certain of the magnitude of the flock,” said Sanders. “Finding so many Whimbrel here gives me hope that we can turn the tide for this and other declining shorebird species.” In the last 25 years, Whimbrels declined by two-thirds across the Atlantic Flyway, the eastern portion of their population. The discovery of a roost of this size — the largest known for the species — is of critical importance to successfully protecting this rare shorebird. A team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Conservation Media filmed the Whimbrel roost to document it visually.
Andy Johnson/Cornell Lab of Ornithology
World’s largest Whimbrel roost discovered
Fewer foxes, fewer plovers A new study partly focused on nesting Piping Plovers in New Jersey proves the old quote by John Muir: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” From 2015 through 2017, five researchers ran a study at eight sites on barrier islands in southern New Jersey, from Barnegat Lighthouse State Park to Cape May Point State Park. Red foxes are routinely removed at most of the sites to help increase the nest success of Piping Plovers. The researchers, led by Michelle Stantial of the State University of New York-Syracuse, found that when foxes are removed, the local American mink population increases, which in turn raises predation rates on the plovers. Predator exclusion cages, or exclosures, are placed over plover nests after eggs are laid to prevent foxes from eating eggs. Mink, however, can enter the exclosures for a meal. At sites where foxes were absent, “predation rates of exclosed nests were three-fold higher compared to sites where foxes remained,” the researchers wrote in Avian Conservation and Ecology. “Conservation within complex trophic systems may fail if interactions among species are not well understood when implementing lethal predator removal.”
Acadian Flycatcher depends on emergent insects.
Water quality tied to bird populations A new study shows that a widespread decline in abundance of emergent insects — whose immature stages develop in lakes and streams while the adults live on land — can help to explain the alarming decline in abundance and diversity of aerial insectivorous birds (species that prey on flying insects) across North America. In turn, the decline in emergent insects appears to be driven by human disturbance and pollution of water bodies, especially in streams. The study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, is one of the first to find evidence for a causal link between the decline of insectivorous birds, the decline of emergent aquatic insects, and poor water quality. Human activities, such as urbanization and agriculture, have adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems. In the U.S., 46 percent of streams are in poor condition, while 57 percent of lakes suffer from strong human disturbance. The immature stages of aquatic insects, especially stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies, are known to be highly sensitive to pollution, which is why they have often been used as biomonitors for water quality. Author S. Mažeika P. Sullivan, an associate professor at Ohio State University, and colleagues analyzed data from multiple open-access surveys monitoring water quality, aquatic invertebrates, and 21 species of aerial insectivorous birds from the contiguous United States. The authors show that water quality is a good predictor for local relative abundance of emergent insects. And they show for the first time that water quality and the associated abundance of emergent insects explain a moderate but significant proportion of the variation in local abundance of aerial insectivorous birds in the U.S.
Agami Photo Agency/Shutterstock
TROGON NUMBERS PLUMMET In May, about 90 volunteers with Tucson Audubon Society spent around 500 hours surveying five mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona over three weekends. Their goal: to count Elegant Trogons in the only region in the U.S. where the species nests. They tallied only 68 trogons, about two-thirds of the 201 birds found in 2020. In nine years of surveys, it was by far the smallest trogon count. Jennie MacFarland, Tucson Audubon’s bird
conservation biologist who coordinates the trogon surveys, told the Arizona Daily Star the decline is the result of an extreme drought gripping southern Arizona. The 18-month period through May was the driest period of that length on record at the Tucson airport, according to National Weather Service records. “Trogons need a lot of insects to raise their young. It’s so dry out there, I don’t think it looks good for them, including to nest,” MacFarland said.
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BIRDING BRIEFS EYE ON CONSERVATION
A water-pumping windmill stands on a western ranch.
Making prairies safer for birds By American Bird Conservancy Stoic and creaky, the lonely windmill is a prairie icon. These days, though, ranch windmills provide more nostalgia than punch. More efficient and reliable solar-powered pumps are now the go-to way to move groundwater to livestock troughs — and they help ranchers conserve grasses both for declining wildlife and livestock. A pilot program is helping the windmill-to-solar conversion move along in eastern Montana. There, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service partnered with ABC, private landowners, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop a plan that removes windmills and replaces them with new solar-powered pumps. How do old windmills stymie prairie bird conservation? During calm, hot summer days, wind speeds are usually not high enough to keep traditional windmills turning and pumping. Forced to seek reliable water sources, ranchers may move their animals to riparian or other areas they wouldn’t otherwise graze, increasing the likelihood that grasses will be depleted. Windmills also provide perches for avian predators in a landscape normally devoid of such vantage points. This further stresses prairie bird populations, pegged as the most hard-hit bird group in a 2019 Science paper on bird declines since 1970. 6
In summer 2020, a benchmark — 10 removed windmills — was reached. The newly installed solar pumps provide a more reliable summer water supply for livestock, allowing for better management of grasslands that are home to the Chestnut-collared Longspur, Baird’s Sparrow, and other prairie birds on a collective 6,400 acres in southern Prairie County, Montana. In addition to this effort, several landowners removed other towers at their own expense. ABC works with partners to conserve bird habitat on working ranches. Our Northern Plains team collaborates with landowners to support diverse, well-managed rangelands using livestock grazing techniques that improve soil health, enhance water quality and yield, provide forage for livestock, and meet the habitat needs of grassland birds and other wildlife species. The project continues through 2021, and plans are being made to implement similar efforts in the northern part of the county in 2022 and 2023. Future projects could bring similar upgrades to landowners and land managers elsewhere in Montana, as well as in Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. American Bird Conservancy is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conserve native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. Learn more at https://abcbirds.org.
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
In our last issue (page 5), we noted potential changes to the official Check-list of North American Birds being considered by the American Ornithological Society’s classification committee. In late June, it announced its decisions. Mew Gull has been split from Common Gull of Asia and Europe; the North American species is now known as Shortbilled Gull. Cape Verde StormPetrel has been split from Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, and Bahama Nuthatch, which may be extinct, has been recognized as a distinct species from Brown-headed Nuthatch. Crested Caracara of North America and northern South America is being lumped with Southern Caracara, which is found in most of South America. The lumped species will be known as Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus). The committee considered but rejected splits to Magnificent Frigatebird, Swainson’s Thrush, and Rufous-backed Robin. And it said no to a proposal to lump McKay’s Bunting and Snow Bunting. For more details, see birdwatchingdaily.com/ news/science.
Terrance Emerson/Shutterstock
HELLO, SHORTBILLED GULL
Research: Plastic additives contaminate gull eggs Chemical additives used in plastic production have been found in Herring Gull eggs, new research shows. Phthalates are a group of chemicals added to plastics to keep them flexible. The study, by the universities of Exeter and Queensland, looked for evidence of phthalates in newly laid Herring Gull eggs — and found up to six types of phthalate per egg. “Herring Gull mothers pass on vital nutrients to their offspring via their eggs,” said Professor Jon Blount, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter. “This includes lipids that nourish developing embryos and
vitamin E, which helps to protect chicks from oxidative stress that can occur during development and at hatching. “Unfortunately, our findings suggest that mothers are inadvertently passing on phthalates and products of lipid damage — and eggs with higher phthalate contamination also contained greater amounts of lipid damage and less vitamin E.” The impact of this on developing chicks is unknown, and further investigation is needed. Researchers collected 13 Herring Gulls eggs from sites in Cornwall, in the U.K., and all 13 were found to contain phthalates.
MORE ORIOLES IN THE BAHAMAS The Bahama Oriole is a stunning songbird found only on the Andros islands in the Bahamas that is listed as critically endangered on the international Red List. A 2016 population estimate by BirdLife International found it to number just 93180 mature birds. A paper published this spring in the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology found, however, a much higher number: 1,269-2,765 individuals were estimated to be living in more than 700 square kilometers on North Andros. The study, based on point counts conducted in spring 2017, reports that the orioles are “most abundant in pine forest, and not dependent on developed habitats during the breeding season.”
75th Anniversary
G U I D E D W A L K S • T R O L L E Y T R I P S • B O AT T R I P S • I N D O O R P R O G R A M S
WELCOME BACK!
Cape May Fall Festival October 14 - 17, 2021 Keynotes by
Kevin T. Karlson
F RIDAY on his latest book, co-authored with Pete Dunne, Bird Families of North America
David Sibley
Peregrine Falcon at Cape May Point Lighthouse by David A. Sibley circa 1982
SO. MANY. BIRDS.
SATU RDAY
Exhibits and Vendors at the Cape May Convention Hall
R e g is tratio n O pe ns Ju ly
N JA UD UB ON . OR G
BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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ON THE WIRE BOOKS • PODCASTS • APPS • INTERVIEWS • FILMS • GEAR • AND MORE
GEAR
Terra Project Founded by Mike Lanzone, Scott Whittle, and Casey Halverson
BOOK
Dead Serious: Wild Hope Amid the Sixth Extinction By Eli J. Knapp, Torrey House Press, 2021, paperback or e-book, 307 pages, $18.95.
The latest book from Eli J. Knapp, a professor of intercultural studies and biology at Houghton College and a world birder, takes as its jumping-off point a 1983 essay about extinction by conservation biologist Michael Soulé. He listed 18 things we need to know about extinction — rarity, inbreeding, catastrophe, competition, predation, and the like. Knapp considers each of the 18 points, one per chapter, but he avoids the trap of writing about this heavy topic in a doomand-gloom way. Instead, he tells personal stories of mishap and adventure, relates historical vignettes, and considers scenic detours that relate to the critical forces that lie behind the sixth extinction going on today around the globe. Full of humor, hope, and scientific savvy, Knapp’s book describes rare warblers in Kenya and the Chatham Islands, ocean-going tortoises, and other wonders worth saving on planet Earth. 8
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
This spring and early summer, more than 1,350 people backed a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Terra Project, which will create a way to monitor bird migrations and populations at a scale never before possible. The campaign raised more than $280,000, so the developers, birder/naturalists Mike Lanzone, Scott Whittle, and Casey Halverson, can now scale up their operation to produce Terra devices, which are small, weatherproof microphones designed to be placed in a yard (shown above). They contain a radio-receiver, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, and once a device is in place, users access a companion app to connect to it, which will let them stream the audio of birds and other nature sounds into the home; identify bird sounds with automatic sound identification and species info; and pick up radio-tagged birds that pass nearby and see where they have been. Users can also play sounds from curated sites around the world — for example, a rainforest in Panama, a waterfall in Hawai’i. And they can connect to optional yard sensors that will monitor soil moisture, flooding, weather, and more to give a full picture of what’s going on outside. Each Terra device relays the sounds and signals it picks up to a central database, permitting scientists to better understand bird movements and populations. Learn more at terralistens.com.
PODCAST
For the Birds Laura Erickson
Since 1986 (the year before this magazine was launched!), Laura Erickson has been recording brief, informative, thoughtful, and engaging radio programs about birds for KUMD radio in her hometown, Duluth, Minnesota. Her “For the Birds” spots are about five minutes long and air on independent public and community radio stations from Oregon to New York. These days, you don’t have to live in
a place where a local radio station carries the show to hear it. With an iPhone, you can listen to it as a podcast, any time, any where on the Podcasts app. Laura covers all kinds of topics — birds she has seen in her yard, scientific findings, birding experiences far and wide, and more — with the same flair and insight that she brings to her “Attracting Birds” column and other articles she has written for us.
BOOK BOOK
Bird Talk: An Exploration of Avian Communication By Barbara Ballentine and Jeremy Hyman, edited By Mike Webster, Comstock Publishing, 2021, hardcover, 192 pages, $29.95.
The beauty of birdsong is one of the joys of nature, and this book reveals how songs are learned and performed, why the quality of a male’s repertoire can affect his mating success, and how birds use songmatching and countersinging in territorial disputes. The authors, who are ornithologists at Western Carolina University, also illustrate how birds communicate through visual signals, from the dazzling feathers of a peacock to the jumping displays a Jackson’s Widowbird performs to show off his long tail.
FIELD GUIDES
The latest Peterson guides Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
In late August, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish the Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests (paperback, 512 pages, $24.99) and Peterson Field Guide to Weather (paperback, 552 pages, $27.99). The nest guide includes nearly 800 color photographs of nests and eggs of more than 650 species found north of Mexico, and it covers birds’ nest design, breeding behavior, and habitat preferences. The weather guide is a remarkable, nontechnical reference to all things weather: clouds, precipitation, storms, aurora, and halos, as well as hurricanes, blizzards, and other severe weather.
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching By Rosemary Mosco, Workman Publishing, 2021, paperback or e-book, 240 pages, $14.95.
If you have not had the pleasure of reading Rosemary Mosco’s previous books, such as Birding Is My Favorite Video Game or Butterflies are Pretty...Gross!, or if you have not heard a keynote speech of hers at a birding festival, then you’re in for a treat here. Pigeons, of course, are not the most beloved birds on the planet, but Mosco’s approach in this book is full of wit, reverence, and appreciation for the Columbidae family. She looks at the place of pigeons in human history, covers some of the various species around the world, explains why Rock Pigeons come in so many colors and patterns, and more. BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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ON THE WIRE PROFILE
Norman Arlott
Courtesy of Norman Arlott
Forever Home The Complete Birds of the World: Every Species Illustrated is a single-volume book that illustrates every single bird species. The guide, published by Princeton University Press in September (hardcover, $65), is accessibly written, practically designed, and one of a kind. There has never been a single volume text to illustrate every avian species. This book is also, notably, the latest work from Norman Arlott. He is one of the world’s leading bird artists, having illustrated more than 100 books over the course of his career. He has led birding tours in East Africa, and he has designed bird stamps for countries including Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the British Virgin Islands, to name a few. Arlott spoke with BirdWatching about his life’s work. “I originally trained as a mechanical engineer, then in the ’70s I ‘jumped ship’ to take up my real love as a wildlife artist, concentrating mainly on birds, with much encouragement from my wife, Marie, and a great deal of help and inspiration from well-known bird artist Robert Gillmor, bird photographer Eric Hosking, and the great East African ornithologist John Williams. Although I had no intention of working on book illustrations, I got caught up in it and really liked it, and I have enjoyed it ever since. “In the last 15 years, I have concentrated mainly on writing and illustrating a
series of bird guides (more colored checklists, really) covering the Palearctic, India, the West Indies, North America, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. Many of these illustrations and text feature in the forthcoming Birds of the World. “It was following the last of these guides that I was asked to consider putting together a complete colored checklist to the birds of the world using the vast HarperCollins artwork archive. There were a few areas that HarperCollins did not have suitable artwork for, such as Australia, New Guinea, and some small island groups, so I painted all of these in readiness for putting together the Birds of the World plates. “I decided that to even start this project, a standard ‘list’ was needed. It was decided that the IOC world list as of January 2019 was the one I would rigidly follow. Using mainly mine and Ber Van Perlo’s artwork, I promised HarperCollins that I was able to put together the 301 plates and hopefully make a really satisfying (to look at) book, even though some of the plates may contain a great number of species. “Although told by many that I was an ‘idiot’ to take on such a project, I admit at times I had to agree! Overall, I genuinely enjoyed the experience of working electronically to produce plates, and hopefully I fulfilled the promise I made to the publisher to produce an attractive and practical book to the birds of the world.”
Where Cajun Began CAJUNCOUNTRY.ORG
ATTRACTING BIRDS
Helping birds during heat waves and droughts By Laura Erickson
A Yellow-rumped Warbler splashes in a birdbath to clean itself and cool off. Sources of clean water are especially critical to birds during warm spells.
HOT WEATHER AND drought, and the fires they foster, are growing more extreme worldwide. People dealing with these hardships may be unable to consider the toll weather extremes are taking on wildlife, but those of us who can help birds may take some satisfaction in easing their suffering during hard times. Within normal temperature ranges for a given area, birds cope with cold better than heat, but only if they have enough food and water. Many insectivorous birds died during this past winter’s exceptional cold snap in the southern and central states; they could not find enough cold-blooded prey to survive. Desert-dwelling birds are adapted to limited water availability in ways that birds in wetter climates are not, as are seed eaters compared to frugivores. Severe droughts, especially when combined with record-breaking hot temperatures, can take a terrible toll. Simple birdbaths and recirculating water fountains can be lifesavers. Storing rainwater is an excellent practice where water is scarce. Multiple small birdbaths such as cereal bowls, pet dishes, or other shallow containers can serve many more birds, using less water, than one large birdbath. Many 12
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Laura Erickson, the 2014 recipient of the American Birding Association’s highest honor, the Roger Tory Peterson Award, has written 12 books about birds and hosts the long-running radio program and podcast “For the Birds.”
Greg A Wilson/Shutterstock
The heat is on
songbirds, including warblers, prefer drinking and bathing close to the ground rather than at birdbath pedestal height. Keeping water sources in the shade lowers the speed at which they’ll evaporate. Because birds bathe as well as drink in birdbaths, and because some species, such as Common Grackles, drop their nestlings’ fecal sacs in them, it’s important to keep the water clean. Even when the water appears clear, change the water in birdbaths every two or three days to prevent mosquito eggs from hatching. Mosquitoes that breed in standing water include the ones most likely to transmit West Nile virus and other diseases. Important as drinking water is, during droughts, the water content of food can be even more critical, especially for birds that feed on fruits and insects. Many birds learn to eat dried mealworms, but this can be bad when water is hard to come by. Well-hydrated live mealworms are a much better choice. To keep their water content high, add fresh chunks or peelings of potato, apple, or carrot to your mealworm container every day or two. Your fruit trees and shrubs can be an important source of water as well as nutrition. Locally native plants require far less fertilizer and watering than plants adapted to other locations because they are adapted to normal local weather extremes. Of course, global warming is changing what is normal. When you plant new trees and shrubs, research which locally native ones are most likely to survive hot, dry conditions. Sadly, even as Earth’s temperatures slowly rise, weather extremes associated with climate change include unusual cold snaps and flooding, too. To ensure that birds get adequate nutrition and water no matter what happens, grow a variety of fruit trees and shrubs rather than just one or two. Diversity is the key to stability, even in a terribly uncertain time.
Hours of focused observation. With specially designed ergonomics.
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BIRDER AT LARGE
Learning your shorebirds Now is the time to work out the intricacies of ID’ing sandpipers and their kin By Pete Dunne
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TWO DISPARATE OCCURRENCES spawned this column. The first was the completion of my part of the manuscript for my next book with Kevin Karlson — The Shorebirds of North America. Yes, there is a book by this title authored by the late Peter Matthiessen and published in 1967. We, Kevin and I, simply tired of waiting for an update on this extraordinary bird group and superlative treatment, so we decided to do it ourselves, a decision bolstered by Kevin’s thousands of stellar shorebird images. Buried in his hard drive, the images Kevin took while working as a shorebird biologist in the Arctic simply demand a showing. The book, published by Princeton University Press, will be available in 2022, and you can savor Kevin’s handiwork then. The other happenstance that spawned this column was an email from a friend, Peggy Wang from Ohio, showing a Whiterumped Sandpiper. Peggy posted the image online and was asked by a viewer to help her (the viewer) learn to identify shorebirds. Peggy punted to me, allowing that she was still working out the intricacies of shorebird identification herself. Peggy is certainly not alone. In fact, I’ll wager that most birders feel as uncomfortable with this exciting bird group as was I when I moved to Cape May in 1967. After a spring scrutinizing shorebirds in breeding plumage, I had the rudimentary skills down, could tell a yellowlegs from a dowitcher, but the small sandpipers or “peeps,” remained largely a mystery.
FotoRequest/Shutterstock
A White-rumped Sandpiper stands in a pond in Ontario. The species has a pale eyebrow and fine streaks on its sides, and it’s a bit larger than other small sandpipers in North America.
Happily, that first July and August in Cape May were marked by a period of drought that lowered water levels in Bunker Pond to shorebird-attracting levels. Hundreds of southbound shorebirds, including assorted peeps, jammed into the freshwater pools. Vowing to “learn ’em or die,” I spent the next three weeks investing my lunch hours on the banks of Bunker Pond. In July, the ranks of southbound shorebirds are filled with post-breeding adults, still showing, in most cases, vestiges of their breeding plumage. After a week of study, I even reached a point where I could identify individual birds. The peeps crowded the shallows and Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers dominated. Then one day, a new shorebird in the yellowlegs/dowitcher class arrived. It fed differently, with stitching jabs of its bill, and had a slightly downcurved bill. The bills of Lesser Yellowlegs are straight, Greaters slightly upturned. This bird, still showing traces of barring on the flanks, had all the earmarks of a Stilt Sandpiper, a life bird. Shortly thereafter, another birder arrived, one of the local elder statesmen of birding. In response to his trademark greeting, “seeing anything good out there?,” I directed his attention to the Stilt Sandpiper. “No,” he said, “that’s a Lesser Yellowlegs.” Not willing to concede, I pointed out the several discordant qualities that argued against a Lesserlegs. Then another experienced birder arrived who sided with the revered elder. Not willing to give in but not interested in forcing an argument, I left, only to return the next day. The senior birder was already in position, and as I was setting up, he confided: “Your Stilt Sandpiper is still here.” I was elated. Not because I was right and he wrong but because I had worked out an identification tough enough to stump a local leader in the birding community. Fiftyfour years later, I am still warmed by the weight of his disclosure. There were other challenges that summer, like the Pectoral Sandpiper that I convinced myself was a Baird’s until the bird’s yellow legs disclosed my folly. White-rumped Sandpiper? Not until September, and bless the bird gods for outfitting these big, chesty peeps with
such a distinctive namesake trait. But there are other traits that help distinguish Whiterumps: a long-winged profile, streaks extending below the wing, and a tendency to stand in deeper water than other peeps. Over the years, I grew so proficient in picking White-rumps out of flocks of Semipalmateds that on the World Series of Birding, our team could eyeball birds at Brigantine Refuge from the dike as we drove by. No need to see projecting wingtips or super-streaked underparts. The birds are simply bigger — a full inch longer than Semipalmateds. But at this stage in my birding career, I am recognizing birds more than identifying them. Kudos to me? No, just stating the facts, and while we’re on the subject of honesty, I confess, I still have trouble distinguishing nonbreeding Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers. But what’s life without challenges? Kevin has tried helping me out here, but I remain a duffer in this category. So, my advice to shorebird-identifying novices is: Set time aside for a several-week shorebird immersion. Vow, like I did, to “learn ’em!” If this means traveling to some shorebird-rich corner of the
planet like Cheyenne Bottoms in May or Jamaica Bay in July, do it. Someday soon, and sooner than you think, other birders will be coming up to you asking for help with some puzzling peep. One advantage you’ll have that I did not is The Shorebird Guide by Michael O’Brien, Richard Crossley, and Kevin Karlson. Published in 2006, it remains the gold standard, although The Sibley Guide to Birds is a utilitarian and comparative masterpiece filled with succinct, useful tips and thoughtfully arranged depictions. Me? I think I was using the Golden Guide back in 1967. Even the venerable National Geographic guide wasn’t published back then. So, get out there and learn ’em. And don’t dawdle: Shorebird numbers are diminishing. The golden age of shorebird study seems fast drawing to a close. Don’t miss it. The last shorebird shortage lasted half a century. Pete Dunne is the author or co-author of many books about birds, including Hawks in Flight, Gulls Simplified, and Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season.
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Finding a Northern Goshawk, the powerful woodland raptor, is a special moment for any birder
Colorlife/Shutterstock
BY BILL MUELLER
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Valley Journal/Shutterstock
A Northern Goshawk perches in a northern forest. The species, the world’s largest member of the Accipiter genus, preys on grouse, crows, squirrels, hares, reptiles, and other animals.
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Finding a goshawk How to find a goshawk? That depends to a great degree on geography and season. If you visit primary hawk-watching sites across the U.S. and southern Canada, you have a fair chance of seeing one. Sites like Hawk Ridge in Minnesota and the Goshute Mountains in Nevada are more 18
Distinctive white eyebrows, reddish eyes, and a blue-gray back are key field marks for the adult Northern Goshawk. Juveniles have streaked underparts and are brown above with alternating dark and pale brown bands in the tail.
likely to record goshawks during autumn migrations. Later in autumn is usually better; graphing observations across the fall months shows later October and November have a higher proportion of records. Numbers of individuals seen at hawk watches vary from year to year, and the existence of a 10-year cycle appears in autumn migration data. Goshawk numbers have been seen to fluctuate along with prey population cycles. Ruffed Grouse and snowshoe hare, two species goshawks prey on, exhibit cyclic highs and lows. Researchers Frank Doyle and James Smith showed a strong relationship “in step with a cyclic decline in snowshoe hare numbers” in their study area in southwestern Yukon, although other prey species may have also declined. This fact can confound attempts to relate prey cycles to goshawk cycles.
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I remember one adult that alighted at eye level only 10 meters away in woodland near Lake Michigan; I had a camera with me but didn’t even think to lift it to my eye. The bird gazed at me for a long moment and then was gone.
Valley Journal/Shutterstock
uch sought-after by birders, often trained and used by falconers, and eagerly watched for at raptor watch locations across North America, the Northern Goshawk is an incredibly effective avian predator. Alongside the science we use to describe the species and analyze data, you know when you see a goshawk that there is something special, something different, about this bird. Any falconer, raptor bander, or raptor rehabilitator who has experience with the species will agree. Goshawks are highly focused hunters; they are described as “fearless.” Numerous anecdotal reports refer to goshawks attempting to take prey species larger than themselves. Scientists do not generally like to use anthropomorphic or pejorative terms such as “fierce” when speaking of wild animals, but even those words seem inadequate to describe the demeanor of a goshawk. The bird is the largest of the 51 species from around the world in the genus Accipiter. The largest females measure up to 25 inches long, with a 50-inch wingspan, and they can weigh nearly 5 pounds. By contrast, a Common Raven has a similar length and wingspan but weighs about half as much. North of Mexico, the two other accipiters are smaller — Cooper’s Hawk is about 17 inches long while Sharpshinned Hawk is just 13 inches long. Northern Goshawk’s range includes most of Europe, a large swath of Asia, and the northwestern corner of Africa. In North America, the species is found year-round from north-central Alaska, throughout most of Canada, the western lower 48 states, western Mexico, and the Great Lakes and northeastern states. And its wintering range extends from the Great Plains to the coast of Virginia.
Identification If separating the three North American accipiters is confusing for you, don’t worry — you’re not alone. Much has been written about identifying the species; for our purposes here, let’s simply say that the goshawk is the largest of the three, is the most robustly built with the most “stocky” body, and females are approximately the size of a female Red-tailed Hawk. (Raptors are generally sexually dimorphic in size, meaning females are larger than males.) As with the other accipiters, the repeated flight behavior pattern of “flap-flapglide” is useful to remember, but goshawks also soar, especially during migration. See any modern raptor ID guide for photos or drawings of birds in multiple flight poses; the different flight shapes seen while individuals are soaring, gliding, or in direct flight make them difficult to identify. I always refer to my copy of Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton’s Hawks in Flight and have gone back to it countless times since it was published in 1988. (The second edition came out in 2012.) The book eloquently explains how to separate the accipiters in flight. Other identification clues that separate goshawks from buteos such as Red-tailed or Red-shouldered Hawks and large female Cooper’s Hawks are its wide, whitish eyebrow, large and heavily built feet and legs, and the adults’ slate-gray crown, back, and upper surface of the wings (the “mantle”). Young birds are overall brown on the upper side, with heavily streaked breasts. The streaks have a distinctive strong tear-drop shape, and the streaks extend further into the undertail coverts than on the other two accipiters. When a goshawk is seen at a relatively close distance (facing you), you may notice that the tail bands are bordered with off-white, and if the tail is spread open, the bands show a zigzag appearance. For more identification tips, see chapter 8, “The Accipiters,” in the most recent edition of Kenn Kaufman’s Advanced Birding.
Subspecies in North America Worldwide, Northern Goshawk has 10 subspecies, three of which are found in the U.S. and Canada. They are: • Accipiter gentilis atricapillus. The “American Goshawk” occupies North America from Alaska, eastward through central Canada to northern Quebec, Labrador, and Newfoundland, and then southward to the southwestern U.S. (northern Arizona and northern New Mexico) and, in the eastern U.S., south to Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Maryland. • A. g. laingi is found in the Haida Gwaii archipelago and Vancouver Island in western Canada. • A. g. apache occupies southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and western Mexico, including Jalisco and Guerrero.
Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival
Radisson Resort at the Port Cape Canaveral, Florida
Photo by: Jim Boland
Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks. But remembering that this is a true “forest raptor” may help you choose where to look in other seasons.
25th Annual
Since prey availability varies across winters, populations may be partially migratory in response to that variability. Like other accipiters, migrating goshawks likely follow low-pressure fronts and the “leading lines” of landscape features like mountain ranges and ridges or Great Lakes shorelines. Goshawks also pass over areas that are not forested during their migratory movements. Your chance of seeing one in the open is enhanced at locations where birds pass prominent hawk watch lookouts. Most of my own encounters with goshawks have been during autumn migration, along the west shoreline of Lake Michigan. My next-most-frequent observations have occurred in winter. In the northern states that have breeding populations, it is very possible to find one in winter, as Christmas Bird Count records prove. South of the breeding areas, the likelihood becomes less, but the possibility always remains, especially across the northern tier of U.S. states and in the Rocky Mountain states. I saw my first goshawk 49 years ago in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. In the “goshawk flight years” (1982 was an example), observers saw more goshawks at autumn hawk watch sites, and I sometimes saw several on one day. I remember one adult that alighted at eye level only 10 meters away in woodland near Lake Michigan; I had a camera with me but didn’t even think to lift it to my eye. The bird gazed at me for a long moment and then was gone. During spring and summer, finding a goshawk is more challenging than in the other seasons. Stopping periodically in likely nesting habitat, you may hear one of a pair vocalizing. The scientists who study goshawks in the breeding season find them via call surveys; since they are “nowhere common,” I don’t recommend birders use calls to tempt them out in the open. But closely approaching a nesting pair is illadvised unless you are trained and part of an active research project. The goshawk is one of only a few raptors worldwide that will attack someone who has approached a nest site too closely. It is a rare occurrence, but the warning should not be taken lightly. As I noted earlier, goshawks move across open areas during migration, as do
February 2-6, 2022 www.SCBWF.org
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REPORTING A GOSHAWK SIGHTING
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A goshawk keeps watch over its young in a nest in Japan. The species occurs across a wide swath of Eurasia as well as North America. Nests, which can be 3-4 feet in diameter, are built of small sticks with tree bark and greenery lining the bowl.
Breeding habitat In eastern North America, breeding habitat is mixed deciduous-coniferous forest. Birds often choose large beech, birch, oak, aspen, and maple for nest trees. In the western states, birds primarily choose conifers as nest substrate. In the east, forest cover around a nest is often in relatively large blocks, but this is not consistently true, as there are occasional examples of birds nesting on the edges of suburbs in the northern states. Goshawks build a large stick nest, often in the largest tree of the forest stand in which the nest is placed. They are quite secretive in the area around the nest but will display in flight above the forest canopy. This can be an opportunity to see one in spring. Goshawk studies have found three components of a nesting area: the actual nest, a “post-fledging family area,” and a foraging area. In studies in the western U.S., total home range could be as large as 6,000 acres. Where forest habitat is continuous, the distance between nesting pairs is quite regular and consistent. However, determining nesting success has been difficult in many national forests, one study found. Because the species is sparsely
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distributed and secretive, it can be challenging to find, much less assess, nests. An overview on this species published not long ago suggested that nest site availability and forest structure both impact goshawks’ reproduction and survival. Researchers Vincenzo Penteriani and Bruno Faivre determined that nesting goshawks can tolerate logging in their nearby forest area unless more than 30 percent of a forest stand is harvested. If that approximate threshold is passed, a nesting pair will probably leave. Role as forest predator The goshawk can take larger prey than most other raptors its size, by means of its large, strong legs and feet, its rapid flight within dense forest, and also because of its demeanor; it is known for its tenacity and focus during hunting. These characteristics have made it desirable for many generations of falconers, going back to medieval times. In northern forested regions around the Northern Hemisphere, it is a significant predator of forest grouse, hares, rabbits, and squirrels and other medium-sized mammalian and avian prey. Goshawks will take nestling owls of several species;
Colorlife/Shutterstock (icon); feathercollector/Shutterstock (Northern Goshawk)
As is the case with Longeared Owl, Gyrfalcon, and some other raptors, goshawks’ relatively sparse appearance at any time other than during autumn migration makes reporting your sighting to local or state birding networks slightly problematic. I’ll go out on a limb here: While I (and perhaps many others whose primary interest in this species is birding) don’t object to trained people practicing legal falconry, I question whether birders should be “helping” falconers find nesting goshawks. I suggest withholding your report, via eBird or some other network, until a given nesting season has passed. We are already doing this for other “sensitive” species; please consider how your report could result in a negative consequence. Since the goshawk is nowhere common, it is always exciting to find one. Let’s protect their habitat and help eliminate human-caused threats (pesticides, vehicle and glass collisions) to goshawks and all wild birds — and still be able to see them far into the future.
their remains are sometimes found in nest contents or below nest trees. Goshawks hunt “on foot” in some situations: they will chase a bird or mammal into a dense thicket and pursue their prey on the ground. This is yet another example of their intense focus when in pursuit; it is one of the behavioral traits that make them desirable as falconry birds. A species of concern The goshawk’s conservation status is complex. It is not listed as a threatened or endangered species in the United States, but every regional office of the USDA Forest Service has described it as a “sensitive species.” In Canada, the atricapillus subspecies is considered not at risk while the laingi subspecies of western islands is threatened. The Nature Conservancy national office considers goshawk numbers
to be stable, but some TNC state offices describe the species to be rare in their state. The Raptor Population Index, a project assessing numerous raptor species in North America, reports that from 2009 to 2019, nearly half of 26 hawk watch sites reported declining numbers of goshawks. “Goshawk declines appear most evident in the eastern Great Lakes and Appalachians in the recent decade,” the report states. The sites with traditionally the highest goshawk counts are Hawk Ridge in Minnesota; Tadoussac, Quebec; the Goshute Mountains in Nevada; and Whitefish Point, Michigan. They had stable counts over the decade, suggesting that “some declines may have stabilized,” according to the report. From this set of information sources, plus state Breeding Bird Atlas projects, we can state that the goshawk is “nowhere common” and declining in some
geographic areas. With a vast Northern Hemisphere range, the various populations in widely separated regions clearly have different numbers and trends. Goshawks face numerous challenges, including climate change, habitat loss, and contaminants in the environment. But, as Dunne wrote in his 2016 book Birds of Prey, “The remoteness and unpeopled nature of its boreal forest stronghold is, for now, the bird’s true saving grace.” May that always remain true. Bill Mueller is the retired director of the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory and a longtime bird researcher and advocate in Wisconsin. He is also a member of the steering committees of the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership. In our November/December 2017 issue, he wrote about the Long-eared Owl.
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A male Gunnison Sage-Grouse performs a display on a breeding lek in Colorado. The bird raises black feathers on its neck above its head and puffs up yellow air sacs on its chest that produce a loud, brief bubbling sound intended to attract females.
The Gunnison Sage-Grouse, a marvel of nature often overshadowed by its larger cousin, faces numerous threats in the sagebrush of southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah BY ALEXANDER CLARK PHOTOS BY NOPPADOL PAOTHONG
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nearly 8,000 feet in elevation, the air in Gunnison, Colorado, was quite thin in comparison to my Midwestern stomping grounds. Even in May, snow was on every mountain that surrounded the town, and each morning, frost carpeted the area as the sun rose over a landscape with temperatures in the teens. Rocky cliffs near the outskirts of Gunnison gave way to rushing streams that sheltered beavers and a plethora of other riparian animals. In the blink of an eye, the sky could go from blue to gray and the weather from sun to snow. Originally dominated by sagebrush, the Gunnison Basin is now predominantly covered in lush grass meadows that are used mostly for agriculture and grazing. However, even though the place has the clear touch of man and his ever-present need to alter, wild places still exist, with some very wild animals. Elk, mule deer, and coyotes stroll the meadows, and one animal, in fact, is unique to the basin: the threatened Gunnison Sage-Grouse. It was around 4 in the morning when my guide and I arrived at our blind in the pitch-dark. Frost covered the blind as well as my camera lens. A little over an hour later, we started to hear the male grouse enter the lek. The sound of their incoming route resembled a fighter plane flying overhead, followed by a series of deep flaps as they finally landed on the ground. Occasionally, 24
we heard them giving each other low chatter calls in the darkness, telling each other to keep their distance. And slowly, before the sun had even begun to peek out over the mountains, we heard them take in deep breathes, and then, the sounds began. To the untrained eye, Gunnison SageGrouse can be mistaken for its slightly larger, more widespread, and more popular cousin, Greater Sage-Grouse. They both prefer to spend most of their lives under the concealment of sagebrush, but the similarities tend to end there. Gunnison, other than being genetically dissimilar enough to be recognized as a distinct species, also has physical differences. It’s about a third smaller than Greater, the tail feathers show prominent white bands, and it has more filoplumes on the nape, giving the back of the neck a fuller and blacker appearance. Lekking behavior also differs between the two species, despite their similar dances. Leks are places where multiple males
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Two males fight on a lek during breeding season (left). Males will engage in “wing fights” to establish their hierarchical dominance on the lek. Below, a male stands amid falling snow.
of a given species gather to court females that come to inspect and then, upon selection, mate with. Greater Sage-Grouse typically have a defined center of the lek, a “king of the castle” position, if you will. Gunnison Sage-Grouse move throughout their morning dance, and the movement varies. Sometimes the group of males will follow females, sometimes they will follow other males that have decided to take the lead and move the lek, and sometimes when two males chase each other off, the entire lek moves with them. Each morning, the lek, while in the same general area, cannot be pinpointed to a direct center or spot. Their stages flow rather than remaining fixed. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that scientists Jessica Young and Clait Braun proposed the Gunnison was, in fact, distinct from Greater — and not just a subspecies. Young, Braun, and three co-authors published a detailed description of the bird in The Wilson Bulletin in 2000, the same year it was elevated to species status. It is currently one of the most threatened bird species in North America. Historically, the bird could be found in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Now it is found only in eight populations scattered around southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah. More than 85 percent of the individuals are found in the Gunnison Basin, and unfortunately, in the last two years, one or two of the smaller populations in Colorado may have been extirpated. The total population, according to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife lek count this spring, is about 3,500 birds. Dancing in the Dawn At the various lek sites that we visited, we often looked for signs of activity, namely fecal droppings and fatalities. Fatalities mainly included piles of feathers and lots of them. Aerial predators such as hawks or eagles will descend quickly upon the grouse, subdue them, and then pluck the feathers, BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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A female Gunnison SageGrouse stands at a lek site to search for a mate. Females have drab gray plumage speckled with black and white — colors that enable them to blend into their sagebrush habitat.
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Tom Reichner/Shutterstock
A male Greater Sage-Grouse displays on a lek. The species is larger than Gunnison and is found in 11 western states and two Canadian provinces. The filoplumes on the back of its neck are thinner than Gunnison’s, and its tail has a more uniformly dark pattern, whereas Gunnison’s tail is barred. The two species are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation throughout their ranges.
leaving evidence of their initial presence on the lek. This also gave us the opportunity to see the bird’s plumage up close. Females of the species are drab grayish, with the occasional white and black speckling. Females need to be drab. Like most avian species, they are the ones that don’t want to draw attention to themselves while sitting motionless on nests, so drab colors that blend into the surroundings are evolutionarily advantageous. The male grouse have gone a completely different route. They are, in every sense of the word, extravagant. I was able to hold the fantastic tail feathers of a male, known as rectrices. They gave me a greater appreciation for the birds’ intricate color pattern. Even more fascinating were the feathers on the nape, called filoplumes. They seem to be an average feather but eventually give way to the texture of horsehair. This is what gives the bird the mullet of hair-like appearance that it flings around with impressive force during its mating dance.
The entire bird, when viewed in its entirety, is a spectacle of nature. Over its eyes are yellow combs that extend from the nares to the back of the orbital. These combs match the yellow air sacs that inflate during the dance. The combs and sacs contrast with the deep browns and blacks that cover most of the body. The pouch where the sacs rest are pure white, only darkening when the pouch is stretched, and the individual feathers create small overlapping shadows. The tail feathers are erected during their display and stick straight out from the body. Viewed head on, it appears that the birds are exploding with alternating colors of intricate blacks, browns, and whites. This bird truly is the North American equivalent of the birds-of-paradise species in Papua New Guinea. Gunnison dances can last for hours, but the time that they decide to stay is highly variable. Coyotes, hawks, and eagles can flush them. As we unfortunately found out, even cattle can
terminate the morning lek early. However, other than the animals that can possibly spook them off the lek, the primary subject that keeps them on the lek is the hens. That is, after all, why they are there in the first place. The Wonders of Respiration The males’ visual appeal is not the only unique and extravagant aspect of the species; so are the sounds that they produce during their dance. To first understand how sage-grouse produce their sound, it’s important to understand bird vocalizations and respiration. Mammals have a larynx, also known as the voice box. By squeezing and stretching the muscles in our larynx, accompanied by the shape of our tongue and mouth, we produce various sounds, pitches, and tones. Birds lack a larynx but instead have something far more efficient, known as a syrinx. In a similar way, they pass air through their syrinx, but their BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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muscle control is far greater than ours, which is only part of the reason why a tiny Pacific Wren can sing more than 30 notes in a second. But the bellowing pops produced by a sage-grouse’s air sacs are powered by the respiratory system of the bird, not the syrinx. Birds have lungs, but they also have multiple air sacs; some species have seven and some up to nine. The lungs themselves are responsible for the oxygenation of the bird’s bloodstream, but the air sacs aid in pushing fresh oxygen-filled air throughout the bird’s body. Birds, unlike us, lack a diaphragm, the organ that aids us in expelling air in and out of our bodies. In birds, pressure alterations in the various air sacs around the body push air and keep it moving. This is where things get a little tricky. When we inhale, our lungs expand, and we take in
oxygen, and then when we exhale, our lungs contract and release carbon dioxide. This is considered a full breath. When a bird first inhales, air enters air sacs near the vertebrae, then the bird exhales, moving the air into the lungs, and then inhales again, moving the air into even more air sacs near the head, and then upon the second exhale, the bird moves air out of the remaining air sacs, exiting through the nostrils. The bird has now taken what we considered one full breath. This is where the two large air sacs on the grouse’s chest come in. Before strutting, the birds can be heard and seen taking deep breaths, compacting air into their body and moving it along until it reaches a critical point of use. In several jerking motions, the grouse force the air into the sacs, which then inflate and rapidly deflate, producing what I can only compare
The rear view of a Gunnison Sage-Grouse shows the extensive white barring in the pointed tail feathers, or rectrices. The entire bird, indeed, is a spectacle of nature.
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to the sound of bubbling tar. That’s a lot of metabolic work to produce a very brief sound, but nonetheless, they will do this for hours. With the combination of extravagant plumage and stamina that puts the best athletes to shame, these birds are truly a marvel of nature. Behind the Bird Nesting typically begins in April and can continue into the summer months. Temperature fluctuations, heavy snow, and drought can all alter the normal breeding behavior. I visited in 2019, which was an odd year. In mid-April, the usual peak of breeding time, hens barely showed up to leks because the ground was covered in over 2 feet of snow. Even in mid-May, snow still fell on some mornings. The harsh weather led to a delay in breeding activity. With no hens, the males lost interest in
dancing fairly quickly, leaving just minutes after sunrise in some instances. As the name implies, the species relies heavily on sagebrush, specifically the mountain big and Wyoming big sagebrush species. The grouse require large expanses of the plants to survive and successfully raise young. The sagebrush habitat provides shelter, nesting locations, and food. The young will forage for insects and succulent flower petals during the first few months of their lives. The birds begin to eat the sagebrush leaves as a regular part of their diet when they reach several months of age. They must develop a resistance to the toxicity of the plant before they can incorporate it regularly into their diet. Sagebrush contains terpenoid compounds and is toxic when ingested by most animals, but sage-grouse expel these compounds in black-tar-like caecal pellets. Contagious Excitement Nathan Seward, a biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife who has been researching the Gunnison Sage-Grouse and their population for years, was my guide onto the leks. He knew each lek, the surrounding flora, and approximately how many males would show up on a given morning. Even though he has been monitoring the species for years, he still retains an outward excitement when in the blind, being surrounded by the birds. For him, it simply never gets old, and that’s truly a contagious feeling. Conservation work for the sage-grouse has been taking place since it was declared a species. Colorado Parks and Wildlife conducts lek surveys each breeding season to gain a clearer image of the population fluctuations from year to year. Seward and his team also research the bird’s resource selection. A long-term demographic study looks at what areas of a specific habitat are utilized during a given season. The grouse, like other wildlife, are highly reliant on native habitat, and this is the primary concern for the species in the future. Within the Gunnison’s range, the largest issues that face the species are habitat loss and fragmentation due to residential development and oil and gas construction. The invasion of noxious weeds like cheatgrass also threatens the sagebrush landscape. “Cheatgrass is now becoming prolific, occupying
vast areas of previously native terrain,” says Seward. “The plant is able to outcompete the native perennial species.” Worse, and unlike sagebrush, cheatgrass is not fire resistant and ignites easily. It perpetuates itself by forming large homogenous patches that can increase the frequency of fires in the ecosystem and, ultimately, the continued removal of native perennials. To help conservation efforts, biologists like Seward are working to understand the needs of the species. The more biologists understand the most important factors for the bird, the more they can allocate necessary resources. The public can also help the species by signing up to aid in removing cheatgrass in areas before it becomes well established. Also, the Sisk-a-dee organization runs the sole area where the public can view Gunnison Sage-Grouse. If you go to view them, you must adhere to strict regulations. (Find more information at siskadee.org.) Donations to Sisk-a-dee and Colorado Parks and Wildlife on behalf of the grouse are accepted. If you choose to donate to CPW, make sure to allocate the funds to threatened and endangered species. One of the most important things that the public can do to help Gunnison
Sage-Grouse is to respect restrictions given by CPW during certain times of year. Gunnison, and most of Colorado, for that matter, is very popular for recreational activities, especially mountain biking. During the early spring to summer months, the agency gates certain roads to allow breeding grouse the uninterrupted time they need to thrive. Not just cars but hikers, birders, antler collectors, and mountain bikers all have the capability to alter the bird’s behavior. So please, mind the gates. Indeed, the Gunnison Sage-Grouse serves as a “canary in the coal mine” for the overall health of the sagebrush ecosystem, Seward adds. “It’s just a beautiful species that is highly worthy of our conservation efforts.” Alexander Clark is a graduate student studying avian behavior and ecology. He has conducted field research focusing on bird behavior and breeding success in Ohio, Kentucky, Oregon, California, Washington, and Hawaii over the past five years. Along with researching birds, he also works as a wildlife photographer focusing predominantly on avian species and their habitats (www.alexanderclarkphoto.com). He has written for BirdWatching about Hawaii’s three ‘elepaio species, Palila, and Burrowing Owl.
A radio show and podcast about birds and conservation Check out our website for live radio and online listening options: www.talkinbirds.com Or download our free podcast from your favorite podcast app Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @talkinbirds
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A NEW FRONTIER FOR BIRD SCIENCE How a smartphone app is revolutionizing birders’ ability to contribute to scientific research BY SNEED B. COLLARD III
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Jennifer Bosvert/Shutterstock (top left); Mircea Costina/Shutterstock (top right); Paul Reeves Photography/Shutterstock (bottom); SilverCircle/Shutterstock (illustrations)
A relatively new smartphone app called BirdNET uses neural networks, or artificial intelligence, to recongnize the songs and calls of birds, such as Yellow Warbler (right), Dickcissel (below right), and Horned Lark (below left). For scientists and conservationists, the app can produce essential information to protect birds where they occur.
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It’s early May, and I stand at one of my favorite birding corners half a mile from my house. American Robins chirrup like crazy, and the calls of Canada Geese, a Northern Flicker, and a Song Sparrow come at me from different directions. But more birds are out there. I can hear them even though my crappy ears and aging brain can’t parse what they might be. “Ah,” I think. “Let’s try the app.” I pull out my phone, punch a couple of buttons, and record a short snippet of sound. Then I press “Analyze.” After a delay of several seconds, two species’ names appear. The first is Cedar Waxwing. That doesn’t surprise me since I can look up and see six of them perched in a tree. The second name does surprise me: Yellow-rumped Warbler. I haven’t been able to detect that one, but now that I’m alerted to its presence, I listen specifically for it and — shazam — its sweet spring song quickly penetrates my awareness. The discovery puts a bounce in my step, and not just because I’ve heard the warbler. It’s because 32
I feel myself standing at the threshold of dramatically new birding possibilities. Birding Disruptor The app I’ve just tested is called BirdNET, and its purpose is simple: to use the vocalizations of birds to identify them. Birdsong apps, of course, are not new. In my February 2021 BirdWatching article on song apps, I reviewed several designed to help birders recognize what we’re hearing around us. Two things set BirdNET apart from other birdsong apps, however. One is how it analyzes bird vocalizations. The second is the astonishing degree of accuracy
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that it achieves. In the parlance of modern business, these features establish BirdNET as a disruptive technology for birders and scientists alike. BirdNET is the brainchild of Stefan Kahl, a postdoctoral student of media informatics at Germany’s Chemnitz University and researcher at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “I was doing my master’s degree in computer vision,” he recalls, “and we had this project to identify acoustic events. So I was mostly thinking about using sounds in assisted living situations to see if we could detect people falling down or needing help with anything. Unfortunately, we had problems gathering enough data because, you know, what does it sound like when somebody is actually tripping? Sounds were really hard to authenticate. After all, you don’t want to detect a problem just because someone turns on a TV.” Even though Kahl and his team were trying to identify acoustic events, their actual computer challenge was visual. That’s because to analyze a sound, a program
BirdNET uses three steps to recognize bird sounds: recording (left), analyzing (center), and identifying the bird (right).
must first convert it to a graphical picture called a spectrogram — basically, a chart of its frequency and pattern. Training the computer algorithm then requires feeding it hundreds, if not thousands, of known sounds, but obtaining enough of these known samples can pose a problem. Through a chance meeting on a research cruise, however, one of Kahl’s colleagues, Marc Ritter, met Holger Klinck, who would soon become the director of Cornell’s Yang Center. It was a meeting that would help launch Kahl’s work in an exciting new direction. “I didn’t have a particular interest in birds at the time,” Kahl remembers, “but that quickly changed when Holger introduced me to the field of avian bioacoustics in 2016. Holger invited us over to Ithaca, and I noticed right away that with the high number of recordings that were online for birds, we were able to train better algorithms, and we could actually have an impact on people because such an algorithm was in high demand.” Kahl and his team felt confident enough about their prototype that they
entered it in BirdCLEF 2017, a competition to use computer programs to identify bird recordings. Their program scored high marks. “But I also knew that we could improve our systems even further,” Kahl continues, “and that’s when I decided to dedicate my PhD dissertation to the recognition of bird sounds.”
GETTING STARTED BirdNET is available for free through the Google Play and Apple App stores. To learn more about it and explore some of its data, visit birdnet.cornell.edu. To support BirdNET developers and ongoing research, visit birdnet.cornell.edu/donate.
Artificial Bird-telligence The BirdNET program is what’s called a deep artificial neural network, and it operates differently from standard computer programs. Traditionally, most computer programs for identifying bird vocalizations have “manually” measured note frequency, pattern, duration, and other variables and compared them to known parameters to make a prediction. Kahl explains that while these kinds of programs do work for some species, they quickly run into limitations. “There’s only so much you can do with a limited number of features,” he explains. “Birds are just too diverse.” Instead, Kahl’s program uses neural networks, often referred to as AI or artificial intelligence. This kind of algorithm BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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Leaders of the BirdNET team include Stefan Kahl (above), a postdoctoral student at Germany’s Chemnitz University, and Connor Wood (right), a postdoctoral fellow at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
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“If you listen to most recordings people have made of owls, you hear the owl, and then you hear people say, ‘Oh, there’s the owl! There it is!’”
I think that’s the best way of thinking about how this algorithm works. It just learns these features extracted from hundreds of thousands of recordings.” Teaching BirdNET To teach the program, Kahl and his colleagues feed it recordings with species labels from Cornell’s Macaulay Library, the bird-sounds website Xeno-canto, and other sources. Just how many samples the program needs to learn to identify a raw, unlabeled bird vocalization depends on the complexity of the song. “A chickadee is very simple,” Kahl says, “so I would say the program needs a few hundred examples or a thousand to learn that one. For most species, it needs between 500 and 3,000 samples, but there is an upper limit where the program doesn’t improve even if you throw more samples at it.” Making the program effective, though, requires teaching it more than bird calls. Because the real world is full of many other noises, BirdNET has to learn a whole
Sven Gleisberg (left); courtesy Connor Wood (right)
differs from older approaches because it teaches itself. “In principle, the program is still comparing a spectrogram with known samples because you need a lot of playing samples to learn to identify a complex pattern,” Kahl says. “But these patterns are not just note sequences or element sequences, and the program doesn’t match a frequency range or something. It’s more than that. Really, we don’t exactly know what the program is doing. It’s very complex. “Sometimes people say it’s a black box,” he continues, “and in some sense, that’s true because you really don’t know what these kinds of programs are learning and why they are learning it. There is certainly some part of the bird call that BirdNET focuses on more than others, but it’s like when you as a human recognize a new song from your favorite band that is playing on the radio for the first time. You instantly know the band even though you’ve never heard the particular lyrics, notes, and melody of the new song. You recognize the band because you’re familiar with what it sounds like, and
symphony of sounds of people, animals, traffic, running water, and more. One hilarious problem occurred when trying to teach BirdNET to identify owls. “If you listen to most recordings people have made of owls,” Kahl explains, “you hear the owl, and then you hear people say, ‘Oh, there’s the owl! There it is!’” As a result, BirdNET learned that an owl wasn’t an owl unless human voices accompanied it. A similar thing happened with the sounds of human footsteps for owls and other species. This forced Kahl’s team to teach BirdNET to distinguish between bird and multiple human noises. Despite the challenges, Kahl’s team quickly taught BirdNET more than 1,000 species from Europe, the U.S., and Canada — places with rich libraries of recordings for the program to learn from. Even more astonishing, the program learned to accurately identify these species with about 80 percent accuracy, eclipsing any other bird vocalization tool available. Once they had the program working, the team set out to make BirdNET available from both browsers and mobile
devices. The first BirdNET app was released in October 2018 for Android devices because of their open architecture. iOS users finally got their version in December 2020, helping to usher in a revolution for both birders and scientists. Leveling the Birding Playing Field One thing that distinguishes exceptional from less-vaunted birders is our ability to hear and identify bird calls. The deeper you get into birding, the more you realize how sneaky birds are and that the only way to detect many of them is through their vocalizations — something that is especially true of forest and grassland species. The problem for many of us is that we don’t even begin dedicated birding until long after our physical and mental abilities have peaked. Auditory function is a common casualty of living a long life, and by the time we reach our 50s or 60s, many of us have suffered significant hearing loss. Hearing aids help, but they aren’t a panacea as they can distort birdsong and directionality while still failing to pick up many high frequencies.
Even learning new birdsong poses another challenge. While the typical 15-year-old might absorb new species calls as fast as a flicker sucking up suet, we older birders often must hear a bird dozens or hundreds of times to learn it — and may then have to learn it anew each year! For birders in either of these two categories, BirdNET allows us to greatly expand our birding horizons. In my first few weeks using BirdNET, I quickly discovered that it helped me both detect species I didn’t realize were nearby and allowed me to quiz myself on what I was hearing. This second aspect has been especially fun to explore. In spring, for instance, I often get befuddled by the barrage of warbler-type songs around me. With BirdNET, I can hear something and guess, “Ah, that’s a Ruby-crowned Kinglet,” or “I think that’s a Nashville Warbler.” Then, I record a snippet and have the app analyze it. It doesn’t always hit the target — especially in conditions roaring with background noise — but more times than not, it lets me know if I’ve made a mistake.
SOUND ID FOR MERLIN In a case of convergent app evolution, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recently unveiled a new song identification feature for its excellent Merlin Bird ID app. Like BirdNET, Merlin’s “Sound ID” feature was developed with AI technology, using known spectrograms to teach it to identify more than 400 North American species. Once you start Sound ID, a continuous spectrogram scrolls across the screen, and when a bird is identified, the species name pops up below, accompanied by a photo. Especially for someone with a hearing disability or who just doesn’t know birdsong, it can be like magic watching a succession of bird names appear before your eyes. No doubt it will make a terrific teaching tool, especially for those just getting into birding.
The program is not without its limitations. Unlike BirdNET, Merlin’s Sound ID is a stand-alone feature, which gives it the flexibility to work without cell service, but it may also limit its accuracy. In quick tests around my largely forested neighborhood, Sound ID correctly picked out most species but mistook some common birds for unlikely rarities, such as American Three-toed Woodpecker and Northern Pygmy-Owl. Still, the app constitutes a major step forward in birding technology, and Cornell will undoubtedly continue to improve it over time. For now, though, birders will probably want to use Sound ID more as a learning tool and continue to hone and rely on other skills to confirm their own bird observations. BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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Opening Up the Scientific Process As exciting as it is for individual birders, BirdNET as a scientific tool promises to demolish stubborn barriers to ornithological research. Connor Wood is a postdoctoral fellow in Cornell’s Yang Center. “I think one of the things that’s most exciting to me about the BirdNET app,” he shares, “is that it opens up the scientific process to vastly more people than almost any other citizen science program that I’m aware of.” By the summer of 2020, BirdNET already had more than a million active users in North America and Europe — and that was months before the iOS version got released. What’s more, the number barely dropped through the following winter. “What that means,” Wood says, “is that we really have the potential to have a global
network of biodiversity sensors.” One of Wood and Kahl’s first scientific priorities has been to test BirdNET against other ornithological studies. A 2020 study released by Canadian scientists, for example, examined the spread of a new song variety of the White-throated Sparrow. Traditionally, the bird’s song terminated in what the scientists call a “triplet ending,” but since the year 2000, a “doublet ending” had rapidly spread from west to east across North America — to the point that, according to the Canadian study, the doublet had almost completely dominated populations in the West and Midwest. The study was based on hundreds of recordings that the scientists collected themselves between 2000 and 2019, and on additional data from other sources,
but Wood and Kahl wanted to see if they could duplicate the result using only calls submitted by BirdNET users in 2020. Digging into the BirdNET database, they selected high-quality White-throated Sparrow songs from across the continent to see if they had triplet or doublet endings. Like the Canadian researchers, they found both varieties in BirdNET submissions, but the BirdNET data did not show the doublet totally displacing the triplet variety. Instead, BirdNET recordings revealed that both varieties continue to exist in most regions of the continent (see map) — a surprising and eye-opening result. In another study, Wood and Kahl used BirdNET submissions to confirm migration routes of Common Cranes from Spain to northern Europe and back. BirdNET
• Doublet ending • Triplet ending The songs of White-throated Sparrows end in what scientists refer to as either a doublet or triplet ending. Data from BirdNET, shown on this map, reveal that both song types can be found in most regions of North America, contradicting earlier research.
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Mircea Costina/Shutterstock; map by Connor Wood
White-throated Sparrow song types
Rafal Szozda/Shutterstock
data generated a beautiful confirmation of the birds’ main route, and it also lent support for alternative southern routes that were only first described in 2013 by a team of Italian scientists. These routes are particularly exciting because increasing numbers of cranes appear to be using them, possibly reflecting the overall rebounding crane population and new behaviors associated with climate changes. Just as important, both the sparrow and crane examples give a tantalizing glimpse of the many ways BirdNET may soon broaden our understanding of bird biology and behavior — and give scientists, governments, and conservation workers essential new information to protect birds. Listening Around the World Though BirdNET can currently identify only about 10 percent of earth’s species, Kahl and his colleagues are working to raise the total number to more than 5,000, giving the app a reach far beyond Europe and North America. This will not only help birders on every continent, but also it will expand the scientific applications of the app. “Once we get this increasingly global buy-in of app users,” Wood excitedly explains, “we can start to find patterns and places outside of Europe and North America, where there’s not been heavy investment in western scientific research and citizen science programs. I think that’s when app users can really contribute novel science. In the case of flyways, we can potentially do some cool targeted conservation intervention, identifying hotspots and migratory routes.” Meanwhile, Kahl and his team are working to improve BirdNET in other ways. One goal is to make it a stand-alone program. Currently, the app must send recordings back to mainframe computers for analysis, making it necessary for birders to have an internet connection or save recordings for later submission. Kahl’s team, though, has a working stand-alone prototype that can analyze a three-second recording in about two-tenths of a second — something it hopes to release in the next year or so. It also is developing a continuously running version of the app that can be used to conduct point counts of the type that scientists frequently use to
Common Cranes call in a field. Submissions to BirdNET in Europe confirmed migration routes of the birds between Spain and northern Europe.
BirdNET data generated a beautiful confirmation of the birds’ main route, and it also lent support for alternative southern routes that were only first described in 2013 by a team of Italian scientists. monitor bird populations. As word of BirdNET spreads, Kahl is receiving myriad requests from birders and scientists to add other capabilities — including a Pokémon-Go-type feature that allows users to “collect” bird songs of various species during their birding outings. All of this will take time. “There are a lot of technical challenges that we have to figure out,” Kahl explains. “We’re just a small team. There is no big company behind it. It’s basically me and a few researchers helping me.” The small size of the team, in fact, makes it even more remarkable what it has accomplished. Even without rolling
out new features, Kahl and his colleagues have ensured that BirdNET will be an important part of the ornithological landscape for years to come. Which leaves only one question: Have you downloaded your copy yet? Sneed B. Collard III is a popular speaker and the author of more than 85 books, including his newest children’s titles Waiting for a Warbler and Beaver and Otter Get Along . . . Sort of. Previously, he has written for BirdWatching about research into nocturnal avian flight calls and birding apps. To learn more about him, visit his website www.sneedbcollardiii.com and follow his and his son’s birding adventures at www.fathersonbirding.com. BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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ID TIPS: Eastern Bluebird
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Eastern Bluebird, adult male February in Montgomery County, Texas
KEY FIELD MARKS By Kenn Kaufman Photographs by Brian E. Small
IF WE TRIED to design a bird to be popular with humans, it would be hard to invent anything more appealing than the Eastern Bluebird. It has beautiful colors, a soft, musical voice, and seemingly gentle behavior. It readily takes to birdhouses provided for it along the edges of yards and farms. What’s not to like? Its only serious competition might come from its two closest relatives. The three species of bluebirds that make up the genus Sialia form a very distinctive group, unique to North America. The Eastern Bluebird is the most widespread of the three, with an odd and partly disjunct distribution. It’s a widespread breeder east of the Rockies in the U.S. and southern Canada, becoming scarce in southern Florida and southernmost Texas. But then it’s also resident in southeastern Arizona — the northern tip of a population 38
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Short, thin bill with touch of yellow at base Rusty orange from breast to lower throat and side of neck White from belly extends high up center of breast Crown and upperparts entirely deep blue Rusty flanks and white undertail coverts Fairly long wingtips reach base of tail
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Size and shape. Size of a large sparrow but with more upright posture. Short, thin bill, round head, short neck, and fairly long wingtips. Upperparts. Crown and back bright blue (male) to dull blue-gray (female), rarely with any brown. Throat pattern. Chin usually whitish; lower throat rusty orange on male, whitish on female. Orange extends up onto side of neck on both. Belly and undertail coverts. Always white, a helpful distinction from the other two bluebird species. Wing structure. When perched, wingtips reach to base of tail. Primary extension shorter than tertials (about same length as tertials in Mountain Bluebird).
that extends southward, mostly in the highlands, through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and northern Nicaragua. A permanent resident in many areas, it withdraws in winter from the northernmost stretches of its range (see sidebar on next spread). The Western Bluebird replaces the Eastern locally from the Rockies westward in the U.S. and southern Canada; the two species may overlap in the highlands of Mexico. Although it leaves some of its northernmost nesting areas in winter, it’s a permanent resident in many regions. The Mountain Bluebird is the most migratory of the trio. Its breeding range extends from high mountains of the Southwest north to central Alaska, and most or all individuals leave their nesting areas in fall; some travel far south into Mexico or out onto the Great Plains. This is the bluebird that’s most likely to appear far out of range. It has been found in fall and winter in most of the eastern states and provinces. In summer, scattered individuals have been found far north of the Arctic Circle. On Victoria Island in Canada’s high Arctic, a pair of Mountain Bluebirds was found feeding young in a nest! Eastern and Western Bluebirds have similar habitats and habits, favoring semiopen areas. Much of their diet, especially in summer, consists of insects. They often perch fairly low in farmland or woodland edges, such as on fence wires or low tree branches, flying down to pick up insects. Frequently, they hover for a few seconds before dropping to the ground. Mountain Bluebirds are often found in much more open situations, including grasslands with very few trees. They also take many insects from the ground, but they spend far more time hovering than the other two species. Eastern Bluebirds almost always can be distinguished from the other two species by the field marks that I describe in the accompanying captions. There’s one tricky exception: Where the breeding ranges of Easterns and Mountains overlap on the northern Great Plains, they sometimes interbreed. Identifying a hybrid, especially a female, would require a very careful analysis of every field mark, and some individuals might have to be left unidentified.
Eastern Bluebird, adult female April in Montgomery County, Texas Female Eastern Bluebirds have essentially the same pattern as males, but they vary in brightness, some with vibrant colors and others more drab; the one in this portrait is about average. (Notes on Eastern Bluebirds in this column apply to the widespread forms north of the Mexican border; those in southeastern Arizona are duller overall.) They always show enough blue in the wings and tail to rule out confusion with unrelated birds, so the main challenge is separating them from female Western Bluebirds. The color of the throat can be hard to judge, as on this bird, but a wash of rusty orange extending up onto the side of the neck is diagnostic for Eastern Bluebird.
Eastern Bluebird, juvenile male June in New Haven County, Connecticut Juvenile bluebirds of all three species are heavily spotted on the breast at first, as is typical for members of the thrush family. On juvenile Eastern and Western Bluebirds, the back and scapulars also have prominent pale spots, but the juvenile Mountain Bluebird looks plainer above, with narrow white streaks. As with most songbirds, these bluebirds begin to molt out of juvenile plumage within a couple of months after leaving the nest, so there is only a brief time during which these youngsters are independent of their parents but still not in adult-like plumage. In those limited areas where multiple bluebird species are known to overlap in their breeding ranges, some molting juveniles may not be safely identified.
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COMPLEX MIGRATIONS What’s the northern limit for Eastern Bluebirds in winter? Most field-guide maps draw the line near the southern Great Lakes and southern New England. But every year, there are scattered January and February records much farther north, up into central Maine, Quebec, northern Michigan, Minnesota, even North Dakota. Should the maps be redrawn? Not necessarily, because bluebirds are rare and irregular in those areas in winter. It would be misleading to color in the maps with solid color. It’s really hard to draw an accurate map for a species that occurs in very low densities at certain seasons. Western Bluebirds are less variable in distribution, although they also withdraw in winter from some of their northern breeding areas. In the Southwest, they are common in some winters in lowland areas where mistletoe berries grow in good supply. In other winters, they are scarce in the valleys, concentrating instead in foothills and feeding on juniper berries. Mountain Bluebirds are the most migratory species, vacating most of their breeding range in fall, but their winter distribution varies depending on food crops. In some seasons, they swarm through juniper woods with Westerns, but in others they move out to the most open desert or farmland, and they sometimes spread far eastward across the Great Plains. These nomads are worth watching for everywhere. 40
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Mountain Bluebird, adult female December in Socorro County, New Mexico While the other two bluebird species are very similar in shape, the Mountain Bluebird usually looks a bit longer-billed. It has distinctly longer wingtips, with the primaries extending far beyond the tertials and at least halfway down the tail. The female Mountain Bluebird is very gray overall, with touches of blue only on the wings and tail. Its gray look and white eye-ring might suggest Townsend’s Solitaire, but that species has a buff wing patch and a longer tail with white outer tail feathers. In fresh plumage in late fall, some female Mountain Bluebirds have a wash of pale orange across the chest, and these might be confused with female Eastern Bluebirds.
Mountain Bluebird, adult male June in Kamloops, British Columbia No bird is truly unmistakable, but the adult male Mountain Bluebird, seen in good light, comes close. No other North American bird can match its overall sky-blue color. At times, though, Mountain and Western Bluebirds may range through the same juniper woods in winter. They tend to stick to their own flocks rather than mixing freely. When seen flying overhead, they can be distinguished by shape: the Mountain Bluebird has longer, more pointed wings, very noticeable with practice. The wing shape of this species is also reflected in its migrations — long-distance migrants tend to be longer-winged — and in its foraging behavior. Mountain Bluebirds spend substantial amounts of time hovering above the ground as they watch for insects below.
Western Bluebird, adult female November in Santa Barbara County, California The female Western Bluebird is superficially very similar to the female Eastern in shape and overall color, although they seldom show as much blue as the brightest female Easterns. The pattern of the throat is a key difference. While many female Easterns are white on the throat, not orange, female Western Bluebirds have distinctly gray throats, showing almost no contrast against the gray face. The female Western often shows more of a brown wash across the back, but this is variable. The belly and undertail coverts of the Western are gray, not white as on the Eastern; but since this part of the bird is usually in shadow, this field mark is tricky to use.
Western Bluebird, adult male April in Santa Barbara County, California Colorful male Western Bluebirds might seem like easy IDs, but they show a surprising amount of individual variation, which could lead to confusion. Most have a wash of rusty orange covering much of the upper back and scapulars, but on some, that color is limited (as on the bird in this photo) or entirely absent. Those with solid blue backs might suggest male Eastern Bluebirds. The extent of blue on the throat is variable also, but the lower throat is never orange as on the male Eastern. A further field mark for Western Bluebirds involves the belly and undertail coverts, which are gray, often with a strong wash of blue. On Easterns, these areas are white.
Kenn Kaufman is the author of many books on birds and nature. Brian E. Small is a nature photographer whose photos illustrate many books.
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ID TOOLKIT A Common Tern angling toward the viewer catches the bright sunlight (left), but if it turns slightly away from us, the near side of the body is thrown into shadow (right).
Tricks of the light Why lighting conditions can throw us a curveball when we’re watching birds Text and art by David Allen Sibley
ONE OF THE primary clues we use to identify birds is color, and the color we perceive is entirely dependent on lighting. The challenge of color perception is not limited to bird identification, of course, and we are constantly making adjustments (mostly subconscious) to determine the color of the things we see around us. Bird identification simply brings this challenge to the forefront. Most of the time, we do a good job of adjusting to lighting conditions, and we can recognize a color, for example, the particular shade of yellow of a male American Goldfinch, whether the bird is in bright sun, or deep shade, or the warm glow of sunset. We can do this because we judge colors relative to the colors around them, and the overall lighting of a scene tells us what to expect. It can take some time to “recalibrate” our color perception, but once we’ve adjusted to the current conditions, we can see a goldfinch and say, “ah, yes, the typical yellow color.” Occasionally, though, lighting throws a curveball. In some cases, we misinterpret the scene — our color calibration is off. In other cases, there is just one small variation we didn’t expect — a greenish glow reflecting off a leaf or an unexpected shadow, for example. Something like this happened to me recently while watching terns in Long Island Sound, New York. 42
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
It was early morning, and I was looking south over the water. Dozens of Common Terns were flying by, mostly moving west (left to right). They were brightly lit by the early morning sun. Suddenly, an all-dark tern appeared among the passing groups; “Black Tern!” I thought. A few moments of study revealed that it was just another Common Tern, in shadow. But how could it be in shadow, in bright sun over the open water? With the sun directly to my left, all the birds that were traveling on a line angling slightly toward me were lit by the early morning sunlight. But when a bird veered off that flight line and turned slightly away from me, the sun struck the far side of its body instead, leaving me with a view of dark shadows on the near side of the bird. This was a very specific scenario and quickly resolved (although that didn’t keep me from making the same mistake again), but it is one example of the “tricks of the light” that we always must be alert for when birding. David Allen Sibley is the author of The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition, What It’s Like to Be a Bird, and other books. In our last issue, he wrote about identifying birds when their feathers are wet.
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PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS A Barrow’s Goldeneye flaps its wings while standing on ice on a lake near West Yellowstone, Montana. The author shot the photo from a floating blind in late April, when most of the lake was covered in ice.
Hiding in plain sight How to take photos of birds from a floating blind Text and photos by John Gerlach
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I HAVE BEEN an avid bird photographer for 45 years, and my favorite way to photograph birds is from a floating blind. It is a special feeling to be in the quiet waters of a bay at dawn with hundreds of birds that pay little to no attention to you. My floating blind photography season begins in late April, when the ice melts near my Idaho home. On calm mornings, I drive to the lake and park close to the shoreline in a public parking area. I carry the 12-pound blind and photo gear 30 yards to the shore, mount my camera and lens to the Wimberley gimbal head that is attached to the blind, and slowly walk into the water. When the water is 2.5 feet deep, I slip under the camo cover, rest my elbows on the float tube, and off I go. The camouflaged floating blind resembles a round muskrat home. The one I use is built by Mr JanGear (www.MrJangear.com, about $812). It has a plastic frame, two float tubes, a camo cover with supports, and a board for attaching a gimbal head to support the lens. The floating blind is not a boat. It conceals me and floats my photo gear, but I wear chest waders (recently upgraded to a dry suit) and walk slowly along inside the blind through shallow wetlands. A water depth of 2-3 feet is ideal. I do not go in water too deep to touch the bottom.
I can photograph in water as shallow as 1 foot by lying down inside the blind. Of course, lying down puts the front of the waders under the water at times, and that gets you wet, so that’s why I now wear a dry suit. But if you are careful and do not go to the extremes that I do, chest waders work. If you’re worried about getting expensive camera gear wet, don’t be. In the hundreds of times I have been out on the water in a blind, I have never had a close call. Another floating hide maker is Schatech (www.floating-hide.com, about $1,180). I have not tried this blind, but it looks good. If you are handy at simple construction projects, search online for “how to build a photographic floating blind” to see plenty of ideas. The ideal spot for floating blind photos is a weedy small lake or pond that is home to many water birds — the more, the better. Of course, you must have access to the water. All my spots are public waters, typically a reservoir, and open to fishing boats. I have never had any conflict with boaters as they tend to fish farther out in the lake, while I photograph within 30 yards of shore in the shallow weedy areas birds prefer. I do know of some floating blind users who photograph in the eastern U.S., but the best opportunities tend to be in the western states and Canadian provinces. Far more ducks and grebes breed on the western lakes, providing much greater opportunity than a lake in southern Michigan, for example. Light is important, too. In the morning, I go to places where I photograph toward the west shoreline as that works best with the rising sun in the east. In the evening, photographing toward the east is best. Weather is crucial. The water must be almost flat calm. Ripples make it difficult to photograph in the floating blind, and waves make it impossible because anything that floats bobs up and down. Smaller shallow ponds and lakes tend to work best as the water is still more often. The photo gear is simple enough. I use a Canon R5 because it has eye focus and shoots 20 images per second with the completely silent electronic shutter that does not disturb my subject. My favorite lens is the Canon 600mm f/4, and
Here are two views of the Mr JanGear Floating Hide II — with the camouflage cover on and off. The lower photo shows how the photographer positions herself in the blind to shoot. A Kirk BH-1 ballhead and Wimberley sidekick supports the Nikon 200-400mm lens and teleconverter on a platform between two float tubes.
I frequently extend the focal length with the Canon 1.4x teleconverter to create an 840mm f/5.6 lens. When I want the subject to appear larger in the viewfinder, I set the camera to the 1.6x crop mode. With the 600mm by itself, that produces a field of view of a 960mm lens. And with the 600mm plus 1.4x extender, that is a 1344mm field of view. This lens, camera, and teleconverter combination is exceedingly effective for wildlife photography.
To save money, you can do well with a less-expensive Sigma or Tamron 150600mm lens on a crop factor camera. If the crop factor is 1.5x, that produces the reach of a 225-900mm lens. The bottom line with the floating blind: It is best to maintain ample working distance between you and the subject. You need a lens equivalent to about 800mm. Options include buying an 800mm lens, using a long lens with a 1.4x teleconverter to reach that 800mm BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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A Cinnamon Teal swims on the surface of a western lake in May. The author’s floating blind allows him to take frame-filling photos of birds while watching them “behaving naturally at close range in their gorgeous wetland environment.”
range, or using a lens with a camera that has a crop factor to reach a field of view of 800mm. You could also use a 600mm and crop the image in processing. Anything shorter than 600mm is simply too short. The floating blind is ideal for videos, too. And even if your interest is primarily watching birds, this is a fantastic way to become “invisible” in the marsh, allowing you to observe birds behaving naturally at close range. Birds react differently to an approaching floating blind. Being in open water, they notice it but do not fear it like they would if they could see a person approaching them. Birds know the blind is odd and may slowly swim away, but many allow remarkably close approach. Many birds let me approach within 20 feet, and sometimes they 46
swim closer — even too close to photograph! I have had Spotted Sandpipers, Forster’s Terns, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds land on the blind with me inside. Move slowly (I call it drift speed), keep ripples to a minimum, and be quiet. Slowly move to an area where you know wild birds congregate and hang out there for a while to let the birds see the blind. While they might scrutinize the blind at first, soon they return to feeding, sleeping, courting, and other normal activities. Once they pay little attention to you, slowly approach the bird you wish to photograph and monitor its behavior. Should it begin to swim away, stop moving, and usually the bird stops, too. Often over several minutes, it is possible to approach close enough to photograph the subject well.
BIRDWATCHING • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
Some bird species are easier to photograph than others. Canada Geese tend to be wary of a floating blind, probably because they are hunted. And the normally quick-to-take-wing American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts are super easy to photograph. Often, I have approached a flock of these birds to excellent photo range, and as they continue to feed toward me, eventually they are all around the blind. Some may be too close to photograph, so I back up. Birds get used to seeing this strange floating blind “creature.” Years ago, I remember making my first good photos of Cinnamon Teal. I found a pair, and they allowed me to approach within a certain distance and no more. Anytime I moved a little closer, they paddled a little farther
away. I gave up that first morning with no usable images. But the second morning was different. Since they saw the blind the day before where it did not do anything scary but did look suspicious, they now accepted the blind being there and let me photograph them at full-frame distance. I did well photographing these small, gorgeous teal until they climbed up on the bank and fell fast asleep. I use the floating blind dozens of times each year. Although I am 68, my time in the marsh hidden in the blind is incredibly relaxing and not physically demanding. It is a joy to watch wild birds behaving naturally at close range in their gorgeous wetland environment. Since having your arms on the float tubes and wearing chest waders or a dry suit makes you more buoyant, you do not sink into the muck that much, so walking inside the blind is easy. Insects are never a problem as the camo blind cover protects you from them. And chest waders protect you from leeches. I do not suggest using the floating blind in alligator waters. Wind and waves could make things difficult and even dangerous, but since photography is only suitable when the water is calm, I never use the blind in rough water. Should the wind suddenly blow, creating waves, I immediately walk to shore and quit until better conditions return. Summer is my favorite time in the floating blind because the water is warmer, and many ducks appear along the lake margin with their broods. Mother ducks lead their young around and spend vast amounts of time in the open but nearly dense aquatic vegetation, especially reeds and cattails, where they hide their families should a predator appear. Duck families are especially fun to photograph because the ducklings go from sleeping in a loose group to hyperactivity within seconds. One challenge I learned is making images of a duckling diving. Lesser Scaup and Canvasbacks raise ducklings that are terrific at diving and do it frequently when actively feeding. Diving ducklings are quick. The way to photograph the diving sequence is to use a shutter speed of 1/4000 second to freeze the action, shoot
A Lesser Scaup duckling cleans the webbing of its foot on a lake. Ducklings are easy to approach closely as they show no fear of a floating blind.
Duck families are especially fun to photograph because the ducklings go from sleeping in a loose group to hyperactivity within seconds.
at the highest frame rate the camera offers, and begin photographing before the duckling begins the dive. A Lesser Scaup duckling takes half a second from the time it begins to rear up to dive to being underwater. If you wait for them to start the dive before photographing, you already missed the shot. Since you must start photographing them before they dive, and you do not know if they will dive, you get lots of duckling images floating on the water with no diving action. Delete all the extra images, and eventually you will capture the diving sequence. Floating blind photography is popular in Europe, but only now is it beginning to be adopted by photographers in North America. Why don’t you do it, too? This is a unique way to view and photograph wildlife at close range and with a low photo angle that produces intimate photos of our cherished wildlife. John Gerlach is a professional nature photographer who teaches workshops and seminars and leads photo tours in the U.S., Canada, and Kenya. He has a degree in wildlife ecology from Central Michigan University and is the author of five books on wildlife, nature, and landscape photography. A longer and regularly updated version of this article is available on his website at www.gerlachnaturephoto.com/blog. BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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HOTSPOTS NEAR YOU Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA 37°30'15.91"N 80°27'11.20"W
#315
Allegheny Trail
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My first visit to the tower at Hanging Rock was in 1974. At that time, the hawk count was being done by the “three Georges and Ken.” George Flouer lived near the tower and was a member of the Brooks Bird Club. He convinced George Koch, George Hurley, and Ken Anderson, members of the Handlan Chapter of the Brooks Bird Club, to come from Charleston on weekends in September to conduct hawk counts. They were my mentors and turned me onto raptor watching. One September afternoon, I arrived at the tower to find George Hurley lying on his back on the tower deck. He said, “Thank God you are here, Jim. Take that section of the sky and start counting.” The sky was full of Broad-wings. We had well over a thousand birds fly over. Hanging Rock is a special place. The name comes from the way the sandstone juts at an angle toward the sky. You can perch on the rocks, throw a leg over either side of the top of the ridge, and look to the ridge and valley of the Appalachians to the east and the Appalachian Plateau to the west. I have been there when the weather was very comfortable, very hot, cold enough to freeze your coffee in the cup, in snow, rain, and fog so thick you can barely see 2 feet in front of your face. Come prepared! — Jim Phillips. Jim is the former chief counter at Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory and a past member of the West Virginia Bird Records Committee.
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HABITAT Mountainous ridge and forest.
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HANGING ROCK RAPTOR OBSERVATORY
TERRAIN Trail is steep and rocky in places. Hike to the top of Peters Mountain takes 20-40 minutes. BIRDS Turkey and Black Vultures, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, Redtailed, and Broad-winged Hawks, Golden Eagle, American Kestrel. Uncommon: Northern Harrier, Northern Goshawk, Redshouldered and Rough-legged Hawks, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon. Non-raptors: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Blue-headed Vireo, Tufted Titmouse, swallows, sparrows, warblers, Scarlet Tanager. WHEN TO GO Tower open year-round. Peak raptor migration from mid-August through November. AMENITIES No electricity or running water. Outhouse. ACCESS On public land within Jefferson National Forest. No fees. Park in lot for Allegheny Trail on Cty. Rt. 15, then hike about 0.8 miles to forest service fire tower at the top of Peters Mountain. TIPS Bring binoculars, drinking water, food, sunglasses, an extra layer of clothing, sunscreen, hat, and field guide, and wear comfortable hiking shoes. FOR MORE INFO Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory, www.hangingrocktower.org. Counts and more info available at www.hawkcount.org/ siteinfo.php?rsite=519.
Manzano Mountains HawkWatch CIBOLA NATIONAL FOREST, NEW MEXICO 34°42'15.0"N 106°24'40.2"W
#316 MANZANO MOUNTAINS HAWKWATCH
Gavilan Trail
AT A GLANCE
CAPILLA PEAK CAMPGROUND
HABITAT Forest. TERRAIN Hike 0.7 mile along a trail with a few rocky sections and a slight elevation gain.
CIBOLA NATIONAL FOREST B066 B066 55
MANZANO
After spending several years counting migrating raptors at hawk watches throughout the western United States, I can tell you that it doesn’t get much better than visiting a hawk watch during the fall migration season. And the Manzanos may just be one of the best of the bunch. The observation post sits at an elevation of 9,195 feet on a northeast-facing, postcard-perfect limestone outcrop. The site has great weather compared to others, and you’ll still get to see a large variety of migrating raptors flying right over your head — from Sharp-shinned Hawks to Golden Eagles. Annual counts typically range from 5,000 to 7,000 migrants of up to 18 species. You might even be lucky enough to see a late-season Roughlegged Hawk. My favorite part about the Manzanos is the resident Zone-tailed Hawks — a species we don’t see very often at hawk watches in the West. Because they’re local, when they’re around, you often get great looks as they fly back and forth through the mountains. And be sure to chat with the crew! A group of five biologists lives on site each year, and they love having visitors and sharing their knowledge with others. — Jessica Taylor. Jessica is a field biologist with HawkWatch International and a student at Boise State University, where she is pursuing her master’s in raptor biology. Jessica has counted migrating raptors at hawk watches for seven seasons, two of which were at the Manzanos Mountains.
BIRDS Osprey, Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, Swainson’s, and Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrel, Turkey Vulture, Golden Eagle, Northern Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Merlin. Non-raptors: Sandhill Crane, corvids, nuthatches, warblers, juncos, swallows, woodpeckers. Rarities: Variable Hawk, dark-morph Broad-winged Hawk. WHEN TO GO Hawk watch operates daily 9-5, August 27 through November 5. Last week of September through first week of October for the most variety and largest numbers. AMENITIES Daily counts can be found at www. hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=596. The crew operates blinds for banding operations, but these are not open to the public. Nearby Forest Service campground has toilet facilities. ACCESS Located on public land within Cibola National Forest. From Hwy. 55 in Manzano, take Cty. Rd. B066 for 9 miles up to the Capilla Peak Campground. The trailhead to reach the observation area is on the west side of the road at Capilla Peak. TIPS Dress in layers; the weather can vary greatly at this altitude. Bring sunscreen, binoculars, field guide, and a camera. FOR MORE INFO Manzano Mountains HawkWatch, hawkwatch.org/manzanos.
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THOSE AMAZING BIRDS
A curving complex of cartilage and bone within a woodpecker’s head permits the bird to extend and store its exceptionally long tongue. The illustration depicts a Northern Flicker.
Do woodpeckers sustain brain damage from hammering on trees? More study is needed. By Eldon Greij
« Read Eldon’s earlier column on this topic, from our November/December 2013 issue, on birdwatchingdaily. com. The article, titled “Why woodpeckers can hammer without getting headaches,” is the second-most-read post ever on our site.
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A strong skull Woodpeckers have a thicker, stronger skull than other birds. The strong, boney bill is encapsulated in a tough membrane that continues to regenerate cells at the tip to keep the bill sharp. Just before striking wood, the lower mandible slides forward to make
Illustration by Denise Takahashi
Power pecking
A TYPICAL WOODPECKER can hammer a tree trunk 20 times per second (12,000 times per day) with its head moving forward about 7m/sec. Upon striking wood, it can decelerate at a rate 1,200 times the force of gravity (1,200 g). All of this with little, if any, brain damage. Humans? Not so much. We can handle 2-3 g on roller coasters, but 4-6 g for even a few seconds can be fatal for most. Jet fighter pilots are trained to handle 9 g for a second or two. Even then, most pilots wear special bodysuits that prevent blood from pooling in their legs. Rarely does a human tolerate higher g forces, but it happens. In 1976, Peter May and colleagues (Lancet 307:1347-48) reviewed factors that allow woodpeckers to prevent the forces of slamming their bills into trees from damaging their brains and causing their eyes to pop out. The research suggested that an understanding of the protective mechanisms of woodpeckers might be applied to humans in a form of biomimicry. Woodpecker adaptations that reduce the effects of g forces begin with a sturdy tripod of two strong legs and a stiff tail. With two toes forward and two backward, a woodpecker can clamp and hold onto bark or wood. This base allows the bird to draw its bill away from the tree and fire it forward with rapid acceleration.
first contact with the tree. This initial and large force is channeled back through the lower skull, tongue, and neck muscles to avoid direct contact with the brain. The woodpecker brain is small and more tightly enclosed in the brain case (cranium) than other birds (or humans). Consequently, there is less space and less cerebrospinal fluid in which the brain can “slosh” around. A brain that moves within the cranium will hit cranial bones with greater velocity, which could cause greater brain damage. Additionally, the lining of the woodpecker cranium has more rough, uneven surfaces that reduce brain movement following tree hammering than the smooth bones of other birds. The lower jaw of woodpeckers articulates with the skull through the quadrate bone, which cushions the pecking force, thereby reducing the force transmitted to the skull and brain. The hyoid apparatus is a very long cartilage, bone, and muscle structure that attaches to the base of the tongue and allows the bird to extend its tongue a greater distance into insect galleries and tunnel under tree bark to extract insect larvae. A problem is how to store the long hyoid apparatus. Cleverly, the hyoid projects back from the base of the tongue into the throat. There, it splits into a “Y” shape, with the side branches passing through sheaths between muscle and skin, from the throat up the sides of the neck and behind and over the top of the skull, usually ending in the right nostril. The hyoid segments have boney centers and compliant cartilage around the outside. When forces from striking a tree reach the boney tongue, it is transferred to the hyoid, which acts much like a seat belt, dampening the transmitted forces. Birds have a third eyelid (nictitating membrane) that moves sideways over the eye just prior to pecking, protecting the eye from wood splinters and acting as a “seat belt,” holding the eyeball in place. Some researchers suggest that as much as 99 percent of the force generated by the rapid deceleration of the woodpecker bill is dissipated through the above structural adaptations.
Questions about brain damage This has drawn the attention of persons concerned with repetitive traumatic brain injury (TBI) in athletes involved with contact sports, such as football, soccer (heading), hockey, and boxing. Repetitive TBI is suspected to lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), although the mechanism is not yet known. CTE is a nonreversible, degenerate brain pathology. At present, there are no biological markers that allow diagnosis in living humans. Instead, a diagnosis is made by postmortem examination of brain tissue. The nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord, and a host of nerve cells (neurons), both within the brain and spinal cord and as a network throughout the body. A typical nerve cell consists of a cell body and narrow, elongate projections (think electrical wires) called dendrites, which transmit messages to cells and axons that carry messages from cells. An electrical impulse passes along axons, causing a chemical messenger to be released at their ends, going through a short junction (synapse) and inducing an impulse in a dendrite of another cell. Axons and dendrites are kept long and straight by microtubules that surround them. The structure of the microtubules, in turn, is maintained by a long-chained protein called tau. With repetitive TBI, inflammation occurs, which attracts specialized nerve cells (microglia) to the damaged area. Microglia function like white blood cells in that they are phagocytic (i.e., they engulf dead cells and cellular debris). Tau is regulated by proteins that attach or remove phosphates from it. Inflammation, however, dysregulates the attachment of phosphates, creating hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, which separate from the microtubules, causing cell axons and dendrites to lose their proper shape and form tangles, with cell death soon to follow. During brain tissue examination, a special stain applied to the brain tissue on a slide will turn black in the presence of hyperphosphorylated tau and axon and dendritic tangles. The presence of black spots confirms CTE. It has been assumed for years that
woodpeckers do not suffer brain damage from hammering on trees because changes in behavior have not been observed. Because woodpecker brain tissues had not been examined for damage from pecking, George Farah and colleagues at Boston University Medical School did an initial examination reported in 2018 (PloS 13 (2) e0191526). They examined brain tissue from 10 different woodpeckers and found that 8 of them tested positive for CTE, although the damage was not excessive. The significance of finding limited tau damage in the woodpecker brain is not yet known. More work must be done to replicate the known studies and to understand the results better. Might woodpeckers suffer from some form of CTE? Have woodpeckers developed a biochemical mechanism to counteract the effects of hyperphosphorylated tau? Degenerative brain diseases in humans, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, all involve the hyperphosphorylation of tau. Woodpeckers entertain us with bold colors, unusual undulating flight, and dynamic drumming. If you observe one excavating, take time to watch and think of all the problems that were overcome for that to happen. Woodpeckers are truly among the most amazing of birds. Eldon Greij is professor emeritus at Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan, where he taught ornithology and ecology for many years. He is the founder of Birder’s World magazine.
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CONTEST
WINNERS
This past spring, we conducted our latest photo contest, the 2021 BirdWatching Photography Awards, at www.birdwatchingdaily. com. We received more than 770 entries — images of owls, eagles, hummingbirds, cranes, and passerines, among others. We announced the finalists and honorable mention photos on our site in mid-summer, followed by the three winning images, which are shown on the following pages. Thanks to everyone who entered! To see all of the finalists and honorable mention images, visit www.birdwatchingdaily.com/ photography/featured-galleries.
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FIRST PLACE
Kathy McCulloch Wade SHORT-EARED OWL AND NORTHERN HARRIER
Kathy McCulloch Wade, of Lake Forest Park, Washington, won first place with this stunning image of a Short-eared Owl facing off against a Northern Harrier, which has its back to the camera. She shot the photo in mid-March in Skagit County, Washington, a great location for wintering owls and raptors. She said she went to the site to test a new piece of camera gear, and immediately the Short-ear landed in a field near her with a vole in its talons. “The owl perked up its ears and was very alert, staring in my direction,” she said. “It became clear that it was alert because a Northern Harrier was fast approaching, and this owl wanted to protect its meal. The owl flew up just as the harrier got very close, and this is the resulting image. The owl successfully scared the harrier off its meal this day.” One of our judges, founding editor Eldon Greij, noted: “I can’t imagine the odds of actually seeing this behavior.” McCulloch Wade used a Sony Alpha A1 ILCE-1 camera and a 600mm FE f4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. The gear sat on a Really Right Stuff tripod with a ProMediaGear Katana Jr. gimbal head. BIRDWATCHINGDAILY.COM
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SECOND PLACE
Tina McManus LEAST TERNS
Tina McManus’s visit in July 2018 to Crane Beach, a 1,234-acre conservation area in Ipswich, Massachusetts, produced the second-place photo, this portrait of a Least Tern and its hungry chick. “Least Terns are one of my favorite birds, and when they start hatching their chicks, I’m always on the lookout for a photo opportunity,” she said. “Once the chicks hatch, there is only a day or two before the adults take them back into the vegetation. You have to be very quiet and still around terns, as they’re very protective of their young and will become agitated if you’re not. I hunkered down outside the roped-off area near a nest with chicks and waited. After about an hour, one of the adults brought a fish, and I was able to get this image.” She used a Canon 7D Mark II camera with a 500mm f4 lens and a 1.4x teleconverter. They were attached to a Skimmer Ground Pod, which supports camera gear to enable ground-level bird and wildlife photography.
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THIRD PLACE
William Parker Teed ROSEATE SPOONBILLS
William Parker Teed took third place with this beautiful photo of Roseate Spoonbills standing on Fort Myers Beach, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. He photographed the idyllic scene in August 2016. A few of the birds preen while the rest have their bills tucked into their backs with one leg raised. “It was a very quiet morning,” Teed said. “The water was still and very shallow. The pond is seasonal and formed by the summer rain. The spoonbills were just waking up as the sun rose. The location was perfect as were the colors of the scene.” He took the photo with a Pentax K-1 camera and a 300mm lens.
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FINAL FRAME
X CANON EOS R5, EF400MM F/2.8L IS III USM LENS +2X III TC
MING YAO
Piping Plover
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In late May, an event that hasn’t happened in 83 years in Ohio took place on a beach at Maumee Bay State Park, near the shores of Lake Erie: Piping Plovers nested! The male of the pair, Nish, is the offspring of Chicago’s famous plovers, Monty and Rose, and the female, Nellie, came from Presque Isle, near Erie, Pennsylvania. Federal and state wildlife biologists, parks officials, volunteers with Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and others protected the Ohio nest from disturbance, and on July 1, the plovers’ four eggs hatched. Michigan photographer Ming Yao took this photo of a precious chick on July 4.
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HYPER-CLARITY 8x42 and 10x42
Stabilized field of view (± 6°) Multi-coated optics Filled with nitrogen gas to prevent fogging Comfortable neck strap and carrying case included Water-resistant and floating design
Fujifilm’s new and improved “SUPER EBC FUJINON” multi-coated lenses Resistant to harsh outdoor conditions Premium ergonomic design for ease of operability Water and fog-proof structure Rugged magnenisum-alloy body
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TS 16x28 and TS 12x28 Binoculars Stabilized field of view (± 3°) Multi-coated optics Compact and lightweight design 12-hour battery life Center focus wheel for quick focusing
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