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October 2009 BirdNote Episodes:

Bats - Fear or Appreciation

Bats.... creatures to regard with superstition and fear? On summer evenings, bats put on an aerial display while eating hundreds of mosquitoes. Kent Woodruff of the US Fish and Wildlife Service spearheaded a project to save Townsend’s Big-eared bats. They preserved an old cabin that the bats had used as a nursery. Then they built an almost identical -- but permanent -- structure nearby, and the bats moved in! Learn more in a BirdNote story. Happy Halloween!

The Amazing, Head-turning Owl

An owl’s seeming ability to rotate its head in a complete circle is downright eerie. An owl’s apparent head rotation is part illusion, part structural design. Because its eyes are fixed in their sockets, it must rotate its neck to look around. It can actually rotate its head about 270 degrees—a marvelous anatomical feat. Learn more about this Eastern Screech-Owl at Cornell's AllAboutBirds.

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Rufous-collared Sparrow - Tico-Tico

The song Tico-Tico no Fubá, like Carmen Miranda, came to us from Brazil. Believe it or not, the song is about a bird. The Portuguese lyrics tell the story of the tico-tico, a local name for the Rufous-collared Sparrow. Like so many birds, tico-tico was named for its song. In the song, the bird keeps coming back to the singer’s yard to dine on her cornmeal, piled in a backyard granary. Tico-tico loves her cornmeal. Learn more at FireflyForest.net.

Responsible Birdfeeding

A clean feeder is a life-and-death matter to some birds. Pine Siskins are especially prone to salmonellosis, a bacterial disease. To protect the birds at your feeder, clean it at least once a week, more often if necessary. Rake the ground underneath, too. Learn more about feeding backyard birds at Cornell's AllAboutBirds.
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Why the Crow Is Black

Out of the 810 species of North American birds, only two are completely black: the American Crow and the Common Raven. Here’s a story that explains why the crow is black, according to Native American tradition. When Crow came into the world, he wore all the colors of the rainbow, but the other animals and birds were black. To look more like them, Crow shook himself until all the colors flew out and landed on all the other birds and animals. The only color left on Crow was black, and he has stayed black to this day.
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Shift Change - Swallows to Bats

As darkness grows, bats—like this western long-eared bat—replace swallows in the business of catching flying insects. The night shift has come on duty. Both swallows and bats consume vast quantities of insects. Both are critical components of healthy environments. But the way they fly is strikingly different. Learn more at AnimalDiversityWeb. Learn about native plants that attract bats at BatConservation.org.
Thanks to Michael Durham of OregonWild for this composite photo. (Click Enlarge under photo)

Paul Bannick - Owls and Woodpeckers

Photographer and naturalist Paul Bannick, whose photos appear frequently on this website, has spent a lot of time observing woodpeckers and owls, including this Great Horned Owl. Paul notes: “Woodpeckers are called ‘keystone’ species…a species which alters its habitat to the benefit of other species...” Visit PaulBannick.com to see more of Paul's photos. Learn more about his book, The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America’s Iconic Birds.

Birders and their Special Places

Some birders specialize in a particular species. Others are drawn to a special place. Michael Hobbs took note when a Lazuli Bunting (like this one) turned up at Marymoor Park, an unusual sighting for Western Washington. Connie Sidles knows when to expect the American Pipit at the Union Bay Natural Area. BirdNote celebrates those who keep watch over such special places—and share their knowledge with others. To learn more about special birding places in Washington, visit BirdWeb.

Tropical Wake-up Call

If you lived along the forest’s edge in Central Americ a, every morning might begin with a cacophony of rhythmic guffaws, whistles, screeches, and screams. Plain Chachalacas and Great Kiskadees —like this one—join in the chorus. View a series of photos of the Plain Chachalaca taken by Texan Greg Lavaty. Travel near and far with Audubon — Find out how. Or find your local Audubon chapter and sign up for a field trip.

Cove Island Wildlife Sanctuary

For decades, Cove Island in Stamford, Connecticut, on the shore of Long Island Sound, was a dumping ground for construction debris. Today, it’s Cove Island Wildlife Sanctuary, an oasis for birds (like this Bonaparte’s Gull) and other wildlife, as well as for humans. Thanks go to Mike Moccio and Patrick Dugan, committed individuals who made a difference. Visit your local Audubon chapter or other environmental advocacy organization, and find out what you can do. Good luck — and thanks!

Bird's Eye View II

Some birds, like this Red-tailed Hawk, possess amazingly highly developed eyesight. Just what makes birds’ eyes so special, their eyesight so remarkable? It has to do with the muscles that give them an astonishing ability to focus and to change focus. Birds have muscles that carry out both jobs, plus other muscles that change the shape of the cornea, too. And birds have exceptionally large eyes located on the sides of their heads, so they have a bird’s eye view of almost all of their surroundings, almost all the time.
Learn more at StanfordBirds.

Swallows and Mud - A Myth?

The swallows that make mud nests in spring and catch flying insects all summer are now far south in Mexico, and Central and South America. It’s only as recently as the end of the nineteenth century that ornithologists agreed that swallows, including this Cliff Swallow, migrate. Many formerly believed that swallows and swifts spent the winter hibernating in mud, awakening each spring to dart through the skies again. For more about these small, sleek fliers, visit Cornell's AllAboutBirds.

Raven and Wolves

Researcher Bernd Heinrich writes: “Ravens associate with any animals that kill large game – polar bears, grizzlies, wolves, coyotes, killer whales, and humans.” These birds travel with caribou on their migration, and scavenge remains after wolves have made their kills. The bill of the Common Raven can’t cut into a carcass, so a large carnivore must tear through the tough hide first. Learn more about ravens and wolves at Wolf.org.

The Little Red Spot on a Gull's Bill

In the mid-20th Century, Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen studied nesting Herring Gulls. He noticed that newly hatched chicks were fed by their parents only after they pecked at the adults’ bills. Tinbergen devised experiments that varied the shape and coloration of the adult’s bill. It became clear that the red spot on the adult gull’s bill was a crucial visual cue in a chick’s demands to be fed, and thus its survival.
Learn more about Tinbergen’s research.

Clark's Nutcracker - Nature's Arborist

High in the Cascade Mountains, near tree-line, a Clark’s Nutcracker buries a cache of whitebark pine seeds. This will be nearly its sole source of food until the next summer. But some of those cached seeds will germinate, spawning a small grove of pines. Whitebark pines are one of more than 20 species of pines worldwide that rely almost exclusively on birds like nutcrackers to renew their forests.
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When Starlings Cheat

When Hank Williams wrote Your Cheatin’ Heart, birds probably weren’t on his mind. But researchers have found evidence of what we might call “infidelity” in birds. Scientists in east Africa learned that female Superb Starlings often seem to have “cheatin’” on their minds. Superb Starlings live in cooperative social groups, where subordinate, non-paired males help raise the chicks of established pairs. Females will “cheat”—or mate with subordinate males—when the females need help raising chicks, thus increasing the survival rates of those chicks. Learn more.

HawkWatch - Chelan Ridge

You're at 5000 feet in the Cascade Mountains. Overhead, a Red-tailed Hawk catches an updraft. The Chelan Ridge Raptor Migration site is the best location in Washington State to see migrating raptors. The U.S. Forest Service and HawkWatch International are partners in a large network of North American raptor migration sites. In September and October, biologists and volunteers count hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures that soar nearby. Learn more.

Veracruz, River of Raptors

In Veracruz, Mexico, the flow of migrating raptors includes birds from all over eastern North America. The town of Cardel lies on the flat coastal lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico. Each fall, biologists and volunteers gather there on the roof of the five-story Bienvenido Hotel, where they count five and a half million migrating raptors. When the birds are teeming overhead, the mechanical counters tick constantly.
Learn more about the river of raptors in Veracruz.

Sentinel Birds

The Killdeer is a sentinel bird, one especially alert to predators. They can see you - or a fox - from a long distance. They keep out of harm’s way while warning all the other Killdeers in the area of your presence. Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets also sound alarm calls. Loud, distracting, and very communicative, sentinel birds inform everyone in the area that a predator is present. And they tell the predator that it has been seen and it might just be time to find a quieter neighborhood.

Geese in V-formation

Among the most evocative sounds of early autumn are the voices of migratory geese, flying overhead in V-formation. For more about geese and ducks, visit Cornell's AllAboutBirds.
To find your local Audubon chapter and go on a field trip, begin here.

Columbus's Birds

As Christopher Columbus neared land in 1492, clues in the form of birds gave him hope that landfall was not far off. From his journal: Sept. 14: The crew of the Niña stated that they had seen [a type of tern] which never goes farther than twenty-five leagues from the land. … Sept. 30: Four tropic birds came to the ship, a clear sign of land, for so many birds of one sort together show that they are not straying about, having lost themselves. It was probably an ancestor of this Sandwich Tern that Columbus saw before he made landfall in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.

How Shorebirds Find Their Way

Shorebirds such as these Pacific Golden-Plovers have a built-in map and a built-in compass. Many night-flying migrants use star patterns to orient themselves, and the fact that the sun always sets in the west makes it a compass point for a bird about to take off on a night flight. Perhaps the most amazing thing is birds’ ability to use variations in the Earth’s magnetic field to mark their approximate position. Learn more at Tufts.edu.
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October Migrants - Look Who's Back!

In the October sunlight, a Golden-crowned Sparrow sings plaintively from a hedgerow. Soon a Fox Sparrow chimes in. Both nested in Alaska last summer, but will spend the winter farther south. The Snow Geese are moving, too. A massive movement of birds takes place in the fall. The exodus of summer visitors to the tropics has given way to a surge from the north. And predators can’t be far behind.
Learn more about migration from the Smithsonian.

The Folklore of Owls

Thanks to Harry Potter, the owl is flying high. But throughout history, the owl has received mixed reviews. The Greeks believed an owl flying over a battlefield foretold victory, while in other cultures, owls were considered omens of death, prophets of doom. Listen to the story again, and you'll hear four different owls. The owls heard in this story, in order, are the Barred Owl, Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl, and Great Horned Owl. To learn more about owls, visit Cornell's AllAboutBirds.

Chorus Line in the Sky

A flock of small shorebirds (like these Western Sandpipers) twists and turns, glittering in the sky. When threatened by a falcon, these birds take to the air, flying so close together that it’s hard for a predator to capture one. A bird at one edge turns toward the middle, and a wave sweeps across the entire flock in less than a second.
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Is It the Same Robin?

Early October brings American Robins to feed on tree fruit and berries. Are the robins you see now the same robins that you saw in your garden last summer? Some robins do remain year ‘round. Others spend only the winter, having nested farther north. John James Audubon may have been the first to band birds, in order to learn more about migration. Learn more about banding birds from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

Ducks Head South

In early fall, you’ll see male ducks - like these Mallards - looking very different from when they flew north last spring. The beautiful drakes seem to be gone. But the males are here - sort of “under cover.” In mid-summer, they molted into nondescript, dull plumage known as eclipse plumage. But the eclipse is waning. By November, most of the drakes’ vivid colors will return, just in time for the flash of the courtship season.
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Birds and Berries

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Our little mountain-ash is all alive with [birds.] A dozen robins on it at once ... plucking the berries... A robin will swallow half a dozen berries, at least, in rapid succession..." If you, too, enjoy watching birds eat berries, then consider planting trees and shrubs that produce berries, to attract birds (like this Cedar Waxwing) to your garden. Learn more about “Gardening for Life”—Click here. Take the healthy yard pledge. Click here.

White-browed Coucal

This White-browed Coucal —also known as Burchell’s Coucal—is common in many parts of Africa. “Streaky and sneaky” best describes these birds, because you’ll be lucky if you see one. Dew from their dense habitat often dampens their feathers. Then, they hop to the top of a bush and spread their wings and tail to dry in the morning sun.
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Ridgefield BirdFest

Cackling Geese - like this one - flock together for the winter at sites like Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, in southern Washington. But there’s still more excitement to be had at Ridgefield. On October 10 and 11, there's a BirdFest and Bluegrass Festival. In addition to music, the festival offers artwork and guided kayak and walking tours. Keep an eye out for hawks and herons, otter and beaver – and fiddles and mandolins, too! Learn more at ridgefieldfriends.org.

Chipping Sparrows

The begging calls of male baby Chipping Sparrows mix into what is known as “subsong,” a sort of infant babbling. And, very quickly, subsong begins to change to imitations of adult songs. Next spring, when the young male returns for its first breeding season, it will settle in near an older male. Soon it drops all but one of the precursor songs – the one most like the older male’s song – and in a few days nearly matches its neighbor note for note. More at the Public Library of Science.

South Polar Skua

South Polar Skuas glide just off the Pacific Coast each fall. Skuas are prone to piracy, stealing fish from gulls and terns by chasing them down. These birds are also fierce predators on their Antarctic nesting grounds, raiding penguin colonies, eating eggs and young chicks alike. The word “skua” dates back to Old Norse. The skua’s annual appearance in the fall is part of an immense, annual clockwise migration, north from Antarctica to Japan, and then back south along the edge of North America. Learn more at BirdWeb.

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