Seein' red

The House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus is a familiar sight in mid-Michigan today. These 6″, talkative little birds get their name from their habit of hanging around houses. They build their nests in the hanging baskets, wreaths, or in trees, and their cheery warble or a variety of chirps is a constant around the bird feeders. The amount of red the finch has can vary depending on the amount of carotenoid pigments consumed in its food during molt.

Last week's younger finch with downy head feathers sticking up.

I wrote before about how the young House Finches were sporting baby feather plumes on their head. Now you are going to see a lot of young house finch males putting on their big boy colors. The girls will remain brown and creamy but the you will start to see red on the boys.

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Confident body language gestures of doves

"Sing it to the wing" translates to 
people speak as "Talk to the hand"

Through their body language, Mourning Doves are one of the most expressive birds in the backyard. The one wing up is often seen when a chipmunk or another bird approaches the feeding area. It backs off the interloper temporarily.

Other things I'm seeing are the puffing of neck feathers and chasing. At the beginning of fall, doves tend to gather together in loose flocks. The social structure is determined by a series of challenges between the birds. The bird that retreats the fewest times is considered dominant.

At the end of winter the birds separate into male and female groups and dominance within the single sex groups is established. The most dominant male soon scoops up the most dominate female and form a pair bond for the season. They are the first to pair, establish a territory and nest.

During courtships males perform a noisy flight display and then approach the female with a bow and a coo. Once she accepts the male they preen each other and stay very close. The male sometimes “drives” the female. He follows close behind and gives her a peck when she stops walking in areas where other males might be around.

Source: Ecology and Management of the Mourning Dove by Thomas S. Baskett
Photo from: https://www.pinterest.com

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What to do when there is a hawk in your yard

In late summer there is a lot of hawk activity in Michigan. Although we have hawks year-round in mid-Michigan some of the northern hawks are migrating south and young hawks have just become independent.

Dolly (cat) and I were just watching all the baby finches out the window. I was telling her they were easy pickings with lots of crunchy bits. A hawk must have heard the baby bird calls and thought the same thing. He didn't get a finch but a sparrow (perhaps plumper). The hawk looked like a young Cooper's Hawk based on the yellow eyes, size, rounded tail and thick vertical chest streaks.

What do you do when a hawk visits? I watch a little bit and then avert my eyes when the feathers start to fly. The presence of hawks at your feeders should in no way cause you to discontinue feeding birds. The Cooper’s Hawk, must catch and eat at least one item of prey every day to survive. Sparrows are the most frequent prey at the store. These hawks also eat small rodents, such as mice, chipmunks and voles.

Twenty minutes after the "incident" the birds were back at the feeders.

Additional steps to take if you have hawks in your yard:

• First and foremost, federal and state laws prohibit the capture, killing, or possession of hawks and owls. Raptors attracted to bird feeding stations are a problem only when they perch nearby all day. The birds return as soon as the Hawk flies away. So enjoy a close-up look at these magnificent birds while they are in your yard.
• If you feed birds, place your feeders where there is ample natural protection. Evergreen shrubs and trees can provide an easy escape for the birds.
• Keep in mind hawks in the neighborhood play an important role in controlling bird and rodent populations and usually ignore cats, dogs, and people.
• Ultimately, the only thing you can do when a hawk comes to dinner is wait it out. Most hawks that visit only do so for two or three weeks and then they are off again to different territory.

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Chestnut-sided Warbler begins fall migration

Chestnut-sided Warbler in breeding colors from Wikimedia Commons

Chestnut-sided in winter colors from Wikimedia Commons

During the breeding season (spring-summer), the chestnut-sided warbler has a yellow cap, black mask, plain white belly, yellowish wing bars and chestnut streaks along his sides. The breeding female is a little duller. After nesting they undergo a complete transformation. They have a gray and olive green coat with a white eye ring.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler is insectivorous predominately. Look for them as they hop from branch to branch with their tail cocked in search for insects on the underside of leaves. They may also be seen at suet feeders and bird baths.

They are nocturnal migrants that may join other warbler flocks and occasionally forage with them from mid-August to October as they fly south to spend their winter in Central America.

Watch the migration from spring to fall on eBird's occurrence map: http://ebird.org/chestnut-sided-warbler migration.  It's interesting to note that the flight up in May is through Texas and the flight down in the fall is through Florida.
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Plants growing under the feeder

Pokeberry bloom to berry

Someone recently asked if we changed the ingredients in the Wild Birds Unlimited No-Mess blend bird seed because there were plants growing under the feeder. The blend is made up of sunflower seed, peanut pieces, and millet without the shell or hull. It is 100% edible and should not grow anything.

However this summer has been just warm and wet enough for weeds to grow like crazy. But if they aren't coming from the bird seed why do they come up right under the feeders? Well it doesn't come from our bird seed but from the birds themselves. Once they load up with fresh, high fat, high protein, quality bird seed, the have to unload some weight to fly away.

Birds don't just eat at bird feeders. They search widely for food from a variety of plants that produce seed heads and fruit and then excrete the undigested seeds where they perch. If the conditions are right the seed will grow and produce more seeds for the birds to spread even further away.

I don't get a lot of weeds but I pull a few out every time I fill the feeders. Occasionally I get a weed that I like and leave alone. One of my favorites is the Pokeberry, a native Michigan perennial also found throughout the Northeast. They can get out of hand and spread but a few near the feeder are pretty and attract some nice birds including warblers passing through in the fall.

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Photo Share: Racing Pigeon makes a pit stop

We had an unexpected visitor the other day at my Fly-thru feeder. I believe it was a Homing or Racing Pigeon? These pigeons are a variety of Domestic Pigeon (Columba livia domestica) that is able to find their way home over extremely long distances. They are selectively bred and trained to complete tests of speed (37 mph on average) and navigation, according to the researchers. On weekends in the Spring and Fall, thousands of racing pigeon fanciers have birds competing in races at distances from 100 to 600 miles.

My visitor had a white band on his leg so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Rock Dove venturing away from some bridge. It was huge but quite beautiful with a smokey gray body, strong black wing bands and a rainbow of colors on his neck. He was in very good shape, but if I you ever find a distressed pigeon with a band, the owner can be traced through the National Pigeon Association’s (NPA) website at www.npausa.com.

If anyone else would like to share a photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com with a description and permission to post it on the Friday Photo.

Hawks and hummingbirds

I love this time of year! Activity at the hummingbird feeder is way up. A hummingbird has to gain 25 – 40% extra body-weight to have enough fuel to migrate thousands of miles south. You will notice hummers getting a fresh set of feathers and fatter along the belly, back, and throat.

In order to conserve their strength, sometimes they’ll guard a particularly tasty food source like a hummingbird feeder or flowering bush. I have one hummingbird female that is taking it a little further. She is in charge of my whole yard right now. The hummingbird feeders are hers, the flowering bush is hers, finch feeder is hers, the seed feeder is hers, it is all hers.

The other night when she wasn't perched on her swing, she harassed the songbirds, baby raccoons, squirrels and even a young Cooper's Hawk wasn't exempt from her bossiness. The hawk gave a casual glance but I think knew this was one fight that should be avoided.

In fact biologist Harold Greeney found breeding hummingbirds often cluster below hawk nests. His report revealed hawks don’t prey on hummingbirds or their nests—there’s not enough meal in a hummer to be worth the effort, apparently. But the hawk inadvertently protects the hummingbirds from other predators.

In the end, the time this female hummingbird wasted patrolling the rest of the critters in the yard, allowed other hummers to sneak in a few meals from some of the several hummingbird feeders that are scattered around the yard. It is good to put up multiple feeders at different locations to relieve the stresses of late summer feeding and allow as many hummers as possible fuel up.

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Bee carrying a feather

A bird had an unfortunate end in my yard:(  Curiously, I saw a bee taking a fluffy feather from the pile left behind. Why do you think this happened?

My recreation of the event

I don’t know but I could make some guesses:

1. It might have been a wasp. Bees are vegetarians but most wasps are predators and could be going after bird tissue.

2. In dry weather, foraging workers might carry feathers home to capture fluids or dew.

3. Some birds wipe ants on their feathers (a practice called anting) to help combat parasites on themselves. Squashed ants produce defensive chemicals and perhaps the bee used these anted feathers to protect the hive from parasites.

Watch the video of a feather being carried away: https://youtu.be/Hq02gMmPPMI

Will wren abandon the nest?

We had a wren house that fledged 4 babies on 8/1... After we brought the house in to clean it only to see a wren perched on the birdhouse pole trying to figure out where their house went to...

OMG! So I ran downstairs to the basement and brought the house back outside...still not cleaned yet on the inside (only the nest removed). They hopped in and out and then flew to the neighbor’s yard to build a nest. Darn! I just didn't know they would try to nest in the house immediately afterwards. The day the babies fledged was 8/1. They came back yesterday on 8/2!!!!

I have learned a valuable lesson the hard way. Next time...if there is ever a next time, I will wait til late October before taking down the birdhouse to clean. Currently one of the adults is bringing a couple of the fledglings around our gardens and still feeding them. So my question is...will they try and build a nest in the house the same time next year, or did I ruin that prospect?

Wrens can be tricky. I’m fairly sure that you weren’t seeing the same two birds nesting again in the same box. Either male or female may leave their first mate to finish up raising the young alone and seek a new mate for a second or third breeding attempt during a season. Males can build several false nests and, if experienced, may even have a couple families going at the same time or consecutively. Females may also leave the male with the young to start another family with a new male.

But even though they didn’t choose your box for the late nesting, putting it back up may have sealed the deal for a female to nest again. Females have all the power in choosing a mate and in northern populations and only settle with males in control of territory with more than one potential nest site.

Wrens and chickadees are good at emptying out an old nest but it is always good to check to make sure the nest doesn’t have any unhatched eggs or pests between clutches. A thorough cleaning can be done in the fall. Most nesting is done after Labor Day in my area.

Once you clean and refurbish the house I’m sure you will have another resident next spring. It sounds like you have a good habitat for them to raise young. In northern populations, few pairs stay together from one brood to the next or from one season to the next season. Mate-switching is very common. With all the successful baby birds in your area there is bound to be a female that finds your home enticing.

Source:  https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/houwre/behavior
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Mess under bird feeders

My goldfinches seem to kick a lot of the thistle to the ground. Should I put a tray on my feeder?

What looks like wasted seed on the ground is probably just lots of tiny shells. Unfortunately as small as nyjer "thistle" seeds are, the black part on the outside is merely the shell finches split open efficiently to extract the high fat, high protein oil within.

Fortunately this seed has been heat treat so that if one seed does escape a finch’s grasp it won’t sprout. I would recommend you rake the area occasionally or plant a ground cover under the feeders. You could also add a tray to collect the shells to dispose of regularly.

Finch feeders have very small feeding ports to control the flow of the teeny tiny Nyjer® (thistle) seed but still allow skinny-billed finches to extract a seed. There are two popular styles. One is a stabilized, polycarbonate tube that has a perches for the birds to stand on and pick a seed from a slit in a tube. The other is a mesh tube where the birds cling to the mesh and pluck seeds from any open spot.

When choosing a finch feeder always look for something easy to fill and easy to clean. The Wild Birds Unlimited finch feeders in East Lansing, MI have Quick-Clean bases that makes maintenance a snap, a Lifetime Guarantee and are also made in the U.S.A. You can’t go wrong!

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What will the solar eclipse look like in Lansing, Michigan

The Wild Birds Unlimited store in East Lansing, Michigan will see a partial solar eclipse on Monday August 21, 2017. The eclipse will peak at 2:24 pm, when the moon obscures 79.8% of the sun. A shadow of the moon will start to cover the sun at 1 pm, and it’ll pass over most of the sun slowly until almost 3:45pm.

A Vox.com graphic can show you what you’ll see, and the time you’ll see it, in your zip code: https://www.vox.com/interactive-map

Even though we don't have a total eclipse in our area you will still notice a dramatic drop-off in light and temperature. You may even hear the birds stop chirping because of the lower light. 

"The birds behave as if the disappearance of the sun means evening, and the return of the sun means morning - in time-lapse of course," Wolfgang Fiedler notes. The ornithologist works at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany.

Bird watchers have observed birds return to their sleeping places, fall silent during the short period of the eclipse, and then start singing more intensely when this ends, as if it were daybreak. "Obviously, the birds interpret the differing light conditions as sunset, night and dawn. But they are not harmed by this," Fiedler clarifies.

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