1. Is this bird attractive? I’m not sure… It’s very colorful, but it also might be a little over the top. You be the judge.

2. Now, I know what your thinking: “how can I get my hands on this tasty-looking bird?” But not so fast, according to Birds of the World (the wikipedia of bird knowledge), this bird “has a reputation of being unpalatable.” Plus, hunting this bird would be a federal crime.

3. This bird lives across the majority of South America, but its range only extends into a small sliver of the American South. At the northernmost part of its range, this bird is migratory.

4. This bird likes freshwater marshes, and doesn’t seem to mind humans. It also likes rice paddies and other human-built environments.

5. This bird has some creepy feet. Don’t believe me?

Have a great week!

Each day, you get a list of five bird species. Your goal is to guess where those five species co-occur. Very fun, very free. www.find-a-flock.com

On to this week’s bird, the: Pine Warbler

1. The Pine Warbler breeds in Eastern North America, with many individuals migrating up from the Southeastern U.S. to the Northeast for the summer (this is a hint for today’s puzzle…).

2. Regardless of where you find these birds geographically, you are likely to see them in tall pine trees. They are most abundant in older pine forests with a dense canopy.

3. Unlike most warblers, seeds can make up a large part of this species’ diet. This probably helps them to live in the American Southeast during the winter months, a time when many other warbler species fly much farther south.

4. The Pine Warbler is also a very chonky boy (for a warbler), weighing in at a massive 9-15 grams. That’s nearly twice as chonky as the teeny-tiny American Redstart (6-9 grams). Having a little more meat on your bones is good on cold nights.

5. This bird can be easy to miss (at least for me) because it sounds very similar to the Chipping Sparrow and Dark-eyed Junco. So if you hear a high-pitched trill, look up! (Unless it’s a Chipping Sparrow or a Dark-eyed Junco, which are usually on or near the ground)

Have a wonderful week!

1. The Olive-sided Flycatcher is one of the most impressive migrant species. Some individuals leave the Andes in March, arrive in Alaska in June, and turn around and head back starting in July - a trip totaling 7,000 miles.

2. What do these birds eat to fuel their arduous migrations? Bugs! Fly. Catchers. 7,000 miles powered entirely by flies…

3. Insects power these birds during the breeding season too. These flycatchers often are found in recently burned forests, where the large number of insects makes it easier to find food to feed their young.

4. Flycatchers have a large family (taxonomically speaking) with over 422 species – making it the largest avian family. Some notably cool-named siblings of this species: Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant, Rufous Twistwing and the Bearded Tachuri.

5. The range of the Olive-Sided Flycatcher has changed over the last two hundred year, expanding in parts of California, and contracting in parts of the Northeast. 

6. BONUS: The song of these birds has been described as sounding like: “Quick! Three beers!” Try and go hear one in your closest, most recently burned forest.

Have a great week!

1. The Golden Pheasant goes by a few names, including Rainbow Pheasant and Chinese Pheasant. Its scientific name (Chrysolophus pictus) loosely translates to “painted golden crest” (pretty accurate).

2. This bird is native to the mountains of China, where it is supposedly difficult to see. I really can’t imagine how that’s possible given its painted golden crest, but that’s the word on the street.

3. Due to its glorious visage, this bird has been imported all around the world, where it often has made daring escapes much to the joy of the general public.

4. In some cases, escapees have led to free-living populations, like in Hawaii and England. Although the English population grew into the thousands in the early 1980s, those numbers have declined ever since. The reason remains a mystery.

5. Luckily, back in their native range, the Golden Pheasant may be expanding their range due to climate change, despite hunting and pressure from the pet trade. Hooray!

Have a wonderful week!

1. A member of the mimic family (Mimidae), the Brown Thrasher can imitate the songs of other birds.

2. Despite this cool ability, they mostly stick to their own sounds. Their own sounds are highly varied though, with one study putting the number of unique ones at over 1000!

3. The Brown Thrasher is an eastern bird, with some birds moving up from southern states to the Midwest and Northeast during the summer.

4. Brown Thrashers are a very common host for the Brown-headed Cowbird, a brood parasite. They will most often raise these birds, but sometimes recognize the shifty eggs and boot them out of their nests.

5. Brown Thrashers like semi-open areas, rather than fully closed forests. Despite being historically common in the Northeast, their numbers seem to be declining there due to reforestation.

Have a great week!

1. This species’ scientific name is pretty great: Nycticorax nycticorax. The word “nycticorax” is loosely translated to “night crow” or “night raven.”

2. The Black-crowned Night Heron is found around the world, on every continent except Antarctica.

3. In contrast to this species insanely large range, its five cousin species in the genus Nycticorax are/were much more range restricted, four of which were restricted to single islands off of Africa.

4. Unfortunately, having such a small range is a big risk. During the colonial era, these four single-island cousins went extinct soon after they were discovered by early European explorers, almost certainly due to anthropogenic causes (introduced species, habitat degradation, etc.).

5. For the Black-crowned Night Heron, having a large range is a good insurance policy. Although having a private island is nice, when bad things happen (like humans), it doesn’t take much to snuff out a few million years of evolution.

6. In case you are worried, the Black-crowned Night Heron is doing great in most places (populations are stable), especially in North America after people stopped using DDT.

Have a great week!

* Poke-A-Bird *

a new iPhone app from the team that brings you Bird of the Week. The app is a retro-style game for logging your real-world bird sightings by “poking” virtual birds. You can even stop an evil developer from destroying a wildlife sanctuary if you poke (see) enough birds. Check it out here!

Now, without further ado…

This week’s bird is the: Acorn Woodpecker

1. This bird is true to its name – acorns make up >50% of its diet! When it is not eating insects, you can find this bird eating fruit and insects.

2. These birds store acorns for cold months in “granary trees.” These trees often contain thousands of individually drilled holes, each of which is filled with a single acorn. These holes are drilled over long periods of time by generations of woodpeckers!

3. These granaries are very valuable, and so they need to be defended! To do this, Acorn Woodpeckers form social groups that work together to defend granaries from other woodpeckers, as well as other acorn-eating animals.

4. For example, these birds will mob poor little ground squirrels that get too close! Don’t even think about stealing those acorns!!

5. You may have seen this bird in the news, when 700 pounds of acorns were found in the wall of a house, stashed there by - you guessed it - Acorn Woodpeckers.

Have a great week!

1. The Golden-cheeked Warbler has an extremely limited range. During the breeding season, it is only found in a narrow band of juniper woodlands in Texas. During the non-breeding season, it lives in high-elevation pine forests from Southern Mexico to Nicaragua.

2. This species is strongly associated with the Ashe juniper, a tree with a similarly limited range mostly within Texas. The Golden-cheeked Warbler uses all different parts of this tree to make its nest (e.g. bark, leaves twigs) secured with cobwebs. This whole process of construction takes about 4-6 days.

3. Because of this species limited range and the destruction of much of its habitat due to conversion of land to farmland, ranches and urban sprawl, this species is on the IUCN and U.S. endangered species list.

4. At the moment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering delisting the species (changing its classification from endangered to threatened), despite the fact that its habitat is still in steep decline (down 29% from 2000 to 2010). A switch from endangered to threatened would remove many automatic and sweeping protections for the species.

5. Golden-cheeked Warblers are a charismatic species that have drawn a lot of public interest and support in the past, and it is likely that the species will remain on the endangered list as a result. Greater protection of this species means a broader protection of an extremely unique ecosystem in which it lives. Meaning, even if you don’t like birds (and I think you probably do), protecting this bird means protecting the similarly rare and unique species that it cohabitates with.

6. BONUS! In case you were wondering, there will eventually be a public comment period during the delisting process. So stay tuned…

Have a great week!

1. All petrels belong to the order Procellariiformes, collectively referred to as “tubenoses.” You can guess where this name comes from – they have little tubes on their bills!

2. These tube structures give these birds a ridiculously good sense of smell. They can smell the odor from oils and other substances excreted from marine life. They can even smell plankton! This ability allows them to find local concentrations of food in a very expansive ocean environment.

3. Tubenoses also drink seawater. They have to, because they spend virtually all of their life at sea (except when breeding). To process seawater, these birds basically act as mini desalination plants, using specialized structures near their eyes that allow them to concentrate and excrete salt, retaining that nice desalinated water.

4. Petrels usually migrate quite far from their breeding grounds on remote islands to deeper oceans during the rest of the year. The Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel is an exception, mostly sticking nearby its breeding sites. Some populations in California are even considered resident.

5. These birds are very abundant around the Gulf of Alaska. Recent population estimates put the total number around 3-5 million.

   

Have a great week!

1. I was recently introduced to the Medium Egret, a mid-sized (surprise!) egret that ranges from India to Indonesia to Japan. I think a lot of bird names are bad, but being called “medium” is just sad… The Little Egret is cute, the Great Egret is great, but the Medium Egret is just…. medium?

2. So I wanted to see how many of the >10,000 birds in the world have the word “medium” in their name. Turns out, it’s just three (phew). Along with the Medium Egret, there is the Medium Tree-Finch and the Medium Ground-Finch, both birds of the Galapagos Islands.

3. The Medium Ground-Finch was made medium famous because of its association with Charles Darwin, who recorded this species and other closely related birds when he visited the Galapagos. Eventually, this group of species became known as “Darwin’s Finches.”

   

4. Darwin’s Finches have a wide range in beak sizes, each of which is adapted to eat food of varying sizes (the small-billed Small Ground-Finch eats smaller seeds, the large-billed Large Ground-Finch eats larger seeds). All come from a common ancestor that reached the Galapagos from the mainland. In case you were wondering, the Medium Tree-Finch, along with the Small and Large Tree-Finches, are also in the Darwin’s Finch group, but mainly eats bugs.

5. In addition to the early impact of Darwin’s Finches on the development of the theory of evolution, recent research demonstrated evidence of evolutionary processes occurring in real time. Climate variability can change the availability of seeds of particular sizes in the Galapagos. When small seeds are abundant, smaller billed Medium Ground-Finches do great and produce a lot of small-billed chicks. Then, when the climate changes and bigger seeds are more abundant, bigger-billed individuals do better! As a result, the average bill size among populations fluctuates each year.

6. BONUS: Research shows that being the having the most medium-sized bill among Medium Ground-Finches is not a great strategy. Instead, the most fit individuals (those that have the most offspring), either have a slightly smaller or larger than average bill.

So to bring this full circle, I like the name medium in this case because it reflects something really interesting about the biology of this bird and it’s close relatives. Medium Egret on the other hand…

Have a great week!

This week’s bird is the: Summer Tanager

1. The Summer Tanager is a full migrant, spending its winters in Central and South America, as well as parts of the Caribbean.

2. But right about now (mid-April), this bird starts appearing on its breeding grounds in the southernmost parts of its summer range in the United States. Over the next month or so, it will be findable from Maryland to Arizona.

3. Once it gets to its breeding grounds, this bird starts eating a lot of insects – most notably, bees. People (bird scientists) seem to be really into the idea that this bird spends all year mainlining bees, but there is quite a bit of evidence that this bird is really an omnivore, regularly eating fruit and other insects. It’s no European Bee-Eater…

   

4. It takes about 12 days for laid eggs to hatch, and just 10 days for hatchlings to be able to fly. After young leave the nest, birds take about 3 weeks to become independent. Then the baby Summer Tanagers go off to live a mostly solitary life, eating bees (and other things) by themselves.

5. In most parts of the country, this bird’s numbers are increasing, meaning you may be more likely to spot one in the treetops this summer. Good news!

Have a great week!

1. This bird lives in the southeast United States, where it lives in forests with old pines.

2. Brown-headed Nuthatches like hopping all over tree trunks looking for insects hidden in cracks in the bark. During the winter months they also eat pine seeds from inside pinecones.

3. These birds nest in cavities that they excavate themselves, laying around 5 eggs each clutch.

4. Brown-headed Nuthatches breed very early, usually in late spring. It’s not exactly clear why, but one theory is that they do this to avoid competing with other cavity-nesting birds that breed later and may beat them up for their nice cozy nest site.

5. This species is known to exhibit cooperative breeding behavior, a trait that is not common among songbirds. Closely related males (usually a male hatched in the previous year) will help a breeding pair to feed young, defend from intruders, and clean the nest.

Have a great week!

The bird of the week is the: Double-crested Cormorant

1) With a four foot wingspan, the Double-crested Cormorant is one of the largest birds in North America.

2) This size talent makes them one of the three most hazardous species to air travelers. How??? (disclaimer: these ones were actually geese, but you can get the idea).

3) Historically (and today) people have not really been big fans of cormorants because they allegedly eat fish that fishermen would rather eat. Some people also consider them “trash birds.”

4) This animus means that laws have been enacted so that these birds are allowed to be killed (and their eggs destroyed) in order to protect human interests.

5) Unrelatedly, the amount of poop that builds up under cormorant roosts can lead to the death of trees! So these birds may be a little bit of a nuisance…

Have a great week!

1) The Snow Goose is one of the most abundant waterfowl species in North America due to effective habitat protection measures and tight hunting regulations. More recently, government regulators have lifted hunting controls in response to a rapidly growing population.

2) Snow geese come in two colors - dark and light. The coloration of individuals depends on a minor genetic difference, but makes the birds look like they are a totally unique species!

3) Flying from the Northern Arctic to as far south as Mexico, some birds fly 1,800 miles twice a year.

4) Snow Geese have been clocked flying at over 50 mph during migration! That’s fast!

5) In the summer, Snow Geese must defend their eggs from seagulls, foxes and polar bears. Oh my!

Have a great week!

1. The Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) is a bird of open grasslands ranging from British Columbia to the Florida Panhandle.

2. Although the Western Meadowlark looks quite similar to the Eastern Meadowlark, the two species rarely interbreed, and when they do, hybrid offspring are usually sterile.

3. When European colonists came here, they kind of just sent it with the bird names with reckless abandon for internal consistency. Meadowlarks are not related to the larks of the old world (although they look somewhat similar to some actual larks). They are most commonly related to the much less appreciated blackbirds.

4. Like other blackbirds, these birds eat lots of seeds during most of the year. However, during the summer months, 99% of their diet can consist of insects. This seasonal diet switch is very common in birds. High insect abundance during the summer and the pressure to feed young nutrient-rich food explains why birds change their diet.

5. Western Meadowlarks are migratory, and tend to migrate during the day, rather than at night like most migratory birds. Why exactly is unknown!

Have a great week!

1. Northern Bobwhites are members of the quail family, and the only member of this family that inhabits the Eastern United States. This species’ most closely related relatives in North America are the quail of the West, like California and Gambel’s Quail.

2. Larger bird species generally live longer, but this medium-sized species is an exception. The oldest Northern Bobwhite clocked in at just under six and a half years old.

3. But Northern Bobwhites love making baby bobwhites. Most of the time, bobwhites lay 12-14 eggs per nest, but sometimes people have found up to 28 eggs in one nest! Plus, they can breed three times per year! That is actually hard for me to believe... I don’t know if that’s a bird world record, but it feels like it should be one.

4. Like some other species featured in BOTW, bobwhites rely on fire throughout much of their range. Fire acts to keep the ground open by burning larger vegetation (e.g. trees).

5. As you may have guessed, without natural fire regimes, bobwhites have declined across much of their historic range (with other factors like habitat loss contributing). Prescribed burns are now used to keep some habitats available for bobwhite.

6. Bonus good news fact: Because people like to hunt these birds, and because they are so darn cute, many people are focused on studying and protecting this awesome species. They can have a lot of babies, so under the right conditions it is possible for these birds to bounce back quickly.

Have a wonderful week!

1) Crossbills are small finches that can be found at northern latitudes around the world.

2) This is one of those birds with a ridiculously cool adaptation - a bill that literally crosses over itself (hence the name, obviously).

3) Why have such a weird beak? Well if you asked your Biology 101 teacher, they would remind you that form = function. Meaning it looks that way because it does something useful. Check out this incredible slow-mo video to see how this bird uses its bill to extract seeds from conifers.

4) In an even more ridiculous turn of evolutionary events, subspecies of this bird have bill structures that are optimized for extracting seeds from particular trees (with different sized/shaped cones) that are most common within their range.

5) When they aren’t eating seeds, crossbills also eat snow. Their bills are not optimized for eating snow….

Have a wonderful week!

1. In 1957, the American Ornithological Society (the bird name change people) changed the name of the Canada Jay (scientific name: Perisoreus canadensis) to the Gray Jay.

2. Apparently, the AOS renamed it because they thought place-based names would cause confusion when referring to specific subspecies also named after places (e.g. “Oregon Canada Jay” – we’ve all been there, right??)

3. Just to really stick it to the Canadians, the AMERICAN Ornithological Society used the American way of spelling the word gray (not: grey).

4. Enter the hero of this story: the naturalist and scientist (and Canadian) Dan Strickland who has studied these birds for decades and uncovered many previously unknown aspects of this birds biology.

5. Strickland authored a note to the AOS, petitioning the name by changed back to the Canada Jay. Apparently, pretty much no one had a problem with that (Gray Jay is a super boring name anyway), and the name was subsequently reverted back to Canada Jay in 2018.

6. Through all the name fights, the Canada Jay has remained a fan favorite, due to its penchant for feeding out of the hands of people at ski resorts. A smart corvid, they figure most of us mean them no harm, except for those darn american naming people… grrr….

Have a great week!

1. Although the Wallcreeper may at first glance look like our Brown Creeper (and have a confusingly similar name), the two are not closely related. The Brown Creeper is in the treecreeper family, while the Wallcreeper is in the distinct wallcreeper family, of which there is only one species… the Wallcreeper!

2. This bird is not only evolutionarily unique, it also has some traits that make it a singularly ridiculous bird. One of which is that it lives at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet!

3. When you like rocks like this bird does, you tend to live in rocky mountains. Wallcreepers are particularly affiliated with the Alps, Caucasus, and Himalayas.

4. These birds use rocks in a particularly gruesome way: once they capture their prey (usually insects, see pic), they smash them against a rock face until they are… nice and tender.

5. In the winter, these birds leave the highest mountains in order to find more food and avoid the worst weather conditions. That makes them “elevational migrants.”

Have a great week!

BOTW is on an Italian vacation this week and next. So you get some Italian reruns in the meantime!

This week’s bird is the: Sardinian Warbler

1) This is a truly Mediterranean bird, with a range stretching from Egypt to Portugal.

2) Although most birds stay put, some migrate down south to the Sahara. So I guess not fully Mediterranean…

3) These birds mostly eat insects, but also supplement their diets with fruit. Olives are a favorite (classic Mediterranean bird, am I right??).

4) This bird is closely related to “desert warblers,” which means it has some very hardy cousins.

5) Because they like it hot, Sardinian Warblers and their cousins are hypothesized by some to have benefitted from global warming. The range of Sardinian Warblers has expanded in many countries in the last few decades.

Have a great week!