This male American Redstart shows off his striking coal-and-fire plumage. Photo by Toribird.
There truly is no other event on the birding calendar quite like migration! The southward movement of birds is in full swing, and there are lots of fascinating feathered friends taking a pit stop here in Philly.
Read MoreCongratulations, Philly, on joining Lights Out! Photo by Toribird.
It's Toribird here, bringing great news for Philadelphia's birds and bird lovers! Philly has finally joined over 30 other cities in a Lights Out program to give migrant birds safer passage. Many major Center City skyscrapers have voluntarily agreed to turn off all outside lights during peak migration seasons.
Read MoreThere truly is no other event on the birding calendar quite like migration! The southward movement of birds is in full swing, and there are lots of fascinating feathered friends taking a pit stop here in Philly. Some of my favorite avian travelers are the diminutive warblers. Like many other birds, they migrate at night and pause to feed and rest when dawn comes. To spot warblers, search out trees lit by the soft fall morning sunlight, and you will likely be rewarded with the royal pattern of a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, or the flickering color in an American Redstart's tail.
This male American Redstart shows off his striking coal-and-fire plumage. Photo by Toribird.
Several Ospreys, presumably migrants, were seen flying over the Woodlands at the Bird Calls morning concert in late August. Photo by Toribird.
Birds much larger than warblers are also on the move. On a brisk day with winds out of the northwest (optimal for migration), you may see gulls, raptors, herons, and nighthawks pass by overhead. If you are lucky, you may even catch large flocks (called kettles) with double-digit numbers of Broad-winged Hawks circling high above! If you are interested in finding out when the most migrants will be coming through, check out BirdCast. It's a website that analyzes various factors, including wind direction and radar, to predict how strong bird flight will be over the next three days. It now even lets you easily look at migration alerts for your local area!
And, on top of all the birds already mentioned, Red-breasted Nuthatches are already moving in! Like many boreal seedeaters, these nuthatches are an irruptive species (to read more about irruptive birds, I invite you to look at this previous blog post). Since the food source of these birds can fluctuate substantially, they must be able to adjust from year to year. Luckily for us Pennsylvania birders, this adjustment sometimes means that the birds come down to our area for the colder months of the year.
Illustration of a Carolina Parakeet by Alexander Wilson, a prominent early American ornithologist. The other three birds in the picture are (from left to right) Wilson's Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Hooded Warbler. The warblers have escaped extinction, at least for now - a haunting echo of the one in four birds lost. Picture from Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
On a more solemn note, we just recently hit the one-year anniversary of the staggering finding that North America has lost three billion birds in the last 50 years. That's the equivalent of having lost 1 in 4 birds since 1970. Perhaps the most worrisome part of this finding is that it's not only endangered species that are declining, but even common birds like Chimney Swifts and Herring Gulls are having a hard time as well.
I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the species that we have already lost. Last winter saw the premier of a remarkable choral piece focused on four extinct North American birds. Here, you can hear the movements dedicated to the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina Parakeet. Both of these birds graced the Pennsylvania landscape in the time of William Hamilton.
Luckily, there are things we can all do to prevent the birds that are still with us from meeting the same dark fate as the Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet.
Here are seven simple actions to help birds:
1. Make windows safer - up to one billion birds die each year from colliding with windows. Applying decals, tempera paint, or stripe patterns spaced four inches apart horizontally to the outside surface of windows greatly reduces bird strikes.
2. Keep cats indoors or on a leash - cats make wonderful pets, but pose a significant threat to wildlife when left to their own devices, and kill about 2 and a half billion birds a year. Having cats as indoor pets or trained to walk on leashes is more humane for both cats and birds.
3. Use native plants - native plants are an essential source of food for birds, both directly and by providing a food source for the insects that birds rely on. As increasingly large swaths of habitat are destroyed, it is all the more important that we give birds the resources they need.
4. Avoid pesticides - these toxic chemicals can have deadly impact on birds if they are ingested, and have taken a severe toll on the insect population, which in turn also affects birds. Staying away from pesticides is much healthier for both people and birds.
5. Drink shade-grown coffee - the majority of coffee is grown on sun plantations that offer about as many ecological resources as a parking lot. Shade-grown coffee, as the name implies, is grown under tall trees and largely preserves the habitat.
6. Use less plastic - many birds, particularly those that live in or near the ocean, will frequently mistake plastic items for food. Stay away from single-use plastic as much as possible.
7. Watch birds and share what you see - citizen science is a vital part of tracking bird population trends. With increased knowledge, it becomes easier to identify how to best help at-risk species. Consider submitting your bird observations to eBird, a global database.
Written by:
Toribird
Our resident birding expert, Toribird is writing about ways to enjoy Spring Migration from home this week, just in time for the Philadelphia City Nature Challenge. Normally an international competition, this year’s City Nature Challenge is a collaborative world wide effort to document as many unique species as possible in your city or town using the iNaturalist App. Between April 24th and April 27th participants in Philadelphia and neighboring counties (Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington) can document the wildlife of their basements and back yards, and, to the extent possible (based on recommendations from the city and health officials), you can head off into their neighborhoods and green spaces like The Woodlands on your own or with family. Remember while at The Woodlands to wear a mask, and DO NOT touch any headstones, climb any trees, or cut any flowers. We hope you’ll use the City Nature Challenge as an opportunity to experience The Woodlands in new and exciting ways. Happy birding!
As our community tackles the Covid-19 pandemic, life is turned upside down for us all. You might be lonely, or missing an activity that used to be a staple of your week. Or maybe you're anxious, unsure what the future will bring. Whether you are looking for a new hobby to fill the time, or need to take a moment to gather your thoughts and ease your worries, nature is a good solution to turn to. And this is a good time to begin paying more attention to the birds that share our neighborhoods - it's migration season, and the birds are coming, just as they have every year. From regal hawks to colorful warblers, the travelers are winging their way north towards us, and indeed several have already arrived. Read on to explore ways to enjoy these feathered beauties from your own home.
A male American Goldfinch enjoys a coneflower seed snack in West Philadelphia. Photo by Toribird.
If you’re finding yourself using the extra time at home to tend to your garden, why not add to the beauty by attracting cheerful songbirds? To make your yard more appealing to birds, you’ll want to add dense shrubs or hedges that can provide good shelter, limit use of chemicals, and of course plant lots of native plants! A water feature, particularly moving water, is also a magnet for birds - and it can attract birds that don’t usually come to feeders, like warblers. Keeping dead trees around is also a good thing to do; they are a very important source of food and habitat for woodpeckers, and you might even get an owl in your tree cavity! Some plants that are particularly good at attracting birds include coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), bayberry (Myrica ssp.), and trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). Goldfinches love to feast on the coneflower seeds, and Tree Swallows and Yellow-rumped Warblers have the rare ability to digest bayberry fruit; this plant also provides good cover for other species. Honeysuckle attracts hummingbirds and other pollinators, and provides welcome shelter for birds, particularly in the winter.
Another way to put this time to good use is by starting or expanding your yard-list. The idea of a yard-list is quite simple - a record of the bird species seen or heard from anywhere in your home or yard. You can choose to count only the birds interacting with your area (like a sparrow coming to your feeder), or expand it to birds flying over or seen across the street (like a crow flying elsewhere but seen from your porch). This is a good time to start paying more attention to birds in your area since it's migration season, and almost anything could fly overhead or stop in your garden to feed and rest! Looking in the sky, you could see Broad-winged Hawks and other raptors, gulls, or other birds passing by. I even had a migrant loon fly over my house on April 12th! Songbirds like warblers and thrushes may also drop by for a visit, particularly if you provide them with water and shelter.
This Hermit Thrush dropped by my backyard and was a nice surprise on a spring morning! Photo by Toribird.
If local birds just aren't cutting it for you, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's bird cams. There, you can watch birds from icy Ontario to tropical Panama real-time, as well as delve into the lives of more familiar birds like Red-tailed Hawks and Ospreys.
This is also a great time to brush up on your bird identification skills. As the breeding season advances, birds will begin singing more, to stake claims to territory and attract a mate. Learning to recognize them by ear can be very handy, as they can be tough to see among foliage. In some cases, like with flycatchers, the birds' song is actually more distinctive than their looks! To become familiar with bird sounds, I recommend the free app, Chirp!, which lets you create fun custom quizzes and slideshows. Unfortunately, it's only available on Apple devices. You can also check out the Macaulay Library's wealth of recordings, or Larkwire, a game-based resource for learning bird sounds.
I recently did this sketch of a male Hairy Woodpecker. Photo by Toribird.
Of course, it's also good to identify birds by sight. I find that drawing a bird is an excellent way to become more familiar with it. It really helps me be aware of and learn the bird's markings and proportions - both keys to ID. It is totally alright to draw from pictures, but for a bit of a challenge you could also try drawing a live bird outside your window. Another great way to expand your knowledge is by sitting and reading your bird field guide, rather than just using when you are struggling to ID an unfamiliar bird. If you are a techy person who prefers screens to paper, there are many bird identification apps that you can download. One of my favorites is Merlin Bird ID, which can give you a targeted list of possible birds based on a picture or information like location and color. It is free and available for both Apple and Android devices.
I hope that I've helped you come up with ways to cope with this difficult time, and to take a moment to appreciate the birds, whose sweet serenades and beautiful plumes are for all to appreciate!
Written by:
Toribird
This is the 1-year Anniversary of Toribird’s blog series, and she’s kicking off summer with a great blog post.
Male Yellow Warbler, photo by Toribird
Though spring migration is all but over, there is still lots to see! Most warblers pass through Philly only on migration, but some breed right in the area, staying the whole summer! A couple of these charming residents are the colorful Yellow Warbler and the striking Black-and-White Warbler. Both are common in forested areas like The Woodlands, and their appearance is summed up by their names: Yellow Warblers are all yellow, with rusty streaks on the male's belly. Black-and-Whites have long stripes of black and white. Listen for the Black-and-White's song as you bird - it sounds a lot like a squeaky wheel.
In addition to the warblers, another exciting bird in the area is the Cedar Waxwing. These attractive birds get their name from red drops on their wings that resemble sealing wax. They are nomadic with irregular movements, and it seems like a fair bit of them are in the area right now! A good clue to their presence is their very high-pitched, squeaky, whistles or trills. They are very gregarious, meaning that they like to be in a flock with others. So, if you see a waxwing, look around - there are probably lots more nearby!
Cedar Waxwing enjoying berries, photo by Toribird
Another bird to keep your eye out for is the Mississippi Kite. While rare this far north, there has been a relatively high amount of them around in the past month. If you see one, it will probably be flying overhead. Kites' pointed wings, darker wingtips, smooth gray underparts, and graceful flight can point you towards an ID. Keep checking the sky while you bird - you might catch a kite!
Mississippi Kites in New Jersey, photos by Toribird
And now, let's talk about what Summer might be best known for - it's breeding season! Lots of songbirds are building nests and feeding hungry babies. Some already have fledged, are are hopping around, stubby-winged and fuzzy, exploring the world beyond their nest. You may have heard that a baby bird will be ignored by its parents if touched by a human - this is not true. While birds are very well taken care of by attentive parents, and there is usually no need for us to interfere, if a baby is in immediate danger (e.g. being stalked by a cat or in the middle of the street) it doesn't hurt to move it to safety.
Written by: Toribird
For more information about Toribird and her birding tips, check out this past blog post.
