Now that the summer birds have headed south again, the year round resident birds are more noticeable, like the cheerful Chickadee, who are visiting the feeders very frequently on this chilly morning.
According to Cornell Lab of Ornithology, every autumn Chickadees literally “allow brain neurons containing old information to die, replacing them with new neurons” so they can adapt to change in the next season. And with a fresh mind, which I don’t have, the Chickadee can hide seeds to eat later. Each item is placed in a different spot and the chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places.
The Bald Eagle has been the national emblem of the United States since 1782 and while not really bald, their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast to their chocolate-brown body and wings. At one time, the word “bald” meant “white,” not hairless. Young bald eagles attain adult plumage in about five years so the young are often overlooked without their ‘bald’ heads. One adult and two immature bald eagles were hanging out by the side of the road and this one is about two years old.
The only time I see a big body of water is on vacation, so I don’t get to see seagulls that often but I have noticed that if you want to see a lot of them at one time, you need to go to a harbor where fishing boats are as they wait for scraps. They ride the waves when floating on the water, perch on objects on land and even pick up a piece of 2×4 board to drop on my head as they fly over.
Feathers are very important to a bird so they spend lots of time caring for their feathers. Seagulls use their beaks and feet to clean and arrange their feathers as the preen. They have an uropygial gland (or preen gland) which produces an oil that waterproofs as well as conditions and improves flexibility of the feathers.
Seagull Preening
The video shows the seagull preening itself as the waves crash on the rock below.
The male black and white bird with the brilliant red chevron extending from the black throat down the middle of the breast is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Females, like many species, are more plain in their brown streaked body. Their large triangular bills make it easy for them to crack sunflower seeds (as you can see in the video), but at least they drop the shells outside the feeder tray. They also eat insects and fruit, especially during their migration to Central and South American, which they would be doing now as I haven’t seen any grosbeaks for several days. Apparently they heard that meteorological summer ends on Monday and they left in a hurry.
With a crown of yellow, orange, or red feathers on its head (although normally concealed), the Eastern Kingbird looks rather stately in its tuxedo look. And it defends it territory like a king, harassing other birds that venture too close during the breeding season, while catching insects to eat. But its lifestyle changes during the winter months in the Amazon, where it eats fruits and travels in flocks.
I don’t know what changed this year; whether more of the baby orioles survived or there is a better communication system pointing to the feed lunch but I am having trouble keeping the sugar water feeders and grape jelly can filled. The hummingbirds have to take a number as I have seen three orioles on the sugar water feeder at the same time and more than a half dozen lined up at the jelly, at least until the male Baltimore Oriole shows up. He scares the rest away so he can have it all to himself but the smaller Orchard Oriole male (the dark bird in the picture) has no trouble eating with the other females and youngsters.
Unlike many other fruit-eating birds, Baltimore Orioles seem to prefer only ripe, dark-colored fruit like the deepest-purple grapes and will ignore green grapes and yellow cherries even if they are ripe. I guess that is why they like the grape jelly over other types of jelly. The orioles forage for insects, drink nectar from flowers and eat berries. According to the All About Birds website, Orchard Orioles “sometimes visit hummingbird feeders or eat orange slices or jelly at feeding stations.” Well the sometimes seems to be a constant thing this year with the number of jars of jelly and bags of sugar I have gone through so far this season.
The Grub Line
Watch the video below to see the crowded grub line.
Last evening I was walking through the pasture to take a picture of the new calf and on my way, I spotted a bald eagle circling overhead as I suppose it wanted to eat the afterbirth. After circling a few times, it landed in a tall pine tree since I wasn’t leaving but then the smaller birds weren’t leaving the eagle alone either. Finally it had enough harassment and took off although the smaller birds were still chasing the eagle as it left.
These Yellow Warblers are busy feeding their young chicks which is extra work with a cowbird chick in the nest too who is so much bigger than the little warblers. So a majority of the insects the parents bring to the nest are given to the bigger mouth of the freeloader.
Brown-headed Cowbird females skips building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. They deposit their eggs in other birds nest to raise their young, often though at the expense of the unwilling foster bird’s own chicks. But the cowbirds don’t just dump and run but keep an eye on their eggs and young and if their egg are removed, they retaliate by destroying the host chicks eggs in a term called “mafia behavior”.
The nests of the Yellow Warbler are frequently parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird so the warbler often builds a new nest directly on top of one containing the cowbird egg along with their own eggs. Sometimes there may be up to six layers if the cowbird keeps redepositing eggs but it appears this nest is only one layer.
Yellow Warblers Feeding Their Young
The video has some clips of the Yellow Warblers feeding their four chicks and the extra cowbird (but I was mad at the freeloader so I cut out most of the clips where the big mouth was getting all the food).
Certain birds let you know when you are too close to their nest and will try to lead you away from their nest, dive bomb your head or start squawking at you. The Red-winged Blackbird gets rather noisy when too close to the nest and soon both the female and male are making a fuss until I leave the area. The female was trying to feeding her babies when I spotted the nest and she wasn’t happy with me. At least this nest I could get to since most of the nests are over the water as the Red-winged Blackbirds like to build their nest among the cattails.