Song Sparrow in Backyard!

Yesterday, song sparrow came to visit the feeder. This is the first time I have ever gotten a picture of one.

The song sparrow differs from the house sparrow because of: 

1. Steaky sides

2. Pale chest with small central dark spot (can't be seen in these pictures)

3. Alternating color stripes on head.

4. Their song, which is very distinguishable. Listen to it here.

It has been singing for about two weeks in the vicinity of my backyard and I even saw it stop to eat, but never in front of the camera.

This bird is very common and you will most likely encounter it on any birding trip in NJ. 

This bird is widespread through America and can be found all the states (execept Hawaii) and Canada.

Due to its large distribution, the song sparrow population displays a large amount of genetic diversity, which includes how they look and behave. There are 24 currently accepted subspecies of song sparrows (wiki song sparrow). While many of these subspecies look similar, they have different genetic makeup from each other which makes them distinct. Even though each subspecies can interbreed with each other, they usually don't do to geographic separation (wiki supspecies). 

Hello Russia!

Yesterday on June 19, more people from Russia viewed my blog then did people from the USA. 

To celebrate this interesting statistic I will commemorate this post to the backyard birds we share with Russia. 

Today's shared backyard bird is the ever familiar house sparrow. 

Two juveniles left and center with male house sparrow to the right.

One interesting thing that I have observed is that only adult house sparrows know/have the ability to eat sunflower seeds. The juveniles eat the small seeds only. It could be something that is learned throughout their life, or could deal with the changes in their beaks as they mature. What do you think?

Teaser Answered

It is a morning dove! 

This one looks pretty stuffed with food if you ask me. 

Brown-headed Cowbird: A Parasite of the Bird World

Brown- headed cowbirds are parasites. Not in the normal sense though. They are called brood parasites because they lay their eggs in other birds nests. 

Wikipedia commons

Pictured above is eastern phoebe nest, with five phoebe eggs and one brown-headed cowbird egg.

After the eggs hatch, the cowbird chicks often outcompete the host chicks for resources, from the host parents, because they are bigger.

© Al Mueller. A brown-headed cowbird chick being fed by an adult chipping sparrow.

I ask myself, how the heck don't these birds realize that their babies are bigger then themselves? Well, some birds are able to get rid of the parasitic eggs before they hatch. For example, gray catbirds reject their nest 95% of the time if it has been parasitized (Lorenzana 2001) and brown thrashers physically eject these eggs from their nest (Ortega, 1998). 

To make things worse for these small songbirds, the cowbirds exhibit "mafia" behavior. This means that they return to the nests where they lay their eggs to check up on them. If they see that their egg has been removed, they destroy the entire nest. This forces the host birds to build a new nest and then the cowbirds lay their eggs in that new nest (Hoover and Robinson, 2007). 

Sources

Hoover, Jeffrey P. &. Robinson, Scott K. (2007). "Retaliatory mafia behavior by a parasitic cowbird favors host acceptance of parasitic eggs". PNAS 104(11): 4479–4483

Lorenzana, J. C. (2001). "Fitness costs and benefits of cowbird egg ejection by gray catbirds". Behavioral Ecology 12 (3): 325–329.

Ortega, C.P. (1998) Cowbirds and Other Brood Parasites. University of Arizona Press, Tucson,

Tuesday Teaser!

Who's underside does this belong to?

Answer will be posted tomorrow.

Interesting Grackle.

Here is what I think is a dull brown juvenile common grackle. I have never seen one of these before.

Notice how there is no iridescence even in direct sunlight. Remember that adult grackles have plenty of it and are a black color. 

I am not 100% this is a juvenile. It may be a partly leucistic (mild albinism) or it could be a boat-tailed grackle.

Yet, judging by the fact that there has been a ton of common grackles at the feeder and it is the time of year were juveniles are abundant, I'll go with juvenile common grackle. 

What do you think this bird is?

Picture of adult common grackle continued below

New Feeder installed

The other day, I made a feeder out of PVC pipe. The house sparrows seem to love it. 

My goal with this feeder is to attract smaller songbirds. My bowl feeder was attracting larger birds, such as doves and grackles. I would like to get more smaller birds to come such as American goldfinches.

Also as you can see in the background, I installed a suet cage. Right now the house sparrows also love it, but I am hoping to attract some woodpeckers. I heard a red-bellied woodpecker the other day so I hope it'll come by. 

I am learning there are very few things house sparrows cant do. They can eat just about anything (pay attention to them at train stations), and they are everywhere! Today, I caught one clinging to the vertical wall.

Pretty impresive. 

The making of this feeder was pretty easy. If you would like to know how to make one just let me know, and i'll make another post. 

Structural vs. Biological Colors

Common grackles display a cool amount of iridescence (that blue-green sheen). This blue-green sheen is not due to the pigmentation of the feathers, but rather is due to how light reflects of it. Different angles of light causes different colors to be reflected off and thus seen. This is why on a cloudy day, iridescence is hard to be seen.

This type of coloration is called structural coloration. It is responsible for the blues, greens and iridescence in all animals. 

This is in contrast to biological pigmentation which are reds, browns, and black colors seen in animals. These pigments are caused by organic chemicals that the animal ingests or synthesizes. An example of caroteniod pigments are the red that house finch or northern cardinal produces. 

If they ingest less carotenoid containing foods, they will not be as red. 

Also, the organic compound melanin, is produced in humans and gives us the color of seen in our skin. Sun tanning results in the synthesis of more melanin and thus darker skin. Melanin is also responsible for black and brown colors found in animals. 

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_color

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pigment

Winter Bird: Dark-eyed Junco

You may recognize this bird because it is pretty common to see one during the winter. It is a dark-eyed junco. 

They spend the summer in Canada and spend the winter in the US. 

Juncos are in the New World sparrow family: Emberizidae 

The very common house sparrow, featured on this blog, is the only sparrow in North America not in the family Emberizidae. The house sparrow was introduced N.A. in New York City in 1851 and are a part of the Old World sparrow family: Passeridae. 

Hopefully we will see more Emberizids this summer (Song sparrow)

Bad Hair Day

This mourning dove seems to have had its head feathers ruffled a bit. That didn't seem to bother it because it was feeding all throughout the day. 

Blue Jay Gang

This winter I had a ton of blue jays in my backyard. 

This picture looks like it could be the cover picture for their album or something.

Buddies

Looks like we got some good ol' pals here passing time at the feeder. 

Possible dialog:

Left Bird: I don't like the way that thing is looking at me.

Right Bird: It's ok buddy, I hate it too. It just happens to be where the food is. 

House Finch Has Arrived!

It has taken a few weeks, but on Sunday evening the first house finch of the season has arrived

He then visited again yesterday afternoon.

I'm hoping more will come. I am putting out special finch food (Nyjer seeds and such) to attract them, but this guy seems to like your classic sunflower seed better. 

What are Grackles thinking?

From taking all of these bird pictures, I found that Common Grackles have been the most expressive and quirky of the birds in my backyard. 

This grackle likes to dip his food in water before eating it. It's like the hot dog eating contest. 

First, where has this grackle been?? He's covered in spider/cob webs. 

Second, he really likes those pieces of corn. 

This one is looks likes about to hug the camera. I think the picture took just as he was putting his wings away. Sort of reminds me of the dance down by one of the birds of paradise:

© Tim Laman

What do you think?

White-Throated Sparrow

As you can tell, these were taken this winter. This bird, the white-throated sparrow is a common sight during the cold months. They have a white throat patch, white and brown markings on head with some yellow thrown in there. 

While, you may have not seen it, it does have a distinct call:

Shake it up

Female Northern Cardinal ruffling her feathers in the wind

Northern Mockingbird

This is a Northern Mockingbird. I took this shot back in the winter. If you've ever heard a bird singing very loudly and repeating things such as car alarms, truck backing up and other birds ... it is a mockingbird.

You can identify them in flight by their very apparent white wing bars

From Wikipedia commons. A northern mockingbird attacking a red-shouldered hawk.

Tuesday Teaser Answered

Red-winged blackbird!

That was a tough one, but you can see the beginning of his "red" mark just slightly begin in the teaser photo.

Time Lapse of Yesterday

You may wonder what I do with the photos I don't post. The GoPro takes around 3000 a day, and I go through all of them looking for something cool or new. Then I delete the rest.

BUT...yesterday I decided to make a time lapse of all the photos taken. I was waiting for a day with a lot of bird action and cloud action. 

Here it is, enjoy (make sure to check HD quality if you want)

It is from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm. So it's 10 hours compressed to to 1 min and 22 seconds. Also, every second you are looking at 45 pictures, with a total 3690 photos.

I really like the clouds.

Dove Rejects Kiss

Two possible scenerios:

1. Left dove wants a smooch from the right dove, but the right dove is afraid. 

2. Left dove wants to eat right dove and right dove is afraid. 

Tuesday Teaser

Who's tail is this?

Answer will be posted tomorrow

Cardinals Date Ruined by Dove

Female and male Northern Cardinals enjoying sunflower seeds together.

Here comes the mourning dove to ruin the fun. For some reason the cardinals looks a lot less happy. 

Juvenile Central

Pretty shot of this juvenile mourning dove. This could be one of my favorite pics so far.

I'm not entirely sure it's a juvenile, but it looks smaller and different  (less prominent eye ring, light tips of primary feathers, black markings on face and no iridescent patch). 

Two juvenile house sparrows enjoying a snack together. Notice the beak is broader at the base and is yellow.

Liftoff

I took this action shot back in January without a feeder. I just placed the GoPro on my deck and let in run in time lapse.  I think it's funny how the House Sparrows stare at the camera, perhaps they're looking at their own reflection?

Red-winged Blackbird

There has been a red-winged blackbird singing in my backyard for about a week now. Yesterday he came to the feeder and I got this great shot:

Male red-winged blackbird

I'm not sure if they normal visit feeders, I know that they like marsh habitats and the nearby meadowlands might be close enough for this guy to visit. His red patch does not look to healthy though, more of an orange.

Also, that makes the blackbird family: Icteridae the most common in my backyard with 3 species: BH cowbird, common grackle and RW blackbird.

How Things Are Done

For those who are wondering what type of contraption I am using to take these photos, I will show you. I pretty much modeled it after Bird Photo Booth, except that I used what ever was available in my house. 

I built a box to hold the GoPro Hero 2 and attached a shower shelf to hold the bowls of food and water.

I then made it compatible with my tripod, by simply drilling a hole that matched up with that of the tripod screw. That antennae thing on top was a coat hanger. It was meant to be used a perch, but it broke so I need to think of a better way to do that. 

Future additions to this include: a way to hang a sock feeder to attract finches and maybe a homemade hummingbird feeder.

Addition of Water to the Feeder

Today I decided to put add a little water station. 

The mourning doves seem to like it. 

Taking a mid-day bath

A handsome shot of a Brown-headed Cowbird