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Forum Birdwatching 2010
- Thread starter Kotatsu
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GeeMack
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November 9, 2010, Central Illinois USA: Here is an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) I spotted on top of a 50 foot antenna tower about 100 feet away. If you look closely you'll see a little birdie foot hanging out to the right and something like a small piece of feather in the Kestrel's beak. Yes, he's up on that tower eating his lunch. Sparrow? Finch? There's not much of it left, and from this distance it's hard to say for sure.
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GeeMack
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American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) coming in for a landing November 14, 2010 in central Illinois, USA...
With a wingspan approaching ten feet, far larger than the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) common to our southern coasts, these are the largest birds we might expect to find in this area. We see flocks migrating north and south in the spring and fall, sometimes several hundred at a time. And over the past dozen years they have started to nest and breed here along the Illinois River, so we have a small population year-round.
Interestingly various range maps and descriptions don't show Illinois as part of their range. Apparently about a decade ago some flocks were making their way along the Mississippi river during a migration and a storm blew them off course. They ended up following the Illinois river north, and have been coming up and down through here ever since.
With a wingspan approaching ten feet, far larger than the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) common to our southern coasts, these are the largest birds we might expect to find in this area. We see flocks migrating north and south in the spring and fall, sometimes several hundred at a time. And over the past dozen years they have started to nest and breed here along the Illinois River, so we have a small population year-round.
Interestingly various range maps and descriptions don't show Illinois as part of their range. Apparently about a decade ago some flocks were making their way along the Mississippi river during a migration and a storm blew them off course. They ended up following the Illinois river north, and have been coming up and down through here ever since.
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he looks like a robin but I presume he can't be where you are?
While we are on the subject of unidentified birds can anyone help with this one. Sorry about the blurry photo but it was one of two I saw in Malaga: colour was really bright in sunlight though much nearer to black in shade
While we are on the subject of unidentified birds can anyone help with this one. Sorry about the blurry photo but it was one of two I saw in Malaga: colour was really bright in sunlight though much nearer to black in shade
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The Shrike
Philosopher
Looks to be an Orange-crowned Warbler, although the photos on the site I've linked show unusually contrasty individuals. Most of them look a great deal like your bird.
The Shrike
Philosopher
Superb Starling. If you took this photo in North America (and not in a zoo) I'd love to hear where. These birds are native to East Africa, but have probably been widely introduced elsewhere.
Oooh thank you: for some reason I thought it was shaped like a jackdaw and so was hunting in the crow family. Kind of jackdaw size too, in my defence
As I said, I took it in Malaga in Spain, and since there were two I infer they are common there.
GeeMack
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Tricky
Briefly immortal
This is about the best.
He was a very friendly little bird. He stayed perched on my hand for a couple of minutes, and even took a crap.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Long time since I've added anything to the list, but today, traveling north from a visit south, encountered a pair of Black Vultures, Coragyps atratus, rather north of their expected range, in New Jersey, somewhere near Parsippany. First I've seen of these birds, which are quite easy to spot owing to their white wing tips (and easy to identify if you have a bird book in the car and a wife in the passenger seat to look it up!).
Do you have green finches there?
GeeMack
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There are a few species of Vireo that might be in your area, some of which have that yellowish brown color. Maybe Google for images of "yellow green vireo" and see what you think. From your first photo the beak looks too thin to be a finch.
Thanks to you and everyone else. I was thinking it might be a Nashville Warbler. There's a pic below. However, I think I'm leaning to The Shrike's call of an orange crest warbler sans crest. The deciding point for me was that the feet of the NW are light colored while the OCW and my bird had dark feet.
http://www.tsuru-bird.net/warblers1/warbler_nashville_az_1a.jpg
The bird was hanging on the brick looking our front window when the kids spotted him. So I took them outside for a look, and it didn't fly away. That's when I encouraged it to get on my hand (I had parakeets, cockatiels and parrots growing up, so I guess I know how to approach them). My kids were very gentle looking at it (no touching), and it only flinched a couple of times. Had my three year old not been so clumsy trying to sit back down, it would have stayed longer. It almost seemed tamed.
GeeMack
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The Orange Crested Warbler matches pretty well.
For the last three years we've had a White Breasted Nuthatch coming to our feeders. One day in September of 2007 I was hanging a feeder. He landed on the feeder while I was still holding it. I put a few seeds in my hand and he came back, landed on my finger, took a seed, and flew off. We've been hand feeding him nearly every day since. This photo was just yesterday...
PetersCreek
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AK-Dave
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Avian Pox Virus
I had a male downy woodpecker visiting my feeders for the last few months. It appears to have avian pox, which caused growths to form all over his feet and on one eyelid. I took him to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center this morning after finding him hypothermic last night. I've uploaded some macro shots of his infected feet at http://picasaweb.google.com/david4069 if anyone is interested in seeing what it looks like.
- David
I had a male downy woodpecker visiting my feeders for the last few months. It appears to have avian pox, which caused growths to form all over his feet and on one eyelid. I took him to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center this morning after finding him hypothermic last night. I've uploaded some macro shots of his infected feet at http://picasaweb.google.com/david4069 if anyone is interested in seeing what it looks like.
- David
AK-Dave
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Turns out my downy woodpecker is suffering from a beak deformity. In the last ten years or so there has been an epidemic of beak deformities, primarily in black-capped chickadees, but also in at least 29 other species. I've uploaded two papers to Google Docs that discuss the issue.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...E4NTEtOTc0NzRiYjE2MmFi&hl=en&authkey=CIzOldsB
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...FhYjMtYjAzNTVjN2ZiYjFi&hl=en&authkey=CJWZ6OYE
If any of you observe birds with beak deformities, I encourage you to report them to report them to Colleen Handel, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS Alaska Science Center (and one of the authors of the papers I linked). Her email address is [email protected].
Turns out my downy woodpecker is suffering from a beak deformity. In the last ten years or so there has been an epidemic of beak deformities, primarily in black-capped chickadees, but also in at least 29 other species. Here are two papers that describe the problem:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biolo...eformities.pdf
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biolo...eformities.pdf
If you observe any birds with beak deformities, please report them at the following link:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biolo...verreport.html
They are interested in reports of deformities from outside Alaska, since the problem seems to be spreading.
When reporting a beak deformity, use the following format:
1. Dates (approximate ok) of sighting(s)
2. Species
3. Number of individuals
4. Description of deformity (approximate length of upper and lower beaks compared to normal bird's; any crossing, curving up or down?)
5. Abnormal behavior?
6. Type of feeder it was using, if any
7. Location so that we can map the sighting (GPS location if you have it; street address or nearest cross streets also would be fine
- David
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