Purple Finches

Today I went birding at Eagle Creek Park with my pal Don Gorney. We were searching for waterfowl and White-winged Crossbills. While we didn't turn up any crossbills and the waterfowl pickings were slim, we did turn up two different flocks of Purple Finches and were able to watch them for quite a while.

For comparison, on top is a male House Finch

and a male Purple Finch on the bottom, captured

by my photowizard friend, John Howard.

"Purple" Finches are really more of a red raspberry color than a true purple. Male Purple Finches can be confused with male House Finches, but House Finches have a brighter red color with a tinge of orange. Also, the flanks and belly of a male House Finch is more heavily streaked with brown, while the Purple Finch has more raspberry color on the flanks. The back of a male Purple Finch has a raspberry wash, while the back of a House Finch does not. The Purple Finch is a bit chunkier in shape and a bit larger than the House Finch. The face of the male Purple Finch is more colorful and the ear patch is red, while the House Finch has a brownish ear patch. The beaks are slightly different. The culmen or upper beak of the House Finch is slightly curved while the beak of the Purple Finch is more conical and slightly larger. This feature is hard to detect unless the bird is close or you have really good binoculars.

Female House Finch on the top, female Purple Finch on the bottom. Photos from Flickr.

Females are a bit trickier. The one solid feature is the dark ear patch with the pale stripe above and below on the Purple Finch that can easily be seen from a distance. The Female Purple Finch has a distinctive brown malar stripe or moustache. Again, Purples are a bit chunkier. Beaks of females are similar to males. The female Purple Finch has a striped back, while the back of the House Finch is more uniform brown. The female Purple Finch has a breast that is more spotted in appearance than that of the House Finch which has thinner streaks.

I had commented that I don't see too many male Purple Finches. Don gave me a good explaination. Young male birds look a lot like females; they have little if any red coloration. If each pair has an average of four young, then that would produce one prominent male and five female-type birds. So roughly only 17 percent of the population is an obvious male.

The flocks of Purple Finch we observed were eating the long, thin paddle-like seeds of ash trees They were scarfing them down like teenage mutant ninja turtles devour pizza. These seeds must be pretty darn tasty. They were also enjoying the berries of dogwoods.

Tomorrow starts Christmas Bird Counts. Keep your eye out for this beautiful little bird!

Peregrine Falcons

Did you know we have a bird right here in Indianapolis that can reach speeds faster than an Indy Car? And, you can see them easily on a camera set up by the nice folks at the Indy Star?

Yes indeed, folks, we have Peregrine Falcons that regularly nest in Indianapolis and (drumroll, please) they have already laid an egg for this season! You can watch the goings on in their nest box, watch an egg being laid, watch one hatch and see the parents feed their young. Be be warned, it can be addicting!

The camera can be accessed by going to this link http://blogs.indystar.com/falconblog/
and my friend Laura writes an awesome blog with the goings on for the day, answering questions and giving great insight. She has a great sense of humor and one can tell she really is a falconhead!

In a later post I will cover all their unique features. But for now, enjoy the live cam and hopefully you will get to see some amazing behaviors!

Cooper's Hawk!

Cooper's Hawk from Town Run Park

Monday, Chris and I witnessed a murder. A quick flash past the bird window caught my eye and I watched as a large bird landed on the ground near our bird feeding area. It was an immature male Cooper's hawk, and it had caught something. Chris and I ran to get the binoculars, hoping it wasn't our Carolina Wren, the Brown Creeper who entertained us at lunch, or one of three female Purple Finches that have been visiting the feeders lately.

We snuck up to the window, hoping not to spook the murder suspect and catch him in the act. Soon he took off, but swung back around, prey in his talons, and landed on one of the fence posts that surround our bird feeding area. Handfuls of feathers floated through the air as he methodically stripped his carcass for easy access to the juicy meal. We soon made an ID of the victim he had plucked from the feeders-a House Sparrow. As he fed, he periodically looked around to make sure another animal did not sneak up on him and steal his prize. On two occasions he shifted to an adjacent post with his prey, possibly to get a better grip.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind the Cooper's hawk snacking on our birds. My descriptions are all tongue-in-cheek. I understand that everything in nature has its place and am quite fascinated with raptors. So, we continued to watch the scene for a few minutes, until something spooked Mr. Hawk and off he went to the woods. Another lesson in the circle of life.

Common Feeder Birds: Pileated Woodpecker

It is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count and Chris, our park manager, spotted a Pileated Woodpecker! They are a welcome resident of Southeastway Park's woods and an infrequent visitor to our feeder area. Today, he was hanging out in the area just outside the feeders, so we could view him from our bird window during our lunch break.

I think the poor bird looks like it has mistakenly employed
the Heat Miser as its stylist. Talk about bad hair day!

The Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, is Indiana's largest woodpecker. It is sixteen and a half inches in length, almost the size of a crow. It's size, sleek black back and wings, offset by a red crest, are obvious field marks. The males have a characteristic red "mustache", which is actually a stripe near the beak. The female's stripe is black. Another distinct field mark is the large white area under its wing which is viewed when the bird is in flight.

Male Pileated Woodpecker, photo by John Howard. Note the red "mustache".

Many a birder have quibbled over how to pronounce "pileated". Some lean toward "PIE-lee-ate-ed", while others say "PILL-ee-ate-ed". Actually, both pronunciations are accepted. Its disputed common name comes from the brilliant scarlet crest of feathers on the top of its head, called a pileum (PIE-lee-um). As a side note, in Ancient Rome, a pileus was a brimless felt hat worn by slaves that were freed by their master. The genus name, Dryocopus means "oak tree cutter", with druos meaning "oak tree" and kopos meaning "cutter".

Pileated Woodpeckers are known for the large holes or excavations they produce while foraging for food and producing their nest cavities. The holes can be greater than a foot in length. They have even been known to break smaller trees in half! They are searching for carpenter ants and wood-dwelling beetles, a favorite snack. During their quest, they produce large holes that are relied upon by many mammals, birds, and reptiles for shelter and nesting. They also will eat fruit and nuts.

Though Pileated Woodpeckers are not in any imminent danger, there is reason for concern. Pileated Woodpeckers rely heavily on big trees for their nest cavities. They prefer large dead trees within mature forests. With many areas losing large trees due to disease and clear-cutting, one should watch his species closely. Since so many other creatures depend upon this bird for survival, it would be devasting, if it was lost.

Pileated Woodpeckers will frequent feeders near a large woods. My friend, Andrew Mertz, has a feeding station right outside his patio door where as many as three Pileated Woodpeckers have been viewed at the same time. What is so surprising is Andrew lives in a apartment complex on the north side of Indianapolis, near the Castleton Mall!

Common Feeder Birds: Hairy Woodpecker

Note the long bill on this male Hairy Woodpecker.

We are always pleased when our resident Hairy Woodpeckers ( Picoides villosus) show up at our feeders at the park. Hairy Woodpeckers are similar in appearance to the Downy Woodpecker, which I covered in an earlier post. You can click here to read that post. Later in this post, I will cover identification tips to tell the two apart, but first I will cover some of their fascinating natural history info.

The first word in the scientific name, or genus, for Hairy Woodpeckers is Picoides. The word Picoides is comprised of two parts: Picus, which means "woodpecker" and is a character in Greek mythology that was changed into a woodpecker by the witch, Circe. It is also a genus of large woodpeckers that live in Europe, Asia and North Africa. The second part, -oides, means "resembling". The second word in the scientific name, villosus, means "hairy or shaggy" and describes the long, filamentous hairs that form a white patch on the bird's back.

The Hairy Woodpecker is a year-round resident as far north-west as Alaska and as far south-east as Florida. This large variation in climate and habitat has produced a large number of subspecies. There are seventeen recognized subspecies of the Hairy Woodpecker with a large range in size and plumage. The subspecies of Hairy Woodpecker that lives here in Indiana and neighboring states is Picoides villosus villosus.

Hairy Woodpeckers, like all woodpeckers, are fascinating to watch as they forage for food. Hairy Woodpeckers will usually concentrate their efforts on the trunk of the tree, while the smaller Downy Woodpecker will explore the branches. Hairy Woodpeckers, even in the winter, feed on approximately 75% insects and 25% plant material, like seeds and berries. Most people would assume they feed by pounding like crazy on a tree, then extracting the insects, but Hairy Woodpeckers have a specialized feeding method called gleaning. They will glean insects by carefully inspecting the nooks and crannies of the tree and extract any insects along these areas. They will, also, check areas that larger woodpeckers, like the Pileated Woodpecker, have opened up and search for insects the bigger birds might have missed. The Hairy Woodpecker will excavate or open up areas of the bark by pounding a hole with its bill, but according to some studies, less than 25% of the time. The hammering noise we hear so often is mainly for communication and, also, a way of locating prey. They will tap along the trunk to find areas of varying resonance to locate insect tunnels.

Female Hairy Woodpecker foraging.

Male Hairy Woodpeckers have a red patch on the back of their head, like the Downy Woodpecker, that the females lack. They use this to display during courtship. The male will spy a lovely lady he is interested in, erect his red patch and spread wide his tail feathers in hopes of impressing her. If she is interested, they will then start a bounding display flight, with the birds following each other in great loops above and through the treetops.

An interesting tidbit is the females will do most of the egg incubation during the day, while the males will incubate the eggs during the night. Parents will feed the young by regurgitation, at first, then gradually offer whole insects to the young.

Now to tackle those identification differences between the Hairy and Downy that can be tricky. Here are a few of the field marks I like to use to tell the Hairy Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker apart.

1. Overall Size

The Hairy Woodpecker is a much bigger bird than the Downy, with an average size of 9.25 inches in length. The Downy has an average size of 6.75 inches in length. This can be difficult to tell in the field, but I have found it is sometimes easier to use familiar birds as a comparison to help with size. With this method, the Hairy Woodpecker is a little smaller than an American Robin and a bit larger than a Northern Cardinal. The Downy is closer in size to a House Sparrow or Tufted Titmouse.

2. Bill Size
The Hairy Woodpecker has a much larger, stouter bill than the Downy Woodpecker. The Hairy Woodpecker's bill is almost the same size as the width of its head from the side while the Downy Woodpecker's bill is one third the size of its head. The Downy's bill appears more delicate than the Hairy's bill. A good site that shows two drawings of the birds is Cornell's Great Backyard Bird Count. (I will cover this in an upcoming post, this event is next weekend!)

3. Call

This takes a trained ear, and I will admit I am not the best at this. The Hairy produces a "peek" call which is louder and sharper than the Downy's call. It also has a "rattle call" which is a series of rapid notes all at the same pitch. The Downy's call is a more gentle "pik" with a rattle call that is slower and descending in pitch. (Downy= descending).

4.Outer Tail Feathers

I don't use this field mark too much, but it can be helpful if the bird is at a weird angle and you can't see the head. Hairy Woodpeckers in Indiana have white outer tail feathers, while the Downy Woodpecker has small dark bars on its outer feathers. There has been Hairy Woodpeckers with the dark bars, also, but if you have a woodpecker with white outer tail feathers, it is usually a safe bet it is a Hairy.

5. Division of Red Head Patch

On male Hairy Woodpeckers in Indiana and in the east, the red patch is divided by a dark line right down the middle of the patch. This is a field mark that is not mentioned in any of the field guides I own. I have seen it mentioned on a few websites and on The Birds of North America Online. They briefly say that male Hairy Woodpeckers have a "red band extending across back of head (often broken into 2 lateral spots in e. North America)." My friend, Steve Moeckel from Ohio, sent me a couple shots showing the back of the head on the male Hairy Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker. You can see the Hairy has the aforementioned dark line and the Downy does not.

Male Downy with the solid red patch. Photo by Steve Moeckel.

Male Hairy Woodpecker with the divided red patch. Photo by Steve Moeckel.

Another shot of the Hairy Woodpecker with the divided red patch. Photo by Steve Moeckel.

Hairy Woodpeckers love suet, peanuts and black-oil sunflower seeds. Keep an eye out for them at a feeder near you!

Common Feeder Birds: Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker Female

My sister-in-law described a bird to me that she thought was a woodpecker. She told me it was black and white and striped like a skunk. At first, I was confused, but then realized she was describing one of our most common woodpeckers, the Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens).

Downy Woodpeckers live throughout the United States and are found year-round as far north-west as Alaska and as far south-east as the tip of Florida. That is a huge climate range!

They are a little over six inches in length with a white chest, black and white dotted wings and a white patch on their back. This patch is what reminded my sister-in-law of a skunk. They have a black head with a white stripe above the eye and another white stripe near the bill. They have a black tail with white outer feathers and small dark bars on the edges. They have a small, pointed bill. The male has a small red patch on the back of the head that the females lack. The juveniles will sometimes have a small red patch on their forehead.

Downy Woodpecker Male

Downy Woodpecker Juvenile

Their second part of their scientific name, "pubescens", refers to the white tuft of nasal bristles near the bill. These modified feathers help protect the nasal cavity from debris that is formed by chiseling and hammering on the bark of trees.

Downy Woodpeckers are fascinating to watch as they propel themselves up the side of a tree, using their tail as a spring, hopping along, stopping from time to time to investigate a nook or cranny that may hide a juicy insect. Their bill is less chisel-shaped than that of other woodpeckers, and they use it like a pick for dissecting insect tunnels just under the bark. The bill is also used like a pair of tweezers to pick tiny insect eggs from the surface of leaves and bark. Their small size allow Downy Woodpeckers to perch on plant stems like that of the goldenrod. One of their favorite foods are the larvae found inside of goldenrod galls. For fascinating information about the insect behind these galls, go here.

Goldenrod Gall

Goldenrod Gall Larvae

One day we were watching our bird feeders when a Cooper's Hawk appeared. We watched a female Downy Woodpecker freeze in position against the trunk of the tree. I was amazed at how this bird never moved a muscle, but remained completely still. When the hawk flew to another tree, the Downy quickly shifted positions to the other side of the trunk, to not be discovered and remained ever so still. Finally, the hawk gave up and the Downy went back to foraging. Chris, our manager, commented on how it was like playing hide and seek, but the consequences were much higher if the bird had been discovered.

Downy Woodpeckers love to eat suet, peanuts and black-oil sunflower seeds at the feeders. My next post will be about the Hairy Woodpecker that looks almost the same as the Downy Woodpecker and can cause confusion with its identification.

Common Feeder Birds: Red-bellied Woodpecker

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker. Photo by John Howard.

Woodpeckers are fascinating creatures with many amazing adaptations to aid in their survival. One of my personal favorites is the Red-bellied Woodpecker(Melanerpes carolinus). Melanerpes means "black creeper" in Greek, describing its movement up the side of a tree.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is about nine inches in length with a red band on the back of the neck extending to the top of the head. The female's red band reaches to the middle of the head, while the male's reaches to the bill. The Red-bellied back is barred black and white. It common name comes from a light patch of red on the belly which is not easily seen when the bird is on the side of a tree.

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpeckers have a highly varied diet. They will feed on insects, preferably ones found on the bark and limbs of trees. In the winter months they rely heavily on plant material, such as berries, seeds and nuts. Occasionally, they will feed on small mammals, lizards, and nestling birds.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers will cache or store nuts, berries and insects in pre-existing cracks and crevices in trees, posts and vine rootlets. They will lodge them 5-7 cm deep to hide them from other animals. It has not been reported that they will defend these food stores.

Woodpeckers, in general, have amazing adaptations that aide in their survival. Their toes are zygodactyl with two toes forward and two toes back, almost forming an "X". This configuration allows the bird to get a firm grip on the bark of the tree. They, also, have stiff tail feathers that they use somewhat like a kickstand on a bike. These feathers help steady them as they hop up the side of the tree. Their brain is cushioned by an air-filled spongy tissue that acts like bubble wrap and the skull fits tightly around the brain to reduce jarring while they hammer away.

The most incredible feature of the woodpecker is its tongue. The Red-bellied has enlarged mucous glands under its tongue that produce a sticky saliva. The tongue is pointed and barbed at the tip and extends 2.5-4 cm beyond the bill. These features make the Red-bellied more successful at extracting insects from crevices than any other woodpecker. There is an excellent article on woodpecker tongues with fantastic pictures at Hilton Pond's website.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers love suet, peanuts and will also eat bits of dried fruit and black-oil sunflower. When you have a chance, take a closer look at the Red-bellied Woodpecker and admire all its amazing traits!

Common Feeder Birds: Dark-eyed Junco

On New Year's Day, my sister asked me to identify a bird at her feeder. She described it as a small mostly black bird with white and a yellow bill. As I watched out the window to see the bird, up pops a Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis).

This bird is also known as a snow bird, because they generally show up here in Indianapolis in the winter. We usually spot the first juncos in November. Its species name, hyemalis, is very appropriate since it means winter or wintery.

Juncos are a little over six inches in length with an average weight of nineteen grams. This is less than the weight of four shiny quarters. Despite their size, they are voracious eaters and enjoy hopping around on the ground picking up seeds the other birds have knocked to the ground. They will eat from the feeders, but prefer to scratch around on the ground.

When walking through a shrubby or grassy area, the juncos will be everywhere. They will hang in small flocks nervously darting around flashing their white outer tail feathers as they fly. Their call is a sharp, somewhat buzzy tzeet, that they utter while flying into the brush for cover.

There are a few races or subspecies of juncos here in Indiana. The most common is the Slate-colored, which is dark gray to black overall for the males and a gray-brown for the females. Both sexes have a white belly and white outer tail feathers. The Oregon subspecies is an uncommon winter visitor with a dark hood and a brownish back, white belly and orangish-brown flanks.

Oregon subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco

I am unaware of any juncos breeding in Indiana, but there have been accounts of them breeding in extreme northeast Ohio. The main breeding range for the slate-colored junco that frequents Indiana feeders is Canada, northeast Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, the northern lower penninsula of Michigan, central Pennsylvania and the New England area.

Enjoy these fiesty little birds at your feeders this winter. They love black-oiled sunflower seeds. Since they prefer to feed on the ground, I will cast some on the ground specifically for them and some of the sparrows. They will take suet, thistle and other seeds.

Common Feeder Birds: Blue Jay

Photo by John Howard

Thief! Thief! Thief!" the Blue Jay(Cyanocitta cristata) would call from the wild cherry tree in our backyard, complaining of other birds snacking on what he thought was his personal stash. The Blue Jay was one of my favorite birds when I was a kid. It was blue, my favorite color, and it had personality. It would show up at the feeder and challenge other birds to just try and take some of its food. It was top dog and would let all the other birds know it.

It's scientific name of Cyanocitta cristata means "crested blue chattering bird". This description is very appropriate since the Blue Jay is a very noisy bird and can imitate almost anything. I have heard them imitate car alarms, hawks, bells, cats, squeaky gates and growls. Being a member of the crow family, they are also very smart birds. There is one account in an article by R.W. Loftin where a Blue Jay imitated a hawk to make a grackle drop its food. The jay swooped down and grabbed the food before the poor grackle knew what had happened. Another intelligent behavior is "anting". Blue Jays will grasp ants by the head or thorax, then wipe the ants' abdomens on their feathers. The ants produce a chemical called formic acid as a defense. This formic acid acts as an insecticide and helps get rid of mites, fungi and insects that can damage the birds feathers.

Mark Twain even had an affection for Blue Jays. He wrote about them in "Jim Baker's Bluejay Yarn" a story about a blue jay who tried to fill a hole with acorns, and the "hole" ended up being a house.

They love to eat peanuts from a feeder and acorns. They will cache or store acorns in soft ground and cover them with leaves. They don't recover all of them, so they help grow many new oak trees.

You've got to love a bird with such brilliant blue feathers, a color that is not often found in nature. But a fascinating fact is the feathers aren't really blue. There is no blue pigment in the feathers. They are actually a gray-brown. What????

Yep, it's true. There are two ways feathers can produce colors. One way is called pigment color and the other is structural color. Pigment color comes from chemicals that are found in the feather. Pigment color will produce the same color no matter what angle the feather is viewed. There are a few different chemicals that produce pigment colors in feathers. Melanin produces black, gray and brown color. Carotenoids, which we discussed in earlier posts on cardinals and house finches, produce colors of yellow, orange and red and comes from the plant materials that the birds eat. There is also porphyrins which create green feathers in turacos, a family of African birds, and produce reds and browns in owls, and a few other birds. (As a side note, these porphyrins can make saw-whet owl feathers glow pink under a black light. You can learn more about that here.) Lastly, there are psittacin pigments that are found only in parrots and the birds manufacture in their bodies. Nuff said!

Structural colors, or schemochromes, are a little more complicated. In a jay's feathers, there is melanin, that produces a brownish-gray color. Over that is a layer of keratin that contain tiny air cavities that are almost microscopic. Keratin is the fibrous protein that forms hair, nails and feathers. These air cavities found in the feathers scatter the light in such a way as to produce the blue color. The feathers appear blue for the same reason an oil slick appears blue. The blue in oil slicks and feathers results from differences in the distances traveled by light waves that are reflected off of each other. Richard Prum of Yale University did studies on this and called the process constructive interference. If you want to learn more, go here. Fascinating, but trying to completely understand it made my head hurt :) Another side note, the green in feathers are produced when yellow pigment is present along with the air cavities that cause the blue color. Yellow plus blue equals green! Below is a photo of a Blue Jay feather from Terry Lynch's website. Note the main pigment color is brown.

Blue Jays are fascinating birds at so many levels. Take some time to appreciate this bird next time you see it !

Common Feeder Birds: Northern Cardinal

Male cardinal- photo by John Howard

If you are wanting to learn scientific names, the Northern Cardinal has an easy one to remember: Cardinalis cardinalis. It's name refers to the Catholic church official with robes of the same vivid, scarlet color. It is the male of the species that sports this gorgeous red plumage with a black mask. The cardinal is a large finch approximately 8-9 inches in length and 45 grams in weight, or about eight quarters. Its distinct crest can be raised and lowered in communication.

The brilliant color comes, once again, from carotenoid pigments, chemicals producing a red or orange color, found in plant material that the cardinal ingests. Recent studies have found that brighter males have a higher reproductive success and territories with greater vegetation density. The male is responsible for most of the feeding and will bring the female food. The female will sing from the nest and it is believed this may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. The nestlings are fed a diet of mostly insects, then given more seed and fruit as they get older.

The female has a more drab brownish-gray color with reddish wings and tail. This is so she is better camouflaged. Both sexes have a massive orange bill used for cracking seeds ( and fingers of bird banders! Ouch!). The young cardinals will look similar to the female, but they will have a dark gray bill instead of the orange of the adult.

Female cardinal-photo by John Howard

Young cardinal with gray bill

I had always wondered why a bird would want to be so brightly colored, that it would be a disadvantage to the cardinal because it could be more easily spotted by predators. But a light came on when a gentleman told me how his son could not see cardinals because he was color-blind. The cardinal, when sitting in a shrub, just disappears and his son cannot spot it at all. It then occurred to me that most mammals are also color-blind, so those predators would not be able to see the cardinal, either. They would still have to be wary around predators such as Cooper's Hawks, though.

Males are very territorial and will fight with other male birds that stray into their territory. I knew of one bird that would fight a mirror on a truck at the plant nursery where I used to work. Everyday this bird would viciously strike at his reflection in the mirror until he was completely exhausted. He must have been thinking, "Wow, this guy is tough!"

An interesting fact is that the cardinal is the most popular state bird. It is the choice for seven states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

Many of us take the cardinal for granted. But in areas out west, the cardinal is less common. In California, the cardinal is listed as a species of special concern. This bird may eventually disappear from California due to habitat loss. Its habitat choice contains many small trees and shrubs including hedgerows, forest edge, grasslands with shrubs and plantings around buildings.

At feeders, cardinals love black-oil sunflower seed. They also like fruit trees in the winter, like hawthorn and crab-apple.

Common Feeder Birds: House Finch

I remember seeing my first House Finch. It was the early 1980's and one showed up at our feeder in Lebanon, Ohio, near Cincinnati. My Mom commented on the strange red "sparrow" at the feeder. At that time, the House Finch was a uncommon sight in southeast Ohio and, according to range maps, had not even spread to Indiana, yet. Little did I know that there would be many, many more to come in the following years.

House Finch male-photo by John Howard

The House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus, has an interesting story. They were native to the Western United States in the 1940's and were trapped and sold by dealers in Los Angeles, California to bird stores in the East under names like "Hollywood Finches", "Red-headed Linnets" an other names to get around the ban on sales of migratory birds. According to an article by J. J. Elliot and R. S. Arbib in the Auk, 1953, the birds that were sold numbered in the thousands. The National Audubon Society got involved to put a halt to this illegal traffic and it is believed someone decided to release some of these finches around Long Island, New York. This is where the first male was observed in April, 1941 near Jones Beach, Long Island. Soon reports and numbers grew. In May, 1943 the first nest with 4 young was discovered in a tree nursery in Babylon, Long Island. In the winter of 1948-49 a heavy snow knocked the original flock back, but by 1949, the flock in Babylon had grown to 70 individuals and 3 other colonies in the nearby areas of Hewlett, Westbury and Lawrence were observed. The following distribution map shows how the individuals have spread over the years. By the late 1970's-early 1980's, the house finch numbers in the east had greatly increased and by the 1990's had almost reached the original population in the west. Nowadays, the house finch is estimated, according to Cornell Birds of North America Online, to have a population between 267 million to over 1 billion for the continental U.S. and Canada!

Maps showing the distribution of the House Finch through time.

Despite its origin, the House Finch is a handsome bird. The males color can range from yellow to orange to red, with the darker red males being in demand with the females. Supposedly, the more brilliant the red, the better the male is at obtaining good food, rich in carotenoids, a chemical found in many plants that have red and orange color. The females will want to choose a male that can provide ample food for her and the brood. The female is white and brown streaked, so she is better camouflaged when sitting on the nest.

House finch female

Look for this native Californian at your feeders. They enjoy nyjer seed (thistle) as well as black-oil sunflower and will also take suet.

Common Feeder Birds: American Goldfinch

Summer male American Goldfinch

Wild canaries! That was what my family called them when I was a kid. I later learned their more widely used name of American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis. This beautiful little bird with the color of sunshine is always a welcome sight.

Winter female American Goldfinch

These bird are sexually dimorphic which means the males and females are different colors. In the spring/summer, the male is a vivid yellow with black cap, black wings and tail. The female is a more dull yellow-brown with olive brown wings. In the fall, the males lose their bright yellow hue and look almost the same as the female, except for their yellow shoulder patch. The females also go through this molt in the fall, but it just results in a duller look. Goldfinch are one of the only carduelis finches to go through a molt in both the spring and the fall. In the spring molt, American Goldfinches only molt their body feathers while in the fall molt they lose body feathers as well as tail and wing feathers. Both male and female have orange bills in the spring/summer and a duller dark bill in the winter.

American Goldfinch winter male, photo by John Howard

Shoulder patch in winter male

American Goldfinch are closely tied to their food source. They are granivorous or eat mostly seeds. Even when they feed their young, goldfinch rely mostly on a seed diet. The Brown-headed Cowbird, which parasitize many birds nests by leaving its young to outcompete the smaller birds, does not survive in an American Goldfinch nest. The cowbird likes a diet rich in insects, which it does not get from the mother goldfinch. Most cowbird babies have retarded growth and die before they can leave the nest. Also, the males brillliant yellow hue is due to the food they ingest. Carotenoid pigments that produce yellow and orange colors in many composites or flowers in the sunflower family which is a favorite food of American Goldfinch. The frequently feed on Prairie Dock, Compass Plant, Rosinweed, and sunflowers. I used to work at a native plant nursery and we would have to put netting over these plants to keep the goldfinches from destroying the seed crops. They could wipe out a whole row of plants in no time. Besides the composites, American Goldfinch also use thistle as a food source and to line their carefully woven nests.

Nesting behavior is another unique characteristic of the American Goldfinch. This is one of the few birds that nest very late in the season. American Goldfinch wait until late June to early July to nest with some of the last eggs being laid in mid-August! Some researchers believe this is timed to coincide with the abundance of food for the nestlings, since so many seed bearing plants are available then. Others believe it is for the thistle down for the lining of the nest. Since they nest so late in the season, they usually only have one brood, usually between 4-6 young.

Many of our winter visitors may be from farther north. The American Goldfinch from the north will migrate south to find food. Most Canadian populations will end up in the United States. At feeders, they enjoy black-oil sunflower seed and nyjer seed(thistle). I have seen as many as 14 American Goldfinch on one of our small thistle feeders at one time.

Not-So-Common Feeder Bird: Pine Siskin

Many of you might have not seen this little striped jewel, before. Since this is an irruption year many seed eating birds are exploring farther from their normal ranges to find food. So the Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus, is showing up at feeders all over the state of Indiana. There was one at Southeastway Park the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. In the past, Eagle Creek Park has had them at their feeders. Holliday Park has had them at the feeders and I have also seen them feeding in the trees near the playground.

Photo by John Howard

Like so many birds, many times you can hear them before you see them. When in trees, Pine Siskins typically like to forage near the top. Their call is very distinctive, a buzzy Zzreeeee, that makes me look up to find them. They are closely related to and are the same size as the American Goldfinch and frequent thistle/nyjer feeders. Some, mostly the males, have yellow on the wings and tail and sometimes on the body. Many times you will see a group of American Goldfinches at a thistle feeder and notice a striped one is in the mix. If it is the same size and has a slender pointed bill, you have a siskin!

These birds have an amazing ability to store seeds in their distensible esophagus that can stretch. Researchers have found crop contents as high as 1.5 g in siskins. They are only 15 g in weight. This would be like a human carrying a whole Thanksgiving turkey around in their belly. I know some of you tried this last week, but I doubt any of you succeeded!

One bird that can be confused with the Pine Siskin is the female House Finch. Although they are striped like the Pine Siskin, they have a stouter bill and are a bit bigger. They do not have any yellow on their wings or tail.

Note stubby, slightly curved bill of the female house finch.

Keep your eye out at your feeder for this beautiful little finch!

Wild Turkeys-Happy Turkey Day!

Well, these birds may not be a common feeder bird unless you have a large yard out in the country, but it would be wrong of me not to cover them at such an apropos time. You may be one that only thinks turkeys are delicious... Mmmmm-oh, where was I! Actually, the Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo silvestris, is a pretty fascinating bird with an interesting historical and biological background.

Wild Turkeys were first domesticated by the Aztecs and Central Americans around 500 AD. They were then taken back to Spain by conquistadors in the 1500's, then they were imported into Europe and were brought back to North America as poultry in the 1600's. World traveler! We loved the taste of turkey so much that by the early 1930's they were almost wiped out. Luckily, through conservation efforts and wildlife management plans, the Wild Turkey is doing well. The Eastern subspecies has an estimated population of 5.1 to 5.3 million strong!



The Wild Turkey has a unique appearance. The males are big, 48 inches in length weighing 16-24 lbs, while the females are smaller, around 37 inches with a weight of 8-10 lbs. Both male and female turkeys have fleshy protuberances on their heads. Caruncles are more prominent in the males and become engorged with blood in the spring. Male or Tom turkeys have a wattle, a wrinkled, folded flap of skin which is on the neck. Both sexes have what is called a snood that hangs over the bill. The male's snood is much longer than the females. Turkeys also have a unique set of feathers called a beard. The beard, which has the appearance of hair, is located on the chest and is found mostly on males, but 10-20% of females can also have beards. The males beard is approximately 9 inches long, with the record turkey beard being 18 inches! ZZ Top turkey!

There is a belief that Ol' Ben Franklin himself thought the turkey would be a better choice for our national symbol over the bald eagle. Though there is some truth to the story, it really isn't what he had in mind. This belief arises from a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter, Sarah Bache, in 1784, in which he criticizes a veterans' organization (the American Order of the Cincinnati) for choosing the bald eagle as their emblem.

Franklin wrote :"Others object to the bald eagle [i.e., on the Cincinnati's emblem] as looking too much like a dindon, or turkey. For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly...like those among men who live by sharping and robbing...he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district...I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure [i.e., the Cincinnati's drawing] is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours...He is, besides, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that), a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on".

Not so much for the turkey as against the Bald Eagle, I would say!

On to more fascinating facts! (Many of these I have gathered from the National Wild Turkey Federation's site. Besides other interesting facts it has all kinds of turkey calls with names like "kee kee run", "purr" and "tree call" under "What does a wild turkey sound like?" Check it out!)

Did you know a turkey can run 25 miles per hour and fly 55 miles per hour? Amazing!

The largest turkey recorded was 37 lbs? That's the size of a kindergartner!

The males have brightly colored featherless heads which can change colors? During breeding season this can change from red to white to blue in a matter of seconds! Talk about patriotic! Let's see the eagle do that!

A turkey can see movement almost a hundred yards away? Wow!

A group of turkeys is called a rafter?

Well, I need to go gobble some turkey myself. Hope all of you have a great holiday!

Common Feeder Birds: Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Another nuthatch that has been showing up in record numbers at Indiana feeders is the Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis. According to Ken Brock, who posts regularly on the Indiana Birds Listserv, this year is an irruption year and 450 have been logged as of Oct 30th! The previous record number was 287 in 2005. During an irruption year, the birds cannot find enough food in their normal winter grounds and are forced to fly farther south in search of food. With nuthatches, this is usually due to a failure of cone crops, their preferred food. They are fond of seeds from pines, spruce and other conifers.





With all that said, you might have a good chance of one of these creatures showing up at your feeder. They are adorable! They are approximately 4 and 1/2 to 4 and 3/4 inches in length, a bit smaller than the White-breasted Nuthatch. They only weigh .35 ounces, less than two quarters! They have a bluish-gray back with pale orange underparts and a short tail. Their face has a white chin, black eyeline and a white supercillium, the white stripe above the eye, and a dark cap. The males have a black cap, while the females have a more gray cap and lighter orange color on the underparts. It has similar toes and foraging behavior as the White-breasted Nuthatch.

In my encounters with these birds, I usually hear them before I see them. They have a high-pitched "ank, ank ank" call that reminds me of a toy horn. Since they are fond of conifer or evergreen seeds, they are usually found on the trunks of pine, cedar and spruce, but I have seen them in deciduous trees, also. We had one visit our feeders all winter in 2005, entertaining us while we ate lunch. It's food of choice was peanuts, but they also enjoy suet and black-oil sunflower at the feeders. We have heard quite a few at Eagle Creek and Southeastway Park this year, but have not seen any at our feeders, yet. Keep your eye out for this one, if they show up you won't be disappointed!

Common Feeder Birds: White-breasted Nuthatch

Late fall and winter is a great time to watch birds at your feeder or, if you don't have a feeder, visit a park that has feeders. A great citizen science project is Project Feeder Watch from Cornell. Indiana Audubon also features a Winter Feeder Count and forms can be found on their website.

http://www.indianaaudubon.org/Activities/WinterFeederCount/WinterFeederCount.htm

The information that is gathered by people just like you helps scientists discover trends in bird populations and provides valuable data.

The next series of posts will feature common birds one can expect to find at their feeders in Indianapolis. The first bird I have chosen is one of my favorites, the White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis. This little bird is full of personality and has some interesting quirks about it. They are absolutely fascinating to watch. Their name comes from their unique habit of placing large seeds and nuts in crevices of trees, then "hacking" or "hatching" them open with their long, slightly upturned bill. They cache or store seeds under loose bark or in crevices of trees and will place only one item at each site in an area as large as 45 acres! Remarkably, they can remember where they placed them, unlike me who cannot find my car keys half of the time!

These birds have beautiful markings. They have a dark crown with white cheeks and a white breast. Their back is a bluish-gray. They have a short tail with white corners that are visible in flight.They are approximately 5-6 inches long and weigh 18-30 grams, or about as much as 5 quarters. ( A quarter weighs about 5.7 grams.) They are cavity nesters, which means they use hollow trees and limbs for their nest. The males usually have a darker crown and are a slightly more vivid color than the females.

But their habit of climbing down a tree head first is the easiest way to spot them. When climbing down the tree, they depend on their sharp claws and their strong hind toes which they dig into the bark. They stretch one foot out under their breast and the other is placed back under their tail as they inch their way down the tree, checking each crevice for a juicy bug or one of their treasured seeds they had hidden earlier. Their toe arrangement is called "anisodactyl" meaning three toes forward and one toe back. The rear digit has the longest nail and aids in their climbing ability. In the winter, their diet is composed mostly of seeds, while in summer it is mostly insects. In spring and fall, they have a mixed diet of insects and seeds. So, if you have a chance, check these little wonders out and watch them as they explore a tree trunk! Tomorrow, we will learn about another nuthatch that is showing up at feeders all over Indiana this year, the Red-breasted Nuthatch!