Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lazy-ass Birds

Birds perform some of the most incredible, energy-intensive feats of any animal on the planet: Bar-headed geese regularly pass over the top of the Himalayas; Bar-tailed Godwits are known to fly more than 7,000 miles non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand; and Great Snipes make sustained flights of 60 mph for several days at a time.

Even so, birds are sometimes just plain lay-ZEE.

We've been noticing it more often within the past several weeks, with the weather growing increasingly unpleasant, and the birds doing their best to cope. While these strategies may all have sound adaptive value, having been meticulously honed over the course of millions of years of natural selection, their chief virtue is in making birds look hilarious.

Take the Black Skimmer, for instance. Such an odd-looking bird to begin with, skimmers really take it to the next level with their lugubrious habit of lying out flat, resting with their head and bill extended forward over the ground. It's a behavior that's been depicted in Sibley, but that we'd never actually seen until recently. We were beginning to think it must be an uncommon sight, since we've lived along the coast for several years now and see skimmers fairly regularly, but we must always have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; on this particular beach outing, at least half a dozen skimmers were stretched out in this manner.

These Black Skimmers look like they've given up on life

A couple of lazy skimmers

I can certainly sympathize with these skimmers -- it can hardly be fun lugging those massive mandibles around wherever they go, and sometimes you've just got to take a load off. In addition to helping the skimmers rest more comfortably, this method of laying out also reduces the amount of heat they absorb (cf. Gochfeld & Burger, 1994), making it doubly helpful… assuming they don't care what anyone else thinks of them. 

Do they make Prozac for skimmers?

Black Skimmers

Another example of an apparently lazy bird is this young Brown Thrasher we found in Forsyth Park last week. He fluffed out all of his body feathers and held himself in a rather peculiar position for some time, even walking around a bit while holding himself in the same position. Unlike with the skimmers, I suspect that this may have been more about delousing. Some ornithologists have proposed that feather fluffing is a means of removing parasites, either by exposing them to sun (as shown) or by dislodging them with dust (cf. Hauser, 1957). In fact, in revisiting the park yesterday, I did see another thrasher (or the same one) holding himself in a similar position, but with the clear intention of saturating his underparts in earthy goodness. Assuming that these behaviors are related, basking, then, may be one tool in the arsenal against mites. This spaced-out looking Northern Cardinal that Maureen digiscoped seems to support that notion. He certainly seemed more interested in sunlight than dirt, anyway -- maybe with the same idea? Hauser (1957) noted that this type of behavior is especially likely after emerging from long, cloudy periods. 

A particularly fluffy Brown Thrasher

Spaced-out looking Northern Cardinal

But the trophy for laziest-looking bird has to go to this Tufted Titmouse sunning at Skidaway Island State Park. As much as he might look like roadkill, he was up and off just a few seconds after Maureen took this photo. I'm not absolutely positive what this ridiculous creature could have been up to, but in trying to figure it out I came across this fascinating old article titled, "Some Observations on Sun-bathing Birds" (Hauser, 1957). I'm sure the science has improved considerably in the 55 years since it was written, but the hypotheses and illustrations are worth a look. One hypothesis in particular had to do with the preen gland. Specifically, when the preening secretions are exposed to sunlight and then ingested, they can provide a source of Vitamin D. And what do you know! In the picture, you can actually see that the preen gland is fully exposed on the titmouse (the pink, fleshy bit just at the base of the tail). 

A Tufted Titmouse doing... something?

So who's to say a little laziness isn't a good thing? It seems to work for these birds; it's something you should keep in mind next time I go a month without writing a blog post, too. Here's to laziness! 


References

Gochfeld, M. and Burger, J. (1994). Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/108

Hauser, D. (1957). Some observations on sun-bathing in birds. Wilson Bull., 69:78-90.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Featured Feathered Friend: Baby Edition! - Downy Woodpecker

Here's a little quickie FFF post to highlight the delight of seeing all the new baby birds that I'm sure many of you have been experiencing lately. I know that Nick and I have been coming across all kinds of new baby birds in the past few weeks, including warbler chicks, like Northern Parulas and Pine Warblers, that we never got to see when we lived in South Florida.

Dad with bits of bugs still left on his bill after dropping off food to the little one

"Hey, where are you going?!?"

So speaking of South Florida, we had spotted a Downy Woodpecker chick right in front of our apartment in Boca Raton back in May 2009. We had noticed a couple of Downy Woodpeckers hanging around the trees in our parking lot, which was such a treat to see in itself. But we were even more delighted when we discovered that the Downy Woodpecker pair had nested right in the tree just steps away from our front door. We first heard the anxious chatter of the chicks as they were awaiting mom or dad to bring in some food. And then we finally got a peek of a chick as he poked his head out to see what the delay was for more lunch.

Downy chick and adult

"Yum yum, gimme some!"

This little guy gave us great looks at his Downy Woodpecker sweetness. This chick showed off his bright red cap as he looked around for mom and dad. These are already one of the cutest woodpeckers as they are the smallest, add to that a baby one, and you've got cuteness to the 10th power! I fondly and clearly remember sometimes opening the front door to be pleasantly perked up by the sound of this baby Downy calling. I think I giggled with joy every time. Such a sweet and desperate little cry.


Sweet little face =)

Oh so hungry!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Battle of the Show-Stoppers

As you saw in our previous post, we started off our day of birding at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge on a good foot. And the day got even better. On any other birding trip, we would have been happy to have just one of the awesome encounters we had that day. 



Part of the reason we came by the wildlife refuge on this day was to find a group of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that were recently reported there. It seems as those these ducks have started moving more northward to breed as numbers in Florida have been increasing. These are some of the cutest ducks, too. They not only look adorable with their big eyes and bright coral-orange bills, but they make the cutest whistling sound.

We first saw a few pairs flying by, then we hit the mother load when we stumbled upon a big group in a pond along the drive. And then we learned not to be fooled by their cuteness. I've heard of cock fights, and I've seen some human chicken fights, but we had never seen a duck fight!




As we watched these ducks, we soon saw that this pond may not be big enough for everyone. One group of ducks started whistling defensively at another group (see the 2nd photo in this post). And then, what I assume to be two males, started going at it! Now THESE guys put on quite a show, but one of aggression. This battle lasted only a few minutes, yet it was epic as these two ducks flapped wildly and attacked each other, sometimes going several feet above the water. Eventually the males parted ways as one group moved over a more reasonable distance away from the other group. 






As we moved along the wildlife drive, we got a little break from all the excitement as we came across a reedy edge of a pond with some more mellow birds. In one area, we saw two Red-Winged Blackbird fledglings who were flitting about on the reeds awaiting their parents to bring breakfast. And then down a little ways, we saw some birds that were so mellow, in fact, that I could almost hear Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On." We had stumbled upon two Purple Gallinules who were displaying some intimate courtship behaviors. I didn't get any pictures of the ordeal, but there was some interesting postures and preening going on. Our friend who was birding with us that day later found this article that discusses and illustrates the exact behaviors we saw.




And just as the rain started to sprinkle down, we got one final hurrah out of this birding trip. As a large raptor came zooming towards us followed by a small bird chasing after it, I yelled out, "Swallowed-tailed Kite! Swallow-tailed Kite!" Here came this large, gorgeous bird swooping right over our heads as it was being run off by a small blackbird that didn't like the looks of it being close by to its nesting area.



This is probably the most gorgeous raptor, or even bird, we've ever seen. This wasn't our first sighting, but definitely our best. There is no way anyone cannot be taken aback by this breathtaking bird with its elegant, white body, long black and white wings, and of course, that amazing forked tail. This kite, even when being chased, flys with such grace and poise. I only wish the lighting had been better, but then I may not have gotten that final eerily beautiful silhouette shot.

Monday, June 11, 2012

One Fish, Two Fish, I-love-you Fish

A couple of weeks back, we had an early morning birding adventure at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. We are still delightfully baffled that we have a refuge with a wildlife drive just 25 minutes away from our home! And this trip surely gave us something to sing about despite the gloomy weather and bout of rain we got on our way out. This short birding day was so good, in fact, that I have to split it up into 2 posts!

Common Gallinule

The morning started off nicely as we got some nice looks at a pair of mating Orchard Orioles. We heard a male singing, and then we followed it to a tree across the road to where we then found a female with a beak full of grubs. We figured that they must have had a nest in that tree. We only hope it survived ok as the wind was blowing and whipping that tree pretty good. And it didn't help matters that the tree was right next to a main road with lots of large truck traffic.
 
Lovely Cattails

We carried on with our good birding friend who then casually requested that we find a Least Bittern so that she could finally get the photos she's been wanting for a long time. Well, Nick delivered and located this sneaky little bird. This Least Bittern was the first of several that we saw that day, and he afforded us fantastic looks. And our friend indeed got some great shots of this usually secretive bird. I snuck in a few shots myself =)

Least Bittern in the reeds

Least Bittern giving us good views

Next, an Eastern Kingbird perched quite close to us and made his little sharp, buzzy call. I kept trying to get a shot of him with his mouth open, but my reaction time and my shutter speed were no match for his quickness. Nonetheless, this kingbird also let us adore him in all his kingly goodness.


Eastern Kingbird looking at me head-on

Profile shot of Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

However, our day of birding really took a turn for the awesome as we witnessed the courtship ritual of Least Terns. These tiny terns were putting on quite a show, or at least the males were. We've seen some fish wagging (and fish stealing) by other males of other tern species, but these little guys were just the cutest little things. 
 
Least Tern

Ladies in waiting

The females were standing along the gravel road just waiting for their suitor to swoop in and give them a fish. It was almost like watching southern belles at a debutante ball waiting for the perfect gentleman to present them with a rose. (I think I'd rather get a fish!) We saw up to a dozen females waiting patiently as the males did some aerial acrobatics before catching and presenting their delectable morsels. The females seemed quite receptive, and hopefully there will soon be even tinier Least Terns out and about nearby.

Least Tern looking for fish

Least Tern has no problem hovering right in front of us if it means finding a fish for his lady love

Least Tern in flight

We watched these terns for probably close to an hour, and it was hard pulling ourselves away. They didn't seem to mind us being right in the middle of their courtship gala. Even as cars passed by, the terns would just rise up off the road, but then quickly settle back down just waiting for their counterparts to bring more tasty fish. But we did finally depart this great spectacle, only to witness more great avian displays. But you'll have to wait a little while to see and read about those. ;-)

For you, deary.

Ta Da! A fish!

Off to find more fish!