If you’ve been hearing an endless string of 10 or 15 different birds singing outside your house, you might have a Northern Mockingbird in your yard.
These slender-bodied gray birds apparently pour all their color into their personalities.
They sing almost endlessly, even sometimes at night, and they flagrantly harass birds that intrude on their territories, flying slowly around them or prancing toward them, legs extended, flaunting their bright white wing patches.
Cool Facts:
It’s not just other mockingbirds that appreciate a good song. In the nineteenth century, people kept so many mockingbirds as cage birds that the birds nearly vanished from parts of the East Coast. People took nestlings out of nests or trapped adults and sold them in cities such as Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New York, where, in 1828, extraordinary singers could fetch as much as $50. Northern Mockingbirds continue to add new sounds to their repertoires throughout their lives. A male may learn around 200 songs throughout its life. The Northern Mockingbird frequently gives a "wing flash" display, where it half or fully opens its wings in jerky intermediate steps, showing off the big white patches. No one knows why it does this, but it may startle insects, making them easier to catch. On the other hand, it doesn’t often seem to be successful, and different mockingbird species do this same display even though they don’t have white wing patches. Northern Mockingbirds sing all through the day, and often into the night. Most nocturnal singers are unmated males, which sing more than mated males during the day, too. Nighttime singing is more common during the full moon. Northern Mockingbirds typically sing from February through August, and again from September to early November. A male may have two distinct repertoires of songs: one for spring and another for fall. The female Northern Mockingbird sings too, although usually more quietly than the male does. She rarely sings in the summer, and usually only when the male is away from the territory. She sings more in the fall, perhaps to establish a winter territory. The oldest Northern Mockingbird on record was 14 years and 10 months old.
Habitat:
Year-round the Northern Mockingbird is found in areas with open ground and with shrubby vegetation like hedges, fruiting bushes, and thickets. When foraging on the ground, it prefers grassy areas, rather than bare spots. Common places to find Northern Mockingbirds include parkland, cultivated land, suburban areas and in second growth habitat at low elevations.
Food:
Northern Mockingbirds eat mainly insects in summer but switch to eating mostly fruit in fall and winter. Among their animal prey are beetles, earthworms, moths, butterflies, ants, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, and sometimes small lizards. They eat a wide variety of berries, including from ornamental bushes, as well as fruits from multiflora rose. They’ve been seen drinking sap from the cuts on recently pruned trees.
Nesting:
Mockingbird nests consist of dead twigs shaped into an open cup, lined with grasses, rootlets, leaves, and trash, sometimes including bits of plastic, aluminum foil, and shredded cigarette filters. The male constructs the twig foundation while the female makes most of the lining.
Nest Placement:
Northern Mockingbirds nest in shrubs and trees, typically 3-10 feet off the ground but sometimes as high as 60 feet. The male probably chooses the nest site and begins building several nests before the female chooses one to finish and lay eggs in. Females may start laying in a second nest while the male is still caring for fledglings from the previous one. Northern Mockingbirds rarely ever reuse their nests.
Behavior:
Northern Mockingbirds are found alone or in pairs throughout the year. They make themselves easily visible, sitting and singing atop shrubs, trees, utility lines, fences, and poles. On the ground they walk, run, and hop along the ground, tail cocked upwards, grabbing at prey on the ground or snatching insects just over the grass. Mockingbirds sometimes fly up and hover to grab at hanging fruit. The Northern Mockingbird is aggressive throughout the year. Females typically fend off other female mockingbirds, while males confront male intruders. Males disputing territory boundaries fly toward each other, land near the boundary, and face off, silently hopping from one side to another. Eventually, one bird retreats and the other chases it a short ways. If neither bird retreats, they may fly at each other, grappling with wings and claws and pecking at each other. Mockingbirds are also territorial around other bird species as well as dogs and cats. The flight style of mockingbirds is variable but typically leisurely, with showy wingbeats. Sometimes Northern Mockingbirds simply drop quickly from a perch with their wings folded.
Conservation:
Common and widespread. Northern Mockingbirds have rebounded from lows in the nineteenth century, when many were trapped or taken from nests and sold as cage birds.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Mockingbird on your next visit
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BLUE JAY
This common large songbird is familiar to many people with its perky crest, blue, white and black plumage and noisy calls.
Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with light family bonds.
Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period.
Cool Facts:
Thousands of Blue Jays migrate in flocks along the Great Lakes and Atlantic coasts but much about their migration remains a mystery. Some are present throughout winter in all parts of their range. Young Jays may be more likely to migrate than adults but many adults also migrate. Some individual Jays migrate south one year, stay north the next winter and migrate south again the next year. No one has worked out why they migrate when they do. Blue Jays are known to take and eat eggs and nestlings of other birds but we don't know how common this is. In an extensive study of Blue Jay feeding habits, only 1% of Jays had evidence of eggsor birds in their stomachs. Most of their diet was composed of insects and nuts. The Blue Jay frequently mimics the calls of hawks, especially the Red Shouldered Hawk. These calls may provide information to other Jays that a Hawk is around or may be used to deceive other species into believing a Hawk is present. Tool use has never been reported for wild Blue Jays, but captive Blue Jays used strips of newspaper to rake in food pellets from outside their cages. Blue Jays lower their crests when they are feeding peacefully with family and flock members or tending to nestlings. At feeders in Florida, Red Headed Woodpeckers, Florida Scrub Jays, Common Grackles and Gray Squirrels strongly dominate Blue Jays often preventing them from obtaining food. The pigment in Blue Jay feathers is melanin, which is brown. The blue color is caused by scattering light through modified cells on the surface of the feathers barbs. The black bridle across the face, nape and throat varies extensively and may help Blue Jays recognize one another. The oldest known wild banded Blue Jay lived to be at least 17 years and 6 months old.
Habitat:
Blue Jays are found in all kinds of forests but especially near oak trees; they’re more abundant near forest edges than in deep forest. They’re common in urban and suburban areas, especially where oaks or bird feeders are found.
Food:
Blue Jays glean insects and take nuts and seeds in trees, shrubs, and on the ground; they also eat grains. They also take dead and injured small vertebrates. Blue Jays sometimes raid nests for eggs and nestlings, and sometimes pick up dead or dying adult birds. Stomach contents over the year are about 22 percent insect. Acorns, nuts, fruits, and grains made up almost the entire remainder. Of 530 stomachs examined, traces of bird eggs and nestlings were found in only 6 stomachs, although a search was specially made for every possible trace of bird remains. Blue Jays hold food items in feet while pecking them open. They store food in caches to eat later.
Nesting:
Open cup of twigs, grass, and sometimes mud, lined with rootlets.
Nest Placement:
Blue Jays build their nests in the crotch or thick outer branches of a deciduous or coniferous tree, usually 10-25 feet above the ground. Male and female both gather materials and build the nest, but on average male does more gathering and female more building. Twigs used in outer part of nest are usually taken from live trees, and birds often struggle to break them off. Birds may fly great distances to obtain rootlets from recently dug ditches, fresh graves in cemeteries, and newly fallen trees. Jays may abandon their nest after detecting a nearby predator.
Behavior:
This common, large songbird is familiar to many people, with its perky crest; blue, white, gray, and black plumage; and noisy calls. Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems, and have tight family bonds. They often mate for life, remaining with their social mate throughout the year.
Only the female incubates; her mate provides all her food during incubation. For the first 8–12 days after the nestlings hatch, the female broods them and the male provides food for his mate and the nestlings. Female shares food gathering after this time, but male continues to provide more food than female.
Some individual nestlings begin to wander as far as 15 feet from the nest 1-3 days before the brood fledges. Even when these birds beg loudly, parents may not feed them until they return to the nest; this is the stage at which many people find an “abandoned baby jay.” If it can be restored to or near the nest, the parents will resume feeding it. The brood usually leaves the nest together usually when they are 17-21 days old. When young jays leave the nest before then, it may be because of disturbance. The jays are usually farther than 75 feet from the nest by the end of the second day out of the nest. Young remain with and are fed by their parents for at least a month, and sometimes two months. There is apparently a lot of individual variation in how quickly young become independent.
Blue Jays communicate with one another both vocally and with “body language,” using their crest. When incubating, feeding nestlings, or associating with mate, family, or flock mates, the crest is held down; the lower the crest, the lower the bird’s aggression level. The higher the crest, the higher the bird’s aggression level; when a Blue Jay squawks, the crest is virtually always held up.
Blue Jays have a wide variety of vocalizations, with an immense “vocabulary.” Blue Jays are also excellent mimics. Captive Blue Jays sometimes learn to imitate human speech and meowing cats. In the wild, they often mimic Red-shouldered and Red-tailed hawks, and sometimes other species.
Blue Jays are disliked by many people for their aggressive ways, but they are far less aggressive than many other species. In one Florida study, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Florida Scrub-Jays, Common Grackles, and gray squirrels strongly dominates Blue Jays at feeders, often preventing them from obtaining food, and Northern Bobwhites, Mourning Doves, White-winged Doves, Northern Mockingbirds, and Northern Cardinals occasionally dominated them as well. Sometimes Blue Jays mimic hawks when approaching feeders. This may deceive other birds into scattering, allowing the Blue Jay to take over the feeder, but most birds quickly return after the jay starts feeding.
Blue Jays carry food in their throat and upper esophagus—an area often called a “gular pouch.” They may store 2-3 acorns in the pouch, another one in their mouth, and one more in the tip of the bill. In this way they can carry off 5 acorns at a time to store for later feeding. Six birds with radio transmitters each cached 3,000-5,000 acorns one autumn.
Their fondness for acorns and their accuracy in selecting and burying acorns that have not been infested with weevils are credited with spreading oak trees after the last glacial period.
Despite being common, conspicuous birds that have been studied by many researchers, much about Blue Jays remains a mystery. This is the only New World jay that migrates north and south, and large flocks are observed flying over many hawkwatch spots, along shorelines, and at other migration overlooks, but their migration is very poorly understood. Some individuals remain year-round throughout their entire range, and at least some individuals depart during spring throughout their entire range except peninsular Florida. Migrating flocks can include adults and young birds, and recent analyses of movements of banded jays indicate that there is no age difference between jays that migrate and jays that remain resident. The proportion of jays that migrate is probably less than 20 percent.
Conservation:
Blue Jays do well around humans, and their populations are secure. The most frequent cause of death associated with humans comes from attacks by cats and dogs.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Bluejays on your next visit
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NORTHERN CARDINAL
The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird.
They’re a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style: a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off.
Even the brown females sport a sharp crest and warm red accents.
Cardinals don’t migrate and they don’t molt into a dull plumage, so they’re still breathtaking in winter’s snowy backyards.
In summer, their sweet whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning.
Cool Facts:
Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male. Many people are perplexed each spring by the sight of a cardinal attacking its reflection in a window, car mirror, or shiny bumper. Both males and females do this, and most often in spring and early summer when they are obsessed with defending their territory against any intruders. Birds may spend hours fighting these intruders without giving up. A few weeks later, as levels of aggressive hormones subside, these attacks should end (though one female kept up this behavior every day or so for six months without stopping). The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces, it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder. A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states. The oldest recorded Northern Cardinal was 15 years 9 months old.
Habitat:
Look for Northern Cardinals in dense shrubby areas such as forest edges, overgrown fields, hedgerows, backyards, marshy thickets, mesquite, regrowing forest, and ornamental landscaping. Cardinals nest in dense foliage and look for conspicuous, fairly high perches for singing. Growth of towns and suburbs across eastern North America has helped the cardinal expand its range northward.
Food:
Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit, supplementing these with insects (and feeding nestlings mostly insects). Common fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn. Cardinals eat many kinds of birdseed, particularly black oil sunflower seed. They also eat beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders, butterflies, and moths.
Nesting:
Males sometimes bring nest material to the female, who does most of the building. She crushes twigs with her beak until they’re pliable, then turns in the nest to bend the twigs around her body and push them into a cup shape with her feet. The cup has four layers: coarse twigs (and sometimes bits of trash) covered in a leafy mat, then lined with grapevine bark and finally grasses, stems, rootlets, and pine needles. The nest typically takes 3 to 9 days to build; the finished product is 2-3 inches tall, 4 inches across, with an inner diameter of about 3 inches. Cardinals usually don’t use their nests more than once.
Nest Placement:
A week or two before the female starts building, she starts to visit possible nest sites with the male following along. The pair call back and forth and hold nesting material in their bills as they assess each site. Nests tend to be wedged into a fork of small branches in a sapling, shrub, or vine tangle, 1-15 feet high and hidden in dense foliage. They use many kinds of trees and shrubs, including dogwood, honeysuckle, hawthorn, grape, redcedar, spruce, pines, hemlock, rose bushes, blackberry brambles, elms, sugar maples, and box elders.
Behavior:
Northern Cardinals hop through low branches and forage on or near the ground. Cardinals commonly sing and preen from a high branch of a shrub. The distinctive crest can be raised and pointed when agitated or lowered and barely visible while resting. You typically see cardinals moving around in pairs during the breeding season, but in fall and winter they can form fairly large flocks of a dozen to several dozen birds. During foraging, young birds give way to adults and females tend to give way to males. Cardinals sometimes forage with other species, including Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, other sparrow species, Tufted Titmice, goldfinches, and Pyrrhuloxias. They fly somewhat reluctantly on their short, round wings, taking short trips between thickets while foraging. Pairs may stay together throughout winter, but up to 20 percent of pairs split up by the next season.
Conservation:
Populations are generally in good shape. The expansion of people and their backyards over the last two centuries has been good for cardinals. However, habitat loss in southeastern California, at the edge of the cardinal’s range, may cause the disappearance of the cardinal population there.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Cardinal on your next visit
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BROWN THRASHER
A large, skulking bird of thickets and hedgerows, the Brown Thrasher has one of the largest song repertoires of any North American bird.
Boldly patterned, it is conspicuous when singing on the territory, but is hardly noticed during the rest of the year.
Cool Facts:
The Brown Thrasher is considered a short distance migrant, but two individuals have been recorded in Europe. One in England and another in Germany. An aggressive defender of its nest, the Brown Thrasher is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood. Brown Thrashers leave the nest at only 9-13 days old, earlier than either of its smaller relatives, the Northern Mocking Bird and Gray Catbird.
Habitat:
Breeds in brushy open country, thickets, shelter belts, riparian areas and suburbs. Winters in hedgegrows, gardens, thickets, and brushy woodland edges.
Food:
Insects (especially beetles), other arthopods, fruits and gnats.
Nesting:
A bulky cup made of twigs, lined with leaves, then with an inner lining of rootlets. Nests in dense shrubs, especially with thorns, up to 14 feet above ground (average 2-7 feet). Often placed on the ground.
Behavior:
Feeds in leaf litter by using bill to sweep litter and soil away. Occaisionally pecks and probes in litter.
Conservation:
Population declining slowly throughout range, perhaps because of the maturation of shrublands in the East and the elimination of fencerows and shelter belts in the Great Plains.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Brown Thrasher on your next visit
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TUFTED TITMOUSE
A little gray bird with an echoing voice, the Tufted Titmouse is common in eastern deciduous forests and a frequent visitor to feeders.
The large black eyes, small, round bill, and brushy crest gives these birds a quiet but eager expression that matches the way they flit through canopies, hang from twig-ends, and drop in to bird feeders.
When a titmouse finds a large seed, you’ll see it carry the prize to a perch and crack it with sharp whacks of its stout bill.
Cool Facts:
The Black-crested Titmouse of Texas and Mexico has at times been considered just a form of the Tufted Titmouse. The two species hybridize where they meet, but the hybrid zone is narrow and stable over time. They differ slightly in the quality of their calls, and show genetic differences as well. Unlike many chickadees, Tufted Titmouse pairs do not gather into larger flocks outside the breeding season. Instead, most remain on the territory as a pair. Frequently one of their young from that year remains with them, and occasionally other juveniles from other places will join them. Rarely a young titmouse remains with its parents into the breeding season and will help them raise the next year's brood. Tufted Titmice hoard food in fall and winter, a behavior they share with many of their relatives, including the chickadees and tits. Titmice take advantage of a bird feeder’s bounty by storing many of the seeds they get. Usually, the storage sites are within 130 feet of the feeder. The birds take only one seed per trip and usually shell the seeds before hiding them. Tufted Titmice nest in tree holes (and nest boxes), but they can’t excavate their own nest cavities. Instead, they use natural holes and cavities left by woodpeckers. These species’ dependence on dead wood for their homes is one reason why it’s important to allow dead trees to remain in forests rather than cutting them down. Tufted Titmice often line the inner cup of their nest with hair, sometimes plucked directly from living animals. The list of hair types identified from old nests includes raccoons, opossums, mice, woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits, livestock, pets, and even humans. The oldest known wild Tufted Titmouse lived to be 13 years 3 months old.
Habitat:
Tufted Titmice live in deciduous woods or mixed evergreen-deciduous woods, typically in areas with a dense canopy and many tree species. They are also common in orchards, parks, and suburban areas. Generally found at low elevations, Tufted Titmice are rarely reported at elevations above 2,000 feet.
Food:
Tufted Titmice eat mainly insects in the summer, including caterpillars, beetles, ants and wasps, stink bugs, and treehoppers, as well as spiders and snails. Tufted Titmice also eat seeds, nuts, and berries, including acorns and beech nuts. Experiments with Tufted Titmice indicate they always choose the largest seeds they can when foraging.
Nesting:
Titmice build cup-shaped nests inside the nest cavity using damp leaves, moss and grasses, and bark strips. They line this cup with soft materials such as hair, fur, wool, and cotton, sometimes plucking hairs directly from living mammals. Naturalists examining old nests have identified raccoon, opossum, dog, fox squirrel, red squirrel, rabbit, horse, cow, cat, mouse, woodchuck, and even human hair in titmouse nests. Nest construction takes 6 to 11 days.
Nest Placement:
Tufted Titmice nest in cavities but aren’t able to excavate them on their own. They use natural holes and old nest holes made by several woodpecker species, including large species such as Pileated Woodpecker and Northern Flicker. Additionally, Tufted Titmice also nest in artificial structures including nest boxes, fenceposts, and metal pipes.
Behavior:
Tufted Titmice flit from branch to branch of the forest canopy looking for food, often in the company of other species including nuthatches, chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers. When they find large seeds, such as the sunflower seeds they take from bird feeders, titmice typically hold the seed with their feet and hammer it open with their beaks. In fall and winter they often hoard these shelled seeds in bark crevices. These acrobatic foragers often hang upside down or sideways as they investigate cones, undersides of branches, and leaf clusters. They sometimes come all the way to the ground to hop around after fallen seeds or insects. Titmice are very vocal birds and are also quick to respond to the sounds of agitation in other birds, coming close to investigate or joining a group of birds mobbing a predator.
Conservation:
Tufted Titmice are common, their populations seem to be growing, and the species has been expanding its range northward over the last half-century. Possible reasons for the range expansion include a warming climate, reversion of farmlands to forests, and the growing popularity of backyard bird feeders.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Tufted Titmouse on your next visit
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NORTHERN FLICKER
Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage.
On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground.
It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill.
When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump.
Cool Facts:
Although it can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker prefers to find food on the ground. Ants are its main food, and the flicker digs in the dirt to find them. It uses its long barbed tongue to lap up the ants. The red-shafted and yellow-shafted forms of the Northern Flicker formerly were considered different species. The two forms hybridize extensively in a wide zone from Alaska to the panhandle of Texas. A hybrid often has some traits from each of the two forms and some traits that are intermediate between them. The Red-shafted Flicker also hybridizes with the Gilded Flicker, but less frequently. The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that is strongly migratory. Flickers in the northern parts of their range move south for the winter, although a few individuals often stay rather far north. Northern Flickers generally nest in holes in trees like other woodpeckers. Occasionally, they’ve been found nesting in old, earthen burrows vacated by Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows. Like most woodpeckers, Northern Flickers drum on objects as a form of communication and territory defense. In such cases, the object is to make as loud a noise as possible, and that’s why woodpeckers sometimes drum on metal objects. One Northern Flicker in Wyoming could be heard drumming on an abandoned tractor from a half-mile away. The oldest known “yellow-shafted” Northern Flicker lived to be at least 9 years 2 months old, and the oldest “red-shafted” Northern Flicker lived to be at least 8 years 9 months old.
Habitat:
Look for Northern Flickers in woodlands, forest edges, and open fields with scattered trees, as well as city parks and suburbs. In the western mountains they occur in most forest types, including burned forests, all the way up to treeline. You can also find them in wet areas such as streamside woods, flooded swamps, and marsh edges.
Food:
Northern Flickers eat mainly insects, especially ants and beetles that they gather from the ground. They also eat fruits and seeds, especially in winter. Flickers often go after ants underground (where the nutritious larvae live), hammering at the soil the way other woodpeckers drill into wood. They’ve been seen breaking into cow patties to eat insects living within. Their tongues can dart out 2 inches beyond the end of the bill to snare prey. Other invertebrates eaten include flies, butterflies, moths, and snails. Flickers also eat berries and seeds, especially in winter, including poison oak and ivy, dogwood, sumac, wild cherry and grape, bayberries, hackberries, and elderberries, and sunflower and thistle seeds.
Nesting:
Both sexes help with nest excavation. The entrance hole is about 3 inches in diameter, and the cavity is 13-16 inches deep. The cavity widens at bottom to make room for eggs and the incubating adult. Inside, the cavity is bare except for a bed of wood chips for the eggs and chicks to rest on. Once nestlings are about 17 days old, they begin clinging to the cavity wall rather than lying on the floor.
Nest Placement:
Northern Flickers usually excavate nest holes in dead or diseased tree trunks or large branches. In northern North America look for nests in trembling aspens, which are susceptible to a heartrot that makes for easy excavation. Unlike many woodpeckers, flickers often reuse cavities that they or another species excavated in a previous year. Nests are generally placed 6-15 feet off the ground, but on rare occasions can be over 100 feet high. Northern Flickers have been known to nest in old burrows of Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows.
Behavior:
Northern Flickers don’t act like typical woodpeckers. They mainly forage on the ground, sometimes among sparrows and blackbirds. When flushed, flickers often perch erect on thin horizontal branches rather than hitching up or around a tree trunk. Flickers do fly Iike most woodpeckers do, rising and falling smoothly as they intersperse periods of flapping with gliding. Early in spring and summer, rivals may face off in a display sometimes called a “fencing duel,” while a prospective mate looks on. Two birds face each other on a branch, bills pointed upward, and bob their heads in time while drawing a loop or figure-eight pattern in the air, often giving rhythmic wicka calls at the same time.
Conservation:
Widespread and common, but populations declining.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Northern Flicker on your next visit
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MOURNING DOVE
A graceful, slender tailed small headed dove that's common across the continent.
Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground, their flight is fast and bullet straight.
Their soft drawn out calls sound like laments.
When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying sound.
Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America.
Cool Facts:
During the breeding season, you might see three Mourning Doves flying in tight formation, one after another. This is a form of social display. Typically the bird in th lead is the male of a mated pair. The second bird is an unmated male chasing his rival from the area where he hopes to nest. The third is a female of the mated pair, which seems to go along for the ride. Mourning Doves tend to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they have filled it (the record is 17,200 bluegrass seeds in a single crop!), they can fly to a safe perch to digest the meal. Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day, or 71 calories on average. Perhaps one reason why Mourning Doves survive in the desert, they can drink brackish spring water (up to almost half the salinity of sea water) without becoming dehydrated the way humans would. The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the Mourning Dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S population estimated at 350 million. The oldest known Mourning Dove was 31 years and 4 months old.
Habitat:
Primarily a bird of open country, scattered trees, and woodland edges, but large numbers roost in woodlots during winter. Feeds on ground in grasslands, agricultural fields, backyards, and roadsides.
Food:
Seeds make up 99 percent of a Mourning Dove’s diet, including cultivated grains and even peanuts, as well as wild grasses, weeds, herbs, and occasionally berries. They sometimes eat snails. Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day, or 71 calories on average.
Nesting:
The nest is a flimsy assembly of pine needles, twigs and grass stems unlined and with little insulation for the young. Over 2 to 4 days, the male carries twigs to the female passing them to her while standing on her back, the female weaves them into a nest about 8 inches across. Mourning Doves sometimes reuse their own or other species nests.
Nest Placement:
Typically nests amid dense foliage on the branch of an evergreen, orchard tree, mesquite, cottonwood, or vine. Also quite commonly nests on the ground, particularly in the West. Unbothered by nesting around humans, Mourning Doves may even nest on gutters, eaves, or abandoned equipment.
Behavior:
Mourning Doves feed on the ground and in the open. They peck or push aside ground litter, but don’t scratch at the ground. Males have favorite “cooing perches” they defend from other males. Members of a pair preen each other with gentle nibbles around the neck as a pair-bonding ritual. Eventually, the pair will progress to grasping beaks and bobbing their heads up and down in unison.
Conservation:
Mourning Doves are common across the continent, and generally have prospered as people settled the landscape. This is despite their status as the continent's most popular game bird: hunters shoot more than 20 million Mourning Doves each year. Because of the birds' popularity, game managers monitor their numbers to set hunting limits. Although Mourning Doves seem to do well in the face of hunting pressure, they also face the less visible problem of lead poisoning. Mourning Doves forage on the ground, and in heavily hunted areas they may wind up eating fallen lead shot (records show some doves have eaten up to 43 pellets). Studies have found this problem is worst around fields specifically planted to attract the doves, and that about 1 in 20 doves wind up eating lead.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Mourning Doves on your next visit
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COMMON GROUND DOVE
The smallest dove in the United States, the Common Ground-Dove is a bird of the southern United States and tropical America.
Aptly named, it feeds and nests on the ground.
Cool Facts:
The Common Ground-Dove appears to hold permanent territories, but overt acts of aggression among territorial birds are relatively rare. The Common Ground-Dove stays with its mate throughout the year and between years.
Habitat:
Open country with trees and bushes, sandy reefs, open sandy areas in forest and savanna, cultivated lands, and around human habitation in villages and towns.
Food:
Mostly small weed and grass seeds, waste grains, small berries, insects, snail shells. Readily feeds at feeders.
Nesting:
May nest on ground or in shrub. Ground nests may be just a few grasses, weeds, rootlets, palm fibers, or pine needles lining a slight depression. Above-ground nests thin frail structure, loose foundation of twigs or pine needles lined with rootlets and grasses.
Nest Placement:
GROUND
Behavior:
Feeds on ground.
Conservation:
Generally common; may be declining in some areas and increasing in others. Listed in New Mexico as "Endangered" and in Alabama as a "species of special concern."
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Ground Doves on your next visit
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EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE
With a flash of white tail feathers and a flurry of dark-tipped wings, the Eurasian Collared-Dove settles onto phone wires and fence posts to give its rhythmic three-parted coo.
This chunky relative of the Mourning Dove gets its name from the black half-collar at the nape of the neck.
A few Eurasian Collared-Doves were introduced to the Bahamas in the 1970s.
They made their way to Florida by the 1980s and then rapidly colonized most of North America.
Cool Facts:
Eurasian Collared-Doves made their way to North America via the Bahamas, where several birds escaped from a pet shop during a mid-1970s burglary; the shop owner then released the rest of the flock of approximately 50 doves. Others were set free on the island of Guadeloupe when a volcano threatened eruption. From these two sites the birds likely spread to Florida, and now occur over most of North America. People have helped make the Eurasian Collared-Dove at home in North America. Bird feeders and trees planted in urban and suburban areas are cited as two of the main factors in the species’ colonization of the continent. The Eurasian Collared-Dove’s species name, decaocto, comes from Greek mythology. Decaocto was a servant girl transformed into a dove by the gods to escape her unhappy treatment; the dove’s mournful cry recalls her former life. While most birds meet their chicks’ protein needs with insects, doves feed their newly hatched chicks a fat- and protein-rich “crop milk.” This whitish fluid comes from liquid-filled cells that slough off the lining of the crop, a portion of the esophagus. After 5 or 10 days, the chicks switch to a diet of regurgitated seeds or fruit. Eurasian Collared-Doves are one of very few species that can drink “head down,” submerging their bills and sucking water as though drinking through a straw. Most birds must scoop water and tip the head back to let it run down into the throat. The oldest recorded Eurasian Collared-Dove from the wild was 13 years 8 months old.
Habitat:
Eurasian Collared-Doves are found throughout much of North America in urban and suburban settings with access to bird feeders and other seed sources. In agricultural areas they seek open sites where grain is available, including farmyards, fields, and areas around silos. They avoid areas with heavy forest cover or extremely cold temperatures, which may explain their absence from the Northeast.
Food:
Eurasian Collared-Doves eat mainly seed and cereal grain such as millet, sunflower, milo, wheat, and corn. They also eat some berries and green parts of plants, as well as invertebrates.
Nesting:
The male dove brings the female twigs, grasses, roots and other nesting materials, which he sometimes pushes directly under her. Over 1 to 3 days she builds a simple platform nest, which may include feathers, wool, string and wire. A pair often uses the same nest for multiple broods during the year, and may renovate old nests.
Nest Placement:
Males show females potential nest sites in trees and on buildings, giving a low- pitched, slow koo-KOO-kook call at each site. Nests are usually built 10 or more feet above the ground. In warmer regions, Eurasian Collared-Doves can nest year-round, which may help explain their success as colonizers.
Behavior:
Eurasian Collared-Doves roost on utility poles, wires, and tall trees in open areas near feeding sites. Mainly ground foragers, they peck at grain and seeds scattered beneath backyard feeders and on feeding platforms, or spilled at farmyards. Flocks of 10 to several hundred doves may gather at prime spots. Although they can feed peacefully in mixed flocks, Eurasian Collared-Doves will also chase off other birds, including Mourning Doves, cardinals, and Blue Jays. The male advertises for a mate with an insistent koo-KOO-kook call from a high perch, repeating the call up to a dozen times in a bout, sometimes starting before dawn and continuing into the night. Calls are followed by a flight display in which the male flies steeply upward, clapping his wings, then descends with tail spread, often spiraling down to the same or a nearby perch. Once a pair has formed, males show females potential nest sites, usually in tall trees but occasionally on buildings. In between these “site visits” the pair vigorously preen each other. Male doves bring females sticks and other material for the simple nest, and aggressively chase away other collared-doves, as well as predators—venture too close and you risk getting hit by a flapping wing. The monogamous pair may raise up to six broods a year; the female can lay a new clutch while young are still in a previous nest.
Conservation:
Since their introduction into Florida in the early 1980s, Eurasian Collared-Doves have spread rapidly and now occur throughout much of the U.S., especially in areas converted to agriculture and urban uses. Both intentional and accidental introductions have likely hastened their spread. Studies on interactions between collared-doves and other species have not yet shown a negative impact on populations of native birds, including Mourning Doves. As an introduced species, Eurasian Collared-Doves are not protected from hunting and have become popular game birds in rural areas of the Southeast and Texas.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Eurasian Collared Doves on your next visit
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ROCK PIGEON
A common sight in cities around the world, Rock Pigeons crowd streets and public squares, living on discarded food and offerings of birdseed.
In addition to the typical blue-gray bird with two dark wingbars, you'll often see flocks with plain, spotted, pale, or rusty-red birds in them.
Introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1600s, city pigeons nest on buildings and window ledges.
In the countryside they also nest on barns and grain towers, under bridges, and on natural cliffs.
Cool Facts:
Pigeons can find their way home, even if released from a distant location blindfolded. They can navigate by sensing the earth’s magnetic fields, and perhaps also by using sound and smell. They can also use cues based on the position of the sun. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics suggest that pigeons were domesticated more than 5,000 years ago. The birds have such a long history with humans that it's impossible to tell where the species' original range was. Rock Pigeons carried messages for the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I and II, saving lives and providing vital strategic information. Charles Darwin kept pigeons for many years after returning from his five-year voyage on the Beagle. His observations on the great variety of pigeon breeds, and the huge differences found between captive breeds and wild pigeons, helped him formulate some aspects of his theory of evolution. Pigeons come in many different shades and plumage patterns. People have named some of the common forms, so keep an eye out for these varieties: The typical “blue-bar” form (a bluish-gray bird with two black bands on the wing and a black tip to the tail); a “red bar” version (similarly marked, but with rusty red replacing bluish gray); “checker” (birds that have spots on the wings); “spread” (all black or all gray); “pied” (birds of any color that are splotched with white); and mostly red or mostly white forms.
Habitat:
Urban areas, farmland, and rocky cliffs. May gather in large flocks in urban parks where people feed them.
Food:
Seeds, fruits, rarely invertebrates. Pigeons also readily eat food intentionally or unintentionally left by people, including bread crumbs and littered food.
Nesting:
During nest building, the female sits on the nest and makes a flimsy platform of straw, stems, and sticks from materials brought to her one at a time by the male. Pigeons reuse their nests many times, and they don't carry away the feces of their nestlings the way many birds do. This means that over time the lightweight nest grows into a sturdy, potlike mound, sometimes incorporating unhatched eggs and mummies of dead nestlings.
Nest Placement:
Males typically choose the nest site, then sit in place and coo to attract a mate. The site is a nook, cranny, or ledge on either cliffs or manmade structures, often beneath eaves or an overhang. Pigeons may nest in stairwells, in rooms of abandoned buildings, or rain.
Behavior:
Pigeons peck at food on the ground and drink by placing their bill in water, using it like a straw. When threatening a rival, pigeons may bow and coo, inflating their throat and walking in a circle. A male pigeon courts his mate by bowing, cooing, inflating his throat, and strutting in a circle around the female. The pair may preen one another and the male may grasp the female’s bill, regurgitating food as a courtship gesture. When ready to mate, the female crouches and the males jumps on her back. The male brings one twig or stem at a time to the female to build a nest. He incubates the eggs from mid-morning to late afternoon; she takes her turn in late afternoon and overnight to mid-morning. Both parents brood the young and feed them by regurgitating a milky liquid secreted by the lining of the birds' crops.
Conservation:
Common and widespread. Populations stable.
Be sure to stop by the Songbird Habitat and see our Rock Doves on your next visit
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