Sparrow Seven

This morning I headed out to Occoquan Bay NWR, hoping to find a good diversity of sparrows, since it's getting into prime sparrow migration time.

Find them I did! Here are the numbers of the numbers and species I found:

Field Sparrow     7
Savannah Sparrow     12
Song Sparrow     35
Lincoln's Sparrow     2
Swamp Sparrow     10
White-throated Sparrow     4
White-crowned Sparrow     3

 While sparrows may not be the most flashy of birds, they have some subtle beauty. And in the case of the White-crowned Sparrow (on left) a fairly eye-catching head pattern:

This picture, obviously not the clearest, was taken through my binoculars. If you have any tips for taking pics through binocs, let me know!

Finches, lots of finches

Today I had all 4 finch species today at the feeders! 1 Pine Siskin, 1 Purple Finch, 10 American Goldfinches, and 8 House Finches. Oh, and the first Dark Eyed Junco at the feeders this year.

Songbird Migration: Night

Most people (including myself) are surprised the first time they learn that a huge percentage of birds migrate primarily at night. While the public is used to hearing about migrating hawks that are observed by day, or perhaps seeing geese in V formations up in the clouds in the late fall, I suspect that the majority of Americans have no idea that the vast majority of migrant songbirds are doing most of their travel at night.

Considering the diet of most of these migrants, it makes perfect sense. The majority of migrants that are headed to Central and South America are going there because the colder winters in North America mean their primary food source is not available: insects. Yet they can't just take off from Massachusetts and in one long flight make it to Mexico.

If they migrated during the day and merely slept at night, these birds would have a tough time catching enough insects while en-route to provide the energy necessary to keep them going for thousands of miles. However, by migrating at night, the birds can feed during the day, storing up energy for the next leg of their trip.
On a quiet night in the fall, you can sometimes hear small chip notes of migrating warblers or thrushes overhead. And they are among the millions of songbirds passing over the East coast while we sleep.

More Purple Finches...

Last night there was 1 male and 5+ female Purple Finches on the feeders. The House Finches were bullying them.

This morning there was at least 11 female Purple Finches on the feeders, outnumbering all other birds at the feeders!

Purple Finches...

Today I woke up to 2 Purple Finches (females) on my Squirrel Buster feeder. Very cool to have these semi-regularly so far this fall. Hopefully Siskins will be here soon :)

Warbler ID: Yellow-rumped Warbler

If you are going to be birding this fall, it's time to get very well acquainted with this character. The Yellow-Rumped Warbler is by far the most numerous warbler in the Mid-Atlantic by mid-October. While most other warblers are leaving the country, the hardy Yellow-rump is showing up in huge numbers here. In fact, October is the month when you are forced to sort through the gangs of Yellow-rumps in search of another warbler that may be tucked in with them.

Since warblers are my absolute favorite type of bird, I thought I might give a few tips on identification, beginning with the Yellow-rumped. First of all, this species is well-named: it's most obvious plumage characteristic in the fall is its bright yellow rump, visible while perched or flying. While there are other warblers that have yellowish rump areas, none are as bright and in as sharp of a contrast to the surrounding feathers as in Yellow-rumped. Besides that bright spot of yellow, the Yellow-rumped is a rather drab warbler in fall. Brownish overall, with streaking on the sides and flanks.

Another extremely useful field mark that is easily overlooked are the small white crescents above and below the eye. While not a full eye ring, these marks are nearly always apparent, and with a decent look at the face of a yellow-rump (seeing the white throat contrasting with the brown ear patch), that's about all you need to identify this species. (Side note: if you want to learn warbler identification, learn the faces. You can identify 90% of warblers with just a good view of the head).

If you're new to warblers, it make take some time to recognize that the Yellow-rumped is a large warbler, that moves fairly slowly, though it often flies out from a tree to catch an insect, only to swoop back to that same tree. They are active, but not particularly fast movers. And compared to many other warblers, they actually seem like they could use a few days at the gym. Perhaps their size makes them more suited to handling the colder temperatures of the Northeast in fall and even winter.

Many times, Yellow-rumped Warblers can easily be identified without even seeing the bird, however! This bird has a distinctive hard "chek" note that it gives when in flight (listen to it here). Knowing this note is really helpful when trying to sort through a group of warblers to find something different.

People who seek to find counterfeit dollar bills do it by being extremely familiar with the real thing. If you become really familiar with the Yellow-rumped Warbler, it will make it 10X easier to find other species in the mixed species flocks of fall.

The Warbler Tree

I find it interesting that tonight when I walked around my apartment complex, just about the only birds I saw were located in the same tree as three days ago. Tonight (around 6 pm--late in the day to expect much) the warbler tree held about 6 Yellow-Rumped Warblers, 1 Nashville Warbler, and Kinglets of both species. I've never given much thought to how long individual birds spend in one place while in the midst of migration, but I would definitely put a bet down to say that the Nashville I saw tonight was the same one I observed four days ago.