author and lifelong birder
My Bird Blog is a series of “then and now” stories that combine my experiences as a juvenile birdwatcher in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s with my knowledge of the same species in California today. Each month I publish the details of a bird …
Sabine’s Gull Photo Credit – eBird On a recent pelagic birding cruise out of Ventura, CA., I spotted my first Sabine’s Gull, a small, delicate seagull Sir Edward Sabine first described in 1818. Unlike most seagulls, these are readily identified but rarely seen because they …
Great Blue Heron Nests
The above photo arrived a few days ago with the question, “To whom do these nests belong?” The location is Puget Sound on the northwest coast of the US state of Washington. The answer is Great Blue Herons. The species nests in colonies, heronries, or rookeries, and while I always thought rookeries were for Rooks (look like crows), in the United States the word is apparently used for a colony of more than one bird species. The photo was taken in September, six months after the Great Blue Herons started reproducing in large, ungainly nests of sticks.
Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron is an unmistakable large bird with bluish-grey, black, and white feathers, swatches of rufous on the wings and thighs and a large dagger-shaped bill. For a brief period in spring, the male grows ornamental plumes on its head, breast and wings to attract its mate.
Great Blue Heron Male Breeding Plumage
The species also has specialized feathers on the chest that continually grow and fray. Herons comb these feathers into a “powder down” to remove fish slime and oils from their feathers as they preen. Its yellow eyes, which can become reddish during breeding, provide three times more detailed vision than humans and have built-in zoom lenses and photoreceptors that improve night vision. In flight, the bird tucks its head back into its shoulders.
Great Blue Heron Range Map
The Great Blue Herons are a New World partial migrant species, widespread from Alaska through Central America into parts of South America. A sub-species is present in the Galapagos Islands. It is an occasional vagrant in Hawaii. In the eastern US, it is seen on the Chesapeake Bay, including around Baltimore and Richmond, and has become the name of a golf course near Williamsburg. In South Florida, a “Great White” Heron variety (a morph, not a subspecies) inhabits shallow marine water. The Great Blue Heron is a wader, not a swimmer.
Great Blue Heron White Morph
The species has attracted the nickname Lady of the Water, and native Americans believe the bird symbolizes patience and good luck because of its behavior of waiting to catch its prey. The species is closely related to egrets rather than other herons, with the word egret derived from the French word “aigrette”, meaning silver heron. Estimating population size is challenging because of the dispersed nature of the birds, but a quarter of a million plus has been suggested.
Gray Heron
My first sighting of a heron was in 1960 near York, England, where there were three heronries and widely scattered individual birds. The species was known simply as “the heron” and today as the Gray Heron. It is the Old World version of the Great Blue Heron, with the two species likely originating from the same ancestor a million-plus years ago. The Gray Heron is common across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is smaller and slimmer than the Great Blue Heron, and the rufous coloring on the thighs and wings of the Great Blue is missing; its bill is slimmer. Curiously, the average life span of the Great Blue Heron is 15 years, but only five years for the Gray Heron.
Gray Heron Range Map
Light green – Breeding; dark green – Resident; blue – Non-breeding
Gray Herons nest in the same manner as the Great Blue Herons, share a similar diet and live in similar habitats. They experience the same predators. Falcons, especially peregrine falcons, catch them as food; in olden times, humans persecuted them. The British hunted them with falcons, roasted them, and served them at banquets during medieval times. They believed that those killed at the full moon would cure rheumatism. Today, Gray Herons have recovered, in numbers with estimates of one to four million globally, and in the UK, 11,000 breeding pairs and 50,000 individual birds in winter.
In North America, fishermen hated them, and hunters trapped them for their feathers to be used as adornments for women’s hats. As early as 1910, the New York State legislature introduced legislation that protected them from the plume industry.
Portland City Mural
Today, there are no significant conservation threats for either species. The primary risks are habitat loss, decreased food supply, and lead fishing tackle. Beavers are the principal benefactor of Great Blue Herons in North America, constructing the ideal fishing environment. Humans appear to take them for granted, providing them with little recognition. No country has adopted them as their national bird, and no US state has used them to represent their natural landscape. I believe Lake County, close to where I live, is the only county in the United States to adopt them as the county bird, and Seattle and Portland have adopted the Great Blue Heron to represent their cities (as have other towns in Washington and Texas). This iconic, majestic, graceful, quiet, and unassuming bird justifies more public recognition.
Lesser Goldfinch at my Tube Feeder Photo Credit – Author It has been a fascinating two years living in northern California, close to the Pacific Coast, observing the etiquette of birds that visit my bird feeders. Each specific species has a distinct bird …
Black Phoebe Photo Credit – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Phoebes are smallish (6 inches/16 cm), insect-eating, perching songbirds native to the Americas. Black Phoebe – United States, Mexico, Central America, parts of South America Eastern Phoebe – Eastern North America Say’s Phoebe – …
Mistle Thrush
This month, I am focusing on a bird I observed during my childhood in northern England: the Mistle Thrush. In the late 1950s, my ornithological colleagues at Bootham School reported that the Mistle Thrush was widely distributed and common around York. I discovered it is absent from North America except for rare winter sightings, but the Continent has its own thrushes, such as the Swainson’s Thrush, Varied Thrush, Hermit Thrush, and the Wood Thrush in the east.
The Mistle Thrush’s diet includes mistletoe berries, hence its name. In winter, it protects clumps of mistletoe berries and, after eating them, carries and deposits their seeds onto trees, propagating the plant. Different species of mistletoe exist worldwide, including in North America. Bluebirds, Mourning Doves, Grosbeaks, and American Robins (also a member of the Turdidae Family) are among the birds responsible for propagating the plant.
Mistletoe originates from Anglo-Saxon words mistel for dung, and tan for stick or twig. It has a long history with humans. Originally, it was a medicine and aphrodisiac, but these purposes were eventually replaced by kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas. Norsemen stole a kiss from any woman standing under the mistletoe, and refusing the kiss was bad luck. In England, young girls put mistletoe leaves under their pillows at night when they supposedly dreamt about a particular boy. During the 18th century, the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas to bring good luck and peace to the household was established.
Mistle Thrush Range Map
Green – resident; Orange – breeding/migrant; Blue non-breeding
The Mistle Thrush is 11 inches long (29 cm) and slightly larger than an American Robin. Most are residents, although some of those breeding in the north and Asia migrate for winter. Distinctive features of the species are:
The global population of the Mistle Thrush is between 12 and 30 million, nearly two-thirds of which live in Europe. However, numbers have declined in the UK by around 60 percent since the mid-1960s, and consequently, it is on Britain’s most endangered species list. Reasons for the decline are unclear; high juvenile mortality rates are suggested, but the loss of food sources as grassland and woodland are converted to arable may be another cause.
Eurasian Song Thrush
Song Thrush Range Map
Orange – breeding; Purple – year-round; blue – non-breeding
In Europe, you may mistake a Song Thrush for the Mistle Thrush. The Song Thrush is much smaller, its chest speckles are streaky, its upperparts are olive-brown, and it is much more frequently found in backyards.
Let me now turn my attention to North American thrushes.
Swainson’s Thrush
Swainson’s Thrush Range Map
Orange – breeding; Yellow – migration; Blue – non-breeding
The Swainson’s Thrush is familiar during summer along the Pacific coast in northern California. Usually, you hear it before you see it since it hides among the foliage. Its song is distinctive and beautiful, a fluting sound reverberating in dense foliage. The species is common and widespread in North America, with a population of around 12 million. During winter, Swainson’s Thrushes may move to Mexico and further south. It eats a diet of berries and insects, sometimes catching the latter in flight. The bird is smaller than an American Robin, has a round head, a short straight bill, and upperparts are olive-brown, with palish underparts and a brownish spotted chest.
Hermit Thrush
Hermit Thrush Range Map
Orange – breeding; Yellow – migration; Blue – Non-breeding
Hermit Thrushes are small, inconspicuous birds widely distributed across North America. Their breeding habitat is dense, moist, upland coniferous forests, but they sometimes move to lower elevations for winter. It is small, greyish brown, with big dark eyes and a reddish tail. Most notable is its song, regarded by some as the most beautiful song of any North American songbird. It eats by foraging among leaf litter on the ground. To distinguish it from a Swainson’s Thrush, look for a more olive-colored back without a cinnamon tail.
Varied Thrush
Finally, there is the brightly colored Varied Thrush. It breeds in dark, wet, mature forests in the Pacific Northwest, from Alaska to northern California, and migrates to lower altitudes in winter. Sometimes, it can be seen on the ground around bird feeders as it sorts out discarded seeds and eats suet, mealworms, and fruit. The global population is about 35 million, with a one-third decline in numbers during the past 50 years. Try not to confuse the species with the American Robin.
I could mention many other thrush species. However, as my Blog implies, this paper considers only some thrushes. Worldwide, there are over 170 species.
American Robin
Barn Swallow Photo Credit – Birds and Blooms Magazine My local Barn Swallows have arrived and have been constructing mud nests and feeding their offspring under the roof eaves of houses along the Corte Madera Creek near San Francisco. These avians make an …
Cory’s Shearwater off the coast of Madeira, Portugal Photo Credit – Author Cory’s Shearwater is a large, heavy bird and a member of the seabird family Procelleridae. It breeds primarily in the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira and the Canary Islands, Spain. …
Northern Mockingbird
Amidst a cacophony of mid-morning birdsong, a medium-sized bird, approximately 10 inches (25 cm) in length, caught my eye. Its tail, as long as its body, was a striking feature. The bird’s plumage was a mix of grey, darker above and lighter below, adorned with distinctive white patterns on its wings and tail, which were particularly noticeable when it took flight. The bird was a Northern Mockingbird, a captivating sight indeed.
The bird appeared in the exact location a year earlier, in a housing development near the Corte Madera Creek in northern California. The purpose of its song was unclear. Maybe it was calling a mate, protecting its territory, catching insects, or simply listening to its voice. During my childhood bird watching in England, the Northern Mockingbird was a species I had never encountered. The bird, a member of a group of New World species, is a rare vagrant in Britain, with years passing between individual sightings. The occasional appearance is thanks to Atlantic tailwinds or even boats offering unexpected lifts, adding a touch of mystery to its presence.
Northern Mockingbird
The Northern Mockingbird is a testament to adaptability, breeding from southern Canada across the United States and south into Mexico and the northern Caribbean islands. It has even managed to establish itself in Hawaii. Most birds are yearlong residents, but a few occasionally wander in the fall and winter, especially those that breed in the north. The species expanded its range along both coasts into Canada during the 20th century and prefers open land below about 1000 feet (300 meters), where shrubs and small trees provide cover. If you have encountered Western or Eastern Mockingbirds, they are sub-species of the Northern variety.
Northern Mockingbird Range Map
Orange – Breeding; Green – Permanent Resident; Blue – Non-Breeding Resident
At the turn of the last century, California’s standard range for these birds was restricted to the Central Valley, as far north as Merced and along the coast south of Los Angeles; now, the species has become more broadly distributed, and in San Francisco, you may encounter them in the Presidio. The development of farmland, the outlawing of trapping to make them cage birds, and banning shooting them as an agricultural pest have supported this expansion. The species has been common in the southern United States and is the state bird in five states: Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.
Texas Mockingbird and Bluebonnet
As the novel To Kill a Mockingbird says, the mockingbird is innocent and harmless and should be allowed to sing and add beauty to its surroundings. Current population estimates are around 30 million in the United States and a little over 40 million worldwide.
The Northern Mockingbird sings repeated phrases throughout the day and often into the night. A single bird will develop a repertoire of up to 150 to 200 songs during its lifetime. It mimics the songs of other birds and impersonates cats, car alarms, lawnmowers, and police sirens. Expect to hear different songs in the fall from those in the spring. However, estimates are that 90 percent of its songs are pure mockingbird, and 10 percent are mimicry. The bird’s scientific name mimus polyglottos translates into “mimic of many tongues”. Native Americans used a name that translates into “four hundred tongues”. Maybe due to their noisiness, they are caught by cats, attacked by raccoons, and taken by birds of prey.
Northern Mockingbird Winter Diet
For food, their diet changes during the year. In summer, they primarily eat insects; in fall and winter, they consume fruit. They forage on the ground or in vegetation. Visits to garden bird feeders are rare, but in winter, suet, mealworms, and fruit may attract them. Their average life span is eight years, but some are known to live as old as 15.
Blue Mockingbird
If you visit southwestern Mexico, do not be surprised to see a “blue” version of the mockingbird. The Blue Mockingbird is indigenous to Mexico, with an estimated population of up to five million. Both mockingbird species are of “least concern” from a conservation perspective.
Finally, you may want to listen to a singing Northern Mockingbird:
Greater Scaup (male with the white plumage) Photo Credit – Cornell Lab: All About Birds California winter visitors, the Greater Scaup, have recently left the coastal creek near my home and returned to their breeding grounds along the West Coast up to Alaska. Previously, …
Eurasian or Common Kestrel: Photo Credit – Wikipedia American Kestrel Photo Credit – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Thank you, Sonoma Land Trust, for connecting me with the beautiful American Kestrel, the smallest raptor in North America, during a recent visit to the Sonoma …
Humming-bird Hawk-moth
Hummingbirds are small, often migratory birds that inhabit the Americas. They have compact bodies, long, narrow beaks, and relatively long blade-like wings. The latter allows them to fly in every direction and to hover. Typically, they migrate alone and travel up to 500 miles a day. The people of California benefit from the beauty, courage, and entertainment of hummingbirds in California.
The weight of hummingbirds is typically less than two pennies and the noise their wings make gives them their name. Distribution of this family is limited to the American continents, with approximately 350 species, including 15 in the United States and Canada. If you see one in Europe, it is likely that you either observe an escaped cage bird or a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, an insect that looks like a hummingbird when feeding. The moth’s range is Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. Let’s start with hummingbirds generally and finish with California’s hummingbirds.
Anna’s Hummingbird (male)
First, the evolution of hummingbirds is a puzzle. The oldest hummingbird fossils are not in the Americas but in Germany, Poland, and France, and date back 30 plus million years. Today, these birds are extinct. Did they die out because of competition for food or because of an increasingly cold climate in Europe that persuaded them to move across the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska? From here, they could have colonized southwards and developed a diverse and rapidly expanding population. Alternatively, could there have been a natural convergence of evolution and the New World species developed independently? It is probable that we will never know.
Hummingbirds Range
Hummingbirds feed on nectar (occasionally insects) and consume up to 160 per cent of their body mass daily. They have a bias for red flowers and red feeders. This is in part due to the rich source of food, and partly because they possess trichromatic visual senses that prefer the range yellow to red and mute other colors such as blue. However, the main attraction is the quality of nectar, and it does not need to be colored! There is no need for you to add red food dye to the water you place in the hummingbird feeder. These birds are highly territorial and will fight to protect their mate, source of food, and their nest. This includes attacking bees, butterflies, and moths. I have even seen a hummingbird chase a raptor, presumably because it came too close to the hummingbird’s nest.
Black-chinned Hummingbird (male)
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (male)
There are seven hummingbird species present in California. Only three appear regularly in my part of California, north of San Francisco, so I must travel to see the other four. Because hummingbirds are small and fast, it is difficult to distinguish one species from another. The four requiring that I travel are as follows:
Calliope Hummingbird (male)
Costa’s Hummingbird (male)
Anna’s Hummingbirds
Anna’s Hummingbirds – These medium-sized, stocky, flashy, feisty, and fearless birds are named after Anne d’Essling, the wife of the Duke of Rivoli. She never likely saw one. The French naturalist René Primevère Lesson gave the name to the bird after observing the species in California, presumably to sponsor favor with the Italian family.
Anna’s Hummingbirds are common along the western coast of North America from northern Baja to southern Canada and many are permanent residents within this range. Their distribution explains why I have so many that visit my bird feeders year-round. Eight million Anna’s Hummingbirds are estimated to live in the western United States, and their numbers represent a substantial increase over the early 1970s. As temperatures warm, the territory for Anna’s Hummingbirds has expanded into the mountains of California, allowing their numbers to increase. Males are distinguished by a reddish-pink throat and reddish crown, an iridescent bronze-green back, pale grey belly, green flanks, and a slightly forked tail.
Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbirds
Allen’s Hummingbirds – small, compact, aggressive, territorial birds, and relatively rare. They migrate north beginning as early as December, and occupy a narrow strip of coastal forest, meadows, and gardens from Santa Barbara to southern Oregon. Their journey back to central Mexico takes place inland from June to August, although the birds that live around Los Angeles are often year-round residents. The species name celebrates Charles Andrew Allen, an American collector and taxidermist who identified the bird in 1879 in Nicasio, California. The species population has fallen by around 80 percent since 1968 to around 1.5 million. They are hard to distinguish from Rufous Hummingbirds. Males are identified from their green back and forehead, rust-colored flanks, rump, and tail, and iridescent orange-red throat. Females and immature adults are virtually identical in appearance to their equivalent Rufous Hummingbirds.
Rufous Hummingbirds – small, aggressive birds that pass through California (February to April and July to early October) on their nearly 4000-mile journey from Mexico, to breed north of California, as far north as Alaska, and then return home for winter. The population has declined significantly during the past 50 years but is large enough that these migrants remain familiar across California. Males are distinguished by their copper-orange back (although some are partially green, confusing their identity with Allen’s Hummingbirds). Their throat is an iridescent reddish-orange; they have a white breast and a white patch behind their eyes.
And finally:
Which are the smallest hummingbirds? The Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world, is found only in Cuba. It is two and a quarter inches long and weighs less than a dime.
Which are the largest hummingbirds? The Giant Hummingbird is nine inches in length and is found throughout the Andes on both the east and west sides.
Belted Kingfisher Photo Credit – I-naturalist (Birds of San Diego County) I usually hear the Belted Kingfisher rather than see one when walking alongside the Corte Madera Creek near San Francisco. Occasionally, you might observe one perched above the water or hovering on rapidly …
Eurasian Collared Doves Photo Credit – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Recently, I was walking alongside my local creek-side in Northern California when I heard the purring sound of goo-Goo-goo, and strove to find out what it was. I discovered a pair of Eurasian Collared …
Western Bluebirds Male & Female
The number of Western Bluebirds fluttering and dropping to the ground in search of insects appears to have dramatically increased this fall around the golf course I use here in northern California. What is going on, I ask?
First, an introduction to Bluebirds. There are three species in North America: the Eastern, the Mountain, and the Western; some are resident and some migrate. The northern populations head south for winter. The Eastern is the most common and is found east of the Rockies; the Mountain Bluebird lives high in the Rockies, as far north as Alaska and the Yukon and east into Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. The Western Bluebird is restricted to the Pacific Northwest and down to the southern Rocky Mountains and Mexico. Western Bluebirds in the south tend to be year-round residents. All three species are members of the thrush family.
Mountain Bluebird Western Bluebird Eastern Bluebird
Bluebird Range Map
The Western Bluebird is the dominant species that forages across my Bay Area golf course. Their plumage is a brilliant royal blue across their top half, they have a rusty brown-red neck and upper breast, and their lower breast is gray. The plumage on the female is duller, and both genders are slightly smaller than an American Robin. They forage by sitting and waiting on low-to-the-ground perches, inspecting beneath them for insects, and then swoop down to catch their prey. Nesting takes place in tree cavities and artificial nest boxes, but they also have to compete with other cavity-nesters such as starlings, certain swallows, and wrens for this right to occupy a nesting site. Their breeding habitat includes open woodlands, ranch environments, and streamside groves, but the winter habitat expands to include oak and riparian woodland, coastal chaparral, and pasture fields. Their summer diet is mainly insects, but in winter its food expands to include berries such as grapes, mistletoe, and poison oak.
Western Bluebird Nesting
Philopatry is the tendency of creatures to remain or habitually return to where they were born. Natal refers to the bird’s birthplace. It appears that mother Bluebirds can affect the everyday behavior of their male chicks while their offspring are still in the egg. They allocate different levels of testosterone and related hormones into the eggs, dependent on the competitiveness of the environment in which they have lived. If there is little competition for breeding and foraging, stay-at-home sons are born. When the reverse exists, more hormones are added, and the male chicks become more aggressive and more likely to disperse away from home.
Western Bluebird Diet of Berries
The life span of a Bluebird is around four years, and its clutch size is around 2 to 8 eggs, a situation that appears to encourage growth in population. Where I play golf, there are plenty of oak trees and open “pastures”, and I rarely see starlings who might compete with them. There are plenty of Acorn Woodpeckers to create new nesting sites. Maybe this is what is going on. Additionally, the numbers may be influenced by the arrival of migrating birds from the north during the fall.
The overall population of the Western Bluebird has held steady during recent years and the species is of “low concern” from a conservation perspective. The expansion of grazing land, the removal of dead trees, predation from cats and rodents, and the effect of non-native plants are the primary risks to their numbers.
During my early days of bird-watching in Europe, Bluebirds were not a species I saw. The closest to these species was listening to Vera Lynn sing There’ll Be Blue Birds over the White Cliffs of Dover. Written by two Americans in 1941, it appears that neither the composer nor the writer were aware that bluebirds did not live in Britain. However, the song became, and still is, a British favorite.
Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover
Black-Headed Grosbeak Photo Credit – Author The fall migration is underway. There are birds appearing in my Northern California backyard which I have not identified before. First there was the Black-Headed Grosbeak, a member of the Cardinal family, inspecting my bird feeder, probably looking …
