This rare fall and winter visitor to the UK and occasional vagrant in the western states of North America is featured by me to celebrate its first ever appearance in the county of Shropshire in the West Midlands of England. The event took place during …
Here is the story of a species of bird that has flourished on continents where it was introduced during the 19th century while at the same time suffering serious decline in its native Europe. In North America, there were close to 200 million European starlings …
Across North America, there are about 50 native species of shorebirds, not including occasional rare visitors, and in Europe these birds are called “waders” because that is what they do. I first saw waders as a teenager at Spurn Point in the north of England during April 1961 when I recorded bar-tailed godwits, red knots, sanderlings, dunlins, redshanks, and a turnstone. Some of these same species or their relatives are now seen by me here in California. More about my adolescent bird watching is included my novel She Wore a Yellow Dress.
As you might expect, shorebirds populate the seashore and coastal and inland wetlands. They are represented by four families – sandpipers, plovers, oystercatchers, and avocets/stilts. Other birds that mix with shorebirds, such as waterfowl, seagulls, herons, and grebes are not part of this agenda.
The sandpiper family includes small birds (length 4.5 to 9 inches/11.5 to 23 cm) that are called sandpipers (nicknamed “peeps”), as well as many similar-sized to larger relatives, with names such as sanderling, dunlin, red knot, Wilson’s snipe, wandering tattler, dowitchers, surfbird, three species of phalarope, and ruddy and black turnstones. Wilson’s snipe and the American woodcock occupy inland marshes and forest thickets. There are also species of large sandpiper that include the long-billed curlew, whimbrel, several types of godwit, willet, and a bird with the title of yellowlegs.
Within California, a few shorebirds live year-round along the coast and on wetlands, but the population increases dramatically during fall when large numbers of shorebirds arrive or pass through on their way to wintering grounds elsewhere. They return to their northerly breeding sites in spring. The least sandpiper, the smallest shorebird in the world, and the slightly larger western sandpiper, are the common representatives here in California during fall and winter. Additionally, the Baird’s, spotted, stilt, and solitary sandpipers are regular visitors. and rarer varieties show up periodically such as the sharp-tailed sandpiper, buff-breasted, Terek, and upland varieties.
Most shorebirds arrive from mid-July to mid-November and leave for their breeding grounds during late March to mid-May. Deciding which species of sandpiper you are looking at can be difficult because many species replace their bright summer feathers with rather drab, similar-looking plumage during the fall and winter. To identify the six species of sandpiper most likely to be spotted in California, the following may help:
Least sandpiper
Western sandpiper
Baird’s sandpiper
Spotted sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Solitary sandpiper
The nickname of “peep” is used by ornithologists to describe this group of small sandpipers that utter a “peeping” call. Their call is a short, thin, and often high-pitched piping cry made during flight or when the birds are running along the sand or mud.
The ubiquitous ruddy turnstone, about 8 inches/20 cm in length, also belongs to the sandpiper family though its appearance is more like a plover. It has a short, dark bill that is slightly upturned at the end. Its similar-sized relative, the black turnstone, has a much more restricted range, and only winters along the rocky shores of the Pacific Coast. Both species have a distinctive white wing pattern that can be seen in flight. In Europe, the ruddy turnstone is simply called the turnstone since its cousin is not present.
Ruddy turnstone
Black turnstone
Ruddy turnstone in flight
In Europe, small sandpipers are called stints, and during the 1960s I would often watch little stints pass through Spurn Point during the fall, following their breeding season in the Arctic. During those early years, I also spotted greenshanks and redshanks belonging to the sandpiper family but they are not common in North America. If you want to know why I became a birdwatcher, read my novel Unplanned.
Little stint on Spurn wetlands
Easier to distinguish are the larger members of the sandpiper family. They typically possess long bills, some with a slight upward curve like godwits and yellowlegs, and others with bills curved down such as the long-billed curlew and whimbrel. In the case of the willet, the bill is long and straight. One of the most challenging identifications is distinguishing between willets and the similar sized sandpiper species known as the dowitchers. Two varieties of dowitcher can be seen, the long-billed and the short-billed. Willets are heavier, have plain gray-brown plumage with no markings underneath, and display a distinctive white wing-band in flight. Dowitchers are dull gray, some spotting or barring on the side of their flanks, a white eyebrow stripe, and sometimes can be distinguished by their method of feeding – they probe in the mud with a rapid up and down motion like that of a sewing machine needle.
Willet in the front, short-billed dowitcher behind
There is also the Wilson’s snipe, a member of the sandpiper family and the only species of snipe native to North America. It is typically a winter visitor in California, although a few do hang around the Central Valley for summer. They are secretive and coy shorebirds that use their coloring for camouflage. When flushed, they appear using a very rapid zigzag flight and utter a harsh cry.
Wilson’s snipe
Identification of shorebirds is further complicated by the plover family whose members can superficially look like sandpipers in winter, and forage in the same habitats. They are plump-breasted birds, about 6 to 12 inches/15 to 30 cm in length, with rounded heads and short, stubby bills. They can be distinguished by the color of their bill and legs, and often have a full or partial black collar or breast band. The species commonly found on the California coast are the snowy plover, semipalmated plover, the killdeer (named after its warning cry of “kill-de kill-de), and the black-bellied plover. There are also several infrequent winter visitors to California such as the lesser sand-plover, Pacific golden plover, and piping plover.
Unlike most other shorebirds, they forage by sight. After spotting their food, they run towards it, stop, and then catch it. Most other shorebirds probe and peck in the sand or mud using the sensitive tip at the end of their bills to locate their prey.
Snowy plover
Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Black-bellied plover, winter plumage
Shorebirds belonging to the oystercatcher and avocet/stilt families are the least difficult to identify, as illustrated below. There are two species of oystercatcher in North America, both around 16 to 18 inches in length (40.5 to 45.5 cm). The American oystercatcher has black and white plumage and a distinctive long, bright orange bill, and is found on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as along the shores of the Pacific. The black oystercatcher is found only along the Pacific coast, and both species are mainly permanent residents. In the UK, I would occasionally spot the European oystercatcher that is a separate species and has black and white plumage similar to the American oystercatcher.
American oystercatcher
Black oystercatcher
Finally, with regard to the avocet/stilt family, the American avocet and black-necked stilt are its representatives in North America.
American avocet winter plumage
My earliest effort with this bird family was to try and spot a European “pied” avocet during a visit to Minsmere Nature Reserve on the east coast of England during 1968. Unfortunately it was a failure, as I describe in Chapter 22 of my novel She Wore a Yellow Dress. At the time, the species had just returned to Britain after 100 years of absence, attracted by new habitat created through the intentional flooding of the shoreline that occurred during World War Two to defend Britain against a possible German attack. It is now well-established in Britain and has become the symbol of conservation success, being used as the emblem for the British Society for the Protection of Birds.
Black-necked stilt
Unfortunately, it would take too long to describe every species of shorebird in North America and Europe, and how to identify each one. Instead, I will provide a general guide for identifying shorebirds, and will end the paper by introducing you to my favorite of all shorebirds, the black-necked stilt.
First, let me digress and feature the marbled and the bar-tailed godwits, two species of large sandpiper that are fairly easy to identify. They have a long, slightly upturned bill and long pointed wings that enable them to migrate non-stop thousands of miles each year. They are named after the call they make.
Marbled godwits are regular visitors to California in winter, arriving after breeding on the Great Plains. They are medium-sized and often can be seen congregating in small flocks on coastal mudflats and along estuaries. Some will continue onwards as far south as Mexico and the Caribbean. They can be identified by their mottled cinnamon and black coloring on their upper parts, and the rusty cinnamon plumage that is displayed during flight. They look a little like whimbrels but extend their feet beyond their tail feathers during flight.
It is this species’ cousin, the bar-tailed godwit that holds the record for the longest non-stop flight of any bird. A few years ago, several of these birds were tracked traveling from New Zealand to the Yellow Sea, making the unbroken journey in nine days, a distance of 6,800 miles (11,000 km). They then carried on to Alaska. Others have been tracked flying from Alaska to southern Australia, a distance of 6,900 miles, in ten days. Although breeding in Alaska, the bar-tailed godwit typically crosses the Pacific for the winter rather than traveling south down the West Coast of the Pacific. Thus they are only rare vagrants in California, with most sightings in the north of the state.
In Europe, the species breed in the Scandinavian Arctic and Siberia, and hundreds of thousands pass through the UK on their way south, with an estimated 40,000 stopping to winter in Britain, especially along river estuaries such as the Thames, Humber, Dee, and Forth. As I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate to see this bird traveling past Spurn Point.
North American marbled godwit
Marbled godwit – Migration map
Bar-tailed godwit – Alaska/Eurasia
Bar-tailed godwit – Migration map
Godwits are an example of how size, physical features and call help with a bird’s identification, but this often does not help with smaller shorebirds, especially during non-breeding.
For example, the dunlin, a medium-sized, chunky sandpiper, with a length of about 8.5 inches/22 cm and slightly smaller than an American robin, has a distinctive black belly and a vivid mottled rusty back during spring and summer, but for the rest of the year it molts into a mousy gray-brown and the black stomach patch disappears. In profile, it is round-backed and hunched, has a medium-length drooped bill, and forages using its bill like the needle of a sewing machine (similar to dowitchers).
Dunlin – spring/summer plumage
Dunlin in winter
You will find recording bill length and curvature to be very helpful for many shorebirds, and leg color will also helps identify some species. For example, greater and lesser yellowlegs have long legs that are colored bright yellow, oystercatchers possess pale pink legs, and avocets stand on long, spindly blue/gray ones.
If you see the bird in flight, try to see if it has any form of white wing stripe like a willet, turnstone, sanderling, or oystercatcher. Similarly, some species exhibit a white rump.
Another important method is noting the bird’s behavior. How does it feed? Does it run and grab its food like a plover, walk steadily and keep its head down like small sandpipers, or rapidly peck in the mud as if its bill is a sewing machine needle like dowitchers and dunlins? Flocks of sanderling forage on the beach rather than mudflats, and they can be seen chasing the waves backwards and forwards to find food within the narrow inter-tidal band.
Sanderlings
Bird calls are also distinctive. Does the bird whistle like a plover, oystercatcher, or dowitcher, or do they call loudly like a yellowlegs? Maybe it chips and peeps like many small sandpipers?
Finally, look at the habitat in which you see the bird. Oystercatchers, turnstones, tattlers, and surfbirds prefer intertidal rocky seashores. Others, like sanderlings and some plovers prefer the beach. Several types of plover, such as the killdeer, forage in grassy areas, whereas many sandpipers rely on intertidal mudflats, estuaries, and pond edges; several species choose to forage in shallow water like avocets, dowitchers, and yellowlegs, and salt-loving phalaropes spend time at sea or on saltwater lakes such as Mono Lake in California.
These ways of differentiating may seem complex, but if you study a bird carefully you can usually come up with a satisfactory identification. Consider using the checklist below:
Now let me shift to the black-necked stilt to illustrate how the above guide can work. It is a species named after its black and white plumage and the long, thin, pale pink legs. Also, it is the only stilt native to North America, and became a favorite of mine because there is nothing like it in the UK. It is small, about 14 inches/36 cm in length, has an unusually long neck for a shorebird, and walks slowly and deliberately as it forages for food. Its bill is black and needle-like, and its call is a distinctive and loud “yap” or “keek”, often given in a series when alarmed. The species is fairly abundant in wetlands and coastal areas of California, and using the above guide, I would summarize the stilts I see on the Corte Madera Creek as follows:
Black-necked stilt
Black-necked stilts at Corte Madera Creek, CA
Since the mid-1960s, the global population of black-necked stilts has remained fairly constant, although in California the numbers have been impacted by a substantial loss of natural wetlands. Of the stilts that breed in California, 70 percent nest in the Sacramento Valley.
Black-necked stilts are their most noisy during the breeding season and adopt different methods to frighten away potential predators. One is known as the “popcorn display” where several adults circle a potential predator, and jump, hop, and flap their wings, calling loudly to frighten the threat away. There is also the “false incubation” when the adult crouches as if incubating eggs and then moves on to another spot to repeat the process. Finally there is the “broken wing” distraction when the bird feigns injury to persuade the predator to follow it.
Most definitely, the black-necked stilt is my bird of the month.
Shorebirds in general have managed to preserve robust populations, in part because so many breed on the northern Arctic tundra. However, that appears to be under threat because of habitat deterioration and increased nest predation. Climate change is interfering with food and nest availability, such as early summer cold spells, and shifts in animal population is causing a higher proportion of egg and chick losses. More research needs to be done to develop appropriate conservation actions.
It is fall, and the time when many Californians catch sight of flocks of the white pelicans flying in formation between their breeding grounds in the northern interior of North America, to winter along the Pacific Coast as far as Mexico, on the Salton Sea, …
One of my favorite species of birds is the surf scoter, a sea duck that is abundant during October through April along the North American west coast as far south as central Baja (Mexico), after breeding in the boreal forests and tundra of Alaska. It …
In chapter 5 of She Wore a Yellow Dress, I describe my first date back in 1965 with a fellow Hull University undergraduate who became my wife. She curiously asked about my favorite hobby, and when I said it was bird watching, she wanted the name of my best-loved bird. Willingly, I told her it was the curlew because of its large and golden appearance, its mesmerizing summertime call of cur-lee cur-lee cur-lee, and its behavior when protecting its nest. These birds often bred in waterlogged grassland fields close to our family farm. During my youth, I would hide behind the hedgerows (long since removed), hoping to see the parents, and find the location of their nest. Curlews are highly secretive. Their nests are usually hidden by long grass, and they will leave the nest by taking flight some distance away from where they are nesting. They sometimes pretend to be injured, dragging their wing behind them to persuade you to follow them. When I eventually would find the nest, it would usually contain four dark olive-green eggs with brown markings.
And who could not be hypnotized by these birds as they poured out their distinctive bubbling call, like a kettle rising to the boil, but never quite getting there. I would often hear the sound late into the night.
Regrettably today, because fields are drained and long grass is no longer grown, the curlew has moved on. Most of their past territory in the west of Britain has been lost, and virtually none breed in lowland England.
Curlews are migratory large wading birds, mottled brown and gray, with long bluish-colored legs, and very distinctive long down-curved bills. The bill length is approximately six inches (15 cm). In the UK, pairs nest on the ground in wet pasture, and on moorland and heathland, and in marshes. They are site-faithful, returning to the same location each year so long as conditions remain suitable, and their chicks often establish nesting sites nearby. The species is omnivorous, eating both plants and invertebrates, and are often seen probing soggy ground with their long bills to find worms, grubs, and insects. The bill is longer than their tongue and acts like a pair of tweezers or chopsticks as they extract food. They may then toss it into the air and catch it on their tongue before swallowing it.
Eurasian curlew feeding
Because of the decline in curlew numbers since the 1970s, the bird is now placed on the UK’s “red list” of endangered species. It is likewise listed as vulnerable to extinction in continental Europe. Reasons include habitat loss (afforestation, urban development, drainage of wetlands, and shift to arable farming), changes in farming practices (increased mowing of fields, destruction of nests by farm equipment, and early cutting of green grass for silage), more predators (foxes, badgers, crows), and climate change (loss of water, drying out of breeding sites, ground too hard for curlew bills, and the inundation of coastal habitats). To raise awareness of this situation the English-based Curlew Action Group has declared April 21 as World Curlew Day.
An estimated 25 percent of the Eurasian birds’ global population breeds in the UK today, numbering close to 70,000 pairs, but since the late 1960s its numbers have declined 70 percent. The species has never had it easy with humans. It was often hunted and eaten, and it was not until during World War II that butchers in the UK were banned from selling its flesh.
Curlews are mentioned in several old English recipe books, and in Cornwall they were so common that their meat was stuffed into pies. Evidence of their revival by the mid-20th century, however, is mentioned in the 1958 edition of the York Bootham School Bird List. Under “curlew” it reports:
At the end of the 19th century, the curlew seems to have been confided to the moorland parts of Yorkshire as far as breeding was concerned. Nowadays the picture is quite different. They have bred for several years in locations around York and during the severe winter of 1947, many were seen along the River Ouse.
North America long-billed curlew
In North America, the Eurasian species is not present except as a very rare vagrant. There are three other curlew species, however, native to the continent, with the long-billed curlew the most common. This is the curlew I have seen most typically since moving to California. It has an estimated population of 125,000 to 160,000, and its down-curved bill is slightly longer than the Eurasian variety, at 8 inches (20 cm). The bird is a foot tall (30 cm), and is the largest shorebird in the United States. Its coloring is mainly mottled brown, with a pale cinnamon belly, and in flight, it displays upper and lower wings that are slightly cinnamon. Because of the long bill, it was nicknamed the candlestick bird, and it is this alias that is one of the alleged sources of the name for Candlestick Point in San Francisco. Apparently, long ago, the long-billed curlew was plentiful in this area.
Long-billed curlew Range Map
Marbled godwit
In size, shape and color, the long-billed curlew is similar to the marbled godwit, but the curlew’s down-curved bill is distinguishable from the upturned bill of this other bird. The curlew’s call is a whistled and high pitched curl-e-e-u-u, whereas the godwit gives off a loud kerreck or god-wit sound.
Bristle-thighed curlew
Alaskan breeding grounds of bristle-thighed curlew
There is the much rarer bristle-thighed curlew, so named for the inconspicuous bristle feathers at the base of its legs. It nests in a few hilly areas of north-western Alaska and has an estimated population of 10,000. For winter, it flies non-stop to various south Pacific islands, including Hawaii, Fiji and Samoa. This species, regrettably, is vulnerable to extinction, causing its numbers to be closely monitored in Alaska and measures taken to protect its wintering habitat.
The third species of curlew may now be extinct. The Eskimo curlews’ breeding grounds lay in the far northeastern regions of Canada, and they migrated long-distance to the pampas grass of Argentina. The last confirmed sighting of this species in Canada was during 1987, and it was last recorded in South America in 1939.
Eskimo curlew
One caution for birdwatchers is not to confuse the identification of curlews with their close cousin, the whimbrel. The latter breed on the vast treeless plains of the frozen Arctic in North America and Eurasia, and migrate south to South America and the shorelines of Africa, south Asia and Australasia. Because of their more remote breeding locations, the whimbrel is less threatened than other curlew species, and maintains a global population of around 1.8 million. They are typically greyish-brown above and whitish below, with two distinct races. The Eurasian whimbrel is white-rumped (very noticeable in flight), whereas the North American subspecies is dark-rumped. The curlew and whimbrel are similar in shape, but the whimbrel is smaller, and its bill, although similarly down-curved, it is not as long as the curlew. Probably the best ways to identify the whimbrel is through its two dark bands across the head, and its rippling whistle that prolongs into a trill.
Like the curlew, it is named after its call.
Whimbrel
There are three other species of curlew worldwide, with only the little curlew not on the endangered species list. It is the smallest curlew, has the shortest bill, breeds in northern Siberia, and spends winter in Indonesia and Australasia. Its population is about 180,000, and the number is stable.
The slender-billed curlew, classed as critically endangered, has a population of under 100, and nests in the peat bogs of Siberia, wintering around the Mediterranean. Finally, there is the endangered Far Eastern curlew, with a declining global population of around 30,000. It breeds in eastern Russia and Mongolia, and winters mainly in coastal Australasia.
Little curlew
Hopefully, this article will help you understand why certain species of bird are headed towards extinction, and why conservation actions are essential. In the UK, efforts are being taken to protect the curlews’ habitat, monitor its nesting sites, cull predators or fence them off from the breeding areas, rear chicks in captivity, and increase public awareness of the vulnerability of the species. The North America situation with the long-billed curlew is less severe, although numbers have declined in the eastern parts of its breeding range. Consequently, the species is placed on the list of “birds of concern”.
Finally, remember that April 21 is World Curlew Day. The date marks the Feast Day of St. Beuno in Wales (who died 21 April 640) and the legend that survives him. As the story goes, he was a Christian missionary, crossing the Menai Strait to Anglesey to lead a sermon when he dropped his papers in the water. This would have been a disaster were it not for a passing curlew that rescued the book and flew his papers to land to dry and to prepare them for his services. As a thank you, St. Beuno prayed to God for the protection of the curlew and asked that the species become invisible and be allowed to nest safely in long grass free from predators.
One of the very few families of birds that remained constant when I moved from England to California in 1979 was the family of terns. I regularly saw Sandwich, Arctic, common, black, and little terns during my visits to Spurn Point in Yorkshire, and during …
This is a memoir of a COVID-invigorated Bird Spotter and his July 2021 journey from Half Moon Bay to the pinnacles of the Southeast Farallon Islands, and waters beyond, in search of pelagic birds: puffins, shearwaters, storm-petrels, and albatross. My thanks go to Alvaro Jaramillo …
For thousands of years, domesticated pigeons have been an integral part of human life. Egyptian hieroglyphics and stone carvings in Mesopotamia (now modern Iraq) indicate that these birds were domesticated at least 5,000 years ago. Over centuries they have been kept as symbols of prosperity, used for religious sacrifice, eaten, and trained as couriers. Before the invention of the telegraph (1835), they were the quickest means of sending long distance messages. Today they are bred for show or used in pigeon racing. Feral pigeons, that you seem to see everywhere, are domesticated pigeons that have returned to the wild. My first experience of domesticated pigeons was in April 1953, when we moved into a new home that had a dovecote with about a dozen beautiful white fantail pigeons; for more on this, I refer you to my novel Unplanned.
Pigeons today are usually bred either for show at competitions or to increase their speed and homing instincts as a racing bird. Those raised for racing are usually known as homing pigeons or racing homers, whereas show birds are subdivided into a range of various types such as Fantails, Carneau, Jacobins, Tumblers, Frillbacks, Pouters, and Tipplers.
The ancestor of all pigeons is the rock dove, called the rock pigeon in the United States. The species is native to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, and although widespread, its numbers are decreasing. Elsewhere, such as in the Americas and Australia, these birds originated from captive stock and are classified as rock pigeons (feral type) instead of rock pigeons (wild type). The estimated global population of rock pigeons is as high as 400 million birds. The two types are similar in size and shape but it is the feral type that displays the variations in colors and patterns.
Feral pigeons (taking on some of the colors bred into domesticated fancy pigeons)
Rock Pigeon (wild and feral) Range Map: green – native and/or nesting: orange – introduced
Originally pigeons were brought from Europe to North America during the 1600s to provide food for settlers and to be used for religious purposes. However, they quickly began to breed, and as some escaped, they rapidly spread across the continent. Today they are widespread in North America. Under the 1918 United States Migratory Bird Treaty Act they were excluded from protection since they are non-native and were considered an invasive species like the house sparrow and European starling.
Many people treat rock pigeons as pests and hunt and shoot them. They are believed to spread disease, they infest our parks and public places, they damage crops in the fields, and they poop everywhere, including on your head.
Yet for those who breed pigeons, the bird is worthy of protection. The racing homer is bred for its endurance, speed, and desire to return “home”, with racing distances from as short as 62 miles (100 km), up to 620 miles (1000 km). The bird typically flies at about 50 miles (80 km) per hour. Prize money for winning races can be substantial. The South Africa Million Dollar Race offers $1.6 million in prizes with the first prize worth $300,000. Pigeon racing is a serious sport, and a highly successful pigeon is highly valued. In November 2020, a two-year old female racing pigeon was auctioned to a Chinese purchaser for $1.9 million, making it the highest valued racing pigeon ever.
Exactly how racing pigeons navigate their way home is unclear. A favored theory is that they use the position and angle of the sun and landmarks. However, often races take place during sunny, clear weather, yet large numbers disappear. In June 2021, about 10 percent of the 250,000 birds released across the UK for a competition made it home on time, but the others either straggled home much later or are still missing.
Another theory is that pigeons use the Earth’s magnetic field because they have a concentration of iron particles in their bill. A third idea is that they can detect low-frequency sounds coming from the earth and oceans and use these to travel home.
Of course there are many other species of pigeon and dove worldwide. In fact there are over 300 species, some occupying tiny areas, like a single island (for example Granada), or small parts of a country ( like the Somali pigeon in northern Somalia or the black-billed fruit dove in the north-east corner of Australia’s Northern Territory).
In North America, the commonest I see here in California is the band-tailed pigeon, a native of the west and southwestern states. It is the second most abundant species of pigeon in the United States, and usually travels in small flocks that will suddenly descend into backyards and steal seeds from bird feeders. There is also the white-crowned pigeon, native to southern Florida, and the red-billed pigeon that is seen in southTexas and throughout Mexico.
Band-tailed pigeon Range Map
As for doves, there are 15 varieties in North America, with the mourning dove by far the most common. It is resident across two-thirds of North America and has an estimated population of two million. Doves are distinguished from pigeons by their smaller size and fanned tail; however, there is no scientific difference between the two types of bird. Doves are friendly, attractive birds, often seen in backyards where they feed on the ground under bird feeders, or on platform feeders.
Mourning dove Range Map
Hopefully, none of these species will suffer the same experience as the passenger pigeon, which is now extinct. This species was native to North America and the most abundant bird on the continent when Europeans first arrived. The population back then is estimated at around three billion. They lived in forests, ate nuts and berries, occupied very noisy nesting colonies, and were caught and eaten by humans. Numbers rapidly declined, and by 1900, there were none in the wild, and in 1914, the last one in captivity died.
In the UK, during my childhood days, I enjoyed the summer-time visits from turtle doves, a species that is now seriously threatened in Britain. Today there are under 15,000 pairs breeding. The UK is also home to the collared dove and the stock dove. Probably my most favorite is the wood pigeon, the UK’s largest and commonest pigeon, and one whose nest of twigs often allowed me to see the two white eggs it contained before I climbed the tree.
In summary, doves appear welcomed by humans as representatives of love, peace, and compassion, whereas pigeons are hated because of their abundance, mess, and aggressiveness. Our love-hate relationship with these birds needs to find the right balance. Hopefully, we can control the numbers of pigeons without having to hunt and shoot them. Who knows, one of them you shoot maybe a racing pigeon returning home.
(Author’s note: I would like to thank my friend Ted Adams of Pacheco Valley, CA who encouraged this article by providing me with a copy of the 1965 edition of the Encyclopedia of Pigeon Breeds by Wendell M. Levi. Long ago, Ted was the caretaker of about 50 homing pigeons)
It was the summer of 1954 when my childhood hobby of birds’ egg collecting came to an end. The British government implemented the Protection of Birds Act, 1954 that forbid me to take wild birds’ eggs, and at the same time, protected adults and their …
During the 1950s and 1960s, as a young birder in the north of England, I ignored the rather common, drab and inconspicuous-looking birds known as house sparrows and tree sparrows. Both are Old World species, distributed across Europe and Asia, and rarely migrate significant distances. …
Recently, I came across a glossy, all-black American crow removing fiber from the back of my outdoors lounge chair. It gave me a look of disgust and then resumed its destruction, presumably using the stuffing to decorate its nest some distance away. Both sexes look alike so I could not determine if the thief was male or female. Crows are smart, social, and resourceful birds, and nearly daily visitors to my California back yard. Often in family groups, they squawk incessantly, feed on whatever they can find, and fly from perch to perch for reasons that are unclear to me. They live in tight-knit family units, with young crows staying with their parents to help raise their younger siblings in future years. There are around 30 million of them in North America, although in recent years the population has been affected by the West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that kills corvids more than any other species of bird.
Even so, the American crow population appears to be exploding, and today the bird is present in most urban and suburban settings, having learned to pick out safe situations and avoid dangerous ones. They are a lot smarter than they look. Records suggest that they spread westwards across North America as European settlers moved from east to west. Back then, they were often unwelcome guests because of their habit of foraging in cornfields and orchards. They were considered vermin and suffered unrestrained persecution through shooting, poisoning, and the destruction of their nests and eggs. In some cases, bounties were paid. An example was in the 1940s and 1950s when the US Federal government offered a bounty for each bird killed to protect the nation’s grain supply.
In the Old World, persecution of European crows has probably even been more severe over the centuries. Henry VIII in England passed the Preservation of Grain Act in 1532 in response to a series of poor harvests. The Act made it compulsory for every person in the country to kill as many crows as possible, along with other vermin such as weasels, stoats, hedgehogs, badgers, and foxes. Parishes raised levies to pay the bounty, and communities that failed to kill in sufficient numbers were punished with fines.
Supposedly, the meat of a crow is foul-tasting and the term “eating crow” is used for people who admit to humiliating mistakes and errors. Additionally, in Leviticus 11:15, God declares that “ravens of any kind” (the corvid family) should be regarded as unclean and never be eaten.
In the United States, prior to 1972, crows were shot or poisoned at will and denied protection under the 1918 Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This situation was amended in 1972 when corvids were made exempt from hunting, but with exceptions for landowners to kill the birds if they believed they were damaging or threatening trees, agricultural crops, livestock or wildlife. Specific days were set aside for hunting the birds outside their breeding season, but only firearms, bows and arrows, and falconry could be used. California adopted this exemption and authorizes licenses and permits from December 5 to April 7, with a daily bag limit of 24 birds. Data on numbers killed is limited although, in 2015, hunters reported killing about 35,000 birds.
So, if you were an intelligent bird, where would you move for greater safety and protection – likely to either urban or suburban centers where shooting is not permitted? In addition to not having crow shoots, cities provide alternative sources of food, have a warmer climate, offer an abundance of trees for roosts, and supplies artificial light to help look out for predator owls. In the city of San Francisco, an estimated 122 crows were recorded in 2000, whereas today the number has risen to around 900.
American crow Range Map
Crows remember their experiences and communicate them to others, they protect each other at night by roosting in tight-knit “murders” (a hunting term used since the 14th century for a group of crows), they problem-solve such as opening plastic bags, dropping nuts in front of cars to be driven over, soaking hard food items in fountains and bird baths before eating, and collecting and storing food for future use. They can recognize individual humans and behave hostile towards those that threaten them or come too close to their breeding territory.
They cluster in parks and gardens, scavenge and compete for food at dumpsters and bird feeders, and cackle whenever they choose, including early in the morning. They mainly feed on dead animals, fruits, seeds, grain and nuts, insects, amphibians, small mammals, shellfish, and the eggs and chicks of other birds. The latter habit causes offense among humans, although there is no evidence that it reduces the population of other species of bird. Increasingly, crows rely on humans and urban habitats for their food, safety, and the availability of nesting sites.
The American crow is comparable to the carrion crow and hooded-crow in the Old World, that I would see during the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these experiences are recounted in my novel She Wore a Yellow Dress. European crows display the same levels of intelligence and are equally as aggressive. For example, in parts of Berlin, crows have learnt to single out elderly ladies carrying plastic shopping bags as a likely source of food. More locally, here in California, crows will follow golf carts on the golf course, and look for food while the golfers are away conducting their sport.
The carrion crow is a glossy, all-black corvid, and fairly common across Western Europe. It was a resident around my rural home near York, England when I was a child, despite the habit of farmers erecting “scarecrows”, skinny decoys dressed in old clothes to resemble a human figure, to frighten away these birds. The ash-grey hooded crows were occasional winter visitors, but their numbers in Yorkshire have since declined.
The European rook is very similar to the American crow in that it is gregarious and prefers to live in tree-top colonies. They are relatively large black-feathered birds, distinguished from other corvids by the whitish featherless area on their face. So far, they appear reluctant to move into urban settings.
One of the greatest enemies of the American crow is the raven, a much larger and all-black bird, with large bill, wedge-shaped tail feathers (crows are fan-shaped), and a well-developed ruff on its throat. Its call is more of a croaking sound, or “gronk-gronk”, and unlike the crow, it is not common in populated areas. Where their habitats overlap, crows will attack their larger cousin to try and stop the latter’s habit of pillaging crows’ eggs and the young. They also engage in mobbing other birds when they believe their territory is under threat. On a quiet afternoon in California, you can hear the “caw-cawing” of a group of crows chasing high overhead after a red-shouldered or red-tailed hawk, and you can hear the hawk’s repeated “kea-oah” call as it tries to avoid being pecked to death.
In summary, American crows are uniquely adapted to cope with a changing environment and the increasing presence of humans. European corvids have done the same, but to a lesser degree. Along with sparrows, rock pigeons and starlings, crows are now the fourth “city bird”, but because of the mess and noise that they make and the false belief that the West Nile virus is spread by them, there is a desire to control their numbers. However, he simplest solutions are to keep crows out of trash cans (do not feed them) and discourage garden visits with netting and inaccessible bird feeders, rather than killing them. Remember, if you do menace crows, they can carry a grudge against you for a very long time to come, and communicate their dislike to others. The look I received from the crow that was stealing the stuffing from my chair suggested that was not yet on its enemy list.
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Meet the Eurasian common cuckoo bird and the North American brown-headed cowbird, both brood parasites.
As a boy many years ago in northern England, I pursued a little brown bird called a hedge sparrow, flicking its tail and shuffling through dense bramble undergrowth and along a hawthorn hedge, carefully carrying several furry brown caterpillars in its bill. Today there are about 2.3 million breeding pairs of hedge sparrows in Britain. The dingy-colored bird was about 5 inches/14 centimeters long, and is called by some a “dunnock” because of the Old English meaning of “dun” for brown and “ock” for little.
As the bird disappeared, I pushed inside the thorn-bearing bushes and could see the nest but not reach into its cup-shaped construction because the thorns tore at my skin. Instead of it containing several fledglings, there was only one large barrel-chested chick that was constantly calling for food and already twice the size of the hedge sparrow. I realized that I had discovered a young cuckoo bird under the care of its adopted parents. The common cuckoo, a dove-sized bird, is a migrant to Britain from early April to late July, and winters in Africa south of the Sahara. It enjoys a wide breeding range across Europe and Asia, and while there are concerns for its future in the UK, with an estimated global population of around 50 million, it is not considered threatened globally.
Common Cuckoo Range Map: orange – breeding; green – migration; yellow-wintering
It is one of very few brood parasites among birds that uses other bird species to raise their young by laying eggs in the other birds’ nests, usually birds much smaller than they, such as the dunnock, meadow pipit, robin, pied wagtail and reed warbler. During spring, it is usual to hear in the distance the male’s repeated and monotonous cuck-oo call that it uses to attract its mates for breeding. The adult cuckoo bird has dark blue-grey plumage on its upper parts, and dark barred feathers on a white background below, plus a long, graduated tail and pointed wings. Its general appearance is similar to a small hawk.
Since my sighting, the number of cuckoos in Britain has declined by over three-quarters to around 15,000 breeding pairs. The reason for the decline is unclear and maybe as much to do with the bird’s more perilous migrations each year caused by drought rather than loss of habitat and decline of food resources. Its hosts remain abundant although possibly due to global warming they now nest earlier, thus reducing the number of suitable nests available for the cuckoo to parasitize.
Curiously, the three cuckoo species in North America (yellow-billed, black-billed and mangrove) are not brood parasites – they rarely lay their eggs in the nests of other species – instead building their own nests and rearing their own chicks. They are less noisy than the common cuckoo bird, often emitting a softer cooing sound.
To find a brood parasite in North America, you have to turn to the stocky brown-headed cowbird, the main obligate brood parasite on this Continent. There is also the bronzed or red-eyed cowbird, but its distribution is limited to along the Mexican border and southwards. Members of the species are songbirds, belonging to the blackbird and oriole family, and the brown-headed variety is abundant from coast to coast in the 48 lower States and southern Canada. They lay their eggs in the nests of birds such as flycatchers, warblers, vireos and sparrows, and are known to have adopted over 200 bird species as their hosts; they are not selective, unlike the cuckoo, and their breeding population is estimated to have increased to 120 million. They inhabit farms, fields and prairies, and centuries ago probably followed the bison herds across the Great Plains to find insect prey flushed up by large grazing animals.
So how do brood parasites on both sides of the Atlantic go about selecting host birds and forcing them to incubate their eggs and rear their chicks? The advantages to the brood parasite are that they are given more time for procreating, finding additional mates and producing a large number of eggs. The typical clutch size for birds is 1 to 5 eggs, with the possibility of additional clutches if there is nest failure.
The female cuckoo annually produces 12 to 22 eggs, usually laying one in different host’s nests and using the same species that reared her. The cowbird is not so picky and is considered a “generalist” when it comes to choosing its foster host. It will lay 30 to 40 eggs each season, one in each host’s nest. Afterwards, the cowbird may remove one or two of the host’s eggs and the remaining ones are left behind. After hatching, it is believed that the begging of the foster siblings results in more food being brought to the nest, allowing the young cowbird to grow up faster. By contrast, the baby cuckoo engages in the murder of its siblings and will eject unhatched eggs and chicks if they have been born. It lifts them onto its back, and after bracing on the sides of the nest, rolls the egg or the chick over the edge to its death. The cuckoo bird is born a serial-killer!
To obtain access to the host nest the brood parasite uses ingenious ways to terrorize its victim and persuade it to raise its offspring. It may wait patiently until the nest owner leaves, and then quickly dart into the nest to deposit an egg. In the case of the common cuckoo bird its appearance resembles that of a bird of prey, with barred underparts and a curved bill, and there is evidence that it uses its outward pretense as a hawk to frighten away the host.
The cuckoo also misleads its host by disguising its egg to look like the host’s egg in color and shape – so the nest owner does not recognize that the egg is foreign. They may also have thicker shells for protection and incubate over a shorter period than the host’s eggs.
Not surprisingly, many hosts do not accept this assault lying down. Some learn to recognize the invaders and go berserk and attack them by landing on them and pecking at them. They may also visually or acoustically recognize the foreign egg and push it overboard, or not incubate it and sometimes abandon the nest altogether. However, not all hosts possess these skills and may simply accept the intrusion and incubate the parasitic egg. Some hosts are too small to push the egg out of the nest and simply build a new nest on top of the old one.
There is no strong evidence that this practice leads to the extermination of host species although brown-headed cowbirds are increasingly abundant and have expanded their range. Springtime trapping is allowed in certain states to control cowbird populations.
An exception to the risk of extermination is the handsome Kirtland’s warbler that came close to disappearing in the 1970’s when, because of loss of habitat as well as nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird , its number of breeding pairs fell to 167. The species occupies a small breeding area in parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and winters in the Bahamas. Because of actions taken to trap the cowbird and plant new Jack Pine forests, the number of breeding pairs is now approaching 1500, and in October 2019 the bird nationally was delisted from the US Endangered Species Act, 1973.
For more on the common cuckoo bird, I refer you to the first chapter of my new novel She Wore a Yellow Dress. And the next time you are accused of having “gone cuckoo”, know that the term comes from the cuckoo’s incessant and pointless calling that is likened to a person who speaks senselessly, monotonously and without purpose (i.e. stupid, barmy, insane). And if you watch One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, recognize that the title is based on an old children’s rhyme featuring three geese – “One flew east, one flew west and the other flew over the cuckoo’s nest” – an apparent reference to a mental hospital where “crazy” or “stupid” people are sent.
But the main story here is brood parasitism. It seems to be a risky reproductive strategy, but for the European cuckoo and the North American cowbird it works. Whether it is egg mimicry, or physical appearance and call mimicry of the chick, or the host’s inability to reject the intrusion, the practice has continued over time and appears unlikely to end. Of 8,600 living species of bird worldwide about 75 are brood parasites, many of them cuckoos, but also included are the South American black-headed duck, African weaver birds and the honeyguides of Africa and Asia.
