Category: Birds (page 1 of 3)

It’s been a rough winter, and a rough year, in a number of ways. The birds have been scarce, which is always hard, but it’s especially hard in a Winter marked by COVID-19 and self-isolation.

Today I took a picture of this male Northern Cardinal sunning himself. This was the first morning this year that I heard a Cardinal sing at dawn, which this fellow did right outside my window. This picture was taken about five hours later, when he returned to catch some rays and preen a little. The picture is not high art; I took it through the window, using my phone. Still, he’s a handsome fellow, and I was happy to see him.

This is not a great picture, but it serves to make identification easier. The tricky thing about House Finches is that they look a lot like Purple Finches. Here’s a guide to help distinguish House Finches from Purple Finches and Cassin’s Finch.

As a kid in New Hampshire in the 1970s and early 1980s I regularly saw Purple Finches. House Finches had not yet become commonplace. Now, in Maine, I rarely see Purple Finches and see House Finches pretty much all winter long (though having said that, I’m not always sure that I’m looking at a House Finch and not a Purple Finch, particularly with the females). House Finches are in fact a fairly recent arrival to this part of the U.S.

The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as cage birds (“Hollywood finches”). They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada within the next 50 years.

The House Finches arrived in force a couple of weeks ago, along with a fresh infusion of American Gold Finches. I’ve seen more than ten at a time fairly often; once, I counted fifteen individual House Finches; oddly they seem to prefer the black oil sunflower, and the Gold Finches love the two finch socks.

I‘ve taken the suet cage with nest-building fibers down since I took this picture, but it’s not too late for one last hatching of American Goldfinches. They breed very late. I‘m seeing young ones now, old enough to have left the nest, but not quite sure where to land on the feeder in order to successfully obtain seeds. This adult male Goldfinches has it completely figured out.

This is a out-of-focus but recognizable Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis).

I took the picture yesterday; that’s an American Goldfinch in winter plumage next to the Nuthatch. Today I spotted the first returning (or passing through) Junco.

Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)

This is, I think, or more specifically, I’m pretty sure, is a male Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens). Harry Woodpeckers look quite a lot like Downy Woodpeckers; there are differences, but the primary one, is size. Harry Woodpeckers are noticeably larger, and thus, looking at this guy compared to the size of the suet cage, I’m leaning towards Downy Woodpecker.

It’s definitely a male; the male of both species has a red spot on the back of their heads. If I had a better photo, we might be able to see the beak; the Hairy Woodpecker has a noticeably longer beak.

Male Downy Woodpecker, photographed through the window, because the minute I step outside, he moves to the back side of the suet.

Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) Image Credit: Martyne Reesman, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

While I was growing up in New Hampshire, we always had bird feeders. I started to pay serious attention to them the winter I turned 12. That’s the first year I remember seeing birds other than Blue Jays and Chickadees.

We could tell the season by the birds at our feeders.Spring was marked by Mourning Doves, Red-Winged Blackbirds, and Sparrows of several persuasions. Summer brought American Goldfinches, with their gorgeous bright plumage, zig-zag flight and constant song. My dad would let one or two Scottish Thistles bloom so we could enjoy the Goldfinches feasting on the seeds in late summer. Nuthatches and woodpeckers got serious about the suet in late fall. In winter, we had Chickadees, Eastern Blue Jays, Juncos, Pine Siskins, Red Polls, Purple Finches. And my favorites; huge flocks of Evening Grosbeaks. They were rather like giant Goldfinches in coloration, and in their constant chatter. They would descend on the feeders in February or March, often in the aftermath of a heavy snow. They would devour everything in sight, going through pounds of sunflower seeds in minutes, chattering the entire time.

I expected to see Evening Grosbeaks here in Maine last winter or this. I haven’t. I haven’t seen Red Polls or Pine Siskins or Towhees, either. I stumbled upon this 2016 article today by Nat Wheelwright “Bird by Bird, The Avian Population is Shrinking” Nat Wheelwright is the Bowdoin Professor of Natural Sciences and Chair of the Biology Department. He notes:

Earlier this summer, the National Audubon Society released a definitive study of population trends of North American birds, a monumental effort based on decades of Christmas bird counts and breeding bird surveys. The study confirms what my grandfather feared and what most of us now know. Birds that I used to see routinely growing up in New England – evening grosbeaks, eastern meadowlarks, northern bobwhites – are in free fall. The losses are mind-boggling.

There are still large flocks of Evening Grosbeaks in the North, but not in Southern New Hampshire, or coastal Maine. One reason may be that Southern states managed to defeat the Spruce Bud Worm, whose grubs are a favorite food for Evening Grosbeaks.

Other birds I haven’t seen are Eastern Towhees (which used to be called Rufous-Sided Towhees), Redpolls, and and Pine Siskins; all of which are no longer common in New Hampshire or Maine.