Category: Birds

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A Modern Day Phoenix

“Phoenix,” an immature Golden Eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
Courtesy Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU.org)

Elk Bath
From a 2000 fire in the
Bitterroot National Forest in Montana

Courtesy Wikimedia &
USDA Forest Service
John McColgan, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

You may have heard about the golden eagle nestling that was badly burned during a recent Utah wildfire. Its nest was totally destroyed, but the little eagle had fallen to the ground and survived. After the fire, he was found by Kent Keller, a volunteer for Utah’s Div. of Natural Resources, who had banded the young eagle a month before. The eagle was dehydrated—his feathers, face, and feet were badly burned. So Keller obtained a permit from wildlife officials to intervene. Now in the care of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah the eagle is recovering rapidly. Even so, it will take a while for the damaged feathers to be replaced by healthy new ones. Phoenix–as is he was aptly named–won’t learn to fly for at least another year.

With this and other fire-related stories in the news, I‘ve been wondering about the fate of animals caught in wildfires. Scientific observations of animal behavior during fire events are rare. But by conducting post-fire surveys, and comparing results with unburned areas, some researchers have been able to piece together an idea of who survives, who dies and who thrives.

Obviously, faster and more mobile animals have the advantage. Birds can fly away and most mammals can outrun the spreading flames. Spring fires can be disastrous, destroying birds who haven’t fledged –like Phoenix– or mammals who are still too immature to escape. Fortunately, fires are more frequent in mid to late summer when little ones have matured.

If a fire moves through an area quickly, without superheating the ground, dormant animals or those hiding in burrows can survive. The surrounding soil provides plenty of insulation. Soil also protects most soil macrofauna and the pupae of many insects.

Animals that live their lives totally or partially in the water may not suffer at all during a fire. However, smaller bodies of water, such as streams, can quickly heat up fairly quickly. Oxygen loss is a problem as well. And fire-fighting chemicals dumped from the air can end up in water, killing fish, frogs and other animals.

Indirectly, the alteration of habitat by fire can also restructure animal populations. Interestingly, there are quite a lot of animals that benefit from post-fire habitats. For example, the insect population above ground may plummet during a fire, but then increase above pre-fire levels when fresh young plants start to grow back. Burned trees are attractive to certain beetles as breeding sites. An increase in beetles is a windfall for the woodpeckers that devour them. Swallows and flycatchers use burned dead trees as perch sites. They survey from on high and then swoop to catch their insect dinner. Seed eating birds like Clark’s Nutcracker, gobble up conifer seeds when cones open in response to fire.

Among mammals, ground squirrels, pocket gophers and deer mice generally increase after severe fires. Even large herbivores such as pronghorn or deer may benefit from the increased food and nutrition on recent burns. In turn, predators of these creatures enjoy a bumper crop as well.

For images of Phoenix the recovering golden eagle and a link to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah go to www.wildaboututah.org.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy Wikimedia, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Gavin Keefe Schaefer and Dave Menke, US FWS images.fws.gov
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading:


Baker, William L. 2009. Fire ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes. Washington, DC: Island Press.https://islandpress.org/ip/books/book/islandpress/F/bo7019409.html

Bradley, Anne F.; Noste, Nonan V.; Fischer, William C. 1992. Fire ecology of forests and woodlands in Utah. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-287. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr287.pdf

Hutto, RL. 1995. Composition of bird communities following stand-replacement fires in northern Rocky-Mountain (USA) conifer forests in Conservation Biology Volume: 9 Issue: 5 Pages: 1041-1058 https://www.fsl.orst.edu/ltep/Biscuit/Biscuit_files/Refs/Hulto%20CB1995%20fire%20birds.pdf

Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah https://wrcnu.org/

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Looking for Nightjars

Looking for Nightjars: Click to view the larger image of Common Poorwill (front) and Dusky Poorwill. Courtesy Wikimedia and Louis Agassiz Fuertes (artist, 1874-1927), US Copyright expired
Common Poorwill (foreground)
Phalaenoptilus nuttallii
Dusky Poorwill
Phalaenoptilus nuttalli californicus
Courtesy Wikimedia and
Louis Agassiz Fuertes (artist, 1874-1927)
US Copyright expired

Click to view the larger image of Common Nighthawk. Courtesy Wikimedia and Gavin Keefe Schaefer, PhotographerCommon Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor
Courtesy Wikimedia and
Gavin Keefe Schaefer, Photographer
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Click to view the larger image of Common Nighthawk. Courtesy US Images.FWS.gov and Dave Menke, PhotographerCommon Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor
Courtesy US FWS and
Dave Menke, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

Citizen Science networks are proliferating across the globe. These networks conduct important research that could not otherwise be accomplished –And they do it using nonprofessional, mostly volunteer labor. An army of civilian data collectors can capture more data over a larger area at a relatively small cost. Aside from collecting data, participants can generate ideas, and help coordinate various aspects of a particular program. Many citizen-driven networks collectenvironmental data at prescribed locations. Wielding Smartphones with GPS receivers, anyonecan instantaneously and accurately determine their geographic coordinates to submit along with their observations.

The Audubon’s Society Christmas Bird Count is one of the oldest and most successful examples of citizen science networks. Since 1900 volunteers have been collecting information about local populations of birds. More recent examples include FrogWatch USA (for observing frogs and toads) Project BudBurst (for observing the leafing and flowering of plants in relation to changing weather patterns) and the World Water Monitoring Challenge (for observing water quality indicators).

One project that recently piqued my interest is the US Nightjar Survey Network coordinated by The Center for Conservation Biology in Virginia.

“What in the world is a nightjar?” you might ask. “Is it something you take camping so you don’t have to get out of the tent?” No. A Nightjar is a medium-sized plump-looking bird withlong wings, a broad head and a very short bill. Nightjars have short legs in relation to their bodies. So they aren’t great at walking. They are exceptional fliers though , catching moths and other insects in mid-flight.

Nightjars are very hard to see because of their camouflage plumage and because they are mostly active after sunset and before sunrise. Thus, you’d want to memorize their very distinctive calls if you are going to try to find them.

Two nightjars breed regularly in Utah. We have the common poorwill which sounds like this…[INSERT 3 CALLS OF POORWILL] . That’s the eastern whippoorwill without the whip. Another Utah breeder is the common Nighthawk which sounds like this …[INSERT 3 CALLS OF NIGHTHAWK].

The nightjar survey for Utah and other northern states begins June 27 and runs through July 11, 2012. Individual surveys are easy to perform and do not take more than two hours to complete.Surveyors work at night, when the moon is at least half full. You need to drive, stopping at 10 points along a 9-mile route. At each point, you count all Nightjars seen or heard during a 6-minute period.

To participate in a survey you can sign up for a Pre-existing route or design your own route. There are still many routes left in all parts of Utah.

For pictures of these extremely interesting birds and a link to the remaining Nightjar Surveyroutes go to www.wildaboututah.org

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.
Credits:


Images: Courtesy Wikimedia, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Gavin Keefe Schaefer and Dave Menke, US FWS images.fws.gov

Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading:


Cleere, Nigel. 2010. Nightjars: A Guide to Nightjars, Nighthawks, and Their Relatives. Princeton University Press. https://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300074574

National Geographic Education Encyclopedic Entry: Citizen Science. https://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/citizen-science/?ar_a=1

[Accessed June 21, 2012]

Woods, Christopher P., Ryan D. Csada and R. Mark Brigham.2005. Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: https://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/032

United States Nightjar Survey Network (Center for Conservation Biology), https://www.nightjars.org/about/center-for-conservation-biology/

Utah Nightjar Survey Routes (Center for Conservation Biology), https://www.nightjars.org/about/center-for-conservation-biology/

Bird Song Recordings:


Common Poorwill links from WildSoundscape.org recordings collection at the University of Utah

Common Poorwill Phalaenoptilus nuttallii : Nathan Pieplow, XC11631. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/11631

Buff-collared Nightjar links from WildSoundscape.org recordings collection at the University of Utah 3 selections

Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor ; Andrew Spencer, XC14400. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/14400

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Hummingbird Nests

Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Selasphorus platycercus
Copyright © 2010 Michael Fish

Glacier Lilies
Erythronium grandiflorum
Copyright © 2010 Andrea Liberatore

Adult Black-chinned Hummingbird
incubating eggs in nest
Archilochus alexandri
Copyright © 2010 Lyle Bingham
(cell phone through spotting scope)

Young Black-chinned Hummingbird
with beak hanging out of nest
Archilochus alexandri
Copyright © 2010 Lyle Bingham

The hummingbird feeders at Stokes Nature Center are a busy place this time of year. Little bullets of metallic green zoom in and out jockeying for position, while others rest or await their turn in the branches of nearby box elder trees. The birds are a great source of wonder and amusement for staff and guests alike.

June signals the start of nesting season for Utah hummingbirds. At this point in the year, the birds have mainly recovered from their lengthy migration from places as far away as Central America, and are ready to focus on their next set of challenges: establishing a territory, courtship, mating, and rearing young.

Hummingbird nests are a wonder all their own. Tiny and cup-like, they are generally found affixed to small branches near riparian areas. Nests are constructed primarily of plant materials and are lined with plant down such as the fluffy seeds produced by cottonwood trees. Materials used on the exterior of the nest vary from species to species. Black-chinned hummingbirds use leaves and flowers, while Broad-tailed hummingbirds are partial to decorating with lichens or shredded bark. Regardless of the exterior appearance, hummingbird nests have one important material in common – spider webs. Hummingbirds collect the webs and use them to plaster the outside of the nest, which serves two important purposes: acting as a glue that holds nest materials together while at the same time providing some flexibility that allows the nest to stretch and grow with the developing young.

Nests are occasionally constructed on the foundation of last year’s home, and two eggs around half-an-inch in length are laid and incubated by the female for about 16 days before hatching. Young will fledge and join their mother at your feeder about 20 days later. If nesting is successful, the family migrates south in the fall and will return to the same general area next May.

Finding food in early spring, however, is becoming more of a challenge each year to hummingbirds in the American West. A recent study published in the journal Ecology shows that hummingbird migrations and spring flower blooms are becoming out of sync. Broad-tailed hummingbirds in particular rely upon the nectar of petite, yellow glacier lilies – one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. Scientists have found that due to global temperature increases glacier lilies are blooming about 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970’s. The birds, however, haven’t altered their migration timing and so often arrive to find the flowers already in full swing. If this trend continues, scientists predict that within the next 20 years, the birds could miss the glacier lily bloom entirely. Hope lies in the hummingbirds’ ability to adapt– either by migrating farther north to places where lilies bloom later, or shifting their own migration time to match the changing bloom dates.

Photos of glacier lilies, Utah hummingbirds, and their nests, can be found on our website, www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Mike Fish
            Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Andrea Liberatore
            Courtesy & Copyright 2010 Lyle Bingham
Text:     Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon.


Additional Reading:

Harrison, H. H. (1979) Peterson Field Guides: Western Birds’ Nests. Houghton Mifflin Co: Boston

Ehrlich, P.R., Dobkin, D.S., Wheye, E. (1988) The Birder’s Handbook: a field guide to the natural history of north American birds – The Essential Companion to Your Identification Guide. Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books: New York.

National Science Foundation press release, 05-30-2012, Where Have All the Hummingbirds Gone? Retrieved online at: https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124345&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Live Webcam of black chinned hummingbird nest:
https://www.livestream.com/hummingbirdsociety

Nature News, Evolution News and Views, David Klinghoffer, The Genius of Birds: Watch a Hummingbird’s Tongue in Action – See more at: https://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/06/the_genius_of_b073491.html

Coro Arizmendi Arriaga, Maria del, Hummingbirds of
Mexico and North America, In Spanish and English, CONABIO, 2014, https://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/Difusion/pdf/colibries_mexico_y_norteamerica.pdf

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Songs of the Western Meadowlark, Poorwill and Canyon Wren

Songs of the Western Meadowlark, Poorwill and Canyon Wren: Western Meadowlark. Courtesy US FWS https://images.fws.gov. John and Karen Hollingsworth, Photographers
Western Meadowlark
Sturnella neglecta
Courtesy US FWS
John & Karen Hollingsworth,
Photographers, images.fws.gov

Common Poorwill. Courtesy Dominic Sherony, Photographer, Licensed under CCA-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported Common Poorwill
Phalaenoptilus nuttallii
Dominic Sherony, Photographer
formerly linked to: https://www.birdphotos.com/photos/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=85245
Licensed under
CCA-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported

Canyon Wren, Catherpes mexicanus, Courtesy & Copyright © 2007,Lou Giddings, Photographer Canyon Wren
Catherpes mexicanus
Courtesy & Copyright © 2007,
Lou Giddings, Photographer
UtahBirds.org

Everyone recognizes bird-watchers by their binoculars. Bird-listening, on the other hand, takes nothing more than your ears, and attention to Nature’s sounds. Listening for bird songs may require your concentration at first, but soon it becomes second nature. Some common birds of Utah are more easily found and known by their song than their appearance.

The Canyon Wren is one of my favorites. This tiny cinnamon-brown bird weighs little more than a marshmallow, but it belts out a cascading song big enough to reverberate off the rocky cliffs and slopes that are its home.

[Kevin Colver recording: Birds of the South West Canyon Country, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections]

You may not see the canyon wren, but try conversing with it by whistling its song in reply. Listen year-round for its song throughout Utah and our neighboring states, particularly in canyons with rocky walls.

Nocturnal birds are seldom seen but commonly heard. Owls are an obvious example, but so is the

Common Poorwill, a migrant whose call is diagnostic throughout Utah.

[Kevin Colver recording: Birds of the Rocky Mountain Foothills, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections]

Poorwills are camouflaged ground-nesters. On summer evenings, though, you may occasionally see them settled on pavement, their eyes reflecting headlight beams, looking like glowing coals.

Bird song can help distinguish between related bird species too. On the eastern Great Plains, both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks co-occur. The plumage of these two starling-sized species is nearly identical, but their songs differ dramatically. The eastern species sings but a few clear notes, but our western meadowlark sings a beautiful musical warble.

[Kevin Colver recording: Birds of the South West Canyon Country, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections]

Meadowlarks reside here year-round, typically in grassy areas, pastures and foothills. Their backs are brown, but the male’s chest is a brilliant lemon yellow. Males are frequently seen singing their cheerful song atop a fence post. And that is another reason for listening to birds, for the sheer pleasure of their song.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Graphics: Courtesy US FWS images.fws.gov
Recordings: Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Jim Cane, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Voice: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Western Meadowlark, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/WesternMeadowlark.htm

Common Poorwill, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/CommonPoorwill.htm

Canyon Wren, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/CanyonWren.htm

Western Meadowlark, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark

Common Poorwill, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Poorwill/overview

Canyon Wren, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canyon_Wren