birds
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How Now, Cowbird?
A late season chick. But what species?Here comes a parent… oh-oh. Chipping Sparrow.And Brown-headed Cowbird. Brown-headed Cowbirds are brood parasites. They lay their eggs in the nests of other species. The hatchling may kill off the hosts’ own offspring. I’ve never seen this in action. BHC’s lay their eggs “in 220 species of birds. Recent…
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All Summer Long
An unfamiliar bird sound called this one to my attention this week. It’s a fledgling American Robin. Still very much undercooked, the bird was clamoring for food.It may never have seen one of my kind before.I obviously can’t be eaten… or can I be?Yes, it can fly with those wings.A couple of days later, some…
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Raptor Wednesday
Look, up in the sky! It’s a… oh, let’s cut to the chase, comix book fans. It is a mature Bald Eagle. A pair have been nesting in the area for a couple of years now. (Remember, in 1974 there were no breeding pairs in New York State AT ALL. In 2017, there were 323…
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Tilt-a-nest
Northern Mockingbird nesting. A late brood or a second one? The angle here, by the way, is accurately represented. I wonder if they built it this way or it somehow shifted once they got it going. If you think these sweetgum pods look odd, you’d be right. This is a different species from our native…
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Raptor Wednesday
The #BrooklynKestrels. Mother and daughters. The young ones tend to look plumper than she does, but I can’t see this in this particular picture. She’s still bringing them food — and this roof is still a larder. They fly down to it, out-of-sight, and come up with a pice of something. There have been some…
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Great Egret
Ardea alba have even been known to show up in small backyard goldfish ponds. If there’s food… and they do seem readily habituated to the presence of similarly long-legged hominids.One of the bird’s long plumes, or aigrettes. These are breeding plumage feathers; this one about 18″ long. They’re the reason these birds were nearly hunted…
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Quiscalus quiscula
Now, there’s binomial! Doesn’t really help to translate it, however, since it basically means “quail quail.” Well, then, my favorite quail… anyway, as long as we stay away from the Middle Latin-to-English thing and just let Quiscalus quiscula ripple off the tongue. What I’m trying to suggest here is that “Common” Grackle is simply unfair.…
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Raptor Wednesday
Monday morning dawned and lo and behold there were two female American Kestrels on the Solar Building! The one on the left had the tell-tale head fuzz of a fledgling. Just like that, voila! So there was another Brooklyn Kestrel in the house!Was there only one? Within the hour that Monday morning: there were three…
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Spotted Dweller of the Coast
A very vocal shore bird this time of year makes you think there’s a nest nearby.Spotted Sandpipers are the shore birds you’ll see inland. In Brooklyn, that means the edges of Prospect Lake and Sylvan Water in Green-Wood host them during migration. Teeterbird is one of their common names, for their habit of bobbing their…
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Raptor Wednesday
I’d hoped to be able to report some exciting falcon-reveal news about the local American Kestrels. The parents have been here and there, but as of this, written late yesterday afternoon, we’ve got nada to say about fledglings.Meanwhile, can I offer you this dicey situation as a substitute for your Wednesday raptor needs? A perched…
Backyard and Beyond 