H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 629 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

Memory Lane

February 2010

Song Sparrow — Feb. 2010

Tags: birds, Memory Lane, nature, photography, photos of birds

The bird that it’s being featured on this post is well known in North America, since they are found in almost every State of the Union. The Mourning Dove is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds.

Mourning doves are light grey and brown and generally muted in color. Males and females are similar in appearance. The species is generally monogamous, with two squabs (young) per brood. Both parents incubate and care for the young. Mourning doves eat almost exclusively seeds, but the young are fed crop milk by their parents. Mourning doves eat almost exclusively seeds, which make up more than 99% of their diet. Rarely, they will eat snails or insects.

The number of individual mourning doves is estimated to be approximately 475 million.

The mourning dove occupies a wide variety of open and semi-open habitats, such as urban areas, farms, prairie, grassland, and lightly wooded areas. It avoids swamps and thick forest. The species has adapted well to areas altered by humans. They commonly nest in trees in cities or near farmsteads.

Their presence at my backyard feeders is almost permanent, they are voracious eaters and have a great capacity in their crops for a large amount of seeds.

Most Mourning Doves migrate south along flyways over land, this is usually during the day in flocks and at low altitudes. However not all individuals migrate.

These doves are hunted at rate of 20 millions individual per year as a game bird for sport and for meat…

“Luckily, one pair may raise up to six broods a year!”

Photo Gallery

Tags: birding, Mourning Dove, nature, photography, photos of birds

Brown Brood

Although this bird is not the most popular amongst the avian 10,000 bird species that are known to date in the world, I believe that it’s fair to them to be mentioned as a strong american bird. The Brown-headed Cowbird is a small brood parasitic icteric of North America.

The brown-headed cowbird is typical for an icterid in general shape, but is distinguished by a finch-like head and beak and is smaller than most icterids. The adult male is iridescent black in color with a brown head. The adult female is slightly smaller and is dull grey with a pale throat and very fine streaking on the underparts.

These birds live in open country and often travel in flock, sometimes mixed with Red-winged Blackbirds Common Grackles or European Starlings.

They forage on the ground, often following grazing animals to catch insect stirred by larger animals. they mainly eat seeds and insects.

The brown-headed cowbird is a brood parasite: it lays its eggs in the nests of other small perching birds, particularly those that build cup-like nests. The brown-headed cowbird eggs have been documented in nests of at least 220 host species, including hummingbirds and raptors.

I’m very familiar to their eating habits, their voracious appetite and their aggressive behavior, but I know deep down they are of great service to our Ecology by helping balance the proliferation of destructive insects of all types.

“I just only hope that I won’t get too many of them visit my backyard this new season!”

Photo Gallery

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, Brown-Headed Cowbird, nature, photography, photos of birds

Then Came the Wren

Seeing the Carolina Wren quite often is a treat because this little vibrant bird is fast and energetic for all its moves, it announces its presence in the location with his loud calls and after its done eating or having any activity around the area, flies to a high point and again gives out its loud calls.

They are well respected by other birds their size, although they are described as aggressive birds, I have never seen them attack or being involved in a fight.

The Carolina Wren description is as follows:

The crown is rich brown that appears more chestnut-colored on its rump and uppertail-coverts. Shoulders and greater coverts are a rich brown, with a series of small white dots on the lesser primary coverts. The secondary coverts are rich brown with a darker brown barring on both webs; the bars on the primaries are on the outerwebs only, but darker and more noticeable. The retrices are brown with 18 to 20 bars that span across the tail. The white supercilious streak borders thinly with a black above and below, and extends above and beyond its shoulders. The ear coverts are speckled gray and grayish-black. Its chin and throat are grey that becomes buff on its chest, flank and belly, though the latter two are of a warmer color. The underwing coverts sport a grayish buff color. Its iris is reddish-brown, the upper mandible is lemon-colored and paler at the base and lower mandible. The legs are flesh-colored.

Carolina wrens spend the majority of their time on or near the ground searching for food, or in tangles of vegetation and vines. They also probe bark crevices on lower tree levels, or pick up leaf-litter in order to search for prey. Their diet consists of invertebrates, such as beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, spiders, ants, bees, and wasps. Small lizards and tree frogs also make up the carnivorous portion of their diet. Vegetable matter makes up a small percentage of their diets, such as fruit pulp and various seeds. In the northern portion of their range, they frequent bird feeders