Pacific Northwest Birds

Today a new feature debuts on the Pacific Northwest Birds blog called “Did You Know…?” Every now and then, I run across little tidbits of information that may not warrant full-length posts of their own but are still fun to share. Fun enough, even, to get their own category here on the blog.

The first “Did You Know…?” that I’d like to share with you pertains to grosbeaks: black-headed and evening grosbeaks, specifically, which are the two types most commonly seen in the Pacific Northwest.

So, did you know that black-headed grosbeaks and evening grosbeaks are not in the same bird family? The only thing they really have in common — besides being birds — is that they have large beaks. Grosbeak literally means “large beak.”

If we follow their classification, we see that evening grosbeaks are large finches, while black-headed grosbeaks are in the same family as cardinals:

Black-headed Grosbeaks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Cardinalidae (cardinals)
Genus: Pheucticus
Species: P. melanocephalus

Evening Grosbeaks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae (finches)
Genus: Coccothraustes
Species: C. vespertinus

And now you know!

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Learn all about the birds in your own backyard! Birds of the Pacific Northwest: How to Identify 25 of the Most Popular Backyard Birds is now available for you to read (and take with you!) on your Kindle, Kindle app, or on your PC or Mac.

Also available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook.

It may be June, but some birds are still nesting. I’ve been watching a mama goldfinch grab nesting materials from my hanging “nester” as she prepares for what I’m assuming is her second brood of this breeding season. (American goldfinches have one or two broods per year, with 2-7 eggs being laid per brood).

An easy way to help birds as they build their nests is to take an empty suet cage, fill it with nesting materials, and hang it near your feeders. Put it out starting in February (pine siskins will most likely be the earliest partakers) and just leave it. Ours went unused for a few weeks until the goldfinches decided it was time to lay more eggs. Because this is our first year putting out nesting materials, I’ll be leaving it up all year as an experiment to see who makes use of it (and when).

In the fall, I’ll be putting some out where it’s easy for the squirrels to get to, as that’s when they’re preparing their own nests for winter hibernation.

Do you put out nesting materials, too? Which birds do you see making use of it the most?

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Duncraft Hanging Nesting Basket

Baby birds need warm, cozy nests! Cotton tufts and aspen fibers are super-soft, dry fast and give nestlings a comfy cushion to rest on as they grow. Birds instantly recognize these superior materials and return again and again to gather and add them to their nests. Green, vinyl-coated wire basket is filled with cotton and ready to hang. The roof is made of wood, and dimensions of the basket are 3-3/4 x 9 inches.

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Learn all about the birds in your own backyard! Birds of the Pacific Northwest: How to Identify 25 of the Most Popular Backyard Birds is now available for you to read (and take with you!) on your Kindle, Kindle app, or on your PC or Mac.

Female American goldfinch photos at top: copyright 2013 Pacific Northwest Birds/Sally Dinius.

One of the greatest joys of watching birds in springtime is capturing them in the perfect shot (with a camera, of course), and I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. It would seem that my photography bug has rubbed off on my family, as my husband and kids have also gotten in on the act. We’ve taken so many pictures — and have gotten some really great captures — that to not share them would be, well, silly.

I hope you’ll enjoy these pictures and be inspired to shoot some of your own. I happen to know that quite a few of you do photograph birds, and I love when they’re posted on our Facebook page. If you’ve yet to post your pictures of Pacific Northwest birds, please come over and do so! I’ll be taking all of our members’ submitted photos and showcasing them in an album on the page (with photographer attribution). Fun stuff!

And now, without further adieu and in no particular order…a gallery of spring birds.

These pictures and more will be posted in a “Birds of Spring” album on our Facebook page very soon. Come over and join us, if you haven’t already!

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Learn all about the birds in your own backyard! Birds of the Pacific Northwest: How to Identify 25 of the Most Popular Backyard Birds is now available for you to read (and take with you!) on your Kindle, Kindle app, or on your PC or Mac.

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Persuade the hummers to stick around for pictures with Pop’s Hummingbird Swing! (The black scroll and wood design will look nice on your patio, too.) To watch a fun video and learn why putting up a swing for your hummingbirds is a great idea, click the link or the picture below.

Once again, we’re being visited by brown-headed cowbirds. It just happens to be that time of year when they return and help themselves to what’s in our feeders and especially to what’s below them. And because I love all of the birds who come to our feeders (well…except for starlings), they are welcome to whatever they want to eat.

Seeds aren’t the only things that these cowbirds help themselves to. But can I just go off on a tangent and say how truly beautiful the female brown-headed cowbird is? She is truly a pretty bird. See?

Now that you’ve seen how pretty she is, maybe you won’t think so badly of her once I expose her dastardly deeds. Or maybe you will, I don’t know. As I said, these birds like to help themselves to things. Two of those things are the nests and the nurturing of other birds.

Most birds…normal birds…build nests in the spring. They then lay their eggs in these nests. Brown-headed cowbirds, it turns out, do not build nests because — for them — it would be pointless. You see, female brown-headed cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other unsuspecting songbirds, and then skip town. (Figuratively speaking, that is. I’m pretty sure they just brazenly head back to the feeder.)

And this guy…

…he certainly isn’t guiltless. He helped, right? Pssht.

Once the eggs are sneakily laid in the nests of other birds (ornithologists call this “parasitizing”), they hatch and are then raised along with the real young of those songbirds. The brown-headed cowbird nestlings, of which there can be up to seven (though the eggs are usually deposited in multiple nests rather than just one) sometimes hatch before the natural nestlings do, and also tend to grow faster. The foster-parents-unaware feed and nurture the cowbird young, usually at the expense of the lives of their actual babies.

It’s tragic. It’s confounding. It’s nature.

Here are more facts about the brown-headed cowbird:

Size and markings: The brown-headed cowbird is about 6.5-8″ long with a wingspan of 12.5-15″. The male is black with a brown head, which is how this bird got part of its name. The female is similar in shape but has her own look. She is a soft grayish-brown and resembles a large finch.

Food: This bird is often found riding on the backs of cows and other farm animals, so now you know how it received the other part of its name. We’ve all seen pictures of these birds on the backs of cows, but why do they do hitch these bovine rides? They’re certainly not doing it for the titillating conversation or the fascinating company. Cowbirds ride along so they can eat the grasshoppers and other insects stirred up by the animals’ hooves. Not only do they rely on other birds to raise their young, but they also rely on other animals to find their food. (I’m sure there’s a moral in this story somewhere!)

Migratory pattern: The brown-headed cowbird lives year-round on the West Coast, in the South, and in the Eastern states. Even so, it seems to micro-migrate somewhat in those areas, as it is most often seen at feeders in the spring and summer (at least at my house). It then…footloose, fancy free, and without a care in the world…kicks it up in the summertime throughout much of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

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Learn all about the birds in your own backyard! Birds of the Pacific Northwest: How to Identify 25 of the Most Popular Backyard Birds is now available for you to read (and take with you!) on your Kindle, Kindle app, or on your PC or Mac.

The question was raised recently on our Facebook page about what to do with bird nests built in inconvenient (for us) places.

A reader discovered that a black-capped chickadee couple was building a nest underneath a rhubarb plant in her raised garden bed and, while she didn’t mind sharing the area with them, didn’t think they would be happy about her being so close to where they were raising their young. She wanted to know what she should do.

I wasn’t able, unfortunately, to get back to her right away and felt just horrible about leaving her hanging. (My first reply was erased when my computer crashed before I could post it, and for the rest of that week I was taking care of my son, who’d just had surgery. Such is life….) I was finally able to research the matter and wrote back to her. Thankfully, she had also done some research and found that she would, indeed, be coexisting with the little bird family after all. We’d both discovered the same thing, that the nest needed to stay, according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. There are now four tiny eggs in the nest and our reader has the sweet and enviable opportunity to observe an active chickadee nest. I hope she shares pictures with us, if she’s able to take some!

If you’ve also been wondering what to do with an in-the-way bird’s nest, please be aware that, according to the above-mentioned Act, it is illegal to move an active nest (one holding eggs or hatched young), and doing so could saddle the mover with a hefty fine of up to $15,000. The Act also provides for protection of adult birds, which you can learn more about here (same link as above) and here. It’s heavy reading, so be sure to fill your coffee cup before you dig in.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 covers many birds found in the Pacific Northwest. I noticed with great interest that the European starling and the house sparrow, both European transplants and considered pests by many, are not protected species on the list. View the list for yourself here.

If you’ve noticed a bird nest in a not-so-great location, please leave it if at all possible. Most young will fledge (leave the nest) within a few weeks, and you’ll be able to remove it then. Do you have a nest story? Tell us about it in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

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Learn all about the birds in your own backyard! Birds of the Pacific Northwest: How to Identify 25 of the Most Popular Backyard Birds is now available for you to read (and take with you!) on your Kindle, Kindle app, or on your PC or Mac.