Ornithology (Bird) Thread

[Quick Steel]

Well done OC. Highly interesting shots.

[cudgee]

This afternoon the local mowing service was mowing an empty lot across the the street from my house when I happened to look out and saw that the mower operator had stopped his machine and was standing on the mower taking pictures with his cellphone. I looked and saw that he was watching a hawk that had something of interest in his talons. I grabbed my Canon DSLR with 300mm lens and went out to see that the bird had captured a garter snake, and was looking it over and manipulating it with his beak.I believe this may have been a juvenile redtail hawk. After he flew away, I went over and talked to the mower operator and asked if he had mowed over the snake. He replied that the snake was in an area that he had not mowed yet and was running away from the area when the hawks eye caught movement and swooped in.
IMG_3087.JPG
IMG_3089.JPG

Great shots, i find it amazing how birds can handle snakes.

[Dinadan]

Great photos of that hawk, Olde Cutler! I am thinking maybe a Rough Legged Hawk: it does not look like a Red Tail to me. Heck, I can even identify the Garter Snake - very sharp photos.

[Doc B]

Awesome pictures on the last two pages!!!

[OLDE CUTLER]

Great photos of that hawk, Olde Cutler! I am thinking maybe a Rough Legged Hawk: it does not look like a Red Tail to me. Heck, I can even identify the Garter Snake - very sharp photos.

I always have a problem with identifying the hawks in our area. There are several species that have similar colors, juvenile birds can vary so much from the adults in color, and my color vision isn't very good either. I always try to get close, sharp pictures to compare to the bird books I have.

[Dinadan]

Great photos of that hawk, Olde Cutler! I am thinking maybe a Rough Legged Hawk: it does not look like a Red Tail to me. Heck, I can even identify the Garter Snake - very sharp photos.

I always have a problem with identifying the hawks in our area. There are several species that have similar colors, juvenile birds can vary so much from the adults in color, and my color vision isn't very good either. I always try to get close, sharp pictures to compare to the bird books I have.

I would not call myself an expert by any means, but I have worked on my raptor identification skills for a few decades. I am partially colorblind, in the red-green-brown spectrum, so I do not rely on colors when I try to identify a bird. I am not certain at all about the species of your hawk, but the second I saw the photo I thought Rough-legged.

If you are interested in hawks, allow me to suggest a book. Hawks in Flight, by Dunne, Sibley, and Sutton. It has helped me more than any other book (I have a lot of bird books) when it comes to identifying hawks. And all illustrations are grayscale, not color. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Hawks-Flight-Sec ... 160&sr=1-1

[doglegg]

Great photos of that hawk, Olde Cutler! I am thinking maybe a Rough Legged Hawk: it does not look like a Red Tail to me. Heck, I can even identify the Garter Snake - very sharp photos.

I always have a problem with identifying the hawks in our area. There are several species that have similar colors, juvenile birds can vary so much from the adults in color, and my color vision isn't very good either. I always try to get close, sharp pictures to compare to the bird books I have.

I would not call myself an expert by any means, but I have worked on my raptor identification skills for a few decades. I am partially colorblind, in the red-green-brown spectrum, so I do not rely on colors when I try to identify a bird. I am not certain at all about the species of your hawk, but the second I saw the photo I thought Rough-legged.

If you are interested in hawks, allow me to suggest a book. Hawks in Flight, by Dunne, Sibley, and Sutton. It has helped me more than any other book (I have a lot of bird books) when it comes to identifying hawks. And all illustrations are grayscale, not color. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Hawks-Flight-Sec ... 160&sr=1-1

Mel I concur on the book. A really good one.

[Quick Steel]

Can someone assist me with an identification of this visitor?

[Dinadan]

Can someone assist me with an identification of this visitor?

Probably an Eastern Phoebe. It is in the flycatcher family for certain.

[Waukonda]

Definitely Flycatcher and Phoebe-like but it looks like it has a little more color, maybe a Yellow Bellied Flycatcher??? Although, I don't think they are often seen out of the woods.....

[Quick Steel]

I'm somewhat inclined towards the Yellow-Bellied but my books show all the empids with wing bars. None were visible on this one.

[Waukonda]

I see that you are exactly right about the wing bars, I was shooting from the hip with my answer and hadn't looked at any photos hmmmm

[Dinadan]

Flycatchers can be hard to differentiate, at least for me. But note the habitat: Eastern Phoebes like barns and back yards. That was a substantial part of my call. A lot of the flycatcher species are just hard to even catch a glimpse of, in my experience.

[Quick Steel]

Right, this family of birds has always been notoriously difficult. On balance Mel I think your call of a Phoebe is most likely correct. As you pointed out the habitat fits best. Thanks to both you and Ike for you inputs.

[cudgee]

Some very large geese i saw at a botanical gardens. The photo does not relay how massive they were.

[Waukonda]

Holy Cow Cudgee! What are you feeding those things down there in the Southern Hemisphere?

[cudgee]

Holy Cow Cudgee! What are you feeding those things down there in the Southern Hemisphere?

They are in the botanical gardens at a small place called Malmsbury. The tourists and visitors feed them. Soon as they see a car pull up, they come over straight away. They are massive.

[Quick Steel]

The highly respected Science Magazine published the results of a major study on U.S. bird populations. Two techniques were used: about 140 radar sites counting spring migration numbers and, what has been used for decades, actual annual field counts by volunteers. Both counts supported each other and also European studies.

Bottom line: We have lost two and half Billion birds affecting 300 species including our most common: robins, sparrows, blackbirds, orioles.
Blue Jays are down 25%. Every kind of habitat (with one exception) has suffered huge losses. The worst loss occurred in our mid-western grasslands i.e. our farm states- down 50% due to modern agricultural practices. This would be birds like Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds, various Sparrows. In woods, small birds known as Warblers have been devastated. Oddly a similar family, the Vieros which occupy the same habitat, have relatively few losses.

The exceptions to these losses are: eagles, falcons, ducks and waterbirds. These have recovered due to specific conservation efforts.

What are the causes of this huge decline? Seems to be loss of habitat, pesticides; large numbers crash into buildings during migration, cats kill millions per year.

In parallel, Insect populations are down 50% in England. Amphibians like frogs are in big trouble.

All this degrading of wildlife is due to human activities rather than something like climate change.

[bighomer]

My birds have disappeared, migrated I guess and the birds from up north haven't shown up yet. QS I think you and I have touch on this before, I've been feeding birds and watching them for about 45 or 50 years and I see the decline. This past year it seems that I've noticed and uptick in the population but right now I'm seeing a few cardinals and blue Jays and doves, even the hated starlings have disappeared. It may have something to do with this dry spell. I generally have a few toads around the flower beds but I've not noticed any this year. Something else this year is the lack of grasshoppers, usually when I'm mowing they are jumping everywhere and I'm not seeing that.

[Quick Steel]

bighomer, In the report Starlings were mentioned as having a big decline.Actually I think this issue is of profound importance. There is a lot of noise about climate change but I think there are much more important environmental concerns unrelated to temperatures. We had lots of Robins this year. But over all they have had a big decline. 300 species are in substantial decline. Hope more people in the colder states will keep up with winter feeding.

[WillyCamaro]

And not to mention, the many millions of birds killed each year by wind turbines...

[Paladin]

And not to mention, the many millions of birds killed each year by wind turbines...

That's the way the gene pool gets cleaned up...

Ray

[FRJ]

Personally, I think it's chemical use in farming. I have nothing to back that up. Just my feeling.
I think chemicals affect the bugs and many critters up the food chain.

Do wind turbines kill lots of birds? If they do I would be surprised.
I have watched birds fly head long into heavy foliage and not so much as touch a leaf.
I would be surprised if they couldn't avoid a relatively slow moving huge fan blade.

[treefarmer]

This little flock of marauders visited the deer feeder last week. Looks like they had to wait their turn, there is a gray squirrel ahead of them on the ground under the feeder.

Treefarmer

[Dinadan]

There are some good points made about declining bird numbers. As a personal observation, when I was young back in the middle of the last century, in the fall and winter I would observe huge flocks of robins moving through the woods when I hunting. For a while, maybe half an hour, robins would be everywhere in the bushes and trees and on the ground, with lots of chirping and fluttering. I have not seen a flock like that in decades. I miss that.

I do think that everything changes, whether from man made causes or natural causes. When I was a kid, humans had made an environment here in the Southeast that was probably better for a lot of birds than anything that had ever existed naturally. Small fields and pastures, with lots of fence rows and wooded areas scattered around. Perfect for quail and many species of songbirds. The change from that kind of land use to huge fields and huge pine plantations eliminated a big segment of songbird habitat. But what was eliminated was something that we had created.

Stop for a moment and think about this. Not too many thousand years ago most of Canada and a bit of the northern USA were covered in continental glaciers. How many birds do you think lived in the north half of North America when it was covered in over a mile of ice? My point is that things are changing, have always changed, and always will change. If we can identify the cause of a bird decline, the way we did with DDT and the raptors and pelicans and so forth, by all means let us try to fix things. But do not think we are going to recreate some kind of avian Garden of Eden that never actually existed.

Speaking of gardens, the Hummers are busy in my back yard. Here is a little female going after the cypress vine. Cypress vine is a morning glory, and the flowers are closed in the afternoon, but the hummers must still be able to get nectar from the way they visit.