Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2020 i BirdWatching

North America’s largest remaining grassland ecosystem, El Tokio, sits on a highland plateau in northeastern Mexico, where desert grasslands run across flat expanses between hills and mountains. American Bird Conservancy (ABC), our Mexican partner Pronatura Noreste (PNE), and other groups have worked hard to protect it and other key grasslands south of the U.S. border. Our efforts have led to the area being designated the El Tokio BirdScape and as a Grassland Priority Conservation Area by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. However, El Tokio now faces an existential threat — expanding, large-scale potato production that could convert nearly 35,000 acres to agriculture, likely wiping out an endemic mammal species upon which many declining bird species depend. Community cooperatives, or ejidos, have worked with conservation groups since 2008 to embrace sustainable…

If you have ever felt envious of birders who seem to be ever traveling to celebrated birding destinations, may I suggest: Make the journey the destination. North America is not only a bird-rich continent, but it’s also linked by a series of transect lines known as the Interstate Highway System. On any trip across long distances, you’ll pass through a variety of habitats — and birds adapted to them. In December 2019, wife Linda and I and our two spaniels vaulted the continent on I-40, east to west, keeping track of the bird species we encountered. To make our list, a bird had to be identified from our vehicle while in transit (at speeds ranging from 45 to 70 mph) or encountered at highway rest areas (which proved seasonally meager).…

Flight is one of the most astonishing of avian attributes. Speeding falcons, graceful egrets, and the aerial acrobatics of courting hummingbirds leave me in awe. Perhaps the most astounding aspect of flight is one that we cannot see — birds’ ability to cover distances, sometimes incredible distances. Consider the Blackpoll Warbler that breeds in the boreal forests of Canada and winters in the Amazon basin of South America. That’s a hefty jaunt. But it’s the truly long-distance migrants that challenge believability. The Arctic Tern is the world’s champion long-distance migrant. It breeds in the circumpolar Arctic and sub-Arctic and winters in the Antarctic. Tracking studies have found the birds make annual journeys of about 44,100 miles. One tern flew from the Netherlands to Antarctica via New Zealand, for a one-year…

In late 2019, BirdWatching received more than 1,000 submissions to our Bird Portrait Contest from hundreds of photographers. The contest drew an exceptional selection of photos, making the judges’ job quite difficult. On these pages, we present the winners and a selection of the finalists. To see all of the finalists and honorable mention images, visit www.birdwatchingdaily.com/photography/featured-galleries. Many thanks to our judges: wildlife photographers Dudley Edmondson and Gerrit Vyn, Outdoor Photographer Editor Wes Pitts, and BirdWatching Editor Matt Mendenhall. Our next contest, The Color of Birds, opens on May 19 at www.birdwatchingdaily.com/photo-contests. View all of the finalist and honorable mention images at www.birdwatchingdaily.com/photography/featured-galleries…

Northern Flicker is a familiar bird throughout the lower 48 states and southern Canada. Within that wide range, it occurs in two strikingly different forms, long ago considered separate species: “Red-shafted Flicker” in the west, “Yellow-shafted Flicker” in the east. The two forms differ most obviously in the color of the large feathers of the wings and tail, either red or yellow, respectively. They also differ in head pattern. In the middle of the continent, however, the forms mix, and it is common to see flickers with intermediate wing and tail color. Anywhere between the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and the eastern edge of the Great Plains, you should expect to see some flickers with intermediate colors. On closer inspection, these birds also show mixed head patterns, confirming…

The Amazon rainforest, one of the most important ecosystems for birds in the world, is on the verge of reaching a “system-wide tipping point as soon as 2021,” according to a study published in March in the journal Nature Communications. Deforestation, mining, climate change, and other threats have scarred the 2.1-million-square-mile forest for decades. If the Amazon passes the tipping point, researchers say, the entire ecosystem could collapse in less than 50 years. In the study, researchers from Southampton University and elsewhere used statistical relationships backed up by computer models. They calculated the speed at which ecosystems of different sizes will disappear once they have reached a point beyond which they collapse — transforming into an alternative ecosystem. If the Amazon rainforest passes a point of no return, they say,…

Bullock’s Oriole Bullock’s Oriole, the most widespread oriole of western North America, is a well-known species to many birdwatchers since it’s commonly found in riparian woodlands with cottonwoods and willows, as well as in gardens, city parks, and golf courses. The June eBird map above shows the species is recorded from southern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta to northern Mexico and east to the Dakotas and central Texas. Bullock’s Oriole is replaced in the eastern U.S. by Baltimore Oriole, with which it hybridizes in the Great Plains. By January, Bullock’s primarily occurs in central Mexico, though some birds overwinter along the Pacific Coast (especially in southern California), and vagrants are rare but annual along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Bronzed Cowbird Bronzed Cowbird is the lesser known of the two…

“Ah, got one,” field tech Kaitlyn Okrusch says, approaching the mist net. Hearing her voice, a diminutive shape struggles to escape the net’s almost invisible filaments. “Looks like we’ve got a Townsend’s,” Okrusch says, stepping closer. “It’s OK, little bird, we’re not going to hurt you.” With fingers trained by months of experience, she deftly untangles the tiny creature, making sure that her pulling doesn’t damage its wings or feathers. Continuing to coo calming words, she slides the bird into a small orange sack, cinches it closed, and tucks it inside the warmth of her jacket, where it joins three other bagged birds from nearby nets. The Townsend’s Warbler is the 30th bird Okrusch and her fellow field techs have caught this morning, part of an avian smorgasbord of warblers, thrushes,…

Birding is often a solitary pursuit, whether by choice or by happenstance. Many of us keep up with others in the birding world through publications (like BirdWatching), missives from birding and conservation organizations, websites, and Facebook bird groups. Yet the desire to connect personally with others who enjoy the same passion for birds can be strong — especially, perhaps, for those new to birding. Fortunately, at any given time of the year, you can find a birding festival where you can join others in an educational and social celebration of all things avian! A quick Google search reveals seemingly endless birding festival options for the traveling birder (many on birdwatchingdaily.com, of course). Choosing your destination will depend on your schedule, your budget, target species, if any, and, certainly, where you’d…

LANDS ARE SET aside for the protection of birds and other wildlife usually by government action or through the work of private organizations. The two hotspots profiled on the following pages are examples of each. Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in northern Idaho (shown above) was established by the federal government in 1964 as a migratory waterfowl refuge — a function it serves to this day. And in central Illinois, you’ll find the Emiquon Preserve, which The Nature Conservancy acquired in 2000. At more than 6,000 acres, it’s the site of one of the largest floodplain restoration projects in the Midwest — and consequently is becoming more and more important for birds. The property and two adjoining national wildlife refuges are designated as a Wetland of International Importance.…

As a responsible shopper, I started wondering about the effects of genetically modified crops on the environment, and whether GMO crops are sold in bird food, such as suet. Starting this year, some genetically modified food items sold for human consumption must be labelled as such, but not those marketed and sold for wildlife consumption. “Roundup-Ready” crops don’t manufacture their own glyphosate, but they’re genetically modified to withstand heavy applications of it. Like most pesticides, this weed killer has important uses, as land managers trying to eradicate invasive exotic weeds know. Rachel Carson didn’t argue that pesticides should never be used; she simply warned that it’s wisest to use them as a last resort, both because of potential toxicity issues for humans and wildlife, and because pests (weeds, insects, etc.)…

The pair of Piping Plovers that nested at Chicago’s Montrose Beach last summer have an 80 percent likelihood of returning this spring, according to a wildlife biologist from the city. The birds, nicknamed Monty and Rose, were the first of their species to nest in the Windy City since the 1950s. Because they were nesting on a popular beach and among ever-present gulls, leaders of the Chicago Ornithological Society and the Illinois Ornithological Society quickly recruited volunteers to watch over the plovers. No fewer than 190 people volunteered their time from early June through mid-August. “We had 70 shifts per week, from sunrise to sunset, each day,” says Tamima Itani of the IOS. “Shifts were manned by 1-5 persons, depending on weather and on anticipated events, such as the July…

Sunrise on Big Bald Mountain slices through a brooding sky as gray as catbirds. A Chestnut-sided Warbler sings with swift dexterity. Each note enunciates the emerald grassy ridges punctuated by flame azaleas. I stretch my arms, aching from helping lug a box filled with bird-banding gear. The dawn kindles like a flicker feather upon the rolling Appalachian Mountains. The Big Bald Banding Station sits alongside the Appalachian Trail, on the border of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina and within a globally imperiled ecosystem. I’ve arrived at the intersection of hiking, science, and wonder. My hand lingers on a wooden post with its white blaze — the signature trail marker for the 2,200-mile continuous footpath from Georgia to Maine. At last, I’d come from Oregon to immerse myself in the…

IT’S 4:30 a.m. on an early June day just outside Albany, New York. Rush hour, with its impatient drivers and honking horns, has yet to begin. Just before sunup, the only headlights are those of biologists driving to a meet-up in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve’s main parking lot. They will soon head into the Pine Bush, as it’s locally known, to catch and band Indigo Buntings, Prairie Warblers, and other birds that breed in this pitch pine-scrub oak habitat. The Pine Bush Preserve, which lies in the midst of crisscrossing highways, suburban neighborhoods, industrial parks, and Amtrak railroad tracks, is, however improbably, one of the largest of 20 inland pine barrens left in the world and, scientists say, may be the best remaining example of the ecosystem. In 2014,…

The phalaropes are such unusual shorebirds — with their swimming and spinning habits, and with females much more brightly colored than males — that in the past, they were often considered to make up a family of their own. More recent studies have firmly established their place among the sandpiper family. But from the birder’s standpoint, they’re still unique. Two of the species, Red Phalarope and Red-necked Phalarope, nest on high Arctic tundra and winter out at sea. The third species, Wilson’s Phalarope, nests in marshes in the interior of North America and winters on lakes in South America. It’s the most distinctive member of a unique group. The breeding distribution of Wilson’s Phalarope is mostly west of the Mississippi, from the northern Great Plains to the western edge of…

NUTHATCH MEMORIES The January/February 2020 issue’s “ID Tips” (p. 38) by Kenn Kaufman regarding Pygmy Nuthatch brought back a special memory. My former next-door neighbor, and one who guided me in my early days of birdwatching, was none other than Robert A. Norris. Dr. Norris was perhaps the most gifted and remarkable ornithologist to hail from Georgia. Back when I had difficulty distinguishing an Eastern Kingbird from a Great Crested Flycatcher, Bob would calmly say to me, “Phil, let’s hold that thought in abeyance,” instead of correcting my misidentification. As we got to know each other on our frequent bird walks, I learned that this very humble man had not only worked with pioneering forest ecologist Herbert Stoddard, but he also earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.…