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Thanks, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

Alex Washoe

More About Finches

Last week I was speculating about the possibility of an inter-species romance in my front yard -- based on a photo I took of a male Goldfinch and a female Pine Siskin apparently hanging out together.  The two species are closely related, and interbreeding, producing hybrid offspring, is known to occur (thought not very often).  The idea set me off on a small quest for information about hybridization, avian genetics and finches.  I found some interesting stuff, but not necessarily what I was looking for.  I still have a lot of questions about inter-species matches:  How do they happen?  Why do they happen?  And so on.

But, in regards to the birds in my front yard -- at least the one's I was writing about specifically -- those questions might be moot.  Because, this past weekend, I took these photos in my front yard.

This is my male Goldfinch -- looking at the molting spots on his back and neck I was pretty sure that he was the same bird I photographed last week.  He was in the Cherry tree. 





As and aside, the Cherry Tree came into bloom this weekend, and it was busy with birds.  Even the most familiar birds look fresh in that setting.

Also hanging out in the Cherry Tree was my resident House Finch.  He actually has a small part in this story, which I'll get back to later.

The House Finch couple are one of my favorites to watch, because they sing to each other.  I understand that in most songbirds species, the singing is done by the male, but the House Finches clearly sing back and forth -- even if you can only see one of them, you can hear the response of the mate each time they sing.  It is very sweet. 

Which brings us back to the Goldfinches.  The male Goldfinch and the male House Finch were frequently in view together. 


 However, I also spotted this pretty sight in the tree.  Clearly, a female Goldfinch.

Still, there have been a number of Goldfinches around this spring, and just because she's visiting the cherry tree at the same time as my mottled male doesn't mean they're an item.  Right?

But consider this:

Here we see the Male House Finch together with both Goldfinches -- and they sure do look like a couple don't they?  I observed them for quite a while this weekend, and I think it's pretty clear that the male Goldfinch has, indeed, found himself a species appropriate mate.  I wouldn't worry too much about the Pine Siskin though -- there are plenty of males of her species around for her to hook up with.

One final shot.  Even thought you can't see all four of the birds clearly here, this is both Finch Couples on the feeder together, like Couples Night Out. The female House Finch is in the back.  It seemed like they were all having a pleasant Saturday night in the front yard.

A Tale of Two Finches

This photo was the beginning of an very interesting story.  Or, maybe, several stories. One about identification, one about animal behavior, and one about how incredibly difficult it can be to find what seems like pretty simple information.  Lets start at the beginning.

 Last week, I spotted these two birds on the rail outside my living room window.  They were there for quite a while, and I was able to get plenty of photos.  I've had lots of finches around this year -- and the colorful Goldfinches stand out.  The flash of yellow in the trees always gets my attention.  When I uploaded the photos, though, I was a little baffled.  Just who is that second bird handing out with the Goldfinch?

First, I should tell you I blew the identification even on the most obvious bird.  Looking at my photos, and looking at descriptions in the birding guides, I concluded that the dark discolorations on his back were the olive coloring that is characteristic of female Goldfinches.  Strike one.

Then, I started looking at the second bird.  Well, it's not a sparrow.  It's not a female House Finch (the beak is way to small).  What is it?  There have been a lot of Pine Siskins around this year -- and you can clearly see that small beak -- so naturally I considered that.  It didn't look like any of the Pine Siskins I've seen though.  And it didn't look like any of the photos I could find in my guides or online.  So?  Finally, I decided that it must be a juvenile Siskin.  Strike two.

So I sent my photo off with my best guesses to my friend Kevin, who's the naturalist at the PAWS Wildlife Center.  And it turns out I was totally wrong.  If you look at the photos, the Goldfinch is clearly male.  He has the little black cap on his head (which always reminds me of Moe from the Three Stooges).  The dark spots are because he's molting, just coming into his full spring colors. 

And the second bird.  Well, it turns out, she's a female Pine Siskin.  Yep.  In both cases I had the species right and the specifics wrong.  I've lost count of what strike that is, but I'm probably out.

However, Kevin had a question.  Which opens up the second part of the story:  "Were these guys part of a larger flock, or were they just hanging out together?"

I don't really have the answer to that .  There has definitely been a large flock of Siskins around for the last month or so.  They're beginning to thin out a little now, but there are still plenty of them here.  And there have been a number of Goldfinches around too -- not flocks of them, but I have often seen two or three in the cherry tree at the same time, which has never happened before this spring.  But for the time I was watching them -- which must have been about half an hour -- these two were hanging out together on the rail, eating.  It was just them, and when they left, they left together.  Circumstantial evidence at best.  But it turns out that Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, being closely related, and having a tendency to intermingle, can occasionally interbreed.  "You might have an interesting inter-species romance going on in your yard," Kevin wrote. 

Well, "inter-species" is a phrase that always gets my attention.  I'm a sucker for all those photos on the web of different animals who become friends.  And I'm fascinated by the whole topic of inter-species communication.  So naturally, I love the idea of a mixed romance going on right outside my window.  I went looking for more information on the web about interbreeding in finches and hybridization in general.  Turns out, it's a very big field.  A couple of years ago, National Geographic ran an interesting article on the role that hybrids might play in evolution -- how they could actually lead to the creation of new species.  It might be much more common than scientists thought, especially among insects like butterflies.  But what I couldn't find were any photos of Goldfinch/Pine Siskin hybrids, although the possibility was mentioned in several sources.  (And I discovered interesting facts along the way -- such as:  The Goldfinch is sometimes called the "wild canary" and they have been interbred with domesticated canaries to create pet birds.)

But mostly, the topic of hybridization raised more questions  than it answered.  For instance, under what circumstances would an animal be attracted to a member of another species?  It would seems, even in closely related species, like Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, individuals of another species would lack the markers that would activate attraction.  But as the National Geographic article suggests, there could be an evolutionary advantage to occasional interbreeding -- freshening the gene pool for instance, or allowing for new kinds of adaptations.  I have to wonder if, as climate conditions continue to change and that change accelerates, we might see more of these kinds of "wild" evolutionary strategies.  It would be worth exploring.

Which brings me to the final part of the story.  I wondered whether Goldfinches and Pine Siskins were closely enough related that their offspring would be fertile.  Many species (like horses and donkeys or lions and tigers) can interbreed, but the offspring is infertile -- a mule.  And so I started looking for what I thought was a simple piece of information: how many chromosomes do Goldfinches and Pine Siskins have?  Is it the same number or different?  I assumed that in today's world, with genomes being decoded left and right, it would be a relatively easy question to answer.  I was wrong.  I couldn't find it.  The librarians I talked to couldn't find it.  And the experts haven't returned my emails.  So I don't have that "simple" fact to pass on.

If anyone out there know more about Goldfinch/Pine Siskin hybrids -- especially if you've seen photos -- or about finch genetics -- I'd love to hear from you.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.  

 

Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Birds Do It

It seems to be Finch Spring this year around my neighborhood.  Last week I mentioned the Pine Siskins who have been all over the feeders, and the familiar House Finch couple who have been handing out.  They're always together.  But this week, a new visitor showed up, wearing his bright spring time colors.  The American Goldfinch is the state bird of Washington (and a couple of other states, I believe).  I think his little black crown makes him look like Moe from the Three Stooges.


And then:

I've never watched, let along captured mating behavior in my front yard before.  These two House Sparrows are definitely working on love, though.

Next comes nesting. This photo, taken just after the courtship, shows the male Sparrow starting to gather nest materials.  He didn't seem to be too sure what to do with them though.  




Since we had House Sparrows nests nearby last year, and several fledglings at the feeders, its very likely he's doing to be building soon.





And finally, after all that excitement, it's time to eat.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

 Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Familiar (but welcome) visitors

The nice weather this month has brought out a lot of activity in the yard.  I was on the deck yesterday and I noticed this couple on the feeder.  At first glance, I mistook the female for a Pine Siskin.  They've been so common this spring that I just expected to see them.  But then I caught a flash of red on the male, and when I looked closer I saw that both birds were too big to be Siskins, and they had shorter, heavier beaks.

I don't know if this is the same House Finch couple that hung around most of last summer -- or if this is perhaps the young male Finch who was also here last year.  As I understand it, House Finches often form new couples each year, so either or both of these birds could be new.  It's good to see them though.  I've added a finch feeder since last year, so we'll see if they visit that too.



Speaking of familiar faces, this handsome House Sparrow was also hanging out in the cherry tree.  There are a lot of sparrows around -- House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and one Golden-Crowned Sparrow (that I blogged about recently).  I've noticed a lot of sparrow squabbling this year.  One day a tangle of three sparrows whirled right past my head as I was walking my dog.  Lots of excitement.

As I mentioned above, the Pine Siskins have been everywhere this year.  I got this photo of a small flock of them working the feeder.  







A friend of mine at the PAWS Wildlife Center told me that they have been seeing a lot of cases of salmonella in Pine Siskins this year.  So if you have Siskins around it's important to be very vigilant about cleaning the feeders.  Washing them out regularly with a weak (about 10%) bleach solution is ideal. 

Bewick's Wrens are infrequent visitors to my yard, and usually they move too fast for me to get a decent photo.  I caught this one hopping around yesterday though and was able to capture him before he disappeared.












Finally -- it just wouldn't be Birdland West without frequent visits from our Pigeon Friends.  Here is one of mine waiting on the roof for the dogs to go inside so he can come down and eat. 

Our dog Lulubelle loves to bark at the pigeons and seems to take great pleasure in scaring them off.  But they always return, usually as soon as she goes inside. 

 

 

 

 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

 Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Hawks and Hounds

Today I just have a few quick photos to share.

Recently, I wrote about the death of one of my pigeons.  By "my pigeons" of course, I mean the pigeons that hang out in my neighborhood and eat in my yard.  My naturalist friend Kevin was pretty confident that the killer was a hawk -- even though I wasn't able to get any hard evidence at the time.

Well, now I have.  This last week, after something spooked and scattered all the birds in my yard, I took this picture of the culprit, perched in a tall tree across the street.  That day he flew straight threw my yard, even pausing for a second in the cherry tree by my front deck.  Since then, we've seen him perched on the post of our front steps.  He's definitely staked out the neighborhood as his hunting grounds.  With breeding season coming, I suspect the crows are not going to be happy about that.

Earlier this month, I attended the Seattle Kennel Club Dog show, and spent several hours watching my second favorite sport -- Canine Agility.  I love watching the dogs run the course, and one -- this Afghan -- was especially striking.

 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

 Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Where You Least Expect Them

After a protracted struggle (it actually snowed on St. Patrick’s Day at my house!) Spring seems to be gaining the upper hand around Seattle.  The last few days have been wonderful – and I’ve gone on two long walks with my dogs this week.  Good to be out and about again.  If you go back and look at my posts from last year, you might see that I was quite enthusiastic about the prospects of winter birding.  Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to its promise – not because nature wasn’t cooperating, but because I got wrapped up in other things and let the winter pass without enough observation.  Those “other things” – including an emotionally demanding writing project, ending one business and planning another – were all important.  But I disappointed myself with my unwillingness to brave the cold and dark in search of birds.

Anna's Hummingbird

The one bright spot throughout the winter was my hummingbird feeder.  The Anna’s not only stayed all winter (through snow and storm) but there were more of them here than I’ve ever seen.  One combative little guy staked out our tree and yard as his territory and defended them bravely, but that didn’t stop others from making a run at the feeder whenever they could.

A couple of days ago, I was out on my porch with my roommate and the dogs, enjoying the novelty of sun, when I noticed a hummingbird on the feeder.  It was one of those sights that have become so common I almost passed over it.  But something didn’t seem right.  

My roommate saw it too.  “That doesn’t look like the same hummingbird,” he said.  

This hummingbird – obviously a male – was smaller, and his coloring wasn’t quite right.  I ran inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back he was gone.  I’m pretty sure he was the first Rufous Hummingbird of the new season, back just a little early from his winter in Mexico.  I will be watching for him now, and hoping to get photos.

“Look for surprises among what you take for granted” seems to be the theme so far this year.  There is no more ubiquitous bird in my neighborhood than the Black-Capped Chickadee.  I see them all the time, and as much as I love them, it’s easy sometimes to almost stop seeing them.  When I have the camera, I often think, “One more photo of a chickadee – you have thousands.”  Which is true, I do.  Still, I’ve found surprises hiding among the chickadees before.  A couple of years ago, I found Nuthatches in the chickadee flock in my yard.  So when I started seeing flashes of brown I thought that’s what it must be.

But it wasn’t.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

A friend who was visiting watched the feeders with me for a few minutes.  I mentioned the brown interlopers and suggested there might be nuthatches in the flock again.  He wasn’t convinced.

“Those are definitely chickadees,” he said.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

He was right.  The next day I started to get photos, and they were definitely chickadees.  Just not Black-Capped Chickadees.  For some reason I had the idea that Chestnut-Backed Chickadees were usually found only in the woods, not around neighborhoods or urban parks.  I was wrong about that.  I asked my naturalist friend and he assured me it was quite common for them to form mixed flocks with Black-Capped cousins in the spring and early summer.  But I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen them in my yard before.  

Pine Siskin

 The same holds true for the Pine Siskins I wrote about in an earlier post.  I’ve seen them around Seattle, but they’ve never been common in my neighborhood – until this year, when they’re everywhere.  Change, it would seem, is in the air.

Pine Siskins

So, encouraged by the new discoveries, I spent a little more time on the deck this past week, and snapped a lot of photos.  I found some familiar, but entertaining fellows – like this puffed up House Sparrow, and a much shier Song Sparrow.  But once again, it was a case of finding the unexpected among the most familiar.  When I looked through my sparrow photos, I found this.

Do you know who this is?

I had to get help with this ID, but if you said “Gold-Crowned Sparrow”, you’re right.  It’s a juvenile, born last year and almost ready to molt into his full adult plumage.  There’s no chance at all that I would have spotted him with my naked eye.  

So far this year, I’ve added four species to the yard list (Gold-Crowned Sparrow, Pine Siskin, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees, and Cooper’s Hawk) and three to my lifetime list (Snow Goose, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees and Gold-Crowned Sparrow).  

Not a bad start at all.

(And I’ll get back to that hawk very soon.) 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

A Newcomer to the Yard List Takes Over Fast

Anyone who has lived in the Pacific Northwest for very long knows that spring can be a little -- unpredictable.  But this year, winter and spring seem to be engaged in a protracted slap-down, and it's still not clear who will be the winner.  Today is a perfect example:  when we woke up this morning, there was snow on the ground!  Snow! On March 6? And now, it's a bright, sunny day outside (cool and windy to be sure).  We seem to be alternating seasons every day, one nice, one cold and dark. 

But the natural world doesn't seem confused.  I was in the park a few days ago with my dog Zeke and the pink cherry trees were putting out blossoms.  And the bird activity in my yard has been frantic.  Of course, my yard is very active all winter -- I often have more birds around in the winter than I do in the summer and autumn -- but the last couple of weeks it's been very busy.  My birdseed budget has more than doubled!

This year, there's something new and interesting going on. About three weeks ago I noticed an unusual pair of birds in my yard.  I spotted them a couple of times but couldn't get photos.  So I wasn't sure if it was someone new.  Then, I got these shots -- see if you can identify them before I tell you.

Yep, those are Pine Siskins -- not showing their full summer plumage yet, but you can see the faint yellow on the wings and tails (not so well in the photo).  They were new to the yard list, and I thought it was just a pair of them.   

But no.

Suddenly, there's a whole flock of Siskins in my yard.  And unlike the chickadees who grab a few seeds and move on, these guys are occupying the feeders.  Almost every time I go out now, there's a Siskin sitting on one or both of the feeders.  Sitting there, eating or not, until another comes along and convinces him to give up the perch. 

Pine Siskins are Finches, and according to “All About Birds” they are very nomadic, and it’s not uncommon to have a flock in your yard one year and not the next.  In fact, every few years they make “irruptions” into the east and south.  They also have adaptations to allow them to survive in extreme temperatures – they can “ramp up” their metabolisms, even accelerating their heartbeat as much as five times the normal rate, to help them get through cold nights.  And they put on half again as much winter weight as close relatives like the Goldfinch.  Judging from how much seed they’ve been eating at my house, I can understand why.  But that’s not all – they store seed that totals up to 10% of their body weight in their crop. 

Little Gluttons for sure.

The last time I was at the birding store, I picked up an easy Finch Feeder -- it’s basically a net bag filled with Nyjer seed -- to hang up.  Sure enough, the Siskins have been eating there too.  I'm not completely sure there aren't some other Finch species hiding among the Siskins, but I don't proof of it.

So, for the moment, I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen.  What brought the flock here this year, when I've never seen them in the yard before?  I'm not sure.  How long will they stay?  Well I would expect them, in the not too distant future, to begin to break up into mating pairs and spread out to nest.

But for the moment, they're Kings of the Yard.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

CSI: Pigeon Town

Not the bird from last week, a young Cooper's Hawk from a nearby park last winter.

About mid-morning last Friday, while I was working at my desk in the back of the house, I heard a crow in the front yard screeching his displeasure at something.  It went on for several minutes, and I thought about going out to see what was bothering him -- following the lead of agitated crows usually leads to something interesting -- but this was only one crow, not a mob, and I was focused on the blog post I was writing, so I didn't get up.  A few minutes later my roommate Dan called me, from the front yard.  He had just gotten home, and he was whispering into his cell phone, "Dude, get the camera.  There's a small hawk in the tree outside.  Hurry."

I got the camera (which is not stored conveniently on the table by the door any more, since my dog Zeke decided to chew up one of my lenses) but by the time I got to the window, the hawk had noticed Dan and taken off.  I didn't get to see him.  However, Dan paged through the field guide and quickly identified him as a Cooper's Hawk.  That made sense, because I know there are Cooper's Hawks in this area.  I've seen them more than once in the park where I take Zeke to play.  I was mildly disappointed that I didn't get to see him myself, since I've never actually seen a hawk in our yard.

A few hours later, we were getting ready to go shopping, and Dan took the dogs out before we left.  I followed him a few minutes later and he told me, "Don't look over the side rail.  There's been a death."

My first thought was that it must be one of the rats that live under the fence.  I haven't seen them in a while, and I've been a little worried about what happened to them.  But unfortunately, this was a death that hit even closer to home.

It was one of the pigeons.

Anyone who reads my blog probably knows that I am fond of pigeons.  I take care of the little collection of "misfit" pigeons who hang out in this neighborhood -- mostly because they are centered around Timmy.  I have a history with Timmy, and feel some responsibility for him.  And I enjoy watching the pigeons when they come to eat (and often squabble) on my front deck.  They don't hang around here otherwise -- even Timmy has stopped hanging around much other than mealtimes -- so they aren't a nuisance to me or the neighbors.  I often see them perched on the power lines behind the house, watching.  When I put food down they begin to swoop in.

The "victim", fortunately, was not Timmy or Timmy's Friend.

The dead pigeon was not Timmy, or "Timmy's Friend".  (You can see my earlier posts about Timmy and the other pigeons here and here.)  In fact, judging by the wing patterns, it wasn't a pigeon I was familiar with.  I examined the body and the "crime scene" -- and I took lots of photos, which I'm going to spare my readers, since they are pretty gruesome.  Suffice it to say that the pigeon was apparently eating on the rail when it was attacked.  It looks like it was killed almost instantly, because it was on the ground just below the rail.  Its head was gone, and its crop was still filled with undigested seed which it had obviously just eaten.  There were blood and feathers around the body, and more at another spot a few feet away, under the stairs.

My first thought was that a cat was the culprit.  There are occasionally free roaming cats in our neighborhood, and any bird lover has to be concerned.  I put off bird feeding for many years because the area I used to live in -- Ballard -- was full of feral and semi-feral cats.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-cat.  But I am anti-outdoor cats.  At the wildlife center where I volunteer, a very large percentage of all the animal injuries that come in -- especially birds -- are cat attacks.  Outdoor cats are an environmental horror story.  But I'll come back to that in a later post.

It didn't even occur to me, at first, that the Hawk killed the pigeon.  But of course, that was the most likely scenario.  So I sent my crime scene photos off to my friend Kevin, who's the staff naturalist at Paws WildlifeCenter.  Here's what he said:

"From looking at the photos of the pigeon, I would say you are looking at the work of a hawk, rather than the work of a cat.  First of all, it looks like the pigeon’s tail and rump feathers are intact.  In almost all cat attacks you will see wounds over the rump and missing tail feathers because the cat attacks from behind as the bird tries to fly away.  Hawks usually hit much farther forward on the body.  Once they have a good grip on their prey, they kill it by biting through one of the cervical vertebrae at the back of the neck.  They then tend to eat from the head down.  Hawks pluck the feathers from the area in which they wish to feed.  This leaves a scattered pile of loose but completely intact feathers.  Cats bite into birds right through the feathers. Feathers are generally pulled away in clumps, usually with skin still attached, and the feathers themselves are often broken or otherwise damaged.  The loose feathers around this pigeon’s body all look like they have been individually plucked, again indicating a hawk rather than a cat."

Sad news.  But on the other hand, I had a Cooper's Hawk lunching in my yard.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)