A pair of Yellow-crowned Night Herons have returned to Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, our neighborhood nature preserve ITP (Inside-the-Perimeter Atlanta). Last year they successfully nested and fledged a juvenile. They appear to be another species whose breeding range seems to be moving north. Range maps shows their northern boundary as the Fall Line, the geological […]
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Cedar Waxwings are notorious frugivores. They have been known to gorge on overripe fruits & berries until they get tipsy & fall out of the tree\shrub. But if there is a hatch of flying bugs, like midges, they can rival flycatchers ‘sallying’ to take the insects on the fly. Especially in the spring when the […]
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Hermit Thrushes are the only species of the five Catharus family thrushes (brown-backed thrushes, Hermit, Veery, Swainson’s, Gray-cheeked, Bicknell’s) that winters in the US. Their taxonomic cousins migrate on to Central and South America.Hermit Thrushes are hardier and more cold tolerant than their taxonomic cousins. They can also accommodate more berries and fruits in their […]
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Golden-crowned Kinglets are tiny birds, not much bigger than Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, that can withstand extreme cold.Most Golden-crowned Kinglets, breed across Canada. Then they migrate to spend winter across much of the US, including the upper mid-West. Also, there are populations that are year-round residents in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains & mountainous West. This […]
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Great Blue Herons’ plumage patterns, especially along their long necks, are a form of ‘disruptive coloration’: Distinctive designs such as stripes and\or spots that break up the animal’s outline. For some species this is more critical than ‘concealing coloration’ because they live in a variety of habitats with a variety of background colors making it […]
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There is nothing a Summer Tanager, in this case a fall migrating female, enjoys more than a fat wasp (or bee). But what about the stinger? They catch their victim in the air, take it back to a branch, & roughly rub it on the bark to remove the stinger. Then down the hatch. This […]
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Herons, like Great Blue, Green, Night, Little, are known for their slow and deliberate hunting and fishing styles. Then there are the Tri-colored Herons. Tri-colored Herons frenetically ‘dance’ when fishing. Their signature first move is the Canopy. They form a canopy by spreading their wings to create a large shadow on the water’s surface. When […]
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Birds do ‘cough’ like we do, but their coughing sounds are very different. We have diaphragms and birds don’t. When we cough, it’s our diaphragm that forces air through our vocal cords producing our deep, loud ‘coughing’ (hacking) sound. We have one larynx (voice box) at the beginning of our windpipes. Birds have a more […]
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