Gray Catbirds can’t pass up ripe fall berries. In this case native American Beautyberry berries. Gray Catbirds are not alone. Birds, especially migrants, use the high fat & nutrient content of berries they co-evolved with. These nutrients help resident species prepare for winter. They also aid migratory species successfully make their trips back to tropical […]
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Barred Owls are busy in the fall. They start or renew pair bonds and reclaim nesting sites. Young adults build new nesting sites. All this activity is hard to miss because there is a lot of communication between pairs and between young interlopers. It is the hooting season. This is all in preparation for an […]
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Swainson’s Thrushes, aka Olive-backed Thrushes, hopefully Olive-backed replaces Swainson’s in the coming removal of eponymous English names by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It is easy to miss Olive-backed Thrushes in their deep-forest, forest floor haunts until they sing. Like their forest thrush taxonomic cousins they have a flutelike upward-spiraling ethereal song.But even then you […]
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An immature – yellow eyes & brown streaking – Cooper’s Hawk in our urban, deep inside-the-perimeter of Atlanta yard. This is increasingly common urban occurrence. Cooper’s Hawks are overall short to medium distance migrants. But there is growing evidence that during dispersal if a young adult emigrates to an urban setting they tend to stay […]
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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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Female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds seem to never stop feeding, even for simple body functions. But of course, what goes in has to go out. This is especially true for hummers. Hummingbirds are unique ‘peeers’ in the bird world. Every day, hummingbirds ingest their body weight + in nectar. That nectar is 75 – 80% water. To […]
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This Veery is a forest thrush & Yard-Lifer for our urban yard deep in metro-Atlanta. Veeries are long-distance migrants. They spend the summer in the forests of Canada & northern U.S. (& a few at the highest elevations of the southern Appalachian Mts) & winter in central and southern Brazil. To make this trip, they […]
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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds’ tongues are not simple straws. They are shapeshifting, liquid trapping and transport, nectar pumping devices. The tongue’s tip is forked and can spread and close. There are two grooves in each tip that expand when the tips are open and flattened. The grooves compress and create tube-like structures when the tongue is retracted […]
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There are barred owl behaviors that suggest they have a ‘loving’ relationship with their partners. This statement of anthropomorphism makes scientists squeamish and adamantly remind us we can’t decipher what the owls are really thinking or ‘feeling’. But to be fair, they struggle to scientifically establish their own feelings: “Love may be defined as an […]
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This Barred Owl is not making a sound. Nature’s model for stealth technology. The leading edge of wing feathers have comb-like serrations that break up the turbulent air that creates the usual swooshing sound. As seen below, the smaller streams of air over the wing are further dampened by velvety textures of feathers unique to […]
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