Ring-billed Gull Ready for Spring

This ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis, is in breeding plumage; the bird's head and breast are snowy white. I took the picture on the East River in Brooklyn last week. Can spring be far behind?

This is an adult ring-bill in non-breeding plumage, taken a few months ago in the same place.  Its head and neck are faintly streaked with grayish brown. 

Check out the red eye ring and red at the corner of the mouth on the breeding adult. Click to enlarge. 

Tree Sparrow

Don't be fooled by the broadleaf evergreen behind the fence. It was 20 degrees F. outside when I took this picture. The bird is an American tree sparrow, Spizella arborea. 

One of the first things I did when the polar vortex hit New York City was to stock up on birdseed. I'm not alone in that; sales of food for wild birds spike during cold weather. I've had a wire holder for a suet block for a long time, but haven't used it much. It was so cold that I decided to buy a suet and seed cake to give the birds some high-calorie food to help them keep warm. I found a single suet cake online for about five dollars. Then I found some on wag.com for $14.99 a dozen. So now I have a case of peanut-crunch suet cakes.

The very first day I put one out, I was visited by this American tree sparrow. I had never seen one on my porch before! The bird is the size of a house sparrow but has a rusty cap and a rusty line through its eye on an otherwise gray head. It has a smudged spot on its breast. The beak is black on top and yellow below. Despite the common name given to it by European settlers who were reminded of another bird, this one usually forages on the ground. It also nests on or near the ground in the far north, near the tree line.

That was $14.99 well spent!

Click to enlarge. 

Red-necked Grebe

A red-necked grebe, Podiceps grisegena, swimming in the East River. 

Here is a bird New Yorkers don't see every day -- a red-necked grebe. It is uncommon enough around New York City to be popping up on rare bird sighting lists. I saw this one in the East River today, between Piers 4 and 5, in Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was diving, disappearing under water for long counts, hunting for food. Red-necked grebes typically eat fish, crustaceans, aquatic insects, and an occasional mollusk or amphibian.

The bird is drably colored now, but its plumage will brighten for the breeding season into a distinctive red neck (where it is now reddish brown), white face, and black cap. Red-necked grebes breed on inland lakes, mainly in Canada and Alaska, and winter along both coasts of North America. They make unique floating nests from mats of plant material; a depression in the middle holds the clutch of 1-9 blue eggs.

Click to enlarge. 

Winter Robin

This American robin, Turdus migratorius, is spending the winter in my Brooklyn garden.  It is normal for some robins to not migrate south for winter. They switch from a diet of summer worms to dry fruit and berries. I give this one raisins, grapes, and apple slices. To read more about winter robins, click here for a previous detailed blog.    

       "From December to March, 

there are for many of 
us three gardens: 


the garden outdoors, 


the garden of pots and bowls in the house, 


and the garden of the mind's eye.
" 

-- Katherine S. White

"The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches." 

-- e.e. cummings

Winter Continues

It is still cold in New York City! This mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) was sitting on my porch today with its feathers puffed up, hanging out and keeping warm. Click to enlarge.

Red-breasted Merganser Dives

A male red-breasted merganser, Mergus serrator.

February is a good month to look for red-breasted merganser ducks in New York City's East River. Today I saw the one in these two photos. I wrote about another on a February Sunday in 2011. Click here to read the previous blog.

The red-breasted merganser is a diving duck; it mainly eats fish, which it dives under water to catch.  Below is a picture of this duck's energetic dive, just before he disappeared.

Click to enlarge. 

Polar Vortex Winter Birds

Male northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis. Click to enlarge.

It was a cold week in New York. As I sat writing at my desk by the window I saw the neighborhood birds in another light. One of the ways birds keep warm is by fluffing up their insulating feathers; they looked like puffballs all week. 

European house sparrow, Passer domesticus. 

They have other ways to keep warm. Their feet are thermally isolated from their bodies by a network of blood vessels that cool outgoing blood and warm the returning flow. They also can stand on one leg with the other inside the warm cover of their feathers. Sone huddle together at night to share warmth. City birds are good at finding warm spots to sleep near like chimneys or lights, and on eaves. An old building I worked in attracted a red-tailed hawk on cold nights; it slept on the sill of a window that was so leaky that the perch was practically toasty. 

Another thing that helps keep birds warm in cold weather is eating high calorie foods. When snow covers the ground, even the most resourceful city birds have trouble finding food. My little porch gets covered with snow but I brush off the dormant planters and put food in them: sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, peanuts, grapes, raisins, perhaps some bits of apple and whole grain bread. Below are summer photos of the neighborhood birds that have been visiting.

The blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata, announces its arrival with chime-like musical calls. A pair have been showing up together all week. They eat seeds and peanuts. Each takes one seed at a time to a perch in the little tree close by. The bird holds the seed in its feet, pecks with its bill, then pulls the seed out, eats it, and comes back for more. Very labor intensive! 

A house sparrow might show up alone but is soon followed by a flock. They eat  everything, including safflower seeds that they are reported to eschew. Maybe Brooklyn's  house sparrows  have a cosmopolitan taste for foreign foods. 

The male northern cardinal preferentially takes whole peanuts. He flies away with them and returns in a few minutes for another. I know when he has arrived because I hear his quiet tick tick tick. After peanuts, sunflower seeds are his next favorite thing. He stabs at grapes eating beak after beak full of fruit. 

The female cardinal has arrived alone or with a male every day. 

White-throated sparrows, Zonothrichia albicollis, normally feed in the underbrush by scratching at leaves. They are good in snow, too, tossing it up with their feet and flapping wings to uncover seeds. A few of them come to my porch to look for food throughout the winter. 

Morning doves, Zenaida macroura, seem passive with the other birds, but make up for it by eating faster. They don't open the seeds before eating them, like most of the other birds. They just peck them up, shell and all, one peck per seed. Very efficient! 

American robins, Turdus migratorius, don't all migrate away for winter. They do change their eating habits. No worms are available. They disappear from lawns and go foraging for dried berries. Click here to read more details in a previous blog. One or two are spending the winter near my place; the apples, grapes, and raisins are for them. And they like an occasional nibble of whole grain bread.