Spring Comes on Thursday

By astronomical reckoning, spring will arrive this Thursday, March 20. Meteorologists already started spring on March 1. For me, it begins the first time I hear this bird sing. It's a white-throated sparrow. I heard one singing this morning! Click on this sentence for a recording on the Cornell Lab or Ornithology website.  Let the spring begin!

 

White-throated Sparrow

 

White-throated sparrows are singing in my neighborhood. Their song is a loud, clear, attention-getting whistle that stands out among the other sounds of spring. Birdwatchers think the song’s phrases sound like “Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody.” Or “My sweet Canada Canada Canada.” Click on this sentence to hear the sparrow sing. Yay, spring!

The Sound of Spring

 

Spring really begins for me when I hear this bird sing, and that’s happening right now! White-throated sparrows are ready to breed and brightly-colored males like the one above are singing to attract mates. The song is an attention-getting series of clear whistled notes that you may have heard lately, too. Click on this sentence for a nice You-Tube video performance. Birdwatchers use this mnemonic to help remember the rhythm of the syllables in the white-throated sparrows's song: Old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody.

Spring Song

The white-throated sparrows that have quietly spent the winter scratching in the underbrush are now bright faced and singing for spring. Click to enlarge.

    Birdwatchers make mnemonics to help them remember bird songs, mnemonics that mimic the cadence and count the syllables of bird songs. Black-capped chickadees seem to say chickadee-dee-dee chickadee-dee-dee. Brown thrashers sound like they are saying drop it, drop it, pick it up, pick it up. And chestnut-sided warblers politely repeat pleased pleased pleased to meet cha! 

 
    White-throated sparrows sing something that sounds like Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody, or O-old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody. North of the U.S. border I’ver heard people  say it’s more like Oh sweet Canada Canada Canada. The song is a loud, clear, attention-getting whistle that stands out among the other sounds of spring: a long note, a lower note, a third even lower note repeated in two or three sets of three.

 
    People who know I’m a birdwatcher sometimes whistle this song to me in spring, wondering what they’ve heard. Rachel Maddow once recorded it on her Blackberry while walking in the woods and played it on her news show, seeking identification. It is that kind of sound. 

    This sentence links to a Cornell Lab of Ornithology recording of a white-throated sparrow singing – click to hear the song. 

 

Not quite as flashy at other times of the year, but still cool.

A White-throated Sparrow in the Winter

 

We had a great snowstorm this week. Click to enlarge.

I took a walk a few days later. Most of the ground was still covered with snow, except for spots like this shielded area under an evergreen shrub. A white-throated sparrow was foraging for food there. It was scratching with both feet while taking little hops backwards to turn over leaves and stir up insects or seeds. 

Can you see the sparrow? I was attracted by the activity and might not have seen the brown bird in the dark shadows.

There. It's a pretty little sparrow with a white throat and stripe over its eye and a patch of yellow between the eye and beak. Even when the ground is totally snow covered, it can find seeds and dry fruit that are still on plants. They visit bird feeders, too. 

Although white-throated sparrows seem inconspicuous right now, just look at this male from a few years ago in his bright spring breeding plumage. It won't be long.

Spring Song

Do you have a special thing that tells you spring is really here? I do, and the pretty white-throated sparrow above is it. It's not so much seeing one, because they are around my region in winter, it's the song they sing in spring.  Click to enlarge.

Birdwatchers remember the song with a phrase that mimics its cadence and syllable count: Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody...   Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody...

The song is a loud, clear, attention-getting whistle that stands out among the other sounds of spring. I listen for it every year. One night this week I slept with a bedroom window open for the first time in a long while. I woke up to a sunny day and a white-throated sparrow singing nearby. Click on this sentence to hear the sparrow sing.  Yay, it's spring!

The First Real Day of Spring

One of Brooklyn's white-throated sparrows, Zonotrichia albicollis.  Click to enlarge. 

One thing signals the start of spring to me -- when the white-throated sparrows start to sing. So, according to me, spring started this past Wednesday when I heard the first one right outside my window. Today they were singing all over Brooklyn.

The song is distinctive and once you know what it is you will easily pick it out above the city noise. Click here to see and listen to some white-throats singing. 

Spring Birds in Winter

Remember the polar vortex winter we had last year? This robin came to my window every cold morning of it with his feathers so puffed up he looked downright chubby. I fed him raisins for breakfast straight through until spring. He's back! He (or someone who looks just like him) started looking in my windows a few weeks ago and is back in the habit of breakfasting on raisins at my place. 

Robins eat worms and insects and fresh fruits and berries when they can get them. We typically see robins stalking worms in short grass all through summer. When winter comes and the insects and worms hole up, robins change to a diet primarily of dried fruit. Some robins migrate to warmer places, but some just disappear from lawns and form winter flocks that travel to different kinds of foraging areas. 

White-throated sparrows are behaving differently in deference to winter, too. They have started to show up on my porch where I haven't seen them since last winter. I see them in the neighborhood all year, but they only visit the porch in winter (even though they would likely find a snack of seeds in any season). Click to enlarge.

New York City's northern mockingbirds tend to stay put during the winter, but it might seem like they have gone south. We are used to their flashy wing-waving and tireless singing; in winter they become relatively quiet. They visit my porch for raisins. 

I usually hear my favorites, the blue jays, before I see them. I give them peanuts in the shell. They make repeated trips until they have gathered them all. But they have to share with...

Northern cardinals that always seem happy to pose in the snow in return for peanuts... 

and Brooklyn squirrels! 

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. 

Happy Memorial Day!

A white-throated sparrow enjoying spring in Central Park. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Detail from a bronze plaque in the Brooklyn Federal Building and Post Office, remembering postal workers who served as soldiers. 

Sunday Breakfast

I scatter seeds on my porch in Brooklyn Heights for the birds when the weather gets cold. This morning I had lots of visitors. Click on the photos to enlarge.

House sparrows, Passer domesticus, are always the first to arrive. They like seeds and breadcrumbs.  They usually come in a group. 

The cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, eats seeds, nuts, and fruit. A male/female pair come together, and he usually comes out from cover first. She is less trusting and flies away if she sees me watching. They can open peanut shells, and often nibble some grapes and then fly off with one big peanut each to peel and eat in a more private place. 

I can always tell when the blue jays arrive from their loud calls of Jay! Jay! Jay! The jays, Cyanocitta cristata, target whole peanuts in the shell, carrying them off, one by one, until they have collected them all. They find a good spot and bury them for later. 

White-throated sparrows, Zonotrichia albicollis, mainly breed in Canada and then migrate south to spend the winter in the eastern and southern states, west coast, and northern South America -- and in my garden. They show up on the porch when I put out seeds, seeming mainly to be interested in the smaller ones, like millet. 

Pigeons, Columba livia, almost never come to the garden, but they seem to know immediately whenever there are seeds on my porch. Ditto breadcrumbs, another of their favorites. 

White-throated Sparrows

The white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis.

White-throated sparrows are back and they love black oil sunflower seeds! Three of them have been coming to my Brooklyn porch for breakfast all week.

Most white-throated sparrows spend the summer breeding season in Canada. Then they migrate south to spend the winter in the eastern and southern states, on the west coast, and in northern South America.

I usually hear white-throated sparrows rustling in the leaves before I see them. They forage for insects and seeds in brush piles and under bushes. They flick their heads to toss leaves aside. They use both feet to scratch backward and then jump on anything they scare up. They spend a lot of time on the ground, hopping instead of walking.

Their habitat is usually described as woods and forest edges, but they like parks too and they are at home in extreme urban landscapes like New York City where they forage side by side with house sparrows. The white-throated sparrow is brown above and grey below, like a house sparrow, but it is distinguished by a striped head, a yellow spot between the eye and the bill, and, of course, a white throat.

White-throated sparrows come in two genetically determined color varieties. One has bold white markings and the other has muted tan stripes. The color forms are maintained by a complicated set of mating preferences. Males prefer white striped females but females prefer tan striped males. White striped birds are more aggressive, so white striped females may have a competitive edge in pairing with  sexy tan striped males. The gene pool refills with both kinds.