Pigeon Madness--the good kind

There's a new bird club starting in New York called the Pigeon Club of New York City. The initial members appear to have a healthy sense of humor, which I heartily endorse. I highly recommend checking out their video section. Warning, crumb number one is a link to a video similar to the one I linked to of a pelican eating pigeon. This one is much better quality but this time you see a goose chase after the pelican--wonder if that means the pelican has been going for goslings besides pigeons?

Crumb number 2, however is a hilarious prank and worth checking out--especially with your kids. Crumb 3 is a cartoon I'm not familiar with and Crumb 4 is some retro Bert (of Sesame Street) action.

Bald Cardinals and Other Bald Birds

All of a sudden in the last two weeks, I have been getting comments to an old post from July 25, 2005 (way back when I worked at the bird store). The post is about bald cardinals.

Every year about late July and early August there are questions from people asking about black headed birds, miniature vultures or bald headed feeder birds. Most of the time, people are describing cardinals without any feathers on their heads, but I've also had reports of bald blue jays and grackles.

While I was down in Indianapolis, my mom had a bald cardinal coming to her feeding station. So, what is the dealio? No one knows for sure, even Cornell Lab of the Big O admits that the case of the bald cardinal is not well studied. There are two possible explanations. Number one, this is the time of year when many songbirds (including cardinals and blue jays) are molting (shedding old feathers and growing in new feathers). For some reason, the birds drop all of their feathers on their heads at once. I've seen this with captive birds like great horned owls and even our education screech owl at The Raptor Center. The birds are healthy, they just molt everything at once (interesting to note that all of those species mentioned are tufted: cardinal, blue jay, great horned owl, eastern screech owl--hmmmmmmm).

Alas, my mom didn't have just a bald male cardinal, she also had a bald grackle (so much for the only tufted bird theory). This grackle was much more wary than the cardinal and this was the only shot I got of it. The bird seemed to sense the spotting scope and flush right as I was about to take a photo. I don't blame it, the bird kind of looks like a Skeksis, I wouldn't want my photo taken either. This bird leads me to the number two reason birds can go bald and that is that they can get feather mites. Generally, birds can use their bills to remove pests like mites when they are preening. However, they would be unable to get to mites on their heads and so the mites eat away the feathers. It's tough to say what really is going on, without trapping the bird and looking for the mites, you really can't tell for certain if it's molting or mites causing the lack of feathers.

There was another grackle coming to mom's feeders that was starting to lose its facial feathers. Interesting to note that the cardinals are dark skinned under the feathers and the grackles are light skinned. Since my mom had at least three birds that were either bald or starting to become bald, I wondered if this was a case of mites being passed around. The birds appeared in good health and were eating well, looking alert--all good signs. And mites don't usually kill a bird. Annoy it and make it look grotesque--yes, but kill birds--not so much. Check out the video I got of the male cardinal eating a berry off of mom's fuschia plant:

Did you note how he scratched the back of his head? That also makes me wonder if mites are the cause. Although, I would bet a bunch of pin feathers growing in at once would be rather itchy.

By the way, don't feel too bad for him, he's still gettin' some play. Not long after I took that video, this female flew in and he jauntily bounced over to her and fed her some of the fuschia berries--very clear mating behavior. She didn't seem to mind his bald pate one bit (perhaps she likes that Christine Lavin song). Although, if you look right behind her eye, there's a small bald patch--mites? Will she be bare headed soon as well?

As I was watching the cardinal, I noticed something new. Check out where his ear canal is. Do you see it? It's that large hole right under his eyeball (there's a small red feather over it). How cool--who knew that their ears were just below their eyes...and about the same size. I wonder if anyone has done any studies and the hearing capability of cardinals? So much we don't yet know...

And just for comparison and to not leave you with grotesque cardinals, here is a photo of a proper male cardinal. Whether the birds in the other photos have mites or an odd molt pattern, don't worry too much. In most cases, the feathers do grow back in plenty of time before the winter sets in and all will be right with the cardinal world once again.

HOLY CRAP! Deer Hunting With A Bird

It's a golden eagle used for falconry taking out a deer. I have no idea of the origin of this video, but wow, you gotta see it!

Young Porcupine On Solid Foods!

Unexpected Life Dream Realized: A young porcupine crawled into my lap--I didn't even know that was a life dream until it happened. This totally made up for the unexpected, pricey, yet oh so needed, costly vehicle repair today. His handler can now hold him without gloves and as I was taking pictures, he crawled my way. She said, that if I wanted, he would probably crawl on me, and well, he just crawled on my lap...I let him call the shots. No quills were fired. Whew! The wee porcupet is about three times larger than the last time I saw him. We had the video of him nursing...now brace yourself for him eating solid foods! Today, the woman who is rehabbing him, gave him a piece of banana. You will hear some minute squeaks at the start of the video--are you ready for this? Those are porcupet hiccups!! Wahhhhhhhhhhh!

Here is the video, and trust me, it is SO worth all one minute and twenty-four seconds. This is safe for work, and as a matter of fact, I insist that you show it at work--who could have a bad day after seeing this? It may even prevent a firing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y4cQEEyuTw&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

UPDATE: as of the end of 2007 he is now living at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Mn and goes by the name Clover. His videos are still a sensation on YouTube.

Albino Black-capped Chickadee

This fluffy white cuteness comes to us from Deb Pflueger of Avon, Minnesota. It's a recently fledged albino black-capped chickadee! If you look closely at the photo, you can almost see a hint of the lightest beige where the black cap and beard should be. It was in her yard on June 9, 2007 but she has not seen it since.

Thanks, Deb, for taking such a great shot of this unusual bird.

That's One Dirty Bird

Tonight, I was putting away groceries and Non Birding Bill was talking on the phone He came into the kitchen flailing his arms at me while still carrying on his phone conversation. After a few seconds of wild flapping, I finally understood that he wanted me to look out the window. Much in the same way Timmy would talk to Lassie, "What's that, girl? You want me to look out the window? Timmy's stuck in a well again?"

Lo and behold, there was a young female Cooper's hawk sitting in the puddle on the roof of the apartment building across the way. We had our screens down and I tried to take a few photos through the spotting scope as well as a video. She appeared to be nervous and taking her time with bathing. We slowly lifted the screen to get better photos. The above photo was taken after we lifted the screen, she appears to be aware that we are watching her.

The only birds we could hear out and about were chimney swifts. When they would fly over she would follow them--always an eye on potential food! She was so big and so close, I had trouble fitting her whole body into the frame with my digiscoping equipment--I was backed up against the wall as far as I could go and still could barely fit her whole body into the shot.

It was funny to watch all the squirrels hopping on to the roof to drink from the puddle, realize there was a hawk in front of them and then sprint off back in the direction they came from. Whoopsie! The hawk eventually was completely soaked and she flew off--albeit a bit unsteady into the trees.

We did get some videos of the Cooper's hawk bathing. She was doing this very weird kind of butt slap against the water. I apologize for the narration...you may want to just keep your computer on mute while watching the one minute video--I was just kind of excited and caught up in the moment.

There are two other videos you can watch here and here (this was the first video we took with the screen still down). Each are about a minute long.

The Latest Craze

Raptor Skiing!

Check out the photos here, here (sweet doubles!), and here. They'll have fun, fun, fun until daddy takes the red-tail away.

Alan Stankevitz got photos of a red-tailed hawk while it was being harassed by red-winged blackbirds chasing it out of their nesting territory.

Osprey Nest Surprise!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled updates about the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival for an unbelievable osprey nesting story:

Becky Field, who currently has some of her photography on exhibit at Minnetonka Center for the Arts took a most unusual photo! Look closely at that chick in the osprey nest--that's not a osprey chick, that's a Canada goose gosling. Now it looks like the adult is bringing the gosling to the nest in its talons. The osprey is actually bringing in a fish to the nest and the gosling is behind the feet.

The platform is on private property in Maplewoods on Lake Minnetonka and Becky's friends asked her to come photograph it. They have been watching the osprey on the platform through a scope in their house and were very excited to report the arrival of their first chick to local osprey expert and bander, Vanessa Greene. She told them that no osprey chicks would be hatched this early in Minnesota. When they described the "chick" as having a fuzzy yellow head the plot thickened.

Turns out, they had observed a Canada goose up on the platform for a short time. Either the goose had been chased out by the osprey or she was just dumping excess eggs in the nest. I'm not sure what the goose would have been thinking--she could have been her first breeding season and Canada geese have to kind of learn where to put their nest so it will be safe. Or it could have been a case that she either had no mate or too many eggs in her own nest and decided to give a few out to other nests. Either way, she wasn't thinking clearly: how would the chicks have gotten down from the high platform--Canada goose chicks aren't built like wood duck chicks--they weren't meant to jump 50 feet from a nest.

Somehow, the osprey ended up incubating a goose egg and it hatched. The property owners observed this little family for several days and were expecting the gosling to die within 2-3 days as an all fish diet would not meet its nutritional requirements. Both the male and female osprey tried to feed it fish, since osprey chicks are altricial (beg for food). That would be a tricky situation since Canada geese young are precocial (they feed themselves) and wouldn't be begging its parents for food. The property owners had even watched the gosling nuzzle up to the female osprey.

Becky took some photos on both May 19. She received a call on May 20 from the property owners that they had not seen the gosling all day and is presumed dead and is either in the nest or has been removed by the osprey.

Thanks, Becky, for sharing this incredible photo and documenting this odd little event. Sometimes nature goes a little off kilter.

Deformed Chipping Sparrow & Unusual Cardinal Behavior

Check out this photo of a chipping sparrow that was at Mr. Neil's feeder today. At a distance, it looked like it was sporting a beard, but closer inspection through a spotting scope showed some type of growth or tumor.

The bird was able to feed, but did not hang around with the other chipping sparrows. In fact, this bird preferred to use the tube feeders as opposed to feeding on the ground.

I also wondered if this was some sort of weird crop (a storage pouch on birds) infection as well.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Anyone know what this could be?

In other news, Hasty Brook sent over this question:

I've got a question for you. I've been watching a wren working hard, stuffing sticks into a birdhouse attached to our shed. While I was watching a male cardinal swooped in and snatched the twig out of its beak! I though it was a fluke but a few minutes later it did it again. In fact for several minutes the two birds continued this. At one point the wren went into the house (sans stick), the cardinal landed on top of the house and when the wren tried to exit the cardinal attacked. Is this common bird behavior? Are cardinals that territorial?

I asked my buddy Stan and he said he thinks the cardinal is stealing nesting material--birds do that. I agree, although I have watched how aggressive cardinals are at the feeder and wonder if the cardinal is trying to discourage the house wren. Has anyone out there witnessed this type of behavior from a cardinal (or any other bird)? Any experts lurking out there who knows what is going on or can point us in the right direction for more information? I tried BNA, but have not been able to log on tonight.

Coolest Pileated Woodpecker Post In The History Of This Blog

Holy crap, this is going to be a super cool post! Warning: Gratuitous photos of pileated woodpeckers ahead.

So, today I had a meeting with the Explore Minnesota Tourism folks at Eastman Nature Center in Elm Creek Park (cool stuff that generated from that meeting will pop up in the next few weeks). During a break in the meeting, I went to check their feeders for some digiscoping. At first I just saw the usual suspects: nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, etc. The feeders were spread between two rooms. When I walked into the second room, I saw this:

Okay, it may be hard to get an idea of scale with this tree, but that is a large sliver of a lump up there. I knew instantly: a pileated woodpecker. Knowing how cagey these guys can be, I just set the scope up and started to photograph hoping I might get a shot of the head.

Then, the pileated flew over to the window feeders! I was way too close to digiscope, so I took a photo old school style--just through the point and shoot. I went to the back of the room and tried to digiscope.

However, the feeder was swinging violently due to the bird's weight. It was a tall order trying to get the head in the frame and in focus at the same time. I have about 50 blurry and blank photos.

Okay, there's the head, and it's kind of in focus...but the suet feeder is in the way! Although, I did like this shot because if you look at the bottom of the lower mandible you can see it's white. I have never had the opportunity to see that part of pileated, who knew it was white?

Okay, still not quite in focus but I love this because the woodpecker was in mid peck and had its eyelid lowered to protect its eyes. This looks thicker than a nictitating membrane (extra eyelid birds have that is transparent--they use it to protect pupils in flight so dust won't damage it). I'm sure they have some sort of eyelid protection since they chip off such large chunks of bark when pecking.

Whoot! It's in focus, it's not head on, but you can still see the face very well. I like how you can see the crest feathers come together in the back. Kind of reminds me of a kewpie doll.

I couldn't believe how accommodating this bird was. The whole group had gathered in the room to watch at this point. I asked one of the naturalists if the windows were tinted and she said that they are not, these birds are just that used to people. There was also a female flying around, she was eating at the tray feeder. She tried to bump the male from the feeder, but he always won.

She was fairly close to and I was able to get a head shot of her. For those who can't tell the difference between male and female pileated woodpeckers, here is what you need to look for: the female lacks the red mustache and her red crest starts halfway up her head as opposed to right at the bill. I was pretty jazzed about this photo. Finally, a crisp head shot! Double whoot!!

The female started working her way around towards another empty suet feeder. However, instead of flying up to the empty feeder...

She went right underneath us to forage for all the fallen suet chunks! What a treat to look right down on a pileated woodpecker only five feet away! I was so excited, I almost peed my pants. There were still about ten of us in the room and we call crowded around the window.

Here's my buddy Carrol Henderson taking a photo of her. It's not uncommon to see pileateds on the ground, they do forage a bit, not quite as much as northern flickers, but they do know how to dig around old fallen snags for juicy bugs.

The male didn't stray too far away. When he was finished at the other suet feeder, he flew to a tree to keep an eye on the female. My goodness, were we watching a pileated lunch date? Boy, if things keep going this well, he'll be at third base in no time.

Eventually, the birds flew off and we had to finish the rest of the meeting. Sigh.

The naturalists told us about a barred owl nest right along one of the trails. While we were finishing our meeting, I saw Sue who volunteers with me at The Raptor Center walk by the outside window. I flagged her down to say hi. She was going to look for the nest, so I told her to let me know if she found it on her way back. Five minutes later she walked past the window and gave a thumbs up--she saw the owl. Afterwards we went to look for it, we found the nest hole, but she was hunkered down for the day doing some hard incubating. Now quite what I was hoping for, but after the pileated show how can I really complain?

One last thing, we did find a disapproving jack rabbit at Eastman Nature Center. Apparently, he didn't approve of being stuffed.