Spring Migration 2016

A rainbow of colorful birds is filling our skies again this spring.

The annual migration of birds traveling through Wisconsin is underway.

A female Baltimore Oriole struggles to untangle a luckless fisherman's line.

Doggedly determined she twists and tugs at the unyielding strand for nesting material.

Countless colorful birds are arriving daily feasting on buds, blossoms and insects.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a common and colorful candidate for your first woodland outing.

Approachable within reason, binoculars provide a tool for close-up views of this distinctive summer visitor.

The Eastern Bluebirds are back. Granted, never really far from Wisconsin to begin with, still the returning bluebirds are a welcoming signal of a pending summer. Nest boxes, either homemade or purchased, are a good way of attracting bluebirds into view at your window.

Our female Baltimore Oriole seems to be tangled up in her work. Inorganic material like monofilament fishing line is an attractive building material for nesting birds, although it presents dangers not found in organics. She seemed quite resolved to secure this prized tidbit and works to near exhaustion freeing it from a tangle of branches.

Colorless in the customary sense, the
Black-and-White Warbler
is impressive nonetheless.

Distinctively fashioned to blend into the darker recesses of an old growth forest, the Black-and-White Warbler is normally found at eye level or below.

His tree trunk travels are perpetual searches for ants, spiders, wood-borers and insect larvae .

Another bird of note is the House Wren.

Fairly muted in color to be sure, you may hear this melodic, but scolding wren prompting you to keep moving through his territory.

You may find yourself staring eye-to-eye if you get too close to the House Wren.

He's unlikely to back down on his claim and may insist you leave first.

If asked, it is preferable you move back a few steps and watch him with binoculars.

The Indigo Bunting is another welcome sight in the woods. Look for him searching for food on the field/forest edge. At this time of the year they dine on newly emerging buds...in summer it's insects.

A year round Wisconsin resident the male American Goldfinch is a stand-out...ready for the spring mating season. If you feed the birds in winter you've noticed this bird's colorful transition.

But don't expect baby American Goldfinches any time soon. American Goldfinches time their breeding to coincide with milkweed and thistle seeds maturing. Seeds sustain this truly vegetarian bird.

Even though the American Goldfinch falls victim to the parasitic habits of the
Brown-headed Cowbird (cowbirds lay an egg in other bird's nests for the host bird to feed) the cowbird chicks cannot survive on an
all-seed diet.  

You may also find a Chestnut-sided Warbler searching the underside of leaves for insects.

At last our female Baltimore Oriole seem to be winning her battle with the fishing line. Somehow she has cut the line into manageable lengths and is using it to build her highly recognizable pouch-shaped nest.

She has chosen an outer branch high over the Milwaukee River for the privacy a
leafed-out tree will afford.

She feels confident enough already to dive into this flimsy pouch for more weaving and shaping to her precise body measurements...the beginnings of a new home for her 2016 brood.
Allan
Credits: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds, 
The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition

Migration Molt

The birds have been lying low lately…hiding out.

There are dramatic changes occurring in the woods right now and we're not invited to watch.  Down low in the understory, the birds are transforming into a less colorful presentation of themselves. 

It happens every year, shortly after the young have fledged.  Birds start to replace their bright breeding color feathers with fresh new ones, only now in more subdued shades.  Starting in late July and continuing into the fall migration, birds retreat to the thickets to make their migration transformations in private. 

When they come out there is a noticeable difference. These American Goldfinch are making the change now.

The Hermit Thrush normally has a  tail a third the length of his body.  Losing his tail in a molt would make him look more like this juvenile.  He could be at a disadvantage then, if he had to escape a raptor...I'm sure he senses that, too.   Catching his food  has to be more difficult with his limited flying prowess also, so lying low is his strategy. 

Hermit Thrush, May 2013

Feeling vulnerable while short-on- feathers, birds in general choose to remain hidden in late summer.  Being inconspicuous helps them survive this necessary transition. 

Cautious and careful, this Hermit Thrush flew away as soon as he saw me.

Birds don’t lose all their feathers at once; it’s a gradual process.  Feathers get worn, torn, lost and sun bleached. Summer and winter replacement cycles are necessary and predictable. 

Being largely uninvited to view the adults in transition, the young, on the other hand, have something to show off...their new colors. 

This 1^st year Northern Cardinal was changing from a multi-colored fledging into a bright red adult and seemed proud to show it off.   The Northern Cardinal is a year-round resident in Wisconsin and a welcome sight when everything else here is black and white.  

REMINDER: Click any picture to enlarge.

The male Indigo Buntings will lose a bit of luster soon, also.  This one is still quite blue, but he will become blotchy blue-brown as the season progresses…he’ll be in Central America by then. 

One bird that doesn’t change much from season to season is the Black-and-white Warbler.  Its black and white stripes are replaced with black and white stripes, so the transition is hardly noticeable.  For a bird whose nature is to forage up and down tree trunks of a similar stripe, he possesses the perfect camouflage.  

Finally, for a bird with common in his name, the Common Yellowthroat doesn’t deserve such disrespect. This one is a 1^st year juvenile just now developing the black mask he will wear throughout his life. It's true, he is common in one sense...he's widespread over North America.  He's not often spotted in the wild, though.  In that way he is similar to a bird in molt...secretive all the time. 

Allan 

Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds

Credit: Sibley Guide to Birds

Migration Story

The northbound birds that migrated through Wisconsin this spring have long since passed.   The southbound migration from Alaska and Canada has barely commenced. We only have our summer resident birds to enjoy now.

This new 1^st year Cedar Waxwing still looks warm and fuzzy.  He’s attained some degree of self-sufficiency in his short life, but he still needs his parents. He looks to be healthy and able to migrate, but he needs to learn the Cedar Waxwing migration routes yet.

Two juvenile Tree Swallows wait to be fed along a branch .  They weren’t catching their own insects over a nearby pond, nor did I see them being fed, but someone is still caring for them.  Just barely out of their downy feathers, they depend on their parents for nourishment.

A pair of Eastern Kingbirds lingered in a tree as I approached. They didn’t fly away as I expected. They had something to protect. Just barely visible in the branches below was the nest they were guarding.

Eventually they responded to my intrusion by taking to the air.

They hovered above to persuade me to leave. 

Wanting to stay, but needing to go, 

I left.

Another somewhat older, but still  juvenile Eastern Kingbird perches at the top of a tree in Cedarburg, waiting to be shown by an adult which way to fly .

Appearing insecure, curious or maybe a bit cautious, this Baltimore Oriole might be an adult female or a 1^st year juvenile.  Baltimore Orioles are summer residents in Wisconsin.  They will leave soon.

Another summer resident, the Red-winged Blackbird, is well known for his scolding, harassing and  in your face attitude that can get annoying.  Aggressive and protective of his territory, a Red-winged Blackbird could draw blood from the top of your head if you came across a particularly mean one. 

Besides having your hair rearranged by a Red-winged Blackbird, another danger of summer is stepping onto a bumblebee nest. 

I was a half-second away from stepping onto what I thought was a bare patch of ground in an otherwise tall field of grass.  

Not so…bad mistake...I diverted my foot just in time…no harm, no foul. I departed quickly.

The American Goldfinch is a permanent Wisconsin resident. Still in his spring breeding colors, this male was keeping his feathers clean. Males and females will take on a paler appearance during the winter months. Easily attracted to a backyard seed feeder, you could have American Goldfinches  eating outside your window throughout the winter.

The goldfinch’s colors are not the only colors in transition in mid-August. Treetops are changing too and  birds get to see the colors change up close.

The out-migration will begin soon.  Thousands of birds will be passing through Wisconsin and not just the big Canada Geese. The southbound songbirds will be less colorful and somewhat weather feather worn at this time of year, but a recognizable resemblance of their springtime selves.  

Think of the fall migration as another chance to see these beautiful birds in a different light.  

The show is free.  Just look up!

Allan