Reader Colin Franks sent a passel of bird photos that I’ll dole out in bits, for they’re too rich to imbibe in one draught. Here are the first five pictures. To see more of his work, go to his Facebook page or his his personal photography site, and his Instagram site.
Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani):
Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata):
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis):
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca):
Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps):
JAC: I love this cute species. Here’s what the Cornell bird site says about it:
Part bird, part submarine, the Pied-billed Grebe is common across much of North America. These small brown birds have unusually thick bills that turn silver and black in summer. These expert divers inhabit sluggish rivers, freshwater marshes, lakes, and estuaries. They use their chunky bills to kill and eat large crustaceans along with a great variety of fish, amphibians, insects, and other invertebrates. Rarely seen in flight and often hidden amid vegetation, Pied-billed Grebes announce their presence with loud, far-reaching calls.
. . . Pied-billed Grebes have an extremely variable vocal repertoire. Among the most commonly heard sounds are a long, loud, rhythmic series of bleating whoops, coos, and gulping kuk-kuk-kuk notes; also a rippling, chuckling chatter.
You can hear some calls here, and here’s a video of one making several calls:
Anne-Marie Cournoyer from frozen Montreal sent two “birds of least concern” (as classified by the IUCN). Both are pretty, but too often ignored because they’re common.
European starling (Sturnus vulgaris):
This House sparrow (Passer domesticus) is tinted blue by light reflected off the snow:
Nice birds, but the last two are invasive pests imported from Europe, and the starlings especially cause great damage to the native birds (especially hole-nesters).
I should add that the House Sparrows have even reached my small Andean town in South America recently. Luckily the native Rufous-collared Sparrow fills a similar niche and is tough enough to outcompete them except in a few urban areas.
Over the past few years I’ve been watching international webcams, looking for birds. So far I’ve got House Sparrows from every continent but Antarctica. I’ve always preferred their previous common name, especially now as it allows me to quip, “the sun never sets on the English Sparrow.”
I’m sorry Ecuador is going to undergo an influx. In my neck o’ the woods, it seems to me that both the starlings and the House Sparrows are fitting into the local ecosystem less injuriously. Or perhaps I should say the local hole-nesters, esp. the bluebirds, have adjusted better and better to their presence. I have far more Eastern Bluebirds than House Sparrows. Unfortunately, there comes a time when invasives are essentially native, like it or lump it. The NYT had a thought-provoking video a while back saying the same thing about the nutria.
I hypothesize that human efforts such as those protecting the bluebirds may have helped by giving them enough of a window to allow them to adjust to their new competitors.
This is not to say that both House Sparrows and Starlings aren’t still creating havoc in other situations, particularly where there’s factory farming. One unstable, unnatural environment invites another, unnatural species…
One of Michigan’s best known problem species is the native Brown-headed Cowbird, and once again it’s largely human activities that have created more habitat suitable to them and increased their numbers.
Anthropogenic globalization of wildlife is pretty inevitable these days, and, tempting as it is, it doesn’t do much good to demonize the invaders, even if we need to take steps (often futile) to control them.
The “Cattle Egret” is leaving no doubt!
That could be a theme for a photo competition, self declaring subjects.
Yes, I e-mailed it to some family members, subject line: Cattle egret (with cattle).
Great pictures!
That sounds like fun! Darn it, I’ve never seen an Oystercatcher catching an oyster.
But I know I can dig up some pix of flycatchers with at least flying insects (if not actual Drosophilids) in their bills…
Great pictures of the Grebe, the part submarine. Maybe this was part of the evolution of submarine water specialist, first the Grebe, then the Merganser and finally the Cormorant.
I love the way the grebes will often just slowly sink below the water surface (as opposed to the more attention-drawing diving). 🙂
The loons would be one step beyond the cormorants!
A beautiful and varied assortment of birds.
The illusory blue tinted house sparrow reminds me of that ‘what color is this dress?’ dress.
The grebe looks like she just hate a sour gummy.
What a terrific series of photos by Colin Franks!
Wonderful photos!
Thanks. It should be noted that the last two images are not mine.
I love how the water beads up on that grebe’s well-oiled plumage.
I studied Pied-billed Grebes for my Master’s degree. I actually saw one fly! It came in to the reservoir at a low angle, wings going full speed like a bumblebee. Apparently it and I realized about the same time that this angle of flight would take it crashing into the dike. It couldn’t slow down and apparently even turning would have been a problem. It sideslipped like a goose landing, once, twice, oops! It tumbled the last 10 feet or so, splashing into the water. It bobbed up to the surface but immediately did a fear dive complete with call.
Oh, I’d love to read your thesis! 🙂
And to witness something like what you describe! There’s a fish hatchery nearby with a load of great bird-attracting ponds, a few of which are always grebe-full. I love it in the late summer when naive groups of juveniles/immatures will actually follow along in the water a birder walking around the impoundments. One of those classic who’s-watching-who(m) moments. 😀
In Norwegian, that first one is a tjeld, which I learned on my last field expedition to a location about an hour N of Bergen. Base was a lovely little gentleman’s lab (analogous to gentleman’s farm), complete with electrophoresis equipment. Originally a summer cottage, one corner was IN a fjord. There were plenty of these birds on the rocks the livingroom window looked out onto, but the only bird book in the place was in Norwegian. Without internet, I had to wait for a trip into Bergen for a translation.
With views like that, I’d never get any work done!
I used to work in a factory through the grounds of which ran a small river. We frequently saw Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis), which seem very similar to Pied-billed Grebes. They can hardly fly or walk, but are expert swimmers with their huge webbed feet. I wonder how creationists could explain how essential (pace Plato) flyers can turn out to be such excellent swimmers in such different ways as penguins and these grebes.
For some reason, I saw this and thought “Peter Griffin, is that you?”
I love House Sparrows, they’re one of my favourite birds, native to the
UK and definitely not a pest here!
Gorgeous! Thanks!