Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia): Week 1

The Yellow Warbler has the most widespread breeding range of the wood warblers. It ranges from Alaska and across northern Canada to the southern United States.

The male is bright yellow with rusty breast streaks. The female and immature birds are a duller yellow without the chestnut breast streaks. No other warbler is so completely yellow and it is the only yellow-breasted warbler with yellow tail spots.

The Yellow Warbler’s song is, “Sweet, sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet,” and it frequently pumps its tail up and down. Click the following link to listen to the song of the Yellow Warbler: http://www.pqspb.org/downloads/education/YWAR.mp3

 

Red-winged Blackbird – Week 4

Visit the breeding grounds in late July or early August and you will find the area strangely quiet. The redwings have gone to more secluded areas while they go through their moult (shedding and replacement of worn feathers). Redwings congregate (gather together in large numbers) in large flocks. In September after their moult is complete, they will reappear briefly on the breeding grounds before they begin their southward migration. They migrate in large groups, as that is a useful strategy for deflecting predators. Hawks have trouble singling out one bird to strike when faced with their fast-moving, tight migratory flocks.

The fields and marshes are quiet in winter. Then, spring and the kon-ka-reee sounds explode in our ears once again. In Montreal, the average return date of the Red-winged Blackbird is the first week of March.

Click this link to download a colouring stencil of the Red-winged Blackbird. rwbb-colouring-page

 

Red-winged Blackbird – Week 3

If you are wondering why the male is not doing more work for his family, that is because he is too busy guarding the nests in his territory. Yes, that is right – nests. The Red-winged Blackbird is polygynous (male mates with two or more females). A male redwing may have up to 15 different females making nests in his territory. Not for him the joys of “quality family time”. He has territory to defend! He is occupied with chasing away other male redwings and guarding his territory from predators. Because territories are often side-by-side, the breeding grounds will be resound with the songs and calls of male redwings, their red epaulets puffed and fierce looking. However, his defence may be flawed. 25 to 50% of the young in his territory are not his offspring- they have been fathered by red wing interlopers!

 

Red-winged Blackbird – Week 2

Red-winged Blackbirds breed in a variety of wetland and grassy areas, particularly marshes. They like to eat seeds and grain, so they may also nest near or in agricultural fields. Insects and fruits are also part of their diet. As explained in Week 1, the male establishes the territory before the female is even on the scene. When the female returns, she perches in trees near some noisy redwings. The males immediately notice her presence and perform flying and vocal courtship displays to get her attention. If a display finds favour with the female, the pair will mate.

The female builds the nest on her own. Her streaky-brown colouring helps to camouflage her activities around the nest. However, the secret is usually given away by loud Check and Tseert calls whenever anyone approaches the nest. She will lay three to five blue-green and streaky eggs and incubates them for approximately eleven days. The young stay in the nest for approximately seven to ten days, being fed mainly by the female. After the young fledge (leave the nest), they still stay near the nest for about a week. The male will help with feeding during this time.

 

Red-winged Blackbird Week 1 (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Kon-ka-reee is the explosive song of the Red-winged Blackbird (RWBB), one of our earliest birds to arrive in spring. Males return to their breeding grounds here several weeks before the females arrive. Each male wants to stake out a territory. When you hear the Kon-ka-reee song, look around – you will most likely see a male Red-winged Blackbird leaning forward and spreading his wings to show off his red epaulets. A male Red-wing will ferociously defend its territory, often attacking much larger animals.

The name - Red-winged Blackbird – tells it all. Male redwings are medium-sized black birds with red patches or epaulets on the lesser coverts (area where the wing bends). There may also be some yellow on the median coverts. Females, however, are brown and heavily streaked. She has a white eye-stripe and the throat is a buff colour. This is an example of sexual dimorphism (physical differences between male and female of the same species).

Watch a video clip of a Red-winged Blackbird:

 

Great Horned Owl – Week 4

 

Protected by provincial law, our raptors represent a level of predator on par with humans – in the food chain that is. Intellectually, the wise old owl picture is rather debatable. Their brains’ frontal lobes are almost entirely taken up with the senses of hearing and sight, so there is not much room for other functions. But this ensures they are very good predators, capable of hunting entirely by sound on moonless nights. Don’t be fooled by the tufts of feathers on top of owl’s head- they are NOT ears, just tufts of feathers that they can lower or raise. Their wingspan ranges from 101 to 153 cm, their length is 55 cm and they weigh approximately 1,400 grams.

Great Horned Owls are often harassed by American Crows. In fact, if you should hear or see a large mob of crows, keep looking to see if they are harassing an owl or other raptor.  

Happy owling, but do keep warm!

To watch a video of a great Horned Owl, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g43BpJ3cb8I

 

 

Great Horned owl (week 3)

Week 3

Once the owlet is well feathered, it becomes more mobile. They enter teenage hood about 8 weeks of age. And yes, they then can get into trouble quite easily. We have those exhilarating summer storms that sweep through our region bringing very strong winds. At this time, youngsters can easily get separated from home. Following one such storm I got a call about a strange bird in a backyard in St. Lazare. Armed with cage and gloves, we set off. The people had confined the young Great Horned Owl under a plastic clothesbasket. He just sat there calling a plaintive ‘jweep’. This was definitely not normal behaviour – he should have been very frightened of us, instead it almost welcomed the attention. Its behaviour when offered food confirmed that this was an imprint – but where did it come from? Oddly enough, the television station 4 Saison rang to ask about stories – obviously a slow news week – and we told them about this. They were excited and asked if we could re-enact the story. Phone calls later, all the players were ready and we ‘did our thing’ for the cameras. The owl did his too – his only interest really was in food and that he had in excess.  This story was screened and the rest of ‘Jweep’s’ story became known. A person had found two owlets some months before and reared them himself. Both were imprinted. ‘Jweep’ has gone on to be a wonderful ambassador for his species and raptors in general. His home is the Ecomuseum at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. He is now 12 years old. Let’s hope he lives for the 20+ years they are capable of.

If their diet is adequate, owls develop and grow well. These birds have one of the longest apprenticeships of all birds, being cared for and learning from their parents until being evicted in September from the parental territory.

 

Great Horned Owl (week 2)

The Great Horned Owl’s nest, begun so early and cared for through late winter and early spring, is the home base to the owlets for many months. They are born covered in down and very cute – unlike many other birds that are born naked or sparsely covered. It may not be biologically correct to call them cute, but it is really hard to resist those large eyes and the begging ‘jweep’ call. Unfortunately we must resist because Great Horned Owls, in common with all other raptorial birds learn their identity from the early contacts they have. In a normal situation this will be Mum and Dad and siblings. This process is called imprinting and is based at a neurological
level – that is, once the hard wiring in the brain is established, it is just that – hard wired and change is impossible.

If we pick them up before this phase is over, then trouble occurs! Their identity is set with humans being rather than their own kind. So? The problem is that these ‘imprints’ will never relate to their own kind in a meaningful way; instead humans will be their ‘own’ kind and we will be the objects of their attention. Normal courtship and territorial behaviours would most likely lead to problems. How would you like an owl to suddenly start wooing you, presenting wonderful gifts of mice or morsels of skunk? How about being evicted from its territory, take a look at its talons; they do hurt when embedded in your arm! Yet this bird would be doing nothing more than its nature dictates. Finding a home, defending it against intruders and looking for a suitable mate. But all wrong because we have somehow interfered with the natural order of things.

 

So what do you do if you find a small owlet on the ground? Look carefully – does the owlet appear injured? If so, get help before doing anything. It is better to be well organized before taking action. If the little chap seems in good health, you could try just moving it up into a low tree. (Be careful because its folks may be near by.) Then move well away from the area. Nature will take its course.

 

If the owlet is injured and you have to pick up the little one, try to minimize its visual contact with you. Use a box with lots of crumpled newspaper or strips in it. Pick up the owlet up carefully to ensure you are not hurt and place it in the box and cover it up. Resist the temptation to check it out or watch it.

 

We are very fortunate to have two organisations here in Quebec that care for raptors: RIB and UQROP. The owlet can be checked out by the veterinarian at UQROP (450-773-8521 ext. 8427) and then transferred to CRIB, which has several owl “foster parents”. These birds are non-releasable owls that enjoy rearing babies.

 

The Owl in the picture below has occupied an old nest in the Heronry at St-Thimothée

 

 

Great Horned Owl (week 1)

Why not go owling tonight – too cold? Not for the owls. We are so lucky in this region, in that we share the area with the largest owl in Canada, the Great Horned Owl. Not only are they fairly common, they begin the process of setting up their nest and start laying eggs earlier than any other bird here, with the exception of city pigeons! So, put your hat and coat on and head out to areas with large trees and listen – whoo, who, who, whoo, whoo – have you heard them calling?

 

The male calls to his mate, “Come on over dear, the nest looks cozy tonight.” Their nests are often last year’s crow, heron or squirrel nests, with a few additions. They cannot re-use their own nests, since the wear and tear of a healthy brood of owlets on the nest is something like that in a houseful of young teenage humans.

 

Courtship starts in December or January and by February things are getting serious – eggs are often laid by the end of the month. Some 26 to 30 days later the little owlets begin to hatch. Now, we are still talking cold weather here, just imagine a March snowfall and you are stuck sitting on your nest – no chance of moving and dependent on the male to keep you and your new babes fed. If the food is available, she may be able to rear her 2 or 3 youngsters, but that means a great deal of work and food must be plentiful. Food can be anything from mice, rabbits and skunks (don’t forget birds have either no or a poor sense of smell, so the skunks odour doesn’t protect it from the Great Horned Owl) to birds, even other predatory birds.