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AndyinPA
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Birding

#1

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... nnsylvania
Jeffrey and Shirley Caldwell have been attracting birds for 25 years with carefully tended backyard feeders. But the lifelong Erie, Pennsylvania, residents have never seen a creature so wondrous as the half-vermillion, half-taupe cardinal—its colors split right down the middle—that first showed up a few weeks ago in the dawn redwood tree 10 yards from their home.

In fact, they weren’t sure they saw it correctly until it came in closer. “Never did we ever think we would see something like this in all the years we've been feeding,” Shirley Caldwell says.

The anomaly is known as a bilateral gynandromorph. In plain language: Half its body is male and the other half is female. “This remarkable bird is a genuine male/female chimera,” says Daniel Hooper, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in an email.

Gynandromorphs, known as “half-siders” among ornithologists, are uncommon but not unheard of. They likely occur across all species of birds, Hooper says, but we’re only likely to notice them in species where the adult males and females look distinct from each other, a trait known as sexual dimorphism. “Cardinals are one of the most well-known sexually dimorphic birds in North America—their bright red plumage in males is iconic—so people easily notice when they look different,” Hooper says. (Further reading: This yellow cardinal is one-in-a-million.)
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Re: Birding

#2

Post by Patagoniagirl »

I love Birders.
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Azastan
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Re: Birding

#3

Post by Azastan »

I was just talking to a friend about this. She had posted a photo/meme of 'cardinals', which includes one fake (a Brazilian bird, the red-crested cardinal, which is actually in the tanager family) and a wannabe, the Pyrrhuloxia. The Pyrrhuloxia *is* a member of the cardinal family, sometimes called the desert cardinal. The meme in question shows a xanthic individual, and a leucistic individual. The xanthic (yellow) versions are extremely rare.
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Re: Birding

#4

Post by Estiveo »

The Santa Clara/Santa Cruz/San Benito counties area is suffering an avian outbreak of salmonella. It's mostly affecting finches and Pine Siskins are being especially hard hit. The main vector seems to be bird feeders, illustrating the importance of regularly cleaning your feeders.
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Azastan
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Re: Birding

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Post by Azastan »

Estiveo wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:44 pm The Santa Clara/Santa Cruz/San Benito counties area is suffering an avian outbreak of salmonella. It's mostly affecting finches and Pine Siskins are being especially hard hit. The main vector seems to be bird feeders, illustrating the importance of regularly cleaning your feeders.
Audubon Society has recommended that all feeders in the western US be taken down, including hummingbird feeders. The hummingbird feeders are included because there are other birds which will feed from them, thus spreading the disease.

Poor finches and pine siskins, they seem to be hit really hard by both the salmonella and avian pox :( .
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Re: Birding

#6

Post by AndyinPA »

When we built this house in the woods, the birds used to wake us at a sunrise every morning, even before I began feeding the birds. I don't feed any more because the turkeys get it so fast it would make your head spin. But it's so quiet here now. It's been many years since the birds woke us up in the morning. I miss that, and I know it's because the numbers of birds are just so low compared to 40 years ago.

On the plus side, eagles have returned to our area. Our closest pair has three eggs at the moment.
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Re: Birding

#7

Post by Foggy »

Around here, we have Carolina Wrens. They sing "Germany! Germany! Germany!"

I'm surprised they weren't wiped out during WWII. :|
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Fogbow Birdwatchers Club

#8

Post by Foggy »

Along the Neuse River on this glorious winter morn ...

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Re: Fogbow Birdwatchers Club

#9

Post by Azastan »

It's a bit early for much viewing here, but I could hear the local Great Horned Owls calling across the road.

Nice shots of the BAEA and the GBHE.
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Re: Birding

#10

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Spring has arrove. The downy woodpecker is calling and drilling on our metal chimney looking for his girlfriend. Littles, our granddoggie heard it and came charging in from the deck to hide on the bed with Mimi. He had looked at Hubby when on the deck like, What the F**K is THAT!!!!”
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Re: Birding

#11

Post by Foggy »

 ! Message from: Foggy
Merged the two birdwatching threads.
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Re: Birding

#12

Post by northland10 »

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:05 pm Spring has arrived. The downy woodpecker is calling and drilling on our metal chimney looking for his girlfriend. Littles, our granddoggie heard it and came charging in from the deck to hide on the bed with Mimi. He had looked at Hubby when on the deck like, What the F**K is THAT!!!!”
Yesterday, I the downy woodpecker up and around again. I have not seen it in a couple of months. I also had a red-breasted nuthatch show up at the feeder. I have white-breasted ones all of the time, but the red-breasted one is apparently more uncommon around here. I saw it once a couple of months ago.

The starlings may be back again. It was hard to be sure who was sitting on the electrical wire some distance away. I have not seen them since the fall.
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Re: Birding

#13

Post by Maybenaut »

We drove into our property today just as a pileated woodpecker started flying low down the middle of our road. we followed it for about an 8th of a mile. It was so cool!
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Re: Birding

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Post by MN-Skeptic »

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Re: Birding

#15

Post by Foggy »

BIRD

Image

This one ain't just any ol' bird - it's the OFFICIAL bird of North Cackilacki.
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Re: Birding

#16

Post by Maybenaut »

It’s also the state bird of The Old Dominion.
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Re: Birding

#17

Post by MsDaisy »

We have new birds this year at the feeder, Evening Grosbeaks. I think I posted a photo of one back on the old bird watching thread when they first showed up, but now we seem to have lots of them fairly regularly. They're quite beautiful!
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Re: Birding

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Post by Foggy »

geese.png
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Re: Birding

#19

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... kyOTA0NQS2
Across the United States, small songbirds have faced a rise in salmonellosis, a deadly infection caused by the salmonella bacteria.

A small finch called the pine siskin has taken the brunt of the disease, Amanda Bartlett reports for SFGate. Pine siskins migrate south from Canada each autumn when they run out of food, and this year, the birds have come to the U.S. in remarkably large numbers. Once a few birds pick up salmonella in the environment, they can easily spread it to others in the places where birds congregate.

To slow the spread of salmonella, local watering holes and eateries—birdbaths and bird feeders—need to close down for a few weeks. That will give the birds a chance to get some distance from one another and find dispersed, wild food sources.

“Once there’s an outbreak, it starts spreading pretty rapidly,” says ThinkWild wildlife hospital’s executive director Sally Compton to Bradley W. Parks at Oregon Public Broadcasting. Cases of salmonellosis began to rise in mid-November, per SFGate, and in early February California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife released a statement raising concerns about the disease outbreak and asking residents to take down their bird feeders.
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Re: Birding

#20

Post by Phoenix520 »

Yesterday I stopped at Legg Lake on the way home after my second jab to avoid traffic during an intense microburst. The usual assortment of birds were there, eating worms and bugs - Canada geese, Mallards, starlings- and these guys. I’ve never seen them before. Egyptian Geese. Sorry for the blurry pics, it was really wet and grey yesterday.
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Later I went to the pet store to get dog food. I was standing at the counter; a woman carrying something with a dangling leash got in line behind me. Jeez, that’s an ugly dog, I thought. I turned to go. The ugly dog oinked at me and nuzzled my hand 😁. It was a 6 week old mini pig named Mabel. Such a cute face, and she had the longest eyelashes!

To complete my day, a guy with an 8 week old PUG lined up behind the PIG and they touched noses. :faint:

I am easily amused. 🙄
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Re: Birding

#21

Post by fierceredpanda »

Mrs. FRP and I heard the Song of Destruction this morning, which means that our resident dinosaurs (a/k/a, the group of sandhill cranes that spend the warmer months in the industrial park adjacent to our home) have returned. No pictures yet, but they're making themselves heard. One morning last year, they literally walked out in front of my car as I drove through the park and stared me down while crossing the road.
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Re: Birding

#22

Post by jmj »

One of my favorite sounds, those sandhill cranes.
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Re: Birding

#23

Post by AndyinPA »

"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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Re: Birding

#24

Post by Chilidog »

fierceredpanda wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:09 am Mrs. FRP and I heard the Song of Destruction this morning, which means that our resident dinosaurs (a/k/a, the group of sandhill cranes that spend the warmer months in the industrial park adjacent to our home) have returned. No pictures yet, but they're making themselves heard. One morning last year, they literally walked out in front of my car as I drove through the park and stared me down while crossing the road.
There have been scattered reports of some whoopers migrating with the Sandhills. Keep an eye out.
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Re: Birding

#25

Post by Uninformed »

Courtesy of Stonekettle.

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http://tabletopwhale.com/2014/09/29/fli ... ucted.html
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