A Royal Tyrannus

This Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) belongs to the same genus as the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, but is more widespread. They breed mostly in the eastern US and spend the winter in the western Amazon basin. The Kingbirds are monogamous and aggressive during breeding season. More male chicks survive than females, which skews the ratio of male:female adults come breeding season. These birds love the open fields and are great at helping to control insects. You can always tell this bird by the white stripe at the end of his tail. Their numbers are still good, but are protected under the US Migratory Bird Act. These Kingbird photos were taken at Caddo Valley and below the dike off HWY #7.

A Razorback Bird

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in the corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That is why it's a sing to kill a mockingbird.
--Miss Maudie Atkinson

As all Arkansans know the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottus) is our state bird. This one nests in my front yard every ever and serenades us from the same perch all summer. The courtship rituals are always fun to watch. Males perform a flight display, which shows off their white wing patches. In the flight display, males sing continuously while flying a few meters into the air and then parachuting slowly back down. It is really weird to watch. They can live up to 8 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity. However, it is this bird's singing ability that gives it the Latin name "mimics many tongues." It can mimic 39 different songs and over 50 different call notes. Some Mockingbirds have been caught imitating the sounds of dogs and cats. And talk about aggressive, I have seen these guys chasing off crows (4x their size), cats, and even dive-bombing humans. They like to eat bugs (I have never seen one at my bird feeders) and right after I mow they flock to the lawn looking for crickets and other exposed insects. They are protected by not endangered.

Avian Rainbow

A purple and gold finch seem content to eat from the same feeder.

Likewise, an indigo bunting and purple finch share a feeding spot, as does the gold finch and indigo bunting. Funny how color doesn't seem to make a difference to these creatures.

With all the rain we have been receiving for the past few weeks, it was good to hear that this soggy pattern is coming to an end with blue skies expected for the next week. And what do you expect to see after the rainstorms? A rainbow, of course. Here is another type of rainbow God has provided, an avian rainbow.

Daily Visitor

This Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpus carolinus) spends hours in my backyard eating suet and sunflower seeds. One day a squirrel thought he was going to challenge this woodpecker for the sunflower seeds only to receive a "peck" right between the eyes. I never laughed so hard at wildlife in my life. The squirrel was shocked. Talk about entertainment. These woodpeckers are common and are year round residents of the SE United States. They are equipped to catch insects. Their barbed tongues can stick out 2" beyond their beaks and their saliva is very sticky (note the food stuck to his beak in pic above). These guys can live up to 10 years, so I look forward to many more antics from this fellow who holds the record for the most entertaining birds in my backyard.

"Lineman" Bird

I call this White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) a lineman bird because he has no neck, just like NFL linemen. These guys are the largest of the nuthatches and like the rest of their family, they will often go down trees headfirst hiding their food in the cracks of the bark. This guy likes to hang upside down and eat my suet. This nuthatch can be found in Canada, the US, and Mexico. Populations are said to be stable. In the winter they flock together with chickadees and titmice. In fact, one experiment showed that in the absent of titmice, these birds would not come to feeders.

Proud to be an American

Did you know that the Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla) is one of only a handful of birds found exclusively in the United States (SE US to be exact)? Although, there is one endangered population in the Bahamas. This guy is a regular visitor to my backyard feeder. He will quickly snatch a sunflower seed and shoot off like a bullet; it was really hard to get these pics. The nuthatch is also known for climbing down a tree head-first and has been shown to use tools to pry up bark to get at insects. Strange little guy with a quirky personality.

A Brood Parasite

Male and Female

The notorious Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are a common sight at my backyard feeders and in backyard feeders throughout SE Alaska, Canada, all of the Continental US, and Mexico. The fragmentation of woodlands has actually increased their numbers. Let me explain why. These birds are brood parasites; that is, they go around laying their eggs in the nest of other bird species who will hatch, feed, and raise the cowbird chicks along side their own chicks. Cowbirds will generally only lay one egg per parasitized nest. With such a set up, cowbird females have been known to lay as many as 40 eggs per season and why not if you don't have to pay for raising them. Studies have recorded over 144 different species of birds have been parasitized by cowbirds. So what is the connection between forest fragmentation and the increase in cowbird numbers? Brown-headed cowbirds are edge species (sort of like deer); that is, they prefer the open grassland and thickets that surround forests and most importantly, will not venture more than a few hundred yards into the forest to lay their eggs. With once great expanses of contiguous forests being divided into hundreds of small patches or terrestrial islands, the cowbirds now have the opportunity to parasitize many more nests. So it is very important for us to support the conservation of large tracts of woodlands, if we don't want to see songbirds relegated to becoming surrogate parents of cowbirds and eventually disappearing.