BIRDS

[KEC]

A list of other birds that like crows is a short list.

[KEC]

About turkeys, like many birds  turkeys eat the seeds of Staghorn Sumac in the wintertime. It is always up above the snow. Bluebirds eat sumac seeds a lot. I've seen a flock of turkeys in harsh winter conditions where some were up in the sumac pecking at the seed heads and trying to balance on a swaying limb. The smart turkeys were on the ground below eating the seeds that fell to the ground.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Not only are the birds coming around and stealing Sampson's dog food and crapping all over my front porch ungrateful, they have a sense of humor. I just put on my rubber muck boots I keep out there for mushy weather use like we are currently having and I found another piece of dog food in the toe of my right boot. I can't remember how many times I have encountered that same situation. I could not tell if the culprit was sitting over on the walnut limb laughing at me or not. 

[KEC]

I would bet that a mouse put the food in the boot. Get out some snap traps and put the mice you catch out for the crows, they love 'em. Did You Know, mice often get into houses up high. 
Setting traps on the roof can tell you something. I once got mice out of someones home, but could not get them under control until I set traps on the roof and trimmed a tree branch or two that they were climbing to get onto the roof. I can't prove it, but I suspect that a Barred Owl was coming around and taking mice off the roof.

[WV Sawmiller]

   No sign of mice and I had put the food pan up last night so they could only get to it today. I have traps and glue boards out in the barn where they are a big problem. I even caught a couple of big rat snakes to put out there last summer.

[woodroe]

Ravens seem to follow the crows around here. Where there are crows hanging around there must 
be something to eat right ? Unlike crows though the Ravens are fussy about what they will eat, mostly carrion  .
Dead Mice and turkey gizzards thrown out on the snow get picked up quick by crows and Ravens.
Had a mature Bald Eagle come down one day for some fresh turkey liver and gizzards,  that was quite a sight 75'
from the house. They must be able to see red on snow a mile away.

[KEC]

I've had this thought for some time that a possible way to help moose with winter tick problems is to fiqure out how to condition some kind of birds to eat them like oxpecker birds in Africa. Then I saw a Utube video (do a Utube search for "crows picking ticks") and I felt compelled to talk with a moose biologist in Maine. He said this idea has been talked about and that Canada Jays are known to pick ticks from moose. Unfortunately, the ticks have already done the harm to the moose before the birds eat them. And that they have found as many as 73,000 ticks on a single moose.

[WV Sawmiller]

  On our last trip to South Africa we spotted a big cape buffalo with blood running down from his eyes and ears and we asked out guide if he had escaped a predator or such but we could not find any teeth marks or claw marks. We stopped to see a biologist friend of our guide and showed him the picture and he speculated it was an overabundance of ticks the ox-pickers had not gotten and the buffalo had scraped and burst the bloated ticks causing the blood to run down his face. Later on the same trip we were watching a buffalo and an ox-picker walked down his face and stuck his beak up the buffalo's nose and took a drink of the snot running down. Pretty gross but the buffalo seemed used to it.

    I don't see how a moose survives those kind of tick infestations.

    I know cattle egrets are common sights down in central Fla and I guess they are picking flies and horseflies off the cattle and catching grasshoppers and maybe even mice the cows kick up.

   My FIL had a pond in his pasture and I loved to watch a cow walk out belly deep to keep her belly safe from flies. The bluegills in his pond would look like piranhas swarming. around the cow and I have seen them jump completely over the back of the cow catching a big horse fly up there.

[KEC]

This thread started with what people were seeing around their yard. Here is my list of birds around the yard today: Mourning Doves-7, Downy Woodpecker-2, Hairy Woodpecker-1, Red-bellied Woodpecker-1, Cooper's Hawk-1, Blue Jay-3, American Crow-5, Black-capped Chickadee-4, Tufted Titmouse-2, Red-breasted Nuthatch-1, White-breasted Nuthatch-1, Carolina Wren-1, Brown Creeper-1, American Goldfinch-2, American Tree Sparrow-2, White-throated Sparrow-6, Dark-eyed Junco-2, Northern Cardinal-9.  A testament to how much money I'm spending on sunflower seed, cracked corn, suet and lard. Helps me through the glaciated northern winter. What are you folks seeing ? Also, I built 2 deluxe brush piles in the yard among the trees that many of these birds take refuge in from the weather and the Cooper's Hawks.

[woodroe]

Here for regulars we have a big crop of chickadees 15-20 regulars and a dozen BlueJays at least.
Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, occasional pair of Cardinals, White and Red breasted  Nuthatches,
Titmice , Crows come by daily looking for scraps and peanuts in the shell.
Ravens are always around combing the woods. See Bald Eagles overhead occasionally.
Seen one Shrike and one or two hawks. 2 Dozen Turkeys are regulars since last fall.
Been through twice as much black oil sunflower seed and suet this winter compared to last, working on our
4th 40 lb bag seed right now. Don't know the reason why but like the weather seed consumption varies
from year to year.

[Ianab]

Instead of "camp" this year for Ms 8 the school had an "Activities Week". Today it was a bus trip out to a local nature reserve called Rotokare. What makes this special is that it's predator proof fenced, basically not even a mouse can get it. So native birds that have almost been wiped out by introduced predators are able to thrive in there. Some of our native birds have been able to adapt to the changes that humans and introduced predators have caused, and are still common, even here in town. So we see Tui and  pīwakawaka in the back garden quite often. Others are more ground living or not predator wary, and get wiped out by stoats / rats / possums etc. These can really only survive on offshore pest free Islands, or in fenced reserves like Rotokare. 


This is a piwakawaka (fantail). I'd say newly fledged by it's "fluffiness"


 

This is what's called a "Robin" here in NZ.or toutouwai. There are really friendly little birds. Kick a few leaves away, and step back and they will be in there looking for bugs right in front of you. Guide said they are the most photographed bird in the reserve, because they will sit there 3 ft from you just watching. Hoping you will disturb some leaf litter probably. Anyway, their ground feeding makes them very vulnerable. 



 

 

 

Last one is the saddleback or tīeke. Like the robins the local population was wiped out by introduced predators over 100 years ago. Both have been re-introduced to the reserve and have been breeding successfully. In fact the Kiwi birds (which we didn't see as they are nocturnal) have multiplied so well that they are going to have to re-home ~100 of them. Adult kiwi are pretty feisty and can defend themselves from small predators, but the new hatched chicks can't, and have a 90% mortality rate in an unprotected environment. 



 

[Skip]

Saw 6 Robins yesterday, the first of the year. Spring is getting ready to sprung .  8)

[WV Sawmiller]

   I looked up yesterday and a pair of bluebirds were at my box right in front of our house. One was perched on the entrance hole and the other was on the limb above it about 6' away. I don't know yet if they were the ones who occupied it and raised 2 clutches of 5 eggs each time last year or another couple just out house shopping. I'll keep watching. If they are building a nest there will be plenty of activity the next few days. I did remove the old nest last Fall as advised. I am told they will not re-use a nest but nobody told my bluebirds last year and either they used the same nest both times or just built the second one on top as they never stopped using it from the day they brought the first twig at the start of the process till the last hatchling left home in the Fall.

[Wudman]

I've had a Rain Crow calling here on the farm for the last 2 weeks.  He should be in South America.  Kinda strange to hear him talking when he is sitting in a block of ice.  And I had a dead bluebird in my outdoor wood furnace a few days ago when I went to fire up.  I don't know why they love that stainless steel pipe, but that thing is a bluebird death trap.  I need to screen the top of it.  

Wudman

[Old saw fixer]

     Love to hear the rain crows in the evenings...

[WV Sawmiller]

    We always hated rain crows in Fla because they ate our catalpa worms we were raising for fish bait. I have heard and seen several here since we moved to WV.

[KEC]

I didn't know what a "rain crow" is, so I looked it up. Local name for Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Them and Black-billed Cuckoos are noted for eating hairy caterpillars such as tent caterpillars and gypsy moth caterpillars. Ianab, I'm thinking you might like e-bird. People report bird sightings and it goes into a huge database. You can see other people's reports and submit photos and view other's photos. Warning, it can be addictive. I enjoy your posts and photos.

[Old saw fixer]

     Mourning doves are known by some in this area as rain crows.  Sometimes local colloquialisms can confuse us. 

[KEC]

Most of the crows seen in New York are the very common American Crow. For a long time Common Ravens were mostly found in the Adirondacks, they are now in Central New York too, but not in any big numbers. For a long time the Fish Crows were mainly near the Atlantic coast and up along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers; they are becoming more common in Central New York. Fish Crows are a little smaller than American Crows and have a nasal call somewhat like the call of a young American Crow just out of the nest that you hear in June and July.

[Ianab]

I've probably posted about Kea parrots before, but these guys are pretty smart. They live high up in the Mts of the South Island, often above the tree line, even in Winter. 

These birds haven't been "trained" to solve the puzzles, they work it out for themselves, how to open doors, cause -> effect and "tools".

That's One Smart Bird | Animal All-Stars - YouTube

[KEC]

That's one smart bird !  Reminds me of a book I read many years ago that told about a researcher doing similar tests to see how intelligent chimpanzees are. He tied a banana to a string and suspended it up in the air too high for the chimp to reach. He then gave the chimp a long stick, thinking that if the chimp was smart enough he'd knock the banana down with the stick. The chimp promptly stood the stick up and climbed up it and grabbed the banana, something the researcher hadn't even thought of.

[woodroe]

And then not too far away from NZ are the tool making New Caledonia Crows.

Tool-Making Crows Are Even Smarter Than We Thought | Nat Geo Wild - YouTube

[WV Sawmiller]

   My bluebirds are back. I assume it is the adults that raised 2 clutches of 5 each eggs last summer. They are building their nest right now. The only problem is the house is about 35' in front of where we park our 2 Dodge trucks and they have started landing on the passenger side truck mirrors and window sills before the fly to the house. Of course before they leave they have to take a crap on the glass and door sides. Talk about gratitude. They did not do that last year and I don't know what changed - maybe they have become Ford lovers. >:( I am either going to have to park somewhere else or spray the mirrors with WD40 or Blue Creeper so they can't get traction or such. 

[KEC]

After being scarce for a while, I had bluebirds near the house the past two days. One  day they were feeding on Staghorn Sumac seeds. Sumac is an important cold weather food source for many birds. They won't start nesting here for a few weeks. A lot of robins have been in this area this winter, feeding on sumac, grapes, crabapples and such.

[Onthesauk]

We've had robins around for the last few weeks but not until the last two days have they been sitting on roof peaks at dawn and dusk announcing their arrival and describing their territory.

Also our first swallows showed up this morning, maybe a couple of weeks early this year.