When a bug flies by, the Ash-throated Flycatcher is after it. It’s not always easy. Lots of aerobatics. But he gets his bug.
And he has another trick. He likes to pick things up off the ground. And eat them.
Like my six month old grandson.
But the flycatcher flies back to a tree to eat. He doesn’t want to lose it. Birds steal. Not just bully birds. All birds. A bird with food always has to be on the lookout.
But at least there's one thing he doesn’t have to worry about.
His mother won’t dig the food out of his mouth with her finger. :)
Tyrannidae Myiarchus Cinerascens is Latin for this bird:
Why Latin. Because I can’t figure out any other way to put this. Stay with me here: in this family of 37 species those in any given genus are sometimes impossible to distinguish. Even ornithologists need a crib sheet. And still can't sometimes.
This troublesome little fellow falls into one of those groups. Like twins. Except there’s five of them. :)
Which brings me to my point. See the pretty brown on the wings? Birders call that rufous. Every brown with a little red in it is rufous to us birders . Other than that you never hear it. “I’d like the blue tie with rufous stripes?” Spell check changes it to “refocus.” But that’s ok. Not criticizing. It’s a good thing. Descriptive. Specific. Things that drop off quickly after rufous.
Nearly everything else is brownish. Or blackish. Or whitish.
Whitish?
No wonder none of us can tell the difference between these birds. I admire ornithologists. I really do. I wish I was one. But you’d think they could do better than this:
They are so well trained. Many have PHDs. You’d think somewhere in all that schooling they could make room for a class on the color palette. Or art. Or decorating. It would improve their descriptions. And make it easier for us amateurs.
I’ve had some questions about the blog and web page. Most like…”What?”
So here it is: the blog stays. Where it’s been. Right after the www. :)
As for the web page, I was encouraged to start it. By petty extortion. They made it hard for people to find my blog unless I had one. So now I do. For just a few bucks a month.
My daughter thinks I should sell stuff on it. Bird pictures. On canvas. On T-shirts. On tea towels. She says I’ll make lots of money. But I don’t think so. She’s sweet. But that’s naïve. I’ve been around. It wouldn’t work. I know it wouldn’t. So it isn’t going to happen.
Of course if you really really want a bird on a mug please email me: [email protected]. : )
When I visited the Pacific Northwest I said it rained all the time and I got zero photos. It did rain the whole time. But zero was an exaggeration. I got these.
Out birding (in the rain), I came across a young eagle. Probably a teenager as eagles go. Very nervous, craning his neck, looking all around. I soon learned why.
As he flew over later….Wham! An adult attacked from above and both plummeted toward the ground crashing through the trees. By the time I got there the young one was high tailing it. But straight up was a pair of adults making tight circles and calling....a little eagle happy dance.
Eagles take a long time raising their young. The babies grow fast and fledge early, but they don’t know how to fend for themselves. At all. For a long time. So the parents have to spend all their time feeding otherwise full grown birds. Sometimes for months. Then as the young birds mature they start harassing the parents and stealing their food. The adults of course finally do get tired of this.
So I think this young bird was ready to go but had a pretty cushy life in the nest freeloading off his parents. And as all young eagles do had grown surly and obnoxious.
Now I consider myself a well-qualified expert and it seems pretty obvious what was going on here. They were simply trying to persuade the kid to get his own apartment.
No, no, no. I don’t mean I'm a bird expert. Goodness no. I'm talking about helping raise four kids. Trust me on this. It’s nature’s way. : )
Bird-Call Bonus: Scrabble words made fromfledge :)
Whew! About blew up the blog. But it’s safe from me. For now. :)
The bird last time was a Chestnut-backed Chickadee. Chickadees' claim to fame (besides being cute) is they're fond of feeders and say their name, “Chicka-dee-dee-dee.” (Do you quote birds?). They don’t say the Chestnut-backed part1. (See footnote)
Some bird sources like to say “chickadees are curious about people.” Maybe. But that hasn't been my experience.
More likely, since they flock to feeders, they get used to us. And know where their bread is buttered. I keep trying to tell people birds aren’t really all that dumb.
That having been said, and here is where I think all this got started, an old and respected bird book reported seeing a chickadee peering into windows to see what the humans were doing. I realize some animals are curious but with all due respect to anthropomorphism it is far more likely he was looking at the cute chickadee reflected in the window. (Both sexes look the same so how would he know?) :)
