Just For The Birds BlogPast and current articles by Kathy Coward of Just for the Birds in Old Town Spring
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The Northern Cardinal is one of the most beautiful of all our birds. Seven states in the eastern U.S. count the Northern Cardinal as their state bird.
Cardinals are named after officials of the Roman Catholic church, called Cardinals who wear red robes. the male Cardinal is all red with a crest and has black on his face around the base of a reddish bill. The female Cardinal is buffy below and grayish brown above. She has a reddish bill with reddish tints on her crest, wings and tail. The juvenile Cardinal is seen in summer and looks similar to the female but has a dark gray bill. It is thought that Cardinals mate for life. They make a nest of twigs, bark strips, and leaves, placed in dense shrubbery or small tree. They lay 2 to 5 eggs of a buff white color with dark marks. Cardinals may nest or brood 1 to 4 times a year. During mating the male Cardinal may be seen feeding the female and the male also shares the feeding of the young with the female. Both male and female Cardinals sing a series of clear whistles that vary, like "Whoit Whoit, Cheer Cheer Cheer" and also make a call that sounds like a metallic "Chip." Cardinals readily come to feeders. They prefer sunflower seed but also eat safflower seed, cracked corn or mixed seed. Cardinals enjoy birdbaths for drinking and bathing. Cardinals are symbols at this time of year because of their beauty and cheerfulness. I hope the sights and sounds of Cardinals light up your life during the holidays and all year long.
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In March we think of St. Patrick’s Day and here in Texas we have some birds that wear the green.
One bird is found only in Southern Texas, it is the Green Jay. This is a gaudy tropical Jay and is common in Riverside woods, parks, suburbs, oak groves, and dry brushland of Southern Texas. They often travel in small flocks. They are mostly green with paler and yellower feathers below and a purple and black head. They also have bright yellow outer tail feathers. The green jay is found in the valley area of south Texas. Another mostly green bird will arrive in March, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird. The female is green above, whitish below with white tips on her outer tail feathers. The male has an iridescent ruby throat which sometimes looks black in many lights. He has a white chest and green sides and his tail is all black and forked. The Ruby Throated Hummingbirds usually arrive here in late March but if we are warmer, we may see them sooner. They stay around for some weeks and then will go on North. You may have a few that stick around all Summer but most go on. Then in mid-August thru mid-October they will come back to us. Happy wearing of the green and remember Spring is early here so clean out your old bird houses and put-up new ones now and enjoy the birds. The cooing of doves along with their courting displays have made doves a symbol of love and peace.
The two types of doves found mainly in our area are the mourning dove and the Inca dove. The mourning dove gets its name from its mournful coo. Mourning doves are about 12" in length. They are a sleek bird -gray-brown with long pointed tails and black dots on their wings. The male has a light gray crown and iridescent sides of its neck. The female is evenly brown on her head and neck. When they are in flight you can see the broadly white tipped shorter outer tail feathers. They are common at feeders, feeding mostly on the ground. They eat weeds, grass, grain seeds and some insects. From a perch at courting time the male does a conspicuous cooing in which he puffs out his throat and bobs his tail. When cooing on the ground in front of the female he repeatedly bows his head and gives a long coo. The pair makes a flat loose nest of twigs, grass, weeds, and pine needles placed in a vertical fork or horizontal branch of a tree. They usually have 2 white eggs. The Inca dove is small about 8" and it's dark-tipped feathers create a scalloped effect all over it's body, the tail is almost as long as the rest of it's body. When it is in flight you can see it's reddish-brown wing tips and it's long tail with white along the sides and corners. They are ground feeders eating weed seeds and grain. The make a Saucer like nest of twigs, sticks, grass and leaves which they place on horizontal limbs bushes or trees and sometimes in hanging baskets. They usually have 2 white eggs. Enjoy the peaceful sounds of our doves in Old Town Spring and Happy Valentine's Day. In the last few months have you seen some birds flying low to the ground around dusk on gentry street or near the museum? These little birds have nests here in Old Town Spring and this year we had an abundance of them. They are about 7" long, have a long forked tail; the upperparts are blue-black with a buffy breast and a throat of reddish brown. This is the "barn swallow" and I have seen nests under the eaves at Creekside and also under the little bridge by the museum.
Barn swallows eat insects. They feed in pairs while egg-laying and in loose flocks at other times. They feed in flight and can skim over water to pick up floating insects. They nest singly or in colonies. Their nest is a deep bowl of mud pellets and grass lined with feathers and is placed on a beam or some projection in a barn, under a bridge, or in a culvert. Both the male and female build the nest usually in the morning and can make up to 1,000 trips to collect mud. They lay 2 to 7 eggs and the eggs are white with reddish-brown speckles. We are lucky to have these little birds here in Old Town Spring and I hope they choose to nest near us again next year. Look up in the beams on the porches around here next spring and welcome our barn swallows. Outside my shop everyday for the past few weeks I have heard the noisy but fun to see blackbirds. They gather in large flocks and are quite raucous. Our most commonly seen blackbirds are the common grackle, the great-tailed grackle, the brown-headed cowbird, the red-winged blackbird and two birds which are not really members of the blackbird family but also have dark shiny feathers- the American Crow and the European starling.
To most of us blackbirds seem alike and are hard to distinguish. Some ways of telling the difference in these birds is to look at the size of the bird and the profile of its body and beak. The American Crow is the is the largest of these birds at about twelve and a half inches with a large heavy black beak and black eyes. The grackles are smaller and slimmer than the crow (except for the great-tailed grackle which can be as long as a Crow.) Grackles have yellow eyes. The great-tailed grackle has a big keel-shaped tail which is almost a long as the body. The European Starling were brought into the U. S. around 1890 where about sixty of the birds were released into Central Park in New York City. They have now multiplied and spread across the country. They have a speckled iridescence of purple green and black and are the only blackbird with a yellow beak. The brown-headed cowbird is a pest as they lay their eggs in the nest of another species of bird, having the other parent bird raise the young instead of its own. The male bird has a dull brown head and a dull black body and the female is gray-brown overall, both male and female are short and stumpy and have heavy wedgelike beaks. The red winged blackbird is our least common here but is wonderful to see The male is black overall except for the bright red epaulets, or shoulder patches, which can be seen on the upper part of the wing when the bird is at rest. A thin yellow trim lies along the botton of the red patch. The female is a dark brown above and heavily streaked in brown over her underparts. Many blackbirds are roosting in our trees here in Old Town Spring. Enjoy them and our great fall weather. Our goldfinches were late this year, perhaps as Gary Clark speculated in his article in the Houston Chronicle the wild food crop of tree seeds and grass seeds across North Texas kept the birds well-nourished until the recent ice storms. They are migratory birds here in our area and usually come in Januarary or a little bit earlier subject to our weather. In the winter they are in flocks and I saw about 15 to 20 birds at my feeder which is not unusual. I love these little birds and always hate to see them go up north in Spring. These birds are about 5" long and both the male and female have black wings and tail with white wing bars. In winter the male is yellowish brown with a yellow wash on his face and chin and the female is a grayish brown with a little yellow tint. They have black eyes and their beak is yellow with a tint of orange. They eat seeds, insects and berries and at birdfeeders they prefer sunflower seeds and their favorite seed, the thistle. As soon as I see them at my feeders eating the sunflower seed I put out my thistle seed feeder. Thistle seed is a very tiny black seed and you will need a specialized feeder or thistle sack for this seed.
I know you will really enjoy these little birds if you attract them to your yard or come by the little garden in front of my shop, Just For The Birds. Even with the people passing by when the goldfinches are hungry they are at my feeder and a cherry site to brighten your day. It is wonderful that we can enjoy so many different birds at all times of the year. Now is the time of year when we see many baby birds at our feeders. Just this week a saw three different baby birds at my feeder in the back yard. One way you can tell they are baby birds, even though many are the same size as the parents , is that they flap their wings and open their mouths for the parents to feed them.
One of the babies I saw was a house finch. House finches are about 5 1/2 inches tall. The male has red on its head and upper breast and it has broad brown streaking on its lower breast and flanks. The female has a uniformly brown-streaked head and broad brown streaking on her breast and belly and her white undertail is usually streaked. They both have a short bill. They eat weed seeds, blossoms, fruits, buds and they love sunflowers at your feeder. If your hummingbird feeder is shaped so that this short billed bird can get into it they will also drink the nectar. They make a nest of twigs, grasses, leaves, and debris in natural cavities such as foundation plantings, vines, hanging planters and occasionally birdhouses. They lay 2 to 6 eggs which are bluish white with speckles and have 1 to 3 broods a year. The babies are out of the nest and flying with the parents in about 12 to 16 days after the eggs are laid. Sometimes in winter house finches form flocks and they are native to the western states. The house finch was introduced to the East in the New York City area in 1940 when pet dealers, being arrested for illegally selling House Finches as "Hollywood Finches" released the birds. Since then they have spread throughout the East and South. Hope you see a baby bird at your feeder. Happy Spring. Robins are a sign of Spring and even though we here in Houston are in the year round range of the Robin we seem to see more at Springtime. The American Robin is the most widespread songbird in North America ranging from Alaska, Canada, and New-foundland to the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala.
The male Robin is dark gray above, orange-brown below, white under the tail and has a bright yellow bill. The female Robin is similar to the male except she has more brown above and is pale reddish brown below. Their song is a lively ringing whistle which sounds like "cheeryup cheerily" and their calls include a "teek" and "tuk tuk tuk." The Robins nest is made of grass and mud and is usually placed on a limb of a tree or a building ledge. They have 3 to 7 light blue eggs with incubation taking 12 to 14 days and the nestlings fledge or leave the nest in 14 to 16 days. Robins will have 2 to 3 broods per season. Robins hop around lawns, meadows and golf courses looking for earthworms. They also eat insects, fruit and berries. They will occasionally come to feeders for fruit (raisins or berries.) They will also use a birdbath. Robins are much beloved symbols and Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin have chosen them as their state bird. Canada has a pair of Robins on their two dollar bill. Enjoy the Robins and our wonderful Texas Spring. I would like to be a roadrunner on some of these hot summer days so that I could run really fast to the shade or the airconditioning. Here are some interesting facts on the greater roadrunner. They once lived only in dry open areas in the Southwest, but they now have expanded their range eastward to open woods and grasslands and we have them here in East Texas Greater Roadrunners are members of the cuckoo family, they have two toes pointing forward and two facing backward, making a X footprint. Their sound is a "coo,coo, coo, ooh, ooh, ooh."
They really can run fast and have been clocked up to 20mph. Early settlers named these birds roadrunners because they ran ahead of the horse-drawn wagons, catching lizards, rattlesnakes, scorpions, mice and other small animals. Male and female roadrunners appear identical and they mate for life. Both parents build a shallow 1 foot nest in a small tree or a clump of cacti. The female lays three to six white or yellowish eggs. The young will be able to catch food on their own within 3 weeks after hatching. I hope you are lucky enough to hear the coo ,coo of the roadrunner and then to see one or have one around your yard or garden to eat any pesky varmits. Our fall migration begins usually in mid August through mid October. I have had quite a few people tell me they have hummingbirds at their flowers or feeders. My first little hummer to stay around and eat arrived at my feeder about 3 days ago. I was sitting outside near my feeder and before he ate he came over and hovered right in front of me just like he was giving me a greeting. It is great how such a small thing can give you such joy.
The most common hummingbird we see here is the ruby throated hummingbird. The male has the pretty iridescent red patch on his throat. You can see it if the light is shining the right way. The female is more green grey but I love them all. The males are very territorial and fight others for nectar all the time. If you can put up two or more small feeders apart from each other it is best for viewing and helping out the birds trying to avoid the bullies. Most of our hummingbird feeders have enough red or bright color on them that coloring the nectar is not necessary. The nectar ratio is 4 water to 1 sugar (just plain old white sugar, never honey as this can harm the birds.) I find if I boil the water or microwave it first before putting the sugar it seems to stay fresh longer. Any extra nectar , keep in the refrigerator until you need it. In our heat unfortunately we need to change the nectar and clean the feeder every 3 to 4 days or at least every week and it helps to keep the feeder in the shade if possible. The heat makes the nectar ferment and can cause harm to the birds. The second weekend in September you might try to attend the Hummer Bird Celebration in Rockport-Fulton , Texas, about an hour north of Corpus Christi. They are right on the migratory trail of the hummingbirds and at times have as many as 40 to 50 birds crowding around one feeder and they have feeders out all over town so you can imagine what a sight this is. To find out more information about this Festival you can call the Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce at 1 800 826 6441 or on the internet at www.rockport-fulton.org. Happy Hummingbird watching. |
AuthorKathy Coward, Owner Of Just For The Birds Shop Archives
August 2021
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