Monthly Archives: January 2009

Ruby-crowned Kinglet showing crown

by Amy Posted on 11 January 2009

This is a really nice video of a male Ruby-crowned Kinglet showing his red crown while feeding. At first glance, it’s hard to tell why this bird is called ‘Ruby-crowned’ but you’ll understand about 7 seconds into the clip.


Find more videos like this on North Carolina Wildlife Federation

Ruby-crowned Kinglets summer across much of Canada and parts of the western United States. For the most part they winter in the southern half of the U.S. You can see the full range of this bird and more details at Cornell’s All About Birds: Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Looks like we have a chance to see them during the migration as they’ve been reported in our area in April-May and October.

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Posted in North America, Video | Leave a comment

Sparrows Gone Wild

by Amy Posted on 7 January 2009

Our Wingscapes Birdcam captured some pretty crazy shots of American Tree Sparrows going nuts at the feeder today. They were whaling on each other!



They were leaving the other birds alone, like this Junco.

And this Junco who just kept on munching during another skirmish.

The fighting went on throughout the day.

Early in the day, before we looked at the cam photos, one flew into the back sliding door and fell to the ground, dazed. My mom brought him inside and we left him to rest in a shoebox for about 45 minutes. When I brought the box outside and opened it, he flew off after a moment. Here he is in the box shortly before flight.

After viewing the cam shots, I am guessing a fight got out of hand and this fellow flew into the window while trying to flee an enemy. I couldn’t find any information about this kind of behavior online. We have previously witnessed large groups of Sparrows feeding both at the feeder and on the ground, without controversy. There was plenty of food available. So what got into them today?

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Posted in Wingscapes Birdcam, Yard Birds | 1 Comment

Yellow bags vs. gulls in Leiden

by Amy Posted on 7 January 2009

We used to live in Leiden and every year the great gull nuisance controversy made the news (eg here, here, here, here and here)

This year the city has distributed 150,000 yellow trash bags to businesses in the center of Leiden to foil the sharp beaks of the gulls.

In previous years Leiden has tried using falconers to frighten the birds out of the city and several different egg-snatching or -coating schemes, with little result.

gulls

Source: Gele vuilniszakken bestand tegen Leidse meeuwe

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Posted in Netherlands | Leave a comment

Some exciting European twitches

by Amy Posted on 5 January 2009

A few rare birds in the UK and Sweden made the news this week. A Snowy Owl attracted twitchers in Cornwall, Britain; a Glaucous-winged Gull is causing crowds near Stockton, Britain; and birders are descending on Stockholm, Sweden to spot a Yellow-browed Bunting.

I really like reading about these great twitches that make the mainstream news. I always get a kick out of the pictures of dozens of birders standing around looking through their bins – fun! Here’s a picture we took of just a few birders photographing a Little Auk on Zuidpier in IJmuiden .

We used to enjoy finding new birds to twitch by using the Dutch site www.waarneming.nl. I’m still trying to get the hang of how twitching best works here. The listserv system and sites like eBird and Birdstack seem kind of clunky so far.

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Posted in Europe | 1 Comment

National Bird Day

by Amy Posted on 5 January 2009

Did you know today is National Bird Day? In fact, today is the 6th annual National Bird Day, and this year’s theme is “Think Outside the Cage”. The theme is meant to call on activists “around the U.S. to take action on behalf of captive birds by drawing attention to the exploitation of other countries’ native birds by the U.S. pet industry.” There is a CafePress shop and an online auction starting today to support the cause. Check out the official website, www.nationalbirdday.com, for more information.

National Bird Day banner

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Posted in Aside, Pet Birds | 1 Comment

Top birding spots in Holland

by Amy Posted on 3 January 2009

Arthur posted his top five birding spots of the Netherlands on our personal blog. They are:

1. Lepelaarplassen, Flevoland
2. De Muy & De Petten on Texel, Noord Holland
3. Starrevaart in Leidschendam, Zuid Holland
4. Zuidpier in IJmuiden, Zuid Holland
5. De Putten, Noord Holland

Those would probably be my top five as well, although I’d put Starrevaart at #1 because we went there so often and it was so close to our home (a pleasant 45 minute bike ride). This is a view over the water at Starrevaart.

Read his post for more info and photos!

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Posted in Netherlands | Leave a comment