Entries from June 2007 ↓

Why do we hate the Brown-headed Cowbird so much? Is the hatred deserved? After all, cowbirds don’t fragment habitat.

The Brown-headed Cowbird is known to use the nests of more than 200 other bird species. Cowbirds used to follow the large herds of Bison and as nomads, didn’t have time for nest building and incubating. While cowbirds are native, they are often considered nuiscence birds because of their parasitic behavior. While some birds have learned to deal with these parasites, others have not had time to develop ways to counter the problem. This is especially a problem with rare birds like Kirtland’s Warbler.

Since 1972, more than 120,000 cowbirds had been trapped and killed. [In] the first decade of cowbird removal, parasitism dropped to just 3.4 percent of Kirtland’s Warbler. The number of breeding pairs, however, stayed about the same. In 1981, a prescribed burn got out of control and the wildfire scarred 24,000 acres of pine forest. The fire created more suitable habitat, and the number of breeding warbler pairs began to increase. - Wildbird, March/April 2005

While most birders would agree that Kirtland’s Warblers are prettier and “better” than Brown-headed Cowbirds, it is not our duty to pick one species over another. Cowbirds are just as native to the U.S. and perhaps more so since they are year-round residents. The problem is that human activity has created ideal conditions for these opportunistic birds. Instead of killing them off, it would be much wiser to create massive, unbroken habitats. Creating Bison habitat might just put the cowbirds back where they belong.

Would it really be effective to try and prevent Brown-headed Cowbirds from laying eggs in nests of 200 species of birds?

Birding blogs are fun to read (and fun to write!). Birds, birding, birders…a wonderfully huge topic, which means the variety of bird blogs is huge. Many Bird Bloggers have joined Fatbirder’s WebRing. We love Fatbirder’s goal to link birders together, worldwide.

Bird Blogs can’t really get boring because they are always jazzed up with awesome bird photos! Birds are always photogenic, even if the photographer is not a pro!

Our goal here at Birdfreak has been to write about the fun of birding as well as promoting conservation that helps birds so we can continue to be birders in the future. We hope to be Bird Bloggers and conservation promoters for years to come. We haven’t been blogging very long yet and as we learn and grow, we love reading and talking about all the other blogs out there. They are so very different, some with a specific focus and great detail and some with large ranges and just general bird love.

One example we reference quite often is Bird Advocates. They focus on one specific, very real danger our birds face every day all over the country - Feral Cats. — An often overlooked topic.

There are some blogs that focus on a species of bird, such as Ivory-bills LiVE!! and others that use a bird name within their blog such as Antshrike’s Bird Blog who bird on the Texas/Mexican border.

A blog name may not be a sign of a good blog, but with names such as Birdchick and Mon@rch…you can’t go wrong! And they are just more proof that good birders are EVERYWHERE and that is awesome.

Birders know that the coolest thing about birding (and blogging) is that you can do it anywhere. From Swampblog in the south to Birding in Westcliffe, Colorado to Connecticut’s Brownstone Birding Blog to birding inArizona, birders are actively blogging in the United States and we think it is so terrific.

Hondubirding from Honduras, Trevor’s Birding from Australia, The Icelandic Birding Pages, Fraser’s Birding Blog from London, Birding Mongolia, and the Bird Ecology Study Group from Singapore prove that bird blogs are truly international (and so are birders).
It would be great to have a bird blog for every single country.

We even have our own carnival, I and the Bird, created by 10,000 Birds, which is always fun.

But if you want to find links to almost every bird blog out there? Visit Birds Etcetera because he is working on finding every bird blog in the world and the list is HUGE.

Birding is for everyone!

Born on June 18, 1886, in the state of Wisconsin in the United States, Alexander Wetmore was an ornithologist who led many trips to find birds. Trips to Spain, South America, Central America, and North America. He became the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and was the director of the U.S. National Museum. He worked as an avian paleontologist as well.
Alexander Wetmore published The Migration of Birds in 1926. He studied birds in Puerto Rico and in Panama. He was also a bird bander who helped prove that lead was poisoning ducks at Bear River Marshes in Utah.

The Callaway Nature Preserve is expanding again in the never-ending process of grass removal. Little by little, the C.N.P. has grown with a few new natives every year. Small in size and surrounded by houses and streets, this little preserve houses numerous backyard birds and provides a safe stopover for plenty of weary migrants.

We received some of our plants a little late this year due to a cold start to spring, but all were intact. This is our second year ordering from WildOnes, who promote the use of native plants around homes and businesses. WildOnes is a good organization with more chapters opening in new areas all the time.

Downy Mint planted in 2006

Going native is for the birds! As we get more involved in our local forest preserves and birding clubs, we also want to keep promoting native landscaping. It really is the best way to go, and the birds love it.

Wild Senna planted in 2006

Want a new way to help with bird conservation? Buy bison (buffalo) meat!

Bison once roamed all over the west and were part of the natural landscape of grasslands. The Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. states the benefits of buffalo meat over other red meats, such as less fat and the fact that they roam naturally in the landscape they’ve lived for thousands of years.

By promoting bison ranches we promote conservation. Bison need large, open grasslands to thrive and ranches that work together with conservation groups can ensure their land is well kept for the bison and birds that share the grasslands.

House Sparrows have been around so long, it is impossible to imagine North America without them. In Britain, they are on the “red list”, it is too bad we can’t send them a few. We decided to share this old poem (wrote by Fred Mather in 1881) found in Kim Todd’s Tinkering With Eden, A Natural History of Exotics in America

The Old World Nuisance
The Poet may sing in the sparrow’s praise,
But our great ornithologist, Dr. Coues, says,
In language of truth and very plain prose,
That the sparrow’s a nuisance and the sooner he goes,
The better we’re off, so to me it’s quite clear,
That the Old World Sparrow is not needed here.

He defiles our orches, there’s no denying that;
He has ruined my wife’s dress and spoiled my best hat.
He hangs round the bird cage to pilfer the seed,
And gives the canary a foul insect breed.
He never eats worms, let us tell it abroad,
This Old World Sparrow is a terrible fraud.

Great news from our home away from home, Wisconsin. The endangered Kirtland’s Warbler, famous for nesting in Michigan, has been confirmed to be nesting in Wisconsin.

The nest was discovered on land in central Wisconsin owned by the Plum Creek Timber Company.

This was from a press release from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Read the story at Wisconsin’s eBird site.