Category Archives: Bird Behavior

In a Contest Which One Wins?

Two house sparrows: little bib, big bib (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

14 March 2024

Did you know that male house sparrows can tell who’s dominant by looking at each other from afar?

It’s in the size of the bib. Big bib dominates little bib.

Watch for this behavior at your feeder. Learn more in this vintage blog:

(credits are in the captions with link to the original photos on Wikimedia Commons)

These Are For The Birds

13 March 2024

Have you seen coils or fluttering tags on power lines? Not related to power transmission, these accessories are visual cues that alert birds to the presence of wires.

Bird diverters come in many shapes and have changed over the years as new products come to market and are approved by government agencies. California commissioned a 2008 study to evaluate the orange and fluorescent swinging tag below for use in the Sacramento Valley where hundreds of thousands of waterfowl spend the winter.

Aerial marking devices (flight diverters) are intended to reduce avian collisions with power lines by increasing power line visibility. From Testing the Effectiveness of an Avian Flight Diverter for Reducing Avian Collisions with Distribution Power Lines in the Sacramento Valley Published 2008

This (newer than 2008) model from Power Sentry glows in the dark and is visible in fog.

Hawk Eye Bird Flight diverter (photo embedded from powerlinesentry.com)
(video embedded from PowerLineSentry on YouTube)

It is also less expensive to install because it can be done by drones.

(video embedded from Manitoba Hydro on YouTube)

Those devices are for the birds.

These are for pilots.

Red ball markers make power lines visible to airplane and helicopter pilots and are usually installed near airports and on long lines over rivers and canyons.

Aviation red ball marker on power line. The helicopter is probably so close because it’s checking the power lines (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Ironically, they have to be installed from helicopters. This 6-minute video filmed in West Virginia shows a job I could never do.

(video embedded from T&D World on YouTube)

Wondering about cones? They are also visual cues for pilots.

Power line cone to alert pilots (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

p.s. Some of you know more about this than I do. If I got it wrong, please leave a comment.

(credits are in the captions)

How Do They Protect Their Babies?

African jacana (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

8 March 2024

How does a bird that nests on lily pads protect its tiny chicks when they are too small to jump from pad to pad?

African jacana chick (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

You would think that mother birds would be the protectors but in the social structure of African jacanas (Actophilornis africanus) the females can have multiple mates and never settle down, so it’s up to the fathers to build the nest, hatch the eggs and protect their kids.

Watch how this dad protects his young.

Flaco Died of a Window Strike

Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl in Central Park shortly after he escaped his damaged cage, 18 Feb 2023 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

1 March 2024

One week ago today, on 23 Feb 2024, the most famous owl in New York City hit a window on West 89th Street and died.

Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) escaped his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo more than a year ago after a vandal damaged it on 2 Feb 2023. The zoo tried to recapture him and worried that he would starve or be hit by a car. Instead Flaco thrived on his own and became a symbol of freedom to many New Yorkers.

A crowd watches Flaco on 18 Feb 2023 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

He endeared himself to apartment dwellers by sometimes visiting their highrise windows or perching on their fire escapes.

Flaco peeping in a window in NYC, Dec 2023 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Sadly a window was Flaco’s undoing. Flaco’s biggest fan, David Lei (@davidlei), reported:

Memorials sprung up instantly.

Memorial to Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl, New York City, 25 Feb 2024 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Flaco’s death was covered in the New York Times: Flaco, Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl and Defier of Doubts, Is Dead and commented on by the zoo where he lived most of his life.

His story should not be over, though. Flaco was not the only bird to die of a window strike in North America. He was merely the most famous. Nearly one billion birds per year hit windows in the U.S.

If your home has ever experienced a window strike please implement one of these techniques to prevent further collisions and deaths.

Find out more at this vintage blog, written after one of our young peregrines died of a window strike.

I hope Flaco’s death inspires everyone to do more to prevent bird deaths at windows.

(credits are in the captions)

In Which a Magpie Stalks a Cat

Eurasian magpie (by Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons)

16 February 2024

Why is this magpie annoying the cat?

When they aren’t viewing cats as threats to their young, Eurasian magpies (Pica pica) will follow them to sources of food.

Four Eurasian magpies and a cat (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

As soon as this cat found a snack …

Eurasian magpie watches a cat eating bratwurst (photos from Wikimedia Commons)

… the magpie showed up to wait.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, tweet embedded)

Remembering a Snowy Winter

Snowy owl at Presque Isle State Park, 29 Nov 2013 (photo by Shawn Collins)

7 January 2024

It’s been 10 years since the spectacular winter of 2013-2014 when snowy owls irrupted in the Lower 48 States. That winter they invaded the Northeastern U.S. and traveled as far south as coastal North Carolina, Florida and Bermuda!

This year a few snowies are visiting the Great Lakes region but the only concentration of owls is in western Canada. You can see the difference in their eBird sightings in these maps of 2013-2014 versus 2023-2024. (Click here to see the eBird Explore map.)

In 2013-2014 there were so many snowy owls that photographers often saw peregrine falcons attacking them. Steve Gosser captured this still shot at Presque Isle State Park in December 2013.

Peregrine falcon attacking snowy owl at Gull Point, Erie, PA, 1 Dec 2013 (photo by Steve Gosser)

Tom Johnson filmed two peregrines harassing snowy owls at Stone Harbor, New Jersey in January 2014.

Peregrines attack snowy owls at Stone Harbor, NJ in Jan 2014 (Video embedded from Cornell Lab on YouTube)

It was also a snowy weather winter. 2013-2014 was very cold with enduring snow on the ground because of the “Polar Vortex.”

This year is much warmer — so much so that yesterday’s snow melted overnight, as seen at the Pitt peregrine nestbox.

Snow melted overnight in Pittsburgh: 6 Jan 2024 afternoon vs 7 Jan morning (via the National Aviary’s snapshot camera)

This winter we’re missing both snowies and snow.

(credits are in the captions)

Eats Fruit and Leaves

American robin eating fruit in early winter, Toronto (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

23 December 2023

Early this week a big flock of American robins came to my neighborhood, ate all the fruit they could find, and left.

On Monday morning, 18 December, they were frantically eating this pyracantha fruit outside my window. At one point I counted 45 but they were moving so fast I think there were more.

Pyracantha full of fruit, 23 Nov 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

The birds were frantic because they knew bad weather was coming. In mid afternoon it snowed.

Snow flurries 18 December 2023, 3pm (photo by Kate St. John)

The next morning the fruit was gone and so were the robins.

Sam pyracantha with no more fruit, 19 December 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

American robins are still in Pittsburgh but they’re feasting in other locations. When the fruit is gone and the ground is frozen, the robins will leave.

p.s. Today’s title reminds me of the 2006 bestselling book on punctuation by Lynne Truss called Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The comma in her book title is really important. Did the panda eat, shoot a gun, and then leave? Or did the panda eat two things — shoots and leaves? … In the case of today’s blog title: Robins don’t eat leaves. They eat fruit and leave the neighborhood.

Time’s Running Out: Where Are The Crows?

Crows flying to the roost at sunset near Wilkins Ave, Oct 2020 (photo by Joanne Tyzenhouse)

18 December 2023

For the past several years Claire Staples and I have counted crows for the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count (CBC). In a good year we count 20,000. In a bad year, 220. Stunning, isn’t it. The difference is not in the actual number of crows. It’s whether we can find them.

Please help. Let me know where you see crows overnight or after sunset, especially next week (after Christmas)!

You would think that 20,000 crows would be hard to miss but in late December they get tricky. Just before the CBC the crows change their roost several times or they split the roost and, suddenly, we can’t find half of them.

Several of you responded to Why Do 1000’s of Crows Roost in Town? with dates and locations. Your reports helped me figure out the crows moved on 11 December.

  • Dec 10: Up until Dec 11 Tom saw them roosting near the VA Hospital in Oakland.
  • Dec 11: Jeff Cieslak saw 1000s flying over the North Side parallel to Allegheny River, heading upstream.
  • Dec 12: I counted 4,000 flying west-southwest over Schenley Park’s golf course at dusk. Where were they going?
  • Dec 13: Sue Faust reported them hanging out on the North Side and flying over the Strip District at dusk.
  • Dec 16: Carol Steytler counted as many as 10,000 roosting upstream of the 16th Street Bridge across from Heinz Lofts (across the river?).
Twilight over the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh. Crows swirl near Heinz chimneys, 6 Feb 2021, 5:50pm, taken at 25th St (photo by Kate St. John)

Carol’s 16 December sighting matches a roost they used back in February 2021 (photo above) but they didn’t stay there long and I fear they won’t stay now. And this is only half of them.

Where will the crows be 12 days from now?

I know I’m going to miss their next move because I’ll be out of town December 21-28. Your help is really crucial. Please let me know where you see crows overnight or after sunset. Let me know where you see a big flock swirling. Claire & I also need to find a good vantage point for counting them.

Fingers crossed that we’ll successfully count the crows on Saturday 30 December.

Why Do 1000’s of Crows Roost in Town?

Three American crows (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 December 2023

When 20,000 crows come to Pittsburgh for the winter, they have to sleep somewhere and they inevitably make a mess. Why do they roost near us where the mess will get on our nerves? Why don’t they sleep in the woods? Let’s take a look the reasons crows choose one location over another when it’s time to sleep.

Crows have a few simple requirements for a roost and they all have to come together at the same place. Safety is a big one. Crows want:

  1. Tall trees for roosting
  2. Warmth when it’s cold
  3. No great horned owls!
  4. Safety in numbers
  5. Night lights. Lots of them.
  6. White noise at the roost
  7. No harassment from humans

1. Tall trees for roosting: Crows prefer to roost at the very top of mature trees. They perch on the highest twigs that support their weight.

Crows coming to the roost, Pittsburgh, 2017 (photo by Sharon Leadbitter)

2. Warmth when it’s cold: When the weather is well below freezing trees are too exposed for a good night’s sleep so crows may choose rooftops instead. Cities are warmer than the surrounding countryside due to the urban heat island effect.

Crows on the roof (photo courtesy Crows’ Call at University of Washington, Bothnell)

3. No great horned owls! Crows are terrified of great horned owls who can hunt them in the dark. They prefer places that great horned owls avoid.

Great horned owl (photo by Alan Wolf via Flickr, CC license)

4. Safety in numbers: Crows sleep in a crowd so that someone’s always awake to watch for owls. It also lowers the odds of an individual being eaten.

Crows asleep near Heinz Chapel by the light of the Supermoon, Dec 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

5. Night lights. Lots of them: Crows like to sleep with the lights on. It’s easier to watch for owls when you can see them coming. There are no nightlights in the woods.

Crows in a tree on Thackeray Ave, Pittsburgh, 2011 (photo by Peter Bell)

6. White noise at the roost: In addition to night lights, crows want white noise at the roost(*), the sound of running water or traffic. This location along Fifth Avenue at the University of Pittsburgh combines all their requirements in one place. Except that the mess bothers humans.

Crows roosting along Fifth Avenue in the trees at Pitt, Dec 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

7. No harassment from humans: The perfect roost is usually near humans but crows make an enormous mess that people have to clean up. When the crows wear out their welcome, people figure out ways to get them to leave. This includes loud abrupt noises such as clappers and bangers, flashing lights, and harassment by falconers’ birds.

Clappers used to disperse crows (photo courtesy Alex Toner, Univ of Pittsburgh)
screenshot from video Falconry moves the crows in Portland, OR

Now that we know what crows want at a roost we can figure out where they’re likely to be. Convincing them to leave is much easier to do before they land. 😉

(*) p.s. Why do crows want white noise when they sleep? No one has explained it but I have a theory that great horned owls avoid white noise. Owls need to hear their prey when they’re hunting and white noise makes that impossible.

Chinstrap Penguins Nap For 4 Seconds … 10,000 Times a Day

Three chinstrap penguins, Orne Islands (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

4 December 2023

Lots of animals don’t sleep for long periods like we do but a new study has found a polar opposite in Antarctica (pun intended) where chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus) take 10,000 4-second naps each day during the breeding season. In this way they accrue 11 hours of daily sleep.

Adult chinstrap penguin with two chicks (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

For us, the micronaps would be a form of sleep torture since we cannot enter restorative deep sleep in such a short time. But the chinstrap penguins do.

Researchers led by Won Young Lee, a behavioral ecologist at the Korea Polar Research Institute, captured 14 penguins at the King Georges Island breeding colony and fitted them with data loggers to measure brain activity and accelerometers to record muscle movements and body positions. They also set up cameras to watch for closing eyes and drooping heads.

Partial range map of chinstrap penguin (map from Wikimedia Commons)

Brain waves showed the penguins experience slow wave (deep) sleep during those micro-naps. They nap while incubating or guarding their chicks and even while floating on the ocean.

Chinstrap penguin swimming at Deception Island (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

So now I’m looking at group photos of chinstrap penguins and, sure enough, in every photo some of the adults are sleeping. They’re getting their beauty rest 4 seconds at a time.

Read more in Science Magazine: This Antarctic penguin sleeps 11 hours a day—a few seconds at a time.