Birdwatching

[.:.impossible]

...or his copycats.

Apparently, it is called "Birding." I am looking for a good online resource with images and I can't come up with anything. We put a couple of feeders in the backyard this past month and we've seen birds that I had never seen in the Mid-Atlantic. I don't know what they are! I've discovered that there are a variety of Oriole in this area (Rhode Island), but I'd like to know more.

I've got a great pair of binoculars, and I plan on buying the required Rhode Island Birding book. There are many sanctuaries in the area that I enjoy hiking.

Is anyone else interested in birds? Ever seen any rarities?

Any help with the online image resource will be much appreciated. I've searched and searched and haven't come up with anything...

[Jazzmoose]

We have a few bird watchers in the family, so I asked them. They didn't know anything about online stuff, but Moose says the small ones taste best, and Brandy says watch out for the crows; they can turn on you if you're not careful...

[Joe G]

I have never looked for an online image resourse; probably better to pick up a quality field guide, like Peterson's or Audabon. It's a good pastime. I mentioned a rarity that I spotted back in April: two pileated woodpeckers, in the woods behind my house. Haven't seen them since. I've also seen orioles around here, as well as wood ducks, wood thrushes, barred owls, and a sparrow hawk just recently.

Better keep an eye out for the ravens, Moose. They've been known to track a wolf pack from the air to join in on a kill.

[Shawn]

My Grandmother is an avid bird-nut. She has feeders of all various sized scattered around the yard. By far the coolest thing though are the Hummingbird feeders she has on the back porch. There are usually at least 10 Hummingbirds at a time that hang out during the day. You can sit there and watch them for hours, they aren't afraid of people. Those suckers are crazy, they zoom around like little dive bombers...they'll also fly loops around your head now and again!

The only thing that freaked me out about them at first is that they sound like HUGE bees ...so I was always looking around for that really big wasp I was sure was coming to get me...

Edited June 27, 2004 by Shawn

[Eric]

a favorite Midwestern species ...

Seriously, I have a striped owl and his mate living in my back yard ... it is quite amazing to watch them come and go

Edited June 27, 2004 by Eric

[maren]

I would definitely second Joe's recommendation: Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to Birds. (I actually have the Peterson double-LP of bird calls, too! Has THAT been re-released on CD???!!!)

But I googled "field guide birds" and found enature.com which might be helpful...

[.:.impossible]

Maren,

Thank you so much. I intend on picking up a field guide, but wanted to check on a few things online as well. enature is perfect!

Shawn,

Hummingbirds are a lot of fun to watch. We have a bunch of feeders at our house on the Piankatank River (off the Chesapeake). I would like to set a few up here in Rhode Island as well. I should do some research though to make sure they even migrate up here!

Joe,

I remember you describing the pileated woodpeckers this Spring. enature.com says these birds are also know as, no shit, "logcock."

[robviti]

www.birdsource.org

http://www.audubon.org

cornell lab of ornithology

[Quincy]

As far as bird guides there are so many good books to choose from nowadays.

It used to be one just picked either the East or West version of Peterson (I have both.) One disadvantage of the Peterson guides is that the map for where the bird can be found is in the back of the book. So you may find yourself endlessly flipping back and forth to see if the bird in the book that you thought you saw even lives in your area.

A better alternative might be the National Geographic guide, which includes birds from all over the US and includes the map near the drawing and description of the bird.

I'm not all that keen on the "regular" Audubon guide with photos of birds. It's set up so that the text & map are in a different location than the photo of the bird. Also, even though I've taken plenty of pictures of birds, I think a drawing works better in showing what a bird looks like, especially in pointing out the key details that differentiate it from a similar species.

Although it's too big to carry into the field, the Sibley Guide To Birds is extremely good. It cost around $35 and it may be more than want. It covers the entire US and has lots of extra drawings of each species (such as including illustrations of juveniles and sub-species.) It might be the Mosaic of bird guides.

There is also put a smaller Sibley Field guide version (East & West separately) that I haven't inspected.

Finally, there's the Stokes Guide, which also divides the country between East & West, uses photos and puts all the info on the same page. It uses a color tab index and is arranged a bit differently than other guides. Some people like their system, others don't.

Anyway, try 'em out in the store and see what works best for you. And it's OK to own more than one guide.

Yeah, l like birds.

[couw]

Quincy's right, get a guide with drawings. Much better than pics.

Once you get passed the apprentice stage there are guides out there that only cover the difficult species. Or at least here in Europe there are. Pretty cool with all the different molds and varieties and those little differences to other species. Saves you a lot of weigth to carry.

[Quincy]

Once you get passed the apprentice stage there are guides out there that only cover the difficult species. Or at least here in Europe there are.

I always liked "Confusing Warblers" as a band name.

Yup, in Borders and the like you can usually find the raptor guide. For those who don't know it's the different coloration through the first few years of some hawks and eagles that make identification difficult. That and morphs.

But if you really want to know what kind of gull you saw, you'll probably have to order the specialty guide online. And request a DNA sample from the gull in question, just to be sure. And it might just oblige on your head.

[Bright Moments]

i thought this was another babe thread.

[Joe G]

Up, 'cause I just got back from a holiday in Arizona, where I spotted a new-to-me species of hawk while walking around Papago Park in Phoenix. We were standing on top of a butte Sunday morning when I noticed three raven sized birds flying toward us. They glided right over the top of us, and I was able to get a good look as they passed overhead. They then started spiraling upwards, reaching a high altitude, at which point they soared off in the blue yonder in a single file stretching for hundreds of yards. Simply breathtaking.

After doing a web search, I decided that they were almost certainly Harris's Hawks.

http://www.greglasley.net/harrishawk.html

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/475/_/Harriss_Hawk.aspx

Here's an interesting tidbit; they actually hunt in packs:

Food: Harris's hawks employ one of the most sophisticated cooperative hunting strategies in birds. Hunts medium-sized to relatively large mammals (hares and rabbits), birds, and lizards. Two methods of hunting: 1) sit and wait (often employed by lone hawks); 2) short-flight-perch hunting. Cooperative tactics include (1) surprise pounce - several hawks coming from different directions; (2) flush and ambush - 1 or more hawks penetrate the cover while others watch from nearby perches and attack when prey is flushed; (3) relay attack - long chase of hares while the lead "chase" position is alternated among hunting birds. Energetic analysis shows the maximum food availability per individual is obtained by groups of 5 hawks, the most common size. They feed in order of dominance; alpha breeding female (most dominant), alpha breeding male, beta male, and 0-4 birds. During nonbreeding season, a group of hawks will guard/feed on a large carcass for more than 36 hours, and cache carcasses.

What's funny is that when we saw them flying by, there was a name on the tip of my tongue that started with a "b". Turns out that the Harris's Hawk is classified as a "buteo", which was the word I was trying to remember. I used to just pore over bird books as a kid, and amazingly, when I see a new species, the name sometimes pops into my head.

p.s.

Impossible, you'll want to check out www.whatbird.com. There's a forum where you can ask the experts, and an excellent bird ID search function on the main page.

[Noj]

My parents and I live right against a hillside with no neighbors behind us, so we get all types of cool wildlife. Hummingbirds, western tanagers, red-tailed hawks, sparrow hawks, and owls are the birds I know by name, but there are many others. There's even this weird clan of runaway parrots that I'll see every once in a while, wayward pets that flew out of windows and have teamed up against their foreign environment.

Deer are frequent, in fact they'll hang out and eat ivy across the street while I shoot hoops(!). Last year my mom spotted a bobcat in our back yard, that was awesome. Earlier this year there was a huge, beautifully adorned garter snake on the patio. We used to get rattlesnakes here and there, but it's been years. There's also a massive array of desert lizards all over the place. Coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks...it's like a Discovery Channel program around my house!

Edited November 28, 2005 by Noj

[sidewinder]

I live in a wooded, rural area with woodland ajoining so there's always some interesting (feathered) birdlife to see. The bird bath and feeders are also a magnet to the 'passing trade'.

Of course there's the usual resident blackbirds, thrushes and robins (very territorial) but I also have blue-tits and wrens (noisy little ****ers) nesting nearbye. Lots of house sparrows too - these used to be incredibly common in the UK but are now getting to be quite rare.

The cider apple tree at the back gets regular vistitation from woodpeckers and there's also a tawny owl resident in the neighbourhood (hear it a lot but have never seen it though).

The most amusing sight was of 3 ducks sleeping in the back garden one morning on the back lawn - obviously en route from a major migration, this must have been their first stop after an oceanic flight.

I've never seen a deer in the back garden but they are not un-common in the area. Almost certainly badgers are frequent nocturnal visitors (they are very ulusive but I've come across them in the open on occasion). The most regular visitor is a huge male fox which crosses the back of the house around 5am after a night's hunting - usually followed about 30 seconds behind by the female.

Edited November 28, 2005 by sidewinder

[.:.impossible]

Ha! Glad to see an old thread pop up again. It is rare to find a thread that I started! We have moved back down to the mid-Atlantic... southern mid-atlantic really, and the birds are almost entirely different. Wilmington is surrounded by water, wetlands, etc. so we see lots of egrets, crane, etc.

We bought a bluebird house over the summer. Apparently bluebird have sort of disappeared from this area over the last ten or fifteen years and there is a push to bring them back. We saw a bunch come through a few weeks after we put the house up. Hopefully they'll be back this winter. The male goes 'apartment hunting' in January/February here and brings his girl to the new place to do what birds do in the summer. Mealworms attract them.