BirdNote Daily

Bird nests can be hard to find, often hidden in plain sight. Is the clever camouflage simply the result of using building materials that the birds happen to find? A Scottish research team used birds popular in the pet trade, Zebra Finches, to try and find out. The team gave nesting Zebra Finches two sources of paper to build their nests from: one that matched the papered walls of their cage, and one that did not. By and large, the finches built nests that blended in with their background.

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The Florida Keys extend from the state's peninsula like a string of pearls, and pearls they are, in their uniqueness and value. Stands of hardwood trees rise above the islands' level ground. These trees draw many birds of the Caribbean to the keys' tropical habitat. One of these is the White-crowned Pigeon. It's a fruit-eater that eats native figs and the fruit of the poisonwood tree. White-crowns play an important role in spreading seeds. The birds swallow fruits and deposit some of the seeds on the hardwood knolls also called hammocks. Without the pigeons, there might be no tropical hardwood hammocks in the Keys. But without the hammocks, there would be no White-crowned Pigeons in Florida.

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Migratory birds connect the Northern Plains with many parts of the Western Hemisphere. Lark Buntings, Baird’s Sparrows, Upland Sandpipers, and many other birds winter from Central to southern South America. But their reproduction depends on the bounty of the prairie spring. Disrupting any part of their annual life cycle — breeding habitat, stopover places during spring and fall migration, and wintering habitat — reduces the survival of the species.

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The Secretarybird of sub-Saharan Africa looks like a slim eagle set on the long, slender legs of a crane. Secretarybirds can fly but prefer to hunt on foot, walking over 20 miles a day and dispatching their prey with powerful kicks of their taloned feet.

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The Northern Bobwhite — many call it just the Bobwhite — has an unmistakable call, which is also the source of its name. The species is native to the US, east of the Rockies. But Northern Bobwhites have been released into the wild as game birds in many locales in the West.

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Mites are tiny critters related to spiders and ticks. Because they are typically no larger than a grain of salt, many mite species rely on larger animals to survive. In the neotropics, hummingbird flower mites freeload off an existing partnership. This group of mites feeds on nectar and pollen, but only from specific types of flowers. These picky eaters need reliable transport between blooms that may be yards apart. Without wheels — or wings — of their own, these mites catch a ride in the nostrils of a passing hummingbird! In fact, scientists have discovered that hummingbird flower mites can detect the electric fields generated by the whirring birds, a sense called electroreception.

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Some swifts and frigatebirds stay aloft for months. But for a long time, scientists did not know if the birds might be sleeping on the wing. A 2016 study provided answers. Tiny devices attached to the heads of frigatebirds revealed fascinating information: the birds did sleep while aloft, most often one half of the brain at a time. But they also fell into normal, whole-brain sleep and sometimes, even deeper REM sleep. But this deepest sleep came in bursts of just a few seconds — an inflight power-nap.

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Social, chatty, ubiquitous, the House Sparrow has adapted to living in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Like most birds, these sparrows enjoy a daily bath. Set out a birdbath, and you can watch them chatter, splash, and shake, sending droplets flying. Birds like very shallow water; an inch or two is plenty. Be sure the bath has a flat rim or rocks to perch on. And make sure the area is safe from cats.

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In her grandmother’s neighborhood in Chicago, Lilli Holden made an early connection with the outdoors by playing in a vacant lot with a large old tree. Now an emerging environmental leader in Chicago, Lilli has a different perspective on vacant lots, many of which were properties destroyed in the city’s 1968 riots that were never rebuilt due to a lack of investment in Black communities. Because they’re such a big part of the landscape in Black communities on the West and Southside, Lilli wants to rethink how vacant lots fit into the ecology of these economically-challenged neighborhoods.

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Powerful currents and rocky terrain make for a dangerous place to swim. But for birds like the American Dipper and Harlequin Duck, whitewater rapids and fast-flowing streams offer all the comforts of home.

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