BIRD COLUMN FOR October 5, 2003
By Benjamin P. Burtt
I have decided to write this column every other week from now on. Thus the next one will be published on Sunday October 19.
FEEDER SURVEY STARTS TODAY
The October feeder survey starts today and ends Saturday the 11th. Please watch when you can and send in a report promptly after you complete your observations.
For each species, report the largest number you see at any one time during the week. For example, if you see 12 jays this week, but never more than three at a time, then three is what you put on the list. List all the species in the order shown in your field guide. Put each species on a separate line with the number first, followed by the birds name. Please write the number of species at the top of the list.
At the end of the week, put your list on a postcard or in a letter and send it to B.P.Burtt, Smokey Hollow Rd., Jamesville, NY 13078-9548. You can send results by EMAIL to bpburtt@usadatanet.net.( Please include your town ).
QUESTIONS
Dear Prof. Burtt: I like having the house wren around, but I have heard that wrens cause trouble for bluebirds and other hole nesting birds. Is this true? --J.L. Phoenix.
Dear J.L.: The house wren does try to prevent other birds from nesting in holes nearby and it frequently causes quite a bit of trouble for these birds. If a bluebird house is put near some shrubbery there may be great difficulty in their nesting there because of wrens trying to use the same box.
If wrens are nearby as bluebirds build their nest, they will "buzz" the bluebirds. This harassment may continue throughout incubation. Often wrens will puncture or even remove the eggs of other species.
In one yard a day after the young bluebirds had hatched and the parents were away, the wrens went into the bluebird box and killed all of the youngsters.
You can prevent some of these problems by carefully choosing the location of the box. Wrens prefer brushy places and bluebirds like open country. Put the bluebird boxes in open areas and then add a few more boxes in brushy places for the wrens.
Generally the wren wins out over the bluebird, but now and then a bluebird will defend its nest vigorously. One reader mentioned several years ago that a bluebird did hold a wren down on the ground and kill it.
Mr. Burtt: Can you tell me when we should stop feeding the hummingbirds for the season? P.B. (town not given in email.)
Dear P.B. Your question suggests that you have read that we "should" take the hummingbird feeders down so that we will not keep them from going south on time.
That is a myth and is not true. Birds migrate at about the same time each year, but different species migrate on different dates.
All birds migrate when there is still plenty of the food. It is the shortening of the daylight that tells them to go and not a shortage of food. Having food available will NOT keep them from migrating.
In fact, birds always migrate while there is still plenty of food available. They must be able to stock up and have energy reserves for the long migration. If they do not go until food is scarce, they could be too weak to migrate.
Sometimes a bird is ill and does not have the strength to migrate. It can not go until it gets its strength back. In such a case it may save the birds life for you to have food out that is easy to get.
Most hummingbirds start south in late September. Now and then a few will linger in Central New York until mid October. The latest date on record is November 10.
We should put food out until they have all migrated. Keep food available until October 15.
Dear Ben: What type of binoculars do your recommend? We have seen an increase in the number and kinds of birds in our yard and would like to see them more clearly from a distance. -E. T. Syracuse. ( by email)
Dear ----- ( No greeting or salutation ): Do you have a recommendation or website for selecting binoculars used in bird watching? - - E. V., Ilion ( by email )
Dear R.T. and E. V.: There are several decisions to be made when selecting binoculars. Useful information to help you make these decisions can be obtained from two recent publications.
I suggest that you send a stamped , self addressed long envelope to each of the following addresses.
Write, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 150 Sapsucker Woods Rd, Ithaca NY 14850 and ask for a copy of the article on binoculars by Ken Rosenburg.
Write Bird Watchers Digest, P.O.Box 110, Marietta, OH, 45750 and ask for a copy of the December 1999 article "Choosing and Using Binoculars"
Benjamin P. Burtt, a Syracuse University professor emeritus and a Jamesville resident, writes a column every other week on birds for Stars. Write to him in care of Stars Magazine, P.0. Box 4915, Syracuse, N.Y. 13221. Send e-mail to features@syracuse.com. Be sure to put "For B.Burtt" in the subject line. He will answer as many questions as possible.
To get in touch with Benjamin P. BurttVia Mail: Write to B.Burtt, Stars Magazine, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse,, NY 13221.
Via E-mail: Send to features@syracuse.com. Be sure to put “For B.Burtt” in the subject line.
Albino female Cardinal in Manlius
BIRD COLUMN FOR August 17, 2003
By Benjamin P. Burtt
Now and then albino birds are reported. These are birds that have white feathers in place of the usual colors of their normal plumage.
These white feathers may cover the whole bird, but usually they only replace part of the feathers. Such a bird is said to have partial albinism.
Such a condition is quite rare,. Two scientists who studied birds by capturing and banding them, handled some 30,000 birds over a period of 10 years. Only 17 of those birds had albinism to any degree. This is less than half of 1%.
For the average person who knows the common birds around his home, a partially albino bird is unlike any bird ever seen before. We tend to identify birds by the color of the different parts of the body. Quite naturally, the observer assumes that the bird is some new species that wandered by.
If a bird is carefully described to me, I can usually say that there is no bird around here that normally has that plumage and that it is probably some common bird with abnormal plumage colors.
Once you realize that it is probably a common bird then you can consider the shape and size and ask what species it might it be? You can also ask, what birds are mingling with it?
Last year I was contacted by Don and Marge Svedman of Manlius who had a partially albino female cardinal in their yard.
When it first appeared in February of 2002, the male was feeding the albino as they do in courtship at that time of the year. It is still around their property now and a photograph taken by Svedman appears with todays column.
This beautiful bird is a partially albino female cardinal that has been living in Manlius for two years. (Courtesy of Don Svedman )
I am very pleased to be able to share this image with you for very few people ever have a chance to see such a bird.
You will notice that there is red in all the usual places where red appears on a female cardinal. It is on the tip of the crest, on the wings, tail and beak. In other words the red pigment was not altered. What is missing is the normal brown color of the female and those feathers have no pigment and appear white.
This is the result of a genetic change and a chemical is missing that is needed to make the colored pigment. As far as we know, this bird had this plumage when it first fledged.
In some cases, a patch of white feathers will appear on a bird that up to then has had its usual colors. This can be caused by an injury, some dietary deficiency or some hormonal change at the time the feathers are developing.
A British bird bander trapped the same blackbird every year and in the fifth year, the bird had patches of white all over its body that were not there previously. Another became progressively white over a three year period.
Totally albino birds are those in which all the feathers are white. The eyes, leg and bill will have a pinkish tinge because the color of the blood shows through when there is no pigment in the tissue.
Such birds are extremely rare in the wild. They are conspicuous and more likely to be caught by predators. They often have weak eyesight and the lack of pigment makes the feathers brittle. Such feathers often wear out before the next molt and the bird will not be able to fly well.
One other problem when there are many white feathers, is that the bird is not recognized by prospective mates or others of its own kind.
One scientist reported a pure albino female red-winged blackbird in an immense September flock that was chased repeatedly by its companions. It always returned to the flock to be chased again.
The Manlius female cardinal shown in the illustration apparently is recognized as a cardinal by the male. I suspect that it is the red color in all the right places that identifies her and whether the rest of the bird is the usual brown or whether it is white apparently does not matter.
With a few species, it is normal for the plumage to become white and then change back each year. The ptarmigan is a brown, grouse in the summer that gradually becomes white each fall. This is not albinism. It lives in the open country far north beyond the limit of the trees. It is also found at high altitude in the Rocky Mountains.
The white plumage makes the bird hard to see in the winter snow. In the summer it becomes brown again. That color then matches the bare and rocky terrain where it breeds.
One time on a family summer trip to the Rockies years ago, we all watched a ptarmigan slowly walking across a rocky slope only 20 feet away. When it stopped moving, it blended so well with the background that it just disappeared!
By Benjamin P. Burtt
Now and then albino birds are reported. These are birds that have white feathers in place of the usual colors of their normal plumage.
These white feathers may cover the whole bird, but usually they only replace part of the feathers. Such a bird is said to have partial albinism.
Such a condition is quite rare,. Two scientists who studied birds by capturing and banding them, handled some 30,000 birds over a period of 10 years. Only 17 of those birds had albinism to any degree. This is less than half of 1%.
For the average person who knows the common birds around his home, a partially albino bird is unlike any bird ever seen before. We tend to identify birds by the color of the different parts of the body. Quite naturally, the observer assumes that the bird is some new species that wandered by.
If a bird is carefully described to me, I can usually say that there is no bird around here that normally has that plumage and that it is probably some common bird with abnormal plumage colors.
Once you realize that it is probably a common bird then you can consider the shape and size and ask what species it might it be? You can also ask, what birds are mingling with it?
Last year I was contacted by Don and Marge Svedman of Manlius who had a partially albino female cardinal in their yard.
When it first appeared in February of 2002, the male was feeding the albino as they do in courtship at that time of the year. It is still around their property now and a photograph taken by Svedman appears with todays column.
This beautiful bird is a partially albino female cardinal that has been living in Manlius for two years. (Courtesy of Don Svedman )
I am very pleased to be able to share this image with you for very few people ever have a chance to see such a bird.
You will notice that there is red in all the usual places where red appears on a female cardinal. It is on the tip of the crest, on the wings, tail and beak. In other words the red pigment was not altered. What is missing is the normal brown color of the female and those feathers have no pigment and appear white.
This is the result of a genetic change and a chemical is missing that is needed to make the colored pigment. As far as we know, this bird had this plumage when it first fledged.
In some cases, a patch of white feathers will appear on a bird that up to then has had its usual colors. This can be caused by an injury, some dietary deficiency or some hormonal change at the time the feathers are developing.
A British bird bander trapped the same blackbird every year and in the fifth year, the bird had patches of white all over its body that were not there previously. Another became progressively white over a three year period.
Totally albino birds are those in which all the feathers are white. The eyes, leg and bill will have a pinkish tinge because the color of the blood shows through when there is no pigment in the tissue.
Such birds are extremely rare in the wild. They are conspicuous and more likely to be caught by predators. They often have weak eyesight and the lack of pigment makes the feathers brittle. Such feathers often wear out before the next molt and the bird will not be able to fly well.
One other problem when there are many white feathers, is that the bird is not recognized by prospective mates or others of its own kind.
One scientist reported a pure albino female red-winged blackbird in an immense September flock that was chased repeatedly by its companions. It always returned to the flock to be chased again.
The Manlius female cardinal shown in the illustration apparently is recognized as a cardinal by the male. I suspect that it is the red color in all the right places that identifies her and whether the rest of the bird is the usual brown or whether it is white apparently does not matter.
With a few species, it is normal for the plumage to become white and then change back each year. The ptarmigan is a brown, grouse in the summer that gradually becomes white each fall. This is not albinism. It lives in the open country far north beyond the limit of the trees. It is also found at high altitude in the Rocky Mountains.
The white plumage makes the bird hard to see in the winter snow. In the summer it becomes brown again. That color then matches the bare and rocky terrain where it breeds.
One time on a family summer trip to the Rockies years ago, we all watched a ptarmigan slowly walking across a rocky slope only 20 feet away. When it stopped moving, it blended so well with the background that it just disappeared!
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