Nature Note #158: An Unofficial Feeder Watcher's Guide to Birds at Beaver Lake Nature Center
As I mentioned in my weekend post about the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), Alison and I headed up to Beaver Lake Nature Center to watch the action at the feeders and to spot some year birds for our lists as well. As I write this, I thought about deviating from my usual "describe how the day/event went" style and instead create an unofficial guide to the species we saw at Beaver Lake. So without further adieu, here we go.
Beaver Lake Nature Center is a 600+ acre park located in Baldwinsville, New York and features 9 miles of hiking trails, abundant wildlife, a wide range of habitats, and a 200 acre lake popular amongst local canoeing and kayaking fans. It has quickly become our favorite park to visit and so we decided that on Saturday afternoon, we would visit the main building to watch the feeder birds flit about and snarf away many, many sunflower seeds.
The first birds we noticed were the American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) in their dull straw-colored winter plumage. These little birds are fairly common year round visitors to backyards, open fields, meadows, and overgrown farmland throughout the United States. They prefer feeders providing sunflower and nyger seed and will flock in large numbers to collect these high energy foods.
As we watched from our rocking chairs, I noticed one of the birds had something wrong with its eye. It looked swollen and unkempt. I zoomed the camera lens closer and saw that at least one eye was nearly swollen shut.
It seemed likely that it was suffering from House Finch Eye Disease, also known as mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. This disease is caused by a bacteria called Mycoplasma gallisepticum which produces swollen and crusty eyes that cause vision problems and usually end up leading the bird's death. It should be noted however, that the disease itself doesn't end up killing the bird, but rather the condition of not it being able to see very well. With swollen eyes and poor vision, the bird will become an easier target for predators or more likely, starve to death due to an inability to find food. I wondered if the feeder was merely delaying the inevitable while increasing the chance of other birds coming in contact with the infected bird. Only time and future visits would tell.
As we looked around the feeders, we were happy to see that other birds were unaffected by the eye infections of the goldfinches. I was pleased to see the nomadic Pine Siskin (S. pinus) squabbling at the feeders. If the goldfinch is the cheery, free spirit of the summer grasslands, then the siskins are the dressed down jeering waifs of the winter woods. Many times, we watched as these streaky brown malcontents scolded the chickadees, titmice, and finches away from their place setting before snatching up another selection of sunflower seeds.
Despite being relatively similar, Pine Siskins can be reliably told from American Goldfinches in several ways.
While they were similarly sized, siskins have brown streaks covering most of their body with less boldly patterned wings than goldfinches. The latter has a solid white wingbar while the former possesses a tarnished yellow one instead. Finally, their calls are a big giveaway with goldfinches exhibiting a liquid cheer to their chirrups and warbles, while the siskin gives off a grinding v-zeeeeeeer. Another call that sets them apart is the goldfinch's flight call which is often likened to it saying potato chip!
Rounding out the visiting finches was the Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus), a bird that is regarded as being one of the more impressive feeder birds found in the northeastern United States. When I eventually get around to writing a blog post about horribly named birds, I will guarantee that there will be a place on the list for this bird. For the record, I agree with Roger Tory Peterson's assertions that it resembles "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice". This is a far better description of their look than could be found wading through a paint catalogue in an effort to find the right color name.
On the other hand, the females lack the glamorous colors of the male, instead adopting a drab brown plumage that aids in her camouflage while sitting on the nest. Her unique look is enhanced however with her bold white eyebrow stripe (or supercilium if you're being technical) and course breast streaking.
Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor) also made an appearance at the feeder. When writing a post about common feeder birds, one would think you would start off with the focus on one or more of these popular species.
The reason I didn't do so was due to the relatively few photos I took of either species during the visit. Despite this, their ubiquity as feeder birds makes them one of the more recognizable with the chickadee's distinctive black and white facial pattern contrasting nicely with the simple gray and white look of the titmouse. Both are relatives in a large group that can be found over much of the northern hemisphere. In New York, there is even a possibility of seeing the extremely northerly Boreal Chickadee (P. hudsonicus) along the Canadian border, but sightings tend to be rare and sporadic.
Of equal interest was a single White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) which hogged the feeder closest to the window for a time, gorging itself on black oil sunflower seeds. It was a white-striped bird, indicating a color morph rather than a preference for for a certain alternative rock band. There is another color morph that results in tan crown stripes, but these merely represent a difference between individuals rather than an indicator of sex or age. Both tan and white-striped birds will breed with one another and nests will often contain young of one or both color morphs.
Last , but certainly not least were one of my favorite feeder birds, the arboreal acrobats called nuthatches. We saw two species while at Beaver Lake; the photo-shy Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) and the energetic White-breasted Nuthatch (S. carolinensis).
Nuthatches are amazing birds that have carved out a niche in tree trunk exploration. They possess an adrenaline junkie's appetite for explore trees head down and were referred to as "devil down birds" by early settlers. Their name implies an ability to crack open thickly shelled nuts like walnuts or acorns, but this is a misnomer. Instead, they use their bills like tweezers to tease small insects and other invertebrates out from the bark of the trees. They will however, hammer on sunflower seeds to remove the husks and to get at the nut meat inside.
In these last series of photographs, this nuthatch pauses to watch us through the window before promptly giving us the rump and flying off. Clearly, it didn't think too much of us, but capturing its quick witted reaction on film was extra special for me.
So ends my unofficial guide to the feeder birds of Beaver Lake. We did see a couple other species, but in the interest of keeping this engaging, I wanted to end this post on a good note. My next post will be about another feeder visitor we saw on Saturday, but this time it will be about a creature with fur rather than feathers. This will be a continuation in my new series "Encounters with Audubon's Mammals" and will see regular updates in the future. See you then.
Beaver Lake Nature Center is a 600+ acre park located in Baldwinsville, New York and features 9 miles of hiking trails, abundant wildlife, a wide range of habitats, and a 200 acre lake popular amongst local canoeing and kayaking fans. It has quickly become our favorite park to visit and so we decided that on Saturday afternoon, we would visit the main building to watch the feeder birds flit about and snarf away many, many sunflower seeds.
The first birds we noticed were the American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) in their dull straw-colored winter plumage. These little birds are fairly common year round visitors to backyards, open fields, meadows, and overgrown farmland throughout the United States. They prefer feeders providing sunflower and nyger seed and will flock in large numbers to collect these high energy foods.
As we watched from our rocking chairs, I noticed one of the birds had something wrong with its eye. It looked swollen and unkempt. I zoomed the camera lens closer and saw that at least one eye was nearly swollen shut.
It seemed likely that it was suffering from House Finch Eye Disease, also known as mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. This disease is caused by a bacteria called Mycoplasma gallisepticum which produces swollen and crusty eyes that cause vision problems and usually end up leading the bird's death. It should be noted however, that the disease itself doesn't end up killing the bird, but rather the condition of not it being able to see very well. With swollen eyes and poor vision, the bird will become an easier target for predators or more likely, starve to death due to an inability to find food. I wondered if the feeder was merely delaying the inevitable while increasing the chance of other birds coming in contact with the infected bird. Only time and future visits would tell.
As we looked around the feeders, we were happy to see that other birds were unaffected by the eye infections of the goldfinches. I was pleased to see the nomadic Pine Siskin (S. pinus) squabbling at the feeders. If the goldfinch is the cheery, free spirit of the summer grasslands, then the siskins are the dressed down jeering waifs of the winter woods. Many times, we watched as these streaky brown malcontents scolded the chickadees, titmice, and finches away from their place setting before snatching up another selection of sunflower seeds.
Despite being relatively similar, Pine Siskins can be reliably told from American Goldfinches in several ways.
While they were similarly sized, siskins have brown streaks covering most of their body with less boldly patterned wings than goldfinches. The latter has a solid white wingbar while the former possesses a tarnished yellow one instead. Finally, their calls are a big giveaway with goldfinches exhibiting a liquid cheer to their chirrups and warbles, while the siskin gives off a grinding v-zeeeeeeer. Another call that sets them apart is the goldfinch's flight call which is often likened to it saying potato chip!
Rounding out the visiting finches was the Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus), a bird that is regarded as being one of the more impressive feeder birds found in the northeastern United States. When I eventually get around to writing a blog post about horribly named birds, I will guarantee that there will be a place on the list for this bird. For the record, I agree with Roger Tory Peterson's assertions that it resembles "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice". This is a far better description of their look than could be found wading through a paint catalogue in an effort to find the right color name.
On the other hand, the females lack the glamorous colors of the male, instead adopting a drab brown plumage that aids in her camouflage while sitting on the nest. Her unique look is enhanced however with her bold white eyebrow stripe (or supercilium if you're being technical) and course breast streaking.
Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor) also made an appearance at the feeder. When writing a post about common feeder birds, one would think you would start off with the focus on one or more of these popular species.
The reason I didn't do so was due to the relatively few photos I took of either species during the visit. Despite this, their ubiquity as feeder birds makes them one of the more recognizable with the chickadee's distinctive black and white facial pattern contrasting nicely with the simple gray and white look of the titmouse. Both are relatives in a large group that can be found over much of the northern hemisphere. In New York, there is even a possibility of seeing the extremely northerly Boreal Chickadee (P. hudsonicus) along the Canadian border, but sightings tend to be rare and sporadic.
Of equal interest was a single White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) which hogged the feeder closest to the window for a time, gorging itself on black oil sunflower seeds. It was a white-striped bird, indicating a color morph rather than a preference for for a certain alternative rock band. There is another color morph that results in tan crown stripes, but these merely represent a difference between individuals rather than an indicator of sex or age. Both tan and white-striped birds will breed with one another and nests will often contain young of one or both color morphs.
Last , but certainly not least were one of my favorite feeder birds, the arboreal acrobats called nuthatches. We saw two species while at Beaver Lake; the photo-shy Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) and the energetic White-breasted Nuthatch (S. carolinensis).
Nuthatches are amazing birds that have carved out a niche in tree trunk exploration. They possess an adrenaline junkie's appetite for explore trees head down and were referred to as "devil down birds" by early settlers. Their name implies an ability to crack open thickly shelled nuts like walnuts or acorns, but this is a misnomer. Instead, they use their bills like tweezers to tease small insects and other invertebrates out from the bark of the trees. They will however, hammer on sunflower seeds to remove the husks and to get at the nut meat inside.
In these last series of photographs, this nuthatch pauses to watch us through the window before promptly giving us the rump and flying off. Clearly, it didn't think too much of us, but capturing its quick witted reaction on film was extra special for me.
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