I and the Bird #68 - Winter Doldrum Edition

Welcome to the 68th Edition of I and the Bird! That is, if your flight over here wasn't delayed by "inclement weather" - the polite euphemism we use for blinding snow squalls. It is the deep of winter, folks, and that means radical changes in the way we interact with our feathered friends.

Gone are the days when 20+ species of warbler dripped from the trees. Sheets of snow and ice have blanketed the mudflats that once held hundreds of migrating shorebirds. You can spend hours slogging through snowy trails while barely hearing a single chip note.

This winter birding, or lack of it, can really get you down. Do you yearn for the spring to come? Do you grieve for the birds of summers past? The winter doldrums affect everyone differently. Let's see how they affect the birders on the blogosphere.


Denial

Birders are full of denial in the dead of winter, and will go to endless lengths to forget about the cold imposing winter around them.

Some, like Eva at The Flying Mullet go In Search of a Booby, and find one: "I paid the 50 cent fee and proceeded out on the pier. There were Rock Pigeons and Boat-tailed Grackles all around. At the end of the pier was my booby!". Unfortunately, chaos theory has yet to prove that tropical seabirds flapping in Florida can change the weather in New York.

Other birders, like Amila at Gallicissa, don't have to chase tropical vagrants, because they live in the tropics. In Birding with Malcolm and Duan, Amila gets out for a thorough birding trip in Sri Lanka. He's clearly just avoiding the New York winter.

Nowhere is denial more apparent than in Rick of Aimophila Adventures. His post, Mock Spring and an AZ BTB, describes his desperate attempt to turn an Arizona winter into a midwestern spring: complete with finding his first Arizona Black-throated Blue Warbler.

In another fit of denial, Charlie of 10,000 Birds abandons his homeland in the UK for supposedly sunnier grounds in California in Following in Corey's tyre tracks. Guess what he finds in California?

As utterly beautiful as the drive to Idyllwild was - and as startlingly bright and sunny once the clouds cleared - I have to say right now that from a birding point-of-view the next few hours were a touch disappointing. I spent most of the morning gripping the steering-wheel like my life depended on it (perhaps it did) which I’m sure didn’t help, and seeing vehicles coming back down the hill covered in so much snow that they looked like mobile snowdrifts did little for my confidence.

At least he did end up seeing good birds - check out the rest of his trip.

Then there are the birders who take their denial in another direction. They relax inside next to the warm fireplace, and ruminate on the latest ornithological findings.

Drew at The Nemesis Bird talks about varying female mate choice in Lark Buntings in The fickle females of the bird world.

Gavan from Gavan Central (Gavan) dreams of summer when he asks, Do birds get sunburn? The answer is far more complex than you might think.

When I am in full-blown winter doldrum denial, I have an outlet. I dive into the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates collections, and visit the wonders of the bird world via round skin with my Ornithology class. Along the way I hope I convey there are useful birding lessons in my Molt and Plumage Lab.

Anger

Nathan of The Drinking Bird in North Carolina doesn't deny that winter is in full swing. Tempers are short, however, and when he can't take anymore of the Scott's Oriole being seen by so many in NYC, he has to go out and see his own, along with other great western vagrants, in Great Scott!

Carrie of Great Auk - Or Greatest Auk?, writes a wonderful expose on Woodcock in Meetings with Remarkable Birds, but her prose can't completely mask the underlying tension:

Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll see a Woodcock. What you’ll see, most likely, is absolutely nothing. Next most likely, you’ll see a feathery explosion of WHAT THE F*@! WAS THAT whistling rapidly away while you put your foot down in the spot where a Woodcock was.

With all this anger and unreleased tension going around, it's no surprise that bird bloggers are gravitating towards the lean, mean killing machines of the bird world: raptors.

Rob of Rob's Idaho Perspective discusses The Ways of Nature at his backyard feeders with the impact of a Sharp-shinned Hawk on other birds' behavior.

Trevor of Trevor's Birding captures great photos of an Australian raptor in Great Birding Moment #33: Collared Sparrowhawk.

Katie at bogbumper describes The Kill, in which a Sparrowhawk of a her own catches a meal.

Bargaining

Some birders deal with the winter doldrums with cooler heads.

Liza at The Egret's Nest believes it isn't too much to ask to get a beautiful picture of a corvid morning, even in the dull gray weather.

Katie at RSPB Notes on Nature, asks, Do you have a Swede in your garden?, because one day you might just find 16 imported Blackbirds in your backyard.

Behind the Bins knows winter drives a hard bargain, but is willing to pay the price with a Long Wait for the Hoary Redpoll, a life bird.

Depression

Sometimes there is nothing left after all the blustering and bargaining... sometimes you just have to except the fact that there are many more months of cold gray bird-deprived chill ahead of you...

Grrlscientist tries to stave off the depression by posting a video of The Tiny Secrets Inside of a Hummingbird's Nest, because: "it seems appropriate for today, considering that winter has closed her icy hand around us all."

The Ridger at The Greenbelt finds that when "it's cold enough to numb your fingers" you can still see Little gray birds on a cold gray day.

Sometimes it isn't the weather that gets you down, but the failures when you do get out birding. Mike at The Feather and the Flower describes an unsuccessful chase for a Ross's Gull that he shared with over a hundred of other birders around the northeast (myself included). Mike tried hard to remain upbeat in his post, Pretty in Pink, while I summed the trip up simply as:


Acceptance

Some birders quietly deny the icy grip of winter around them, others lash out by chasing birds or flying to faraway places. Eventually though, we all reach the point of acceptance, and get out and enjoy the winter birding to its fullest extent!

At Alis Volat Propriis, Leigh Kicks-off the year right, by getting out there and birding!

Tai at Earth, Wind & Water puts some additional observations into a previous sighting of an Ani in Carib specialty - redux.

Susannah from Wanderin' Weeta (With Waterfowl and Weeds) also gets out and about, in Birding in Three Stages. She even finds real glimmers of spring ahead!

The Wrenaissance Woman of Wrenaissance Reflections proves that even common feeder birds should never be ignored in her study of the finches at her feeder on a Finchy Friday

True acceptance of winter is mastered not when we just when we get out there and bird, but when we get out and bird for a purpose.

Birdfreak heavily promotes Citizen Science, while Island Rambles participates in the Yearly Bird Count for Victoria, BC and Patrick of The Hawk Owl's Nest joins in an Eagle Fest.

**Edit**
Sorry Duncan! Duncan's post at Ben Cruachan Blog slipped through the first pass. His post, A wander around the wetlands, goes to show that it ain't winter everywhere in the world.

Well, that about concludes this edition of I and the Bird! I hope you all have gotten over the winter blues and come to accept the fact that winter can be some really great birding! Now get out there and find some Snowy Owls or Gyrfalcons or Hoary Redpolls or refind that cursed Ross's Gull at Niagara!

All interpretations of people's moods are fictional (unless you guys really are angry and depressed?). Let me know if there are any problems/broken links/forgotten entries/questions/comments/hate mail at nds22 AT cornell DOT edu. Thanks!

The next I and the Bird, #69, will be hosted by GrrlScientist. Email submissions to grrlscientist AT gmail DOT com by Feb. 19th!

Molt and Plumage Lab

This week's lab in Ornithology examined plumage and molt patterns in birds. I took a ton of pictures and hope I can convey a few basic concepts.

Let's start by examining the four types of molt cycle. These aren't your "breeding/nonbreeding" or "summer/winter" plumages. It is more complex than that, but I'll try to keep it simple for both your and my own sake. It is easy to get confused.

First, the basics: molt is a replacement of feathers that produces a plumage. A bird changes plumages only through a molt (this will become important later). The vast majority of birds exhibit one yearly molt that is a complete replacement (body and flight feathers). This is called the prebasic molt and produces a basic plumage. Some birds undergo an additional molt per year (almost always only a partial molt) that is called a prealternate molt producing alternate plumage. These two cycles are the two most familiar molt strategies, called quite appropriate, simple basic and simple alternate strategies. Molts occur in cycles, defined by each year's prebasic molt. Basic strategies have one molt per cycle. Alternate strategies have the extra prealternate molt every cycle.

Got that? This is where it gets complicated. Some birds of both basic and alternate strategies add an extra molt during a bird's first cycle. The first cycle follows a bird's first prebasic molt: the molt from downy chick plumage to its first 'real' feathers. This plumage is termed both juvenile and, more appropriately and less confusingly, first basic plumage. If the bird molts again before its next prebasic molt (the molt that will produce second basic plumage), or in alternate strategies if the bird molts twice before the second prebasic molt, this is termed the preformative molt producing the formative plumage. This plumage only exists in the first cycle. The names for these modified strategies, because they add a level of complexity on to the two simple systems, are named: complex basic and complex alternate strategies.

Unless you have already mastered molt terminology (which I assure you not even the TA's in this class have yet, myself included), your head is probably spinning by now. Here are some figures from Howell et al. (2003) to help visualize these four strategies (click to view large):


Howell et al.'s figure demonstrates all of these concepts: the two strategy types of basic and alternate, the complexity of added formative plumages, and the alignment of molt cycles by the prebasic molt.

Now for some examples of the molt strategies outlined above. We'll start with simple basic. This strategy, despite being the simplest, is only used by a few groups of birds. These include pelagics (Procellariiformes) and hawks and falcons (Falconiformes) as well as a few other scattered groups. The example we pulled from the museum was Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii: Accipitridae):


The bird on the left is a fledgling. This bird is molting (the 1st prebasic molt) from its downy coat into 1st basic (juvenile) plumage. The center bird is an example of 1st basic plumage. Cooper's Hawks retain this "immature plumage" for the first cycle, before molting into "adult plumage" in the 2nd prebasic molt. This "adult plumage" on the right (I am using plumage in parentheses for everything but the specific plumages of molt systems to avoid confusion) is maintained for the rest of the birds life without variation. Each further cycle has one molt and one plumage. Once a bird has reached this adult stage where further cycles do not change in appearance, the molts are referred to as definitive. Thus, the right bird would be referred to as having a definitive basic plumage.

Now let's look at the simple alternate strategy. Recall that this strategy has an additional prealternate molt for each cycle. This molt is a partial replacement of feathers and is often the molt that produces "breeding plumage". Here are three examples:

Loons (Gavia: Gaviidae). The simple alternate strategy is displayed here. From left to right: 1st basic (juvenile), definitive alternate, definitive basic. A quick check of Sibley shows he illustrates both 'juvenile' and '1st summer' birds. These are not different plumages separated by a molt, these are one plumage, the 1st basic. The difference between the two is wear.


Another example of the simple alternate strategy are ducks such as these Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors: Anatidae). Both birds above are males. The bird on the left is the alternate plumage, the bird on the right is an eclipse (basic) male. The basic plumage in ducks is distinguished from regular basic by the name 'eclipse' because of its timing - this plumage and molt is for a short period during the summer when males become flightless (they molt all flight feathers simultaneously) and can use a more camouflaged plumage for hiding away.

Alright, that sums up the simple strategies. Let's get complex. Here is an example of complex basic strategy:

Good ol' Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum: Bombycillidae) demonstrate the extra Formative plumage inserted between 1st Basic and 2nd Basic. On the left is the 1st Basic plumage, recognized by the streaks. On the right is Definitive Basic, the adult plumage that is molted once a year. In the middle is Formative - much like Definitive, but duller and lacking any waxy wingtips. This plumage is referred to in Sibley as "1st Year".

How about complex alternate strategy? I give you two examples to ponder.

Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea: Cardinalidae). This is the most complicated molt yet. From left to right we have: a bird in 1st Prebasic Molt, Formative, Definitive Alternate, Prebasic Molt, Definitive Basic (all male specimens), and a Definitive Alternate female. The extra Formative plumage inserted in the first cycle resembles female plumages and may well be indistinguishable (specimens are sexed by gonads when they are skinned). Note that the male formative differs from later male Definitive Basic plumages by the lack of black wings.


Laughing Gull (Larus atricilla: Laridae). We were actually able to piece together almost a full series from the CUMV collections. From left to right: downy chick, 1st Basic, Formative, 1st Alternate, Definitive Basic, Definitive Alternate. The only distinctive plumage missing is 2nd Basic (2nd Winter in Sibley). I believe 2nd Alternate and beyond are Definitive plumages.

WHEW! That about covers the 4 molt strategies. But I'm not done. There is more...

Did you know there are birds out there that show very distinct seasonal "plumages" that result not from molt, but from feather wear? This process of wear creates two distinct aspects of one plumage. Three examples follow:

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris: Sturnidae). This species has a basic molt strategy. Above are three males showing the progression from "nonbreeding" to "breeding" plumage. The bird on the left is a fresh basic plumage bird. The second and third individuals show the progression of wear that occurs over the winter to get the distinct 'plumage' we see in the early spring. This occurs along with the bare parts getting brighter, especially the yellow bill, but that is not part of plumage. All of these birds are still the same plumage: basic. On to more interesting species...


Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis: Emberizidae (for now)). Above you can see the same progression of fresh, winter male on the left to "fresh" (but worn) breeding male on the right.


Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorous: Icteridae): Same progression as the above two examples, except with one addition on the left: a bird in prebasic molt. Compare with the bird in the middle of wear between the two aspects, middle right.

There is just one final detail on molt for today. Take a look at these spread wings. Can you tell which feathers are old, which are fresh, and which direction molt is proceeding?


The first example above is Northern (Eastern (Yellow-shafted)) Flicker (Colaptes auratus: Picidae). The left wing is in molt, the right is not. The outer primaries are very worn: look how brown and washed out they are compared to the relatively fresh primaries on the right wing. This wing is a very good demonstration of primary molt: it is beginning at the primary/secondary divide and progressing outwards.

The second example is Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus: Picidae). While there is no comparison to judge feather wear, this wing also demonstrates the outward progression of primary molt. Secondaries progress inward from the same starting point.

The rest of the lab consisted of examples of a little bit of polymorphism and aberrant plumage, as well as a bunch of really interesting specialized plumage and feather structures. Now that all the intellectual heavy lifting is done, kick back and relax.

Polymorphism - Some birds, in particular herons (Ardeidae) and raptors (Accipitridae) display marked plumage polymorphism. These are color morphs where a plumage abnormality such as melanism (dark morph), leucism (white morph), or erythrism (red morph) birds become a significant percentage of the population rather than just individual aberrations. These are usually defined as polymorphic if the different morphs are largely sympatric, and not attributed to geography, gender, or age. A great example of this is the Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio: Strigidae) with red and gray morphs coexisting broadly across their range. Mon@rch has a good post describing them, with more lifelike pictures than I present here:


Leucism - Leucism is defined as any reduction or incomplete lack of pigment. This includes aberrations know as 'piebald' or 'partial albino', which is a misnomer. Leucism is actually a different type of genetic mutation from albinism, and it is incorrect to refer to leucistic birds as partial albinos. Anyways, check out this really fascinating Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata: Corvidae) that I found in the collections. It is lacking the majority of pigment, but retains blue coloration in the flight feathers because this structural, not pigment-derived. The intensity of the blue depends on the angle viewed. View the feather from underneath and it is not visible at all.


Diet-induced erythrism - this is a fairly well known example in Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum: Bombycillidae). Pigments ingested from eating too much fruit from certain Honeysuckles causes red pigments to overlay the yellow tail tips, creating orange. This specimen displayed appears to have grown in a single new feather in a honeysuckle-free environment, providing a nice contrast between the normal yellow and the aberrant orange.


Unknown plumage aberration - I'm not sure what to call this one. While sorting through trays and trays of Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea: Cardinalidae)...


I came across this individual:

It is a perfect example of the aberrant tanager depicted in the Sibley Guide: orange instead of scarlet, with an orange wing bar. Too cool! I do wonder if this is in fact the bird that Sibley illustrated.

Iridescence - this is just too cool! Here's a single hummingbird example, the Fiery Topaz (Topaza pyra: Trochilidae) bottom and top views.


Here's a bird that makes me think I'm birding the wrong hemisphere: African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus: Cuculidae):


Mechanical sound production - This bird, the Club-winged Manakin (Machaeropterus deliciosus: Pipridae) has a crazy feather modification discovered by Cornell's own Kim Bostwick. One modified secondary forms a hollow resonating chamber with ridges. Another modified secondary is bent and serves as a pick. The bird beats its wings extremely rapidly (100x a sec) over its back, where the pick rubs back and forth over the ridges with each beat. The resulting sound is strange and highly unique in the bird world. It is quite similar to the sonation produced by crickets and other insects. The modified secondaries are barely visible in this round skin and we didn't have a flat wing available for display. See Kim's site for more information and video of this neat feather modification.


Elaborate ornamentation - Total free-for-all of wild and wacky bird ornamentation. I love sexual selection!

Crowned Pigeon (Goura: Columbidae)

Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise (Cicinnurus magnificus: Paradisaeidae)

Black Sicklebill (Epimachus fastuosus: Paradisaeidae)

Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno: Trogonidae)

Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina : Gruidae)

Sunbittern (Eurypyga helias: Eurypygidae): look at the amazing detail on each primary.

Check out amazing photos of the following two Cuckoos here.

Red-crested Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus superciliosus: Cuculidae)

Scale-feathered Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus cumingi: Cuculidae)

There aren't many birds in the world that exhibit the same wonderful powder-blue color as do Chlorophonias (Chlorophonia: Fringillidae). And that's on top of their already lovely green-and-yellow plumage:


I could fill pages and pages with examples such as these! But for now, this is all. Look for more in the future!

References:

Howell, Steve NG. 2003. Understanding Molt: Part I. Birding. Oct. 2003.

Howell, Steve NG. 2003. Understanding Molt: Part II. Birding. Dec. 2003.

Howell, Steve NG, Chris Corben, Peter Pyle, and Danny I Rogers. 2003. The first basic problem: a review of molt and plumage homologies. The Condor. 105:635-653.

This semester's happenings

My most exciting class this semester is Ornithology with David Winkler (recently named a Weiss Presidential Fellow - way to go Wink!!!). I took this class two years ago - this time around I am a Teaching Assistant. I had an amazing time last semester TAing Field Biology, and this semester promises to be great as well.

Ornithology lab meets twice a week at the Lab of Ornithology (makes sense, doesn't it?). Tuesdays are Birds of the World labs. Over the course of the semester the students learn to recognize by museum skin every bird family in the world (~200 total). Thursday labs explore a variety of topics including anatomy, molt, plumage, capture techniques, and studying 150 local, common species. One big bonus of helping run these labs is our extensive use of the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates (CUMV) bird collections! I can't blog the majority of the course material, but some subjects I will do my best to post about.

In addition to Ornithology, I am taking two more interesting courses, Macroevolution (with Amy McCune) and What is Science?, both topics that may deserve postings in the future.

My research continues. This semester will be very busy as the first rough draft of my thesis is due in just under two months. Even before I wrap up that project, the field season for my second major research project (this season will be my third attempt to get data) will be underway, keeping me very busy. I have never posted on this second project, I will do so sometime this semester.

This all amounts to an incredibly busy semester. Unlike every previous busy semester I've had, this one is so busy because it is filled with academic work that is engaging, stimulating, and highly relevant, as well as a large amount of time dedicated to research. I couldn't be happier with my last semester at Cornell.

This does mean that time devoted to blog work has largely decreased (Exhibit A: my Costa Rica trip is still nowhere near ready to be written up) but hopefully I can balance that by increasing the 'quality' of the posts. The next post coming up, a lab from Ornithology class, should be a good example of that (I hope).