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Nuptial feeding... NOT!
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Nuptial feeding... NOT!
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 23:44:37 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi Carolinabirders,
I posted recently about observations of Downy Woodpeckers and White-
breasted Nuthatches feeding each other, which I assumed to be males
feeding females as a form of courtship. Well, today I was home grading
term papers in the backyard and observed a male Downy feeding suet from
the feeder to what appeared to be an immature but fully feathered and
fledged male, with its extensive red cap! Later, I observed a nuthatch
feeding not one, but two other nuthatches. These observations lead me to
believe that I was not seeing nuptial feedings, but instead parents
feeding fledglings. But how early must these birds have started nesting
in order to have fully feathered youngsters already? I mean, they're
cavity nesters, and so have some insulation from cold weather, but still,
do these two species start nesting in March? Or at least early April?
Other benefits of grading at home: finally got visual confirmation of
several species which I had previously only heard. Most notable was the
Cooper's Hawk. I had assumed this bird was nesting nearby, but the
critter I saw yesterday afternoon was an immature, with bold brown
longitudinal streaking underneath instead of the fine horizontal reddish
barring of an adult. Unless the Coops could have fledged a youngster
already too... Other visual confirmations included a Great Crested
Flycatcher, a Red-eyed Vireo, a few Northern Parulas, and a Black-
throated Blue Warbler (although the visual was a female, while I was
hearing males). New yard birds include Rose-breasted Grosbeak at my
feeders (just like everyone else), Baltimore Oriole overhead in the
canopy (nowhere near the orange halves), and an Acadian Flycatcher
calling nearby.
One shock was a warbler with a dark blue-gray hood. I immediately thought
"Mourning", then "Connecticut"! However, my next thought was "both of
those species are predominantly ground foragers; why is this one leaf-
gleaning 30 feet high in a tree?" When it moved to a better-lit spot, I
spied a yellow/orange chin patch within the gray "hood", identifying this
bird as a Northern Parula which just happened to have an unusually
extensive amount of blue-gray on the throat instead of the usually thin
line across. A lesson in variability within a species...
Good birding,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/