On March 15, 2019, I went outside to walk around and see what birds I could see. It was around 5 in the evening and I was at a property that is hundreds of conserved acres with a house on it. Behind the house is a pond, which was still frozen over even though there was no snow on the ground. When I parked in the driveway, there were American Robins everywhere pecking at the ground and making a lot of sounds. I could hear Red-winged Blackbirds near the pond so when I went out to find birds, that is where I headed.

On my way to the pond, there were some shrubs and I could hear a bird jumping around between branches. Once I spotted it, I could tell it was a sparrow but I am not great at telling them apart. Later on my walk I heard a song sparrow, so it made me think that might have been what it was but I can’t be sure. This sparrow had brown and white and it had a line by its eye. That was the main detail I could see but I believe that is a characteristic shared by other sparrow species. Whatever it was, I watched it for a while in the shrub. It moved around a lot and was not easy to see in its low, fairly dense, deciduous shrub. Meanwhile, while watching the sparrow, I became aware of a loud chorus of Red-winged Blackbirds. More than one for sure, I found one in my zoom high up in a tree and watched it call. I could hear a response, or at least another call, coming from across the pond and I found another one there. The longer I sat watching them, though, the more calls I heard and noticed a small tree on an island on the pond with 4 of them on it. Then I saw another one fly across to a different tree, and then another, and then I realized how loud the chorus had gotten of Red-winged blackbird calls. It was all I could hear, with the exception of one Song Sparrow song, the whole time I was anywhere near the pond. All of the Red-winged Blackbirds that I saw were males, as they had the bright wings, and they were all very obvious and loud. I’m not sure if this behavior is the beginning of their breeding season and they are competing with each other or if they were just in a flock.

In looking at the plumage differences between Red-Winged Blackbird and, let’s call it a Song Sparrow for comparisons sake, the Song Sparrow seems well ‘dressed’ for being in shrubs and trees and not be easily picked out. Looking through the spaces between branches, white and brown are kind of what you see, and the speckles on the bird seem to work with the way the branches are moving in the wind, or have dried leaves or old seeds or something on them. The bird isn’t easy to pick out in that habitat and I imagine they spend a lot of time in and among trees and shrubs. The Red-winged Blackbird seems less obvious to me, as the bright color on the males’ wings seems to make them easy to pick out. They are a bird I tend to see more out in the open in wet areas, and a dark pond or swamp back ground could make sense with the black body color, so perhaps the red wings help in some mating way, or maybe there is a positive reason to stand out. They are very loud with their call in the open so it seems like they aren’t afraid to be noticed. Also, when they call they hold their wings in such a way that the red really stands out. I would assume it is to attract a mate because I’m not sure what other purpose it would serve.

As I walked away from the pond, through a field towards woods, I saw a Black-Capped Chickadee perched in a tree, though I didn’t hear it sing at all and it didn’t appear to be foraging or anything like that, just perched. I figured it was resting, or scouting, because it was just looking around perched on a branch. Also, being evening time, it seemed like maybe a less active time for it. I imagine they are pretty active finding food a lot of the day, but maybe rest in the evening and keep an eye out before night falls. Also, the end of winter is probably a harder time to find food than other times as they may have exhausted their food sources but, where I was, there was no snow so maybe they gained access to various seeds or leftover stuff in fields that had been covered for the winter. Since the weather was warmer as well, maybe their calorie requirements go down a little.

I tried to make the pish sound to that resting Black-capped Chickadee and it didn’t illicit a response. In other occasions since then I have tried to make the sound and so far none have come closer to me as a result. Some have flown away but it didn’t appear directly related to the sound I was making. I’m not sure what about that sound would be interesting to them, or scary, but it could mimic a sound another animal makes and they come to investigate or get away from, or if it is a positive response, maybe it sounds like a noise a bird would make in the nest. I know they are a communicative bird and, especially in winter, seem fairly curious. Maybe they deem it their job to look into a sound like that and report back.

Posted on March 25, 2019 01:02 PM by chloesardonis