American Wigeon portrait

American Wigeon, Beaverton, Oregon, 15 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

A previous post on American Wigeon.

Green Heron

Green Heron, Beaverton, Oregon, 15 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

A previous post on Green Herons.

Bath time!

House Sparrow, Beaverton, Oregon, 6 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

As winter weather approaches, remember that having a daily source of unfrozen water is more important for survival than food.

A previous post on House Sparrows.

Sunshine at the feeder

Lesser Goldfinch, Beaverton, Oregon, 19 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

A nice surprise at the feeder!

A previous post on Lesser Goldfinches.

Anna's Hummingbird in flight

Year-round resident Anna's Hummingbird, Beaverton, Oregon, 6 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Even though I recently sang the praises of the new National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds (6th Edition), it didn't help with the identification of the hummingbird outside my window. Though I knew that the hummingbird was likely an Anna's Hummingbird, the NatGeo6 hasn't changed its artwork of Costa's Hummingbirds since the first edition. Frankly, this field guide doesn't help with the separation of female Costa's and Anna's Hummingbirds.

That's why I have many field guides, and specialty guides too. No book can be all things to all people. And even if one field guide was superior, there's nothing wrong with variety.

In his book, the Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding, Kenn Kaufman has a chapter on hard-to-identify hummingbirds.

Perhaps because I rarely go to places with any hummingbirds but Rufous and Anna's, I've always had trouble with female hummingbirds of the Anna's/Costa's/Ruby-throated/Black-chinned type--in other words, hummingbirds that look very similar to the one depicted above.

So I spent some time recently observing the hummingbirds at the feeders outside my window. I practiced observing tail feather shape, facial pattern, and inner primary width--with the help of my camera. I feel a bit better prepared now in case some unexpected female hummingbird pops up (as they can do in the autumn of the year). Better prepared, yes, but I still would hope that a future rare hummer at my feeder will be an easier to identify male!

Map of winter range of Anna's Hummingbird in the Pacific NW based on eBird data.

A previous post on Anna's Hummingbirds.

Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird, Champoeg State Park, Oregon, 8 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

I stopped by Champoeg State Park recently, and was able to photograph this Western Bluebird using my car as a blind.

This bird is banded, probably in concert with the Prescott Bluebird Recovery Project, which builds bluebird nest boxes and monitors populations locally in the northern Willamette Valley.

Champoeg was a town between Portland and Salem, Oregon. In the early 1840's the rapidly increasing number of settlers met at Champoeg and voted to set up a local provisional government. Up until that time both the United States and Great Britain jointly occupied the Oregon Territory, with the British Hudson Bay Company having a presence at Fort Vancouver (near present day Vancouver, Washington). Relations were friendly-enough between American and British subjects (and French-Canadian, Spanish, and Russian fur trappers), but there was really no "government" to speak of for the American settlers. This provisional government ruled until 1848 when Oregon became an official territory of the United States. Oregon became a state in 1859. In December 1861 a huge flood swept away the town of Champoeg and it was never rebuilt.

A previous post on Western Bluebirds.

Cinnamon Teal

Cinnamon Teal, Beaverton, Oregon, 8 November 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

What does eBird tell us about the status and distribution of Cinnamon Teal in the Pacific NW?

You may be interested in visiting the eBird page on Cinnamon Teal in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

The quick-view weekly bar chart shows that Cinnamon Teal can be found somewhere in the Pacific NW all year, they are regular February through November, and most frequently observed April through June. Digging deeper, the 'Frequency' tab shows that nearly 10% of all birder's checklists report Cinnamon Teal the week starting May 15. The 'Abundance' graph shows two peaks in average number of birds per checklist--both in May and in August-September, after the young-of-the-year are out and about. Finally, the 'Average Count' when birds are detected, shows that when you do see Cinnamon Teal in the Pacific NW you can expect to see an average of about 20 individuals from mid-August to mid-September.

Looking now at the map of sightings, one can see that Cinnamon Teal are widely distributed in the Pacific NW, away from the mountains and extensive desert or grasslands lacking water. They are less common on the immediate coast. If you switch to the winter month of December, sightings are restricted to the valleys west of the Cascades with unfrozen water. Switch to the current month of the year and you can see all sightings within the last 30 days highlighted in orange rather than blue.

Click on any of those orange flags to find out details about the sighting and click on 'checklist' to see that observer's full list of species for that date and location.

Read a previous post on Cinnamon Teal.

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler, Gearhart, Oregon, 6 August 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Here's a bit of color that I wanted to share with you. This bird was hiding in a stunted Sitka spruce near the edge of the beach dunes. It's already migration time and several of these birds were seen on the extreme outer coast, where they likely do not nest.

This species was featured in a previous post: Wilson's Amazing Green Black-capped Flycatching-Warbler

Friday Foto: Black-throated Gray Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler, Beaverton, Oregon, 18 May 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Black-throated Gray Warblers are abundant migrants through the lowlands west of the Cascades and nest there and quite locally in juniper woodlands east of the Cascades.

We have discussed Black-throated Gray Warbler previously.

Friday Foto: Common Yellowthroat

Common Yellowthroat, Forest Grove, Oregon, 2 June 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

We have discussed Common Yellowthroats previously.

Friday Foto: Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird in red elderberry tree, Forest Grove, Oregon, 2 June 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Visit any wetlands in North America right now and you'll likely see (and hear!) this bird!

We have discussed Red-winged Blackbirds in the past.

Friday Foto: Black-footed Albatross

Black-footed Albatross, 25 miles off Newport, Oregon, 15 May 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Found in the Pacific NW only far offshore where they eat squid, the Black-footed Albatross has a 7 foot wingspan. This actually makes them one of the smallest albatrosses in the world!

I organize guided birding boat trips offshore specifically to see these and other seabirds that cannot usually be seen from land in the Pacific NW.

We have discussed Black-footed Albatrosses previously.

Friday Foto: American Robin portrait

American Robin, Beaverton, Oregon, 8 April 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

The white marks on the face of American Robin don't correspond exactly to full feather tracts as named in the "topology" or "parts of a bird" as listed in your field guides.

There is a white spot on the supralorals, another above and to the back of the eye, and a third below the eye, but beyond the limits of an "eye ring."

Telling male from female robins apart by plumage is not always easy. On average, the head of the male is darker than the female. The bill is usually all yellow on the male, while the female's bill has a dark tip (not always easy to tell after the bird has been digging around in the mud with its bill).

We've discussed American Robins in more detail in the past.

Friday Foto: Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird, Cooper Mountain Nature Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 19 March 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

See a previous article on Western Bluebirds.

Friday Foto: Gadwall

Gadwall, Portland, Oregon, 19 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Though not colorful, the drake Gadwall is exquisitely patterned.

See a previous post on Gadwall.

Friday Foto: Bushtit

Bushtit, Hagg Lake, Oregon, 11 March 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

This is the brown-headed California race, common west of the Cascades in the Pacific NW.

The pale eye indicates a female.

See a previous post on Bushtits.

Friday Foto: Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker, Cooper Mountain Nature Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 19 March 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 



See a previous post on Downy Woodpeckers.

Not a Slate-colored Junco! The Cassiar Junco

Adult male Dark-eyed (Cassiar) Junco, Beaverton, Oregon, 7 April 2011 by Greg Gillson.

The bird above showed up at my feeder this week. Many birders might call this form of Dark-eyed Junco a Slate-colored Junco and not give it another thought. Technically, though, this is not correct.

Male Slate-colored Juncos are evenly dark gray above, with no contrast between head and back. This bird has an obviously darker gray head contrasting sharply with a paler gray back that is washed with a touch of brown.

The junco above is a Cassiar Junco. This was described as a subspecies of Slate-colored Junco when Slate-colored Juncos were considered separate species from Oregon Juncos. But in the Great Lumping of 1983 1973*, most of the juncos formerly considered separate species were lumped into "Dark-eyed Junco." Thus birders "lost" Oregon Juncos, Slate-colored Juncos, White-winged Juncos, and Gray-headed Juncos from their lists.

So if you saw a bird like this before 1973 it would have been considered a subspecies of Slate-colored Junco, and you could accurately call it such. However, since then, Oregon Juncos, Slate-colored Juncos and this Cassiar Junco are all subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco. So, technically, it is not a Slate-colored Junco. It is a Dark-eyed Junco or Cassiar Junco, but it is not a Slate-colored Junco.

I know, only 8 people in all of North America care. What? Not that many?

Looking at this level of detail will help you become a better birder--and you can do it in your own backyard.

Immature (probably female) Cassiar Junco, Beaverton, Oregon, 28 March 2011 by Greg Gillson.

The male Cassiar Junco joined a first winter female that had been hanging around for a couple of weeks. Female and first-year Cassiar Juncos are much more difficult to separate from Slate-colored Juncos, so I was glad to spot the adult male.

The scientific name of Cassiar Junco is Junco hyemalis henshawi (=cismontanus of AOU 1957).

Cassiar Juncos breed in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. In winter they regularly are found from southern British Columbia east to Michigan and from there southward from Arizona to Texas. Scattered individuals wander widely in winter outside this main area.

Both Slate-colored and Cassiar Juncos can be found in small numbers throughout the Pacific Northwest in winter. They aren't too unusual at backyard feeders--most feeders will host a couple during the winter. But next time you see a "Slate-colored Junco" I bet you'll be taking a second, closer, look!

- - - - - - -

* The Great Lumping of 1983 1973: Besides the juncos, other species lumped in 1973 were Myrtle and Audubon's Warblers into Yellow-rumped Warbler; Red-shafted, Yellow-shafted, and Gilded Flicker into Common Flicker, but Gilded Flicker subsequently given back its status as a species and the other two called Northern Flicker; Baltimore and Bullock's Oriole lumped into Northern Oriole, but this decision was later reversed. Finally, Gray-crowned, Black, and Brown-capped Rosy Finches were all lumped into Rosy-Finch, but then this was reversed later, too, but with "Rosy Finch" altered to "Rosy-Finch." ...And I hear rumors of Yellow-rumped Warblers being re-split in the near future. -- We may get most of the pre-1973 species back, but the damage to birders' psyches from that period will never be repaired.

Friday Foto: Wood Duck

Wood Duck, Portland, Oregon, 19 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Even the female can be surprisingly colorful!

See a previous post on Wood Ducks.

Friday Foto: Hutton's Vireo

Hutton's Vireo, Cooper Mountain Nature Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 26 January 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Look at those blue feet and legs!

Do you remember how to separate Hutton's Vireos and Ruby-crowned Kinglets?