January 6, 2009
Starting my 2009 Iowa bird list
What I look forward to most about a new year is the start of a new Iowa “year” list of birds.
The Iowa bird checklist shows that 420 species of birds have been seen in the state. However, that’s 420 bird species over a number of years, not 420 bird species every year. Of those 420 species, the Iowa Ornithologists Union splits the species into 3 main categories:
Regular = seen every year or nearly every year, at least 8 of last 10 years (306 species)
Casual = seen many years but not all, at least 3 and less than 9 of last 10 years (26 species)
Accidental = seen once to several times, but less than 4 of last 10 years (84 species)
In theory, this means that if you go out birding a lot and cover all corners of the state, you have a good chance of seeing 306 species each year (the “regulars”) and maybe more if you can find some “casuals” or “accidentals”.
Dedicated birders in the state set 300 as the goal to reach each year, but very few actually make it to 300. It takes a lot of time to bird the entire state each year. My highest so far was 297, but that was an exceptional year for me. Generally I find between 250-275 bird species each year.
So I began my quest for 300 this year by doing a little bit of local birding on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2. After 2 days of birding, my 2009 Iowa list is 36 species — I have a long way to go to reach 300 but lots of fun birding ahead!
A few of the birds I most enjoyed seeing at the start of this year are listed below:
Rough-legged Hawk
The Rough-legged Hawk is my favorite of all the hawks. It comes south from the Arctic and other northern climes during the winter. Since most of Iowa’s summer birds flee the state during the fall for warmer climates, I am very partial to a bird that actually thinks Iowa is the place to be during the winter.
The Rough-legged Hawk can easily be identified by the large black “wrist patches”, shown in this photo from the Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter.
It is less common in Iowa in the winter than the more familiar Red-tailed Hawk.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Another winter treat that I saw on Jan. 2 was the tiny Northern Saw-Whet Owl. This little owl is very cute, but don’t be mistaken by its cuteness quotient. It’s a hunter through and through.
Finding an owl takes patience and some knowledge of the particular habitat that species of owl likes. Once you’re in the correct habitat, look under the trees for owl droppings and regurgitated pellets.
The little Saw-whet that I saw on Friday had a good-sized area of droppings directly underneath it. After I saw the droppings, I knew just where in the tree to look for the owl, and sure enough, there it sat on a high branch, calmly watching me with those big owl eyes in that small owl body.
Saw-whets are not particularly spooky owls and usually will stay put on a tree branch and allow you to observe them. Most owls fly out of a tree long before you have a chance to approach them.
Northern shrike
Another beautiful bird that winters in Iowa is the Northern Shrike. Birds with black and white feather patterns are particularly pretty, I think. Shrikes are known for their behavior of storing prey on thorns or other sharp items.
I usually find shrikes perching on top of small trees, although once or twice I’ve seen them on telephone wires. They move around their territory and are sometimes hard to find in the same location a second time, although they may be in the general vicinity still. I always feel lucky when I come across one.
What have you seen so far this year? What are your favorite winter birds? Please share in the comments section.
November 18, 2008
Avian surprises
Birdwatchers (or “birders” as we’re also called) can get just a little excited when we hear about sightings of birds that are considered unusual for our state.
Iowa has resident birds that live here year-round, and then there are migrants that are expected every year in spring and fall as birds head north to breed and south to winter. Most of these migrants are easy to find if you go to their expected habitat to look for them. Some are more uncommon, with only a few sightings of a particular bird each year. It’s these uncommon birds that birders are always hoping to find.
One of these uncommon birds is the Black-legged Kittiwake. Normally this bird from the gull family is found along coasts, not in a land-locked state like Iowa. But just about every year a few show up here, often along major rivers or at a large reservoir. Just a couple of weeks ago, 2 Black-legged Kittiwakes showed up at Saylorville Lake in Des Moines. One was an adult bird and the other was a juvenile.
Reid Allen, a birder and photographer, was one of many Iowa birders who went to Saylorville to see the Kittiwakes. He took a number of photos and upon returning home and looking through his photos, he realized one picture was a bit different from the rest.
Black-legged Kittiwake
Take a look at this photo showing the juvenile Kittiwake in flight (click on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture). The bird is exhibiting some surprising behavior. Conversation on the birding list-serv about this picture suggests the bird may be expelling salt or coughing up some substance. Whatever it’s doing, Reid definitely got an interesting shot of the bird! Can you imagine turning your neck almost 180 degrees, much less doing that while in flight?!
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Another unusual bird appeared at a bird feeder in Waterloo in late October. Rachel Anderson of Waterloo noticed this bird and realized she had never seen one like it before. She checked her bird ID books but couldn’t find any bird that looked like this one. So she then e-mailed the state birding list for help. Before long she had her answer. This is an Orange-cheeked Waxbill, a bird from the finch family that is native to Africa, not to North America. Probably this is an escaped cage bird, not a migrant bird that is way off-course. Check out the picture of this bird taken by Rachel’s father, George Hau of Waterloo.
I know I would be quite excited to see something this unusual show up at my bird feeders. But that’s the fun of bird-watching – you never know what you might find!
If you’re interested in following bird sightings in Iowa, go here to join the IA-BIRD Listserv. You can also read the bird sighting messages there without joining, if you prefer.
