Early in the afternoon of March 20, 2013, Big Red laid her third egg of the breeding season at 15:13 EDT, 3 days after the second egg was laid, and 6 days after the first egg.
Big Red and Ezra, the two Red-tailed Hawks watched by thousands last year from a live-streaming camera high above the Cornell campus, are back this year and already incubating three eggs.
The hawks threw us a curve by deciding to nest in a new site—our Bird Cams team just managed to set up a camera before the eggs arrived on March 14, 17, and 20. (Picture quality is generally excellent, although viewers may see occasional brief outages as we finalize network connections over the next two weeks.) If the eggs hatch on a schedule similar to last year, start looking for fuzzy chicks around April 21. Watch on our live cams.
Fast Forward Through a 264-Species Birding Big Day
Apr 3, 2013
On April 27, 2012, the expert birders on Team Sapsucker recorded 264 species in 24 hours—a pace of 11 new species every hour of the day, including before dawn and after sunset. This video condenses those 24 hours into 4 minutes. Watch as the birds flash by.
Note: Video shows 236 of the 264 species seen. These photos were not taken during the Big Day. For a list of species names for each photo, visit here.
Big Red laid her first egg of the 2013 breeding season at 5:40 P.M. EDT on March 14, 2013. This highlight clip shows some of the first moments where the egg was visible followed by a visit 20 minutes later by both Big Red and Ezra.
While we’ve been preparing for another busy cams season, Big Red and Ezra came up with a surprise for us: an egg laid yesterday evening, March 14! The pair had moved their nest to a different light pole overlooking the same athletics field at Cornell, and we’ve been working hard for the past two weeks to install wiring and cams at the new nest site. Although the live feed wasn’t up and running yesterday, the new cam captured the moment in this video clip when Big Red stood up and revealed the egg. With a possible second egg coming in the next day or two, we don’t want you to miss anything, so we’ve decided to go live even though the signal may drop occasionally as we troubleshoot some networking issues. Thanks for your patience!
Many bright birds seem to disappear in winter, either flying south or molting into brown shades and melting into the foliage. But the scarlet hues of male Northern Cardinals seem to burn even more brightly as the snow piles up. Why? Our NestWatch team takes a look at this common question and suggests it’s all to do with successful breeding. Read the article.
Inspired? Check out NestWatch to find out how to safely monitor nests and help scientists.
February 2013. From Antarctica to Afghanistan, bird watchers from 101 countries made history in the first global Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), Feb. 15 to 18, 2013. In the largest worldwide bird count ever, bird watchers set new records, counting more than 25 million birds on 116,000 checklists in four days – and recording 3,138 species, nearly one-third of the world’s total bird species. The data will continue to flow in until March 1.
Building on the success of the GBBC in the United States and Canada for the past 15 years, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada opened the count to the world for the first time this year, powered by eBird, a system that enables people to report birds globally in real-time and explore the results online. Bird watchers are invited to keep counting every day of the year at http://www.eBird.org.
‘Milestone for citizen science’
Cornell Lab of Ornithology director John Fitzpatrick said: “This is a milestone for citizen science in so many respects – number of species, diversity of countries involved, total participants, and number of individual birds recorded. We hope this is just the start of something far larger, engaging the whole world in creating a detailed annual snapshot of how all our planet’s birds are faring as the years go by.”
Audubon Chief Scientist Gary Langham: “People who care about birds can change the world. That’s why this year’s record-setting global participation is so exciting. Technology has made it possible for people everywhere to unite around a shared love of birds and a commitment to protecting them.”
Other Key Preliminary Findings:
Top 5 Most Reported Species (reported on highest number of checklists): Northern Cardinal; Dark-eyed Junco; Mourning Dove; Downy Woodpecker; House Finch
Top 5 Most Common Birds (most individuals reported): Snow Goose; Canada Goose; Red-winged Blackbird; European Starling; American Coot.
Finch Invasion: A massive number of northern finch species moved into the U.S. including the Common Redpoll, reported in a record 36 states. Scientists believe these periodic movements are related to natural fluctuations in crops of conifer cones and other seeds in Canada.
Hurricane Sandy: The weather system that caused Sandy‘s landfall also blew some European birds to North America, and evidence of this is still showing up in GBBC results. The colourful, crested Northern Lapwing was reported in Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts during the GBBC.
GBBC First: A Red-flanked Bluetail has wintered at Queens Park, Vancouver, and was also reported for the GBBC’s first record ever. This British Columbia bird has been drawing birdwatchers from all over the U.S. and Canada hoping to see this rarity. This little thrush is one of the only birds in the world with a striking blue tail and is native to Asia: the other GBBC report this year was from Japan.
The bird count could have been even more complete, if my small contribution (see here), and maybe other people’s contributions, would not have been prevented from reaching the central count by some mysterious website connection problem.
Please consider taking part in the 16th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) February 15-18. The count is being integrated with the eBird online checklist system—which means that the count will be global for the first time. Anyone, anywhere, with Internet access can take part in the count. [If] you already participate in NestWatch, then you will not need to create a new account for the GBBC. If you’re watching birds that weekend, simply enter your checklists at www.birdcount.org. You’ll be prompted to enter your existing login information.
Participating is easy. Simply watch birds for at least 15 minutes at the location(s) of your choice on one or more of the count days. Estimate the number of birds you see for each species you can identify. You’ll select your location on a map, answer a few questions, enter your tallies, and then submit your data to share your sightings with others around the world.
Please consider participating in this free, fun, late-winter bird count!
Thank you for your contributions to science and the birds!
Female cardinals love a dapper fellow in red. Photo by A Wing and a Prayer via Birdshare.
The Redder the Better
In many areas of the eastern United States, handsome Northern Cardinals are already singing to attract mates. A bird so visible in the winter landscape begs the question, “How does a flame-red bird that often nests close to the ground manage to be common in the eastern United States?” We are often asked how this conspicuous species has been so successful, despite its low rate of nesting success. Typically, less than 40% of nests fledge at least one young.
The answer may lie in their long breeding season. Cardinals do not migrate and often begin the nest-building process as early as late February. They can continue nesting into late August in some areas, which affords opportunities to nest multiple times. Another factor could be that cardinals are habitat generalists. They can nest in open woodlands, dry shrubby areas, or even the suburbs. Their nests are placed in live trees, shrubs, or vine tangles, anywhere from 1–15′ high. A recent study in Texas* revealed that cardinal nest sites were not particularly different from random sites, suggesting that they may not be limited by suitable nesting locations. However, there seem to be benefits from nesting higher up and later in the breeding season, both of which probably thwart some potential predators. Cardinals also tend to nest in the denser parts of trees or shrubs, which may provide some vegetation cover.
But how is it adaptive for the males to be such colorful and obvious songsters? The flamboyant males sing from high perches and do not trade their breeding plumes for a drab winter coat. According to research compiled in The Birds of North America Online, brighter males have higher reproductive success and better territories, and plumage brightness is positively associated with parental care. The intensity of the cardinal’s red coloring is related to its diet, and bright coloration is a signal to females that the male probably holds a good territory (although this is not necessarily true for urban areas). The females, through a process called sexual selection, have selected for this bright coloring in the males. And because the female’s colors are muted, they provide her with a protective camouflage that the male lacks. This also aids in nest concealment when she is incubating. Furthermore, juvenile and adult cardinals tend to have high survival rates, possibly because they don’t endure the stress of migration.
Against all odds, the Northern Cardinal is marvelously adapted to its environs. So the question is not “Why are they so successful?” but rather, “Why wouldn’t they be?” If you are lucky enough to find a cardinal nest this year, won’t you help us learn more about this fascinating species by monitoring it with NestWatch?
*Sperry, J. H., D. G. Barron, and P. J. Weatherhead. 2012. Snake behavior and seasonal variation in nest survival of northern cardinals Cardinalis cardinalis. Journal of Avian Biology, 43: 496–502.
The new website helps explain the Red Bird-of-Paradise‘s lovely display, and much more. Photo by Tim Laman.
Science and Beauty Converge on New Birds-of-Paradise Website
Come along with us in the next phase of the Birds-of-Paradise Project: a new website that uses high-definition video to explore the science of these exquisite birds. The site features 35 videos, expert narration by the project scientists, plus sounds, slideshows, and downloadable lessons for educators. We’ll show you how the males create their jaw-dropping colors, shapes, and dances. And we’ll show you why it’s the subdued females that end up in the most powerful roles. Explore the site.
Looking for recommendations? Here are a few of our favorites to start with:
Our newest Bird Cam takes you to the well-stocked feeders of Tammie and Ben Hache in chilly Manitouwadge, Ontario, Canada, over 40 miles north of Lake Superior. The Haches invite you to look in on their rotating ensemble of winter birds, including redpolls, grosbeaks, nuthatches, jays, and even the occasional Ruffed Grouse. Each week the cam host posts her Project FeederWatch counts for the week and you can see whether she’s spotted something you missed. The cam is offline during the night (generally 7:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M.)
Enjoy this addition to our Bird Cams, and marvel at the resilience of these winter birds, which seem to shrug off frigid temperatures. There’s also still time to sign up for this year’s Project FeederWatch season and start making your bird watching “count”! Watch the cam anytime between the hours of 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. Eastern time.
Learn how illustrator Pedro Fernandes is creating a new poster of nesting birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch citizen-science project.
From the 2012 NestWatch Year in Review, by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA. They coordinate counts of bird nests in various states in the USA.
