Cinnamon Teal

The cinnamon teal is a colorful duck that is found in the western portions of North and South America. It is the only duck that has separate breeding populations on each of the continents. In North America they breed in the western United States and Mexico. Their breeding does not extend as far east as most other species of western ducks, ending before the center of the US. In South America they breed primarily in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Most of the birds that breed in the US migrate to Mexico or the California coast for the winter. Most the birds that breed in Mexico and South America are year round residents of theri breeding ground. 

As with many species of ducks the male cinnamon teal is much more colorful then the female. The ducks in the photos above are both male. The female is a mottled brown with a brown eye color. The female looks similar to the females of many other species of ducks. The reason that females are not as bright as the males is because they need to blend in while they are on the nest. The cinnamon teal nest on the ground near the water. The nest is covered from all sides by vegetation hiding it from predators on the ground and in the air. The female helps keep the nest hidden by accessing it through tunnels in the vegetation. Clutch size is about 4-15 eggs. The young leave the nest for the water with in days of hatching.

Burrowing Owl

 The burrowing owl is a small owl that is found in the open fields, prairie grasslands, and desserts of the western half of North America, Mexico, Central America, South America, Florida and the Caribbean. As their name implies they live in under ground burrows. However most burrowing owls do not dig their own burrows, instead they use old burrows dug by ground squirrels, prairie dogs or other mammals. In Idaho where the photo above was taken the burrowing owls typically live in holes that are dug by badgers who are trying to dig out ground squirrels which they eat. The danger is that the badger might return and burrowing owls could be the next item on the menu. The burrowing owls hunt small mammals, such as mice and voles, as well as larger insects, such as grasshoppers.

 In North America the burrowing owl mating season begins at the end of March or beginning of April. The owls are typical monogamous. Unlike most raptors their is very little difference in size between male and female burrowing owls. When she begins to lay eggs the female will lay an egg every day or two. Since ground nesters typically more chicks to predation they often compensate by having larger clutch sizes. The average clutch size of the burrowing owl is 9 eggs only about half of which will survive long enough to leave the burrow. The chicks in the photo above are only days old. You can see that they are covered with down and their eyes have not opened. The shiny spot on the end of their beak is their egg tooth. This is that they used to crack the shell when they were ready to emerge from their eggs. When the chicks get a little older they will hiss when a potential predator tries to invade the den. The hissing sounds similar to a rattle snake and will often make potential predators think twice about continuing.

Their are approximately 22 subspecies of burrowing owls, although their is very little difference between them. In the United States there are only two subspecies, hypugaea (northern burrowing owl) and floridana (Florida burrowing owl). The northern subspecies is found from southwestern Canada down through the western U.S. down into Mexico and Central America. The Florida subspecies is only found in Florida. One of the key differences between the two North America subspecies is that the Florida subspecies typically digs its on burrow. This is because there are not really any mammals in the range of the Florida subspecies that digs burrows that they could use. Fortunately the Florida subspecies live in parts of Florida where the soil is very fine sand. This allows them to use their long legs to kick out the loose sand. The first two photos are examples of the northern subspecies where the last photo is an example of a Florida burrowing owl.

American Redstart

 The American redstart is a small warbler that breeds in the eastern United States and most of southern Canada. Their preferred habitat is deciduous forests preferably with a good deal of shrubs and undergrowth. Like most warblers their primary food is insects.They catch their prey both in the air and by gleaning from branches and leaves. Often they will flash their tails and wings where the flash of color startles insects allowing the bird to snatch them as they try and fly away. The bird in the photo above has caught some prey. Since they are insect eaters they do migrate south to Central America and northern South America during the winter months.

 The American redstart is sexually dimorphic, meaning that there is an obvious difference between males and females of the species. Males are predominantly black with a white under belly and orange patches on their sides, wings, and tails. The top photo is an example of a male. Females are not as colorful. They are a combination of yellow, olive, and grey, as demonstrated by the second photo. Immature birds, both male and female, have the same coloration as the female. The male will begin to molt into their adult plumage in its second fall. Most males do not breed until they are in their adult plumage, although some immature birds do try to hold a territory and a few are able to attract a mate in this stage.

Zonotrichia albicollis (White-throated Sparrow)

 The white-throated sparrow is a new world (Emberizine) sparrow that is named for the white throat patch below it's beak. They breed in the eastern three quarters of Canada as well as in parts of north central and north eastern United States. They spend the winter in the eastern half of the U.S. or along the California coast. Their primary habitat is forests with thick undergrowth but they can also be found in bogs, fields, parks and yards, particularly during the winter.

There are two different color variations of white-throated sparrow. There is the white crowned, an example of which is the first picture, and the tan-crowned, pictured above. The males of both varieties prefer white-crowned females, however the females all prefer the tan-crowned males. It appears that the white crowned birds are more aggressive then the tan crowned. So the guys are looking for an aggressive women while the females are looking for a laid back dude. You can see in the picture above that white-crowned sparrows eat a variety of fruits and berries. They also eat a lot of the seeds from different grasses as well as insects that they find while foraging on the ground.

First Birds of the Year

 I have never been much of a bird lister. My pictures are basically my bird list, but this year I am thinking of trying something new. I am going to try and post any new bird species that I photograph each week and then at this time next year I will be able to look back and count the number of species that I have seen throughout the year.

So I started 2014 off with a bang. I did not get out on the first but I spent most of the day Friday running around Dakota County, where I live. With the cold front that hit this past weekend we have a good influx of snowy owls (top). Snowy owls are usually found around the arctic circle but in years where there is a lack of food or they have a productive breeding year owl migrate south into southern Canada and the US. The northeast US has been experiencing a snowy invasion for a while now but it started out kind of slow here and just kicked in the past week. I found 4 different owls yesterday and it is estimated that we could have 7 or more just in this area. My second bird is another arctic visitor. The long-tailed ducks breed in pretty much the same range as the snowies do. Most long-tailed ducks migrate to the east or west coast of the US during the winter. For the past few years though we have had one or two that winter at the confluence of the St Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The water there usually stays open unless it gets really cold and the long-tailed duck usually join with flocks of other diving ducks, such as common goldeneye and mergansers, and fish the icy water. I hope that my next set of birds is this good but it is going to be hard to beat this pair.  

Happy New Year!

I decided to start out the new year with a bit of a face lift on the blog.

Please let me know what you think.