Bird of the Day

These little waterbirds wintering along the Atlantic coast come all the way from their breeding grounds in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest (in Europe the same species is known as the Slavonian Grebe). They’re sometimes called Devil-divers on account of their flaming red eyes. As you can see their winter diet includes small fish caught while diving, along with crustaceans. Winter coats of dark grey and white with black caps are rather plain compared to summer breeding plumage, which is predominantly rusty red and black with the distinctive and expressive yellow horn feathers responsible for their name. Grebes are fairly skittish and if threatened, are more likely to dive than take flight. Once thought to be closely related to loons, genetic studies have discredited the theory. Fetched at Wallis Sands in Rye, NH.

Like the Pine Siskin I posted at the end of last month, White-winged Crossbills are an irruptive species in New England. Some winters (it appears to be cyclical) when food supplies in their northern boreal forest habitats are scarce, irruptive species can become nomadic in great flocks ranging far and wide.  Crossbills are medium sized finchy birds with peculiar scissor-like bills for extracting the seeds from cones of coniferous trees. During irruptive years, it isn’t unusual to also find them visiting backyard feeding stations.  Above is a male told by his reddish cast, and you can just make out the bold white wingbars in his black wings which distinguish him from the very similar Red Crossbill. Female White-winged Crossbills are an olivey-yellow, though yellow males are occasionally recorded.

Common Goldeneyes are mid-sized diving ducks that are closely related to Buffleheads, with whom they’re known to interbreed. They’re one of the last ducks to migrate south from the taiga rivers and lakes in Canada where they nest in tree cavities. In winter they’re found all across the continental US wherever they can find open water to dive for crustaceans. Males are black-headed with a green iridescent luster, bright yellow eyes, and a large white oval behind the bill and below the eye. The rest of their medium large bodies mostly black and white. Females and juveniles have chocolate colored heads, similar bright eyes, but no white facial patch and their wings, backs, and tails are dark grey. If you come across a small group of them diving, keep an eye out for the much rarer Barrow’s Goldeneye, which is very similar, but the face patch on the males is crescent shaped, and the head has a purple gloss instead of green. There’s been a male Barrow’s hanging out with some Commons on the north side of Great Boar’s Head in Hampton, NH, but each time I’ve been to see him, he’s been too far away to photograph.

Not the best of flight shots, but this is one of the Portsmouth Peregrines cruising by Prescott Park. I’ve heard through the grapevine that a pair nested last year on the Piscataqua River Bridge (Rt 95), and on my way back and forth to work occasionally I’ll see a Peregrine atop the north or south tower of the Sarah Long Bridge, maybe even this bird. It’s great to regularly find such spectacular raptors in the urban landscape.

I get a bit of a rush every time I run into these medium-sized sandpipers in winter, as Dunlin aren’t Seapoint regulars like the Purples. But like Purple Sandpipers they are a dark shorebird with long droopy bills. To tell them apart whenn they mix, Dunlin are smaller and instead of orange legs and an orange-based bill, their bills are all dark as are their relatively long legs. Maine seems to be on the northern fringe of their winter range and they are few and far between here, though lately there’s been a flurry of reports in the Maine bird lists.  This one, from a group of 3 in adult winter plumage, is paler and less distinct than the Dunlin I posted back in September, which I believe were molting adults. In a few months they’ll take on fresh summer coats with bright reddish backs and big black belly patches, and large numbers will be moving back up the Atlantic coast toward the Arctic. Fetched at Seapoint, Kittery Point.

That flash of scarlet epaulettes and lusty konk-la-reeee! which declares his arrival, male Red-winged Blackbirds are always just over the hrozion of winter in New England. A couple of mild days in a row is all it takes to bring them out of nowhere, impatient to get on with the business of spring. I found these two males on one of our warmer days a week or so ago at Salisbury Beach State Reservation where I’d gone down for a second shoot of the Sage Thrasher, but I’ve also been seeing them showing up in other locales nearby on the bird lists, only to disappear again once winter reclaims the air.

About the same size as, and closely related to the Mallard with whom they regularly interbreed, American Black Ducks are dark, chubby, dabbling ducks that will also graze on land. They have a very dark bodies, lighter neck and heads, bright orange feet, and a violet blue speculum (wing patch). The males, like the one in the middle above, have yellow bills while the females on either side have grey-green bills. Females are also slightly lighter. To tell them apart from other drab dabbling ducks, note that the iridescent speculum is not bordered in white like Mallards. Blacks are popular game ducks, and are found in eastern North America. They’re year round residents in New England but in winter their numbers swell with northern migrants as many prefer salt water wetlands during the cold months. I fetched these three yesterday in some large puddles at Fort Foster, mixed in with a small group of Mallards.