By Jane Tillman for KXAN
What to watch for in June: Breeding Birds
While you may get to sit back and enjoy the lazy days of summer, birds are busy raising young. Some species like the Pied-billed Grebe, Mourning Dove and Eastern Bluebird can have two or even three broods over the course of the summer and already are working on their second broods. Let’s take a look at these three species you might encounter if you go out for a walk in different habitats.
Pied-billed Grebe with young COURTESY: Jeff Osborne
Pied-billed Grebes are small, stocky, brown water birds that can be found here year-round. There are more during the winter months when birds that spent their summers as far north as the prairie provinces of Canada come to visit. Adults of both sexes look identical, although the male is slightly larger. During the breeding season from February to September their thick bills become silvery white with a black band around them. The thick bill, along with the almost tailless look and puff-ball rear end make this grebe pretty easy to identify. Pied-billed Grebe in breeding plumage COURTESY: James Giroux Breeding grebes like vegetated edges of small ponds, where they can disappear and more safely raise their young. They create a floating platform on which eggs are laid. Both adults incubate the 3-8 eggs. When the young hatch their eyes are open and they can swim within an hour. However, usually chicks spend the first week alternating between riding on a parent’s back while it’s swimming or on the nest platform. Young are easily identified by the streaks on their faces which help camouflage them. As the fledglings get older through the fifth week, their begging calls get louder and are easy to hear, especially if an adult with food is in view. Depending on food availability the young become independent between 25 and 62 days after hatching. Pied-billed Grebes have a distinctive loud chatter call in which both members of the pair duet so seamlessly that it sounds like the continuous call of one bird. When you hear that, start looking! Pied-billed Grebe in non-breeding plumage with fish COURTESY: James Giroux Juvenile Mourning Doves COURTESY: Andy Filtness Adult Mourning Dove COURTESY: James Giroux Fun Fact: Mourning Doves are primarily seed eaters. They feed their young regurgitated crop milk which looks like pale yellow cottage cheese and is rich in protein and fat. ID Challenge – Spot the Juvenile Eastern Bluebird It might surprise you to learn that the Eastern Bluebird, the bird of “angry bird fame” that graces coffee cups and gift cards, breeds in Austin. Males are the most striking, with their sky blue backs and orange throats, breasts and flanks. Females are drabber with gray brown backs, blue tails and paler orange breasts. Both have rounded heads and potbellies. The young birds are dramatically different as they are brownish, and have spotted breasts and bellies. For a good shot at seeing Eastern Bluebirds try the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory, Commons Ford Ranch, Camp Mabry ponds and woods, and Emma Long Park. Male and Female Eastern Bluebirds COURTESY: James Giroux Juvenile Eastern Bluebird COURTESY: Jeff Osborne How to Identify Fledgling Birds Fledglings are birds that have left the nest. They will be dependent on the parents for a period of time. Look and listen for begging birds. Chances are good that birds fluttering their wings and opening their mouths in the presence of another bird, or flying and landing clumsily, are young birds. Does it look like there is fleshy tissue outlining the bill when it is closed? This is called the gape flange, and it is often brightly colored. Fledglings retain this “lipstick” for a little while and it’s a sure sign you are looking at a young bird. It gets less fleshy with time. The purpose of the colorful open mouth called the gape was to trigger the parents to feed the nestlings. Some gapes changed color when nestlings were fed, and indicated which nestlings still needed food Resources: All about Birds, Birds of the World and The Sibley Guide to Birds
ID Challenge – Spot the Juvenile Mourning DoveThe aptly named Mourning Dove has a sad cooing call, “ooAAH ooo ooo ooo.” This large slender dove with a pointy but tapered tail, black spots on its gray brown wings and a gray brown body can be found in open areas with brushy habitat, parks and suburbs. In Austin it is most easily confused with the more common White-winged Dove.
