All About The Birds

Ollie has endeared himself to some house finches who come here to eat. He’s done this by chasing the squirrel off the feeder they prefer. He doesn’t realize he’s doing favors for the birds; he wants to play with the squirrel, especially zoomies. But, for 2 days in a row, I’ve watched house finches, in pairs, chase a squirrel back in Ollie’s direction by swooping the squirrel. They also are, so far, the only birds who don’t fly up away from this feeder when Ollie goes outside. Even the crows tend to fly into the trees until he comes back inside. So the house finches fascinate me this year. Anyway, here are these about more birds, and a bat, too.

The Yellow-winged Blackbird

Also Known As

Trile (Colloquial, Chile)
Alférez (Colloquial, Uruguay)
Varillero ala amarilla (Spanish)

About

The Yellow-winged Blackbird is a conspicuous species of the Southern Cone of South America, congregating in colonies in marshes during the breeding season, and forming larger flocks in wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural fields the rest of the year. These birds are also extremely vocal, giving a startling variety of calls, including sharp and percussive sounds, clear and musical whistles, and a range of other rattling, chirping, whining, whirring, and gargling vocalizations. Their song in particular makes use of virtuosic trills, robotic whistles, and mechanical whirring or buzzing sounds, coming across as half bird, half sci-fi robot. This iconic song is also the source of one of the Yellow-winged Blackbird’s nicknames, “trile,” and some authors propose it may also be the origin of the name of the country Chile! As if to make the most of their raucous acoustic capacity, the males of an entire colony will sometimes sing together in one big, cacophonous chorus.

In addition to nesting together in the same space, Yellow-winged Blackbirds also synchronize their nesting in time. Most of the females in a colony will lay within several days of each other. As a result, most of the nests in the colony will be on the same timeline, with eggs and nestlings developing at about the same time across the marsh. (snip)

Historic Oregon Bill Generating Conservation Funding Is Signed Into Law

Oregon will soon have a new, dedicated source of conservation funding to support the recovery of struggling bird and wildlife species across the state. House Bill 4134, dubbed 1.25% for Wildlife Bill, passed the Oregon State Senate in February and has now been signed into law by Governor Tina Kotek. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) strongly supported the 1.25% for Wildlife Bill, a proactive measure expected to raise up to $30 million annually for wildlife conservation in the state.

“This is monumental: Oregon has chosen to invest in its wildlife and its future with the passage of this historic law. Habitat restoration, recovery programs, and anti-poaching efforts are just a few of the programs that will be funded by this landmark legislation,” said Hardy Kern, ABC’s Director of Government Relations.

The Act will create a sustainable funding source dedicated to conserving imperiled species like the Marbled Murrelet, a seabird that nests in mature and old-growth forests in the state. Nest predation by jays and ravens contributes to the species’ declining population. Actions that could boost nesting success, such as campground cleanup efforts to reduce jay and raven numbers near sensitive nesting sites, are currently unfunded, but could benefit from the revenue generated by the newly signed law. (snip-MORE)

Have You Heard?

Eastern Warbling Vireo

Vireo gilvus

Also Known As

Vireo Gorjeador Oriental (Spanish)
Vireo Cantor (Spanish)

About

The Eastern Warbling Vireo is a quintessential species of spring and summer across much of eastern North America. This rather drab bird is often hard to spot, hidden up high among the leaves of tall deciduous trees, but its buoyant, easygoing song is hard to miss. One of the most persistent singers through summer, this vireo’s song is considered by many ornithologists and naturalists to be among the most beautiful in its range. Males do most of the singing, but females sing as well — an unusual trait among songbirds in temperate regions. Even more unusual, these birds will even sing while sitting on their nests!

Unfortunately for the vireos, Brown-headed Cowbirds seem to cue in on this species’ habit of singing from the nest. Cowbirds are “brood parasites,” laying their own eggs in the nests of other species, often resulting in the death of some or all of the host’s young. Female cowbirds are quite crafty, even using the movements of parent birds to determine the location of a nest; the more often a parent uses the same paths to and from the nest, the more likely cowbirds are to find it. However, Eastern Warbling Vireos are remarkably efficient at removing cowbird eggs, often puncturing the offending eggs with their bills before discarding them. Studies of this behavior showed that these vireos seem to recognize cowbird eggs by differences in the pattern of speckles on the shell — and get rid of them 90-100 percent of the time! (snip-MORE-2 calls and a song!)

The Word

The Bird’s The Word:

Least Flycatcher

Empidonax minimus

Also Known As:

Chebecker
Mosquero Mínimo (Spanish)
Mosquerito Chebec (Spanish)
Papamoscas Chico (Spanish)

About

The Least Flycatcher is a small but fierce bird of North American forests, known for its fearlessness in confronting birds much larger than itself, including formidable foes like Blue Jays and even hawks. They often share habitat and compete with American Redstarts, a fly-catching warbler, which they exclude from the best habitat through repeated chases and attacks. Of course, Least Flycatchers defend their territories from their neighbors as well.

However, despite their intense territoriality, these flycatchers are widely known to form dense clusters of breeding territories, even in areas with plenty of suitable habitat. Interestingly, the males closest to the center of a cluster are the healthiest, and the first to find mates. Conversely, birds that don’t join a cluster usually do not mate at all that season. While other factors may contribute to this pattern, the main influence seems to be that it facilitates birds mating with their neighbors in addition to their social mate.

Least Flycatchers are socially monogamous, pairing with a single bird during the breeding season with whom they defend a territory and raise young. But these birds are also quite promiscuous. More often than not, the nest of a mated pair will have at least one nestling sired by another male. “Spreading the love” in this way benefits both males and females — females end up with more genetic diversity in their nests, while males don’t have all their eggs in one “basket,” in case a nest fails. This breeding system, where territories are clustered together, females seek matings outside of the pair, and paired males compete for each other’s mates, has been described as a “hidden lek.” In some ways, this system is quite similar to the communal display areas, or leks, where birds like Lesser Prairie-Chicken and Greater Sage-Grouse defend small arenas to display for females.

One big difference between a classic lek and the so-called “hidden lek” of Least Flycatchers is that both the male and female in a pair are looking to mate with other birds without their own mate knowing about it. Also, the displays are a bit less dramatic. Rather than elaborate plumages, dances, and bizarre methods of sound production, these drab males instead opt to sing the same monotonous two-note song several thousand times an hour.

Threats

Though fairly common in appropriate habitat, Least Flycatcher populations have been declining since the 1970s. There are now a little over half as many Least Flycatchers as there once were. As such, Partners in Flight lists them as a Common Bird in Steep Decline. More research is needed to better understand the causes of this decline, but factors affecting the structure and health of forests probably play an important role. (snip)

The Birds Must Be Heard & Seen

Just click through on the birds’s names to see more and hear their songs.

Anna’s Hummingbird

Calypte anna

Colibrí Cabeza Roja (Spanish)

Anna's Hummingbird. Photo by Nick Athana.

About

The Anna’s Hummingbird is a characteristic and charismatic species of coastal Central, Southern, and Baja California, although this species has expanded its range northward along the Pacific Coast and eastward into the Desert Southwest. Like the Rufous Hummingbird, Anna’s is well known for its aggressive territorial behavior. Males fiercely defend feeding areas, where they chase away other male hummingbirds and even large insects such as bumblebees and hawk moths that try to feed there.

Although the Anna’s Hummingbird readily feeds from non-native plants, wild plants are still crucial to these birds — and the birds are just as critical to these native plants. Anna’s Hummingbirds are important pollinators of the chaparral flora of coastal California. Many of these plants flower in the winter months, coinciding with California’s wet season. To take advantage of this boon of nectar, Anna’s Hummingbirds in coastal California breed in what is the nonbreeding season for most North American species, nesting as early as mid-December. After the rains end, many hummingbirds will move up into the mountains to take advantage of blooms at higher elevations.

The Anna’s Hummingbird is a highly vocal species, especially for a hummingbird. Males sing a complex, scratchy-sounding song while perched and during their high-flying courtship spectacles. The male performs this diving display by first ascending to 100 feet or higher, then swooping toward the ground. At the bottom of his dive, he will be moving at about 60 miles per hour, just overhead of a female (or intruding male). At the last minute, he banks upward and flares his tail, causing his modified tail feathers to produce an explosive, high-pitched chirp. The gravitational force (“G-force”) caused by this maneuver would cause a human pilot to lose consciousness, but these little hummingbirds do it again and again, up to about 40 times back to back, when trying to impress a female. He also orients his dives to maximize the reflectance of his beautiful gorget — the gem-like patch of tiny iridescent purple-pink feathers on his throat. According to researchers Christopher Clark and Stephen Russell, from the perspective of a female, he looks like a “tiny, glowing magenta comet” plummeting towards her. (Snip-More on the page. Actually hear a hummingbird!)

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Emerald Tanager

Tangara florida

About

The Emerald Tanager is truly a gem of the forest, roaming through the canopy in search of fruiting trees in the humid montane forests of Central and northern South America. Although primarily a fruit-eater, this species is also adept at hunting insects and other invertebrates on tree branches, deftly manipulating mosses with its bill in search of prey. This behavior sets it apart from other tanager species it often flocks with, but outside of the Emerald Tanager’s range, other specialized tanager species may fill this niche.

The Emerald Tanager’s relationship with moss extends beyond its foraging habits. Though their breeding biology is largely undescribed in peer-reviewed literature, the nests that have been observed have either been made of moss entirely or thoroughly covered in it. This, of course, provides good camouflage on the mossy branches where these tanagers build their nests. (Snip; MORE, and hear the Emerald Tanager)

Speckled Tanager

Also Known As

Speckled Calliste
Yellow-browed Tanager
Tangara Pintoja (Spanish)
Tangara Moteada (Spanish)
Saíra-pintada (Portuguese)

About

The Speckled Tanager is a preternaturally beautiful bird, even among the other stunning Central and South American tanagers of the family Thraupidae. The black speckles that give this species its name come from black feathers with brightly colored edges, giving the impression of scales over the bird’s body. The edges blend together to create a palette of iridescent yellow-green and green-blue over the body of the bird.

Striking as these patterns and hues may be, they actually provide good camouflage for this bird up in the green, backlit forest canopies where it spends most of its time. The tanager’s speckles, like the spots on a jaguar or the camo pattern on a hunter’s jacket, are a form of disruptive patterning, a camouflage strategy that breaks up or obscures an animal’s outline, allowing it to blend with its background. Up among the bright green leaves, these birds can easily go unseen. Up close, however, their plumage is hard to ignore.

Threats

Birds around the world are declining, and many of them face urgent threats. The Speckled Tanager lives primarily in old-growth forest, and healthy populations depend on the persistence of forests throughout their range in Central and South America. Though not considered a species of conservation concern, this bird is declining, and deforestation is one likely cause. (snip-MORE)

https://abcbirds.org/birds/speckled-tanager/

“Northern Emerald-Toucanet”

Also Known As: Tucanete Esmeralda (Spanish), Tucancillo Verde (Spanish)

Aptly named for its striking green plumage, the Northern Emerald-Toucanet is actually quite camouflaged in the leafy forests where it makes its home. With its tropical take on countershading — darker green on the back and wings, lighter yellow-green below — this bird beautifully matches the color palette of forest leaves, whether seen from above or from below. With its accents of chestnut, blue, and white, and a large black and yellow bill, this pigeon-sized bird is a true beauty.

Similar to other toucans, Northern Emerald-Toucanets eat mostly fruit, capitalizing on the wide diversity of fruit-bearing trees in the humid forests of their home in Central America. These birds mostly swallow their food whole, including some larger-seeded fruits, which they repeatedly regurgitate and swallow until the flesh is consumed. Whether by regurgitation or defecation, these birds spread the seeds of their food trees throughout the forest. Many tropical trees have evolved to bear fruit specifically for this purpose, taking advantage of birds’ wings to spread their seeds far and wide. In fact, the process of moving through the digestive tract of an animal actually helps the seeds of many of these trees to germinate. In effect, these toucanets, along with a cohort of other fruit-eating birds and mammals, are gardeners of their own food forests. (snip)

Bird Gallery

The Northern Emerald-Toucanet is indeed a beautiful, vibrant green, top and bottom, with the back a deeper, darker hue and the underparts lighter and slightly yellowish. The long tail is iridescent blue and green, with a rusty or chestnut tip matched by the vent feathers beneath the tail. The eight subspecies across its geographic range vary in the coloration of the throat, either blue or white, and the bill. In all subspecies, the lower mandible is black. The upper mandible has some black as well, but may be almost entirely yellow. Some subspecies also have a reddish to brown patch near the nostrils.

Two From The Birds

They just keep on keepin’ on!

The Mountain Chickadee

Any season of the year, the Mountain Chickadee is a delight to encounter. In their breeding season, they form neighborhoods of adjacent territories in the conifer forests of western Canada and the U.S., which ring in the early spring dawn with dozens of cheerful whistled songs. In winter, groups of Mountain Chickadees are joined by other birds — nuthatches, woodpeckers, creepers, kinglets — to form large dispersed flocks that move together through the forest, following the chickadees’ namesake rallying call.

Mountain Chickadees are social birds, living in groups of up to three mated pairs and juveniles of the last breeding cycle for most of the year, only breaking off into territorial pairs for the breeding season. In fact, while we tend to think of the breeding season as the time when mates are chosen and territories are established, most of this actually occurs in the winter. This is when the social hierarchy is solidified between the individuals in a group, and come spring, the dominant birds will reliably take the best territories. While boundaries may shift somewhat, the same birds will usually hold the same territories year after year. Pair bonds are formed during the winter as well, and usually last for as long as both birds survive.

Mountain Chickadees are well-known for their caching behavior. To survive harsh mountain winters, these chickadees hide surplus food throughout their winter territories, a behavior known as “scatter hoarding.” A single chickadee may cache tens of thousands of food items — insects, conifer seeds, or goodies from bird feeders — over the course of a year. They may cache food any time they have extra, and may recover caches any time of the year, but spend the most time caching in the fall, and the most time eating from them in the winter. In fact, studies have shown that Mountain Chickadees living in harsher winter environments have better spatial memory and are more adept at remembering where they have cached food. Unsurprisingly, these birds also survive longer. (snip-MORE)

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The Black-Billed Magpie

More than most, the Black-billed Magpie is a bird that inspires strong emotions in humans. A familiar species across much of the West, the Black-billed Magpie is intelligent, adaptable, and bold. For these attributes, they are both admired and loathed. While considered an annoyance or an inconvenience by some, they are also highly social and will occasionally leave “gifts” for humans who feed them.

Like many other intelligent and opportunistic corvids, magpies will take advantage of whatever resources they can. As such, the Black-billed Magpie is probably best known as a scavenger of garbage, carrion, and poorly guarded picnics. This has given these birds a bad reputation, with many regarding them as pests. A common folk belief is that magpies will wound cows to eat their flesh or drink their blood. Magpies will, in fact, stand on the backs of cows to probe and peck. However, the goal is typically not to eat the cow itself, but the parasites on the cow, such as ticks, that are doing just that. Cows are not the only beneficiaries of this behavior — magpies will eat ticks off of other large mammals, including bison, moose, elk, and deer.

The Black-billed Magpie holds a special place in mythology as well. Magpies are recognized as messengers in numerous Indigenous cultures of North America, sometimes to the aid of humans, sometimes to carry news to the Creator. One widespread story tells of how the magpie, for helping humans and birds alike, was given the honor of “wearing the rainbow” — a reference to the iridescent sheen on this bird’s wings and tail. (snip-MORE)

A Saturday A.M. Bird Post

I haven’t posted these in a while, so here are a few links to photos, songs, and facts you can look at whenever you like!

The Painted Bunting

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Macaulay Library’s Best Bird Photos 2026

Featuring 37 photographers. Photo selections and text by Macaulay Library and Living Bird staff.

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The American Goshawk

For Science! And For Species Protection & Diversity, Too

New study reveals that 1,300 new species have been added to the global mammal count

Jan 12, 2026 1:24 PM

According to a new study published in the Journal of Mammalogy, the number of living mammal species has increased by 25% since 2005 — meaning that more than 1,300 new species have been added to the scientific record.

Just a few mammals in that crowded class include new creatures like the mouse opossum (Marmosa chachapoya) of the Peruvian Andes, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) of Ecuador, and the dwarf shrew (Crocidura stanleyi) of Ethiopia.

“Our recognition of 25% more mammal diversity now than 20 years ago indicates an overall improvement in our understanding of how global mammals interact with their environments,” Dr. Nathan Upham, lead researcher and Arizona State University professor, told A-Z Animals.

“Each species is genetically unique, not interbreeding with their close relatives, and thus presumably doing something unique on the landscape — specializing in different food or habitat type or location of activity,” he explained.

Upham’s research centered on a series of mathematical equations.

Since 2005, the Mammal Diversity Database has listed an additional 1,579 species.

Of those new species, 805 were newly described and 774 were “splits,” or offshoots, of what was originally thought to be a single species. 226 species were also merged after new evidence came to light.

In total, that means 1,353 species have been discovered since 2005, amounting to an average of 65 new mammal species being introduced to the scientific record every year.

In his interview with A-Z Animals, Upham emphasized that species are not evolving at a faster rate; they are simply becoming easier to find and identify.

“Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have dramatically lowered the cost of obtaining DNA across the genomes from hundreds of individuals simultaneously,” Upham said.

Upham’s spotlight on mammalian research is supported by a larger, separate study published in Science Advances by John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Together with his fellow researchers — Xin Li, Ding Yang, and Liang Wang — Wiens estimated that 16,000 new species are discovered each year.

“These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi, and even hundreds of new vertebrates,” Wiens told the University of Arizona.

In 2025, Wiens also spearheaded research on the rate of species extinction and found that it lags significantly behind new species identification.

“Our good news is that this rate of new species discovery far outpaces the rate of species extinctions, which we calculated to about 10 per year,” Wiens said.

“Discovering new species is important because these species can’t be protected until they’re scientifically described,” he added. “Documentation is the first step in conservation – we can’t safeguard a species from extinction if we don’t know it exists.”

Photograph of a newly discovered mammal, the Bassaricyon neblina, or “Olinguito,” taken in the wild at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador. Header image via Mark Gurney / Wikimedia Commons (C. C By 3.0)

“Chickadee Warbler”

Golden-winged Warbler

About

Tiny, nimble, and sporting a bold black mask and “bib” under its bill, the Golden-winged Warbler might be mistaken for a Black-capped Chickadee at first glance. But it’s the long, thin bill and the splashes of vivid golden-yellow on its crown and wings that distinguish this long-distance migratory warbler.

Though they are denizens of shrubby, early successional habitats (areas that are in the early stages of regenerating following a disturbance, such as a fire or a clearcut) in the nesting season, Golden-winged Warblers and their recently fledged young relocate to nearby mature forests that provide adequate cover for fledglings from predators. The loss of quality brushy, young forest habitat across much of its breeding range has contributed to sharp declines in an already uncommon warbler.

Another threat comes from a close relative, the Blue-winged Warbler, which shares more than 99 percent of its genetic material with the Golden-winged Warbler. The two species regularly hybridize, and the once-uncommon Blue-winged Warbler has surged northward into the Golden-winged’s range. The Golden-winged Warbler has become much scarcer and is at risk of being genetically “swamped” by its more numerous and widespread relative where their ranges meet.

To gain a foothold and begin to recover from the loss of more than 60 percent of its population, the Golden-winged Warbler needs active habitat conservation throughout its annual life cycle, from the shrubby, early successional habitats where it nests to the open forests of Latin America and the Caribbean, where it spends its nonbreeding season.

Threats

Birds around the world are facing threats, and many species are declining. The Golden-winged Warbler has experienced a drop in its population of more than 60 percent, including a loss of nearly all of its population in the Appalachians. In addition to competition and hybridization with the Blue-winged Warbler, the Golden-winged Warbler faces challenges throughout its full annual cycle from habitat loss and degradation, and collisions. (snip-More on the page, including the songs)

https://abcbirds.org/birds/golden-winged-warbler/