Journal Post #3- 3/14/19

The date for my birdwatch was 3/14/19 from 1:30-2:30. The weather was sunny and warm, but very windy. There is lots of interaction between the birds, usually fighting over who is at the feeder. The most frequent communication is birds arriving onto the feeder are fighting with the bird that is already at the feeder. It also seems like the Black-capped Chickadees are definitely the most vocal, although I also definitely heard the cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches, House Sparrows, and Tufted Titmice.

The chickadees are also much braver than any of the other species, they seem to not care as much when humans are sitting around. I think they're probably watching each other's backs in the event of a predator, and communicating that nobody is making threatening moves towards them. The chickadees have a blueish gray color to them, as do the white-breasted nuthatches. I'm assuming they evolved that way as they can blend in pretty well in the winter when there isn't much color on the landscape. I was wondering the significance of the cap on chickadees though. What advantage does that have?

There was a chickadee that was foraging for food which is super important for something that has such a high metabolism and stays during the winter. I would imagine that they do this for the majority of the day in order to survive.

The pishing was an interesting activity, the chickadees were really interested in what I was doing. However, I couldn't quite seem to figure out the right frequency, so they kept disappearing and reappearing. I have no idea why that sound would be enticing to birds.

Posted on 25 de março de 2019, 01:50 AM by