northeast-flora-and-fauna

Bird feeders can be busy places, especially in winter when food (especially insects) isn't readily available. This picture shows, left to right, a "confusing" chickadee  [1], a Tufted Titmouse , and a White-breasted Nuthatch . Although I'm sure these birds meet in wild settings to forage for food, bird feeders are 1 of the few places there's sufficient food to bring numerous foraging birds into close proximity to each other. I haven't witnessed an actual fight at a bird feeder; they usually establish a pecking order that won't leave everyone happy but generally avoids physical altercations. All 3 of these birds not only eats from the feeders, but they're also hoarders, taking food from the feeder and hiding it for later [2]. Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and woodpeckers are often found foraging in the same area, probably for a couple of reasons: They're looking for similar food. Having more eyes on the alert for danger means it's less likel...

Here's a Black-capped Chickadee . Or is it a Carolina Chickadee ? It's awfully hard to say. In most of the country the issue is decided quickly by knowing where you are. The further south you go, the more likely it is that a bird looking like this is a Carolina Chickadee, and the further north you go, they more likely you are to encounter a Black-capped Chickadee. This article describing the differences shows that I live awfully close to the "hybrid zone", the area in the middle where the chickadees could be Black-cappeds, Carolinas, or hybrids. Skilled birders can recognize the song and call differences between the 2 species ... but near the hybrid zone this is of limited usefulness since each species can learn to make the other's sounds. A Black-capped Chickadee that grows up around Carolina Chickadees might well speak Carolina Chickadee-ese, and vice versa. Or it might be "bilingual". Of course, the hybrid zone isn't fixed in stone. An especially...

Here's another picture of an Eastern Phoebe , this one from last autumn. They are in the tyrant flycatcher family, so it won't surprise you that small invertebrates are on their menu. Ornithologists generally consider this to be the largest family of birds, though it's possible that the family might get split into smaller families as we learn more. Here in New Jersey we're basically at the southern edge of the Eastern Phoebe's breeding range; some of them breed well into Canada. And we theoretically don't see them in the winter, probably because of the challenges of finding invertebrates to eat in winter.  The Eastern Phoebe gets its name from its "fee-bee" call, but not all fee-bees are from phoebes; the Black-capped Chickadee makes a similar sound, though with phoebes the call is shorter than the chickadee one. These birds are generally loners, coming together to breed but then generally parting ways. Though they'll certainly catch flies, why a...