Bird’s
of
Laurie Eberhardt
Introduction:
Ever get a fleeting glimpse of the rear of a bird heading into the bushes and wonder, ‘what was that?’ Bird watching offers a special fascination because so many birds are beautiful and easy to attract and watch. In this area of the country there are about 331 species of birds with some of those as year-round residents and the rest coming and going with the seasons. Because the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes offers so many different kinds of habitats a huge variety of the possible birds can be seen right here in our own back yards. This chapter will cover the variety of birds possible in this area and the seasons and places they are likely to be seen.
What is a bird?
Birds are members of the animal kingdom
and distinguished
from all other animals by the feathers that cover their bodies. They also have unique and very efficient
lungs with one-way air flow, a unique four chambered heart, and
especially
light hollow bones that set them apart from all others what. Scientists
have traced the history of birds
and find the most recent common ancestors are shared with dinosaurs and
some
reptiles and not mammals as was conjectured in the past.
Birds, along with bats and insects, are also
the only groups of organisms alive today that can truly fly. Although a few species, such as penguins and
ostriches, have lost that ability, all the wild birds we have in
Importance of birds:
Birds are valuable to us in a huge variety of ways. Probably one of the most important yet hardest to describe is the aesthetic value of birds in our lives; the joy of waking up early on a spring morning and hearing the chorus of birds singing in our yards and gardens, the excitement of seeing a flash of bright color in bush or tree, the satisfaction of having birds become friendly and tame when you put out food for them. In addition to the obvious enjoyment we glean out of watching birds, birds play an important part in the ecology of the area. All life is interconnected through feeding and other relationships and a loss of our avian friends would be felt in all sorts of ways. The following paragraphs describe specific ecological roles birds play in this area of the country.
Figure 1. The seeds of many plants that produce berries, like these wild blueberries, are dispersed by the birds that feed on them.
Seed dispersal- Many birds in this area feed on fruit from wild trees and shrubs. They eat the fruit for the sweet, juicy pulp and not the seeds. Birds with long, thin beaks are unable to remove seeds or crush them before eating so they just gulp them whole and the seeds pass completely through the bird intact. What results at the other end of processing is that the seeds are deposited in the bird’s fecal material along with a bit of extra fertilizer. Thus the fruit-eating bird is functioning in the vital role of seed dispersal for the plants. Plants benefit because their seeds are carried far enough away from the parent plant so that the new seedlings do not compete with the parent as they grow. The birds obviously benefit because they have received a good meal out of the deal. This kind of win/win arrangement in nature is called a mutualism.
We can observe the results of such a mutualism in the abundance of wild grape that grows along fence rows and under trees at the edges of woods. The seeds of these grapes were deposited by birds who found favorite perches on the fence or trees above. Wild grapes and other fruiting trees such as wild cherry make great wildlife food for a whole variety of animals so the fruit-eating birds enrich their ecological community by transporting and planting good wildlife food.
Who are the fruit eaters?
Many birds love fruit and some even change their food habits
(and
resulting digestive physiology) to take advantage of the abundant fruit
of
autumn in
Waterfowl are also very important in the transport of aquatic plant seeds or vegetative plant parts from one water body to another. These may be ingested directly or carried in mud adhering to the webbed feet of these birds.
Pollination – Another common mutualism we have in this area is between flowers and their pollinators. Obviously many insects such as bees and butterflies perform this service but one species of bird in Northwest Indian also performs pollination services in exchange for nectar from flowers. That bird is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Tiny hummingbirds must visit many flowers to get enough nectar to keep their small bodies at a warm and constant body temperature. During seasons where there are not blooming flowers, hummingbirds must go south to warmer places with food. In the lakes area, hummingbirds arrive as early as the end of April in the spring and leave by the first weeks of October. During the season when hummingbirds are present it is easy to attract them to a feeder filled with fresh sugar water. If you feed hummingbirds in this way it is very important to keep the sugar water fresh, make it only with table sugar, and make it about 20% sugar (one part sugar to four parts water), otherwise, the hummingbirds using your feeder may get very sick.
A wonderful example of a hummingbird pollinated flower in our area is the common red cardinal flower. The structure of the flower is modified so that the hummingbirds transfer pollen on their forehead from flowers in the male phase to flowers in their female phase. (I have some very nice photos of cardinal flower).
Figure 2. Many
insects perform the same role as hummingbirds of moving pollen from one
flower
to the next as they gather nectar from the flowers.
A very intriguing side story with hummingbirds is their associations with a woodpecker called the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Sapsuckers are able to make holes in tree bark and induce the tree’s sweet sap to flow out. Hummingbirds will often steal this sap from a sapsucker’s feeding holes when the sapsuckers are not present. This interesting association allows hummingbirds to move farther north earlier in the spring before there is an abundance of open flowers to provide enough food. They simply follow the sapsuckers during migration up to their northern breeding grounds and rely on the sap they provide for food!
[each of the following examples will be developed in a similar way to the above example]
As part of the food chain - (owls on rodents)
Moving nutrients between habitats - (ducks, geese move nutrients in and out of lake)
Clean up of environment - (crows, vultures eating dead animals)
Making homes for others - (woodpeckers and squirrels)
One final note about the importance of birds relates to their ability to act as an ecological indicator. Just as miners used to carry canaries into the mines as a way to detect poor air quality (if the canary passed out is was time to get out!), the presence of certain species can indicate something about the quality of our environment. For example, in the lakes area, a state endangered bird, the Marsh Wren, was observed in the spring of 2002. This bird requires relatively clean areas of marsh with healthy plants including cattails for nesting. Thus, its presence suggests good environmental quality in places it lives. Although perhaps this seems a rather crude measure of lake environmental health, it is a fast and simple way to rapidly assess ecosystem health.
Seasonal changes in the lakes region.
The area around the lakes and
Winter – In January when the lakes are frozen solid and snow covers the ground, it may seem like a poor time for any bird watching, but winter is a great time to see birds close up at a bird feeder. With cold temperatures and snow cover, the natural food supply of seeds, berries, and insects can be very low. A feeder full of sunflower or other seeds easily entices birds in during these lean times. With patience, you can even get birds like chickadees to feed right from your had. Most of the birds that come to a feeder in the lakes area including Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Mourning Dove, and Downy, Hairy, Red-headed, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are native year-round residents that will stay here in summer to build nests and have young. Some of the birds that show up at a feeder are wintering in the region. Birds that winter in the lakes area include Dark-eyed Juncos, Tree Sparrows, and Red-breasted Nuthatches. We also have a few non-native resident birds in the area that will come to feeders including House Sparrows, House Finches, and European Starlings. As is often the case with non-native species, these invasive birds are especially common and sometimes take over and chase away the native species (see below).
Figure 3. Birds like this Downy Woodpecker
will
readily come to bird feeders in the winter because the wild food supply
is low
at a time when birds need extra calories to keep warm.
As for water birds, most of these leave
the area for
somewhere with open water because the frozen surface of the lakes don’t
provide
a place to feed. However, if the water
is kept artificially open by a heater or aerator, water birds such as
ducks and
geese will congregate on these open places in winter.
For example, in this region, a good place to
see wintering ducks is along
[each season below will be developed as above with common birds, bird activities and best places to see birds]
Early Spring
–
Figure 4. One of the early birds to return to this
region in the spring is the Great Blue Heron.
In a mild winter with open water available, Great Blue Herons
will even
stay all year here.
Spring/Suumer Breeding Season -
Late Summer/Early Fall –
Late Fall
–
The Problem with Introduced Species
Our ecosystems of animals, plants, microbes, and all other life have existed together in this area and developed sometimes close relationships ever since the glaciers left this area about 13,000 years ago (see chapter xx on geologic history of area). Obviously there have been changes in climate and resulting flora and fauna in that time but most of our native species have been living together for at least several thousand years. This is long enough for these species to have struck up some sort of balance, if not an equilibrium, at least some sort of cycle that allows them to coexist. We humans have drastically changed the native ecosystems just within the last 100 years with the destruction of habitat and the introduction of non-native species or variants. Non-native species can disrupt existing ecosystems in a variety of ways including out-competing natives for food, nest sites or other resources, alteration of nutrient cycles, and becoming pests because of their large numbers. Details and examples of several of these problem species in the lakes area are outlined below.
European Starling –(introduced
on east coast for song, problem for woodpeckers and nest cavities)
House Finch – (introduced on east
coast from west coast,
problem for purple finch)
Resident Canada Goose
–
(introduced when native migrant
Others in area but not major problem
for lakes area -
(swan, muscovy duck, pigeon, etc.)
