What is the ornithological definition of a songbird?

 

                                      Indigo Bunting photo by BarrytheBirder

In ornithology, a songbird is a perching bird belonging to the suborder Passeri (also called oscines) within the large order of passerine birds (Passeriformes).   They are defined by a  specialized, highly developed vocal organ called a syrinx that allows them to produce, complex, learned vocalizations.

The sub-order Passeri, commonly known as true songbirds or oscines, contains roughly 4,100 to 4,500 species.   This group makes up the majority of the larger Passeriformes order (perching birds), which holds about 6,500 total species.

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BarrytheBirder

Terns of eastern North America...

Caspian Tern photo by BarrytheBirder

There are 16 species of terns (including Brown and Black Noddies plus the Black Skimmer) in eastern Northern America, including coastal Greenland and Iceland (it is the Arctic Tern that is found in Greenland and Iceland).

Terns are different than gulls because of their pointed wings, bills and feeding techniques.

They are found in Canada, the U.S.A. and the Caribbean, plus Greenland and Iceland, as mentioned above.   Half the 16 Tern species are greyish-white, while the other half are black and white.

Most terns plunger-dive into the water after prey, primarily small fish.

Most species have a forked tail.

Photo by BarrytheBirder

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Barry the Birder

Point Pelee - one of Canada's best birding hotspots

Point Pelee National Park is the southernmost mainland point of Canada.   It shares the same latitude as Northern California.   It is famous for extreme biodiversity, rare Carolinian forests, and serving as a major migration crossroads for birds and butterflies.

Point Pelee acts as a "migrant trap" where migratory flyways converge over Lake Erie.   Tired songbirds resting after night flights, rare Carolinian habitats, and over 390 recorded bird species make it a 'world-famous birding destination'

Point Pelee's tip is a narrow spit of land jutting into Lake Erie that stops exhausted birds from flying further inland, concentrating thousands of colourful songbirds, hawks and waterfowl into an extremely tiny area.

Point Pelee has been described as a crossroads where migration routes from Texas and Florida cross, serving as welcome stop for exhausted migrants.   It shares the same latitude as northern California.

Point Pelee is famed for its diverse habitats, featuring rare forests, savannahs, beached, and huge freshwater marshes that shelter unique and noteworthy wildlife.

Autumn activity presents a different wave of migration, including raptors, monarch butterflies and dragonflies moving south.

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BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawks will migrate south soon...

                                                                               Swainson's Hawk photos by BarrytheBirder

I hate to see it happen, but the Swainson's Hawks I have become so enamoured with here in the Town of Aurora, just north of Toronto, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, will be are getting ready to migrate south, possibly as far south as Argentina!

They have populating here in Aurora for the past three or four years, far from their most well-known territory of Kansas.   In fact, they have displaced local Red-tailed Hawks in the south-west part of Aurora, where I live.

Swainson's Hawks have the longest possible annual migration route of any raptor in the western hemisphere, a round-trip that can go from Alaska to Argentina and back for the total of 20,000 to 24,000 kms!

The journey represents on of the longest migratory paths of any North American raptor, as tracked by the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

   

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BarrytheBirder

Red-tail Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

 

(Photo source unknown)

I don't know where I got the photo above, but I just love how this Red-tailed Hawk seems to understand that the photo is greatly improved by the hawk showing its most distinguishing feature.   Whoever took this picture must be especially pleased with the shot they took!

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BarrytheBirder

Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis)

                                                                                     Photo - Cornell Lab - All About Birds

Sandhill Crane races vary in size (L 34-48", WS 73-90").   Adults are gray, with dull red skin on crown and lores, whitish chin, cheek, cheek , and upper throat., with slatey primaries.

Sandhills are sometimes confused with Great Blue Herons (which lack bustles).

Their common call is a trumpeting, rattling 'gar-oo-oo', often audible for more than mile, and often heard from flocks high overhead.   

Migrating flocks heading south ly at great heights, sometimes too high to be seen.

They are locally common in Canada and the northern United States.   They breed on tundra and in marshes and grasslands.  In winter, they feed regularly in dry fields, returning to water at night.   They are rare on the east coast.

They can be highly social and very localized, occurring in large flocks in some places and be absent elsewhere.

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BarrytheBirder

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

                                                                                          Photo by BarrytheBirder

The male Northern Harrier is my personal choice of most attractive hawk.   I am particularly taken with the male's overall gray colouring, black wing tips, white rump and belly, plus its long tail.

Northern Harriers (formerly called "Marsh Hawk") are best known by their shape, low slow flight, and wings angled up in a shallow V.

I'm also rather partial to their owl-like facial disc.

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Barry the Birder

Where are new bird species occuring?

 While Brand-new scientific bird species descriptions are rare globally (with most additions occurring via taxonomic splits or remote tropical expeditions), tropical nations in South America and Southeast Asia continue to dominate total avian richness and reporting growth.   Ongoing deep-field work in the Andes, Amazon Basin, and Indonesian Islands occasionally yields new phenotypic or genetic discoveries.

Top countries for total bird diversity

Columbia - 1,917 species

Peru - 1,892 species

Brazil - 1,864 species

Indonesia - 1,730 species

Ecuador - 1,684 species

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BarrytheBirder

1,300 bird species will likely go extinct over the next two hundred years...

White-chested White-Eye (Zosterops albo gularis)

A landmark scientific study published in the journal Science projects more than 1,300 bird species will likely go extinct over the next 200 years.   The rate is more than double the 610 historical bird extinctions over the past 130,000 years.

Confirmed 21st century bird extinctions so far include:

Po'ouli (Melamprosops): last seen and died in captivity in 2004 0n the island of Maui, Hawaii.

White-chested White-eye (Zosterops albogularis): believed to have gone extinct around 2005 on Christmas Island.

Cryptic Treehunter (Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti)\): last recirded in 2007 in northeastern Brazil.

Kaua'i Nukupu'u (Hemignathus hanapepe): Formally evaluated and tracked with recent localized extinctions up to 2007 in Hawaii.

Alagoas Foliage-gleaner (Philydor novaesi) Declared extinct after last being seen around 2011 in Brazil.

Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris): Formerly categorized following updated assessments up to 2024 after prolonged absence from its wintering and breeding grounds.

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Barry the Birder

Wish I'd taken this photo...

 

                                        Photo source - Gaston Romano (Hummingbird Lovers website)

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BarrytheBirder

How many hummingbird species in the world?

                                   Ruby-throated Hummingbird photo by BarrytheBirder

There are 366 species of hummingbirds recognized in the family Trochilidae. Most of these birds live in Central and South America.   The highest number of types live near the equator in countries like Ecuador and Columbia.   Only about 24 types visit the United States and Canada (like the 'Ruby-throated', pictured above); fewer than 20 breed there.

Rarest hummingbirds species in the world...

The Santa Marta Sabrewing (Campylopterus phainopeplus) and the Turquoise-throated Puffleg (Eriocnemis godini) are widely considered to be the rarest hummingbird species in the world.   Both have critically endangered populations estimated at fewer than 50 to 250 mature individuals, and both have spent years "lost to science".

Hummingbird wings beat between 12 and 80 times per second during normal hovering and flight, but can spike up to 200 times per second during fast courtship dives.   The exact flap rate depends on the bird's size and specific species.

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BarrytheBirder

Tennessee Warbler could have been the Canada Warbler...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Except for the fact that there is already a Canada Warbler, I think the Tennessee Warbler could be named the Canada Warbler, as its entire breeding range is found almost exclusively within Canada, from British Columbia across to Newfoundland, minus a wee smidge of territory in south-west Alaska.

It is only found in the lower U.S.A. during its fall migration en-route to the Caribbean.

It's not especially noteworthy colour-wise and its nest is on the ground (not easy to see).

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 Barry the Birder

Hummingbirds

                                            Ruby-throated Hummingbird

                                                                    Photo by Barry the Birder

The Ruby-throated Humm9ingbird is one of 10 species of 'hummers' to be found in the United States and lower Canada.   It is the only 'hummer seen regularly (the others stray in).

The Ruby-throated is common in summer but may be overlooked.   Look for it it in forest edges, parks and gardens.   Most winter in the tropics.

The adult male has an iridescent ruby throat, which may look black in most lights.   Its white chest contrasts with dark throat, green sides, tail all black.   Females are green above, whitish below.

Red-throateds breed from Alaaka to south Oregon and western Montana.  They winter in Mexico and occasionally in southern California.   They wander annually to Gulf Coast, from Texas east to Florida.

Tiny gem in flight,

            Drinking sweet red flower juice,

                  Gone into the blue.

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Barry the Birder

 

Bird caps from Colorflock...

 

Photos by Barry the Birder

These are new birding caps that my partner Pat and I just ordered from Colorflock in the U.S.A.    Pat's cap features an embroidered Ruby-throated Hummingbird and my cap has a colourful Blackburnian Warbler.   Neat stuff!

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BarrytheBirder   

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

                                                                                           Photos by BarrytheBirder

A large white egret (but slightly smaller than the Great Blue Heron) is the most widespread white egret in the southern part of Canada and the U.S.A.   It has a heavy yellow bill, blackish legs and feet.  In breeding plumage, long plumes trail from the back, extending beyond the tail.

They are common in marshes, mangrove swamps and mud flats.   They are partial to open habitats for feeding, where they stalk prey slowly and methodically.

My favourite spot to view these birds is at the Luther Marsh, west of Orangeville, Ontario, north of Hwy. 9.

This bird was formerly called the Common Egret and American Egret.

Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon)

 

Barry the Birder photos

Belted Kingfisher

The Belted Kingfisher is the only kingfisher found in most of North America.  Two others, the Ringed Kingfisher and the Green Kingfisher are found in lower Texas.

The Belted Kingfisher is common and conspicuous along rivers, brooks, ponds, lakes and estuaries.   

They are rarely found north into summer range and they are solitary except in the nesting season.

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RarrytheBirder

Some favourite Osprey photos...

 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio)

Facing eradication in South Florida

The Purple Swamphen species was introduced to Florida in 1996-1998 near Pembroke Pines where it quickly spread.   It was a non-native invasive species that competed with native wildlife, damaged wetland vegetation and threatened local ecosystems.   It was introduced in Florida after an accidental release after widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

They were strong aggressive birds that dominated or displaced native North American rails, including native birds such as Purple Gallinule and Common Moorhen.

It was targeted for eradication, and between October 2006 and December 2008, state agencies killed over 3,100 swamphens using shotguns from airboats in South Florida.   Officials eventually stopped the active eradication program in late 2008 because complete elimination seemed impossible due to the birds hiding in thick marsh plants.

The Purple Swamphen is a fairly large old world species (L. 18 - 20")

So far this seems to be a story without an end.

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BarrytheBirder

Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)

                                                                   

                                                                           Photos by BarrytheBirder

Black cap and bib  and white cheeks quickly identify this wee bird over most of its widespread range in southern Canada and the northern U.S.A. (Alaska to east to Newfoundland and south to Northern California, northern Oklahoma, and northern New Jersey).   This bird is common in open woodlands, clearings, suburbs and it usually forages in thickets or low branches of trees. 

It is tame and inquisitive and a frequent visitor to bird feeders.   Its call is a dry chick-a-dee-dee or dee-dee-dee.

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BarrytheBirder

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

                                                                                Photos by BarrytheBirder

The Double-crested Cormorant is the most widespread and common cormorant in Canada and the U.S.A., especially inland, with numbers increasing greatly since the 1970s.   

Adults are blackish all over with orange skin on the face and throat, extending up to the lores (in front of eye).

Cormorants are snaky-necked, long-tailed divers with bare skin on the face and throat, extending up to the lores (in front of eye).with hook-tipped bills.  They swim low in the water with heads angled up, and may perch with wings spread to dry.   

They are often seen in flocks, flying in lines or v-formation (see photo below).  They are usually silent except near nests.

Double-crested Cormorants are common and widespread, found on rocky coasts, beaches, inland lakes and rivers and islands.   Breeding populations in the interior are local and irregular but increasing.

They breed along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.   They winter mainly along coast from Alaska to Mexico and from southern New England to Texas.

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BarrytheBirder

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

                                                       Photos by BarrytheBirder

This cow-sized hawk is widespread and common in open country that quarters over ground, hunting primarily for small rodents, frogs, and also some birds.   They perch low or on the ground, seldom on tall poles or trees.

They breed across Canada and south to the southern United States and Mexico.   They were formerly called Marsh Hawks.

They are easily identified in flight by their white rumps, long tails and behaviour; which is to flap occasionally, but mostly glide with long narrow wings angled up in a shallow V.

In perched birds, the long tail, white rump and owl-like face are distinctive.

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BarrytheBirder

Cedar Waxwings looking for berries...

 
                                                                                          Photos by BarrytheBirder

Many  attractive Cedar Waxwings are visiting red berry bushes near to my partner Pat's 3rd floor balcony at Delmanor Retirement Residence in Aurora, Ontario.    I do not know what the small red berries are, but the Waxwings can't get enough of them.   The Berries could be American Winterberry, Red Sprite, Cottoneaster, Red Beauty Holly, or Buffaloberry, etc.   

They visit two bushes dozens of times a day and can't seem to get enough of the berries.   Kingbirds, Robins and sparrows are also feeding on the berries.

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Barry the Birder