021322. Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-brown-creepers-have-high-pitched-insistent-call-note/article_3a18cc3f-e96f-595e-be76-146b1adf66cd.html 

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Black-billed Magpie

A large bird of the American West in the corvid family, the Black-billed Magpie is easily identified by long black tail with black, white and blue-green iridescent plumage.  It also boasts white primaries and scapulars, readily observed in flight.  The mechanical sounds that the magpie makes are reminiscent of R2D2 of Star Wars fame.  With such a recipe, this is a bird sure to cause the curious to become even more intrigued.

This unusual bird flashes white wing patches while in flight, somewhat similar to the Northern Mockingbird. The long rudderlike tail, which makes up half its body length, appears to belong to the Great-tailed Grackle at first glance.  So what IS it?

The American magpie is common in parklands, riparian thickets, and prairies, as long as there are scattered trees at its disposal.  It also perches on fenceposts as well as along the roadside.  A seed- as well as animal eater, it forages on the ground for insects, rodents, and worms, usually in small groups of its kind.




                              Black-billed Magpie
        Pen, ink, graphite pencil, marker, colored pencil
                        Art by Liana Winters Smith

A Cimarron County resident in the 1920s and early '30s, it has recently been seen in Cimarron County along the river for which the county is named off Highway 325. Though a very rare bird now, it still remains in the Panhandle as a species.  It was last seen in numbers of a dozen in 2012.

The domed nest, though historical, sits near the tops of trees and is twig construction.

These omnivores have habits of the Cattle Egret, which also stays around moose or cattle herds and removes ticks and other pests from their backs by standing upon them. As a gregarious species, it is also somewhat tolerant of humans, often in their vicinity and around their structures, conveyances, or bird feeders to supplement their diets.

They have also followed wolves, cleaning up after their kills, as any opportunistic animal would.  Like crows, they cache food on the ground.  The food is covered up with grass or leaves, and usually consumed within a few days, moved elsewhere for security reasons, or simply abandoned.  No doubt that the aroma will eventually lead other animals to its location if unused.

The magpie ants as well as suns itself under appropriate conditions.  They also roost in the winter, like the American Crow, but don't huddle.  They will also regurgitate pellets, which can be found under the trees on the ground.

They have decreased in the plains due to habitat loss since the mid-1960s and are susceptible to topicals applied to the backs of cattle as a pest deterrent.

Magpies tend to use altitudinal migration over any other type of seasonal movement.
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Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Yellow-headed Blackbird

The Yellow-headed Blackbird offers a harsh, unmusical utterance, even harsher than the Red-winged Blackbird, sounding quite like a rusty hinge.  They will roost and nest within thick, reedy marshes.  Sometimes these flocking birds will mix with other blackbirds to forage for invertebrates and seeds in pastures and fields, where they can obtain sufficient food in both arenas.  They can be found often in cow pastures where refuse from the animals is readily found to attract a variety of insects and flies.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful of blackbirds, the male of the species boasts a bright yellow head, throat, and breast with white primary wing coverts.

They are colonial nesters in marshes west of the Great Lakes, with the nest being attached to vegetation in marshes.  They often sit upon cattails to keep intruders out of their little piece of real estate by displaying and announcing their territorial rights, and often nest with Red-winged Blackbirds.  Breeding males usually have eight females at their disposal for breeding purposes and females will often mate with males in adjacent territories.  They have a cooperative relationship with Forster's Terns to mob predators or give alarm calls.  Yellow-heads may still be breeding in Texas County, OK, and are generally a new breeding species.

In winter, they often migrate to Mexico and the southwestern US, joining large flocks with other birds.  Northern wintering populations are mostly males, while the southern group is usually females.

An interesting feeding technique is opening their bills in the ground like a post hole digger to unearth food and they will also overturn stones for the delectables underneath.

For Views of the Yellow-headed Blackbird and Other Species:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2017/05/pre-and-post-storm-events.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2017/04/springs-migrants-have-been-dropping-in.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2016/07/alls-quiet-before-proverbial-storm-not.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: White-breasted Nuthatch

Yank-yank-yank!

Those are sounds directly attributed to the unusual White-breasted Nuthatch, a boisterous little songbird.

Common in mature deciduous forests, orchards, wood lots, and mixed woods of much of the continent, they are often in mixed flocks of other little songbirds feeding upon insects and seeds found within bark.  They like stands with decaying trees for appropriate nest cavities and will even nest under bark.  The species will climb up and down the trunk or main limbs backward, which is attributed to the nuthatch clan.

These personable birds use the tools that they are given to the best of their ability.  They often wedge seeds in bark crevices to hold them steady, while that sharp little bill goes to work opening their treasure.

                                                      Eastern White-breasted Nuthatch
                                                           Boomer Lake Park, 2015

All three populations of the US--the Eastern, Pacific, and Interior West--have slightly different dialects, just like many of us do, depending upon what part of the country we hail from.  The Eastern's call is low and a hoarse nasal variety, Pacific is highest pitched and thinly nasal, while the Interior West is also high, shorter and rapid.  There is also a thinly veiled subspecies within the Interior West version, from the Sierra Nevada and Northern Rocky Mountain region.  Its song and calls are the highest pitched with the rapid pattern.

Our birds in Oklahoma are the Eastern subspecies, and they are more often found in the eastern portion of the state.  In the western half, they are restricted by necessity to riparian corridors, which is only in local areas.

Knotholes are often used as entrances to their cavities, while the nest is lined with hair, bark strips, and other softer materials.  Most cavities are at least fifteen feet high, but I have seen a low, rotted stump used.

These single brooders incubate in the neighborhood of twelve days, and they begin nesting sometimes in February, through the month of March.

Though the pair winters apart, the male sings in winter to attract the female, and they keep in touch throughout the day.  The female builds the nest, and both sexes raise the young.

What other birds were around on the same day I photographed the White-breasted Nuthatch?

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2015/06/pre-summer-fun-in-sun.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Orchard Oriole

The Orchard Oriole (an icterid) is a blackbird, as many other birds that sport black in their coloring.  They are uncommon in areas with isolated tall trees or where there are scattered shade trees, orchards, parks, and farmsteads.  Grasslands will also be considered if suitable nest sites are in the vicinity.  They prefer being in habitats with water, a solitary species, and glean insects and larvae and will take fruit and nectar at birdfeeders.  They are also attracted by trumpet shaped flowers for nectar.

A deep russet or burnt orange color, the male will sing at treetops to attract the yellow-green female, and is the smallest of the orioles.  Females make themselves attractive to males by head bowing, begging with rapid wing fluttering and a high whistle, and seesawing by alternately lowering and raising the head and tail.

                                                                     Male Orchard Oriole
                                                                       Boomer Lake Park

Experienced males will reach the breeding grounds first, followed by females, then the first year males.  These passerines do not compete with the Baltimore Oriole, possibly considering it an ally.  They will share large trees (oaks) with Eastern Kingbirds, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, American Robins, and other birds.

                                                               Juvenile Orchard Oriole
                                                                     Boomer Lake Park

Nests average about twenty feet high in crotches or forks of broadleafed trees, but willows or cottonwoods may also be used due to good shade.  It is a hanging basket made of woven fibers, but tends to be wider than deeper than the Baltimore Oriole.  They are single brooded, breeding from May through July in Oklahoma.

Females will occasionally be confused with New World Warblers, especially if the tail has been lost due to a predator's action.

                                                              Female Orchard Oriole
                                                                  Boomer Lake Park