061619 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-what-defines-swamps-and-marshes/article_346c2417-116c-5423-9283-f987164390b6.html

Oklahoma Vagrants: Royal Tern

Our New Year's Day present in 1989 was the arrival of a Royal Tern at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City, then in 2008, it managed to return.  In 2008, Red Slough was the lucky location for this stately tern.  Sadly, it has not been seen since, so what might we be waiting for?

The Royal Tern is a large tern with a bright orange-red bill.  It is common, and found on open salt water along beaches, oceanfront inlets, and backwater bays.  They are also plunge divers usually in salt water, and very rarely found in fresh water.  These neotropical migrants have a completely black cap during breeding season only, and for the remainder of the year appear to resemble a bald man, with black around the ears and the back of the head.

They are usually present year round in their breeding range, and should be expected on the Gulf coast and the southern Atlantic Ocean.

                                                                   Royal Terns (rear)
                                                         South Padre Island, Texas 2014

These vagrants are colonial nesters that usually breed at four years of age and only lay one egg, very rarely two.  When the young hatch, they leave the nest and join others in a creche, which is a group of young birds.  The parents continue to feed them, each bird recognizing family members by the sound of their voice.  The young will migrate south with the parents, some heading as far as Ecuador and Argentina.

This species sometimes feeds at night, mostly eating fish and small crustaceans, as well as squid and shrimp.  On the Atlantic coast, they favor blue crab.

Oklahoma Vagrants: Crested Caracara

Seen as early as 2002 in the Perry area, which is as far north and east as has been reported in Oklahoma, and at Red Slough in winter of 2018, the Crested Caracara gets around as an accidental or vagrant bird.

The caracara is a raptor, and very unlike a regal falcon.  Even its physical attributes say that it was classified incorrectly:  long legs, habits of a scavenger, rounded wingtips, and it flies low in search of prey.

Known as the northern caracara, these birds are found in scrub, deserts, grasslands, and up to ten thousand feet above sea level.

Often on foot, they capture their prey running upon the ground and overtaking it.  They require a running start in order to become airborne, and once they do, their flight is strong and they can soar well, in order to scan for ground prey.

                                                           Adult Crested Caracara
                                                               January 2017, TX

As opportunists, they will join vultures at carrion, overturn rocks for insects, fish in shallow water, and eat nearly anything, even fruit.  However, their bill is not useful for opening large prey, so they require a larger animal or a vulture to do that.

Since the caracara feeds upon carrion, its face is bare in order to permit cleanliness.  Perching upon small trees or fenceposts, this falcon is not known for swift and acrobatic flights.  It would rather scan for vultures on the way to prey.

The northern crested caracara is common in Mexico, as well as Central and northern South America.  Due to recent bad weather in and around Cuba, it may not be as common there as it once was.

Stick nests are built in mesquites, palms, live oak, palmetto, cactus, shrubs, or even upon the ground if absolutely necessary.  Where populations are endangered (Florida in 1987), temperature increases caused loss of habitat.