Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Painted Bunting

A sweet, ongoing warble that sounds like graffiti, graffiti, spaghetti for two, and that is the sound of the male (or immature male) Painting Bunting.  The male receives his handsome dress no earlier than his second year of life.  This uncommon beauty is located along forest edges, wooded ravines, shrubby river bottoms, or in tall trees, and it is very at home along riparian forest.  If you have ever heard that song, you will never forget it.

One of the most beautiful and colorful birds, this splash of radiance is found from May through July in the better part of Oklahoma, except the panhandle, which lacks forest and brushy thickets.

Males are very territorial and will battle other interlopers while females are arriving in the area.  They have been known to wound or kill other males, and if the female should be caught up within a fracas, she can also risk injury.  This species favors invertebrates, and will even remove prey from spider's webs in order to feed.  The males are relentless during spring.

                                                                Male Painted Bunting
                                                                 Boomer Creek, 2015

Often parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, this member of the cardinal family is known collectively as a mural or palette of buntings.  When males migrate to warmer regions for the winter, they still retain their beautiful plumage and do not molt into drabness.

Due to loss of habitat, the species is declining in both the US and Central America.  They may still be trapped as cage birds in the illegal trade south of our country, and have a near threatened conservation status.

If you have had any of these birds in your back yard, they will visit feeders, and you'll be even more fortunate if you have the perfect habitat for a nesting pair.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Swainson's Hawk

A lanky hawk of the west, desert, prairie, and farmland, the Swainson's Hawk is one of four buteos with four notched primaries (as opposed to five).  They are uncommon and hunt from the air, a perch (still-hunting) or even upon the ground, running after their quarry.  They generally feed on reptiles or small mammals in summer, then resort to grasshoppers, locusts, and other invertebrates for the remainder of the year.

Known as the locust or grasshopper hawk, this handsome bird was named after William Swainson, a British naturalist.  Swainson felt like many of us do when it comes to living things.  They were an inherent passion.

Suspected to have a migration range of 14,000 miles, this raptor is likely the longest traveler in the family of hawks.  Wintering in Argentina or Southern Brazil, immature Swainson's Hawks can see their way to southern Canada by late March and their migration can peak from mid-April forward.

Having diverse and somewhat unusual eating habits, this hawk will take Mallards, fledged Lark Buntings, incapacitated Sage Grouse, toads, salamanders, whip snakes, the American Kestrel, young Short-eared Owls, and several others.  They are also known for hunting upon freshly plowed fields for rodents, and are opportunistic feeders, as well.

These birds come in a light, intermediate and dark morph.  Oklahoma has the lowest percentage of dark morphs, while California has the highest.  They can behave similarly to the Northern Harrier by flying low to the ground at times.  Wingbeats are deep and loose, and they will soar with wings in a dihedral angle, or an angle between two intersecting planes.  They glide like an Osprey would.  These are all tell tale signs of how to spot the bird on a hawk watch.

Last year, while visiting the Oklahoma Panhandle, these were relatively common, perching on telephone poles and fence posts.  This photo came from that area, with the sun behind the bird.

                                                                Swainson's Hawk
                                                            Cimmaron County, OK

Another interesting point, also from last year, was during monarch migration.  A notation was made on a butterfly site to go outside and look up, which I did.  I saw no monarchs, but observed fifteen Swainson's Hawks heading southbound.  It was one of the most remarkable sights ever seen, especially with the way that the light struck the underwings and their breasts in late afternoon, as they simply glowed.

Swainson's will hybridize with Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, but it is questionable if Ferruginous Hawks are in the mix.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Common Yellowthroat

Witchety-witchety-witchery-witchery-witch

This song signifies the Common Yellowthroat, a warbler that isn't always out in the open.  It deliberately makes itself scarce, if it is in the vicinity of its nest.  They will often hop out of the nest and run along the ground to keep its location under wraps.

The male wears his black mask well and has a bright yellow throat.  These warblers are often in the confines of marshes, weeds, reeds, within willows, brush, and tall grass.  There are four regional types that differ to some degree, mostly in assorted coloration, but size matters, too, when it comes to these males.  There is also a minor difference in dialect.  Groupings include the Eastern, West, Southwest, and Pacific varieties.  They prefer wet areas, but have been seen in drier locations, as well.

                                                         Male Common Yellowthroat
                                                            Boomer Lake Park, 2014

These warblers are quite frequently on the move, flitting from grass to plant and back, climbing up and down weed stems, catching insects in midair.  Flights are short, and the female is rarely observed.

Wood warblers such as these will dine upon seeds, insects, spiders, and assorted larvae.  The nest is built by the female on the ground, usually under assorted vegetation or leaves, or within a short distance from the ground with what resembles a roof.

                                                    Juvenile Male Common Yellowthroat
                                                            Santa Ana NWR, TX 2017

It is a widespread species, found all over the country and in southern Canada and Mexico.  It may winter from southern Texas to the northern portion of South America.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Prothonotary Warbler

Tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet!

These sounds are familiar in wooded, tick infested swamps with a creek or standing water.  It is a clear, metallic song, and you should be able to observe this beauty, close to eye level once it gets to know you.

The male has a bright yellow head and breast with steel blue wings and black eyes and bill.  The species was named after Catholic clergy due to its primarily yellow attire.

A cavity nester, the pair will flit in and out of the old woodpecker hole that they have chosen, which is anywhere from seven to eighteen feet almost directly over the water.  When it is nearly May in Oklahoma, one waits with bated breath for this beautiful bird.

A New World Warbler, or wood warbler, the prothontary is an insectivore, and he will build several incomplete nests, while the female opts to build the real nest.  The birds favor insects and snails, which is why they are in favor of living by water, which tends to attract both of those food sources.  They will also eat seeds and rely on nectar, if necessary.

                                                          Male Prothonotary Warbler
                                                                  Red Slough, 2016

One of two cavity nesting warblers, it is often a victim of Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism.

These birds will use nest boxes, an old rural mailbox placed in or by the water, as well as old Downy Woodpecker cavities, and is often in the same area as other species of concern, namely the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Red-headed Woodpecker.  They winter in mangrove swamps and lowland forests of creeks and streams in Central and northern South America.

This photograph was taken after trying to obtain one for a couple of years.  The bird was practically two feet away from my knees, perched over standing water in a swamp.  It had been calling to me, but due to the darkness, I was unable to see it at first.  It patiently waited while I got my shots, then returned to the nest cavity, not far from where I was standing.  It was worth the eight ticks to finally get this picture.

                                                        Male Prothonotary Warbler
                                                             Boomer Creek, 2017

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Very small and rarely standing still, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher has two subspecies, the eastern and the western.  They also have a noticeable white eye ring, and a very defined blue-gray coloring.
The breathy and wheezing song can be heard before the bird can be seen, and that could be your only clue that they are in your presence.  However, during the fall, if they are still attending young, they will be a little more lenient to your view.

They glean small insects, usually from mid- to upper-story levels of trees.  In the east, they are riparian dwellers and foragers, and usually solitary.  The eastern birds nest in swampy woods and tend to favor broad-leafed, tall trees, especially oak which also is a favorite of most insects.  In the western regions, they tend to be located in mature brushy woods or thickets, as well as oak-juniper woods and chapparal.  Western nest in pinyon-juniper areas, open woods, or arid and dense brush.

                                                      Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, July 2016
                                                                      Boomer Creek
                                     
Once classed as an Old World Warbler, the male has a thin, black line over his eye and the long tail appears white from underneath.  The birds will often flutter while gleaning prey in foliage or around thin twigs.  Berries and fruit will be consumed in the winter.

Both sexes will build the nest, and the male often will show the female an assortment of sites on the territory, singing to her all the while as he perches during her inspection.  Both incubate fairly equally, as well as brood the young, who remain in the nest for close to two weeks.  The nests are usually made with spider silk and lichens.  They are attached either in small, high forks or on a horizontal branch.

                                                         Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Nest
                                                                           OK 2016

They are migratory, except in the extreme southern ranges.

081918 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-bird-migration-begins/article_78d125d4-2292-5507-b016-17e82aef1023.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Western Kingbird

A bird of the western half of the US, the Western Kingbird is one of the tyrant flycatchers.  This flycatcher has white edges on both sides of the tail, a white throat and light gray breast, and has a high pitched and squeaky pidik-pik-pidik-pidik-PEEKado call.  It sounds like a sputtering car.

Many of these flycatchers nest upon manmade structures and have been comfortable for doing that for quite some time.  However, if they are in the countryside, they favor edge habitat like orchards, tree lined residential neighborhoods, hedgerows, grassland, desert scrub, fences, electrical or telephone wires, woodland or riparian edges, and many other venues.  They have adapted well to humanity and don't mind being in the close proximity of homo sapiens.

                                                                  Western Kingbird
                                                            Boomer Lake Park, 2016

This species is just as territorial as the Eastern Kingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and the rest of the kingbird clan.  When it is nesting season, they will drive any large bird out of the area, be it hawks or crows, yet several birds may share a single tree for nesting purposes.  They will many times repair a nest from the year before and reuse it.  The young fledge in about two weeks, but they still remain partially dependent.

Like the typical flycatcher, they will perch on branches and sally out after insects for both themselves and their young.  Oftentimes, they will return to the same branch and repeat the same activity after they have either eaten their insect or delivered it to a family member.

                                                         Black Mesa State Park, 2017

During courtship or while defending territory, they will display a reddish-orange crown, very similar to the Eastern Kingbird.

These birds are susceptible to pesticide problems, as they will easily encounter them while foraging around agricultural lands for insects.  They will dive for ground prey and search within foliage for protein matter.

They are a medium- to long-distance migrant, usually wintering in Central America.