If you're a birder or just like animals in general, you may have noticed that sometimes two birds will be shaped the same but will be colored differently. In many kinds of songbirds and other birds alike, color can help determine if the bird is male or female!
One of the best known examples of this is the northern cardinal. Males are cherry red, and females are moth wing brown.
And why is this? Two reasons, mainly:
1. Females often lack bright colors so they can blend in to the undergrowth, undetected on a nest. Since the girls are the ones that lay the eggs and usually the ones who incubate them, they blend in. Males, on the other hand, deliberately attract the attention of the predators with their vibrant colors as to distract them from females and baby birds.
2. Territory. Bright males attract the attention of each other and sometimes flaunt their colors to deter other birds of similar species from straying too close.
Other kinds of songbirds that are colored by gender include:
This DIY leaf bird bath project will create a one-of-kind watering place for the birds in your backyard, and working with cement is easier than you think!
You might start to see these guys soon. This little fellow is a damselfly, distinguishable from dragonflies due to its thin body and single pair of wings. Dragonflies tend to have thicker bodies and have two sets of wings. Other common colors of damselflies are blue and green.
Since my Animal of the Month for May is the tufted titmouse, I'm going to be posting things about songbirds. But what IS a songbird? Here are some steps to help you figure out which birds belong in this category.
#1: Are they singing? If so, they are probably a songbird. "Singing" means calling back and forth to one another - the birds you hear flitting from branch to branch during the spring and summer months. Hawks and owls, even though they do call, are not songbirds.
#2: They are not predator birds. Songbirds don't hunt other kinds of birds. Their diets usually consist of seeds and insects.
#3: They are usually small. Quick, little birds are songbirds.
This is one of my favorite times of the whole year. It’s lush and beautiful outside during May, and you can almost taste the sugary candy that is summer. It’s usually not too hot at this point --- just enough sunshine for shorts but not enough to make you sweat buckets. Best of all: animals usually like to have their babies about now! Soon, there should be goslings, ducklings, baby squirrels, and other baby birds toddling about in the grass or lounging in the nest. During the month of May, along with the regular animal of the month, I’ll turn my camera to a collection of animal families and try as best I can to keep you all updated on the young as they grow up. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue this all throughout spring and summer! But for now – enjoy this month’s Animal of the Month!
~Wrassegirl.
August, 2014
I’m not going to deny it: I love birds. I’ve had a thing for them ever since my sixth grade science teacher showed my class an eagle cam and I got to see the baby eagles grow up. We even had the luck to turn the camera on when one of the babies hatched! It was amazing, and from that point onward I was hooked. That spring, I got my first bird book for my birthday. I immediately set to work reading and re-reading it multiple times until I could identify all the birds in my area.
When spring comes, so do the birds. I have the good fortune to have a patch of woods behind my house that conceals a cute little creek, so I’ve got all kinds of wildlife here. In honor of the beginning of songbird nesting season, I’ve decided to choose one of my favorite songbirds as the Animal of the Month.
May is the month of the tufted titmouse!
Despite the odd name and lack of bright colors, the tufted titmouse has a quirky attitude that I can’t resist. They’re awfully chatty, too – hopping among the branches of a tree and calling to each other with laughing voices.
They’re frequent visitors to birdfeeders, and are often seen flying back to a perch with a seed and cracking it with whacks of its tiny black beak.
Tufted titmice nesting season starts early in the spring, sometimes as soon as April. They prefer to nest in old woodpecker holes or other cavities, but will also nest in a bluebird box or other birdhouse. Average clutch size is 5-8 eggs, and one to two are usually raised each nesting season.
One of the most unique traits the bird possesses is their crest. Cardinals and blue jays are among other birds that possess this trait. Crests are the patch of feathers atop a bird’s head that can be flicked up or down depending on mood. The tufted titmouse’s crest not only gives the bird the first part of its name, but it adds to its playful personality.
Keep an eye out for other songbird posts all throughout the month of May!
Hey, folks! I've spent the afternoon redesigning my blog. Everything's completely different - the description, my avatar, and the look of the blog as a whole. And I'm VERY pleased with the results! If you've got some free time on your hands, take a look!
Hello, all! I apologize for my long absence from Tumblr. Schoolwork and other stuff has kept me away. Since April is almost over, I won't bother with an Animal of the Month this month, but that should be back in full swing by May.
I'm going to try to make some improvements to my Tumblr page so it stays interesting. I'll keep you posted!
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