Bird of the Week – Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Another of the difficult Empidonax genus, this little flycatcher is believed to be a relative newcomer to Alaska. Most range maps show it not occuring in Alaska; this photo was taken near Chatanika, along the Steese Highway, northeast of Fairbanks. It’s one of the more distinctive members of the Empidonax species in its appearance and habits. The yellowish underparts and eye-ring make one of the more easily identified Emps. But it can be difficult to find in the field; its plumage blends well with both the mossy muskeg forests of its summer home or the Middle American rain forests of its winter home. In Interior Alaska, it…
Bird of the Week (Hallowe’en Edition) – Northern Shrike
It’s Hallowe’en, so we might as well have a masked bird, a “bad” bird, as our bird of the week. It’s a little scarier than your basic flycatcher. The Northern Shrike is a songbird that’s gone to the Dark Side. A predator, it has evolved that wicked hooked bill and carnivorous habits. This species is a determined pursuer of small birds and mammals, which it somewhat gruesomely impales on thorns and barbed-wire or wedges in forks of branchlets. Its nickname is “the butcher bird.” Its Latin name, Lanius excubitor, means “butcher watchman,” an appropriate name for this capable and alert predator. WC and…
Bird of the Week – Alder Flycatcher
Thurshes may be omnivore but the flycatchers pretty much limit themselves to bugs. There’s a genus of flycatchers called Empidonax, which would be on most birders’ list as the very hardest birds to properly identify. Except when they sing. And this handsome Alder Flycatcher was singing his tonsils syrinx off on a warm summer evening. The song, a lovely fee-bee-o, is the prettiest of all the flycatchers, in WC’s judgment. This is a largely boreal species, split from its cousin, the Willow Flycatcher, back in 1973. The Alder Flycatcher migrates to northern South America where– and you can trust WC on this – there are…
Bird of the Week – Swainson’s Thrush
A cousin to the Grey-cheeked Thrush, the Swainson’s Thrush is a bird of the boreal forest. If you hear a upward spiraling, flute-like call in the early morning or evening – or sometimes all night – it’s this species. This species forages higher off the ground than its cousins and uses more aerial, fly-catching techniques to obtain insect prey, a characteristic that earned it the name “mosquito thrush” in Maine. It’s a photographer’s delight; only the American Robin is more approachable. It’s also a species of concern. Populations are declining throughout its range, including Alaska. Camera geek stuff: f6.3, 1/80, ISO1600. For…
Bird of the Week – Grey-cheeked Thrush
Another bird that visits Alaska to breed, prefering brushy habitats. WC has seen it most often near tree line in near-alpine country. Very shy and elusive, except during the start of breeding season when the males sing from the tops of bushes and the dwarf spruce. This might be the least-studied North American thrush. Except by range and song, it can be tough to distinguish from its cousin, the Bicknell’s Thrush. The song is lovely, flute-like and burry, rising in the middle and then ending on a downward slur. Another of WC’s favorites in alpine terrain. Camera geek stuff: f5.6,…
Bird of the Week – Varied Thrush
The sad, burry song of the Varied Thrush haunts the western Boreal forest. You will hear this species more often than you see it, but its dramatic orange and black plumage make it distinctive. It’s slightly smaller than a Robin, with a similar orange breast, but the black mask and “necklace” make it impossible to confuse the two. Varied Thrush prefer mature spruce forests; they are a species of concern because of habitat loss. Camera geek stuff: f5.7, 1/250, ISO250 For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Bird of the Week – American Robin
Even birders get tired of shorebirds. Let’s switch to thrushes. And by far the most common and the largest thrush in North America is the American Robin. WC has seen American Robins on the north side of the Brooks Range, in Nome, in the Yukon Delta, in Valdez and in Hyder, as well as all points in between. It’s also a species that adapts well to human-altered terrain. This fellow is showing feather wear; he’s likely about to molt into fresh chest feathers. The Robin’s song is one of WC’s favorite signs of spring. Camera geek stuff: f4, 1/400, ISO500,…
Bird of the Week – Wilson’s Snipe
Any guy who ever went to camp likely went on a Snipe Hunt. For those who never did, it’s a mild form of hazing, involving pillow cases, expeditions in the dark and getting left in the woods to feel foolish. So it may comes as surprise to learn there is such a thing as a snipe. Specifically, Wilson’s Snipe. This is a bird that is heard much more often than it is seen. Snipe courtship involves “winnowing,” a spectacular courtship flight, during which individuals produce a haunting, tremulous sound (the winnow) with their outspread outer tail-feathers. It is “produced by airflow…
Big Ideas for a Big State
By Howard Weaver President Obama’s recent attention to Alaska — especially in Dillingham, Kotzebue and Seward — provides a welcome focus for looking beyond the bleak landscape of oil price collapse and budget cuts toward a brighter, more sustainable future. For perhaps the first time since western contact, Alaskans may be motivated to turn away from the love-em-and-leave-em dynamics of extraction to embrace their genuine treasures: the cultural diversity and frontier spirit of its people; an abundance of renewable resources that can be managed and sustained forever; and indigenous wisdom from the North that can benefit all mankind. Seward, then…
Bird of the Week – Black Oystercatcher
About 15 years ago now, WC was in Valdez to start a Birdathon – in fact, a record-making Birdathon – when he encountered a drunken fisherman on the docks of the small boat harbor in Valdez, Alaska. The guy saw the binoculars and was able to conclude we were birders. “Yeah,” he slurred, “We just saw a Double-crested Oystercracker.” Which was probably a Black Oystercatcher. That’s a bird bill to remember, WC thinks you will agree. This is a true shorebird, spending its entire life along the rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean, found from the Aleutian Islands to Baja…