Six or seven Baltimore orioles vie at this moment over the
four freshly-cut and placed orange-halves, each mounded with a
spoonful of grape jelly, their Sunday dinner. The oranges are
simply pushed down onto small nails or screws projecting upward
through the small flat pieces of wood that, in turn, are fastened
to the two front corners of our large platform feeders.
Meanwhile several rose-breasted grosbeaks and American
goldfinches busy themselves, within inches of the orioles,
feasting upon black oil sunflower seeds. The
"regulars" at our feeders that have been here
throughout the winter, including the black-capped chickadees,
goldfinches, house finches, nuthatches and woodpeckers, have
recently had dazzling color added to their numbers with the
almost overnight arrival of rose-breasted grosbeaks, Baltimore
orioles, indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers and ruby-throated
hummingbirds.
Suddenly the bird-feeding area in our front yard has come
alive with these flashy newcomers here for the summer nesting
season. Even though a few kinds of "early" warblers
have also sporadically appeared here, such as the Nashville,
yellow-rumped and palm, we expect and hope for others to arrive
any day.
The brown creepers, yellow-breasted sapsuckers, and
golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets have come and gone. Now
the breeding season for these welcome summer residents will
begin. Eastern bluebirds have already been nest-building in one
of the birdhouses along the edge of our field to the west of the
house and the eastern phoebes have completed their nest on the
platform fastened under the eaves of the roof-overhang on the
north side of our house.
On occasion we’ve observed five different species of sparrows
at one instant on the ground in our front yard during the past
few weeks. Three will nest here; the song, chipping and field
while the other two, the white-throated and white-crowned, will
head north for the summer.
Even though I’m inclined to not want to choose bird favorites,
there are many features about the rose-breasted grosbeaks that I
like a lot. They are relatively large and colorful with the
adult males and females having distinctively different plumages.
Most are quite tolerant of our presence, often with 20 or so feet
from where they feed on sunflower seeds.
The males’ songs are very rich, bubbly, liquid and
far-reaching in quality and even the young, freshly off the nest,
have a distinctive "HEE-er – HEE-er" call that lets
their parents know exactly where they are and that they are
hungry.
The gorgeous rosy bibs or "neckties" of the adult
males are different enough enabling one to easily tell one male
from another during their frequent daily visits to the feeders.
Our guess is that upwards of four or five different pairs nest in
our woods, and all make daily use of our handout of seeds as well
as the water baths.
The male rose-breasted grosbeaks (RBG’s) that have now arrived
can be aged to a certain degree. Those sporting black wings and
tails are considered to be "after-second-year" (ASY)
birds and may be in their third year or older.
Birds that were hatched last year are now considered to be
second-year birds.
The second-year (SY) male "RBG’s," instead of having
black wings and tails have brown wings and tails. These will be
molted in later summer and grow in as black feathers, but in late
spring and early summer these SY males clearly stand out from the
ASY males.
You may also notice on some of the SY males a certain amount
of brown and white mixed in with their black plumage, and the
white breasts will also contain hints of brown. My guess is that
the SY males at this stage are capable of successfully mating.
In fact we’ve noticed that, whenever five or six RBG’s are on one
platform feeder at the same time, some of the SY males don’t give
an inch to the older ASY males.
There is another interesting plumage characteristic of the
baby RBG’s that I soon learned while banding birds. Ordinarily
birds that have recently left the nest are next to impossible to
sex. However, even though both male and female baby RBG’s
outwardly appear like the adult female, one look at the color of
their under-wing feathers immediately enables you to sex the
birds. Baby females have yellow beneath their wings while the
young males are rosy-pink, just like those of their fathers’
throats, upper breasts and under-wing surfaces. Yes, the adult
females’ under-wing feathers are yellow just like their
daughters’.
What brilliant color, singing and fascinating activity the
rose-breasted grosbeaks add to the summer scene. We feel highly
privileged to be able to live in THEIR woods!
A second-year rose-breasted grosbeak eats on the Lukes'
platform feeder.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 05/16/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
