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Another early Spring migrant, Killdeer have returned to Michigan for purposes of breeding.  This common plover is the shorebird that is most associated with our neighborhoods and can be found in fields, playgrounds and golf courses. They are a shorter distance migrant as their range map shows; hence, the early return.

Hearing their call overhead as they fly, their name-sake “Kill-deer, kill-deer”, brings an uplifting feeling to me.  This bird has made the journey successfully and hopes to find a suitable place to nest.  Nesting for killdeer is a very plain affair – a simple scrape to lay the eggs in, with the male bowing forward and puffing his chest out, scraping backwards with his feet as the female watches.  If he meets her approval, she will take his place and scrape a little herself.  Mating then occurs.  Once the eggs are laid, Killdeer may add rocks, bits of shell or sticks to the nest area.

In an attempt to keep the nest safe, Killdeer will engage in a broken-wing display, fanning their rusty colored tail feathers and walking as if they are injured in an attempt to make themselves look like easy prey and pull attention away from the nest.

The eggs are well camouflaged as you can see in this photo that shows adult, young and eggs.

The young killdeer are altricial when born, defined as able to walk and covered with fuzzy down.  They immediately begin to follow their parents who will show them how to find food, consisting primarily of invertebrates including worms, snails, grasshopper, beetles, and aquatic insect larvae.

Educating those who are able to make the decision not to spray pesticides on the fields and lawns where these birds find their food would be a great way to save this bird from harms’ way.

Photo credits to Bill Creteau, Jerry Jourdan and Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Did you know that Michigan holds the nationwide record for the most Red-tailed Hawks seen at one observation area east of the Mississippi River?  In 2019, a total of 22,420 Red-tailed Hawks were counted at the Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch.

Locally, we have a pair that can frequently be seen on the lamp posts along I-94, most commonly from Moross to Eleven Mile Road.  Why would Red-tailed Hawks be drawn to the side of an expressway?   The trash that is discarded by vehicles draws mice and rats to the area and those rodents are food for the hawks.  Sitting and observing is one of the ways that a Red-tail locates food, using its excellent vision to see movement below.  Unfortunately, car collisions can be the end result.

This hawk is from the family known as Buteos, stocky hawks with tail and wings about the same length when perched, known for soaring and perching in their pursuit of food.  The average size of a Red-tailed Hawk is 19” tall with a wingspan of 49” and weighing 2.4 pounds, with dark colors on the back, a red tail in the mature birds, a light-colored chest with a belly band of dark streaks.

Red-tailed Hawks feed on squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, voles and snakes.  Prey is killed with the sharply taloned feet of the Red-tailed, the beak is used for ripping apart the prey for eating.  My most memorable sighting of a Red-tailed eating was watching it remove the hair from a squirrel’s tail, clip the tail from the body and then slurping it down in one piece.

The habitat that Red-tails prefer are open field with trees on the perimeter so that they can perch to look for prey and also use the trees for nesting.  This is why we find them most frequently at the Country Club of Detroit, Ghesquire Park, The Ford House and Lochmoor Club, where I often see them sitting on top of the poles near the driving range.  Nests of the monogamous pairs have been seen at all those locations.

Courting Red-tailed Hawks put on a display in which they soar in wide circles at a great height. The male will dive steeply, and then shoot up again at an angle nearly as steep. After several of these swoops he approaches the female from above, extends his legs, and touches her briefly.

Nests are tall piles of dry sticks up to 6.5 feet high and 3 feet across. The inner cup is lined with bark strips, fresh foliage, and dry vegetation. Construction takes 4-7 days.  Incubation of the typical 2-3 eggs lasts 28-35 days with the female doing most of the incubating while the male brings her food. It takes about 45 days from the time of hatching before the young leave their nest, but they continue to rely upon their parents for food for another eight weeks after they fledge.

One of the most famous attributes of the Red-tailed Hawk is their call, a shrill, raspy, descending two-note whistle “rEEE-ehhhhr”.  Many times it is used in movies as the call of an Eagle that is being seen, an amusing misappropriation.

A pair of Red-tailed Hawks was recently sighted over the Moross and Mack area, defending their territory by attacking a Bald Eagle that was in their airspace.  To view a video of these birds, check out the Facebook page of Wild Birds Unlimited, Grosse Pointe Woods.

Have fun with your own observations of this common yet very special raptor we are so fortunate to have among us.

There is perhaps no other bird that elicits such strong emotions in us as a Bald Eagle.  Truly majestic in appearance, we are so fortunate that their numbers have increased from 30 nesting pairs in Michigan in the 1950’s to 900 pairs currently.

Thanks to Eric H. Wolff for this photo of Bald Eagle with fish

The use of DDT, a man-made chemical that seeped into streams and rivers, affected the fish that Eagles ate, causing their eggshells to become so fragile they would break before hatching. After DDT was banned, we have seen the dramatic recovery of this species. Bald Eagle pairs are currently nesting at Belle Isle, the Country Club of Detroit, Stoney Creek Metro Park and on Sugarbush Road in New Baltimore.

Bald Eagles have spectacular courtship displays with the pair flying high into the sky, locking talons, and cartwheeling downward together, breaking off at the last instant to avoid crashing to earth.  They will also perch closely together and call as part of pair bonding behavior.

Thanks to Christine A. Orchard for this photo of Bald Eagles “Mate Calling” on Belle Isle

A Bald Eagle nest is an amazing creation with large sticks being used to create the sturdy platform and edges, an average nest being four to five feet in diameter and three to four feet tall, weighing a ton.  The inside is lined with grasses, moss or seaweed so that the eggs are insulated and have a soft surface to rest upon.  Bald Eagles re-use their nests year after year, both the male and female adding materials.

Thanks to Karen Panagos for this photo of Bald Eagle with nesting material on Belle Isle

Eggs are laid early in the year with most of our resident Eagles on eggs in February and March.  Eggs are incubated for 35 days by both the male and female, who form a brood patch on their belly. This bare spot allows them to press their hot skin directly against the eggs to keep them at 105 degrees. The young may remain in the nest from 56 to 98 days.

Eagles feed primarily on fish and besides catching their own, will scavenge on dead fish as well as steal fish from other raptors.  Eagles also eat roadkill and are proficient duck hunters. Although their beak appears to be a formidable weapon, it is used only for ripping apart prey.  All of the killing of prey is done with the talons of the Eagle when they pierce their prey.  The talons are almost 2 inches long on female eagles, and about an inch and a quarter on males.  Eagles will travel for miles away from their nest in pursuit of food.

Thanks to James Ventimiglia for this photo of Bald Eagle with fish in talons

Adult Bald Eagles have a completely white head and tail, with juveniles going through a five-year phase of different dark plumages until they reach mature plumage.  One of the other field marks of the Bald Eagle is that they hold their wings like a plank in flight as opposed to having a downward curve or a dihedral, their head and tail projecting in equal lengths from their body.

Thanks to Joan Kowalski for this photo of Bald Eagles mating on Belle Isle

Eagles have five times as many light sensing cells in their eyes than we humans which allows them to see in more detail.  They also have four fovea which is a small area in the retina packed with light-sensing cells.  With two fovea in each eye, all pointing in different directions, Eagles have almost 360 degrees of peripheral vision.

May you have the fortune of an “eagle eye” view of our National Symbol.

Thanks to Ernie Sereniak for this unique photo of a Bald Eagle on ice

While Screech Owls would be the most common owl in south east Michigan, there are other owls that have been sighted and may surprise you with an appearance.

The most likely would be the Great Horned Owl.  This very large owl is 22 inches tall with a wing span of 44 inches.  They need a large tree that has a flat area for purposes of nesting, such as a broken off main trunk.  In the past, there have been a pair that have nested in the field across from The Ford House, the only place that fulfills that nesting need.  Food supply in our area is not an issue as Great Horned Owls will eat squirrels, racoons, possum, rats and cats.  They are a very successful generalist in their feeding habits. My personal experiences have been responding to the cawing of a group of crows, greeted by them mobbing a Great Horned at the top of my oak tree.  In December of 2021, I was serenaded for 25 minutes by a Great Horned that was four houses down, calling for a mate from the top of the neighbors tall pine tree.  Great Horned Owls lay their eggs in February so it wasn’t unusual to hear him calling at that time of year.

Great Horned Owl photo courtesy of Eric H. Wolff

Long-eared Owls are far less common as they have been sighted migrating in Spring through this area, but we have not found any reliable winter roosting sites.  My experiences with this owl were as a result of another group of corvids, Blue Jays calling and hopping about the cedars in my yard.  An inspection of the site resulted in seeing this 15 inch tall owl with long feather tufts, roosting for the day.  Long-eared Owls travel beginning at dusk on their way to the northern Lower Peninsula and further north where they nest.   Another Long-eared Owl was seen by me at a friends’ home, due north of my house a few years later, sitting on a relatively open branch in the sun. Food supply here in Grosse Pointe would be sufficient as they eat small mammals, a good lesson that poisons should be avoided.  These owls like dense cover in the form of cedar trees, which have branches that allow them the spaces they need to roost, yet provide cover from the elements.  If you are looking to improve owl habitat in your yard, I would highly recommend a row of native cedar trees.

Long-eared Owl photo courtesy of John Graffius

Saw-whet Owls are very rare although I believe that with regular searching they would be found.  They prefer the same habitat as the Long-eared Owls.  These eight inch tall owls may look cute because of their size, but they are fierce predators.  Food for Saw-whet Owls consists mainly of mice.  My only report of this owl was from a customer in 2010.  In the middle of a busy Black Friday, a customer and her grandson came in to report a small owl in their garage. After looking at the field guide, he identified it as an Eastern Screech Owl. Later when they returned with a picture, I was shocked to discover the bird was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl. I immediately went to their house to see this rare find in Grosse Pointe! To my surprise, instead of hiding in its natural habitat of dense brush, it was perched on a coiled garden hose in the rafters of the garage.

Saw-whet Owl photo courtesy of Rosann Kovalcik

Snowy Owl is another rare sighting in Grosse Pointe, having been seen along the lake shore at the Ford House and the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club.  These birds appear in winter and feast on the plentiful ducks that we have on the lake.  The most reliable place to see one is at the Harley Ensign DNR launch site in Harrison Township where one is seen on the break wall on a fairly regular basis in the winter.

Snowy Owl photo courtesy of John Graffius

Have fun searching and listening for these owl species in the neighborhood.

What flies silently in the night, has eyeballs that are 5% of their total body weight, and has ear flaps (operculum) that can be closed to block out sound during the day when they sleep?

It’s the Eastern Screech Owl, the most abundant owl in our area, found in open woodlands, readily accepting parks and suburban neighborhoods. Their breeding territories range from ten to 15 acres in wooded suburban areas, depending upon food supply.

Screech owls are 6 ½ to ten inches tall with a wingspan of 18 to 24 inches and a weight of only four to nine ounces. Male Screech Owls are smaller than females, and are more agile fliers and hunters. However, the female with her larger size and harder strike takes on the duty of defending their nest from potential threats. Screech Owls have two color phases – gray and red, with the gray being the dominant color in Michigan.

Screech Owls have eyes that are tubular which is similar to having telephoto lenses.  They have more rods in their eyes, allowing them to see two and a half times better than humans do in low light.  With eyes that are fixed in place, they must move their head to see around themselves, the fourteen vertebrae in their neck allowing for a 280-degree rotation of the head.

One of the most fascinating attributes of Screech Owls are their vocalizations.  Their contact call is a tremolo with a descending whinny-like quality.  Their other call is a low, mellow trembling whistle which last two to four seconds all on the same pitch. The males’ voice is deeper than the females.

Screech Owls have a varied diet, which is why they are successful in so many habitats.   They consume mammals including rats, mice, squirrels, and small rabbits. They also eat small birds, normally caught directly from their nocturnal perches or during nocturnal migration.  If the habitat provides, they will also eat large numbers of earthworms, insects, crayfish, tadpoles and frogs. Their hunting technique is to sit and wait for small prey to pass by, dropping down and catching the prey with their talons.  The Screech Owl’s sense of hearing is acute enough to allow it to locate mammals under heavy vegetation or snow. Their ears are placed asymmetrically on their head, enabling them to use the differences between each ear’s perception of sound to hone in on prey. Additionally, the flight feathers of the Screech Owl have shaggy tips, allowing air to flow smoothly around the wings, which enables them to sneak up silently on prey. Screech-owls regurgitate the undigestible bones, fur, and feathers of their prey in an oval pellet.

Screech Owls are monogamous and remain together for life. They roost and nest in holes and cavities that have an entrance three to eight inches wide. They may also roost in conifers and thick vegetation.  Unable to excavate a cavity themselves, they depend on natural tree cavities.  Screech Owls readily accept nest boxes. They do not build a nest, the female laying her eggs on whatever debris is at the bottom of the cavity, including wood-chips, twigs, or the cast-off feathers and droppings from a previous year’s nest.

Breeding season for Screech Owls starts in April. Before the breeding season, males defend an area containing several cavities. As part of patrolling their territories, males are known to spend nights in different cavities.  The female Screech Owls select the nest site from the cavities in her mate’s territory.

The female will lay two to six white eggs with incubation taking 30 days.  Food is supplied by the male to the female while she is on the nest. Once hatched, young owls remain in the nesting cavity for a period of about 30 additional days, after which time they climb out onto nearby branches. After fledging from the nesting cavity, they depend upon their parents for food for 8 to ten weeks.  During this time period they tend to roost in a communal group with the female.

What threats do Screech Owls have in our community ?  As they fly across streets, their fixed eyes do not pick up peripheral objects, so they are unable to avoid approaching cars.   Poisons used for rodents accumulate in their tissue and cause mortality.  Eastern Fox squirrels and racoons will eat eggs from nesting cavities, and Great Horned Owls will eat adult Screech Owls. Cats are the largest threat to Screech Owls, eating the mice and rats that owls need for food.  Cats also predate on fledgling owls that are not yet able to fly.

Do you have Screech Owls in your neighborhood?  Listen for their calls at dusk in the upcoming months and check the trees for cavities.  Report your sightings to our store and we can map out the population of these little wonders.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are a type of woodpecker. True to their name, these birds drill concentric, evenly-spaced holes on trees in order to get them to weep sap. This is the first food available for hummingbirds when they arrive in spring. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds also eat the flying insects attracted to the sap wells. The hummers dart about and use their tongues to snatch the insects in mid-air.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are 8 1/2 inches from beak to end of tail and have a wingspan of 16 inches, yet weigh only 1.8 ounces.

Sap comprises 20% of the annual diet and during certain periods it may be the only food consumed by Yellow-belled Sapsuckers.  The brushy tongue is a great tool for gathering the liquid.  Yellow-bellied sapsuckers also eat insects and spiders, fruit, seeds, aspen buds.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers migrate to this area from their wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Mexico, West Indies, and Central America, as shown by the blue area in the above map. The yellow areas of the map represents the part of the country where they pass through in migration, ending up in the areas indicated by red as their nesting destination.

The male of this Sapsucker can be told by the bright red throat patch, which the female does not have.  When displaying to proclaim their territory or to show off for the females, the male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker will point its’ beak up so that the red feathers of the throat are more visible.

The female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has the black chest bib but is creamy where the male is red under the beak, she also has the red cap and the strong white edge to her fore-wing, as well as a strong white eye-bow and a white line of feathers that runs from the beak and across the cheek.

It takes the parents seven to ten days to create a nest cavity.  Four to seven eggs are laid with both parents incubating and helping to feed the young. No lining is placed within the nest; the eggs are laid on wood chips left over from the excavation. The entrance hole is small, only about 1.5 inches in diameter, but the cavity itself may be 10 inches deep.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are known to dip insects in sap before feeding them to young.

Of course, the goal is for healthy fledged youngsters, shown here looking very drab in comparison to its’ parents.

How can you help them make their epic journey and allow them to help hummingbirds?  Educate all of the people you can about the importance of sap wells, of refraining from using pesticides that may be fed to the young Sapsuckers when the parents gather insects, use window collision prevention methods as they are not aware that they can’t fly through glass when they see the reflection of your trees, keep cats indoors to protect these migrants and their young.  Enjoy your Birds !

Delicate.  Hardy.  Unique

Those three words first came to mind when describing the brown creeper.  The habits of this bird are what endear it to me. When I  find a brown creeper, I feel fortunate to be observe its uniqueness.  Brown creepers prefer a vertical point of view and are built especially for that way of life.  At the end of short legs are incredibly long toes that support long curved claws.  The tail is also noticeably long in relation to the birds’ size.  Its lengthy design allows the tail feathers to support the bird as it hitches up the bark of the tree.  And therein lies part of the essence of this bird.

Typically starting at the bottom of the tree trunk, the creeper slowly inches up the bark in namesake fashion, spiraling around the trunk as it goes.  Working quickly and efficiently, it reaches the top of the tree trunk and then flies down to the trunk of the next tree and begins the ascent over again.  One can only marvel as you watch a creeper at work in a hardwood forest in the middle of a Michigan winter, the five- inch speck of a bird looking so small against the dark skeletons of trees.

There are two survival strategies employed by the brown creeper.  One is to join a mixed flock, which is a winter phenomenon.  With territorial barriers set aside because breeding season is over, creepers, chickadees, nuthatches, kinglets, tufted titmice and woodpeckers will travel along as a flock.  The advantages to flocking are that more eyes are better able to detect predators, and the different foraging techniques of these birds minimizes competition for the same foods.  In fact, it is interesting to watch nuthatches and brown creepers pass each other as the creeper works its way up and the nuthatch works its way down the same tree trunk.  The mixed winter flocks of birds are poetry in motion to those who care to spend some time observing the variations in feeding techniques.  The other survival technique employed by the brown creeper is the utilization of tree cavities to keep shelter from the winter elements.  They may huddle in groups within these cavities to  help conserve energy.

The feeding tool of the creeper is a curved, needle-like bill, which it uses to probe the bark surface, sliding this precision instrument under crevices to remove the delicate invertebrates that make up its diet.  Occasionally, creepers will visit suet feeders.  When watching them feed, it is not unusual to be able to approach creepers quite closely.  The bird’s eyes are set close together to provide the binocular vision needed to locate food.  Looking so intently at the bark, they do not have peripheral vision that allows them to detect us as we approach from behind.

When spring arrives, there will be days when the woods are bursting with creepers. Covering the trunks of trees everywhere, the creepers advance through the woods in their spiraling ballet.  The destinations for this species are the mature deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests and woodlands, especially in wet areas such as bogs.  Dead trees play a pivotal role in the population of the brown creeper as they nest behind the bark that is peeling away from the trunk of these trees.  The hammock shaped nest is comprised of conifer needles, bark strips, mosses and spider cocoons and is lined with other birds’ feathers. This work of art can take the female from one week to a month to complete.

Counter shaded in coloring to aid in deceiving predators, the brown of the creeper is very crisp and clean in contrast to the white under parts.  As difficult as it may be to visually spot the creeper, a keen ear can aid in locating the bird.  Listen for a thin whistle, so high pitched that many birders fail to hear it.  In spring, the call is replaced by song, which is boisterous and comprised of accelerating, cascading notes.

May you be graced with the presence of a brown creeper as you walk through the woods or your neighborhood and perhaps, you will be so fortunate as to entice the bird to your feeding station.

Photo credits with thanks to Paul Swarmer, Jerry Jourdan and Bill Rapai.

The first week of March saw a return of Red-winged Blackbirds into the state, the first wave of this migrant.  These early arriving males hope to find the most suitable areas to stake out as a breeding territory.  Their bright red shoulder patches, known as epaulets, are used to add emphasis to the song they sing.

Territory is proclaimed by Red-winged Blackbirds singing from atop prominent perches. Their song has been described in many of the field guides as “kong-a-ree” or “konk-la-ree”.  I like the version offered by my friend Jeanne.  She lived on a property that was mostly field with edges of shrubs and trees, perfect for the male Red-winged Blackbirds that had successful nesting sites.  Jeanne felt they were saying “It’s my treeee!” as they leaned forward and made themselves quite noticeable from a conspicuous perch.

Red-winged Blackbird males spend a quarter of the day defending their territories.  Chasing is a major activity, with males chasing other males out of their territory but also chasing after larger “predators” including humans.

When taking a break away from display, Red-winged Blackbirds have no need to show their red shoulder patches.  Their wings are folded tightly against their body, with their breast and back feathers covering the red shoulders.  That’s when we may notice the light yellow feathers called the median coverts, showing as a small crescent on each wing.  Other than the wing color, male Red-winged Blackbirds are black all over, beak and legs included. In good light you can see the outlines of feathers edged in brown, a great way to study feathers.  Their glossiness is beautiful in the sunshine.

Females look quite a bit different with heavily streaked breasts, a noticeable buffy colored eyebrow and throat with a warm brown color on the back.  The females have a salmon colored wash over their face and throat.

The territory of Red-winged Blackbirds consists of plants that would allow for the construction of a nest hidden away near the bottom of cattails or grasses and sometimes using small shrubs and trees. The females are the nest builders, winding stringy plant material around upright stems, lining the nest with wet vegetation, decaying wood (think mulch), adding a layer of mud and then topping it with fine, dry grasses.  One nest picked apart by a naturalist in the 1930s had been made by weaving together 34 strips of willow bark and 142 cattail leaves, some 2 feet long. When finished, a typical Red-winged Blackbird nest is 4 to 7 inches across and 3 to 7 inches deep.  Ornamental grasses in our landscapes have provided great habitat for these birds.

Male Red-winged Blackbirds have a lot to defend as they may have as many as fifteen females within their territory.  They will mate with all of them and so will the males from the surrounding areas.  Studies have shown that ¼ to ½ of the young in a males’ territory are sired by a male other than him.

Insects make up the majority of Red-winged Blackbirds diets in the summer, supplemented with seeds.  They are adept at using their pointed bill to probe and open aquatic plants in order to reach the insects inside.  Our large fields of grain are a boon to their population as they supply a bountiful food source throughout the winter.

Red-winged Blackbirds will visit bird feeding stations with a preference for millet.  They don’t prefer safflower seed.  Mixes that contain corn, milo, wheat and other agricultural excess seeds are very attractive to them.