Flora and Fauna of Discovery Park: Site 5: Birds

Amongst the Red Alders is a great place to look for birds since the vegetation is relatively low and not very thick, giving birds enough habitat to roam without obscuring your chance to actually see them. In looking for birds, it is very helpful to gain some familiarity with the song or call associated with each species, because often you will hear them before you can see them. (point out any recognizable bird calls). On different occasions, the species we have seen here include Anna’s Hummingbird, the Black-Capped Chickadee, the White-Crowned Sparrow, the American Robin, and the Spotted Towhee.

Hummingbirds are actually more common than you might think, and it’s helpful if you can pick out the call to locate them, since they are so small. Their call is a very distinctive squeaky pitch, and they often perch on the tops of trees to be heard, making them easier to locate than one might think. The Black-Capped Chickadee call is an almost lazy sounding set of two whistles at two different notes. However, what is interesting is that they use their call to indicate the presence of predators to others in their flock or family. To do this, they add more “dee dee’s” to the call, and the more you hear, the greater the threat. White-Crowned Sparrows have a song that starts high and then descends. If we hear it, I will point out how some people hear “I’m a White-Crowned Sparrow” distinguishable in the song. Lastly, both the American Robin and the Spotted Towhee are related in the Thrush family. The American Robin song is quite melodic, while the Spotted Towhee tends to screech almost like a cat, ironically.

In order to see and hear more birds, we have found it helpful to play call-backs. This is when you play a recording of a song or call in order to try to get the bird to come closer. This practice however, should be done with care. Some people argue that this should not be done, because it introduces a stress into the bird’s environment. However, others argue that this is a viable way to allow people to better study and visualize birds, and that they will acclimate to the stress relatively quickly. We had some great success getting together a group of four Spotted Towhees in the woods when we played calls-backs. Let’s try a few now…