Author Archives: colliek2

Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)

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Tuffted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) Curtesy USFWS

Local Finds

This recognizable seabird nests on Oregon headland such as Haystack Rock, Cape Mears, Cape Lookout, Cape Foulweather, Yaquina Head, and further north at Three Arch Rocks.

Recognizing

The large triangular red-orange bill is definitely unique and is most visible on breeding adults during the summer reproductive season. The birds also develop a distinct white face with long cream-colored facial plumes and red feet.

The colorful breeding plumage and bill plates molt-off in the winter as the bird moves offshore to feed. The bird appears predominantly black similar to immature or non-breeding puffins. The body length is approximately 15-inches.

Nesting

Puffins, murres, and auklets are oceanic birds that live predominantly in the water. They only come to land to nest. Puffins gather on in dense breeding colonies often on treeless islands far out in the ocean.

They prefer offshore treeless islands and steep cliffs offer protection from mammal predators and may choose islands that are not in sight of land.

The ideal nesting site would be close to food, have relatively soft soil and grass to dig and build nesting burrows, and have a high enough elevation and steep drop offs that help the bird take flight.  

Breeding Range and Habitat

The Puffin breeding range extends from British Columbia throughout the southeastern Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Kuri Island, and Japan. Puffins will also breed on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula which has some of the worlds largest brown and rainbow trout.  

Nesting can occur as far south as the northern Channel Islands, off southern California (sightings have not occurred since 1997.

Flight and Forage

The wings are relatively short (a span of about 25-inches) and adapted for diving and swimming. These birds cannot gliding but can fly long and fast using strong breast muscles and a strenuous wing-beat cadence.

Wings are used to ‘fly’ through the water, tail spread to steer, streamlined body with feet back make the puffin a formable underwater hunter. The puffin often forages by surface diving and rapid swimming through schools of small fish and marine invertebrates.

The large axe-like bill can catch large quantities of food at one time. The bills also facilitate transporting food back to chicks.

Diet

Diet will vary greatly by age, location, and availability. Colony nestlings are more dependent on invertebrates. Adult birds also depend on invertebrates such a squid and krill. Puffins also feed, to some extent, on ocean floor species.   

Predators

Tufted puffin avian predators include Snowy owl, Bald eagles, and Peregrine falcons; gulls and ravens will scavenge eggs. Artic foxes prefer puffins over other birds.

A mass puffin die-off, attributed to climate change, occurred on St. Paul Island, Alaska between October 2016 and January 2017.

In the past, the Aleut and Ainu people hunted the Tufted Puffin for food and feathers. They used the skins to make parkas, and the feathers in ornamental work. Harvesting of tufted puffins is illegal or discouraged today.

REFERENCES:
–Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Murres, Auklets and Puffins (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/murres-auklets-and-puffins)
–All About Birds, Puffins (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tufted_Puffin/id)
–Wikipedia, Tufted Puffins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufted_puffin)
–Audubon Field Guide (https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/tufted-puffin)

Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)

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‘Little grass shack’

This 1930’s Hawaiian song kicked off a multi-ethnic music craze perfect for the Western Meadowlark.

Western Meadowlark (courtesy ODFW)

Female Western Meadowlarks build a ground nest that is often covered by a woven grass roof — a ‘Little Grass Shack’ so to speak.  

The ‘little grass shack’ nest is a small hollow hidden in dense grass cover. The shack has an entrance tunnel that may extend several feet with several narrow trails leading to it.

Identifying

Visually, this medium-sized bird sports a dapper Herringbone-like plume with a black V-lapel and yellow vest.  This color and pattern palette helps camouflage the birds in the open grasslands.  

Habitat and Range

Western Meadowlarks call meadows, fields, desert shrub-steppe, marshes, and agricultural grasslands home throughout their range. Low-growing vegetation provides foraging cover.

Western Meadowlarks are widely distributed from southern Canada to central America; and from the Mississippi River west. Many birds are permanent residences and breed along the Oregon coast.  

Food

Meadowlarks forage on the ground looking mostly for a wide variety of bugs, seeds, and berries. In the winter, the birds will often forage in mixed flocks of blackbirds and starlings. Winter diet often focuses on seeds and grains.

Meadowlarks, like other blackbird family members, use a feeding behavior called “gaping.” They drive their sharp, pointy bill into the soil, bark, etc. They use strong jaw muscles to force the material open. This hole provides access to foods other birds can’t reach.

Predators

Ground nests are inadvertently destroyed during mowing, and weather (droughts) can be very tough on nestlings.

Bird Song

Six states recognize the western meadowlark as their State Bird, including Oregon. In 1927, Oregon selected the Western Meadowlark as their State Songbird.

Western Meadowlark song is significantly more complicated and flute like compared to other closely related birds.

Males defend their breeding territory by singing. They often sing from the tops of fences, shrubs, and powerlines.

A Party in a Grass Shack?

The little grass shack this bird builds is quite unique, just like the Hawaiian song “Little Grass Shack.” This song is one of Hawaii’s “50 Greatest…” and featured in many movies, performances, and recordings.

The song features one full line in Hawaiian “Komo mai no kāua i ka hale welakahao.” This line or Dolly Parton’s 1987 interpretation may be a great way to remember this unique bird.

She translated the line as “Come to my house, we’re gonna party!” Maybe that is what the male birds are really singing about.

REFERENCES:
–Western Meadowlark (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/blackbirds-grackles-and-orioles)
–Audubon Society, Western Meadowlark (https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/western-meadowlark)
–Wikipedia, Western Meadowlark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_meadowlark) and (…My_Little_Grass_Shack_in_Kealakekua,_Hawaii)
–All About Birds, Western_Meadowlark (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/western_meadowlark)

Townsend’s Chipmunk (Tamias townsendii)

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Running in the Shadows

Townsend’s Chipmunk (Courtesy of
Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife)

Townsend’s chipmunk is one of the largest in Oregon and can measure nearly 10-inches long. Nine alternating dark and light stripes help identify this very secretive species.

This chipmunk has a black tip on their tail with margins lightly frosted. Its underside and small patch behind the ear are white-ish. Notice white patch under the ear in the image.

These chipmunks molt twice a year and the colors will brighten during the summer.

Communications

While they are secretive, they are not silent and are often heard before seen. They will not be singing “The Chipmunk song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” but they do communicate through a number of vocalizations, posturing, and other displays (no three-part harmonies, sorry guys).

There is a good chance of catching a peak at the Townsend’s chipmunk during the late morning and early afternoon when they are foraging, eating, and bringing food back to their burrow.  They will often momentarily perch on a sunny stump, log, or low branch… and with a flick of their tail, disappear.

Diet

These spunky omnivores eat a wide variety of materials depending on the season and stockpile food for winter. They fill their flexible cheek pouches with plants (seeds, leaves, roots, fruit), fungi and lichens, insects, bird eggs, etc.

They will forage up to a half mile from their burrow and carry food back in their flexible cheek pouches.

Their flexible cheek pouches can hold over 100 oats.

Where’s Home?

Townsend’s chipmunks live in dense forests and thicket found in the Pacific Northwest, up through British Columbia, and throughout western Washington and Oregon.

They are also found in more open areas such as slopes with rock debris. These talus slopes are favorite nest sites and refuges for escaping predators. Sometimes nests are created in trees.

Burrows

Burrows maybe up to nearly 33 feet long! They are used to stockpile food and may include shells and other debris. They are also used in harsher regions for hibernation. The chipmunk can be active all year round in mild areas.

Solitude

These chipmunks are typically solitary and territorial. Only one chipmunk will live in a single borrow system except when the female is rearing the young.

They seem to prefer isolation and solitude and are not generally socially active except during mating season when they can become quite loud. Males will also aggressively defend their home turf and mate, and attempt to exert dominance over other males.

Not much is known about their mating habits but the population is stable with few predators.

Last note. Chances are very few of them will answer to the name ‘ALVIN!’

REFERENCES
–Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife,  Squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/squirrels-chipmunks-and-marmots and https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/townsends-chipmunk)
–Aniamlia, Townsend’s Chipmunk (http://animalia.bio/townsends-chipmunk)
–USDI, Fish & Wildlife Service (https://www.fws.gov/refuge/julia_butler_hansen/ wildlife_and_habitat/mammals/townsends_chipmunk.html)
–Squirrels at the Feeder, ‘How many squirrels live in a burrow?’ (https://bit.ly/30I6cTN)
–Munkapedia, Wiki, Alvin and the Chipmunks (https://alvin.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_The_Chipmunks_and_The_Chipettes_songs)