Journal archives for February 2020

February 18, 2020

Field Journal 2 ID and Flight Physiology

On Sunday February 16th, at 9:00 a.m I went to Woodside natural area just down the road from St. Michael's college. The sky was overcast, there was a 6 or 7 mile an hour breeze out of the NW and the temperature was about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The outing started off pretty slow with an American robin visible fairly high up in a tree near the entrance to the park. Several rock pigeons flew overhead as well as a Pileated Woodpecker. The Pileated Woodpecker displayed a distinct flight pattern with several flaps of the wings followed by a quick pause where it would glide for a short stretch. This contrasted with the rock pigeons which flapped their wings continuously and quite rapidly.

After viewing these birds I did not see much until I broke out of the forest into a more patch work landscape with several good sized clearings. Right along the edge of the path in a small clearing I observed a group of eight Northern Cardinals with 5 males and 3 females. The Northern Cardinal flight pattern could be described as a series of quick flitting motions. The Northern Cardinals I observed did nor take any extended flights and instead took short flights between perches. Not too far away from the Northern Cardinals were a massive group of American Crows. The flight motion of the American crows was quite different from the Northern Cardinal. The American Crow would take several deliberate strokes and then enter into a glide before repeating a series of distinct strokes.

While the sample size of birds was quite small I would say that smaller sized birds tend to have a higher number of wing strokes and a faster rate of flapping than larger birds. The difference in the number and rate of flaps between the Northern Cardinal and the American Crow was very distinct. Also birds that have a niche in more heavily forested areas appear to have smaller wings more suited for nimble movements and agility. This contrasts with birds whose niche is in more open area such as fields including American crows and Red-tailed Hawks. These birds have much longer broader wing more suited for gliding or soaring. I would say that flight pattern could be useful to narrow down a birds identity by classifying it first as a glider/soaring bird or a flapping bird.

Early on I did not see an abundance of birds. This could have been in part due to the location . There was a noticeable increase in the number of species and the amount of individuals between a fully forested region of the park and a part of the park that contained a mixture of fields, clearings and forest. This edge effect offers a greater array of habitat than a fully forested habitat. In terms of weather apart from the cloud cover the weather was quite pleasant and I would say it had a minimal effect on the number of birds observed. I would be keen for my next outing to explore the edge of a large field adjacent to a forest either right at dawn or just before dusk to look for birds that are more active at these time periods.

Posted on February 18, 2020 10:15 PM by tsshafer tsshafer | 14 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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