Cassin's Kingbird, and Plagiarism

I've never seen anything published about the Cassin's kingbird's mating ritual. Not to say such data doesn't exist, just that I've never seen it. One day a couple of years ago, I added few lines about the wedding dances I have observed, to the Cassin's Kingbird entry on Wikipedia. 

I forgot I made the entry, until I was looking for some information on this bird recently. I found some text that looked familiar, on someone's site. Then another site, the exact text. Another place, the same text with minor changes. Then on Wikipedia, I saw the original entry. I hit the History tag and saw that my login had made the entry.

I realized that two things had happened:

1. People saw my entry and assumed it was gospel. The entry is true; Cassin's are one of my favorite birds and I was only reporting what I had observed. Even so, you know what they say happens when you assume something.
2. People stole my entry and put it on their own site, as their own. Without even putting it in their own words!  I guess this is ok. I want people to know about this bird. But it would have been nice to have been given credit. That's one good thing about Wikipedia -- your work is perpetually credited, as long as you post it there first. (The downside is that Wikipedia requires references. My posting may disappear from there, so I put it at the bottom of this entry so that it can be referenced by Wikipedia.)

One thing I have learned, in my sojourn as "not an ornithologist, naturalist or biologist,"  is that information about specific bird species is very rare, unless they're a well-studies species, like Robins or Penguins. Most people don't spend enough time watching a specific species to pick up the details that really should be studied.

Mating rituals are a good (and fun) example.  Since I saw the Cassin's Kingbird pair dancing, I've noticed other mating rituals. Hummingbirds. Chickens. Even crows do it.  I think people, you especially, should devote a summer to taking pictures and making observations of a specific species. Take notes, and put your notes online. That helps the rest of us learn, and might benefit that species.

And if I borrow what you publish, I promise to attribute it properly.

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Cassin's Kingbird Mating Ritual: In early spring, presumably after having chosen (or shown up with) their mate, they launch into a peculiar dance. With excited high-pitched calls, they hover in unison, wings outstretched, over a favorite perch. This dance takes place several times a day over several days, over several separate sites in an area covering two or three acres (12,000 m²). The sites chosen for the dance appear to be the same sites used as hunting perches during the spring and summer.

Canyon Towhee on the Woodpile

The Canyon Towhee is a faithful friend. Nothing notable in the looks department, but packed with personality.

This female and her hubby remain here all year around. They think they own my wife's truck, and pitch a fit whenever they think I'm going to get close to it. They don't mind me being around, so long as I stay more than 30' away. This picture was taken at about 25', but she flew off when I tried to get closer.

The picture: I used the Tv setting, at 1/400. I stepped down to ISO 100 and set the automatic meter to compensate down by 1 F-Stop. I think it makes colors look much richer. A 1/80 shutter speed still looks crappy, though.

Want my advice? Don't waste your money on an IS lens for shooting birds. You still have to shoot at a high speed to get good shots, and image stabilization doesn't matter at 1/400.

More on Shutter Speed

I've been experimenting with the Tv setting on my camera, and it seems that anything less than 1/400 is too slow at distance. I'm not sure what the problem is, but here are some sample pictures I took of a Western Scrub jay.

The first one was shot at 1/400, and the second at 1/320. F7.1 was used on both pictures.

It seems that my problem is slight over-exposure at the slower speed. Although the Rebel's auto setting gets perfect shots under near-perfect conditions such as these, it has some annoying features if the light isn't perfect. Sometimes the flash is used when I don't need or want it. And when the flash is used, shutter speed is reduced. The Tv setting obviously isn't perfect, either. I wish they would make it easy for us to program the exposure intelligence for ourselves...

I don't like things to be really complicated, and a 95% solution would be perfect for me. But I'll keep experimenting with shutter speeds until I'm satisfied.

Putting DirecTV to Good Use

I live in the Southwest, and things may be different where you live. Then again, they may not. I believe the single most important thing you can do to attract birds is to provide them with a clean, reliable water source.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You could buy a liner at Home Depot for $40-$100, dig a hole and make a pond that way. I actually purchased a liner recently, and hope to finally turn that big hole in my backyard into a pond. But for several years, my bird pond has been a large, 70s-era satellite dish. I use a 240 GPM pump for circulation, and attached a filter I made by stuffing some HVAC filter material into a V8 juice bottle. (A filter isn't necessary, though it improves water quality. The important thing is either a pump for circulation or frequent water changes.)

Today I created a bird bath that I think the robins are going to love. It's an old DirecTV dish. I removed the mounting bracket, set it on top of some bricks and used a rock to keep the hose in place.

You can see my pond (the 70's-era satellite dish) in the picture too. One dish on top of the other one. When I finish my "real" pond, I'm thinking I'll move into another spot in my yard and keep using it.

Since I added water to my yard 7-8 years ago, the number of birds I see has gone up at least 10-fold. In dry areas, the land's carrying capacity skyrockets when you add water.  It doesn't matter if birds can find plenty of food and shelter. Without water, you're not going to see many species. Even where there's a lot of water available in an area, much if it may be stagnant for a large part of the year. If birds find a source that tastes and smells clean, that's the source they're going to use. If they need to, birds will fly a few miles for water. Your backyard can see hundreds of regulars instead of just a few, depending on the water situation in your area.

A water source also provides the best place for birdwatching and photo opportunities.  Not all birds visit feeders, but all birds visit water.

Hummingbirds are Here!

Yesterday (4/16/11), I looked out the window just in time to see a hummingbird trying to drink something out of an empty feeder that has been hanging there since last fall.  I quickly grabbed it, cleaned it off, filled it with pastel-colored nectar and put it back. But the hummingbird never returned. I fear he moved on to a place nearby that had a full feeder.

I'll be ready when the next wave hits, though...

Western Bluebird - Slow Speed Shutter Experimentation

I have an image-stabilization zoom lens from Canon that is supposed to give me perfect pictures at slow speeds. I took a bunch of pictures of this Western bluebird today at 1/60. I wasn't satisfied with most of them. I think the color is oversaturated at that speed, maybe a poor combination between the light, the zoom lens and the CCD sensor on my camera. But after making some color adjustments in Gimp, I did like this one:

Here's what you can expect at 1/60 when motion is involved (bad, bad, bad!):

I'm going to keep playing with shutter speeds. I think 1/100 is the slowest I'll go from now on.

One thing I have learned: My camera is a better photographer than I am. Whenever I use a creative setting, if the picture is important I try to follow up with full automatic just to be safe.

Cassin's Kingbird arrival in Albuquerque

Once again, looking forward to the arrival of new bird species. Today I was gratified to see two Cassin's kingbirds doing their marriage dance. It seems a little early for their arrival, but I think birds have been showing up a little earlier every year. (That's part of my reason for this blog -- I'm terrible at keeping records, and I can come back next year and look at bird arrival dates for comparison.)

It was at a distance and I didn't have my camera. If I had it, I would have taken a picture something like this picture I took on 5/14/06:

They probably won't show up at my home in the Manzanos until the end of April, though I am encouraged by their early arrival in Albuquerque.  When they get here, I promise to spend several hours shooting their mating displays.

So if you are in Albuquerque, now is the time to go locate a mating pair and get some good pictures for yourself. This weekend is the best time; by the end of next week they're probably going to be finished with their pageant and you'll have to wait a year for your next opportunity.  An open field with plenty of bugs (grasshoppers, flying moths, etc.) would be a likely spot. If there's a lone tree near the field and the area is fairly quiet, your success is practically guaranteed.

The ones I saw today were in an industrial parking lot on Kirtland AFB (near Hardin and Wyoming) though, so you can probably find them just about anywhere in Albuquerque. I once encountered a pair guarding a nest in a yucca 3' off the ground in a Fort Davis field (5/11/08):

All I had was my 2MP cell phone, but up until that point I believed they always made their nests over 20', so I thought it was worth taking the shot.

Which is Better -- Starving, or Being Eaten?

When I first moved to Albuquerque in 1991, Columbidae Columba, the feral pigeon, was relatively rare throughout most of the city. It could be found downtown, but not anywhere else, as far as I can remember. Now the city is covered with these birds, and they have spread out to anywhere in the state with a fairly dense population of humans.

As you probably know, I consider them one of the three illegal aliens of the bird kingdom (the other two are House sparrows and European starlings). I don't even like them, and the picture above is the first picture I ever took of one. I took this picture two weeks ago.

Now Albuquerque wants to criminalize their feeding. I can understand why. Nobody likes bird poop, and pigeons leave a lot of it everywhere.

But there's a huge opportunity here! Other cities in recent years have seen a return of Peregrine falcons and Red-Tailed hawks. These birds have returned because the cities have everything they need -- skyscrapers and telephone poles to nest on, and pigeons to eat.  Pigeons have been living with humans for thousands of years. They're not going to go away on their own, and they eat garbage. We can't starve them out. But if the City of Albuquerque were to actively pursue ways to get hawks to come to the city, the pigeon population would drop to something manageable.

I've seen how hawks manage the Mourning dove population at my own house (having seen the cycle described below play out three times), and I'm sure they would manage pigeons the same way. A flock grows to 40 or 50 birds, and starts to feel safe in its territory. A hawk moves in, and over the course of a few months kills off about 90% of the flock.  Only the most vigilant birds survive. When it gets hard to catch food, the hawk moves on to the next flock. Bird behavior changes, too. Instead of being everywhere, they become more wary. Less likely to be caught out in the open where they can be killed by hawks. It's likely that pigeon eating and pooping patterns would change to something less annoying for those who don't much care for pigeons. As the hawk is off decimating other flocks, the flock already decimated begins to grow again. And the cycle starts over.

How many pigeons are there in Albuquerque-5000? If you starve 5,000 pigeons, you'll end up with 4,800 ravenous, annoying pigeons. But if hawks do the management work, the population should be reduced by 75-90%, depending on where you're standing when you do the count. The few left would be scattered out over the whole city in small flocks.

Unlike New York City, which had to intervene to successfully reintegrate Peregrine falcons, hawks live up to the very edge of Albuquerque and occasionally hunt in city limits already. So instead of punishing old men on park benches, why not just make Albuquerque bird friendly? There are things we can do to get hawks to move into the city. Replacing the use of harsh chlorine in city fountains with mechanical filtration systems would be a good action to take. Providing hawk-friendly habitat (especially downtown) would be another. If we put our mind to it, we could make Albuquerque look like heaven to a pair of young hawks trying to find a place to raise their chicks.

I used to believe that birds need pristine habitat to survive. But although pristine habitat is ideal, many bird species can coexist in the city with humans if they have what they need. If they have everything they need, they won't know that they're not in pristine habitat. All we have to do is make sure that the other needs of predatory birds are provided, and they will happily manage our pigeon flocks for us.

Their food is already here.

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If there is a group of people in Albuquerque dedicated to making Albuquerque bird-friendly, please let me know about them. I'd like to join.