On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
These aren’t the usual baby pictures! Even so, I love this set of photos. Am I wrong, or is somebody getting a talking-to in the third picture? ~WaterGirl
Albatrossity
Spring went away, summer moved in, and that means that all of our local birds are busy raising babies. So here are some images of local flyover country bird parents and youngsters from this season. It’s hard to be a bird parent; it is an incredible amount of work for a very short period of time in general. So they are worth a shout-out here on BJ.
One of our flashiest summer birds is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. They are not abundant in my part of flyover country, but there are enough of them here that I can usually find a few pairs earlier in the spring and then re-visit those sites to see if I can find some youngsters. They usually only have one brood a season here. Here’s a fancy male Scissortail showing off those crimson armpits.
Two fledgling Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, from a brood of four total. All four were in the area, all could fly quite well, but generally they were content to have a parent drop off a dragonfly or grasshopper while they sat on the wires.
Lark Sparrows have been featured in a previous On The Road submission, as they are a lovely bird and quite common in these parts. They are also very busy parents, and will have multiple broods per season, raised in an elegant grass-lined nest in short-grass pastures.
A young Lark Sparrow, with the same facial pattern as its parents, but sporting a streaky breast that makes it easy to ID as a youngster.
Grasshopper Sparrows are another tireless bird species that is abundant here. They also raise two (sometimes three) broods a year. Some of those youngsters may also be Brown-headed Cowbirds, however; this species is a common host for cowbirds. This adult has literally worked its tail off raising babies, and, given the date that this shot was taken, it is likely on a second brood already.
Young Grasshopper Sparrow. Again, the facial pattern is similar to that of the adult birds, but the breast is streaky, whereas it would be unmarked in the adult plumage. It seems to be a rule of thumb that sparrows with clear breasts have youngsters with streaky breasts, and vice versa.
Brown-headed Cowbirds evolved on the plains, following the bison herds, and their habit of laying eggs in other birds nests has earned them much abuse from some birdwatchers. That abuse might be deserved when they move into places where the native birds are not capable of co-existing with a brood parasite (e.g., the jackpine forests where Kirtland’s Warblers nest), but frankly they are just doing what every organism on the planet is trying to do. Survive and reproduce. The habitat invasions that make this bird problematic are actually due to human interventions, so shaming and blaming the bird is not really fair.
And here’s a young cowbird, probably raised by a Dickcissel or Grasshopper Sparrow pair here, trying to figure out how to be a cowbird from now on. There’s a country tune that comes to mind – “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowbirds”…
JPL
The first picture is stunning.
HeartlandLiberal
Thanks for giving a showcase for what our biology professor friend years ago called “the little brown birds,” the sparrows and finches and such like, often overlooked in photography because they are not show. They are beautiful in their own right.
eclare
I agree, that third picture, someone is getting a talking to…
Betty Cracker
Great photos as always!
A few years ago at our old house, a Blue Jay pair raised the brattiest baby I’ve ever seen before or since, of any species. It harassed its poor parents incessantly and threw huge tantrums when they weren’t shoveling food into its beak fast enough to suit it. So fun to watch since it wasn’t my responsibility. :)
Sab
@Betty Cracker: I remember that bird.
Laura Too
These are so cool. I love the first picture, it looks like a painting. Thanks!
Dorothy A. Winsor
These are amazing pictures.
MelissaM
When your deodorant stains your underarms! Great pictures. I love how most of these adults have beaks of dinner for the kids.
I’ve had cowbird eggs in two finch nests, but I don’t recall ever seeing a cowbird in the yard. Sneaky buggers!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
Lovely! Scissortails are always the highlight of visits to my sister in Texas. But I won;t be seeing them this year. :-(
and I love the high-frequency, buzzy song of grasshopper sparrows, which I can still hear! (even though I’ll be eligable to collect Social security in 2 days!)
Thanks for sharing these Albatrossity.
OzarkHillbilly
and somebody’s been misbehaving.
OzarkHillbilly
Oooofff. You’re gonna pay for that.
tokyokie
The scissor-tail is the state bird of Oklahoma and now adorns Oklahoma auto tags. But I would have expected more of them in Kansas, given its proximity to the Sooner State, where they are plentiful.
arrieve
These are especially wonderful pictures, even for the genius that is Albatrossity. That flycatcher in the first picture is just stunning.
Early fall migrants are starting to pass through New York. I went to Bryant Park a couple of days ago — Central Park is farther than I feel up to walking with a mask in the humidity — and saw not a a single migrant. But being outside is such a treat I loved watching the pigeons and house sparrows and didn’t miss the warblers.
mvr
I believe that the appropriate response to even a good pun is a groan, so you get one of those from me. I’m not sure that even was a pun, but the cowbird/cowboy conflation seems like the same kind of humor.
Thanks for the impressive photos! How far North do those split tailed flycatchers go?
Albatrossity
@tokyokie: They are plentiful closer to the OK border, but I live about 60 mi from the NE border, and they are less common there. Additionally this part of KS had a horrendous drought in the summer of 2018, and lots of insectivorous birds had a very bad year, or nested elsewhere in the state. I had a very hard time finding Scissor-tails that summer and last summer. I think they are still recovering from that bad year.
@mvr: There are nesting records for Nebraska in recent years, but not many. They are expanding their range somewhat, I suspect.