Observing Bird Behavior

I wonder if I should be concerned that it is easier for me to understand bird behavior than it is to understand my own actions. Well, as Scarlet O'Hara once said: "I'll worry about that tomorrow." Today I will talk about the birds. Birds, like any vertebrate, have a complicated and environment-driven set of behaviors that are simply fascinating. Have you ever been delighted by something that actually works perfectly? Well, birds do just that! Everything they do has survival value and each action has evolved in such a manner as to assure the survival of the species. Let's look at a few categories of bird behavior.

Territorial Behavior: Why do birds call and why are birds so colorful? The answer is: they want each other to see and hear them. It has to do with the availability of resources such as food and nesting sites. If the birds were too closely packed in, they would starve and if they were too widely spread out they might never find each other to reproduce. Each bird species has evolved a spacing method based upon visual and auditory cues that assure a proper distribution or density of a particular birds species in a given area or habitat. It's really very efficient and is a thing of beauty. It gets even better: not all the males can fit into an area and the system is so well refined that the weak or puny ones are not able to establish and defend a territory and these poor fellows will not get to breed. What this actually means, however, is the next generation is likely to have fewer weak or puny birds which means that the species in that area will remain strong and healthy. Once you think about it, it's a fabulous system for the birds.

Look at this Red-winged Blackbird on the left. I photographed him in the Spring at the height of breeding season. Notice how large and bright are his red shoulder patches. He had a territory and was successfully defending it by singing and by flaring his shoulders from his tall perching spot. Other Red-wings could not miss him. Less than 20 yards away from his location on the marsh there was a non-territorial male whose shoulders were pale orange and whose call was weak and atonal. Only this strong male would attract a female this Spring; the other one would remain lonely. Remember that the males you see singing in the Spring are probably the best of the best and you ought to appreciate them for who they are. For that matter, you ought to try to find some less successful males of the same species and watch them for a while. You can always root for the underdog.

Regarding Color: The male bird in the photo is pretty spectacular. The female of this same species is grimly drab brown and does not display or defend anything. This is the general rule among bird species: the males get the fabulous clothes and the females look like bag ladies. Ladies, if it's any help you might consider that it's all work related. Males must attract females to good breeding places and must constantly defend these spots from same-species competition and so they are dressed for success. Hey, at least they aren't laying around watching baseball and drinking beer.

Breeding Behavior: Breeding behavior is so closely bound up with territorial behavior that I won't say much more. The male's color and activity serves the dual purpose of defending the territory from other males and advertising it to females. It is unmistakable in the Spring and you do not need me to describe the songs and dances. You may never see the actual moment of sexual union since it is just that - a moment. Last Spring I happened to see a pair of Western Kingbirds engage each other at the top of a (fortunately) tall Sycamore tree. They spiraled down the length of the tree amid a crashing of twigs and leaves until they broke off just a few feet above the ground and flew away . It looked fairly painful and I hope it was worth it.

Foraging Behavior: Birds have to eat just like you do and foraging is an opportunity for you to observe them because they must move about a great deal. You will learn that foraging behavior is so specific that it can help you identify bird species. For example, Sparrows are seed eaters and forage in bushes or on the ground. Flycatchers, on the other hand, "hawk" flying insects by flying off their perches and snatching tasty morsels out of the air. Woodpeckers do exactly what you would expect and you know where to go in the field guide to find them. Now, feeding is, of course, a year-round activity and is not something you will only see in the Spring. However, it is an activity that is most commonly done in the mornings. You will need to get up early to watch that early bird get its worm. This makes even more sense in the hot summer when birds want to spend the afternoon in the shade as much as you do.

Migratory Behavior: Most - not all - birds fly South in the Fall and return in the Spring. It makes good sense; if you live in Massachusetts you know that the seed and insect productivity of your area falls drastically in the Winter. Obviously an acre can support far fewer birds in the Winter than in the Summer so most birds will have to go or die. This involves legendary feats of distance and directionality. However, you won't actually see much migratory behavior; you will just wake up and find them gone. Oh, well, Spring will come.

Bird behavior is fascinating once you look upon it as an evolutionary and ecological manifestation and get past thinking of birds as cute little feathered people. They are a wonderful creation in their own right. The birds in a given area are part of a larger plant and animal community which functions an amazingly complex organism. Birds are the crown jewels of almost any natural ecosystem because they have the greatest appeal to the greatest number of people and are so easy to identify and observe.

By Dennis S Tomko, webmaster

An Ecological Perspective

You know what makes birds so neat? The answer is that they fit so perfectly into the dynamics of the natural community in which you see them. Indeed, they must because that is the rule for any species of plant or animal which naturally occurs in a particular habitat. Every species has a multitude of roles to play from consumer to producer to reproducer and they all move through what Storer called the "Ecological Web". The natural world is, at once, incredibly complex with all its interacting living and non-living components and is still remarkably simple as it always - without outside interference - works. I have come to call it "The Simplicity of the Complexity". When you are out there birding, try to be aware of the amazing dynamic of natural communities and the way in which bird species - not just individual birds - move within that dynamic.

I will share an example with you:

Peck's Lake is an old ox-bow lake in central Arizona. On any given Spring morning I can see Red-wing Blackbirds, Yellow-breasted Chats, Phainopeplas, Say's Phoebes, Gambel Quail, and Black Phoebes. At first glance it is a hodge-podge of bird species. But look closely and you see habitat splitting at its finest. The Red-wings use the tops of reeds on the marsh edges for display sites and nest down in the reed cover. The Chats tend to display and spend time in the thick middles of the Mesquite trees next to the marsh. The Phainopeplas perch on the highest part of the tallest Mesquites and defend territories from their lofty sites. Say's Phoebes sit on the edges of Mesquites and spend a good deal of time making short (highly visible) foraging flights. The Quail run around the ground picking up seeds. The Black Phoebes live along the stream edges and silently patrol their boundaries as they forage for flying insects. Each of these species can place a large number of individuals at Peck's Lake but none of them -as species - truly compete with each other because they have partitioned the habitat so neatly. If all these individuals "wanted" to use the tops of Mesquites for display posts, there could be only a fraction of the existing numbers of birds. But that is not the way it works. These birds - as species - use only identifiable parts of the habitat. What you see is a lot of pretty birds and that seems pretty simple, even though the ecological reality is really quite complex.

By the way, bats come out at night and fly-catcher type birds go roost at dusk. I bet you can figure that one out. It all has to do with the way in which natural systems tend to maximize resource utilization in such a way as to maximize the diversity of a community. And, what is the point of maximum diversity, you ask? I will ask you: why does a stockbroker tell a client to diversify his portfolio? It is the same answer: diversity promotes stability. It is as if a  natural community is a very wise individual. But it is not. If not, then what?

I must insert a note of caution. Birds - or any - species are not the wise ecologists they appear to be. Red-wings do not come to a marsh and decide to set up shop on the reeds one fine day no matter how neat it might look. Red-wings use the reeds because, over countless generations in countless marshes, they have become quite successful as reed masters. In fact, they have become more successful than most other bird species which may have also tried that habitat trick. To put this into a more evolutionary context, Red-wings with genetic "drives" that encourage reed use have been more successful than Red-wings with genetic "drives" for ground use. Therefore, over time, Red-wings - as a species - have become reed users. It was a complex process that required countless trial and error (mostly error) experiments and it can all be summed up in these words "what you see now is really very simple. It works." So, marvel not at the presumed intelligence of the Red-wings you see. The brain power is far more apparent than real. Marvel instead at the simple fact of success because it works so well.

And, here is yet another caution: There is a risk implied with any specialization such as reed use. What do you think might happen to the Red-wing population at Peck's Lake if all the reeds were removed and marsh drained? These birds would find themselves in a habitat devoid of their highly preferred feature. Not only that, but the remaining parts of the habitat - the Mesquites and desert shrubs - are already filled up with species that have been successful in those places and will likely out-compete the Red-wings for space. Specialization can be a two-edged sword. The moral of the story is simple: conservation efforts are properly aimed, not at protecting a given species, but rather at protecting the integrity of habitats.

When you are out birding, take delight at the wonderful bird species but think in terms of habitat. And, really, that's pretty simple, isn't it.

By Dennis S Tomko, webmaster