Lammergeier: Gypaetus barbatus

Another vulture, a cousin of the Egyptian vulture, only this one eats bone instead of carrion. How awesome is that?


The Lammergeier is an old world vulture with feathers on its head. 1) it lives at high altitudes and has to stay warm, and 2) doesn't eat meat so sanitation isn't the issue that it might be for other vultures.

The Lammergeier looks for other vultures and then waits for them to finish before swooping in to take the bones. If they can't swallow them whole, they fly with them and drop them until they break. It can take a young Lammergeier years to learn exactly how to break the bones.

The vulture's digestive system is really acidic, allowing it to dissolve the bone and take advantage of the marrow.

Check this out:

Lappet-faced Vulture: Torgos tracheliotos

If yesterday's vulture was the wizened elf of the vulture world, this guy is its fierce giant.

Lappet-faced vultures are large, roughly 4 feet tall, and they're a more aggressive vulture. Their size and (relative) ferocity means that most other birds scatter when they come to feed... not necessarily a bad thing because lappet-faced vultures have very strong beaks capable of tearing at carrion that other birds (or mammalian scavengers) might not be able to manage.


Lappet-faced vultures are old-world vultures (Asia/Africa), related to hawks and kites; their feet are strong enough that they could conceivably use them to kill, even though they're primarily carrion eaters.

By the way, according to Mirriam-Webster, a lappet is a fold or flap on a garment or headdress or a flat overlapping or hanging piece, and in this case it refers to the flaps of skin on either side of the lappet-face's head/neck... Attractive... NOT.

Doodled from this photo at Wikimedia Commons.

Egyptian Vulture: Neophron percnopterus

I'm way into vultures at the moment. They're ugly, sure, but they fill a unique ecological niche that's kinda cool... they eat dead things. They're carnivores who (usually) don't kill their meals.

The Egyptian Vulture is one of the smaller old world vultures, and frankly, one of the more attractive.


Smaller, more attractive, and fairly intelligent... it uses rocks to break into ostrich eggs.

Cool, right?

By the way, Egyptian Vulture's are also known as Pharaoh's chickens, they have their own hieroglyph and this one was doodled from a photo at Wikimedia Commons.

Bonus Bird: Golden-crowned Sparrow

Doodled because the Golden-crowned Sparrow is Spokane Audubon's "rare bird of the month" for January. (Rare bird for here, that is.)

Bonus Bird: Golden-crowned Kinglet

The best part of deciding to become attuned to birds is that they just pop out of nowhere... not really, of course. They're usually around, but I'm more likely to see them now that I'm looking.

This is one of the surprises, a Golden-crowned Kinglet.


It snowed last night in Seattle, but the snow turned to rain and this morning was a slush-fest. I was running some errands, on foot, and I decided to walk up the viaduct from University Village. At the top of the hill on 45th I came across a small group of tiny (3 - 4 inches from beak to tail) birds with golden crowns.

I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot, frozen on the sidewalk staring into the shrubs, but it was so wonderful to see these goofy little birds go about their business. I was giddy, both from finishing my hill climb and from seeing a new-to-me bird. Whee!

Doodled from this wonderful photo.

Accipiter striatus: Sharp-shinned Hawk

It's been a blockbuster at the feeders over the last few days... I guess a foot of snow will do that for you.

Yesterday morning we had all the usual suspects, plus a Northern Flicker that huddled up to the house to try to keep warm (seriously, right there on the top step).

And then everybody cleared out, and fast, because a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk showed up looking for some breakfast.


Sharpies are pretty common in this neck of the woods, especially around feeders where the pickings are anything but slim. This morning's hawk let me take a good look while he perched in our tree. He was a small hawk with dark wings and a barred tail, with yellow eyes. After he flew away I went looking through the guide books and Cornell's Birds of North America web site, and learned that juvenile Sharpies have yellow eyes and light eye stripes.

The hawk wasn't the only predator we had in the yard yesterday. Right after he left, Ghost the neighbor cat came to stay a while - I had to flush him out from under one of the chairs.

Agelaius phoeniceus: Red-winged Blackbird

It was the strangest thing... I peeked out of the bedroom window just in time to witness a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds swarm the sunflower seed feeder.

They were here long enough for the Juncos to collectively wonder "What's up with that?" and then they were gone.

I've seen Red-winged Blackbirds in the yard before, but not until the end of the winter, and even then only one at a time. Usually I don't see them anywhere but at the pond, where there are tall grasses to hide and nest in.

Very strange, indeed.

Doodled from this photo.

Carpodacus mexicanus: House Finch

Another of the feeder birds. We get these guys in droves... OK, not as many House Finches as Sparrows, but quite a few on a regular basis.

We get two finches in our yard -- these guys and the Goldfinches, and their diets are apparently different. The House Finches like crack... er... black oil sunflower seed, and the Goldfinches are mostly about nyjer thistle.

Doodled from this photo.

Passer domesticus: House Sparrow (female)

Let me just state, for the record, that I am not a huge fan of the House Sparrow. They're marauders, they're piggy and they're not very nice to other passerines...

But...

If you set out food for everyone else, the sparrow will show up to the party. If you want to see anyone else, you have to expect to see the sparrows. Sometimes in large numbers.

And because I'm a fan of finches, grosbeaks, juncos and the occasional cowbird (though thankfully, those don't visit in large numbers), I put up with the sparrows.

Doodled from this photo.

Junco hyemalis oreganus: Oregon Junco

My favorite of the winter birds, doodled from memory... as you should be able to tell because Oregon Juncos tend to be ground feeding birds, so not likely to be seen from this angle. There are other things wrong with this doodle, but you get the dark hood and lighter beak, which are two distinguishing features of the Oregon Junco.

When it gets colder than cold (as it has been lately), I throw black oil sunflower seed out the back door to the porch for the juncos. The sparrows and house finches duke it out at the feeder, but the juncos forage on the ground so I like to level the playing field just a little bit for them.

Baeolophus bicolor: Tufted Titmouse

This doodle is from a photo in the latest issue of Birds & Blooms magazine, from the feature Eating Right Out of Your Hand.


I think I would keel over from surprise and delight if a wild bird landed on my hand, even if I am of two minds about the whole idea. (On the one hand, wild birds should be wild, instinctively wanting not much to do with me. On the other, wouldn't it be cooler than cool to be able to interact with a wild bird in this way?)

The other reason I would keel over: Tufted Titmice don't live where I live -- they're Eastern birds.

Sitta canadensis: Red-Breasted Nuthatch

Red-Breasted Nuthatches (along with their cousins, the Pygmy Nuthatches) are some of my favorite birds in this region. I tend to see them in the fall and spring, with the chickadees and woodpeckers, which leads me to believe that they may summer in the mountains and come to the basin for winter.

They're gregarious and social, and right now they're major players in the festival of songbirds in the parks.


What I love about them is that if you hear that they're close, you can stop for a few moments to get a look, and almost invariably, one scout will come down from the branches to see who you are and what you're up to. I don't know if the scout is the one who picks the short end of the straw or if it's the most outgoing bird of the group, one that might actually be interested in figuring out what's going on.

Either way it's kind of cool.

Doodled from this photo.

Aix galericulata: Mandarin Duck

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is a medium-sized perching (tree nesting) duck. Although closely related to the Wood Duck (on of my personal favorites, especially this time of year), the Mandarin lives in Asia.


I wonder what purpose those "sails" on the wings serve, or rather, if they serve any purpose beyond decoration...

Falco mexicanus: Prairie Falcon

This month's "Bird of the Month" for the newsletter was the Prairie Falcon. They look a little bit like Peregrine Falcons, but their malar strips are narrower, their underparts are more buff-colored than rust, and they've got dark axillars (wingpits!).

Their range is pretty much the entire Western US, with a tiny bit of Canada and Mexico at the far north and south. They thrive in areas that have both cliffs (for nesting) AND plains (for hunting ground squirrels); we've got those conditions in spades in this part of the world. They're studied extensively at the The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Southwest Idaho.


Doodled from this photo.

The Classification of Birds

As much as I enjoy birds, I'll never make the mistake of thinking that I know better for them than they know for themselves, that any of them would be better off living in my world than in their own (except under the most special of circumstances). See, I've got an informal system of classification for birds that accomplishes one very important thing: it keeps me from thinking of them in anthropomorphic terms.

In my way of thinking any bird can be classified in one of three ways:

1. Those that would like nothing more than to get and stay far away from me. That group is primarily passerines and waterfowl.


2. Those that would like nothing more than to kill and/or eat me, given the right circumstances. For most birds (scavengers, most raptors, corvids), that consideration is limited to what would happen if I dropped dead in the street. There are birds that would think nothing of attacking/killing me if I were to get too close to their nests... or maybe if they're just in a bad mood (it may not be emotion like we experience it, but don't think for a second that a bird doesn't have an emotional life)... like Snowy Owls or any of the ratites.


3. Parrots. Most of the parrots I've met (all hatched in captivity) actually like the company of people, or at least don't mind us... especially if we're willing to hand over a walnut or two.

I would put the bird in today's doodle in the second group, the would kill/eat you as soon as look at you group, but not because it's an omnivore (it is, by the way... most birds are).


The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a ratite, a large, flightless bird related to Ostriches and Emu, from Indonesia, Australia and New Guinea. It's fairly tall and has a sharp claw that it can use for defense. Oh, right, and the horn on its head... please, how could this bird not be descended from dinosaurs? The Cassowary doesn't eat large game, so technically I should probably put it in the first group... but it's capable of killing a person. In other words, if you chase it it'll run, but you'd better watch out if it decides to turn on you.

Best just to give this guy a wide berth.

Doodled from this photo.

The Owl and the Woodpecker

I checked out a wonderful book at the library last week... so wonderful that for a couple of nights I just sat with it and made doodles from the photos.


The book: The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America's Most Iconic Birds, by Paul Bannick.


Drawing from photos isn't ideal, I'll admit, but it does allow you to really look at the bird in ways you might not be able to in the wild. For one thing, getting close enough to your subject to be able to do anything but catch its gesture might not be possible.

And then there's the emotional response... I saw Brown Pelicans for the first time on my vacation last week and they were so beautiful that all I wanted to do was watch them for as long as they were there without having to futz with trying to draw them, or digging out the camera.

I'm not sure I'll ever outgrow that... I'm not sure I ever want to outgrow that... it's good to be flat out amazed every now and again, I think.

Cathartes aura: Turkey Vulture

Last weekend on our hike we saw this bird:


You can tell by his silhouette that he's a turkey vulture (note the black body with lighter wings), but you can't really see much of his head, which would be the real giveaway.

They're large birds, with a wingspan of up to 72 inches. They're not raptors; they're scavengers that eat carrion almost exclusively. They summer in our neck of the woods, so it could be that the vulture we saw was either starting his fall migration or getting ready to.


These are not attractive birds, but because they eat carrion it makes sense that their heads would be mostly featherless.

Doodled from this photo.

Glaucidium gnoma: Northern Pygmy Owl

The Northern Pygmy Owl is a small, forest-dwelling, small-mammal/small-bird-eating owl.

Small as in 6-7.5 inches from head to tail. It's diurnal, meaning it usually hunts at dawn and dusk. It nests in holes, though it doesn't make its own holes; it uses empty woodpecker holes and/or old stumps. And they're tough. Floyd Scholz says in his book, Owls, that "Often they kill their next meal only to find that it is too big and heavy to carry off to a perch" (pg. 163).

When they're relaxed, pygmy owls look like puff balls with long tails, and it seems to me from the photos I've seen that they usually look like they're a little bit pissed off.


Pygmy owls have a set of "false eyes," feather patterns at the backs of their heads. The only photo I've found that shows them clearly is this one, by Anne Elliott:


The following video is a clip from Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Field Guide, featuring a biologist tracking pygmy owls in a most unexpected place: Forest Park, a green space just at the edge of Northwest Portland.


Inexpertly and mercilessly over-doodled from this photo by Dominic Sherony.

One more thing of note: Spokane Audubon Society's newsletter is The Pygmy Owl, and I am the new editor.

Psaltriparus minimus: Bushtit

Another Portland bird, one that I'd never seen before... didn't know it existed, even.

I was enjoying breakfast with my mom when we noticed some really small birds in her lilac bush. Then there were more... and more... and then it got ridiculous. A flash mob of tiny birds.

Very social... lots of noise. There, and then gone, as quickly as they appeared. (Actually, they moved briefly to my mom's giant butterfly bush before they went away.)

We watched them as long as they were around and then dove into the field guide.


They were bushtits. Described as "drab" and "nondescript," they're gray-ish. And small... very small.

This doodle looks like it's a "Black-eared" bushtit, and thus not a sample of what I saw in Portland - they live in the southern US.

Doodle based on this photo.

Athene cunicularia: Burrowing Owl

The Wikipedia article for the Burrowing Owl says the owl "... is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America."

My field guide says "Note long legs."

The burrowing owl lives, you guessed it, in burrows. It's active during the day, and yes, it has long legs.

This doodle is based on a photo of Beaker, an ambassador for the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC.

Neat-o.