State Birds--Revised

State birds have annoyed me for pretty much as long as I have been birding. None of them seem to make any sense, and very few show any real knowledge about the state's birdlife. The lack of creativity is incredible- 7 states have the cardinal as their state bird, 5 have the mockingbird.

So I decided to change the birds around a bit, with a few rules-

1.  The bird must naturally occur in that state.
2.  No two states can have the same bird. 
3. There has to be a good reason for that bird to be the state bird. 

It also helps for the bird to be visually appealing- Baird's Sparrow may be a North Dakota specialty, but it's hardly going to excite any non-birders in the state. If the bird is Endangered or has a very small range, that helps too. So, in alphabetical order, the 50 new state birds- and one district bird (if there are more than one bird listed, the final choice is in bold)-

Comments are encouraged! There is absolutely no way that you would agree with me on all 51 of these, so voice your opinion about what could be changed.

Alabama -- It was the Yellowhammer, or Northern Flicker, but that doesn't satisfy rule #3, and Swallow-tailed Kite is cooler anyway.

Alaska -- The Willow Ptarmigan is actually a pretty good choice. While there might be a couple better birds, (Ivory Gull, Puffins or Alcids, Gyrfalcon), Alaska can stick with the ptarmigan.

Arizona -- Cactus Wren, the current state bird, isn't bad, but it is brown, and fairly drab. Neither of those characteristics can be associated with the Elegant Trogon, on the other hand, the most brightly colored of the Chiricahua Mountain specialties.

from Wikipedia


Arkansas -- The "Lord God Bird" itself- Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Who cares if it is maybe/probably extinct- it's still a better state bird than the mockingbird.

California -- There are tons of birds in this state, but the California Condor is the largest and the rarest. The current state bird is the California Quail.

Colorado -- (Currently Lark Bunting) Colorado is that state that is most associated with the Rocky Mountains, so I went back and forth between two mountain birds- the American Dipper and Clark's Nutcracker, and decided on the dipper.

Connecticut -- Hermit Thrush has a better song than the American Robin, and Vermont (which currently has the Hermit Thrush) can just take some boreal finch or Bicknell's Thrush.

Delaware -- Seriously, Blue Hen Chicken? Chickens do not make good state birds- they are neither majestic or native. The Red Knot, on the other hand, is native and threatened, and huge numbers stop in Deleware bay during migration

District of Columbia -- (Not technically a state, but they do have an official bird) I was thinking this would be the eagle, but it turns out that it is actually the Wood Thrush, which I'm fine with. 

Florida -- Florida has some of the best birds in the country, so having a Mockingbird as the state bird is stupid. There are a few contenders here- Snail Kite, Florida Scrub Jay, Roseate Spoonbill, and Purple Gallinule. Tough choice, but I'll go with the gallinule.

Georgia -- Brown Thrasher is Ok, I guess, though it is pretty close to a mockingbird...

Hawaii -- Nene is cool, but it's still a brown goose. It is endangered, but so is basically every bird in Hawaii. Honeycreepers are more colorful, and the whole family is restricted to Hawaii, so one of those should be the state bird. My pick is the I'iwi.

(From http://www.stanford.edu/~petelat1/iiwi4.jpg)

Idaho -- Mountain Bluebird. It's blue.

Illinois -- I just picked a warbler for Illinois, to replace the cardinal, because there were no other birds that I could think of. Magnolia Warblers are cool.

Indiana -- Now I sort of see why there are so many Cardinals as state birds. I couldn't think of anything else, so I'm sticking with the Northern Cardinal.

Iowa -- I have no idea, so stick with American Goldfinch.

Kansas -- Western Meadowlark is the state bird of a lot of western states (but interestingly, the Eastern Meadowlark is not a state bird of anything), but here it actually fits.

Kentucky -- It's May, so I'm overloading the Eastern U.S. with warblers, but I'm not going to say Kentucky Warbler. Red-headed Woodpecker works.

Louisiana -- Brown Pelican- that is, if there are any left in the state after that oil spill.

Maine -- (Was Black-capped Chickadee) Definitely Atlantic Puffin. No doubt about it.


Wikipedia

Maryland -- They did name their baseball team after it, so Baltimore Oriole has to stay as the state bird.

Massachusetts -- (Was also Black-capped Chickadee) Something like half of the world's population of Piping Plovers breed in MA.

Michigan -- This is the easiest one on the whole list- Kirtland's Warbler.

Minnesota -- Common Loon is on their state quarter and everything, so I guess they wouldn't be happy if it was changed it to Boreal or Great-Gray Owl.

Mississippi -- Mockingbird is fine, but Great Blue Heron is better.

Missouri -- NY gets to keep the Bluebird, so Missouri has to switch. Eurasian Tree Sparrow isn't native, but  Ruby-throated Hummingbird is, and there aren't any other hummers on this list.



Wikipedia

Montana -- Greater Sage Grouse deserves to be listed here, and on the endangered species list, but not on the menu of a french bistro. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here.)

Nebraska -- Sandhill Crane- in migration flocks can number in the hundreds of thousands.

Nevada -- Umm...Hmm...Uh... Give me a minute. (flips through Sibley's) I've got it! Golden Eagle.

New Hampshire -- Purple Finch is OK, but Gray Jays have more charisma.

New Jersey -- (Was American Goldfinch) Cape May is one of the best birding spots in North American, and there is no single species that represents the birdlife of Cape May or New Jersey, but the Cape May Warbler is named after it, so...

New Mexico -- Greater Roadrunner is good.

New York -- It's Eastern Bluebird, and it's going to stay that way.

North Carolina -- (Was Cardinal) Cerulean Warbler is awesome.

North Dakota -- Gyrfalcon!!

Ohio -- Fine. The "Warbler Capital of the World" can have Blackburnian Warbler. See if I care.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/u-z/Warbler_Blackburnian_MikeMcDowell.jpg

Oklahoma -- Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is good.

Oregon -- Varied Thrush. (Was Western Meadowlark, but so were a lot of other states)

Pennsylvania -- Ruffed Grouse- Why not?

Rhode Island -- Rhode Island Red Chicken- here we go with domestic birds as state birds again. How about Peregrine Falcon. Why? Because I saw my first one here. Not that anyone else would care, but seriously, who's going to complain about having a falcon instead of a chicken?

South Carolina -- Carolina Wren makes sense, but Painted Bunting is more brightly colored. By a lot.

South Dakota -- Ring-necked Pheasant is not native, so I'd go with Snowy Owl, even though I don't know how common or uncommon they are there.

Tennessee -- Tennessee Warbler! No, Nashville Warbler... See what I mean about the warbler overload? Whip-poor-Will is unique, though it could be difficult to explain why your state bird is called a goatsucker...

Texas -- Another great birding state with a mockingbird. I was debating between Green Jay and Roseate Spoonbill, but the spoonbill is pink, so it wins.

www.tringa.org/

Utah -- There is actually a good story behind this one. California Gulls saved Mormon settlers by eating a swarm of crickets that would have otherwise destroyed their crops. There is a monument in Salt Lake City commemorating this, known to the Mormans as the "Miracle of the Gulls."

Vermont -- Hermit Thrush has been taken by Connecticut, but Vermont has boreal birds, so there is no problem replacing it. White-Winged Crossbill would be good.

Virginia -- Another Cardinal state. I know there have been a lot of warblers, but there will be one more- Prothonotary Warbler.

Washington -- This should be some sort of alcid. Tufted Puffin wins, beating the drabber Marbled Murrelet and Pigeon Guillemot.

West Virginia -- How about a different red bird? Scarlet Tanager instead of Cardinal.


sdakotabirds.com

Wisconsin -- American Robin is the current state bird, and I can't think of anything better, so...

Wyoming -- Dipper, Sage Grouse, Gray Jay, and Mountain Bluebird are all already taken. I personally prefer Clark's Nutcracker, but from a non-birding perspective, Trumpeter Swan wins.

Note- I used some photos from wikipedia or other sources for this post, to illustrate why certain birds (that I have never photographed, or at least not well) should be the state bird. The purple gallinule photo is mine, however.

Migrants in Central Park

I had a great morning in Central Park yesterday, on a Bronx River-Sound Shore Audubon bird walk. Migration has been heavy the past few nights, and there were a lot of warblers around. I saw 16 myself, and in all of Manhattan 27 species were reported. I was too busy looking at the birds to take any photos though, so this post will be short.

In all I saw or heard 60 species. The highlights were great looks at an adult male Bay-breasted Warbler, a female Cerulean Warbler, my life Prairie Warblers, a Rusty Blackbird, awful looks at a flyover Red-headed Woodpecker, a Common Loon, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Brown Thrasher, Baltimore Oriole, Chiminey Swifts, Eastern Kingbird, and Great Crested Flycatcher. In addition to the three warblers already mentioned, I saw Blackpoll, Magnolia, Black-and-White, Ovenbird, Northern Parula, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Nashville, American Redstart, and the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped.

Others saw Summer Tanagers, Cape May Warblers, and Blackburnian Warblers, and there was a report of Brewster's Warbler, Chat, and a male Cerulean (ours was a female), but even without those it was an really fun morning of birding.

Costa Rica, Days 7-10- Manuel Antonio and #400

Note: Sorry this post is so late- I haven't really had time to blog the past few weeks. This is the final post about my Costa Rica trip. If you haven't read the other posts from my trip, it might make sense to go back and read them in order. At this point in my trip, my life list was at 398.

With the number of good birds that I had been seeing, I figured I could get the 2 lifers I needed for 400 without any trouble- maybe even before breakfast. However, this was around the point that new sightings started to taper off. I still saw great birds- pelicans, frigatebirds, 5 tanagers, a few Euphonias, and a pair of Chestnut-manibled Toucans, but at this point I had seen most of them already, and lifers were becoming scarce.

We went to Manuel Antonio National Park, famous for its beaches and monkeys. There there were dozens of White-faced Capuchin monkeys, and they were very tame, stealing food from beachgoers and trashbins. Rarer were the Central American Squirrel Monkeys, a small, endangered species that is found in only 2 locations in Costa Rica. We saw both.

And, of course, the beach was incredible.

In addition to the monkeys, iguanas also raided our bags-

We walked out on Punta Catedral (Cathedral Point), a rocky outcropping in the national park. From the end of the point, when I scanned the ocean, I saw Frigatebirds, Pelicans, and another type of bird with a different silhouette. I quickly realized that they were Brown Boobies, a type of seabird closely related to the Northern Gannet. Lifer, and bird #399.

The view from Punta Catedral-

On the way home from the beach, we heard a very loud call, and then a tour leader pointed out a toucan. It turned out to be a Fiery-billed Aracari, a very cool bird with a large red bill. It is endemic to Costa Rica and western Panama, and it was my 400th bird! 

That night my dad predicted that I was done for lifers on the trip, so I woke up earlyish, sat on the balcony, and found 2- Social Flycatcher and White-collared Swift. That's real extreme birding there- it takes a lot of dedication and perseverance to sit on a balcony at your hotel room, in your pajamas, with an ocean view,  and watch tanagers, hummingbirds, frigatebirds, and other lifers fly by.

We went to the beach again that day. At one point there is a small bridge over a stream. I was a little behind, because I had been looking at Inca Doves, so when I got the bridge my parents were saying something about a wading bird with pink or red legs. I tried to think of a bird like that, and drew a blank, but luckily at that point a Gray-necked Wood-Rail popped out of hiding. Lifer, and an awesome bird. 

I again used my foolproof birdfinding method of listening to hear people talking about birds, and then looking in the direction that their scope is pointed. This became especially useful when one guide started talking about a "stickbird." There are only a few birds that could accurately by called a stickbird, and the Common Potoo is one of them. It looked exactly like the top of the broken branch it was perched on. 

At the beach I saw a flyby Royal Tern and a Green Kingfisher. Though the birding had been pretty incredible, I had not seen too many raptors- White-tailed Kite on the first day, and both Caracaras, but no hawks. I was therefore very happy when, while I was watching the potoo, first a Double-toothed Kite and then a Roadside Hawk both landed nearby. Both lifers, and, being raptors, very cool.

The kite-

An odd sound coming from a thicket turned out to be a quartet of Chestnut-backed Antbirds, accopanied by a Riverside Wren. Two more lifers, the latter endemic to CR/W. Panama. Back at the hotel room, I saw what I thought was a vulture from the balcony, but then looked again and realized it was actaully a Mangrove Black-Hawk, which pretty much eliminated the raptor shortage. At the pool a dusk, I found a flock of Smooth-billed Anis and a Lesser Nighthawk. 

The next day was our last full day in Costa Rica. My dad and I went Jet-skiing, while my mom and sister went to a spa. Jetskis are obviously not ideal for birding, but I did get great looks at pelicans, frigatebirds, and a Brown Booby ~15 feet away, a much better look than the distant birds on the colony the previous day. Back at the hotel, I picked up Spot-crowned Euphonia, and we headed back to San Jose. On the way, I spotted both anis, both caracaras, a few herons, and an osprey. In the parking lot of a supermarket, I spotted a black bird and a brown birds- male and female Blue-black Grassquits, which would turn out to be my last lifer of the trip. 

Back at the Hotel Bouganvillea, I saw many of the same birds as before- Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Canivet's Emeralds, Rufous-capped Warblers, Inca Doves, White-eared Ground-Sparrows, and a Blue-crowned Motmot. I managed to get an identifyable shot of the ground-sparrow.

The last bird of what was an incredible trip was a Tropical Kingbird just outside the airport, before we left the tropics for frigid New York. 

Some Recent Spring Birds

Finally I am seeing some migrants. On Saterday, I went on the NYS Young Birders Club trip to Stockport Flats, where I saw my FOY (First of Year) Eastern Pheobes, Tree Swallows, and Wood Ducks. There were actually a lot of tree swallows- at least 20 over the river. We also saw a few Ravens, two migrant harriers, and 3 eagles, one with a fish.

On Sunday I spotted a Great Egret and a Snow Goose at a golf course near my house, and this afternoon there was a Fish Crow across the street.

Spring is here, April starts tomorrow, and the warblers shouldn't be too far behind.

Costa Rica, Day 6- Macaws in Carara

With our somewhat distant look at a macaw the previous night, we wanted better looks this morning, so we got up at 5:15 or so to try again. While we were waiting at the bridge, I found two flocks of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, a lifer and, taxonomically, the first bird on my list; a collared plovers and its chicks, a pair of Jacanas, some least sandpipers, more stilts, more waders, more oropendolas, more crocodiles, and, eventually, more macaws.

A pair of macaws flew in towards the National Park, followed few minutes later by another one, and another. Still distant looks, but much better than the previous night. As we headed to breakfast, two more (the same pair?) flew over our heads going the opposite direction. Macaws in flight, apart from their coloration, look nothing like I expected them to- their tails are very long, and they look more like kites or huge terns than parrots.

A Yellow-headed Caracara flew over, and I spotted a "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler, a White-tipped Dove, some more Groove-billed Anis, and an iguana.

After breakfast, we headed to Carara National Park, following the route Adrian had suggested when we discussed it in Monteverde. First we headed to the longer trail in the park, along the Rio Tarcoles. The first birds we saw were a group of Dot-winged Antwrens, apparently quite common in the park. I soon spotted a Royal Flycatcher- Carara has to be one of the best places in the world to see these. They almost never raise their spectaular crest, but even lowered the long feathers give it a weird head shape.

There were a lot of guided tours, so if they were looking at something we would stop and look in the same direction, and often see something good. In this way we came across an awesome Violaceous Trogon on its nest. I got a quick glimpse at another a ways down the path. Continuing in the flycatcher theme, I found a Northern Bentbill, which does, indeed, have a bent bill, and two tiny flycatchers- Slate-headed and Common Tody-Flycatchers.

At one point, the trail reaches a lagoon, and there is a colony of Boat-billed Herons, a bizzare cousin of our Black-crowned Night-Heron.

Also there was an Anhinga, and lots of lizards- multiple iguanas, and some basilisk lizards. A few of the smaller basilisk lizards ran a couple feet across the water, which they are known for.

A Prothonotary Warbler was also present at the lagoon, as was an adult Bare-throated Tiger-Heron.

Carara is really a tropical rainforest- hot and extremely humid, so after seeing a Black-hooded Antshrike and a Cherrie's Tanager, we headed back, seeing a White-shouldered Tanager and our first monkeys of the trip, a trio of White-faced Caphucins.

When we got back to the parking lot, we decided that we wanted to see another macaw. We talked to one of the guides, who offered a $20 per person 2 hour tour, but 3/4th of my family (I would be the other fourth) had had enough of birding and wanted to get to the beach. So we reached a deal with the guide, Antonio- he would take us to see a macaw for 10 dollars a person. If we didn't see any, it was free. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

After maybe 10 minutes of walking, where we saw 3 doves species (White-tipped, White-winged, Ruddy Ground) and a Streak-headed Woodcreeper, we arrived at a clearing. Antonio pointed out a cavity in a tree where a macaw was sticking its head out. Yes!

A second later, the macaw vanished back into the nest hole. It stayed inside for another 20 minutes while we waited, but it eventually stuck its head out, giving great looks.

On the way back to the car, now satisfied with our macaw sightings, we spotted some leafcutter ants and a Rose-throated Becard. At the hotel, I found a Cinnamon Hummingbird, before we left our hotel to get to Manuel Antonio, our next stop. Before that, though, we stopped for lunch at the Hotel Carara. It would turn out to be the best lunch of the trip- not because of the food, which actually wasn't that great, but because of the wildlife.

First off, it's right on the beach, and there were pelicans, frigatebirds, gulls, and a caracara all flying around. But the best part was when two macaws fly by and perched in a nearby tree. We got incredible looks at them eating and flying around- the forty dollars we had spent to see just one did not seem like such a good deal anymore. My life Neotropic Cormerant was completely overshadowed by the macaws when it fly by.

Macaw food-

While we were watching the macaws, a local woman whose house was next to the restaurant managed to tell us that there was a monkey in her yard and that we should come see it (by saying "mano" and pointing at her child's stuffed monkey toy until we caught on). Sure enough, there was a Howler Monkey there, which, along with the macaws, made for a pretty good group of animals to see over lunch.

We drove south down the coast to the Manuel Antonio National Park area, and checked into our hotel, Costa Verde, the nicest hotel of the trip. From the balcony, you could see the ocean and the national park, and a lot of birds. I saw frigatebirds, pelicans, Blue-Gray, Palm, and Cherrie's tanagers, Red-legged Honeycreepers, Costa Rican Swifts, Kiskadees, Tropical Kingbirds, and my life Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Red-crowned Woodpecker, and Tropical Gnatcatcher, all from the balcony of our room.

The view from our hotel room (click to see the whole panorama):

The pool area was no less bird-rich. I ended up getting a "pool lifer" when a stunning Golden-hooded Tanager perched a few feet away while I was swimming, and a Long-billed Starthroat, apparently a fairly good bird for the area, buzzed by. Add Palm, Blue-Gray, Summer, and Cherrie's Tanagers to the Golden-hooded Tanagers, and you have a 5-tanager pool.

I saw Costa Rican Swifts return to their roosts, and one nightjar flew over, but I did not get an identifiable look. Still, the number of birds boded well for the next day, and a quick tally revealed that I was at 398 birds for my life list- just 2 more for 400.