Houston Audublog

Green Heron (Butorides virescens) Family: Ardeidae What do you mean, I’m short? The Green Heron – our Beak of the Week – is one of the smallest resident members of the heron family in the Houston area. Full-size Green Herons are approximately 18 inches (45 cm) from beak to tail, which means they are comparable in size to the familiar American Crow. Additionally, Green Herons often hold their necks tucked in, which gives them a crouched appearance and makes them appear even shorter at first glance. Green Herons have dark greenish-gray bodies and deep reddish-brown necks and faces, with dark greenish feather tufts on top of their heads. Adult birds have bright yellow legs, which turn more strikingly orange during the summer breeding season. Young Green Herons are generally lighter colored than adults, and they can be easily identified by the whitish streaking on the front side of their necks. Green Herons can be found in forested wetlands and marshy areas with dense vegetation

Are you at home more with nothing to do? Are you looking for new ways to entertain your restless kids? We've all been going a bit stir-crazy, but while we may have to socially distance ourselves from each other, that does not mean we have to miss out on nature all around us this spring and summer. If you have a yard, or even a porch, you can attract visitors by putting up bird baths and bird feeders. Some of the more common year-round birds you might see are Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, House Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Mourning and White-winged Doves, various woodpeckers, Blue Jays, and more. In spring and fall migration and in the summer, you could even attract Indigo and Painted Buntings. To make a bird bath, all you need is a shallow bowl or container filled with an inch or two of water. For homemade feeders and even bird houses, the internet abounds with crafts - many of which are safe and fun for the whole family. Here are just a few examples of simple pr

Bay-breasted Warbler (Setophaga castanea) Family: Parulidae When in doubt...look at the feet? Or at least that’s what you do when you are in doubt as to whether you are looking at a non-breeding female/young Bay-breasted or a Blackpoll warbler. Because these two can look very similar, biologists will use the distinctive blue-grey color of the soles to confirm the identities of Bay-breasted Warblers. Adult breeding males are dark grey on the top, with a white/cream-colored underside, and nape, white wingbars, and a reddish-brown crown, throat, and flanks. Adult breeding female Bay-breasted Warblers are less dark and have just a wash of the chestnut coloring. Bay-breasted Warblers are mainly insectivorous, with a large portion of their diet consisting of spruce budworm. Since spruce budworms make up a large portion of the Bay-breasted Warbler’s diet, the prevalence of spruce budworm directly impacts Bay-breasted Warbler population sizes from year to year. Cape May, Blackpoll, and Bl

In September of 2017, my girlfriend Amanda and I, along with our dog Scout, moved out of our apartment and into a house in Houston’s Sunset Heights. One of the selling points of this house was that it had a small backyard the three of us could enjoy together. It was a simple space comprised of zoysia grass, Japanese yew, and bamboo. In June of 2018, Scout was sniffing around our backyard and decided to eat a couple of Japanese yew berries that had fallen on the ground. This led to her getting sick and spending the next two nights recovering at a veterinary clinic. This is the event that made me start to question everything growing in our backyard. Why did we have grass, shrubs, and bamboo from Asia? Why had we never seen a butterfly in our yard? We decided we needed to make some changes. To begin my research, I read The Houston Atlas of Biodiversity by Houston Wilderness, Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy, and Native Texas Plants by Sally Wasowski and Andy Wasowsk

Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) Family: Fregatidae Is that a dinosaur, soaring up there? Well, perhaps not quite, but our Beak of the Week – the Magnificent Frigatebird – is soaring into the Houston area these days. This pirate-bird of the high seas is commonly seen from boats and beaches throughout the late spring and summer months.  The Magnificent Frigatebird is a large, predominantly blackish seabird with extremely long, angular wings and a deeply forked tail. In good light, adults can show some greenish iridescence on their upperparts. Males are all blackish and have a red throat pouch which is inflated as part of their breeding display. Adult females are mostly dark but have a white patch on the upper breast, and juveniles – which take up to five years to mature, also show varying amounts of white on their heads.  Even when compared to other similarly-sized seabirds, the Magnificent Frigatebird soars and maneuvers mid-air with ex

I’ll begin with saying I know very little about birds. I can only identify the owners of a small handful of calls in an area where I have spent most of my life, and I am just now trying to learn the differences between mourning doves and white-winged doves. I have always appreciated the presence of birds, though. Since the start of the ‘stay-at-home’ order, I have enjoyed waking up to their calls instead of a blaring alarm, and I have slowly grown more appreciative of the loud family of crows that has taken up residency in my backyard. Over the last eight months of volunteering at Houston Audubon, my exhaustion at the idea of waking up early and biking along the bayou with my sister when only the birds are out has finally developed into excitement. These have also led to a love for watching the snowy egrets wade along the edges of the water fishing for frogs, and the thrill of trying to differentiate between the different types of swallows that dive around bridges. Then once we ret

Veery (Catharus fuscescens) Family: Turdidae Hopefully, this spring you will be fortunate enough to hear the enchantingly raspy and melodic song of the Veery. The Veery is a small thrush with a cinnamon-colored head, wings, back, and tail, light underside, and faint rufous spotting and a faint buffy wash to the throat and breast. Veery tend to be found in disturbed forest habitats with wetlands, and dense understories, which they use for nesting. During the breeding season, Veery gravitate toward forests containing fir, cherry, oak, maple, spruce, birch, alder, and aspen trees. Veery nest on or close to the ground, in soft vegetation or in leaf litter, and often next to fallen tree branches. This thrush is mostly insectivorous, eating berries when insects are hard to come by. They forage by flipping over leaf litter and hunting on rocks and logs. The Veery migrates from central and southern Brazil to eastern and northern North America. Veeries have recently been spotted near Hou

Across the world, species are rapidly disappearing before our eyes. This is a biodiversity crisis. Urbanization has caused habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation, which contribute to the decrease in global biodiversity. At Rice University, fifteen students signed up for Dr. Cassidy Johnson’s Conservation Biology Lab in hopes of making changes on their campus and in their city to protect and enhance the local biodiversity. These students are creating and communicating their desires to implement a Habitat Conservation Plan at Rice University in order to contribute to urban conservation efforts right here in Houston. Their project tackles specific biodiversity concerns including critical habitat, bird conservation, pollinator gardens, medicinal gardens, carbon sequestration, and wetland restoration. The following piece is written by students in the Conservation Biology Lab who are taking part in developing that plan. This is the first post in a series. ----- When people walk

Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) Family: Parulidae The Golden-winged Warbler is sure to be an exciting flash of gold in the trees during migration season. Of the warblers that frequently visit or breed in the United States, the Golden-winged Warbler is the only species with the unique combination of bright golden-yellow wing bars and a dark face pattern. It also has a golden patch on its crown and a grayish-silver wash to its wings and back, and it is slightly smaller than many other warbler species. Although they are not as abundant as other wood-warblers, such as the closely-related Blue-winged Warbler, the Golden-winged Warbler can be seen traversing much of the eastern United States during the spring migration season. They can be found in a wide range of woodland and brushy habitats during migration, but they favor shrubby areas near or adjacent to forest cover for the breeding season. Because of this specific breeding habitat preference, the Golden-winged Warbler