Houston Audublog

On Christmas Day 2018, my 7 year-old daughter joyfully opened a gift we had both long-awaited, that of a DIY birdhouse kit. I had envisioned a project we could complete together, one that would develop her budding interest in bird watching and give us something to do during the cold winter days ahead. Indeed, after applying a haphazard coat of brightly-hued paints - as only a first-grader can do - twisting in the tiny screws on every corner of the aviary abode, we hung 3 bird houses from our live oaks in the front yard. With noses pressed against the living room window, we eagerly anticipated a flurry of feathers and happy chirps. Yet, surprisingly, no birds arrived. A week went by, then a month, soon migrating flocks returned north and not one bird took an interest in the houses. Not a parent to shrug off a child’s genuine interest or attempt, I began wondering what could have gone wrong. I attempted to solve the problem with a trip to our local retail chain hardware garden c...

Yellow Warbler ( Setophaga petechia ) Family: Parulidae The Yellow Warbler is a small songbird with medium-length tails and a round head. The bill is relatively large for a warbler species.  Males are a bright yellow with reddish streaks on its underside.  Both males and females have yellow patches on their tail.  Their face is unmarked, allowing you to see their large black eyes.  Yellow Warblers will be near the tops of tall shrubs and small trees.  Common trees include willows, alders, and cottonwoods. They eat mostly insects and up to two-thirds of their diet may consist of caterpillars.  They also feed on mayflies, moths, mosquitoes, beetles, and damselflies.  Yellow Warblers will take insects from twigs and hover briefly to take insects from the undersides of leaves.  They forage from low levels up to the treetops.  Males tend to forage higher and in more open foliage than females. Yellow Warbler males will actively court females for 1-...

I live in the southwest Houston neighborhood of Willow Meadows. We have a typical lot for the area, about 9,500 square feet, with about 2,500 square feet of backyard. There was a mature pecan tree along with a fig tree, citrus trees, a hibiscus, and a palm tree I had planted before I learned about the importance of planting native plants. I knew from a short-lived experiment with raised bed vegetable gardening that gardening requires constant attention and maintenance, so for my next project I wanted to create a landscape that was interesting, easy to manage, unlikely to be ruined by dogs or children, and of course bird-friendly. Enter: container gardens. Containers are great because it's easy to change plants out, keep weeds down, and add color and texture to your landscape. You don't need as many tools to plant in containers and native plants will do fine with any organic potting soil available in bags at the hardware store.  PLANNING I wanted the containers to sit on gravel,...

Mississippi Kite ( Ictinia mississippiensis ) Family:  Accipitridae Mississippi Kites arrive in spring from their winter homes deep in South America. A medium-sized hawk, the Mississippi Kite has long, narrow, pointed wings and a long black tail. The back is dark gray while the breast and belly are almost white. The head is pearly gray with a black mask surrounding red eyes. Adult male and female plumages look similar; juveniles are brown with heavy streaking on the breast.  An acrobatic flier, this kite glides, circles, and swoops as it pursues and feeds on airborne insects such as cicadas, dragonflies, katydids, beetles and grasshoppers. They typically hunt on the wing, capture their prey with their talons and consume prey while flying. While large insects make up the majority of their diet, Mississippi Kites will angle agilely and quickly to the ground to catch frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and small birds. The call of the Mississippi Kite is a high-pitched, piercing, two-...

Scarlet Tanager ( Piranga olivacea ) Family: Cardinalidae The breeding Scarlet Tanager male is one of the most brilliantly colored birds that you may encounter during migration. In spring and summer, the males are scarlet red with jet black wings and tail. Females and fall immatures are olive-yellow with darker olive wings and tails. After breeding, adult males molt to female-like plumage, but with black wings and tail. Of the more than 230 species of tanagers that occur in the western hemisphere, only four regularly migrate to North America to breed, almost as if to tempt us to visit the Neotropics to see their colorful kin. Wintering in Amazonia and nesting in deciduous forests in the eastern half of North America, the Scarlet Tanager migrates farther than any other tanager.  Despite their brilliant coloring, Scarlet Tanagers can be difficult to spot as they are birds of the tree top canopy where they forage for insects such as weevils, wood borers, leaf beetles, cicadas, scale i...

Backyards across the United States have had an unusually high number of small, heavily striped finches, known as Pine Siskins, making a recent appearance. This year’s irruption of Pine Siskins has been one of the largest in recorded history! An irruption typically occurs during periods of food shortage in a species’ home range, causing them to spread out southward in search of resources. Pine Siskins, whose range is typically limited to the boreal forests of Canada and the northernmost U.S. states, faced an extreme shortage of conifer seeds, resulting in their takeover of bird feeders in a yard near you! Learn more about the irruption. Unfortunately, these birds are facing yet another threat across their irruption range. Salmonellosis outbreaks in Pine Siskins have been documented heavily in the Pacific Northwest, resulting in mass die-offs of this species and others that use feeders alongside them. This disease has now, unfortunately, made its way to Texas.  Salmonellosis is cause...

Rusty Blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus ) Family: Icteridae Rusty Blackbirds have been the talk of High Island for the last few weeks, as they are currently being seen in Smith Oaks Sanctuary for the first time. They winter in the Eastern United States and are relatively uncommon in Southern Texas.  These birds have a thin, curved bill and a shorter tail than Common Grackles. Breeding males have the glossy black plumage that is characteristic of Icterids. Nonbreeding males, however, have black or dark brown feathers with rusty edging. A black mask surrounds their pale iris, bordered above by a pale supercilium. Females look similar to nonbreeding males but are lighter overall with a gray rump. They prefer wooded swamps and pond edges, where they forage on the ground for insects and seeds, often wading through water and flipping over leaves. Rusty Blackbirds form small flocks and may associate with Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles during the nonbreeding season. In the breeding...