Field Journal #7: Reproduction

On Monday, April 20th I observed birds around my neighborhood from 11:30 AM- 1:00 PM. I live in DC on Capitol Hill, and spring has completely come here with all the trees bearing leafs and many flowering trees already blooming. The weather was around 55º F, cloudy, and a bit windy. It has been cold and dreary for the past few days which has been unfortunate for birding. I live in a city so obviously this is not a lush forest, but there are many trees and bushes on each block. All the trees are deciduous and are either flowering trees (Pear, Cherry, Apple, and Dogwood), Black Walnut, Oak, and Maple Trees. I observed Northern Cardinals, European Starlings, House Sparrows, Gray Catbirds, Carolina Wrens, Mourning Doves, House Finches, and American Robins.
The House Sparrows were displaying a lot of behavior signals related to nesting. The most songs and calls were from sparrows, and these birds mostly create nests in under AC units in windows, in little burrows on the tops of houses, and other locations on buildings. I could tell that a nest was near because of increased singing and when I would look up, I could see a single male in a tree with his chest puffed, and then I would look at the adjacent building and there would be nests there along with a female. I know it's early but I could see and hear baby sparrows in the nests which could be why there were so many calls because the parents were actively protecting their young, and the males were guarding their mates. I observed individual sparrows carrying bits of dried grass, small swigs, and leaves in their beaks, which I assumed was for nest building.
When I walked outside my house, the air was full of calls and songs, but they were predominantly sparrows. They were in the tree next to me, the building besides my house, the buildings across from me, the air over my head and the trees. Building the sound map was a bit difficult because there were calls coming from all over. As I talked about earlier, the House Sparrows were nesting on the outside of buildings, but not other species were. This could be because the sparrows are small enough to make it work, but the Carolina Wren and House Finch were similarly sized. These species could be less accustomed to city living, so they nest in the trees because that is what the species has always done. The Carolina wrens were on the top of a tree together, so they could be building a nest in the high branches of a tree for protection because it is high up and a small nest is hard to spot.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D2eAyIaPwdF7Y11c6n8grGchHl598icyANDWMrFF13c/edit?usp=sharing
(Link to the mini activity)

Posted on April 20, 2020 08:18 PM by iadeslaw