Field Journal #7: 4/22/2020

The date is April 25th, 2020. It is 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The weather is very warm, currently in the mid 50s. The sun is out and there are clear skies. I conducted my bird walk in Centennial Woods. My bird walk lasted for an hour and fifteen minutes and I ended it at roughly 4:15 pm. The specific habitat I visited was very patchy. There was not much brush, and the trees in the surrounding areas were mostly coniferous. I also noticed a couple stray oak trees and was able to identify a couple different maples. I stayed very close to Centennial Brook, so there was a water source in the habitat I was observing.

During my bird walk, I kept seeing a group of about five or six American Crows. I watched them interact for a good amount of time. During this observation period, I saw two crows, that I presume to be males, trying to fight each other away from a branch. They were raising their wings and cawing loudly, which is why I assume that this was confrontational and not a friendly interaction. I inferred that these crows likely were fighting for that spot to start making a nest, as it is the start of the breeding season for many species. Eventually, one of the crows left the branch and one of them established dominance. I also watched what I assume to be the more dominant male begin to collect nesting materials. The crow was using its beak to strip off pieces of bark and then flew back up to what I assume to be the nesting area. To my knowledge, there could have already been a nest up in the tree too. It was really high up and I do not have access to binoculars, so the potential nest in the branch easily could have been out of my sight. My reason for thinking that there may have already been a nest in the tree is that I did some extra google research about the nesting behavior of crows and from my understanding, crows use tree bark mostly on the inside of a nest to create a cushioned spot for the young.

During my bird walk I also heard the classic “fee-bee… fee-bee” song of an Eastern Phoebe. My guess is that this Eastern Phoebe may have been trying to mate, hence the singing. I also was able to spot the phoebe that I had been hearing, which was really cool. The Eastern Phoebe was in branches much closer to the ground, and I was actually able to spot what I think was a nest. In addition to hearing the Eastern Phoebe, I also heard many American Robins singing, which likely means they were also attempting to mate. One outstanding question I had after observing these birds was why were the crows so high up in the trees whereas the smaller songbirds were in lower parts of the trees? I looked into American Crow nesting behavior and actually found my answer. Apparently, crows prefer to nest in the top quarter or third of a tree, which explains why they were so high up. I also looked up the nesting habits of Eastern Phoebes and found that they tend to stay close to freshwater which I found interesting. Overall, this was a really productive bird walk and I had a lot of fun finally getting outside and away from my apartment.

Link to my sound activity:
https://ibb.co/FqbSMmQ

Posted on April 25, 2020 09:43 PM by emilyw603