Hunting Digital Plumes in the US and Beyond: Familiar Songbirds of the West featuring Mountain Bluebird and Lark Sparrow

Monday, March 28, 2016

Familiar Songbirds of the West featuring Mountain Bluebird and Lark Sparrow

[California. March 2016]

A recent trip to California yielded a refreshing assortment of mostly familiar songbirds -- sparrows and thrushes that this blogger has had the good fortune to enjoy previously. On the subject of the "familiar", however, it is universally acknowledged that "familiarity breeds contempt" (an idiom that first finds written mention in Chaucer's works from the 1300's).

Nevertheless, whatever its origin, we must assume that whoever coined this expression certainly could not have been a birder. For, all birders know that every observation of a species, even one thoroughly familiar, offers an opportunity to reacquaint, to refresh and to discover anew -- be it a revelation about avian identification, or behavior or habitat. Surely then, "contempt" would be a quality wholly unknown to a mind thus engaged in discovery and observation.

We review, then, this assortment of Western songbirds -- comprising the following thrushes and sparrows:

Mountain Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco [Oregon]
California Towhee

We lead with the thrushes and the incomparable Mountain Bluebird:

Mountain Bluebird seen at Ramona Grasslands, San Diego Co.

Mountain Bluebird in winter plumage shows only a hint of the cerulean blue that it sports in Summer. It is otherwise pale and grey -- lacking the rusty coloration of the Western Bluebird. A mixed flock of both Mountain Bluebirds and Western Bluebirds at Ramona Grasslands allowed for close comparison of these lovely thrushes.

Western Bluebird is a deeper blue and the breast is rusty while the belly is white:

Western Bluebird seen at Cuesta Park

Western Bluebird seen at Ramona Grasslands

Western Bluebirds are found in a wide distribution in the American West -- having previously found mention in this blog when reporting from Arizona in the company of Grace's Warbler, Yellow-eyed Junco, and Hutton's Vireo.

Western Bluebird seen at Byxbee Park

As testament to our earlier thesis on discovering anew amidst the familiar, this particular observation was noteworthy for the first time that this blogger has captured the brilliant back view (above) of this amazingly colorful thrush.

Our final thrush is Hermit Thrush -- the back view facilitating observation of the "rusty tail" that is diagnostic:

Hermit Thrush seen at Ramona Grasslands, San Diego Co.

Moving on to sparrows, a distinctly marked songbird with chestnut cheeks and black whiskers alights on a branch:

Lark Sparrow seen at Ramona Grasslands, Wildflower Loop

This most unusual of sparrows is the Lark Sparrow -- its many unique characteristics having earned the Lark Sparrow its own genus.

The next sparrow is one of our most widespread: Savannah Sparrow:

Savannah Sparrow seen at Ramona Grasslands

Contrary to popular belief, this sparrow is not named "Savannah" for its affinity for grasslands and fields; instead the moniker stems from the place in Georgia that yielded the type specimen of the species.
Like the Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow is also distributed widely across the US:


Song Sparrow seen at Baylands

Next, White-crowned Sparrow is a common wintering species seen in the West:

The new world family of sparrows includes not just sparrows but also Juncos and Towhees and the former are some of our most delicate and fine-looking songbirds:

Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon race), Seen at Cuesta Park.

Dark-eyed Junco has several sub-species -- the one observed on this trip was the Oregon race which has a black hood, and brown back and flanks. Compare to the slate-colored race seen in the Eastern US, eg., in Michigan.
Finally, towhees are large sparrows found across the US; save for one, all other Towhee species are in the Western US -- such as this California Towhee:

California Towhee seen at Ramona Grasslands

From incomparable thrushes like the Mountain Bluebird to unusual sparrows such as Lark Sparrow, songbirds like these encountered in the West, offer new vistas for discovery and appreciation to the intrepid birder.

1 comment:

Bob Pelkey said...: The feeding behavior of the Mountain Bluebird made an indelible impression when observed at of all places between Miami and Naples, Hemant. Thank you for the reminder of that beautiful creature's predictable nature.; March 28, 2016 at 2:10 AM

What is Plume Hunting?

Plume hunting was big business in the late 1800's. Unfortunately, the dark side to the beauty of plumes led to the slaughter of millions of birds so women could wear fancy hats (Read about Plume Hunting).

Thankfully, in this age of digitization, we can capture most anything we want -- books, music, video, etc. -- digitally. And, with the advent of digital photography at the turn of the millennium, we can once again hunt for plumes -- but digitally; with none of the accompanying destruction. This blog is dedicated to capturing the beauty of nature reflected through the incredible diversity of our avifauna.

Reproduced below is ecofeminist Celia Thaxter's, "Woman’s Heartlessness" (Boston 1886; reproduced from Google Books) which was published at the time when plumes were worth their weight in gold and many species of birds were fast headed toward extinction:

WOMAN’S HEARTLESSNESS
By Celia Laighton Thaxter

When the Audubon Society was first organized, it seemed a comparatively simple thing to awaken in the minds of all bird-wearing women a sense of what their “decoration” involved. We flattered ourselves that the tender and compassionate heart of woman would at once respond to the appeal for mercy, but after many months of effort we are obliged to acknowledge ourselves mistaken in our estimate of that universal compassion, that tender heart in which we believed. Not among the ignorant and uncultivated so much as the educated and enlightened do we find the indifference and hardness that baffles and perplexes us. Not always, heaven be praised! But too often,--I think I may say in two-thirds of the cases to which we appeal. One lady said to me, “I think there is a great deal of sentiment wasted on the birds. There are so many of them, they will never be missed any more than mosquitoes. I shall put birds on my new bonnet.” This was a fond and devoted mother, a cultivated and accomplished woman. It seemed a desperate case, indeed, but still I strove with it. “Why do you give yourself so much trouble?” she asked. “They will soon go out of fashion, and there will be an end of it.” That may be,” I replied, “but fashion next year may order them back again, and how many women will have human feeling enough to refuse to wear them? It was merely waste of breath, however, and she went her way, a charnel-house of beaks and claws and bones and feathers and glass eyes upon her fatuous head.

Another, mockingly, says, “Why don’t you try to save the little fishes in the sea?” and continues to walk the world with dozens of warblers’ wings making her headgear hideous. Not one in fifty is found willing to remove at once the birds from her head, even if, languidly, she does acquiesce in the assertion that it is a cruel sin against nature to destroy them. “When these are worn out I am willing to promise not to buy any more,” is what we hear, and we are thankful, indeed, for even so much grace; but alas! birds never “wear out.” And as their wearer does not carry a placard stating their history, that they were bought last year, or perhaps given to her, and she does not intend to buy any more, her economy goes on setting the bad example, or it may be her indolence is to blame, one is as fatal as the other. Occasionally, but too rarely, we meet with a fine spirit, the fire of whose generous impulse consumes at once all selfish considerations, who recognizes the importance of her own responsibility, and whose action is swift as her thought to pluck our the murderous sign, and go forth free of its dishonor. And how refreshing is the sight of the birdless bonnet! The face beneath, no matter how plain it may be, seems to possess a gentle charm. She might have had birds, this woman, for they are cheap and plentiful enough, heaven knows! But she has them not, therefore she must wear within things infinitely precious,--namely, good sense, good taste, good feeling. Heaven bless every woman who dares turn her back on Fashion and go about thus beautifully adorned!

In one of the most widely circulated newspapers the fashionable news from Paris begins: “Birds are worn more than ever.” Birds “are worn!” Pitiful phrase! Sentence of deadly significance! “Birds are worn,”—as if that were final, as if all women must follow one another like a flock of sheep over a wall, and forget reason, forget the human heart within, forget everything but the empty pride of being “in the fashion.” Ah me, my fire-flecked oriole, watching your airy cradle from the friendly swinging elm bough, go get yourself an inky coat. Your beauty makes you but a target for the accursed gun that shatters your lovely life, quenches your delicious voice, destroys your love, your bliss, your dutiful cares, your whole beautiful being, that your dead body may disfigure some woman’s head and call all eyes to gaze at her! But no,--that will not save you. Blackbirds are not safe, they “are worn.” Carrion crows “are worn,” unsavory scavengers though they be. No matter on what they may have fed,--they “are worn.” Soar, swift sea-swallow,--I would it could be millions of miles away from the haunts of men; to the uttermost parts of the earth and the ocean carry your grace, your slender loveliness of shape, your matchless delicacy of tint and tone of color, soft, wondrous like gray cloud and silvery snow,--fly! dear and beautiful creature; seek the centre of the storm, the heart of the Arctic cold, the winter blast, they are not so unkind as—woman’s vanity. Do I not see you every day, your mocking semblance writhing as if in agony round female heads,--still and stark, sharp wings and tail pointing in stiff distress to heaven, your dried and ghastly head and beak dragged down to point to the face below, as if saying, “She did it.” The albatross of the Ancient Mariner is not more dreadful. Yesterday I saw three of you on one hat! Three terns at once, a horrible confusion of death and dismay.

Does any woman imagine these withered corpses (cured with arsenic) which she loves to carry about, are beautiful? Not so; the birds lost their beauty with their lives. Today I saw a mat woven of warblers' heads, spiked all over its surface with sharp beaks, set up on a bonnet and borne aloft by its possessor in pride! Twenty murders on one! and the face beneath bland and satisfied, for are not "Birds to be worn more than ever?" Flit, sandpiper, from the sea's margin to some loneliness remote and safe from the noble race of man! No longer in the soft May twilight call from cove to cove along the shore in notes that seem to breathe the very spirit of tender joy, of happy love, of sweet content; tones that mingle so divinely with the warm waves' murmur, with the south wind's balm, and sound in music through the dusk, long after the last crimson flash of sunset has faded from the sky year after year you come back to make your nest in the place you know and love, but you shall not live your humble, blissful, dutiful life, you shall not guard your treasured home, nor rejoice when your little ones break the silence with their first cry to you for food. You shall not shelter and protect and care for them with the same divine instinct you share with human mothers. No, some woman wants your corpse to carry on her head. You shall die that vanity, that "Fashion" may live.

I fear we no longer deserve these golden gifts of God. I would the birds could all emigrate to some friendlier planet peopled by a nobler race than ours, where they might live their sweet lives unmolested, and be treated with the respect, the consideration, and the grateful love which are their due. For we have almost forfeited our right to the blessing of their presence.

But still we venture to hope for a better future, still the Audubon and other societies work with heart and soul, to protect and save them, and we trust yet to see the day when women, one and all, will look upon the wearing of birds in its proper light,--namely, as a sign of heartlessness and a mark of ignominy and reproach.

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Monday, March 28, 2016

Familiar Songbirds of the West featuring Mountain Bluebird and Lark Sparrow

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