Lee Ann van Leer
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Sounds may be hard to determine based on a written description. Try looking up various thrush songs and calls. Wood Thrush has a echoing flute-like song and its call notes are repeated. However that isn't exactly how you described it. If you hear it again try to record it. The free Merlin App has sounds for each species to listen too. The following are thrushes to look up: Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Hermit Thrush, and Wood Thrush. You may also look up those birds on allaboutbirds.org Tufted Titmouse has a wide variety of sounds that sometimes can be similar to Carolina Wren. However those are distinct notes usually.
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Yes. You are correct.
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Yes, the course is self paced. As long as the course exists you can access it and redo any portion even if you finish it. We can't guarantee the course will exist forever but hopefully at least a few years or more.
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Yes, this photo is Downy Woodpecker, female. My personal mnemonic is Dinky, Descending, Downy (You could substitute Dainty or Diminutive) (Dinky bill that is around half the width of the head. Dinky as in smaller than a Hairy Woodpecker. Descending in that their call descends in pitch (while Hairy Woodpecker call remains on the same pitch). Humongous, Hurried, Hairy Their bill is humongous (compared with the Downy Woodpecker), their bill is equal to around the full width of their head and they are huge overall compared to Downy Woodpecker. Hurried is for their drumming which is very rapid or hurried compared to the other woodpeckers. You will find that the mnemonic devices you create yourself will be the most memorable. If you come up with any, throughout the course, feel free to post them. It might be interesting to learn some from all around the world.
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Yes Frankie, Some of the apps have that feature. iBirdPro will list similarly sounding birds for some but not all species on the app. This is a premium app. I bought that app 11 years ago for $19.99 but not sure what the latest version costs. It is not made by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I checked and it doesn't list a similar sounding bird for Ovenbird. However I will tell you that one bird that can be confused with Ovenbird is a Carolina Wren. Ovenbird crescendos getting louder and louder with each note.
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Yes. Blue Jays commonly mimic calls of various species of hawk calls.
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Reminder: Please only post photographs that are taken by you.
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If you anyone liked the video with Jane Kim she did another live lecture nearly 1 year ago with more stories about painting the wall. Here is a link to that lecture. Jane Kim Wall of Birds lecture May 2, 2019 Celebrate the diversity and evolution of birds with artist Jane Kim, who brought to life the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s magnificent 2,500-square-foot Wall of Birds mural. Part homage, part artistic and sociological journey, The Wall of Birds tells the story of birds’ remarkable 375-million-year evolution. In this talk, Kim will discuss her new book about the project, The Wall of Birds, exploring the intersection of art and natural history, the creative process, and surprising lessons that we humans can learn from birds.
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Hello Brad, The reason you won't find the American Robin on the Wall of Birds is because only one bird per bird family is represented on the wall due to space and time constraints. The artist could not have done all ~ 10,000 species so we chose one per family. American Robin is a Thrush. The species chosen for the Thrush and Allies family (Turdidae) is the Fieldfare Turdus pilaris. If you'd like to find that on the Wall of Birds it appears around Belarus, Poland, Lithuania portion of the map. Thanks for bringing this up as I am sure others have similar questions.
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Hello Imani, Thanks for posting. I hope you have been enjoying the course thus far.
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Hello Timothy, You will probably want to do your practice assignments in the Mixed Media notebook. However anytime you want to do your official first journal the moleskin one is just nicer, fancier, for an actual record. When you look at the picking a journal style video you will see that the instructor and some of her real world students used the moleskin style to document their trip to the Galapagos. It is totally optional moleskin but it is perhaps a nicer way or more durable journal based on the cover material. Personally, I haven't tracked down a moleskin journal yet. However for all my learning and practicing and doing assignments I am sticking to the Mixed Media journal for that. Some people may never use a moleskin journal. When or if you use it is up to you. Thanks.
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Crows do come to Ithaca from Montreal for instance. Ithaca is warmer than the Great White North and there is more available food in Ithaca in the winter than Quebec.
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Hi Sharon, That is a nice shot of a Prothonotary Warbler. They are fairly unique since they are cavity nesters. I love the dark eye on yellow. You may be happy to know that we have a Bird Photography course on Bird Academy coming out later this year. Melissa Groo is the instructor.
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Hello Tom, When you report a bird that was banded in USA at the Report a Band website they also typically send you a certificate of appreciation along with whatever history they have on that particular bird. It seems you are aware of that avenue and yes it can take quite some time to hear back. Depending on the species and where it was banded you can sometime do some online sleuthing on your own to try to figure out what banding station it was banded at or if it was banded as part of a specific research project. Birds that have wing tags, color markers, neck collars, or leg flags are easier to figure out online where they might have been tagged. Thanks for reporting the band as that information will make it back to the person or organization that banded it. Bird Banding Lab band reporting website but this is the page to report banded or marked birds. Report a Band
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Yes Barbara, There are Common Ravens in Monterey Bay so I hope you were able to find some.
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Hello Sheikh, Are you wanting to know where to look for a Himalayan Blue Tail female or are you asking how to identify this bird? You can find information on identification and locations of this species here: Himilayan Bluetail eBird Explore "Female is slightly more grayish than Red-flanked, but this identification can be much more difficult, and females may not be safely separable if not with male. "
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@Eveline Hello Eveline, Corvids in general don't show a lot of display for courtship. With the American Crows they typically form a long term pair bond so they aren't having to do a lot of courtship displays and rituals every year for breeding season like some other types of birds might do. Once the bond is formed it can last for many years or until one dies so the odds of a researcher observing that first time period that a new couple is pairing up for the first time is slim. That coupled with the difficulty in humans differentiating individual crows which can't be reliably told apart from another crow without them being tagged and or color-banded. If you are observing unmarked crows you don't necessarily know if you are observing a male or a female, parent, partner, child etc reliably. In the course there is an offer for course takers to get a discount on Birds of North America (BNA) subscriptions. BNA is our more in depth online encyclopedia of North American Birds. Here is an excerpt from Birds of North America, American Crow : Pair Bond Courtship Displays and Mate-Guarding. Courtship display, if it exists, is rare, judging by the paucity of reports on the subject (Good 1952). Allopreening, often actively solicited by either mate, occurs regularly, but largely ceases during incubation (Kilham 1989). Billing, seen infrequently, involves a mated pair gently fencing with their bill tips, and bill-grasping (Kilham 1989, CC). Members of a breeding pair stay in close contact during egg-laying stage (Caffrey 1992). Breeding male guards mate during time of sexual receptiveness. At start of egg-laying in Florida, males stood generally on 1 of 2 or 3 favorite perches, on the ground below the nest, on a fence post, or in a tree as far as 150 m away, watching for periods of 30 min. Males hardly fed their incubating mates during mate-guarding period; helpers fed the females (Kilham 1989). In California and Oklahoma, guarding males sit for hours at a time, with only short breaks, in obvious high perches near incubating females (CC). Copulation; Pre- And Postcopulatory Displays Based on Black 1941 , Kilham 1989 . During precopulatory display, both sexes crouch, bodies horizontal, wings out and drooping, and tails vibrating up and down; females use same display posture during courtship begging (accompanied by nasal “ waahs ”; CC). Sometimes this same display occurs in other context; juveniles give it to older siblings and some-times to each other (CC). Begging nestlings and fledglings assume the same posture and produce nasal “ waahs ” as well (CC). Males sometimes pick up objects as part of copulatory behavior. During copulation, male settles on female, waving his outstretched wings; female stands and vibrates her tail up and down while the male works his tail under hers. Loud, hoarse calls by female, audible 250 m away, heard during 13 of 30 copulations seen. Copulations occur on the ground, in trees, and on nests; last from 4 to 12 s. Reverse mounting occurs (Kilham 1989 ).
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Love this Family of birds.
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Hello to Sarah and anyone wondering about "buckling" of paper. Liz Fuller has this reply on the topic: This is a good question - using appropriately thick mixed-media or watercolor paper is the first step for sure. If you use thin paper it will buckle right away. My next piece of advice is to be strategic about how much water you use - try to control it and only use what you need! This comes with practice and comfort using your brush. Lastly - always let the paper dry between your layers of watercolor. There is a certain amount of buckling that will happen no matter what, but these steps should minimize the buckle!--Liz Fuller ===================== Holly, one of the featured Nature Journalers in our journal styles video has this advice: This is a problem I have too. I solve it by using less water and more paint, and making sure I don't add too much water at a time. That's not always possible depending what you're painting though - I've heard stretching the watercolor paper before you start can help in these cases. I've never tried it, but have always wanted to, and I know there's tons of YouTube videos on techniques! Basically, it's submerging the whole sheet in water for ~20mins or so. --Holly ================ We'd love to have other journalers give feedback on what methods they have tried or had success with to reduce this buckling issue.
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Oh that is a good idea having the photo in the same image.