A HEADS UP FOR UPCOMING BIRD COUNT (1/15/04)

In anticipation of the upcoming count of your yard birds, I want to review a few of the species that are either highly irregular on the Cape or are not widespread and are the ones about which I am most interested in gathering data.

Although the thought of identifying different sparrow species makes many of you shudder, the fox sparrow is larger and much redder (hence their name) than our abundant song sparrow. If you look at a field guide, you will notice its foxy red tail. Fox sparrows are not feeder birds; instead, they scratch vigorously on the ground to bring out their food from the dirt or leaf litter. Although both the fox and song sparrows have streaked breasts, the streaking is heavier on the former while the latter usually shows a prominent dark spot on its chest. You’re unlikely to have more than one fox sparrow in your yard, whereas you could easily have 4 or 5 song sparrows.

Another out-of-the-ordinary bird that you should watch for is the hermit thrush, a 7-inch bird. Like the fox sparrow, it has a red tail but is a dull brown on the back with a spotted (not streaked) breast and a bill that is much more slender and longer than a sparrow’s. Eastern Towhees, 8 inches in size, are unusual here in the winter. The male is black on the back with rusty-red sides; females are brown.

For those who don’t care to ponder on sparrows, cedar waxwings may fill your bill (Yes! That’s a bad pun!). The problem with waxwings, however, is that they are sporadic. If your trees still have fruit of any type on them, your chances of a visit by these handsome birds greatly increase. Always in flocks in the winter, these tan birds with a short crest sport a prominent yellow tip on their tail. If you’re outside when they show up and your hearing is very good, you may notice their high-pitched call notes.

For most of us, woodpeckers are not unusual yard denizens. However, some find distinguishing between the downy and the hairy to be difficult. There's a saying that goes, “If you can’t be sure, it’s probably a downy.” The two species have almost identical markings, but the hairy is considerably larger, so that when you see one, you almost certainly know it. Of course, being able to compare them side by side, as we do every day, is a big help. If you keep suet out, you probably have at least one or the other of these black-and-white birds.

A far less numerous species of woodpecker is the red-bellied. It, like the titmouse, cardinal, mockingbird and Carolina wren, is a southern bird that has been extending its range northward for some years now. For identification, its name only makes for confusion. Its red belly is almost impossible to see unless you’re holding it in your hand, as bird banders do. Its red is a strip on the top and back of its head, and to me it seems to have a slightly orange cast. Narrow black and white bars cover its back, while the breast is a plain buffy color. These birds’ loud, rolling “churrrrs” often betray their presence. Be sure you do not misidentify one as a red-headed, a bird very rare in our area and one with a head that is entirely red.

Then, of course, we on Cape Cod are accustomed to celebrity visitors. We think of our tourist season as being mainly through the summer with a bit of spillover onto the shoulder season. Nonetheless, we do have some visitors — avian, of course — from far away places in the winter.

The prize for the most unusual would probably go to a pair of sandhill cranes that chose the surrounding terrain of a Cummaquid house for a lengthy visit after our first Nor’easter. Although another of these cranes spent many weeks in Provincetown at a horse farm a year or so ago and other reports have been bandied about in Barnstable, a look at a range map for these birds shows that during the winter, populations are heavily distributed in Texas and New Mexico, isolated areas of central California, with smaller populations in Arizona, Florida and the lower midwest and southern Gulf states. These cranes, however, have begun nesting in the Northeast, so perhaps our stragglers come from that area.

Unlike many of our winter birds, these cranes cannot be confused with any other species. Large, long-legged and long-necked birds, size alone defines them. With a height of five feet, a wingspan of 80 inches and their long, pointed bills, they are unmistakable. These cranes have a patch of bald red skin on top of their heads.

Where they may have wandered before settling next to a golf course in a yard filled with brush and a small wetland can only be speculation. Nonetheless, they could not have found a better site than where they lingered for weeks. They used the ground both in the house’s yard and the adjacent golf course in which to probe for insects, a pond in which to seek out aquatic invertebrates, while their human hosts supplied them with corn and hearts of sunflower seeds.

While we cannot all hope for such exotic birds in our yard at the end of this month, keep your eyes open for unusual species. I look forward to getting your reports.

GRAPHIC: Eastern Towhee, photographed by Geoff Dennis, Little Compton, RI

Please send your comments and anecdotes about birds to me in care of the Cape Cod Times, 319 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 or, if you use email, to emiller@seepub.com. I regret that because of an overwhelming amount of mail, I cannot respond to each of you personally. However, I have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to the web page with my current and past bird columns, now found at http://home.comcast.net/~elliemiller/index.html. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, try Bird Watcher’s Digest at 1-800-879-2478 or check out their FAQ at www.birdwatchersdigest.com.