Roving Ringtails

Raccoon or Ringtail?

The common but elusive Ringtail or Ringtail Cat (Bassariscus astutus) is not a cat at all, but a member of the Procyonidae Family and a close relative of the Northern Raccoon.  The origins of its scientific name comes from bassar or ‘fox’, isc or ‘little’, and astute or ‘cunning’. In Texas, it is found mostly in the Trans-Pecos, the Edwards Plateau, and the Cross Timbers regions.   

An adult Ringtail on our back porch railing.

While ringtails are cat-sized mammals, their face is fox-like with a pointed snout, their body is elongated, and their tail resembles a raccoon.  The ears are large, and their big, dark eyes are each surrounded by a patch of light-colored fur.  The fur on their body is buff to brown-colored above and whitish below, with a spectacularly bushy, ringed tail.  This tail is often longer than their body, and is marked by a series of 14 to 16 alternating black and white rings (black rings incomplete on the underside) with a black tip.  

Close-up of the face of a Ringtail.

Mainly nocturnal but sometimes seen at dawn and dusk (crepuscular), ringtails are roving, solitary mammals that come together only to mate.  Their breeding season starts in late February and continues to mid-April, and females are in heat for only one 24-hour period during this time.  In early May to mid-June 2 to 4 cubs are born fuzzy, white-haired, and with a tail that is not yet colored with the distinctive black and white bands.  The cubs open their eyes at one month, and at four months begin hunting for rodents, insects, lizards, birds, and berries.  Ringtails are quite vocal, especially the young, and will make a variety of sounds including squeaks, chatters, grunts, growls, and hisses, with the typical call being a loud, plaintive bark.  In the wild, ringtails live an average of seven years. 

This Ringtail is eating sunflower seed that has fallen out of our bird feeders.

Ringtails can be found in our oak-juniper woodlands that have rocky areas associated with water, including riparian canyons and caves, limestone cliffs, and sometimes in man-made structures like mine shafts.  They can den in tree hollows, rock crevices, other animals’ abandoned burrows, and even seldom-used spaces in buildings.  They roam frequently, rarely spending more than three straight nights in one den.  Interestingly, the ankle joint of the Ringtail is very flexible and is able to rotate over 180 degrees, which makes them very agile climbers.  By pressing their feet against one wall and their back against the opposite wall, or by pressing both right feet against one wall and both left feet against the opposite wall, they are able to ‘stem’ or ascend/descend narrow passageways and wide cracks in the rock.  Their strong tail can provide balance for negotiating narrow ledges and limbs, and even allows them to reverse direction by performing a cartwheel!       

Getting access to our bird bath is an easy feat for the agile Ringtail!

Ringtails have many other common names, including Miner’s Cat, as they were often kept by miners and settlers as pets, to keep their cabin free of mice.  A hole was cut in a small box that was placed near a stove or fireplace, which acted as a dark, warm place for them to sleep during the day, and they returned the favor at night, hunting mice and keeping them and other rodents at bay.  In the native language of the Nahuatl Indians of Mexico, ringtails were called cacomistle, which is derived from the word tlahcomiztli meaning ‘half mountain lion.’  Whatever you call them, consider yourself lucky should you spot one of these beautiful, timid, and rarely seen nocturnal mammals!  

Observing Orbweavers

Drops of morning dew sparkle on a spider's web.

The family of spiders known for building flat, spiraled, wheel-shaped webs are called Araneidae, or the orb-weavers.  They are the most common group of spiders often founds in yards, gardens, fields, and forests.  In our area, those include the Black & Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia), Lichenmarked Orbweaver (Araneus bicentenarius), and Spinybacked Orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis).  While all of these spiders produce venom, that venom is harmless to humans but helps them to immobilize their insect prey.

Also called the Yellow Garden Spider, the Black & Yellow Garden Spider is a large spider that has an abdomen with a series of pale, yellow spots on a black background, and legs that are orange at the base, black near the tips, and often held in pairs. Females are much larger than males, with up to an inch in body length. While both appear in late summer, females can be seen through December in our area.

A Female Black & Yellow Garden Spider.

While not quite as common, the Lichenmarked Orbweaver has an abdomen with a pattern of light green and reddish-brown markings and two small humps on front.  Females can grow to one inch in body length. Its legs have alternating bands of orange and brownish-black, and the coloration on its abdomen acts as a natural camouflage against the lichen-covered branches of trees where it often rests.

Lichenmarked Orbweaver, showing its characteristic green abdomen with two humps.

Often called crab spiders, one of our most distinctive spiders is the Spinybacked Orbweaver, a small, half-inch wide spider with a hard exoskeleton that has six spines around the edge.  There are many color forms, but most are yellow or white with black or dark red spines. Males are tiny and seldom seen, but females can be seen year-round. They build their webs in the morning in shrubs or low tree branches.

Spinybacked Orbweaver, yellow form.

Spinybacked Orbweaver, white form, showing relative size.

Orb-weaving spiders are one of nature’s engineers, and their process to build a web is intriguing.  They start by floating a line of silk on the wind to another surface. Once that line is secured, they drop another line from the center, forming a Y.  The rest of the web is a series of non-sticky spirals ending with a final spiral made of sticky capture silk.  The non-sticky webbing is nearly invisible, but the more visible sticky webbing is what normally traps the spider’s prey.  As such, there is always a tradeoff between the visibility and stickiness of the web.

The webs built by some orb-weavers include a vertical zigzag band of highly visible silk through the center of the web.  This is called the stabilimentum, and is most often found in the web of a Black & Yellow Garden Spider. While scientists are unsure of the exact purpose of this structure, theories include it posing as a lure to bring prey to the web, a warning for birds not to fly through the web, or as a way to camouflage the spider as it sits on the web.

A male Black & Yellow Garden Spider
rests on the web's stabilimentum.

Many orb-weavers build a new web on a daily basis.  They often hide during the day and become more active in the evening, when they consume the old web, rest for a bit, then begin spinning a new web in the same general location. Consider all that hard work the next time you think about destroying a web!

 

Fall Fliers

 

Fall-blooming Blue Mistflower and White Boneset attract late season butterflies.

Butterflies are frequently thought of as insects that fly primarily in the spring and summer seasons.  This is because the emergence of many butterfly species is unimodal, which means that their numbers increase as environmental resources increase.  These resources are defined as their host plants and nectar plants, which also become available during these warmer seasons.  

However, there are some species that have bimodal emergences, or increases in numbers in both the spring/summer and fall seasons.  It is thought that the division of offspring between two different emergence times may have evolved to avoid producing all offspring at one time.  This approach would reduce the risk of species mortality in case of potential fluctuations in habitat quality. 

Whether they be unimodal or bimodal, butterfly species typically exhibit a tightly synchronized adult emergence in order to help them locate mates. Further still, some species are present in low numbers during most of the year, but their numbers increase during the fall.  In central Texas these species include the Tailed Orange (Pyrisitia proterpia), Julia (Dryas iulia), Common Mestra (Mestra amymone), Queen (Danaus gilippus), and White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus).

In the fall, the Tailed Orange is in its winter form, yellow with brown lines and blotches below and a noticeably pointed hindwing edge.  Its summer form is unmarked yellow below and the hindwing edge is less pointed. It flies late summer through fall, and uses senna species as its host plant.

Tailed Orange, winter form

The fast-flying Julia is mostly orange above and orange to brown below, with the female being a duller orange than the male and having a dark forewing band.  Its longwing shape is quite distinctive and it prefers woodland edges and gardens where it uses passionvine species as its host plant.

Julia, male

A slower, flat-winged flyer, the Common Mestra is pearly white above with a pale orange border on its hindwing, and mostly pale orange below with a thin, white spotband.  It is most often seen from June to November, and it uses noseburn species as its host plant.

Common Mestra

The Queen butterfly is often confused with monarchs, as it also uses milkweed species as its host plant.  Rich dark brown to deep orange above with white spots in the black wing margins, it lacks the strong black veining on the wings like monarchs, and can be found in any open habitat usually visiting flowers.

Queen

Straying into our area from south Texas, the White-striped Longtail is a dark brown butterfly with very long tails, and a prominent white stripe on the underside of its hindwing.  It usually perches with its wings closed, and uses various legume species as host plants.

White-striped Longtail

One way to increase your chances of seeing these fall fliers in your yard is to provide native plant species that bloom in late summer and well into fall. These plants include Frostweed, Gregg’s Mistflower, Blue Mistflower, White Boneset, Lindheimer’s Senna, Plateau Goldeneye, and Texas Lantana.  And remember, fall is the perfect time to plant!

Furtive Fledglings

 

Mixed woodland of oak and juniper in Central Texas is the only breeding habitat
for the Golden-cheeked Warbler.

As the temperature rises and late spring turns to early summer, many bird species are in the throes of caring for newly hatched nestlings (still in the nest) or fledglings (just out of the nest).  As you hike through our oak-juniper forests in the western part of Austin, you just may run across young families of our endangered bird, the Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia).

Adult Golden-cheeked Warblers arrive at their breeding grounds by mid-March, returning largely to the same areas each year and nesting from April to May. They are socially monogamous, with the males arriving before the females to establish their territory. Courtship behavior, rarely observed, involves the female collecting nesting material as the male sings a soft, twittering version of his song, flicking and spreading his wings and tail and sometimes bringing nesting material to the female. 

A male Golden-cheeked Warbler sings from a juniper to establish his territory.

The female chooses the nest site, often in a branched fork of an Ashe Juniper or Live Oak tree, and the nest is built in 4 days, camouflaged by bark strips from mature juniper trees and secured by spider silk. Females lay 3-4 eggs and for the first 3 days she broods or sits on the eggs continuously, being attended to and fed by the male. The eggs hatch in approximately 12 days, and the nestlings are altricial or born helpless and requiring significant parental care.  

Female Golden-cheeked Warblers typically don't have black throats,
but the ones that do are called 'bearded females'.

However, they leave the nest only 8 or 9 days after hatching, staying in the vicinity of their attendant parents, but usually huddled together and partially hidden in the trees. They continue to be cared for by both parents, who actively search for caterpillars and other insects in the foliage to bring directly to the fledglings.  

A fledgling Golden-cheeked Warbler.

The most obvious way to spot these furtive fledglings is by listening for the family group.  As a parent nears with food in its beak, the fledglings chip rapidly and flutter their wings, begging and hoping to be the one who gets the morsel of food.  They grow quiet once the parent takes off to forage again.  Once they get a bit older, they start to follow their foraging parents begging for food, eventually becoming more confident in their ability to fly and learning to forage for themselves. As they become even more independent, the young join the adults in mixed-species flocks in the woodlands before migration begins in July and early August.

This Golden-cheeked Warbler fledgling caught its own food!

If you hear or see a Golden-cheeked Warbler family foraging and feeding in our mixed woodlands, consider yourself lucky.  Of the nearly 360 bird species that breed in Texas, the Golden-cheeked Warbler is the only one that nests exclusively in Texas, so each one is a native Texan! 

Requisite Night

 

Light pollution is nearly non-existent in Big Bend,
allowing for spectacular star-filled night skies.

Most environmentally-minded individuals recognize the more talked about threats to our native wildlife, such as habitat fragmentation/loss, invasive species, and climate change, but not as many are aware of the dangers posed by light pollution. Up until the mid-1800s, humans and animals lived under night skies solely lit by the moon. Electric outdoor lighting became common in the early 20th century, but its use spread quickly, and the global extent of modern light pollution became clear.  

By 2016, it was possible to measure nocturnal artificial light with the advent of a comprehensive global satellite measurement system. Researchers found that more than 80% of the world’s population lived under light-polluted night skies, or skies where the glow of artificial light is significant enough that the stars disappear from view.  In the US and Europe, it was found that 99% of residents live under light-polluted skies.

Light pollution exposes animals to many dangers, including predators, starvation, exhaustion, and disorientation. Artificial light, like roads and fences, can create barriers that fragment habitat.  Slow-flying bats avoid feeding in or passing through illuminated areas for fear of predators such as owls and other birds of prey. Artificial light near their roosts can also delay their emergence at dusk when their insect prey is most abundant.  If they never leave their roost since it always appears to be light, they can even starve to death.  

Artificial nocturnal light can also lure animals in and lead to their destruction.  Many species of migratory songbirds are attracted to brightly lit structures at night, circling them, sometimes colliding into them, or becoming disoriented enough to lead to a depletion their energy stores which ends in exhaustion and the inability to complete their journey.  In some bird species, artificial light at night interferes with their ability to use natural polarized light from the sky to calibrate their internal compass.

Artificial light at night attracts insects, like this Luna Moth, 
and can disrupt normal behavior patterns.

Light pollution is also one of the many factors contributing to the rapid decline of insect populations.  Moths and other nocturnal insects orient themselves by moonlight, and this instinctual tendency is interrupted by artificial night light, luring them in to fly incessantly around a bright light, causing exhaustion, exposure to predators, and the potential to miss courtship cues from mates.  This is especially true for fireflies, as artificial night light can cause them to alter or cease their mating flashes.  Studies have also shown that light pollution can harm diurnal insects like monarchs, who flit and flutter all night when exposed to excessive light when they should be resting, and causing them to be disoriented from their migration route.

Light pollution facts and some easy solutions.

Unlike other environmental threats to wildlife, simple solutions to artificial nocturnal light exist.  The best solution is to have no nocturnal lighting other than natural conditions. If a light at night is truly needed, the amount that spills into wildlife habitat can be reduced through dimming, downward shielding, or switching to motion-activated lights. Studies are also showing that lights in the warmer color tones are less disruptive than bright white lights.

Travis Audubon promotes the Lights Out Initiative for Austin.

Austin is one of several cities across the US that participates in the migratory bird friendly Lights Out Initiative, which asks residents to turn out all non-essential lights from 11pm to 6am every night during spring migration (March 1 – June 15) and fall migration (August 15 – November 30).  This is one of many ways we can prevent light pollution from overpowering our native wildlife. Turn out your lights when they are not needed, and welcome the requisite night!

Irruption Disruption

Pine Siskins often feed in groups or flocks

While many northern species of birds fly south through central Texas during fall migration, some species go no further, and spend their winters in the area. Our generally mild winters and higher availability of food sources are the reasons they stay, fueling themselves in the cooler months as they prepare for northward migration in the spring.  

This cycle is not always predictable, however, as there are a few overwintering bird species that are nearly absent in some years, and overly abundant in other years.  One such species is the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus), a small finch-sized, seed-eating bird with a sharp pointed bill, short notched tail, and streaky brown overall with subtle yellow edging on the wings and tail.  They flash yellow wing markings as they flutter while feeding or burst into flight, and usually occur in fairly large, gregarious flocks.  Their wheezy twitters are a dead giveaway, and they will stay all winter near a dependable food source.  

Pine Siskin showing the yellow edging on wings and tail

Pine Siskins range widely and erratically across North America every winter in response to seed crops, and flocks may monopolize your feeders one winter and be completely missing the next. In the winters when Pine Siskins are abundant, the phenomenon is referred to as an irruption.  In the bird world, irruptions, broadly defined as sudden changes in population density, refer to the movement of northern-wintering bird species to the south in years of low food availability. However, some recent bird banding studies suggest that some pine siskins fly west to east while others fly north to south in search of winter food.

While fairly common, the overall population of Pine Siskins is difficult to estimate due to their unpredictable seasonal movements.  However, this species is considered to be in steep decline, with an estimated 69% decline in numbers from 1966 to 2019.  Natural threats include predation by outdoor domestic cats, squirrels, hawks, and jays.  Man-made threats include pesticides, mineral deposits from salts used to melt ice and snow, outbreaks of salmonella from unsanitary feeders, and forest clearing.

Pine Siskins will quickly empty your feeders!

Winter flocks of Pine Siskins can be aggressive around food sources, often trying to disrupt and challenge feeding competitors by lowering their heads and spreading their wings and tail. They may even lunge toward and pick fights with other seed-eating birds such as Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches. Keep an eye on your feeders this winter and you just may witness this irruption disruption, when flocks of these birds can eat you out of house and home!

Preparing for a Winter Feast

 

Pine Siskin feeding on Thistle

Gardens can be a source of delight even during the winter months, if created with native plants for wildlife in mind. As the weather turns cold and foraging becomes more challenging, home gardens can be a critical resource for many different species.  Planting layers of vegetation, from ground covers to trees, provides the food and shelter necessary to sustain wildlife. 

Since different species utilize different types of food, it is important to consider the fructivores, nut eaters, granivores, and insectivores.   Native berry producing trees and shrubs that persist into winter are numerous and include yaupon, possumhaw, southern wax myrtle, American beautyberry, flameleaf sumac, roughleaf dogwood, Virginia creeper, Texas persimmon, and rusty blackhaw viburnum.  Trees such as the native Texas Red Oak, Live Oak, Post Oak, pecan, and Arizona walnut provide highly desirable nuts.  

Southern Wax Myrtle Berries

Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum Fruit

Post Oak Acorns

Another valuable practice is to create areas that mimic the forest floor by leaving leaves, which allows animals places to forage for overwintering insects.  Raking, mowing, and blowing is detrimental to many species of moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, beetles, and dozens of arthropods (such as millipedes).  Many moths and butterflies overwinter in the egg, caterpillar, or chrysalis/cocoon stage and use leaf litter as winter cover.  If you must keep your non-native lawn free of leaves, carefully rake them into a pile in the corner or spread them underneath trees and shrubs as a natural mulch.

Just as important is the practice of leaving seedheads and not cutting or pruning back perennials until they begin to break dormancy in late February or early March.  Birds can pluck seeds from spent flowerheads, hollow stems can become nests for solitary bees, and overripe fruits can be left to fall to the ground for animals to find.  Several native plant species that should be left standing throughout the winter include purple coneflower, blazing star, fall aster, common sunflower, tall goldenrod, western ironweed, frostweed, Texas thistle, Turk’s cap, blue mistflower, chile pequin, pigeonberry, and white boneset. 

Tall Goldenrod Seedhead

White Boneset Seedhead

Native grasses left to seed are also very beneficial, with clump-like vegetation at the base providing shelter from the cold and seedheads supplying food.  In early spring, the previous year’s leaf blades also provide necessary nesting material for many birds and small mammals.  The grass species to consider include inland sea oats, sideoats grama, switchgrass, big muhly, big bluestem, little bluestem, bushy bluestem, and indian grass.

Inland Sea-Oats Seeds

The colder months of the year are a good time to evaluate how well your garden provides a winter feast and haven for wildlife.  Helping our native animal species during the more barren months of the year by providing naturally occurring food and shelter helps to prepare them for a healthy and productive spring breeding season.

An Abundance of Acorns

Texas Red Oak displaying fall color.

Texas is famous for its oak trees, with over 50 different species found in the Lone Star State.  Each of these oak species produce acorns, also called oaknuts or mast, which is a collective term for fruits or nuts.  The word acorn is related to Gothic term akran which has been interpreted to mean ‘the fruit of the unenclosed land.’  When oaks are dominant in the landscape, as they are here in central Texas, they play an important role in the ecology of the forest.

Acorns usually contain one seed enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and have a cup-shaped cap or cupule. Depending on the oak species, acorns can take from 5 to 24 months to mature.  As a general rule, acorns mature in late summer, turning green to brown, and start falling from oak trees in September and October.  Acorns produced by trees in the red oak family (such as Texas Red Oak, Quercus buckleyi) take two years to mature, while acorns produced by trees in the white oak family (such as Bur Oak, Quercus macrocarpa) only take one year. 

Texas Red Oak Acorns

Some years, known as mast years, trees produce copious amounts of acorns with smaller crops in the years between.  Scientists have proposed a range of explanations for the mystery of what might trigger a mast year, but they do know that it is not resource-driven as annual rainfall and temperature fluctuations are generally much smaller in magnitude than the variation in the crop sizes of acorns.  Some scientists hypothesize that masting trees are trying to maximize pollination efficiency.  If these trees flower and release pollen at the same time in order to increase their chances of reproduction, since large amounts of pollen correlate with larger amounts of germination, they ultimately produce more acorns.  Large, occasional outputs of seeds like acorns appears to be more favorable than frequent, smaller outputs.

Bur Oak acorns are our largest acorns.

Boom and bust years of acorn production actually benefit oak trees from an evolutionary perspective, because acorns are an important, highly nutritious food source for many animals including squirrels, mice, turkeys, blue jays, pigeons, ducks, deer, and bears.  In a mast year, these animals can’t consume all of the acorns produced, so some are left to germinate and grow into future oak trees.  In leaner years, animal populations are kept in check so there are fewer animals to eat the acorns in the mast years.  Over time, a higher proportion of acorns survive to become oak trees.

Copious amounts of acorns are produced in a mast year.

Too heavy for wind dispersal, acorns need other ways to spread beyond the mother tree into a suitable area for germination.  Jays, squirrels, and some woodpeckers serve as the main dispersal agents, as they gather and hoard acorns in caches.  While they are remarkable in creating mental maps of their cache locations, these animals rarely eat every single acorn, so a small number manage to germinate and produce the next generation of oaks.

The Blue Jay is one of many species that cache acorns.

As autumn arrives and acorns mature and fall from our oak trees, think of the potential in the abundance of acorns produced.  As Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.”  

Cooling Conduct

Eastern Ringtail dragonflies obelisking

The unrelenting heat this summer has affected all living creatures, and while humans can escape into air-conditioned spaces, wildlife needs to rely on other ways to regulate their body temperature.  Often this is accomplished through different types of behavioral strategies acquired through adaptation, and some may seem quite odd until you understand the dynamics at work.

One of the most obvious behaviors (for humans at least), is sweating.  But many creatures don’t have sweat glands, or only sweat from their feet (like some canines), so they rely on panting instead.  In panting, animals breathe rapidly and shallowly with their mouths open, thereby increasing evaporation from the surfaces of their mouths.  This evaporation removes heat and acts as a cooling mechanism.  Panting is used by most mammals (like dogs) and many species of birds. While panting is effective at removing heat, dehydration is a risk so a nearby water source is important.  Birds may also spread their wings and body feathers to allow heat to dispel, and they have an elaborate breathing system that includes air sacs (in addition to lungs) to help them get rid of excess heat through panting.

A molting Northern Cardinal, panting and spreading its wings to cool down

Some birds, such as some species of vultures and storks, will voluntarily defecate on their legs to cool down.  Since bird poop is mostly liquid, it works by having an evaporative cooling effect, much like sweating.  As the poop dries on the bird’s legs, the heat is carried away and it brings down their body temperature.  Pelicans, herons, doves, owls, quail, and nighthawks, can employ gular fluttering, vibrating the muscles and bones in the throat and exposing moist throat membranes to the air, which helps regulate temperature by increasing evaporation.

Insects, like most all creatures, can also maintain a stable body temperature in at least a portion of their bodies through some interesting behavioral means.  While many insects need some heat to warm up their flying muscles, many will adjust/reduce their activity levels or seek out shady spots to handle extreme heat.  Dragonflies, for example, will often obelisk while perched in the midday hot sun, or point the tip of their abdomen directly up at the sun.  It is believed that this behavior reduces the heating effect by reducing the amount of surface area exposed directly to the sun’s rays.

Checkered Setwing exhibiting obelisking as a cooling behavior

When temperatures soar, four-legged animals such as squirrels, marmots, rabbits, bears, and even dogs and cats will lie flat on their stomachs on a cooler surface with their arms and legs stretched out from their bodies.  This behavior is called splooting, and it is thought that since their bellies have less fur and lots of blood vessels, they can dissipate the heat and absorb some of the coolness from the surface.  Also known as frogging or pancaking, splooting can take on various forms: the full sploot (all four legs out), the classic sploot (one leg tucked underneath the body while the other is kicked back), the side sploot (one leg tucked under the body and the other kicked out to the side), and the reverse sploot or toolps (when the animal lays on its back with its legs in the air)!

Fox Squirrel in a full sploot on our back porch

Regardless of the method, we all have to find some form of cooling conduct that allows us to survive until temperatures fall and (hopefully) the rains begin once again.

 

Breeding Beauties

White-eyed Vireo nest, a sign of spring

As the fickle winds of  spring come in from  the south, they usher in several  species of birds  that spend the warmer months  in Central Texas.  Most of these species overwinter in Mexico, Central America, or South America, and their arrival in  our  area  signals  the start of the  breeding season.  Most notable  are the  Summer Tanager,  White-eyed Vireo,  Western Kingbird, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

Summer Tanagers (Piranga rubra) are medium-sized, chunky songbirds with big bodies, large heads, and thick, pale, blunt-tipped bills.  Mature males are the only birds in North America that are completely red.  The female and immature males are bright yellow-green, which makes them harder to spot in the forest canopy. These birds prefer to stay fairly high in the trees, often in willows, cottonwoods, and mesquite along creeks and streams.  They prefer to sit still then fly out to catch insects in midair.  They are especially fond of bees and wasps, beating them against a branch once they are caught, but they may also forage on berries and fruits near their forest habitat.  Males have a sweet, whistling song, much like an American Robin.

Summer Tanager, male

Like most vireos, White-eyed Vireos (Vireo griseus) are small songbirds with compact bodies and thick, slightly hooked bills.  They have yellow spectacles around their white eyes, yellow-washed sides, gray head, white throat, and two white wingbars.  They prefer areas that are scrubby and thick with vines and other vegetation, staying hidden in the understory where they glean caterpillars and other insects. Their song is distinctive, rapid and harsh, sounding like ‘Spit. And see if I care. Spit.’ While only the males sing on their breeding grounds, both males and females have been found to sing on their wintering grounds.  They bathe by rubbing their bodies against dewy foliage in the early morning, or by quickly dipping their backsides in a pool of water.

White-eyed Vireo

Oddly often found in parking lots with Live Oak trees, Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus verticalis) are fairly large flycatchers with gray heads, broad shoulders, whitish chest, lemon yellow bellies, heavy straight black bills, and medium-length black tails with white outer tail feathers.  They prefer open habitats, often perching on power lines, fences, and in trees, waiting to hawk insects from the air.  In fact, their breeding range has been expanding as an unplanned result of humans planting trees and installing utility poles in open areas.  Their territory defenses include lots of wing-fluttering and a long series of squeaky, bubbling calls.  Paired males and females work together to defend their territory, which shrinks as the breeding season progresses.

Western Kingbird

Few birds are as graceful to watch as Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus fortificatus).  These elegant, slender birds are gray overall with salmon-pink flanks and underbellies, stout black bills, blackish wings, and long, forked tails they use to sharply twist and turn midair to catch insects.  Interestingly, Scissor-tails are known to use many human-made products in their nests, including pieces of cloth, paper, string, and even carpet fuzz and cigarette filters.  These items can account for up to 30% of the weight of the nests.  In late summer and early fall, these flycatchers gather to form large, bickering flocks and migrate together back to their wintering grounds.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, showing its' namesake tail