If you are a birder, late summer and early fall are a bump in the road.  Identifying species is tougher.  Most birds replace their feathers after breeding, a process called molting, creating some strange looking creatures.  Sorting this all out is complicated by the presence of fledglings who look different to begin with, and then in many cases, molt at the same time as their parents.  Ugh!

This post looks at the Northern Cardinals, male and female, in Portal, Arizona during their annual molt.  Also, we will see adults feeding recent fledglings.  We will  then finish up with one of the cardinal's cousins, the Pyrrhuloxia, also (you guessed it)  molting. 

So, to get you ready for Halloween, let's start with the Northern Cardinal looking very different! 

The Northern Cardinal is one of the most reconizable birds in North America, and the mascot for many sports teams. Nevertheless, to refresh your memory, here are two images of adult male Northern Cardinals in full plumage.  

​The image above was taken at Bob Rodrigues' feeders in Portal, AZ,  May 2018,  The image below was captured at Tony Battiste's Bed Breakfast and Birds in February of this year. Note that cardinals only molt once a year after breeding and the males keep their bright red plumage all year long, making them a favorite at winter feeders in the snowy northern climes.    The male is red with black on the face surrounding an orange bill with fairly straight culmen (the inner part of the bill). 

This male has probably already replaced feather for feather the contour feathers covering the body, as well as the flight feathers, but the crest has not come in to completion yet.  The white specs are sheaths for the new feathers.  

All images captured at Dave Jasper's feeders.  Cardinals like peanut butter!

Below we see the adult male with a juvenile (recent fledgling) behind him, both molting.   Note that the fledglings have dark bills at birth that turn lighter sometime in the fall after their birth.  

For all birds the timing of the molt is very important.  For cardinals it is reasonably simple: they molt once a year after breeding when a lot of flying is not necessary, and hopefully there is a lot of food to provide energy for the molt, as they also continue to feed the hungry offspring.  Note that cardinals are year round residents and do not migrate. ​

Above is a juvenile with a dark bill.  This is likely a male, with red coming in on the breast. I believe the image below is of the same bird.  They were captured at Dave Jasper's feeders within 4 seconds of each other, close to 6 pm on August 25th.  The fledglings grow one set of feathers in the nest, then molt at the end of the summer. 

The image below was captured a day later, in the same spot, shortly after 4 pm.  This  punky looking juvenile Northern Cardinal is in the middle of his first molt. 

For more about plumage and molting, see Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Birds of the World.  Note, this is a subscription website.  Another helpful reference for the biology of feathers and molting is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology.

Before we start looking at the females in molt, let's refresh our memories on what a mature female looks like ~11 month out of the year.  They have orange bills, black on the face, a buffy breast with some red on the wings, tail and at the tips of the crest.  The image above was captured in Portal at the end of April 2016.  The image below, a close shot to show detail of the bill, face and crest, was taken at Patagonia State Park in February 2018. 

Whoops!  The crest is gone!  The crest feathers are the most obvious, and the most noticeable when they are gone.  We know this is a mature bird by the orange bill. The black feathers around the bill are duller, and we can see feather sheaths. 

There are some reports that cardinals try to hide when molting.  I doubt that this is backed up by data!  While molting they are busy looking for food to sustain their molt, as well as feeding and caring for recent fledglings.  So not time to go out!  Dave Jasper's feeders provided a safe refuge and unending food supply for these hungry birds. 

Below, this mature female appears to be hiding behind a rock!   To the credit of the Cornell Lab, Merlin Bird ID identified this photo as belonging to the Northern Cardinal. 

On the right we see an adult female, and on the left most likely a female fledgling, with a dark bill that is turning lighter at the edges.  

Below are images of a female cardinal bringing food to a begging juvenile.

In the sequence below, mom seems to detect something is amiss on her daughter's head, and bends down to make it right.  Mom's won't stop fussing over the young,  be it with their bill or a wet Kleenex! 

Above is a photo of an adult male in Hereford in February, 2022, in his usual plumage. In contrast to cardinals, Pyrrhuloxia have yellow bills (not orange) and a curved culmen (the inner edge of the bill) that looks like a nut-cracker.  The feathers around the bill are red and not black, the feathers on the back are gray, and the crest is tipped in red.  If GQ had a edition for birds, Pyrrhuloxia would be named best dressed!  For more on the differences between cardinals and pyrrhuloxia see Patagonia Arizona, February 2018.

This looks like a mystery bird from a sci-fi movie until we spot the angled culmen characteristic of this species, as we can also see in the lead photo from February.  We can also guess that as the feathers come in and the crest is restored, this will be a good looking male Pyrrhuloxia.  

There may have been female Pyrrhuloxia at the feeders, but I did not identify any.  Here is an adult female from Patagonia in March of 2019 for completeness.  

That's it for our Halloween warm up!   
More coming soon.

​Happy Trails! 

Those who follow my blog regularly (both of you) may have noticed that my last post was at  the end of July, on spring migration! Now it is September!  So sorry for the delay, but  August was a busy month including the Tucson Audubon Society's Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, a day trip to Mt. Lemmon for the Camera Club Tucson Trek Special Interest Group, as well as a 4 day trip to Portal AZ the end of the month. Now I am back to blogging, beginning with this post on two of our resident species in SE Arizona, the Acorn Woodpecker and the Steller's Jay.  

Late summer is a time when fledglings join the ranks of adults, many birds are molting creating comic confusion,  and nuts are stored for the winter (literally!).  So let's start with the Acorn Woodpecker going after food.

There are 23 species of woodpecker in North America.  The Acorn is one of the most entertaining!  Acorns look like clowns, with black and white faces, a white iris, and a red cap.  Females sport a black band between the white forehead and the red cap.  They live in central portions of Central America and Mexico, up into eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, as well as the U.S. pacific coast.  They favor mountain slopes close to oak forests, and live in large groups where they breed cooperatively.  
So, it is not clear whether the adult male arriving with the acorns in in fact the father, or a distant relative from his colony.  For more on Acorn Woodpeckers on Mt. Lemmon see this post: October 2019 on Mt Lemmon. 

These images were captured in Cave Creek Canyon in Portal in late August.  The riparian oak woodlands near the creek are perfect for this species.   

Above, a male arrives with two acorns, caps still attached, much to the pleasure of a hungry juvenile. 

The adult male stows the acorns in a crevice on the far side of this branch, and spends some time hammering away at it with his bill, breaking it up into small pieces, ready for the hungry offspring below.  Note: adult male to the right, fledgling on the left.

"That was good, but I am still hungry!"   Like an adolescent at the dinner table, there is never quite enough! 
​
Note that Acorn Woodpeckers eat other nuts as well as insects and other arthropods. 

Mt Lemmon has a year round Acorn Woodpecker population living near the creek  close to the oaks.  We see here a similar sequence similar to that in Cave Creek, captured not far from the Sabino Creek on August 21, 2022. The adult male is on the left, likely parsing out parts of an acorn.  

This sequence reminds me of a Vaudeville act. The markings on the Acorn Woodpecker make all their antics more entertaining.   

On September 10, 2022, I put out some whole peanuts on the ground near the cabin and in a feeder, seen below.  Here we see a male Acorn Woodpecker demonstrating  that peanuts are on his shopping list along with acorns.  He has no difficulty extracting the shells from the feeder. 

Most of the nuts that Acorn's collect are cached, usually in dead trees that are designated as granary trees.  For more on granary trees on Mt Lemmon see:  Winter Review 2020: Part II of II.  All the acorns this male picked up he flew away with.

No surprise, our second species is the Steller's Jay, a member of the Corvid family, which includes crows, ravines, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treaties, coughs, and nutcrackers.  

Steller's Jays love peanuts, as we will see shortly, but in spite of their reputation for smarts*, on this day this bird seemed reluctant to try to get peanuts from the feeder.  Although the Acorn pulled lots of peanuts from the feeder, the jay did not even sit on it. Jays may be cautious of new settings, especially related to food, a trait found in Common Ravens, one of their cousins.

For more on Common Ravens see The Mind of the Raven, Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-birds, by Bernd Heinrich.  Caution: this is not a short read!  I would start with the Afterword (p. 353) to get oriented and then look especially at Chapters 18-20 (Raven's Fears, Raven and Wolves in Yellowstone, and From Wolf-Birds to Human-Birds). 

Below a Steller's Jay grabs a peanut from a small stash on a rock.


*see The Genius of Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman, Penguin books 2016. 

However, when the peanuts were on the ground, the jays were very interested.  This day there were two Steller's Jays picking up peanuts and caching them somewhere in the ground south of the feeders.   If I had recorded video, we would see them pick up a single peanut, look around, drop it, pick up another, look around, drop it, etc., until finding just the right peanut.  Note that in spite of the apparent pickiness about choosing the right peanut, all the peanuts were soon gone. 

Most of the peanuts were hauled away intact for caching, but below we see a male or female (they look alike) cracking open a peanut shell and extracting the peanut. 

Above we see the jay has grabbed the peanut, complete with its seed coat, which he then removed in the two frames below.

Above the jay has the peanut ready to eat, and below transfers it to his throat.

With one peanut in this throat he grabs another in the shell.

At this point he took off with one peanut for a snack and another for a later day. 

Note that birds have tongues, but no teeth. Food that needs to be broken up or crushed needs to be done by the bill.  Some birds have specialized bills, for example the Pyrrhuloxia has an angle to the bill (the culmen)  creating a great nutcracker.  For more on their specialized bills and comparison to the Northern Cardinal, see Patagonia, Arizona, February 2018.  

In this case, it appears that the jay is increasing his food gathering efficiency by holding a shelled peanut in his throat, and a whole peanut in his bill.  Similar behavior has been seen in Common Ravens, see Mind of the Raven, Chapter 25. 

In the 5 frame sequence below, a jay shows that his is a hopper (and not a walker!) going from one rock to another, using his wings to soften the landing.  Note that some birds don't hop, but walk or run, for example the American Pipit, who winters in SE Arizona near water and agricultural land.  For more on the pipit see White Water Draw, January 2018.

That's it for Acorn Woodpeckers and Jays as they transition from summer to fall.

Stay tuned for more from Portal, AZ, in August, including hummingbirds and the tragicomedy of Northern Cardinals molting. 

Happy Trails!