Creative Expression in Birds of the Southwest

Summary: Birds are innovative but are they creative? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they discuss some birds of the Southwest through the eyes of an artist, and you can decide whether you think they are creative as well as innovative!

 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes:

www.interesting-facts.com/bald-eagle-facts/

www.pbs.org/nova/article/what-birdsong-can-teach-us-about-creativity

https://zuckermanninstitute.columbia.edu/how-birds-learn-sig-annd-waht-reveals-about-human-communication

www.allaboutbirds.org

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/bowerbirds

 

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

 

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

 

Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

 

Cheryl: Intro:

When scientists look for creativity in birds it’s along the idea of innovation.  Birds using their strengths to adapt and survive in the habitat they call home.  I wanted to look at creativity in a different way, through the artist and the art.

I choose nest building and bird song to help highlight the insight into the nature of bird’s creativity and into their learning process.  Let’s look at nest building first.

Kiersten: The Cactus Wren has it own unique way of designing a nest along with choosing unique nesting material.  Instead of using twigs and grasses to build its nest, the Cactus wren builds her nest with cactus spines.  I didn’t know that the FEMALE made the nest that they use to raise the chicks.

Cheryl: I was surprised too!

Kiersten: Yeah! The female Cactus Wren uses up to 1,000 prickly spines to build the orb shaped nest she will lay her eggs in.  She will line it with soft plant material, feathers, animal hair and grasses. Who wants to be your bum on a spine!

Cheryl: (laughs) When you think of that though she has to lay it where it’s not privkly on the inside!

Kiersten: The male Cactus wren builds the same type of nest, but his nests are to distract predators from his family.  So, they are decoy nests.  These large wrens are OCD about snakes.  This is why they build nests in cactus using cactus spines.  Yes, that is smart.  Yes, innovative but if you have ever watched a Cactus Wren build her nest you will see her making choices about placement, how tall, how wide, prickly spines facing out not in.  Then choosing the materials to line her nest …just the right ones for her comfort and pleasure.  These spiny orbs are truly worthy of being called art. It’s not just about usefulness, maybe it’s also about aesthetics! We don’t know!

Cheryl: Yes! That’s what I was thinking! And it’s not instinctual. Younger birds watch older birds to learn how to make nest successfully.  That’s all part of the growing up process before you go out on your own. There is so much more going on than we know!

Kiersten: Yes!

Cheryl: Two more examples:

Have you ever come across a hummingbird nest or better yet watch a female hummingbird build her nest.  Finding just the right place not too hot, not too cold, not in high traffic but with a fairly direct line of flight in and out.  She carefully picks the spiderweb material, collecting plant material, lichen and such to weave together a wonder of nature that stretches as her babies grow.  The decisions the little female hummingbird makes not only provides her with comfort but it is camouflaged, a neatly tucked away work of craftsmanship. And Kiersten has an interesting fact to add to that!

Kiersten: Yes! Since we are talking about art…each species of hummingbird makes their nest in the colors of their own feathers! So, a Rufous versus and Anna’s nest will look different reflecting the birds own colors! The materials that they are picking will be the same color of their own bodies.

Cheryl: It’s so cool! That open it up to the fact that the birds are aware of what they look like!

Kiersten: It does beg the question of why they do it? Is it for camouflage? Is it to help recognize another species’ nest?

Cheryl: It could be that they just like their colors.

Kiersten: Exactly! It could be fashion!

Cheryl: (laughs)

Kiersten: It rolls right into looking through a bird’s nest the artist’s eye.

Cheryl: My next example is the Bald eagle nest. Bald Eagles build a nest together.  A pair’s nest is up to 13 feet deep and 8.5 feet wide.  It can weight a bout 1.1 tons.  Nest sites typically include at least one perch with a view of the water, where they forge.  Eagle nests are constructed with large sticks and may be lined with moss, grass, plant stalks, lichens and seaweed or sod.  Eagles add greenery for their viewing pleasure based on different bird’s artistic tastes.

Kiersten: Wow!

Cheryl: The greenry is added based on the females taste. If she doesn’t like it he has to go find another piece. That’s his way of helping with the nesting process.

Kiersten: Nice! I wonder if anyone has done a study on which type of greenery they prefer. Is it like all bald eagles like honeysuckle? Or is it different for each individual?

Cheryl: That’s interesting because the tidbit I found on it says that the female seems to prefer plants that she is familiar with from the area around her.

Kiersten: Ohhhh!

Cheryl: That open the door to the fact that she is able to distinguish between plants.

Kiersten: Very cool!

Cheryl: Both sexes bring materials to the nest, but the female does most of the placement and selecting as they work together weaving their chosen sticks in with the grasses and sod to fill in the cracks.  All of this sounds practical, but again if you watch these build their nest there is definite decision making about what goes where.  Who knows it could be like us when we rearrange the living room furniture.

Kiersten: It’s so interesting! I wonder what experiments we could do to determine why she likes it this way or that way, or what criteria she’s using for certain sticks.

Cheryl: The only scientific experiments done on a similar subject is with bowerbirds. They are very color selective. These birds are what inspired this podcast. I took the idea and applied it to Southwest birds.

Kiersten: For those of you that don’t know what a bowerbird is we’ll put a link in the show notes for you to check them out. They are great builders and choose specific colored objects to use in their nest!

Cheryl: Next is bird song!

Kiersten: Birdsong is a structured form of expression, similar to writing a poem, or more directly, composing a song: most species have a characteristic song that they learn from their fathers early in life.  Young birds imitate sounds when their synapses are still malleable, kind of like a human child’s babbling stage.

         Northern Mocking Birds are the bird most studied by scientists when it comes to birdsong.  Actually, before the MBTA of 1918 the Northern Mocking bird was on its way to becoming extinct due to males being caught and kept in cages for their gift of song. 

         Northern Mocking birds are able to produce up to 200 different calls.  Their songs are composed of phrases that repeat 2-6 times before shifting to a new series of phrases with songs going on for 20 seconds or more.  They add new sounds to repertories throughout entire their lives.

Both male and female mocking birds sing.  They mimic the sounds of birds, frogs, and other sounds they hear around them.  They have been known to mimic birds such as:  the Red-tail hawk, blue jays, certain sparrows, red-winged black birds, orioles, killdeer, woodpeckers.

What I find interesting here is that all these birds are very ear-catching!

Cheryl: Yes!

         Kiersten: The mocking bird picks and chooses what phases or sounds it is going to learn, use, and repeat.   Scientists don’t really know what about the male mocking bird’s song is the most appealing to a female when she answers the male. Some of what I have seen indicates that larger the repertoire a male has the better a female likes him. But why? How does she pick between two males that sing the same amount of song? What is it that she likes?

        Cheryl: Yeah! It’s not like we can ask her!

         Kiersten: No! I would be interested to find out.

         Unmated males are the most insistent singers. The ability to sing well proves critical as the young birds mature, as females choose mates based on the quality of the song. Young mocking birds carry on all day and late into the night, especially on full moons.

         And talking about birds that repeat song…here in the southwest the Curved-bill Thrasher is a mimic as well, but they havn’t been studies as much.

 

Cheryl:  Yes! When I was researching this episode I couldn’t find much on them, but I do know that they also have their own song.

Kiersten: Yes! That’s what makes them different from Northern Mockingbirds. They have their own song that they learn when they are young and then pick up song as they get older, but we don’t know how long they do that.

         So…those of you at ASU studying ornithology, maybe this can be a topic or study!

Cheryl: Maybe he mimics the Cactus Wren, his nemesis, or the Gila woodpecker, or other Thrashers!

Kiersten: It would be interesting to know what the malleability of their brain is like. Is it like the Norther Mockingbird?

Cheryl: Closing

         Many of our southwest birds are not just superb at surviving in our desert, but in their own right they are truly artists using the gifts and materials nature provides to make the desert we share together that much more artful.