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Backyard bird feeding is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding hobbies on earth. Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they talk all about bird feeding in the desert Southwest area of the United States. They talk birds, seed, feeders, and dealing with those pesky unwanted visitors!
Episodes
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Thursday Mar 24, 2022
Summary:A three-minute podcast from the hosts of The Feathered Desert about individual bird species found in the desert Southwest.
Show Notes:Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Paul Marvin.
Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Summary:Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they shine a light on some amazing women breaking barriers in ornithology and discovering amazing new bird behaviors.
Show Notes:
References:
The Bird Wayby Jennifer Ackerman
Karan Odom:
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4379.pdf?origin=ppub
Jessica McLachlan:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/aug/02/birds-learn-another-language-by-eavesdropping-on-n/
https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/honeyeaters-send-lightning-fast-warning-signals
Mary Caswell Stoddard:
Gabrielle Nevitt:
https://www.nuttallclub.org/meetings/gabrielle-nevitt-following-the-scent-of-avian-olfaction-2/
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Summary: Did you know we have waterfowl year round in our desert valley? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they talk about some of our year round residents, some winter visitors, and some summer visitors. Find out what they look like, where you can see them, and how to responsibly feed them.
Show Notes:
iBird Ultimate: Ultimate Guide to Birds App
Ornithologyby Frank B. Gill
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Summary:A three-minute podcast from the hosts of The Feathered Desert about individual bird species found in the desert Southwest.
Show Notes:Bird song provided by Kiersten Gibizov
Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Summary:Do you like campig? Have you ever wondered if you can offer bird food at a campsite? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they provide some Dos and Don’ts of bird feeding in your RV and camp site in Arizona.
Show Notes:
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Summary:Feathers are one of the features that separate birds from other creatures. Join Cheryl and Kiersten to learn about these amazing structures that help birds be birds.
Show Notes:
Ornithologyby Frank B. Gill
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Summary: Birds have two main ways of dealing with cold weather. Join Cheryl and Kiersten to find out how birds survive during the cold winter weather and what we can do to help them.
Show Notes:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-do-birds-survive-the-winter
https://www.audubon.org/how-do-birds-cope-cold-winter
https://www.aznps.com/blog/landscape-plants
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Summary:Love is in the air! Join Cheryl and Kiersten on this Valentine’s Day as they talk about the courtship displays of some of our favorite desert birds.
Show Notes:
Costa’s Hummingbird Courtship Video: https://www.audubon.org/news/watch-male-costas-hummingbird-puts-one-wild-mating-display
Courtship Information:
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/mourning-dove
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/cactus_wren/lifehistory
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-do-birds-fall-in-love-a-look-at-courtship-displays/
https://abcbirds.org/cactus-wren/
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/western_burrowing_owl/natural_history.html
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/aberts_towhee/lifehistory
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/greater-roadrunner
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Summary: A three-minute podcast from the hosts of The Feathered Desert about individual bird species found in the desert Southwest.
For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.
Show Notes: Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Pat Goltz
Ornithology by Frank Gill
“Migration Pattern of Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow Along the Pacific Flyway” by Simeon Lisovski, Zoltan Nemeth, John C. Wingfield, Jesse S. Krause, Keith A. Hobson, Nathaniel E. Seavy, Jennifer Gee, and Marilyn Ramenofsky
Our New 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 that we share this amazing desert landscape with.
Kiersten - This small ground bird is a winter resident of Arizona (a true snowbird) but is found all across the North American continent from the Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska down to Central Mexico. It is a medium sized sparrow with an orange beak and brown streaking on the wings and back and gray underparts. The male has a black and white striped pattern on the crown of the head while females and juveniles have rusty brown and gray stripes on the crown of the head.
They are most often found on the ground scratching for fallen seeds, fruits, buds, and small insects.
The white-crowned sparrow is one of the most studied birds in North America. The majority of our knowledge of bird song and song development is due to the studies of these birds. (White-crowned sparrow song plays) The white crowned sparrow song included the melody in this recording, the chipping call is another bird.
Males learn their songs as they grow up. They memorize phrases that they hear from 10 to 50 days old. Birdsong can vary within the same species. Just as the same human language within a country can develop regional accents, so can bird song. One well-known dialect of a population of White-crowned sparrow found in California is the Berkley Dialect and has been heard for over 60 years. Males that live near a territory border can learn two dialects and sing both songs. Female white-crowned sparrows also learn and use song.
There are five subspecies of white crowned sparrows in NA, four of them are migratory and may travel g reat distances such as the white crown sparrow that over winters in Arizona. This subspecies winters in the lower southwestern United States and Mexico but travels all the way to the artic tundra for breeding season. The females often overwinter farther south than the males. To make the most of their travel time they employ what is known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. That means one half of their brain rests while the other half remains alert. White crowned sparrows have been known to utilize this sleep pattern for up to two weeks during migration.
Bird song provided by Macauly Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Pat Goltz.
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Summary:Where should I put my bird feeder? Do I need to worry about how far from a window it hangs? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they answer these questions and more about where to place your bird feeders.
Show Notes:
The Joy of Bird Feeding by Jim Carpenter
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: thefeathereddesert@gmail.com
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.