Month: February 2022

Did you know our 3rd President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, had a pet Northern Mockingbird named “Dick.” He actually had several Mockingbirds at various times, but Dick was the only one he mentioned by name in his diary and apparently was his favorite. Jefferson often left the cage open in the White House and allowed him free range of his office (now the State Dining Room). Dick would perch on Jefferson’s couch or shoulder and sing or take a piece of food from Jefferson’s lips. When Jefferson played his violin, Dick would pour out his songs.

Northern Mockingbirds

Although maybe not the prettiest of all birds, Northern Mockingbirds certainly make up for looks with their beautiful extended repertoire of songs. These birds sing endlessly, and can learn up to 200 different songs. Both the male and female sing and can mimic many other bird calls, other animals and even mechanical sounds. There is a mockingbird near my house and he sounds exactly like a Red-tailed Hawk. Many of us have been fooled by these comical birds as they imitate Blue Jays, Orioles, Killdeer, frogs, dogs and even squeaky wheels. They tend to repeat phrases 2-6 times before shifting to a new sound. Unmated males will are the most insistent singers and may sing late into the night.

Northern Mockingbirds are common on Seabrook Island year round. They are a medium sized bird that has gray upper parts with black and white wing feathers. Its tail is long, gray and edged with white. Its underside is light gray/white, their bill is black and the iris is yellowish-orange. They have prominent white patches on the wings that are especially visible in flight. These birds measure between 8-11 inches long and weigh 1.4-2 ounces. The sexes are similar although the male is heavier than the female.

These birds are generally monogamous. They breed in the spring and early summer on Seabrook and the female has 2-6 blue green eggs with brown splotches. The female incubates the eggs for 2 weeks and when they hatch, both male and female will assist in the feeding.  

Northern Mockingbirds are omnivores. Their diet consists of insects, crustaceans and a variety of arthropods, especially beetles, ants, bees, wasps and grasshoppers. They also eat fruits and earthworms. You usually find them on SI foraging on the ground, on top of hedges, in open areas and forest edges. These birds are bold and territorial when defending their nests and will even attack intruders like cats, dogs, humans or other birds that venture too close.

The lifespan of a Northern Mockingbird in the wild is eight years.  The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida and Arkansas.

Article Submitted by: Flo Foley 2017, resubmitted by SIB.
Photographs by: Charles Moore & Ed Konrad

After watching the replay of Felicia Sanders presentation on shorebird migration, Andy Allen asked: I just watched the shorebird presentation replay. The importance of Deveaux Bank to migratory and also local breeding birds is enormous. However Deveaux Bank is not a stable island. When we first bought here forty years ago it was actually two small islands with a significant channel between them. A few years later we came down and discovered it was gone-just ocean. A local resident said this happens every so often when a nor’easter comes down and scours out the sand, taking it elsewhere. We have watched the re-emergence of Deveaux over the years and hopefully it will achieve some permanence. My question for the DNR presenter would be, “What do all the birds do if suddenly Deveaux is gone?”

Felicia kindly provided this response:

The simple answer is we don’t know! Maina Handmaker, the PHD student at USC, is using high resolution location data that we are getting from the GPS tags on select Whimbrel to investigate Whimbrel movement and migration. She is looking at how site faithful Whimbrel are to Deveaux and the characteristics of the island that make Deveaux an ideal nocturnal roost for thousands of Whimbrel. Hudsonian Whimbrel are experiencing a steep decline: peak numbers in the Atlantic flyway decreased nearly 50% over a 15-year period beginning in the early 1990s (4.2% per year). There are many possible causes for the decline but surveys finding very few nocturnal roosts suggests that suitable places to sleep may contribute to the observed decline.

The limited number of Whimbrel roosts may be the result of human alteration of coastal areas. Shifting islands and shoals, such as Deveaux, form naturally at river mouths from sediment deposits. However, human activities, such as the placement of physical structures to protect against coastal erosion, mining
intertidal sand for beach renourishment projects, and dredging shipping channels can alter natural shoreline processes. Much of the Atlantic coast of the United States now has hard structures that limit coastal migration and the natural accretion of islands. This has important implications for Deveaux: we
first discovered large numbers of Whimbrel using Deveaux in 2014 but are unsure how long the island has been an important roost site. Deveaux was known to be important for nesting waterbirds in the 1930s, then disappeared after Hurricane David in 1979. To mitigate the potential ephemerality of the island, identifying or creating a network of alternative roost sites is therefore a necessity.

You may have heard about the renourishing or building of Crab Bank in Charleston Harbor last November. The island is 80 plus acres at low tide. The Army Corps made the island from sand taken from the deepening project of Charleston Harbor. The island is so large, Whimbrel may be able to use it as a
nocturnal roost. Opportunities such as this one may help to create alternative roost sites when islands used by shorebirds disappear in the natural cycle of coastal movement that includes erosion.

For information about the Whimbrel roost see the website, Discovery at Deveaux, especially the manuscript under the “Press” link at the top right.

American Goldfinch – Spinus tristis
Length:  5″; Wingspan: 9″; Weight: 0.46 oz.

This small finch is commonly found in flocks on Seabrook Island during the winter months (November – March) on backyard feeders, along the golf courses or anywhere there are weed seeds.  It has a sharply pointed bill, a small head, long wings and a short, notched tail.

Those of you who are familiar with this bird during breeding season (when the male has a bright yellow body and black cap, wings and tail), may not recognize them in their winter plumage.  The winter male has olive-gray to olive-brown upper parts, paler underparts, yellow shoulder bar, white wing bar, dark conical bill and may show black on its forehead and yellow on its throat and face.  The winter female is duller with buff wing and shoulder bars and lacks yellow and black on the face and head.  This drastic change in plumage is a result of the American Goldfinch, the only member of its family, having two complete molts each year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

American Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.  It feeds primarily on seeds, including seeds from composite plants (sunflowers, thistle, asters, etc), grasses and trees.  At feeders they favor nyjer and sunflower seeds (hulled).  In both situations it prefers to hang onto seed heads or feeders rather than feeding on the ground.

American Goldfinches are often described as active and acrobatic.  They are also easily identified by their undulating flight pattern of several rapid wing beats and then a pause.  Listen for their flight song while they are flapping, which sounds like po-ta-to-chip.

A group of goldfinches has many collective nouns, including a “007”, “charm”, “rush”, “treasury” and “vein” of goldfinches.

Keep an eye out for the American Goldfinch, as they will be leaving soon to head north to breed and will return when the weather up north gets cold again next fall. (See the range map following the photographs below.)

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – All About Birders: American Goldfinch and Birds of Seabrook Island: American Goldfinch