BIRDING TO THE EDG

Sterling, CO hosted their Christmas Bird Count on the 17th of December. Tis the season for such events and this count is reminiscent of Iowa plains birding. Since I had lived in Iowa for a period of time I joined 7 others to try and break the count record and find some good birds. One of my favorite winter plains birds is the Northern Shrike. My team was not able to find a bird on the count day, but I think we can call the above photo incriminating evidence of a Northern Shrike. They have been known to impale their prey to save it for later! This bird can be compared to Loggerhead Shrike, but usually do not overlap in breeding/winter ranges. The shrike of the northern variety is larger, lighter shades of gray on mantle and breast, sharply hooked bill, and the eye-patch cuts through the eye rather than over the entire eye as seen in Loggerhead Shrikes.
A great example of a US wintering bird that breeds in northern Canada is the American Tree Sparrow. This lovely bird is a member of the Spizella genus sparrows. Very similar to birds like Chipping and Brewer's Sparrows; this bird exhibits a bit chunkier profile, but still has the long thin tail of other Spizella genus sparrows. They winter throughout most of the northern/middle United States and can be very common yard birds along borders of brushy vegetation. They flock up in large groups and constantly give off a very bubbly/full twing-twing call note.

What king of diagnostic details can you pick up here from the plumage?

Like I said earlier, you will get a pot-bellied appearance from these birds along with a skinny, extended tail. Concerning plumage, brown cap and eye-line, buffy brown flanks, and a brown central spot sets it aside.


In the country you end up driving many country roads and even though I had already discussed Ferruginous Hawks a few weeks back you can't get tired looking at these birds! Overall for the count I believe we counted 72 species which was a record. The old record was held from few years back at 67 species! Much of this momentum was caused by my sole teammate Candace Havely whom spotted a Long-eared owl out of her peripherals while going 35 mph down a gravel road. Pretty amazing!

My group counted close to fifty species including count records of Rusty Blackbird, Chipping Sparrow, Long-eared Owl, and Brown-headed Cowbird! A great thanks to Gary Matthews for organizing the count.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens! Good Birding!