Eurasian Oystercatcher//Eurasian Whimbrel

We got a double header for you fine folks today, really back at it and firing on all cylinders. Today's birds have a theme, and you're only likely to detect it if you're a real bird sicko. See if you can figure it out, but if you want spoilers, you can scroll right to the end to the 'lessons learned' section.

Eurasian Oystercatcher aka. European Oystercatcher aka. Common Pied Oystercatcher aka. Sea Pie (historic) (Icelandic -Tjaldur)
Þingvellir National Park, Þingvellir, Iceland
Member of the Oystercatcher Family
★National Bird of the Faroe Islands★
§A Parcel of Oystercatchers§

~True Bird Fact~ This bird's joining the good-parents-club, and not just because she's pictured above with baby. In fact, Oystercatchers are lifetime monogamous and they're a long-lived bird, so that can mean a 40 year commitment. Both male and female birds contribute to the defense of the nest. They take a two pronged approach of attacking flying predators by air, and distracting or leading away ground predators. This can look like trying to lure the attacker away by taking short flights, making loud calls, or even pretending to be injured.

Eurasian Whimbrel aka. White Rumped Whimbrel (historic) (Icelandic - Spói)
Þingvellir National Park, Þingvellir, Iceland
Member of the Sandpiper Family
§A Curfew of Whimbrels§

~True Bird Fact~ In an exciting and unexpected twist (for me), the Whimbrel seems to be a pretty important bird in Iceland. This is a migratory bird, which spends it's summers in Iceland (and winters in West Africa). As such, it's heavily associated with Spring and the arrival of warmer weather, which, as you might imagine, is a pretty big deal for Icelanders. They go so far as to call his cry the sound of the summer, and even have a name for it, Vell. There's a whole system around this call that icelanders use (used?) to predict the weather, so it's considered something of a 'fortune teller bird' there. There's also a charming saying that I'm going to attempt to work into my own life, "The whimbrel sings porridge" ("Spóinn syngur graut"), which means 'warm weather is coming'. Wish me luck in that endeavor.

So what is it that we were supposed to learn today? Well, aside from a surprising amount about Whimbrels, the lesson here is 'always take a picture of a boring looking bird you've seen a million times when you're in a new place'. I had 100% assumed that these were my traditional American Black Oystercatcher and Hudsonian Whimbrel (a bird I've certainly seen and photographed, but surprisingly never blogged). But I took a picture anyway, because 'what if?', and I was right! The Whimbrel I didn't even really bother to get a 'good' picture of. So anyway, the moral here is 'it counts anyway' even if you've seen a nearly identical bird before. Pump up those life lists people.

And for edification purposes, the difference between the Back Oystercatcher and the Eurasian is.. (waiting for you to check the other blog and report back)

The eye color! Incredible stuff.

As for the whimbrel? All in the rump, specifically, whether it's white or brown. Ok,  so maybe they weren't that identical after all, but they were to my tired eyes.

Trip to Iceland pt.1

Hello bird fans. You may have noticed, or maybe not, that your favorite bird blog hasn't updated in a pretty long time. There are several reasons for this, but most crucially, I just don't have that much time. Don't have much time for trips where I might get to do some good birding, don't have much time for photography don't have much time to write these little updates. It doesn't help that I left twitter due to it becoming a cesspool, and so now my audience is just you, the person who stumbles upon this or who I know on facebook.

Anyway, it's ok for me to be out of the bird blogging game, I am content. I've seen a lot of good birds, and I will always love birds, and the experience of identifying birds, either for myself, or for others. So that being said, this will not be a traditional bird blog, but more like a travelog. Those who go way back might remember my other blog. Imagine something like that. 

Now, recently I was able to sneak a little trip to Iceland in during what was otherwise a summer family vacation to Nova Scotia. Our plan for our first day was a drive on the fabled Golden Circle- a circuit of natural wonders easy driving distance from Reykjavik, where we were based. After partaking of a lovely hot springs (the second of the trip), we were on to our first natural feature, the famous waterfall Gullfoss (lit. Golden Falls).

It was an incredible waterfall, easily making it's way in to my top tier of waterfall experiences, despite the grey weather we had that day. Just look at this bad boy, it's got it all- a rugged and striking landscape, massive volume, an aesthetically pleasing mist, and... wait a minute... 

Computer, enhance. 

Is that a fucking BIRD???

Oooooh shit, every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in. I mean it folks, when I saw this swan just completely chilling as millions of gallons of water (this is literally true, it is an approximately 1.7 million gallons/minute waterfall) rushed past it, I said "ok, I guess I will do a bird blog about this".

So who do we have here? I'm glad you asked

Whooper Swan aka. The Elk aka. Hooper aka. Wild Swan (Álft)
Gullfoss, Selfoss, Iceland
Member of the Duck, Goose, and Swan Family
★The National Bird of Finland★
★The Largest Native Herbivore in Iceland★
§A Lamentation of Swans§

~True Bird Fact~ Very accomplished fliers, despite their size (frequently noted online as 'one of the heaviest flying birds'. Their typical airspeed is around 62mph, however, they have been known to travel to extraordinary heights, up in the lower stratosphere, in order to make use of the jetstream. One group of birds was clocked traveling almost 100 miles per hour using this technique while migrating from Iceland to Ireland. Extremely tough!

~Real Bird Myth~ A wikipedia 'citation needed' fact (off to a strong start) notes that sounds this bird makes upon death and the source of the phrase 'swan song'. I did not hear any of them die, so thus cannot verify myself.

~Real Icelandic Bird Myth~ A 1921 Icelandic Fairytale, Sagan af Dimmalimm by Guðmundur Thorsteinsson, recounts a tale of a princess who, through the power of love, breaks a curse on a swan, who then becomes a prince. It's essentially Swan Lake.

Well, I hope my extremely scant handful of readers have enjoyed this rare bird blog. But you know what? I'm going to do some more. Because shockingly being in Iceland for 4 days without my kids afforded me the time to see some pretty cool birds. And now you're going to see them too, or at least you will, if you keep clicking on the bird blog.

Birds of Costa Rica 2: part 3

Common Black Hawk (busardo negro aka. gavilán cangrejero negro (lit. Black Crab-eating Hawk)
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Kites, Eagles, and Hawks Family
§A Kettle of Hawks§

~True Bird Fact~ Black Hawks are specialized to hunting prey in the water (hence the 'crab-eater' above). They can wade around in shallow water to startle fish and then use their wings to 'herd' them to spots where they can be picked off more easily. They also like to perch on low branches and then drop suddenly into the water to snatch up crabs, fish, and crawfish. Sounds like a nice life.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (colibrí cola rojiza)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Hummingbird Family

§A Bouquet of Hummingbirds§

{Etymology Corner} Something that's always fun is when you get a picture of a bird with a name that's like the "named-after-an-incredibly-obvious-physical-feature hummingbird" and somehow the angle that you get is the only possible one where that feature isn't visible. Makes you real cautious about the ol' ID. But I think that's probably what he is. There's not a lot of options in terms of the pink/orange bill. Anyway, this guy has kind of a red tail area.

~True Bird Fact~ Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds have a pretty rare social set-up- they live in loose colonies with one male and many females. In this setup, the male mates with the females and the females are responsible for nest-building, egg-incubating, and child rearing. How's that for a division of labor? Sheesh.

I know, I know, this is far and away the worst photo I have uploaded to the blog, a true #worstbirdpic, but I was so excited to see this guy and this is the only shot I got of him. C'est la vie. Maybe he will appear again on this blog when I get a good shot.

Crested Caracara aka. Mexican Eagle aka. Mexican Buzzard (carancho aka. traro)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Falcon Family

~True Bird Fact~ The only falcon to build a nest- all others just kind of lay eggs in the dirt, or use the old nest of other birds. Seems to be a bit of an intelligence outlier among this family to be honest- they also have learned to follow trains and cars to feed on discarded food. 

~Real Bird Myth~ As you might expect for such a distinctive and charismatic bird, the Crested Caracara features prominently in mythology. In the Aztec founding legend, the bird that shows them where to build their capital city is probably the Caracara. The legend goes that the sun god, Huitzilopochtli, told them they would build a city where they find an eagle perched on a cactus, holding a snake. This image may sound familiar to some, as it is depicted on the Mexican flag. Of course, the city they found is Tenochtitlan, which is the modern day Mexico City. The beautiful narrative here is only somewhere tainted by the fact that the bird on the modern Mexican flag is very clearly a Golden Eagle. Different interpretations of the same myth, it seems.

Birds of Costa Rica 2: part 2

Steak-backed Oriole (turpial dorsilistado aka. turpial de fuego (lit. Fire Oriole!))
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Blackbird Family

{Etymology Corner} Another local name for the bird is bolsero dorsilistado, which translates to Streak-backed Purse maker, which refers to these birds really cool looking nests. These birds (along with several others) construct what is called a penduline nest, or a woven structure made from grass and other foliage that hangs from a tree branch. These are really cool looking. Here is one such nest, also from this trip to Costa Rica.

Gray-breasted Martin (martín pechigrís)
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Swallow Family

§A Scream of Swifts§ (Ok, I know, I know, these are Martins, not Swifts, and that's not even the same family (SOMEHOW), but I hadn't heard 'scream' as a term of venery before and I thought it was neat. Guys, the well is DRY on this bird, there are no other interesting facts about it. If you know anything about swallows or swifts, you know everything there APPARENTLY is to know about these birds. Ok, fine, fine, here's something-)

~True Bird Fact~ They can't walk, their little legs are only for perching. See!! That was the best I could do. That's barely interesting at all and something you probably would've assumed just looking at this thing. This bird blog was held up SIGNIFICANTLY while I tried to come up with something to say about this Gray-breasted Martin, which, BY THE WAY, this might not even 100% be, because Swallows are hard to ID. So LAY OFF!

Turquoz-browed Motmot (momoto cejiceleste) aka. Torogoz aka. Guardabarranco (lit. Ravine-guard) aka. Pájaro reloj (lit. Clock Bird)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Motmot Family

★National Bird of both El Salvador and Nicaragua★

{Etymology Corner} I think we got a famous one here ladies and gentleman. It's always a good sign when a bird has like 6 plus names, and they're all really expressive and beautiful, and that's the situation we have here. In El Salvador, he's called Torogoz, which is a reference to the sound he makes (you be the judge). In Nicaragua he's called Guardabarranco (lit. Ravine-guard). In the Yucatán, he's called Pájaro reloj (lit. Clock Bird, for the way he moves his tail). And in Costa Rica he's called Pájaro bobo (Foolish Bird) for his comfort around humans. That's the good stuff!

~True Bird Fact~ So, that tail- it's referred to as 'racketed' and serves a couple of purposes. First, they use it for sexual selection- i.e. a male with a long tale is a more desirable mate. But interestingly, they also use it to communicate with predators (!). They wag their tail back and forth, like a clock pendulum, to signal to a predator that they have been observed, and that pursuing them would be pointless, because they will fly away if approached. This is called a 'pursuit deterrent signal'.

~Real Bird Myth(?)~ Look, I don't know what to trust anymore in regards to the internet. But there are lots of claims that the Motmot is a significant bird in Mayan cultural tradition (and why not, look at it!). Most of the stories I found were on travel websites, and they all had a theme of how the bird lost most of it's tail feathers, leaving only the aforementioned 'rackets', usually as a result of arrogance. Here's my favorite one of this genre, which I totally can't vouch for as legit, from this website.

The motmot’s Mayan name is toh, and it features in local legend and lore. According to one story, the motmot liked to meet his fellow royal birds and spend the day telling stories and feasting on insects while other birds were working. He was such a beautiful creature and so proud of his glossy tail and plumage that it made him arrogant and overbearing.

One afternoon, when black clouds were massing on the horizon heralding the approach of a storm, Oc, the king vulture summoned all the birds to a meeting and they decided to build themselves a shelter. Chujut the woodpecker, Panchel the toucan, Mox the parrot and Xtut collected timber, Baax the chachalaca and Cutz the wild turkey carried the heaviest branches and the hummingbirds collected grass, herbs and leaves for the roof. Other birds gathered fruit and seeds to tide them over the storm. Only the motmot refused to help, saying that he was an aristocrat, not a worker.

When the storm burst, the motmot found a crack in a stone wall that he thought would be a good place to hide. He crept in and went to sleep without noticing that his elegant long tail was still out in the open.

Much later, the motmot woke up and emerged from his shelter to sing in the sun like the other birds. He was astonished to find that all that was left of his beloved tail were two bedraggled and naked barbs with a small clump of feathers at the end. The wind and water had done their worst. Horrified, realized what a fool he had been. Pride soon got the better of him and he decided to shun his former companions for fear that they would mock him. He flew off into the depths of the forest and dug a hole where he hid until this very day. He still keeps to himself; perching on branches overlooking cenotes where he swings his long tail from side to side incessantly like the pendulum on a clock.