Wayward Birds

 

A vagrant female Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope)
in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Some birds spend their whole lives in one area.  Others undertake long distance migrations that cross continents and oceans.  But sometimes birds wander and end up where they are not supposed to be.  These out of place birds are called vagrants. The term vagrant conjures up images of homeless people who wander and just scrape by.  Vagrancy in birds is probably much less dire. In some cases vagrancy establishes new populations and even species. 

There are several explanations for bird vagrancy.  Some birds are blown out of their normal range by storms.  Hurricanes are famous for bringing sea birds far inland.  Migratory birds will sometimes overshoot their destination and end up further north or further south than other members of their species.  Other vagrants seem to have a faulty navigation system and migrate in the wrong direction.  Still others just seem to wander.  Some seem to have taken a page from the American naturalist, Bugs Bunny, who famously said, “I know I should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque”.

In December 2019, we saw a Heermann’s Gull (Larus heermanni) on the beach at Lake Worth, Florida.  This large gull normally lives on the west coast of North American from British Columbia in the north to Baja and the coast of Mexico in the south.  Adult Heermann’s Gulls are gray with a white head, while juvenile birds are all gray.  These handsome gulls are rare but regular visitors to the east coast. 

A juvenile Heermann's Gulls (Larus heermanni)
on the beach.  Lake Worth, Florida. 

Another gull that crosses the continent with some regularity is the Slaty-backed Gull (Larus schistisagus).   This large gull breeds along the Pacific coast of East Asia, from Japan to Russia.  Slaty-backed Gulls are regular visitors to Alaska but also wander down the Pacific coast of North America, across to the Great Lakes and some even reach the shores of the Atlantic.  We tracked down an adult Slaty-backed Gull at the Horry County Landfill near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in January 2022.  There were over 10,000 gulls at the landfill but we managed to find this rare one without much trouble thanks to good advice from the landfill workers and other birders.  

An adult Slaty-backed Gull (Larus schistisagus) 
at the Horry County Landfill, South Carolina. 

The Slaty-backed Gull ignored all the landfill activity
 around it and enjoyed the rich pickings.
Horry County Landfill, South Carolina. 

Western hummingbirds sometimes wander east, usually during the winter. The Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope) is the smallest native hummingbird in the United States and breeds in the western mountains.  It then undertakes a long migration to central Mexico for the winter.   But some birds make that wrong turn and end up in New England in the fall and some winter in the southeast.  We saw a Calliope Hummingbird coming to a feeder in Charlotte, North Carolina in December 2017.

Female Calliope Hummingbird.  This picture caught the bird
defecating.  Many birds lighten their load before taking flight.
Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) are probably the most common of the western hummingbirds that come east.  They nest in the northern Rocky Mountains and migrate to Mexico.  But many winter across the central and eastern United States, some even reach Florida.  Male Rufous Hummingbirds have an iridescent orange throat, reddish brown tail, back and flanks.  Females also show the rufous color but not as vividly as the males.  

A female Rufous Hummingbird  (Selasphorus rufus) was visiting a hummingbird feeder
at Riverbend Park in Catawba County, North Carolina in December 2021. 
Rufous Hummingbirds regularly winter in this park.

Bullock’s Orioles (Icterus bullockii) are striking orange, black and white birds that are normally found west of the Great Plains.  While most of their species migrate to Mexico some head east.  The Bullock’s Orioles that winter in eastern North America often come to feeders that they may share with Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula).  In the 1970s and 1980s lumping bird species was in scientific fashion.  At that time the Bullock’s and Baltimore Orioles were combined into one species, the Northern Oriole.  New genetic research in the 1990s caused them to be separated again.  North Carolina hosts Bullock’s Orioles each winter and they are a welcome visitors.  

A juvenile male Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii) visiting a feeder in January 2018.
Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Another brilliant western bird that sometimes winters in the east is the Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana).  These birds are yellow, black and white and the adult males sport red on their heads.  The eastern vagrants often hang around feeders eating suet and seeds. 

 

This male Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) stayed during the winter
of 2018-2019 in Salisbury, North Carolina 

Some birds drift north from their tropical homes and Florida hosts many of them.  In the winter of 2020-2021 a number of vagrants flew up to the Keys and so we went to see them.  We found a Red-legged Thrush (Turdus plumbeus) at the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden perched in a fig tree.  This placid bird showed no concern about the many birders who stood under its tree and gawked.  The Red-legged Thrush is a robin-sized bird with a dark gray head, body, wings and tail, an orange belly and bright red feet and eye ring.  This handsome bird’s normal range is the West Indies from Puerto Rico to Cuba and north to the Bahamas.  

A Red-legged Thrush (Turdus plumbeus) at the 
Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, Florida.

The second tropical visitor we saw on that trip to the Keys was a Cuban Pewee (Contopus caribaeus).  This small flycatcher is native to Cuba (naturally) and the Bahamas but one spent the winter at the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key.  The Cuban Pewee resembles the Eastern Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) that breeds in North American but the Cuban species has a crescent-shaped white mark, a teardrop, behind the eye.   

Cuban Pewee (Contopus caribaeus) at the Key Deer Refuge, Florida. 

Studies suggest that many vagrants do not survive, but vagrancy can play in important role in dispersing birds and possibly establishing new populations.  Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are native to Africa but flew across the Atlantic to colonize South America in 1870s.  Then they spread to North America where they established breeding populations by the 1950s.  In the 1960s these long-range wanderers reached the Galapagos Islands off South America.  The famed Galapagos Finches (Geospizinae), found on those same islands, evolved from vagrant American finches that were blown to those volcanic dots in the Pacific. 

Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are notorious vagrants 
and have spread from Africa to South
and North America in the last 135 years.
Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Palm Beach County, Florida.  

Climate change may increase the number of vagrants. Vagrancy could be the first sign of an expanding range for species. These wayward birds do wander but whatever their fate, they can delight the birders who see them.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) in flower.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Preacher Jack stands in his green chapel, sermonizing in spring and in fall is transformed. 

Jack-in-the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyullum) is a perennial spring wildflower that grows in eastern North America.  Arisaema triphyllum is in the Araceae, the Arum family.  This family has many well know plants including the New World rainforest/houseplant Philodendron hederaceum.  Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is another plant in this family. It grows in Sumatra and produces the largest flower in the world. Titan Arum is also called the corpse plant because it releases the odor of rotting flesh to attract its pollinators. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), another Araceae, grows in North American and as its name suggest also produces a strong smell to attract pollinating insects. 

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit with flower and trifoliate leaves.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit has three-part, compound leaves and in North Carolina flowers in March and April.  And oh, what a flower Jack makes. This complicated flower consists of a spathe (the pulpit) which is a sheath that wraps around and makes a hood over the spadix.  The spadix (Jack) is a cylinder in the center of the spathe and contains hundreds of tiny, separate male and female flowers.  The spadix produces an odor that smells like fungus to attract the pollinators, fungus gnats.  The gnats follow the smell into the spathe where they collect pollen to take to the next flower. 

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower with spathe and spadix. 
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Most of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit that grows in our area make a yellow-green spathe and spadix.  There are more colorful ones out there with maroon stripes on the spathe and a purple spadix.  

Jack-in-the-Pulpit in October
with its bright red fruit.
Rowan County, North Carolina.  

After pollination, the fertilized female flowers in the spadix develop into fruits. By fall, Jack-in-the-Pulpit bears red berries.  These fruits are eaten by birds and small mammals who disperse the seeds in their droppings. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a long-lived plant with some specimens surviving for over 20 years.  They grow in rich woods and floodplain forests.  Jack-in-the-Pulpits are protected from herbivores because they contain the toxin calcium oxalate.  Calcium oxalate crystals are pointed and cause abrasions when eaten and the chemical itself induces a burning sensation. 

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit will emerge soon, preaching his sermon in the woods.