The Feathered Desert Podcast
Kiersten Gibizov and Cheryl McAllister
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Top 10 The Feathered Desert Podcast Episodes
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Birding by Ear in the Southwest Part 5
The Feathered Desert Podcast
07/10/23 • 19 min
Summary: Learning to bird by ear is an important part of becoming an expert birder. Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they discuss four more southwest birds and play their songs and calls.
For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.
Show Notes:
iBird Ultimate app
Song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, House Finch recorded by Ryan O’Donnell, House Sparrow recorded by Pat Goltz, Phainopepla recorded by Paul Suchanek, Pyrruhuloxia recorded by James McNamara, and Spotted Towhee recorded by Paul Marvin.
Transcript
Birding by Ear in the Southwest Part 5
Kiersten: Intro – Welcome everyone. This week we are continuing our birding by ear series. We’ll discuss another five species, how to identify them by sight and more importantly how to identify them by sound. This is an interactive episode so take a moment to grab your bird ID guide so you can pair a picture of the bird while we play their song. Pairing the image with the sound will help imprint the information into your memory. Cheryl and I both believe this is an underappreciated but very important part of birding, so listen up!
Cheryl: House Finch
We’re going to start off with a common bird that many of you have seen and probably have heard but may not have realized it. The House finch is a medium-sized, widespread finch that is a year-round resident of the southwest. House finches have brown-streaked backs, wings and brown-streaked and white underparts. The male will have a reddish-pink head, throat, and rump. During breeding season, the males will be very bright red. Females lack the red coloration but do have the brown steaking over their entire chest and back with a brown head. The beak is small and gray and made for cracking open seeds and picking berries. The tail is longish and has a very slight notch.
The coloration of the male house finch is influenced by diet. The more nutritious the diet the redder the color of feathers. The color can vary from red to yellow based on the food available during molting. The red color is important for catching a female because a female wants a strong male to contribute his DNA to her young and to help her raise the chicks. If you are a bright red male, it means you are capable of finding and fighting for good quality food and are a healthy adult; therefore, you are more attractive to the ladies.
House finches are found all over the United States, southern Canada, and all of Mexico. They can be found in almost every type of habitat, but in the West, they prefer chaparral, desert, orchards, and suburban areas. Originally, they were a western bird, but in 1940 a small population was transported to Long Island, New York where they were released and flourished.
House finches are common bird feeder visitors so most likely you have seen them. Next time you see this pretty bird listen for this song ____ and you’ll be able to recognize them by ear.
Kiersten: House Sparrow
The next medium-sized bird is also common all across the United States and is often seen in cities. You’ve probably seen the House Sparrow at your local hardware store or grocery store hanging in the parking lot searching for food scraps and nesting in the signs above the doors.
This urban bird is actually quite handsome. Both sexes have light gray underparts and chest. The males have a black throat and upper breast with black around the eye. They have a charcoal gray cap on the head with a chestnut brown nape on the back of the head. They have lighter gray cheeks and brown and black wings. The handsome black and brown head coloration will fade in winter.
Females are a bit darker gray on the chest and underparts, some may even look brown. They have brown and black wings with a brown head. They have a thick cream-colored eye stripe that helps you differentiate between a female house sparrow and a female house finch. They have a thicker heavier beak than the house finch. The male’s beak with be black during breeding season and yellow in winter. Females are yellow all year.
This sparrow is found all over the world. They are native to Europe but were introduced to the rest of the world except Antarctica. They are found in cities, towns, and agricultural areas. They are omnivores eating grains, fruits, and insects, but they especially like grains and will eat both wild and domestic seeds.
Their song and chatter are background noise to our lives that we all probably take for granted. When you hear this ____ take a moment to look around for this sparrow.
Many people, especially in the US, see this bird as a pest because they were introduced to our continent and take resources from our native species. We need to remember though we made that decision for these birds and they have adapted to the environment we brought them into. Next time you see ...
What’s That Bird?: Black-chinned Hummingbird
The Feathered Desert Podcast
05/25/23 • 4 min
Summary:A three-minute podcast from the hosts of The Feathered Desert about individual bird species found in the desert Southwest.
Show Notes:
"Why a Hawk is a Hummingbird's Best Friend," by Ashley P. Taylor, Audubon, September 2015.
Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Marky Mutchler.
Plant Spotlight Review for Spring
The Feathered Desert Podcast
02/20/23 • 21 min
Summary: When we started our podcast, we always did a native plant spotlight at the end of each episode. We’ve compiled some of our favorites here so you can get those natives planted and attracting birds and butterflies to your yard!
For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.
Show Notes:
Boyce Thompson Arboretum Plant Sale Info: https://btarboretum.org
www.gardenia.net/plant/calliadras-california-baja-fairy-duster
Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest by Marcy Scott
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com
Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
Transcript
Host Voice: Welcome to the Feathered Desert a podcast all about desert bird feeding in the Southwest region of the United States. (bird calls and songs play)
Cheryl Into: when Kiersten and I first started to do these podcasts, we included a plant spotlight at the end. Now that spring is on the horizon here in the Phoenix area, I thought we would highlight some of our favorite and most successful native plants to attract birds and butterflies.
Kiersten: Perennials Hummingbirds love.
Firecracker Penstemon: This is a showy plant with blossoms of fiery red (a color hummingbirds see very well) tubular flowers. This plant is an important nectar source for hummingbirds nesting and migrating though your yard. For much of the year it is a tidy evergreen until the stems start to grow and the blossoms appear. it requires excellent drainage, full sun, and it heat tolerant.
Chluparosa – Is a semi-evergreen shrub with long -blooming tubular flowers in various shades of soft red. Not only is this plant an extremely important source of nectar for hummingbirds but it is known to attract orioles, warblers, goldfinches, house finches and White-crowned sparrows. It is also the host plant for the larva of the checkered spot butterfly.
Mexican Honeysuckle- Is a handsome hummingbird plant that is a real workhorse, cranking out blooms most of the year. Red-orange tubular flowers with a distinctive three-lobed lower lips, are extremely valuable for wintering hummingbirds. It has a graceful upward spreading form and bright green heart-shaped leaves. It is a Sonoran Desert native found in sandy washes and rocky canyons bottoms at lower elevations 1,500-3,500 feet. It is fast growing and likes well-drained fertile soil part to filtered sun depending on the elevations.
Cheryl: Now let’s highlight two trees that hummingbirds love.
Baja Fairy duster-This is one of my personal favorites, the fairy duster is an evergreen woody shrub/tree with bright red, powder puff flowers. Blooming year-around with a peak display from spring through fall, the long-lasting and attractive blooms are highly attractive to birds such as verdins, and warblers, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies too. It is extremely heat tolerant once established, needs well-drained soil, and its water demands are low. It is virtually pest-free and disease free. Pruning is generally unnecessary.
Desert willow-this graceful tree both perching sites and nectar flowers for hummingbirds. It has ruffled orchid-like, pale pink to rich burgundy flowers that peak in springtime but often continue throughout the summer. This lovely tree is visited by hummingbirds and lesser goldfinches. Lesser goldfinches feed on the fringed seed pods. With light green willow like leaves and big blossoms this is a lovely addition to the front landscape. Desert willows tolerate most soils and it is quite drought tolerant, it blossoms best in full sun. If you water it once or twice a month in the summer that will prolong the tree’s blooming. So, let’s talk about butterflies...
Kiersten: Butterfly weed-milkweed VS Butterfly Bush...
Butterfly weed-Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and south western North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by it’s color ad its copious production of nectar. Clump-forming perennial grows from tuberous roots to a height of one to two feet and is characterized by glossy-green, lance-shaped leaves and clusters of bright- orange- to -yellow blooms that are rich with nectar and pollen.
Butterfly bush- Buddleja Davidii or more commonly seen in nurseries as Butterfly Bush is an invasive plant from China. We do not want you to confuse it with the above-mentioned plant Butterfly weed which is a type of milkweed. It is deciduous shrub that can grow up to 15 ft high. This bush cone shaped flower clusters at the ends of br...
What’s That Bird?: American Kestrel
The Feathered Desert Podcast
02/02/23 • 4 min
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 Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Todd Alfes.
Rewilding Arizona
The Feathered Desert Podcast
01/02/23 • 16 min
Summary: What happens after a wildfire burns through our desert? Volunteers help restore it! Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they discuss some great volunteer programs helping the Arizona desert rewild itself.
For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.
Show Notes:
www.naturalrestorations.org/lower-salt-river-restoration-2022
https://www.friendsofthetontonationalforest.org/projects
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com
Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
Transcript
Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.
Cheryl Intro:
I picked up a wilderness/wildlife conservation magazine the other day, and found it filled with amazing people doing amazing things to help their wilderness areas in their states, especially after the wild fires we have had in the west in the last few years. Without reforesting and replanting of our wild areas after intense fire storms well birds and people would be in trouble. So, I wanted to know what was happening in my state of Arizona? I was pleasantly surprised by what I uncovered when I went looking for the unsung heroes/heroines of restoration.
Kiersten: Let’s start with the Lower Salt River Restoration project. Now we have talked about the restoration of the Verde River up by Cottonwood, (Earth Day Podcast), shared information about the San Pedro River, and the actions being taken to protect it (Southeastern Region of Arizona Podcast) now it is time to give some notice to the Salt River.
The Salt River is about 200 miles long and it flows through eastern Arizona starting at Roosevelt Lake. It makes it way through the mountains to Apache Lake, then Canyon Lake, and finally Saguaro Lake. Then lower Salt River weaves it way through Mesa, Tempe, and then south Phoenix. The Salt River provides metropolitan Phoenix area with up to 60% of its irrigation and drinking water needs. The Salt River is home to wildlife and bird life and wild horses. It is known for the outdoor activities like kayaking, fishing, hiking, and tubing.
In 2017, a fire burned the lower Salt River on the Tonto national Forest. The fire lasted 4 days and burned 800 acres. It was spurned on by invasive plant species such as tamarisk, which had been established in the area for decades. Seeing a need a volunteer organization called Natural Resources.org was started in 2017. With the help of U.S. Forest Service staff this volunteer group has removed 1,489 million pounds (744 tons) of trash, removed 41,950 square feet of graffiti off of rocks and boulders from the lower Salt River wilderness areas. This group launched a replanting program in 2020 and they have planted more than 27,900 tree & cacti in the Salt River wilderness areas.
Cheryl: There are erosion and soil mitigation projects going on in the Tonto National Forest starting in spring. Boyce Thompson Arboretum-near Superior has a replanting program within the property around it to help with erosion after the fires in 2021. I did find one reforesting project that is in its final phase in the Tonto National Forest. The U.S. Forest service is continuing a project to plant 500 Southwestern White Pine Seedlings on the Pleasant Valley Ranger District. The U.S. Forest Service says the 25-acre project is part of a management plan to treat dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant native to western forests. It’s been infecting Ponderosa Pine Trees within the Colcord Campground area. 150Ponderosa Pines are lightly to moderately infected and 350 trees are severely infected. Dwarf mistletoe survives only on living trees by taking water and nutrients from them often leading to the tree’s death. The newly planted southwestern White Pines aren’t susceptible to the mistletoe infection.
Ponderosa Pines’ can not catch a break between fires, drought and dwarf mistletoe...what’s a pine tree to do? Alright, I found a group that has some truly outstanding projects going on and they are always looking for volunteers.
Kiersten: Friends of the Tonto National Forest, is a volunteer organization that truly works hard for our wild life and wilderness areas.
One of the projects they have under their...
What’s That Bird?: Ash-throated Flycatcher
The Feathered Desert Podcast
07/28/22 • 2 min
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 Nick Athanas
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide
Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa https://mesa.wbu.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
What’s That Bird?: Verdin
The Feathered Desert Podcast
07/14/22 • 3 min
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 Stephen Chase
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/verdin/overview
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/verdin
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
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 - The verdin is a very small songbird at only 3.5 to 4.5 inches and is found strictly in the southwest, ranging through western Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, the extreme southern tip of Nevada, southern California, and northern Mexico. Adults have distinctive coloring with a yellow face, head, and throat, gray body, red shoulder patches, a small, sharply pointed black beak and black legs. Juveniles will be all gray. The verdin ties with the bushtit as the smallest passerine in NA.
They eat all stages of small insects including spiders. They are considered gleaners, which means they snatch insects off of leaf surfaces. Occasionally, they can be seen hanging upside down from a branch as they search the underside of leaves for a suitable meal. They also eat fruit and are especially partial to berries. They are often mistaken for hummingbirds as they do visit hummingbird feeders. As soon as they hang upside down from the feeder’s perch you know it’s a verdin. Suprisingly, they are not after the liquid nectar, most often they are searching for the sugar water that crystalizes on the ports of the feeder. When you hear this call (Verdin call plays) you know a Verdin is nearby.
Verdin choose dense bushes, shrubs, and thickets to nest and roost. In the desert, one of their favorite trees is the Palo Verde. During the breeding season, a mated pair will make an enclosed nest of sticks, leaves, and grass held together with spider webs. The male focuses on the outside construction while the female lines the nest with soft grass, feathers, and plant down. This enclosed nest will open toward the prevailing winds to help keep it cool in the heat of summer. During winter, verdin will build another nest but roost alone. These roosting nests will also be enclosed but are insulated with thicker materials to help them stay warm during cold winter nights. The winter roosting nests reduce the energy required to stay warm by 50%. Verdin may build more than two nests a year. One pair of verdin in Arizona was observed building 11 nests in one year.
Verdin are non-migratory birds that are fairly common in the Sonoran desert. They have adapted well to urbanization but, recently, their numbers have dropped drastically due to habitat loss. Planting native trees and shrubs in your yard can offer a much-needed oasis for these small songbirds.
Bird song provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded by Stephen Chase.
Bird Feeding Myths Part 2
The Feathered Desert Podcast
04/26/22 • 15 min
Summary:Birds aren’t visiting my feeder; I should move it, right? Hummingbird house are all the rage right now, they’ll use those, right? Old food is no problem for wild birds, right? Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they tell you the truth about these bird feeding myths.
Show Notes:
Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birdswww.naturescapes.com
Our New email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
We are no longer sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, Mesa but through personal experience we highly recommend their products.
What’s That Bird?: White-crowned Sparrow
The Feathered Desert Podcast
02/10/22 • 3 min
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: [email protected]
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.
Unusual Eats
The Feathered Desert Podcast
07/24/23 • 9 min
Summary: “You eat like a bird!” We’re sure you’ve heard this before and may have even said it, but if you knew what we know, you’d probably never say it again! Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they talk about some of the strange things birds eat!
For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.
Show Notes:
“Cassowaries: Crucial to Rainforest Ecology,” The University of Waikato, https:blog.waikato.ac.nz/bioblog/2009/12/cassowaries-crucial-to-rainfor/
American Bird Conservancy, https://abcbirds.org
Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions: [email protected]
Cheryl: Intro
Have you ever heard the expression “You eat like a bird.” What did that really mean? I personally never got it, but I heard many times. If the person who coined that phrase really knew what birds ate, I don’t think that it would have been said at the dinner table. Today let’s look at the weird things’ birds eat and a little about how they do it.
So, there’s the Phainopepla that consumes mistletoe berries, and a lot of them; this bird can do this because they have a specialized digestive tract to accommodate this particular berry. Then there is the American Robin, that changes it digestive system to be able to adjust to the transition from protein-rich invertebrates in spring and summer to fruits and berries in winter.
Kiersten: Worm-Eating Warbler
This warbler is small, rather drab in color with a black and buffy head stripes on its flat head. This flat head helps it to get into all the nooks and crannies of the forest floor where it consumes caterpillars and slugs, insect larvae but not earth worms like the name suggest. This warbler has a beautiful song that helps it live up to the warbler part of its name even if its drab in color.
Cheryl: Shore birds and Sapsuckers
Birds like the Black-necked Stilt, and the American Avocet are shore birds that eat mollusks such as clams, oysters, snails, and slugs found in the muddy water along the edges of creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds and irrigated fields and agricultural fields.
Then there are birds that feed on the mucus of plants and trees, namely sap. These birds are woodpeckers, waxwings, kinglets, and warblers which all have a component of sap/mucus in their diet.
Kiersten: Red-tail Hawk and Great Horned Owl
Rattlesnakes and Red-tail hawks, two very capable predators, but if an adult red-tail hawk locates a rattlesnake out in the open, it’s a dead snake crawling. Rattlesnakes are a favorite meal for this hawk. Red-tail hawk doesn’t sneak up on a rattlesnake, if it did that it would actually give the rattler the advantage. Instead, the hawk flies down and perches right in front of the snake. There by taking the lead in what is often called the “dance of death.”
- The hawk will fan out its feathers, exhibiting its 5 ft wing span.
- In response, the rattlesnake will rattle it’s tail in a warning, and will puff up to look bigger and more formidable. This might work.
- If not, the hawk will then hop or walk around, essentially trying to divert the snake’s attention.
- This will likely trigger the rattlesnake to snap open its mouth and display it 5-7” long fangs, and with the coiling motion, it will lunge forward.
- Then the hawk hops onto the snake and end the snake’s life. Red-tail hawks don’t eat the head of the snake therefore avoiding ingesting any venom.
Great Horned Owls have excellent night vision and a poor sense of smell, which helps it deal with one of its favorite meals- skunk. So, when you are out in the wilds of Great Horned Owl habitat and you smell skunk, but don’t see one you could be in the area of a Great Horned Owl nest.
Cheryl: Scott’s Oriole and Western Tanager and the Cassowary
Scott’s Oriole is a fruit eater, not only do these birds eat dagger cactus fruit, but also cultivated fruits such as apricots, peaches and figs. The Western Tanager lives off of insects such as bees and wasps in the spring and summer. Then in the winter months it will enjoy berries...all kinds like hawthorn, wild cherries, elderberries, blackberries, mulberries and service berries.
All the above-mentioned birds may be found in our state of Arizona, but there is one fruit eater that lives in Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Cassowary. This bird is the third largest bird in the world with an adult standing up to six feet tall. These birds live in the rainforests and are considered keystone species because of their role as a major seed dispenser of up to 238 rainforest plant species. Over a 100 of these plants’ species depend entirely on Cassowaries to dispense their see...
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Feathered Desert Podcast have?
The Feathered Desert Podcast currently has 144 episodes available.
What topics does The Feathered Desert Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Pets & Animals, Kids & Family, Nature, Podcasts and Science.
What is the most popular episode on The Feathered Desert Podcast?
The episode title 'Arizona’s Feathered Winter Visitors: Finches' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Feathered Desert Podcast?
The average episode length on The Feathered Desert Podcast is 15 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Feathered Desert Podcast released?
Episodes of The Feathered Desert Podcast are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Feathered Desert Podcast?
The first episode of The Feathered Desert Podcast was released on Apr 3, 2021.
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