Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the July 3, 2005 Newsletter issued from the Sierra Nevada foothills somewhat east of Placerville, California, USA
CANYON BIRDS
It's striking how the boulder zone's bird population is so different from that of the wooded slope right above it. It's almost as if about 30 feet above the water's surface on both slopes a glass ceiling keeps out most slope birds, and keeps in a whole community of other species you don't see away from the canyon's bottom. Here are some canyon birds:

• Canyon Wren: Found only in the West and into Mexico, you hear this bird much more than you see him, and what you hear is magnificent. It's a loud, clear, descending whistle slowing at the end, almost like someone laughing for so long and so hard that they run out of breath. When you see the bird, invariably at the tiptop of a large boulder or the very edge of a rock ledge, as if he wants to make sure you see him, you can't believe that such a small bird can make such a piercing whistle. The sharp call makes sense in a canyon filled with the rumble of white water. Several hours passed without my hearing anything other than the roar of the river and an occasional Canyon Wren call. Canyon Wrens have no pale eyebrows like most of our backyard wrens, but they do have dazzlingly white throats and breasts, and chestnut-brown bellies. You can see all this and click on the green "listen" tag to hear the song at EBird.Org's Canyon Wren page
• Black Phoebe: At a distance this species looks like a junco -- completely slate gray except for its white belly. However, then you notice that it's wagging its tail, darting about catching flying insects, and that its beak is slender like a flycatcher's, not thick like a seed-crunching junco's. This is another Western and Mexican bird. It happened that the territorial boundary between two Black Phoebes lay right at my camping spot, so I got to see a good bit of feuding. Just like most people, these birds always had to try overstepping their boundaries and this caused both of them to stay in a constant state of agitation. I suppose that both birds, at the other ends of their territories, had yet other land-hungry males making cross-border forays. You can see a Black Phoebe at https://ebird.org/species/blkpho
• Common Merganser: Red-breasted Mergansers are common along the eastern coast and all through eastern and central North America during migration but Common Mergansers don't overwinter as far south as the US Southeast, so I've not seen one until now. Here Commons are permanent residents. They're snazzy- looking birds, reminding me of cool-cat males in the 50s and 60s with fully outfitted hotrods and greased- back hairdos. Merganser squadrons of four or five close-together birds would fly at breakneck speed down the canyon's bottom banking hard at bends, showing off their broad, white wing-patches. Once a rusty-headed female flew ten feet from where I was sitting and I could clearly see her swooped-back head-crest and long, thin bill. You can see one at EBird.Org's Eommon Merganser page
• Dipper: I told you about this slate gray, dumpy-looking bird who walks underwater like a chicken in my May 8th Newsletter. You can read that account here
• Violet-green Swallow: Though this swallow soars above the 30-ft ceiling it still strikes me as a canyon specialist. When you're standing on a ledge over the river you assume the swallows around you are the usual ones but then one swoops close and you see conspicuous white patches along the flanks just behind the wings, nearly meeting over the forked tail. In North America this is strictly a Western species. Usually the birds are too silhouetted against the bright sky to see the violet-green backs. See them at EBird.Org's Violet-green Swallow page.