If you're a birder, you'll know what a life list is. It's basically a list of all the bird species one has observed and positively ID'd in one's lifetime. This blog is a record of my "critter" life list (mostly of birds), including photos I've taken over the years, some of the actual lifer if I was lucky enough to get the shot. Don't expect National Geographic quality stuff here, just the work of an amateur photog who loves to trudge out into nature.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Western Wood-Peewee (Contopus sordidulus)

7/7/05 Nesting on aspen tree outside our rental cabin at Convict Lake, Eastern Sierra, Mono County, CA

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Black-Billed Magpie

SPECIESPica hudsonia

FAMILY: Corvidae (Crows, Jays & Magpies)

LIFE LIST DATE7/7/2005

LOCATION: Pair nesting on aspen tree at Convict Lake, Eastern Sierra, Mono County, CA

From Kaufman Focus Guide-Birds of North America:

HABITAT/BEHAVIOR: Open woods, stream side trees. Common in summer in woods of canyons and riversides. Flies out from perch to catch aerial insects. Compact nests of plant fibers and downy materials, covered with silvery leaves or lichens, built over a horizontal limb or fork 8-40 ft. high. 

IDENTIFYING MARKS: 6 1/2"; Confusingly plain, with faint wing bars, no eye ring. Prominent peach at back of head; grayish olive above, whitish throat. Adult has black upper bill, usually some orange at base of lower bill. 

VOICE: Song is a fee-err-reet. Call is a burry descending feeer. Male sings continuously through breeding season. Dawn-song, a rapidly repeated version of song, lasting up to half an hour, can be given early in morning. 

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