The Birding Year in the Pacific Northwest

March: Emerging Bird Song

Written by Andy McCormick

Andy McCormick, Volunteer and Former Board President of Eastside Audubon

On an overcast day in mid-March a few years ago I was leading a survey of birds in part of Woodinville, WA. The clouds were low, and some intermittent rain fell on us. However, in spite of the weather, the notations in our eBird checklist revealed how many birds were singing that morning. In the quiet of the woods the bubbling song of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet erupted, and the high trill of the Brown Creeper signaled its presence. The chatter of Marsh Wrens arose from reeds along the water, and the snappy song of Bewick’s Wren matched it from the underbrush. A Purple Finch and a Hutton’s Vireo competed for the upper story airwaves. These birds were not simply making chip note contact calls, they were firing off their spring songs. The hormonal drive to breed had birds singing regardless of the weather.

Overhead, a Red-tailed Hawk made a direct flight toward its nest with a stick in its bill, and near the end of our survey we found a Pacific Wren building a nest right alongside the trail. In retrospect, it is clear to me that all of these birds were year-round residents of western Washington. Our experience that day provided a good reminder of how resident birds get a jump on migrating birds when it comes to selecting good nesting sites in spring. By the middle of March, the risk of frost has passed in most of the state and especially in the lowlands, west of the Cascades, and birds can safely begin courtship and nest-building. Many of these birds will have eggs in the nest by the beginning of April. With a few exceptions, migratory birds will not arrive for about another month.

BIRD SONG

Birds make a variety of sounds that range from full songs, contact calls, drumming on branches, squaks, wing flapping and whirring, and bill snapping, but bird vocalizations are what we pay the most attention to. The full, long, and expressive songs of birds during the breeding season serve to attract a mate and to define a bird’s nesting territory. They are also used to repel intruders from that territory. A good example familiar to many people is the pre-dawn song of the male American Robin. It is a sure sign of spring. Singing from a high perch the robin is making a statement, “Here I am. Look at me.” The female robin loves this song, and other males know to keep their distance, but more than one human has been less than impressed with the incessant singing and wished he or she could get a little more sleep before heading to work.

Bird calls can take many forms. The chip note, a peep, some chatter, and scolds are in the repertoire of many birds. The Cornell Handbook of Bird Biology lists at lease seven types of calls. Contact calls and flight calls allow birds to stay in touch with each other as they move around to feed or during longer flights. Food calls let other birds know about food sources. Nestlings have their own begging calls. Alarm calls warn other birds about danger and mobbing calls are used to try to repel a predator such as a raccoon, cat, or predatory bird. Aggressive calls are a way birds try to resolve conflicts without directly fighting.

Female birds also sing but the types of songs vary among bird species and most females do not sing once they have eggs in the nest. Some pairs of birds will engage in matched countersinging, a type of duet in which the birds use a call and response pattern of song. In some species like the Western Flycatcher, each member of the pair will finish phrases for the other. In other examples, both parent Ospreys will call loudly when the male returns to the nest with food, and Marsh Wrens will signal one another with corresponding phrases. Barred Owls are considered experts in duet calling. Both male and female owls will take turns with their primary who-cooks-for-you-all refrain and may also have extended exchanges with one- and two-note calls using the you-all portion of the main call.

Woodpeckers will use drumming sounds in place of songs to attract mates and defend territory. Spring is also the time of year when bird sanctuaries and other organizations receive calls from the public about Northern Flickers drumming on their houses and metal caps of their chimneys.

KILLDEER

Shorebirds will be arriving in the Pacific Northwest by mid-March, but the Killdeer is the earliest to begin nesting and has been recorded with arrival dates in early March. As the pair is getting settled, the Killdeer’s kill-deer, kill-deer call can be heard when the male circles above the nest site in a courtship display. The Killdeer’s nest is a simple depression in some gravel. Four eggs are deposited directly on the rocks and promptly seem to disappear from sight. The color pattern on the eggs matches the pattern on the gravel and it is very difficult to pick them out from the background.

Essentially, Killdeer rely on camouflage coloration to hide the eggs, but in addition, they have evolved an elaborate distraction display which Killdeer use to lure would-be predators to themselves and consequently, away from the nest. When an intruder such as a cat, raccoon, or human approaches the nest, one or both of the adult Killdeer begin loud deee, deee calls (Paulson) which carry a great distance marking the territory around the nest. In a more agitated state, the Killdeer will make teeeee di di, teeeee di di calls (Sibley), and one of the pair will then run to draw the intruder away. If the tease to chase doesn’t work, the Killdeer will stop and sometimes return a few yards virtually asking to be chased. The display may continue and may become more elaborate and enticing. One of the Killdeer can fall to the ground while spreading a wing in a ruse to suggest it is broken, thus making themselves appear even more vulnerable by feigning injury. A Killdeer performing this display looks positively helpless.

NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL

The Northern Pygmy-Owl is another early migrant which begins nesting in March in parts of Oregon. Its advertising call is a series of metronomic toots usually given from a prominent perch. When the male is in search of a mate, it may call for hours over several days. Once mated and with eggs in the nest, the male pygmy-owl will call for a short time in the morning and then become a stealthy hunter by day seeking birds in the canopy and mammals, birds, and lizards in the understory.

Despite the potential danger to themselves from capture by this small owl, other birds will respond aggressively to its presence. The chickadees, nuthatches, hummingbirds, jays, or crows that respond rely on strength in numbers and will flock toward the owl in a mobbing group making loud, threatening calls and strafing toward the owl in an attempt to get it to move along. I have been aided in locating owls by this mobbing behavior of other birds.

MARCH BIRDING

The Pacific Northwest rainy season continues through March and overcast days are common, but many resident birds will be singing because their nesting pattern is driven by the average daily temperature and the amount of daylight available during a day. With the warming of our planet Earth this schedule has changed. Survival by Degrees, the 2019 Audubon climate report which describes the correlation of earlier nesting dates for resident birds with the rising average daily temperatures in North America. The report also predicts that birds will move their nesting and wintering locations farther north in the coming decades.

In contrast, most neotropical migrating birds are still in southern climes in March and cannot know what the weather is like in the Pacific Northwest. Because they time their departure for migration based on the photoperiod, that is the number of minutes of light during the day, they will leave on migration at about the same date every year. There is increasing evidence that there is a growing mismatch between the blooming of trees and the emergence of insects with the arrival of migrating birds. By the time these migrants arrive, resident birds are already nesting and feeding on insects which are emerging earlier in the year due to warming temperatures. The migrants must deal with whatever weather exists at the time of their arrival. By the time they find a suitable nesting location, incubate the eggs for three weeks, and begin to feed their young, they may confront a diminishing supply of insects. Many neotropical migrating birds have evolved to nest in deep forest areas where there are fewer birds and fewer predators, and likely more food sourced available to them. However, the mismatch in arrival time and availability of insects may be limiting reproductive success.

It is generally colder east of the Cascades in early March and Red-winged, Tricolored, and Brewer’s Blackbirds are still in large mixed flocks and Rough-legged Hawks and larger flocks of Snow Geese and Northern Pintails are still around, but signs of spring activity are also evident. Hundreds of Sandhill Cranes pass through Oregon and Washington during the second half of March and spend time at annual stopover locations around Othello, WA. A three-day Sandhill Crane Festival is held in Othello on the fourth weekend of the month to celebrate their arrival. On a trip during the festival period a few years ago our group found a Black-billed Magpie nest and also ran into a Loggerhead Shrike on the last day of March in 2021.

Along the outer coast and around the Columbia River mouth wintering White-winged and Surf Scoters, Bufflehead, Barrow’s and Common Goldeneyes, Red-breasted Mergansers, and the grebes: Horned, Red-necked, and Western, will be breaking into smaller groups for their flight north. Around Puget Sound flocks of Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon will also be staging for their migration. The opportunities for good birding are plentiful in March on both the coast and the interior and exploration of both regions will be rewarded with a nice list of birds.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Deshler, J. F. (2023). Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.nopowl.02

Lovette, Irby J. and John W. Fitzpatrick (2016). Handbook of Bird Biology. Oxford: Wiley & Sons.

Paulson, Dennis (1993). Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Sibley, David Allen (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds. Second edition. New York: Alfred Knopf.

Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink (2019). Audubon Magazine, National Audubon Society. https://www.audubon.org/climate/survivalbydegrees

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Header Photo: Marsh Wren by Mick Thompson