Carcass update: The cuckoo has not been touched but is barely visible in the grass. The House Finch and Tufted Titmouse are still very conspicuously in place, right in front of their respective west alcove entrances.
Monthly Archives: June 2016
15 June 2016 – Number 250
This morning, a dead Tufted Titmouse achieved some grim and arbitrary notoriety as the 250th window-killed bird I’ve found at the Noble Research Center since monitoring began on 20 August 2009. She’s right near the entrance to the northwest alcove, and I left her in place to see how long it takes for her to be removed.
Like so many birds I find in June, this was a female (AHY) with a brood patch. This one had a faint stripe of mulberry juice down the front of her breast and little on her beak.
Intrigued by the pattern, I queried my database for June casualties, 2009–2016. Out of 22 window-kills, at least 8 have been females with brood patches (and additional 7 might have been but the data weren’t recorded).
14 June 2016 – no casualties
Yellow-billed Cuckoo and House Finch carcasses remain in place in the northwestern and southwestern alcoves, respectively.
13 June 2016 – Field Sparrow
I found a second-year female Field Sparrow at the main north entrance this morning.
This female too, had a well developed brood patch. She also had some fat laid down; I’d say coded a 2. Here again, it looks like we’ve got post-breeding dispersal on display.
9–12 June 2016 – casualties [updated]
Thanks to Corey Riding & Co. for checking the Noble Research Center while I was away on 6/9 and 6/10.
The cuckoo and House Finch carcasses remain.
I learned on 6/15 that Chrissy Barton from Corey Riding’s team actually did find a window-killed Black-and-White Warbler on the evening of 6/11. The bird is a SY female, and I think I see a gap in the breast feathers that would point to a brood patch . . .
8 June 2016 – no casualties
7 June 2016 – Carolina Chickadee
“It’s early June – I bet that’s a female with a brood patch.”
Indeed it was.
6 June 2016 – no casualties
5 June 2016 – House Finch
Today marked the first casualty of a species that is common and conspicuous on campus – a House Finch at the southwestern alcove. As seems to be the case with resident birds, June is evidently a time for post-breeding dispersal, and this bird was, like many June casualties before her, a female with a brood patch.
I left her in place for a removal trial.
Bird-Window Collisions at OK State 