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 orange "listen tag" to hear the song at http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=BD0444
- 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 http://www.leahy.to/birds/black%20phoebe.html
- 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 http://www.fnal.gov/ecology/wildlife/pics/Common_Merganser.jpg
- 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 here.
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