{"id":402,"date":"2013-05-15T08:49:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T12:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=402"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:03:03","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:03:03","slug":"arboretum-nests-hummingbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/arboretum-nests-hummingbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Arboretum: Nests and Hummingbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The birds in the Arnold Arboretum are now in the thick of spring. On a cool, sunny morning, I watched them build nests, sing to attract mates, and defend their territory.<\/p>\n

\"Female
A female red-winged blackbird finds material for her nest<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n<\/p>\n

While one of the females was building a nest, one of the male red-winged blackbirds was chasing away a red-tailed hawk.<\/p>\n

\"A
A red-winged blackbird chases away a red-tailed hawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oblivious, a nearby song sparrow busily sang.<\/p>\n

\"Song
Song sparrow singing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gray catbirds were everywhere, one of the most common birds I saw today. They were either foraging on the ground or staking out bushes.<\/p>\n

\"Gray<\/a>
Gray catbird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I only saw one type of warbler. I know more are around. I spoke to a birder who had seen a number of them near the Explorer’s Garden.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow warbler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’ a male Baltimore oriole. Orchard orioles are a darker color, but another way to differentiate between them is their tail feathers. Orchard orioles have dark tail feathers while Baltimore orioles have a bit of orange thrown in.<\/p>\n

\"Male
Baltimore oriole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found a female Baltimore oriole building her hanging nest in a honey locust tree.<\/p>\n

\"Baltimore
Baltimore oriole building her nest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While she went out to gather more material, a red-winged blackbird came by to steal some of the material, probably for her own nest.<\/p>\n

\"Red-winged
Red-winged blackbird stealing nest material<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, finally, I managed to photograph a ruby-throated hummingbird. This hummingbird was resting on the branches of a hickory tree near the sign for the Leventritt Shrub Garden.<\/p>\n

\"Ruby-throated
Ruby-throated hummingbird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where’s the ruby throat, you ask? Well, the plumage is iridescent and so different colors show at different angles. Here’s another photo of the same bird showing the red throat.<\/p>\n

\"Ruby-throated
Ruby-throated hummingbird drinking from a Weigela praecox shrub<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Weigela flowers, with their long throats, are perfect for long hummingbird bills.<\/p>\n

\"Weigela
Weigela praecox ‘gracieux’ flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Full list of birds on e-bird<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The birds in the Arnold Arboretum are now in the thick of spring. On a cool, sunny morning, I watched them build nests, sing to attract mates, and defend their territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,172,58,190,170,493,169,76,92,173,6,125,175,174,171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}