Dickcissel: Bird Finder for October 5, 2016
Dickcissel
Spiza americana
By Greg Hanisek, editor of The Connecticut Warbler
Where To Find It: If you want to see a lot of them, you probably should take a summer trip to somewhere like, say, Iowa. However, enough of these birds occur east of their prime nesting range on the prairies and farmlands of the Midwest that they can turn up anywhere in weedy places in Connecticut. In fact, one was observed at Harkness State Park, in Waterford, earlier this week.
When To Find It: Although Dickcissels have occurred during every month of the year, fall migration offers the best time to encounter one. A few also winter here, like one that spent months at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport in 2015-16. They readily visit feeders. They’re rather scarce in spring, but there has been at least one nesting attempt in late May 1996 at Northwest Park in Windsor.
What It Looks Like: The adult males are quite handsome with yellow underparts, black bibs and chestnut wing patches in breeding season. The same pattern is drabber in winter. The females lack the black bib, and colors are more muted overall. Immatures are more sparrow-like, with some showing little if any yellow or chestnut.
How To Find It: Any search for sparrows in autumn could turn up a Dickcissel. They seem to have a special affinity for House Sparrows, with which the one at Sherwood Island associated last winter. They occur in large flocks on their main migration routes, but in the East they’re almost always found as singles. Their loud and distinctive call notes, likened to an electric buzzer or even a whoopee cushion, often direct attention to the bird’s presence. These calls are regularly given in flight, where they advertise their passage at hawk watches such as Lighthouse Point in New Haven or Bluff Point in Groton.
The name Dickcissel derives from its song, which you can hear on Cornell’s AllAboutBirds website.
Conservation Status: No special conservation status has been accorded to this species. Because the species is so concentrated on its winter range, a minimum estimate of the entire population can be made, according to Birds of North America Online. Based on total number of Dickcissels counted between January 24 and February 20, 1993, at all known winter roosts in their core winter range in Venezuela, where most Dickcissels congregate, the total world population was at least 6 million; almost 40 percent of those birds were in one roost of 2,370,000. Unknown smaller numbers of additional birds were outside the core wintering area at the time.
Photos: Rebel AT (top) and Maggie Smith, Carolinabirds.org.
Dickcissel
How To Find It: Any search for sparrows in autumn could turn up a Dickcissel. They seem to have a special affinity for House Sparrows, with which the one at Sherwood Island associated last winter. They occur in large flocks on their main migration routes, but in the East they’re almost always found as singles. Their loud and distinctive call notes, likened to an electric buzzer or even a whoopee cushion, often direct attention to the bird’s presence. These calls are regularly given in flight, where they advertise their passage at hawk watches such as Lighthouse Point in New Haven or Bluff Point in Groton.
