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[Phyl]

White-breasted Nuthatch,continued
Nesting and reproduction: White-breasted Nuthatches are cavity nesters and pairs maintain permanent territories throughout the year. Breeding activity in Tennessee begins in late winter when the males start singing more often and display to their mates.

Clutch Size: From 5 to 10 eggs with 8 most common.

Incubation: The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days and is often fed by her mate.

Fledging: Both parents feed the young for a couple of weeks after fledging. Families often remain together into the fall.

Nest: The female selects a natural cavity or old woodpecker hole and packs it with twigs, fur, feathers, and bark shreds. White-breasted Nuthatches will occasionally nest in nest boxes. Nest Box Instructions here.

Status in Tennessee: Fairly common permanent resident across Tennessee. Numbers have been increasing in recent years probably because both forested area and the maturity of forests has increased in the state.

Map of White-breasted Nuthatch eBird observations in Tennessee

Fun Facts:

Nuthatches gather and store nuts and seeds, jamming them into tree bark and hammer or "hatch" the food open with their bills at a later time.
The reasons nuthatches forage by climbing down trees are not fully known, but it may be that they can spot prey hidden from creepers, woodpeckers, and other upward-facing feeders.
The oldest White-breasted Nuthatch in the wild was 9 years 10 months old.
Obsolete English Names: slender-billed nuthatch

Best places to see in Tennessee: Found across the state but is more likely to occur in larger woodlands.

[Phyl]

White-breasted Nuthatch,continued







Sources:
Grubb, Jr., T. C. and V. V. Pravosudov. 2008. White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), The Birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Nicholson, C. P. 1997. Atlas of Breeding Birds of Tennessee. Univ. Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. A. A. Knopf, New York, NY.

[Phyl]

Carolina Wren
Thryothorus ludovicianus



The loud tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle song of the Carolina Wren is familiar across the southeast, but people are usually surprised when they learn that this voice belongs to such a small bird.  The Carolina Wren is a rather shy permanent resident that frequents homes and gardens as well as wilder swamps and woodlands that have a moderately dense brushy cover.

While it will build its nests in natural cavities, it is more likely to nest in a hanging plant than in a birdhouse. Carolina Wrens are found in the Eastern United States southward into northeastern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula but are most common in the Southeastern states.

Description: A small bird with rusty upperparts, cinnamon underparts, and a distinct white eye-stripe. The tail is moderately long, rusty brown with darker barring, and is often held upward. The male and female are identical in plumage, but males are often slightly larger. It has a loud and varied song repertoire and is more likely to be heard than seen.

Length: 5.5"
Wingspan: 7.5"
Weight: 0.74 oz

Voice: The song is a loud ringing, repeated series of notes: tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle. Calls include a chatter likened to teeth rubbing on a metal comb, staccato notes, and scolding churrs. The male and female often duet with the female giving a raspy churr in response to the male tea-kettle song.

Similar Species:

Bewick's Wren has become exceedingly rare in Tennessee. It is overall grayer, without cinnamon underparts, and has a longer tail with black outer-tail feathers tipped in white.
The House Wren is smaller, duller in color, and lacks the white eye-stripe.
Habitat: Found in a wide range of habitats from swamps to forests and residential areas. Requires moderately dense shrub or brushy cover.

Diet: Insects and spiders.

[Phyl]

Carolina Wren, continued
Nesting and reproduction: Carolina Wrens maintain territories and pair bonds year-round. They have a long nesting season in Tennessee lasting from late March into August. Second broods are common and occasionally they will raise a third brood.

Clutch Size: 3 to 7 eggs with 5 eggs most frequent.

Incubation: The female incubates the eggs for 14 days.

Fledging: Both adults feed nestlings. The young fledge when 12 to 15 days old and stay with the parents for another couple of weeks.

Nest: Both sexes build the nest, which is usually domed and within 3 to 10 feet of the ground.  In natural settings, individuals prefer to nest in open cavities, thick shrubs, vine tangles.

Around homes and gardens, they often build nests in nooks and crannies, unused receptacles, hanging plants, open mailboxes, nest boxes, carports, and garages when the door is left open for extended periods of time.

Status in Tennessee: Common to abundant, permanent residents of low-elevation woodlands and wooded suburban areas across the state. Numbers appear to be stable, but will temporarily drop following severe winters.

[Phyl]

Carolina Wren, continued

Fun Facts:

In the early 1800s, when John James Audubon first described this species, they ranged no further north than Philadelphia. Carolina Wrens now range from the Great Lakes to southern New England. This expansion is likely the result of warmer winters in recent years. However, cold winters with ice and snow can have devastating effects on local populations, but they recover within a few years.
A pair bond may form between a male and a female any time of the year, and they may stay together for life. Members of a pair are resident on their territory year round, and forage and move around the territory together.
Females help the males with territorial defense by singing with their mates. When the male gives an aggressive territorial song in response to a neighboring male, his mate will approach and give a chattering call that overlaps the male's song.
The oldest known Carolina Wren in the wild was 7 years 8 months old.
Best places to see in Tennessee: Found in suburban areas across the state but more easily heard than seen.





Sources:

Haggerty, T. M. and E. S. Morton. 1995. Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), The Birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Nicholson, C. P. 1997. Atlas of Breeding Birds of Tennessee. Univ. Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

[Phyl]

Golden-crowned Kinglet


The Golden-crowned Kinglet is the second smallest nesting bird in Tennessee; only the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is smaller.  It is restricted to the mountains of East Tennessee during the breeding season, but is a common winter resident across the state.

The breeding range of this tiny songbird extends across the boreal forest of Alaska and Canada, into the western United States, and Tennessee represents the southern limit of the range in the eastern states.  During the winter most northern breeders migrate to the lower 48 states, but despite its small size the Golden-crowned Kinglet can withstand winter temperatures of -30° F.

Description: The Golden-crowned Kinglet has grayish-olive upperparts, whitish underparts, two white wing-bars, a broad white eyebrow stripe, and a yellow crown patch bordered by black.

The male and female look the same except the male has an additional erectile patch of orange feathers within the yellow crown. He raises this patch in confrontations with other males. Kinglets are very active foragers, often hanging upside down, and they frequently flick their wings while foraging making kinglets easier to identify.

Length: 4"
Wingspan: 7"
Weight: 0.21 oz

Voice: The song is a series of rising high-pitched notes, followed by a musical chatter. The call notes are a series of usually 3 very high-pitched notes, tsee-tsee-tsee. The call, and occasionally the song, is given on the wintering grounds in Tennessee.

Similar Species:

Ruby-crowned Kinglets have an eye-ring, no eyebrow stripe.
Habitat: Breeds in spruce and fir forests, as well as some mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. During migration and in winter it can be found in a wide variety of habitats, including lowland deciduous woodlands.

Diet: Small insects and insect eggs.

[Phyl]

Golden-crowned Kinglet, continued

Nesting and reproduction: The Golden-crowned Kinglet reaches the southern limit of its breeding range in the mountains of East Tennessee. It usually nests above 4,000 feet in spruce-fir forests, and occasionally in hemlocks.

Clutch Size: 8 to 9 eggs

Incubation: The female incubates the eggs, which hatch in about 15 days.

Fledging: Both parents tend the young, who leave the nest in about 17 days.

Nest: The female builds a deep, globular cup-nest of moss, lichens, fine grasses and pine needles in a conifer tree. Nest heights range from 6 to 50 feet above the ground.

Status in Tennessee: The Golden-crowned Kinglet is a locally common breeding bird in East Tennessee, and a common winter resident across the state. Migrants and wintering birds arrive in the fall starting in early October and depart by mid-April.

Map of Golden-crowned Kinglet eBird observations in Tennessee


Fun Facts:

The scientific name for the Golden-crowned Kinglet is Regulus satrapa. The Greek word satrapes means a king wearing a golden crown.
According to the web page of the Bird Banding Lab, a total of 188,202 Golden-crowned Kinglets were banded between 1955 and 2000. Of these, only 69 have been encountered at locations away from where they were banded (an encounter rate of 0.036%).
The female Golden-crowned Kinglet feeds her large brood of fledglings for only one day after they leave the nest. The male tends to the brood while she begins another nest. In spite of having eight or nine young to feed, the male manages to feed them and occasionally the incubating female by himself. Second clutches, however, have not been confirmed in Tennessee.
A single, tiny feather covers each of the Golden-crowned Kinglet's nostrils.
In very cold weather, tight lines of up to 4 or 5 Golden-crowned Kinglets have been found roosting on tree branches, presumably to help retain body heat.
Obsolete English Names: American Golden-crested Kinglet

[Phyl]

Golden-crowned Kinglet, continued

Best places to see in Tennessee: Golden-crowned Kinglets breed at higher elevations on Roan Mountain and in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. During the winter, they can be found in woodlands across the state in mixed-species flocks with Ruby-crowned Kinglets, chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches.





Sources:
Ingold, J. L., and R. Galati. 1997. Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa). The Birds of North America, No. 301 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Nicholson, C. P. 1997. Atlas of Breeding Birds of Tennessee. Univ. of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Robinson J. C. 1990. An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Tennessee. Univ. of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. A. A. Knopf, New York, NY.

[Phyl]

Comming soon...a profile of the wonderful Eastern Bluebird

[Phyl]

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,
Polioptila caerulea



This tiny, active, long-tailed songbird is one of the first migrants to return to Tennessee in the spring. The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher arrives in late March and its thin, nasal spee call can be heard in deciduous forests across the state.  It usually forages with its tail cocked, flicking it from side to side.  This behavior may flush insects that the gnatcatcher then sallies out to catch.

The breeding range extends across much of the lower 48 states southward into Central America. The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher spends the winter in the southern United States, Cuba, and Central America.

Description: The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is bluish-gray above, white below, and has a tail almost as long as the body with white outer tail feathers. It has a white eye-ring, a small thin bill, and no wing-bars. The sexes are similar but the breeding male is slightly darker gray, with a black line from the bill to behind the eyes.

Length: 4.5"
Wingspan: 6"
Weight: 0.21 oz

Voice: The call is a high-pitched series of thin nasal spee notes. The song is a soft jumble of warbling notes.

Similar Species:

Cerulean Warbler males have a blue back, are white below with a thin dark breast band, have two wing-bars, and no eye-ring. The tail is notably shorter.
Ruby-crowned Kinglets are greenish with wing bars and shorter tails.
Habitat: Breeds in a variety of deciduous wooded habitats from shrubland to mature forest, especially near water.

Diet: Small insects and spiders.

Nesting and reproduction: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher population densities are highest in the South, especially in floodplains and swamps. They often raise two broods in a season, and males will leave the newly fledged young with the female as he starts construction on a new nest.

Clutch Size: Usually 4 to 5 eggs, with a range of 3 to 6.

Incubation: Both the male and female incubate the eggs for about 13 days.

Fledging: Both parents feed the young, which fledge in about 13 days.

Nest: The nest, built by both adults, is an open, high-walled cup made of dead grasses and plant fiber held together with spider webbing or caterpillar silk.  Bits of lichens attached to the outside help to camouflage the nest. Construction of the first nest takes 8 to 14 days.

The male alone builds the nest for a second brood constructing it with "recycled" material from the first nest. Nests are usually placed far out from the tree trunk on a horizontal branch. Nest heights in Tennessee range from 6 to 45 feet above the ground, with an average height of 21 feet.

Status in Tennessee: The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is a fairly common summer resident of woodlands and woodland edges across the state. It arrives in late March and departs by late September. The population appears to be stable.

[Phyl]

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,, continued

 Map of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher eBird observations in Tennessee


Fun Facts:

The breeding range of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher has to expand northward over the past 25 years, most dramatically in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.
By flicking their white-edged tail from side to side, gnatcatchers may scare up hiding insects. They remove the wings and beat large insects on a perch before swallowing.
The oldest known Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in the wild was 4 years 2 months old.
Obsolete English Names: blue-gray flycatcher

Best places to see in Tennessee: Blue-gray Gnatcatchers can be found in most large deciduous woodlands across the state. The best time of year to see them is in the spring before the trees leaf out, and when they are frequently singing.

[Phyl]

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,, continued






Sources:

Ellison, W. G. 1992. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), The Birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Nicholson, C. P. 1997. Atlas of Breeding Birds of Tennessee. Univ. Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. A. A. Knopf, New York, NY.

[Phyl]

Eastern Bluebird


The Eastern Bluebird was chosen for TWRA's Watchable Wildlife license plate because it is a common Tennessee bird that people have benefitted by putting up bluebird boxes.  This small thrush is a year round resident and can often be seen hunting along roadsides from a fence or low perch.

The breeding range of the Eastern Bluebird extends across the eastern half of North America southward into Central America. The northernmost nesters migrate to the southern part of the breeding range in winter.

The brilliant blue color of the male, the delightful call and familial behavior make the Eastern Bluebird one of the most popular songbirds in Tennessee. It is a permanent resident, though some birds may move short distances south from their breeding areas to avoid very cold temperatures.

Description: This medium-sized songbird has a large, round head, and a blue back, wings and tail.    The chest is orange, the lower belly is white, and the male is brighter than the female.

Adult male: a brilliant blue above and rusty orange on the throat and breast, whitish belly  Female: gray-blue above and dull rust on the throat and breast, whitish belly  Juvenile: similar to adult female but grayish with a speckled breast  (May-August) 

Length: 7"
Wingspan: 13"
Weight: 1.1 oz

Voice: The song is a soft musical cheer cheerful charmer melody. The call notes are raspy and scolding.

Similar Species:

No other songbird in Tennessee has a blue back and orange breast.
Habitat: Open habitats with little or no groundcover such as orchards, open woodlands, clear-cuts, parks, and large lawns in suburban and rural areas.  It is often observed perched on wires, posts, and low branches scanning the ground for prey. It traditionally nested in naturally occurring tree cavities or cavities created by woodpeckers in trees or fence posts.

Diet: Arthropods caught on the ground including: caterpillars, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, and spiders are the main diet. In fall and winter, bluebirds eat large amounts of fruit from native species such as poison ivy, sumac, black cherry, dogwood, hackberry, blueberries, and mistletoe.

[Phyl]

Eastern Bluebird, continued

Nesting and reproduction: Eastern Bluebirds are cavity nesters and typically have 2 broods each year, sometimes 3, and rarely 4 often use the same nest for all broods.  Bluebirds depend on naturally occurring cavities, tree cavities excavated by other species, or nest boxes. The female builds the nest of grasses, and lines it with finer material. Nest Box Instructions here.

Males attract females to the nest with a display in which he carries nesting material into and out of the cavity.   The breeding pair can stay together for several seasons.

Eastern Bluebirds suffer from competition with European Starlings and House Sparrows for nest sites, but the thousands of nest boxes that have been erected appear to off-set these detrimental effects (see link below for nest box designs that exclude starlings).

Clutch size: Usually 4 to 5 pale blue (or rarely, white) eggs. Female begins laying eggs a few days after the nest is completed and usually lays one per day.   In Tennessee first clutches are commonly laid in March, last clutches in July or August.
Incubation: The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days.  Incubation does not start until after all eggs are laid so that all eggs hatch on the same day.

Fledging: The young are fed by both parents and fledge in 15 to18 days. Young produced in early nests usually leave their parents in summer, but young from later nests frequently stay with their parents over the winter.

[Phyl]

Eastern Bluebird, continued
Songs and Calls: Song is a soft, warbled "cheerful charmer". Call is a soft "tru-ly" when communication with mate or young. Also gives a raspy alarm call. 

Status in Tennessee: The Eastern Bluebird is a common permanent resident across the state though some individuals may migrate further south in winter. Populations appear to be stable, but vulnerable in especially severe winters.
Populations fell in the early 20th century due to many factors. Competition for nesting sites from introduced species, loss of open space and natural nesting cavities, increased pesticide use and climatic events contributed to the decline.

In the 1970's, conservation efforts to provide nest boxes specifically designed to keep out the larger European Starling combined with a campaign to provide and monitor boxes for use by invasive House Sparrows has helped with the recovery of the beloved species.

Map of Eastern Bluebird eBird observations in Tennessee


Fun Facts:

The clutch size of Eastern Bluebirds varies with latitude and longitude. Bluebirds that nest farther north and farther west have larger clutches than southern nesters.
In especially cold weather, several individuals will roost together in one cavity to stay warm. This species has been observed using nest boxes to stay warm during cold winter nights, packing 8-12 individuals into one box.
The oldest known Eastern Bluebird in the wild was 10 years 6 months old.
Obsolete English Names: bluebird