Dickcissels in the prairie

 

A Dickcissel (Spiza americana) between bouts of song. The exuberant singers are everywhere at Kankakee Sands, a large prairie restoration project in northwest Indiana owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. I just spent the better part of five days there and in almost every place, the Dickcissel song was the most conspicuous part of the soundscape. This was very cool to someone who spends most of their time in Ohio, where the little "prairie cardinal" (they're in the same family, Cardinalidae) is on the periphery of its range and not very common.

Naturally I turned my lens to the boisterous songsters, which typically perched on fence wires or posts. Like the one above. That's OK, but not really what I had in mind for a perch. Especially in a huge prairie teeming with native flora, including many species that don't make it as far east as Ohio. Although, regarding the above image, the bokeh is to die for. And good bokeh (background quality) is extremely import in photography.

I came across a nice colony of Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum), and unsurprisingly a Dickcissel had staked it as part of its turf. This was the shot to have! A Dickcissel singing atop a stem of this spectacular prairie plant. Compass Plant is a giant member of the sunflower family, towering to 8-10 feet. The deeply cut leaves are distinctive, and orient themselves on a north-south axis, at least on sunny days. This is said to help the plant reduce the radiation it receives by keeping the broad portion of the leaf away from the direct rays.

After about 45 minutes of watching the songster emit his tune from a few less than desirable perches (at least to me, the paparazzi) he finally alit on this still unfurling Compass Plant stem. Yes! I began clicking away and had plenty of opportunity to do so. Once a male Dickcissel mounts a singing perch, it'll remain for quite some time if nothing spooks it. This guy was there for a good ten minutes. The only thing that might have improved the situation was if the Compass Plant had flowers. But it was just beginning to bloom, and few plants had flowers. The yellowish splotches behind the bird are the flowers of distant plants, but he deigned not to land on any of those stems.

The core ranges of Compass Plant and Dickcissel are very similar. Both are classic Great Plains prairie species. Opportunistic Dickcissels have fared better than the plant. They'll occupy weedy roadsides, railroad rights-of-way, hayfields and meadows. One hears their chattering songs along many of the roadsides while driving about. The Compass Plant, on the other hand, is not nearly so opportunistic and is a prairie obligate. As Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and other big prairie states have lost over 99% of their pre-settlement prairie, primarily to the to the agriculturalists, the big prairie plant has declined greatly.

I hope to put up other posts about my trip to Kankakee Sands. It was epic and I saw - and photographed - lots of things. I highly recommend a visit, especially if you are into birds, butterflies, or plants. The manager is Trevor Edmonson, and he and his staff are very helpful to visitors. If you have questions, feel free to email Trevor at: trevor.edmonson@tnc.org

Dickcissel

We've had an outbreak of Dickcissels in Ohio, but this is much better than, say, an outbreak of acne. Dickcissels are charming little cardinalids of the Great Plains and midwestern prairie regions, and Ohio gets very few some years. In boom years, we get lots. The proper term for such boom and bust cycles is cyclically irruptive.

As can be seen from this Dickcissel range map, courtesy the Birds of North America online series of monographs, Ohio lies on the far eastern cusp of this species' range. That map is actually a pretty good rendition of the distribution of the tallgrass prairie, most of which has been destroyed and of which the Dickcissel is a resident. Fortunately, this songbird has adapted and now does fairly well in a variety of agricultural situations and reverting meadows and fields.

Check its winter range. Dickcissels really get into the deep south, and the majority of the populations winters in a very small region in northern South America, primarily in Venezuela. There, they mass into roosts that can number into the millions and foraging birds radiate out into grain fields during the day. They can cause crop damage, and there have been instances of mass poisoning in an effort to rid fields of what are likely regarded as feathered locusts by some agriculturists.

This pastoral scene is classic Dickcissel breeding country here in Ohio. In fact, click the photo to enlarge and look carefully at 1:00 in that dead American plum and there one sits, singing boisterously. With no effort, I found about 12-15 singing males in Marion and Wyandot counties yesterday. I returned home to see a post on the Ohio Birds listserv from Rick Counts, who had been hunting Dickcissels in locales near to where I had been. Rick found about 60 territorial birds. Probably just about any suitable field in western Ohio could have Dickcissels this year.

Here's the fellow in the plum tree, singing its peculiar mechanical song. Curiously, to my ear the species that sounds most similar is an unrelated bird that often breeds in the same fields that Dickcissels do, the Sedge Wren. In fact, I found both species occupying a field yesterday and their rapid staccato melodies could easily be compared.

From the front, Dickcissels resemble little meadowlarks, what with their lemony breast with a black chevron splashed across the chest. Their bright, cheery songs add much charm to the meadows and fields, and at least in Ohio, this is the year to go hear them.