Monday, November 7, 2011
Seldom Seen Birds
At IBR we sometimes get the chance to see birds up close that would be very difficult to see in nature. These two birds, unfortunately, died before or during intake while I was there Saturday a week ago.
This is a Virginia Rail, an uncommon bird of the wet marshes. It weighs about 3 oz. and has a wingspan of 13 inches. Oddly, it is in the same family as American Coots.
This is a Common Poorwill which weighs about 1.8 oz. and has a wingspan of 17 inches. It roosts on the ground during the day where it would be well camoflaged. At night, it sits in the open and flies up to catch flying insects. At a distance, it's low whistle sounds like "poor-will".
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I looked it up and learned that the "whip-poor-will," the bird I had heard of, is the Eastern US version of the poor-will. Its camouflage is not quite as spectacular as the poor-will's, though.
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