Me too, and a few days ago I watched a male Anna’s hummingbird do its mating display flight in a clearing in Lincoln Park, over and over.I have seen them gathering spider webs for the nest lining.
Thanks for your excellent explanation of feather iridenscence. It adds depth to my appreciation of the wonders of nature.Waterfowl hunting season is now finished for the year. This has removed one source of risk for the overwintering ducks, geese, and shorebirds at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. And with spring breeding season fast approaching, some birds are beginning to pair up. They are feeding like crazy to build up reserves to fuel their migration and the upcoming reproductive season.
View attachment 105191
View attachment 105192
Diving ducks, like ring-necked ducks and buffleheads have been diving repeatedly in the central pond near the Visitor Center. In the right light, the heads of the drake buffleheads shine with a green-purple iridescence.
View attachment 105193
The feathers of the hens are not iridescent.
View attachment 105194
The drake’s coloration is NOT due to the selective absorption / reflection of a pigment, but due to structural iridescence in its feathers. The red pigments in the head feathers of a male house finch or the breast of male robin reflect red wavelengths of light and absorb all others. But birds with iridescent coloration (e.g., head feathers of hummingbird males, birds of paradise, and buffleheads, tail feathers of peacock males), layers of intracellular sacks of melanin (melanosomes) refract (bend) light physically as the photons travel through layers of these sacks. If the light is not from the right direction, the feathers absorb all wavelengths (e.g., black), but from other directions, they glow.
A recent addition to the divers in the main pond has been a pied-billed grebe in breeding plumage (dark ring on the bill).
View attachment 105195
View attachment 105196
In my last visit, it came up from a dive with a fish in its bill (possibly a sculpin) which it easily swallowed.
View attachment 105197
Another birder pointed out a Wilson's snipe that was feeding at the edge of a freshwater seep into the main pond by the Visitor Center. Wilson's snipes are so cryptic, it would take an especially perceptive predator to find them foraging along the shoreline. And if it were found, they have an amazing burst flight to escape.
View attachment 105198
View attachment 105199
View attachment 105200
Steve
I also respect and enjoy the knowledge you so willingly share. Thank you.The Merlin app has some difficulty with some of the very generic “chip” sounds that some flocking birds make. There just are not enough differences in this “chips” among species to identify a specific species as responsible. That is the case often for mixed flocks such as chickadees and golden-crowned kinglets.