More Top Picks Best Therapy Putty Kits For Hand Rehab
player ready...On a cool, foggy, wet winter day, Nancy Tikalsky heard her first northern cardinal of the year sing.
“Not calls, not chips, but pretty, pretty, pretty song,” said Tikalsky, a Zion resident.
Cardinals give what are called chips all winter, but in February, when days lengthen, they burst into their telltale song — uttering, “Cheer, cheer, cheer” and “Birdy birdy birdy birdy.” And unlike many other bird species, both male and female cardinals sing, echoing one another’s songs across suburban yards and in parks and preserves.
Birders like Tikalsky know that when it comes to birds, spring is already in the air come February — and by Valentine’s Day, several native northern Illinois bird species that live here year-round have started to sing their courtship songs.
Plus, in mid-February, great horned owls are already sitting on nests, and soon, red-tailed hawks and bald eagles will be performing their aerial courtship displays.
Songbirds like cardinals and chickadees produce a variety of calls and chips as well as song, said Jim Herkert, executive director of the Illinois Audubon Society.
In winter, they make short chipping sounds to communicate that a predator is near or other information to their avian brethren, he said. But in spring, the birds start singing.
“It’s the daylight lengthening and probably a bit of temperature” that stimulates birds to sing, Herkert said. On a warmish, sunny mid-February day in northern Illinois, cardinals, chickadees and other native songbirds that live in the region year-round can often be heard singing .
“Birds sing to set up territories and advertise for a mate,” Herkert said. “After they’ve mated, they continue to sing to maintain their territory.”
By March, cardinals will likely be close to finishing their nests, and chickadees will have found a small cavity hole in which to nest, he said. Female cardinals typically lay their eggs in early April in Illinois, according to the Illinois Natural History of Survey.
Chickadees give their telltale “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” calls year-round, but in spring, they sing a melancholy, “Hey sweetie,” with the first note about a minor third higher than the second two, said Donald Kroodsma, author of “The Singing Life of Birds.”
“Cardinals and chickadees have been singing their full mating songs in Aurora,” said birder Vernon LaVia. “The chickadee started about 10 days ago. He woke up me and my wife. But I’m not complaining. I love it. The cardinal started singing a few days ago.”
Although their songs are not melodious like those of the chickadee and cardinal, downy woodpeckers and white-breasted nuthatches are also adding new notes to their repertoire in February, Herkert said.
Courtship in the sky
Meanwhile, birds of prey are starting to declare love for a potential mate, with one of them — the great horned owl — already incubating eggs in February in northern Illinois.
Al Stokie, a Park Ridge resident who birds often in Lake County, reported a great horned owl already had two young in early April a few years ago at Redwing Slough in Antioch.
Those deep owl hoots you hear in November are the pairs establishing bonds and getting ready to nest.
“It’s really all about timing,” said Herkert. “For owls, when the young are hatching, there’s an abundant prey source timed with when they need lots of food — likely mice.”
Herkert added that “the other piece is how long is the incubation period.” Some birds of prey, like eagles, have a long incubation period, he said, adding these birds need to be nested early to have their young well-developed before fall and winter.
In Lake County, about three pairs of bald eagles are found nesting each year — and numbers are rising throughout the state, said Aaron Yetter, an Illinois Natural History Survey waterfowl ecologist. If you’re really lucky, you might observe courting eagles as they lock talons in the air, then spiral to the ground, unlocking the talons before they return to earth.
Red-tailed hawks are much more common, and perform similar aerial displays in late winter. Robert Visconti of Lindenhurst has been watching and photographing a pair of red-tailed hawks near Gurnee for several years. He recalled watching the “male rising and falling in altitude as if riding a roller coaster,” to woo his mate. Visconti also watched a mating pair in flight extending their talons toward one another.
More Top Picks Best Cable Management Systems For Desks
“Very cool stuff,” he said.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.