Birds and Nature

This morning as I birded in Lamar Woods, a riparian woods located behind the Lamar Community College that is awfully degraded, I spotted an adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo and saw it feed an apparent fledgling cuckoo. I wasn't able to get any photos of the adult though I saw it several times. It was surprising to see that this young fledgling does not have any yellow on it's bill. Though Yellow-billed Cuckoos are named for having a yellowish lower mandible and black upper mandible, it turns out that according to Birds of North America online fledglings have "dark gray upper mandible; lower mandible mostly light gray, but slightly darker at tip." Their bills do not change to black and yellow until they are about 60 days old The adult cuckoo called a number of times giving a 'coo' call-but much softer than any recordings of coo-calls I have heard. It appeared to be trying to get it's offspring to follow it to another tree. However the fledgling ...

I spent some time tonight watching Chimney Swifts in Lamar, CO where I observed at least 8 birds as they foraged. It is clear from the top pic why these are called 'flying cigars' of a cigar with wings. I was happy I was able to find a chimney where two swifts flew into at dark, presumably a pair that is nesting there. SeEtta