[cobirds] Re: On singing American Dippers

Went to Morrison today to see if I could find a singing dipper.  (Hwy 74 is closed, so I couldn't go up to Lair o'the Bear).

Found a dipper at the entrance to Morrison Park (right by the gauging structure).  He did a fair amount of "zeet"s and

once uttered the start of a song.  I was able to watch him for a very long time, since he hardly budged from the site.

He seemed extremely successful at finding food, since he brought up tiny black things every time he dived.  Even

though I was only 12' away with 8x42's, I couldn't tell if it was animal or vegetable, but I assume the former.  I finally 

walked on, and when I came back an hour later he was still at the same spot.  Possibly the way the ice was formed it

served as a trap for food being washed downstream?

On Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at 9:28:41 PM UTC-7 teu...@earthlink.net wrote:

Interesting to read Jeff's report about dippers singing on the Big Thompson river.

Later this afternoon, as we were returning to the parking lot at South Platte park, we watched the American Dipper that frequents the river under the C470 bridge.  After watching it pick at insects and an old Starbucks cup wrapper, the dipper started spontaneously singing it's beautiful song, which raised our curiosity.  According to David Sibley's Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, both sexes of Dippers sing all year long, with a peak early in breeding season. Song establishes breeding territories in the spring, and winter territories in the fall and winter.  Fun to know!

Cheryl Teuton 

Aurora 

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

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