Answering late summer's question: Where have all the male birds gone?

During the past week, readers have been contacting me with what I would call “late summer” questions.

As we move toward fall, birds begin to travel and, often, we will observe things that had not been apparent earlier in the season.

Popie Martin, who lives near Piney River, noticed a large, white wading bird along the creek on her property. She had guessed that it might be an egret and wondered if they were often seen in this area.

From her description, the bird was probably a great egret, and this species is an uncommon visitor in Central Virginia from late summer through mid-September.

A caller from Amherst asked why she had so many female hummingbirds at her feeder. Until recently, males had been visiting. During the past few days, however, most of the birds with a red throat had disappeared. I’ve also had the same kind of inquiries about house finches.

The answer is that, at this time of year, all of the immatures look like females.

So, if you have an equal number of adults and first-year birds, it will appear that 75 percent of the birds are females. Since the birds that were just hatched this year are not as adept at finding food, they tend to hang around feeders. Tonight, I saw six hummingbirds from my deck, and none of them was an adult male. However, I’d be willing to bet that about half of them were “teenage boys.”

Jim Noffsinger, of Evington, spotted a summer tanager drinking from a birdbath in his yard last week. He had never seen the species before and thought that the beautiful yellow-green plumage indicated that it was a female. It might have been but, at this time of year, the males could have already molted into their winter attire, making gender identification tricky.

Glen McGrath, of Lynchburg, found his first American redstart on Aug. 24. This is one of our warblers, and in the breeding season they tend to remain hidden in the foliage. However, during migration many of the warblers will flit about in lower vegetation, making them much more visible to the casual eye. The brilliant orange, black and white plumage of the redstarts makes this species one of the loveliest representatives of the warbler group.

As we head toward mid-September, the movement of birds will increase as they hurry to keep their appointments with the “endless summer” of the tropics. Soon hawks will begin massing among the cumulus clouds, sparrows will “pop up” in the shrubs, and our winter visitors will appear at the bird feeder. This is definitely the time of year to stay outside and keep your eyes open for all of the changes.

News and Notes
The Lynchburg Bird Club will hold its first meeting of the fall at 7 p.m. Sept. 10 in Room 315 of Martin Science Hall at Randolph College. The guest speaker will be Fred Atwood, who will talk about the birds of Ecuador. The public is invited.

Rexanne Bruno reported a very early white-throated sparrow on Aug. 31 from Campbell County. The normal fall date for this species is in late September.