Juneau hosts an array of winter birds On the Trails
Along with the seemingly endless fall rains come some winter visitors that are welcomed by birdwatchers and trail-walkers. A common one is the slate-colored junco. They are close relatives of our Oregon juncos, but without the brown back and buffy flanks. These birds start showing up near my house in September, mixing freely with the Oregons, and they stay until spring.
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Far less common are some species that get birdwatchers all in a twitter. For example, in the forest and along the edges, there's the chubby, red and gray pine grosbeak, with its beautiful, gentle calls, eating buds and fruits. Out the Mendenhall tideflats roam flocks of snow buntings. Occasional northern shrikes can be found on forest edges, often near stream mouths. Two birds that get folks really excited are hawk owls and snowy owls, which appear in some winters. It's often a matter of sheer luck (and persistence) to get a look at these birds, but it is a real treat on a winter's walk.
Perhaps my favorite winter visitor (for today, at least) is the black-billed magpie, a showy black and white bird with long tail feathers. The black of the plumage is an iridescent green/purple/blue in the right light. The long tail is good for steering in quick turns and for showing off to each other, but it apparently makes for slow flight. Magpies usually appear in September and stay around until about March. The birds that winter with us may come from Southcentral Alaska or from over the mountains in the interior of the Yukon and British Columbia.
Magpies eat almost anything: seeds, insects, small mammals, eggs and nestlings of other birds, fruit, and carrion. In the days of bison hunting in the Old West, magpies gathered to feed on the carcasses and leftover body parts of bison. They, like their relatives, the ravens, are quick to find hunter- or wolf-killed moose or deer. Magpies can be seen along the Chilkat River during the fall chum run, stealing salmon bits from the bald eagles. Working in teams of two or three birds, one magpie circles around the eagle and tweaks its tail, while its teammates dodge in to snatch fish from the distracted eagle. Along the shores of Mendenhall Lake and near Steep Creek, one might find them snatching fish bits from both eagles and bears - just the other day I watched one saunter up behind a female black bear with cubs and gobble up leftover coho. Magpies also glean ticks from the bodies of moose and deer, which can harbor thousands of these multilegged nuisances.