It was the most unusual nest I have ever seen in Alaska. The one I found this summer was about a foot in diameter and had an arched opening near the bottom. Looking like a Hobbit hut or Indian oven, it is built of interwoven green and yellow mosses and fine grasses on the ledge of a cliff face or behind a waterfall. Meanwhile, a most bizarre nest is being fashioned by the female.

During these displays the male sings in a bubbling wren-like voice that rises above even the roar of nearby rapids and waterfalls. Sometimes both the male and female perform together, ending in an upward jump with both their breasts touching. He then struts and sings directly in front of the female. Sol courtship and nest building may take place fairly early in the Delta.Ĭourtship begins with the male stretching his neck upward, bill vertical, wings down and partly spread. Strangely, its scientific name Cinclus mexicanus means, 'a kind of bird from Mexico.' Some polyglot bird!Īs long as its sources of food, creeks and rivers, are open all year long, the dipper does not migrate. Understandably, this is the name they prefer in jolly old England (there is another species of the bird living there) and in Canada. Water ouzel, which is derived from Old English. The bird gets its common English name from its habit of rapidly bobbing its body up and down, some 40-60 times per minute. The Yupik name for the dipper is Puyuqumaar(aq), which loosely translates as, 'the little bird that looks like smoke.' Take a quick look in your bird guide and you'll see what mean. The dipper is the only songbird in North America adapted to forage like this, and does so with the help of not only a dense soft coat of feathers heavily waterproofed with preen oil (its preen gland is ten times the size of that of any other songbird), but also with a movable flap that closes over its nostrils and a well-developed white nictitating membrane (third eyelid) that is drawn across its eyes to keep them clear of dirt suspended in the water. It can forage on the bottom of creeks in which the current is too fast and the water too deep for humans to stand. It swims underwater by using powerful strokes of its wings and can 'fly' down to 20 foot depths chasing prey such as water beetles and even small minnows. It not only hunts for insects and aquatic larvae along the shoreline and while swimming in the water it also often dives under the surface of the water and walks along the bottom to catch its favorite foods. If you've been lucky enough to find it in fast flowing clearwater creeks and rivers of the Delta, and you've taken time to watch it forage for food, you know what I'm talking about. The American Dipper is one of the most unusual songbirds in North America.

Fish feed and grow flying penguin mod