Nature News
January 31, 2025
Nurturing Nature
By: Carol Suits
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Habitat = A Place Called Home
All living things need air, water, food, shelter and space to live. A habitat is a plant or an animal’s home. It provides food, water, shelter and space. A habitat could be home to a fox, worm, rose bush, spider, Gila monster, bee, butterfly, or eagle, or…….
YOU! You have a habitat, too!
Does your home provide
- Food?
- Water?
- Shelter?
- Space?
Yes! Your home is your habitat where you get the things you need to live.
Watch this video about animal habitats and how adaptation helps animals and plants live better in their habitat. Check this video out the videos below to see how it works.
Superheroes help nature by making their backyard a good habitat for plants and animals.
Your backyard is a habitat for some plants and animals. Does it have food, water, shelter and space for the things that live there?
Inspector Liberty asks you to see what your yard needs to be a good habitat
Here’s Some Habitat Helpers You Can Make
- an orange cup feeder (food)
- a puddle patch for bees, butterflies or small mammals (water)
- a solitary bee home (shelter)
Puzzle!
Enjoy a puzzle to wind down for the day!
Sandhill Cranes: Ancient Birds in Modern Times
By: Claudia Kirscher
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
One of the most thrilling wildlife experiences is watching thousands of sandhill cranes lifting off from their night roost, rustling wings and bulging calls, pure primal wilderness. To experience this unique event, tune into AZ Game and Fish Crane Cam at White Water Draw, near both Bisbee and Willcox, AZ.
These cranes are large, 3-5 feet tall, slate gray birds often with a rusty wash on upper parts, pale cheeks and red skin seen on the crown. There are 2 subspecies, Greater and Lesser.
They are often mistaken for Great Blue Herons. To distinguish, herons fly with their necks curved and cranes with their necks straight.
These cranes form large flocks into the tens of thousands during migration and can cover 400 miles a day. They nest in the northern US, Canada, Alaska and Siberia and overwinter in Arizona, Florida, Texas, California, and Mexico.
They forage in marshes, grasslands and agricultural fields. Their diet varies with location and season and includes insects, aquatic plants, small rodents, frogs, lizards, snakes, berries, and seeds.
Usually 2 eggs are laid. The young are called “colts” and stay with their parents 8-10 months.
They begin arriving in AZ late September and depart middle of March.
These crane populations are considered stable but do face the threat of habitat loss. As always, we urge you to research and educate yourself on conservation issues and efforts for all wildlife. You can find many opportunities to participate, from monetary donations to field work.
Make it personal and be part of the solution!
Gilded Flicker
By: Gail Cochrane
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
A flashy fellow visited our backyard water fountain today. He dipped his impressive beak in the water then raised it to the sky, taking several sips. Then he dropped to the ground and rummaged under a creosote bush, tossing twigs out of the way as he searched for food. This is a gilded flicker, easily recognizable by his powerful beak and showy plumage. I know it is a male from the red moustache, and gilded flickers have yellow underwing linings and undertail. A bold black crescent is on the breast.
A year-round resident of the Sonoran Desert, the gilded flicker’s appearance offers clues to its nesting habits and dietary preferences. Gilded flicker’s powerful beak allows it to chisel cavity nests in saguaro cacti. Despite a lofty apartment for raising babies, these birds mostly forage on the ground for food. Even longer than the beak is a bristle-tipped tongue that allows gilded flickers to probe into ant hills and extract adults and larvae. Gilded flickers also eat beetles and other insects, as well as cacti fruit, mistletoe berries, and wildflower seeds.
The cavity nest, located some twenty feet high on the hosting saguaro cactus, is the heart of family life for a gilded flicker couple. In winter they excavate a nest space, drilling through the ribs of the plant into the inner pith. Sap generated by this wound hardens into a boot shaped cavity. The flickers do not add any nesting materials as the interior of the cactus is protected from both cold and heat. In early spring both male and female fly about the saguaro, calling loudly. Wikka, wikka! Courtship proceeds with ritualized dancing, calling to one another, and drumming on the saguaro. The couple mates in the near vicinity.
Once the eggs are laid, the male and female share incubation duties. As the nestlings grow and get stronger, they begin to cling to the sides of the cavity, eventually working up to the entrance to peer out. Soon the parents withhold food, forcing the youngsters out into the world and an independent life. You may see gilded flickers in your yard too, foraging for ants, trying to get to the sugar water in your hummingbird feeders, or scavenging around the dog bowl for tidbits of kibble.
Gilded flickers are threatened by loss of their desert habitat, and more recently by the demise of many of the Sonoran Desert saguaros.
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