The Eagle Mountain Nature and Wildlife Alliance is teaming up with the Natural History Museum of Utah, Eagle Mountain City, and several other organizations across the Wasatch to participate in The City Nature Challenge.
Any observation made using iNaturalist in Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch, or Weber Counties will count towards the total in Utah’s Wasatch portion of the collaborative competition, but we really want you to help us showcase the diversity and quantity of wild organisms living in our great city!
The Alliance is also hosting a bioblitz Saturday, April 29 beginning near the Eagle Mountain Public Works building. The city’s Wildlife Biologist, Todd Black will lead the blitz from 7:30-9:30 that morning to help document the biodiversity throughout the city. Even if you can’t join us Saturday for the bioblitz, the challenge will be open for all submissions April 28-May 1. Any observations made during that timeframe will automatically become part of the City Nature Challenge.
Sponsors and Prizes
In addition to the contribution you will make to science, these local businesses have donated prizes for the “best of” submissions. “Best of” awards will be determined by the Board of Directors of the Eagle Mountain Nature and Wildlife Alliance. (The board and their immediate family members are ineligible for winning any of the prizes.)
An assortment of soaps
Gift basket
$5 gift certificate
20% off any 3D image and statue
Free 50-minute Float
Gift Basket
More Information
iNaturalist.org. Sign up for an account and then check out the great Help section for more information on how to use the app or website.
Utah’s Wasatch. The portion of the City Nature Challenge that we are part of.
Natural History Museum of Utah. See what other events are happening as part of Utah’s Wasatch project. The Museum is also offering prizes in addition to the ones specific to Eagle Mountain.
City Nature Challenge. The official website, see stats for the current and past years and learn the history of this world-wide community event. They also have great resources for learning how to capture scientifically useful observations.
Bullock’s Oriole, a medium sized songbird of striking appearance comprised of brilliant orange and yellow color contrasting with black and white. Being sexually dimorphic, the female and male of the species look different from one another. The female exhibits a yellowish-orange head and tail with a grayish back, white belly, and white wing bars while the adult male exhibits a stunning flame-orange color with a black back and large white wing patch. Identifying markers of the male are the black eye line, black patch on the throat and partial black head cap. Juvenile males start out looking like females. As they mature, you’ll start to see their black beard and cap coming in and their orange color will develop over time.
Bullock’s Oriole (Adult Male) by Trista Torson
Bullock’s Oriole (Female) by Trista Torson
These feathered friends winter in the tropics of Southern Mexico and Central America until the urge to breed spurs them to head our way, toward North America. We begin seeing these orange beauties decorate our trees in Eagle Mountain around April and May through about August. Here, they will nest and raise their brood while delighting birders with their gorgeous appearance, beautiful song, and amusing behavior through the Spring and part of Summer.
Female orioles utilize their weaving skills to construct a hanging-pouch nest made of grasses, leaves, shreds of wild flax or bark and lined with fine grasses, plant down and animal hair. The male may assist. A clutch of 2-6 eggs (typically 4-5) will be solely incubated by the female for about a dozen days and then they hatch. Both parents work together to feed their hungry bunch with protein rich insects until they are old enough to partake in the delicious treats we birders tempt them with in our feeders. The nestlings will leave the nest about two weeks after hatching and the family can be a playful and fun group to watch. Often hanging upside down and play-fighting, tipping hummingbird feeders and squawking at one another.
Bullock’s Orioles by Trista Torson
Bullock’s Oriole (Juvenile Male) by Trista Torson
Speaking of treats, Bullock’s Orioles can be tempted to visit feeders with orange slices, grape jelly, mealworms, and nectar. Spoiled songbirds! Their main diet consists of insects, fruits, and nectar. Through their natural feeding habits, they play a couple of important roles in our ecosystem, pest control and pollinators. They will often eat pest insects such as fall webworms, tent caterpillars, gypsy moths and grasshoppers. While in their tropical winter habitat they feed on nectar enabling them to act as pollinators for various flowering tree species.
Bullock’s Oriole (Female) by Trista Torson
Bullock’s Oriole (Male) by Trista Torson
As they ornament our trees with their vibrant color, they too titillate our ears with various songs and calls. Allaboutbirds.org gives a good general description of their sound:
“SONGS
Bullock’s Oriole songs are about 3 seconds long, composed of rich whistled notes interspersed with rattles, often introduced by gruff scratchy notes. The timbre is reminiscent of a child’s squeaky-toy. The male’s and female’s songs are similar in rhythm, pitch, and quality, but the female’s final notes are harsher. Females may sing repeatedly from the ground; males usually sing only in trees, often from an inconspicuous perch.
CALLS
Both sexes utter a harsh, chattering rattle—sometimes in flight—to signal alarm or maintain contact, or when mobbing or scolding. They also give a sharp one-note call.” (Allaboutbirds.com)
Recordings of Bullock’s Oriole songs and calls can be heard on their site.
Bullock’s Orioles are seasonal gems that grace our land and bring us joy in nature. I sure do love spending hours watching these fun feathered friends and I’d like to see them for years to come. I invite us all to join in doing what we can to help minimize our negative impact on these fellow seasonal citizens:
Bullock’s Oriole by Trista Torson
Bullock’s Oriole (Male) by Trista Torson
As with all birds that act as natural pest control, Bullock’s Orioles appear to be sensitive to pesticides, with birds succumbing directly to the poison and from the loss of their insect food sources. We can embrace birds as natural pest control; we can avoid pesticide use as much as possible and search for safe means of pest control.
Migrating at night, our Oriole friends are known to be victims of collisions with buildings and communication towers. We can advocate for blue and green lighting as it is known to attract fewer migrating birds than white, red, and yellow lighting.
Climate change and development impact us all. One way to support migrating citizens is to support wildlife corridors. Make your support known for wildlife corridors, open space preservation and natural restoration to support our wild citizens and the health and enjoyment we receive from sharing time and space with them.
Keep your eyes and ears open this April for the beautiful Bullock’s Oriole.
The golden eagle is the most common eagle in Eagle Mountain. There is only one other species of eagle native to the United States: the bald eagle.
Golden eagles are large birds of prey with a wingspan of 6-7.5 feet. Like most birds of prey, the females are larger than the males, but other than size, the sex cannot be distinguished in the field. They are dark brown with lighter, golden-brown feathers on the back of their head or nape, which is where they get their name from.
Their preferred prey of choice around Eagle Mountain is jackrabbit, and they will happily eat other mammals such as rabbits, ground squirrels and the like.
They typically build nests on cliffsides and the females lay up to 4 eggs per year. Golden eagles are usually monogamous and pairs may remain together for several years or even for life.
