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![[Birds of Louisiana]](LOSgraphics/barbirdsofla.gif) |
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get the BIG picture © David J. L'Hoste |
| Dickcissel |
| Spiza americana |
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The Dickcissel is a common, locally abundant, summer resident in most of Louisiana, which usually arrives in the middle of April from its winter home in South America. It is a conspicuous bird, for it seems to like nothing better than to perch on telephone wires or on roadside fences when it pours forth its emphatic song, a loud dick, ciss ciss ciss. In size it is about the equivalent of the House Sparrow. The male has a white chin, black throat, and yellow belly; the cheeks and top of the head are ash gray; the line over the eye is yellow; and the back is brown, heavily streaked with black. The female is browner on the head, lacks the black throat, and is much whiter (less yellowish) below. She resembles a female House Sparrow somewhat, but differs in having a least a faint wash of yellow on the breast, rufous patches on the shoulders, and a prominent line over the eye.
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Despite the abundance of Dickcissels in June and early July, the bulk of them suddenly disappear in late July, and the species is uncommon from August to mid-November. Thereafter the species is quite rare, although not infrequently a few spend the winter in the state, even as far north as Springhill, in Webster Parish, and at Shreveport. In the winter season the Dickcissels that are present are often found in company with flocks of House Sparrows at feeding stations in urban areas.
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The rather bulky nest of coarse grasses and leaves, lined with finer materials, in placed on the ground or in bushes, usually at the edge of fields, where doubtless many are destroyed each summer by mowing operations. The four or five eggs are plain bluish.
--George H. Lowery, Jr., 1974, Louisiana Birds
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| Birds of Louisiana-- more photos of Louisiana birds by LOS members accompanied by Lowery's accounts from Louisiana Birds. |
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The LOS website currently has space online for photographs, field notes, identification discussions and general messages regarding the birding activities of LOS members. Fine quality photographs are also being solicited for the BIRDS OF LA webpage. Please send non-graphical submissions to submit@losbird.org. For information regarding graphical submissions, send an e-mail to our autoresponder at info@losbird.org.
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  WHAT'S NEW INSIDE |
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108th LA CBC edited by Martin D. Floyd  |
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| Official Louisiana Field Check-list - March 2008. |
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| Printer Friendly Field Check-list |
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| 2008 Official Louisiana Review List |
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| LOS NEWS - April 2008 issue. |
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| Minutes of LOS 2008 Winter Meeting |
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| Western Hummingbird Report #35 - 04/12/08 |
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| Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Plaquemines Parish. |
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| The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) announced today a list of selected dates between March 11 and July 15, 2008, for public use of facilities at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area (WCA). |
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| Checklist from LOS 2008 winter meeting |
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| FLAMINGOS IN LOUISIANA - photos. |
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| Louisiana Hummingbird Banding Report - Winter 2006-2007 from Nancy Newfield |
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| Western Hummingbirds -- Winter 2006 - 2007 final report from Tom Sylvest.
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| 102nd - 106th LA CBC results - edited by Marty Floyd |
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| ABA Website for its April 2007 Convention in Lafayette, LA |
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| ABA Convention Schedule |
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| Mangrove Cuckoo - 1st LA record found 12/23/06 by Glen Ousset, photos by Dave Patton. |
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| Allen's Hummingbird in Lafayette - by Dave Patton |
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 Yellow Rail in Lafayette Airport Hangar - by Dave Patton |
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| Swainson's Hawks in Vermilion Parish - by Dave Patton |
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| America's Wetland Birding Trail - Loops, sites, descriptions and directions. |
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| Cameron Bird Observation Tower Photos & Tower Fund Drawing Results |
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| Banding Red-tailed Hawks - notes and photos of field trip led by Bill Clark. Submitted by Dave Patton. |
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| Bird Louisiana - a bird festivals website. |
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Recent Louisiana Rarities
Crested Caracara -- 22 April 2005
Green Violet-eared Hummingbird -- 9 May 2004
Scott's Oriole -- 21 December 2003
Gray Kingbird -- 8 July 2003
Red-necked Grebes -- 19 January 2003.
Rock Wren -- 27 December 2002.
Spotted Towhee -- 22 December 2002.
Townsend's Solitaire -- 16 November 2002.
Etc.
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| GUIDELINES FOR LOS GRANT REQUESTS |
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| LA Rare Bird Alert (archives only) |
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| 100 years of CBC results -- from National Audubon Society. |
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Voices From Our Past
Stephen Russell, LOS President in 1963 and 1964, recently donated a near complete set of LOS News dating back to issue No. 17, published in November 1958. Thanks to Dr. Russell, past articles and issues of particular interest can now be posted on the LOS website.
"Birding on an Oil Production Platform" by Brent Ortego, from issue No. 78, published 15 July 1977.
"The Demise of the Brown Pelican in Louisiana" by Donald Norman and Robert D. Purrington, from issue No. 55, published 15 August 1970.
"The Louisiana State List" by George H. Lowery, Jr., issue No.56, published 30 October 1970.
"The Big Gulf Watch" by Robert J. Newman, issue No.33, published 05 June 1963.
"The Nesting of Cliff Swallows" by Marshall B. Eyster, issue No. 90, published 01 October 1980.
"The LOS Yard Lists, 1991" by John Sevenair, from issue No. 146, published 02 April 1992.
A Late Fall Pelagic Bird Survey off Western Louisiana, Part II by Steven W. Cardiff, from issue No. 146, published 02 April 1992.
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| click image for high resolution version |
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| NOAA Hurricane Satellite -- shows conditions in Yucatan and Central America |
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| Satellite Image of Gulf of Mexico |
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| New Orleans Nexrad
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| Lake Charles Nexrad
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| Gulf of Mexico Rain Image |
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Gulf of Mexico Radar Summary Image
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| More Weather Links |
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 Spain 2003 -- video captures by Mark Swan. |
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 Costa Rica 2002 -- photos from Costa Rica by David J. L'Hoste. |
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 Ecuador 2001 -- photos from Galapagos Islands and Ecuador by David J. L'Hoste. |
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 -- Birds of Puerto Rico
by Mark Swan. |
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