{"id":232,"date":"2017-11-03T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/?p=232"},"modified":"2017-11-03T17:31:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T17:31:32","slug":"a-dip-into-the-life-of-the-american-dipper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/2017\/11\/03\/a-dip-into-the-life-of-the-american-dipper\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dip Into the Life of the American dipper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_890\" style=\"width: 364px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mikewiz\/6265157034\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-890\" class=\"wp-image-890\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/dipper1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"354\" height=\"257\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An American Dipper perches between two rocks.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The<strong> American Dipper<\/strong> (<em>Cinclus mexicanus<\/em>) is a curious species of songbird, it manages to catch the attention of many humans (myself included) even without an eye for birding. I first stumbled upon the dipper at the Nanaimo River on a warm summer evening, its charming song and hilarious in-stream antics provided a good source of entertainment during my visit. The Dipper is aptly named as it bobs up and down searching for food along stream-beds as seen below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HyFEbuy8RUg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is &#8220;North America&#8217;s only truly aquatic passerine,&#8221; (the Order containing perching birds). It mainly lives in stream habitats,\u00a0but has also been found in lakes and seaside.\u00a0Its year-round\u00a0range extends from Alaska all the way to Panama, on the Western half of North America\u00a0 (<a href=\"https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction\">Kingery and Wilson, 2011<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Adult Dippers are gray stocky birds, with long legs and short wings and tail. They are fairly small, ranging from 43-67 grams (about the weight of two AA batteries), and about 14-20 cm long. The males and females of this species are indistinguishable, and the young are similar in appearance, making them easy to identify at all stages of their lives. More like waterfowl than other songbirds, the American Dipper molts its wing and tail feathers simultaneously, leaving it flightless for a period of time. (<a href=\"https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction\">Kingery and Wilson, 2011<\/a>) The oldest recorded American dipper was at least 8 years old (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwrc.usgs.gov\/bbl\/longevity\/longevity_main.cfm\">Longevity Records of North American Birds, 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_891\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdnote.org\/photo\/2014\/02\/american-dipper-fry\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-891\" class=\"wp-image-891 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/dipper2-300x243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/dipper2-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/dipper2.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-891\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An American Dipper fishing in a stream.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>American Dippers eat a multitude of critters, but the main portion of their diet is made up of aquatic insects including caddisflies, mayflies, beetles and mosquitos. They have also been known to eat worms, snails, small fish and fish eggs, essentially anything found in or around their river habitat (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/field-guide\/bird\/american-dipper\">Kaufman<\/a>). Their eating behaviours are a major part of what makes them unique, as mentioned before, they are the only true aquatic perching-bird in North America, this means that they dive and swim in order to catch a large portion of their food. They not only survive, but thrive in the rough currents, rapids, and rocky terrain of fast flowing streams. During the winter, the cold mountain water is no match for the dippers\u2019 many feathers, their ability to carry extra oxygen in their blood, and their slow metabolism (<a href=\"https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction\">Kingery and Wilson, 2011<\/a>).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_886\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marysrosaries.com\/collaboration\/index.php?title=File:American_Dipper_at_Nest.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-886\" class=\"wp-image-886 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/800px-American_Dipper_at_Nest-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/800px-American_Dipper_at_Nest-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/800px-American_Dipper_at_Nest-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/files\/2017\/11\/800px-American_Dipper_at_Nest.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-886\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An American Dipper peaking into its nest.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The American Dipper builds its nest up high in locations safe from predators, and flooding. Due to the nature of its habitat (rivers), this often means nests are built on cliff banks and in rocks and roots up above deep parts of the stream; In populated areas they are often built under bridges. The dippers are cooperative, and both males and females contribute to nest building. Their nests are sphere-shaped and are composed of two layers, an outer shell of moss and an inner chamber of grasses, leaves and bark. Each component of the nest is in water before being used and once complete, the inside of the nest is kept dry by the grass, while the moss absorbs and transports water to the exterior of the nest. (<a href=\"https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction\">Kingery and Wilson, 2011<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the migration habits and the effects of stream-borne chemicals on the American Dipper, please see my <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/?p=884&amp;preview=true\">second post\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>Kaufman, K. Adapted from Lives of North American Birds.\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, serif;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">Guide to North American Birds: American Dipper.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 20px\">Audubon. Retrieved October 25, 2017:\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 20px\" href=\"http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/field-guide\/bird\/american-dipper\">\u00a0http:\/\/www.audubon.org\/field-guide\/bird\/american-dipper<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kingery, H., and Wilson, M.\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, serif;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">Birds of North America: American Dipper.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 20px\">The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2011. Retrieved on October 27, 2017:\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 20px\" href=\"https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction\">https:\/\/birdsna.org\/Species-Account\/bna\/species\/amedip\/introduction<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, serif;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">Longevity Records of North American birds.\u00a0<\/span>U.S. Geological Survey. 2017.\u00a0 Retrieved on Oct 30, 2017: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwrc.usgs.gov\/bbl\/longevity\/longevity_main.cfm\">https:\/\/www.pwrc.usgs.gov\/bbl\/longevity\/longevity_main.cfm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) is a curious species of songbird, it manages to catch the attention of many humans (myself included) even without an eye for birding. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":569,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-contributions-from-2017","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/569"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":948,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}