The Wondrous Water Ouzel
By Terry Rich, Golden Eagle Guest Blogger
One of Idaho’s favorite birds can be seen in summer while camping, backpacking, fly fishing, floating or doing anything in or near our many wonderful mountain streams and rivers. That is the water ouzel, more properly known as the American Dipper.
I love the scientific name of this bird – Cinclus mexicanus – because one immediately wonders, say what? Mexicanus? The species was described in 1827 by the English zoologist William Swainson (Swainson’s hawk, Swainson’s thrush, among many others), and the first bird was collected was from Temascaltepec de González in Mexico. This is a mountainous region west southwest of Mexico City. I would love to go there. I know the people are friendly and the food is awesome. Sounds like a great excuse for a birding trip!
Swimming Songbird
The dipper is an amazing bird because it lives by eating food found underwater. Only a few species of landbirds have evolved to live in the space between land and water. There are five species of dippers, and they occur in both hemispheres. But no matter their particular range or plumage, they all share some basic attributes. These include thick, uniform feathering, with no naked skin between feather tracts as in other passerines. This evolved trait reduces risks of hypothermia from the water coming down from the melting snow above them. They also have a large oil gland for waterproofing their feathers.
American Dipper by Ceredig Roberts
Dippers also have flaps over their nostrils, as do many species of diving marine mammals. This is another great example of convergent evolution. That is where very different species evolve the same features because they live in the same environments.
Dippers never move far from streams. They move downstream to open waters if winter conditions are especially harsh up higher. Like many bird species, they only go as far south or as far downslope as they have to. Many bird species will be found here and there, sooner or later. But dippers are hard core. No water? No thanks.
Watching dippers forage in tumbling mountain streams is a real joy. You may have noticed they don’t like slack water. If there aren’t rocks and boulders, whitewater waves and torrents, they aren’t interested. Their preferred food only exists in high-quality, highly oxygenated water. If you see carp or bass, you won’t see dippers.
Dippers obtain their underwater food by reaching down into the stream from a rock and by literally walking under water. They extend their wings so, while facing upstream, the water pressure pushes them down to the bottom – as far as 20 feet down! They can then look around for a variety of aquatic larvae attached to rocks. These include caddisflies, stoneflies, mayflies, and any other benthic invertebrates. They can also catch small fish.
American Dipper by Ken Miracle
The larvae of caddisflies build little protective cases around them, constructed of sand grains, little rocks, and bits of bark, or other organic debris, depending on the species. Dippers will grab them and seek to dislodge the unfortunate residents by pounding the case on rocks. But sometimes they can’t get them clean and have to swallow a bit of the less-than-delicious coatings.
Dippers build nests that are little caves constructed of vegetation such as lichens, moss, grass, and leaves. Nests are placed in spots safe from predators, including under cliffs, behind waterfalls, under rock piles, among roots, in hollow tree stumps, and under overhanging dirt banks. They also use bridges and other manmade structures on or in the water as long as they are inaccessible to predators. Dipper nests blend in well with the surrounding stream-side environment.
Sweet and Cheery Song
While the aquatic skills of the America dipper are well appreciated, their loud melodious songs don’t get the respect they deserve. They are elaborate melodies sung loud enough to carry over the perfect white noise of white water. Their songs have a quality and diversity that has been compared to the northern mockingbird. If you hear fluting notes coming from the stream, it’s a dipper.
John Muir (1898) wrote, “Among all the mountain birds, none has cheered me so much in my lonely wanderings, -- none so unfailingly. For both in winter and summer he sings, sweetly, cheerily, independent alike of sunshine and of love, requiring no other inspiration than the stream on which he dwells. While water sings, so must he, in heat or cold, calm or storm, ever attuning his voice in sure accord; low in the drought of summer and the drought of winter, but never silent.”
Nathan Pieplow (2019) writes, “Even those who have known dippers for quite a while can be taken aback by the beauty and complexity of their songs …” He goes on to say that the dipper repertoire has not been studied but that “… individuals seem to have at least 8 stereotyped phrases of 1-5 consecutive series or notes, which are then recombined into longer songs.” Even a casual observer could listen for this sort of pattern.
American Dipper by Ceredig Roberts
White-capped Dipper by Ryan A Candee
The four other species of dippers in the world occur mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. The exception is the white-capped dipper, which lives throughout the Andes of South America. But no matter where you are on earth, when you see a plump little bird perched on a boulder in the midst of a torrent, there’s little doubt what it is.
I named this piece using one of the colloquial names for the species. I find the name “ouzel” to be evocative of mossy understories, cool forest enclaves, and fairies. The word is from the Old English, ōsle, and the Middle English, ousel. Despite my mystical inclinations, these words mean simply, “blackbird.”
So, it was originally viewed as simply a blackbird in the water. That obviously sells this amazing species far short. I prefer Muir’s view, “He is the mountain streams' own darling, the humming-bird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows.”
You can reach Terry at terryrichbrd@gmail.com.
Where to look for the American Dipper
Free-flowing sections of the South Fork Boise River, including below Anderson Ranch Reservoir. Mores Creek - try the Daggett Creek Bridge or Grayback Gulch Campground. The South Fork of the Payette - try the boat put-ins downstream of the Middle Fork. Wood River - try the pedestrian bridge at Lake Creek.