( notable neighbors -- eric hughes aka the bird kid )

notable neighbors -- eric hughes aka the bird kid
by jennifer hetrick

east coventry resident eric hughes, who is only 11-years-old, let his vision soar upward at the age of four, and since then, has sighted an estimated 200 sky-set winged ones.

before even starting kindergarten, he knew that he wanted to be an ornithologist someday.

with those who call themselves birders, a common goal for sightings is 500 birds in a lifetime, which means hughes is quite ahead of the game, given his age.

hughes is a sixth grader at east coventry elementary school in the owen j. roberts school district, where he is known by his fellow students as the bird kid, with his own website by the same name at www.birdkid.com.

 “almost every day, i would page through the golden book of birds,” hughes said about himself when he was four-years-old, just beginning to take an interest in birds. “i even marked which ones i liked the most.”

back then, a mallard duck had left eggs under a shrub in his parents’ yard. the following year, hughes asked his parents why the duck and her babies hadn’t come back to nest again. this curiosity propelled hughes into his admiration for birds—only growing stronger in him each year. 

as the creator of his own birdfeeder called the cinco 5000, the magazine birds & blooms featured hughes and his invention in its june – july 2008 issue. the feeder holds compartments for four different types of food to attract a variety of birds. 

“morning doves and house finches especially like it,” hughes said about the birdfeeder. 

earlier this year, hughes participated in the great backyard bird count with its sponsors as the cornell lab of ornithology, the national audubon society, and bird studies canada. hughes joined birders of all ages across the globe in collecting data about bird sightings within a short period of days, all from their backyards.

hughes has collected more than 150 audubon plush birds and will probably gain more as new ones are released.

the expanse of his parents’ property includes three bird gardens and others which are incorporated with the woods and their house. 

a japanese kousa dogwood tree is planted in the yard, as birds enjoy its berries. but hughes and his parents try to stick to mostly native trees and plants to lure in birds.

this spring, hughes glimpsed a white crowned sparrow, which he said is more rare compared to the often sighted white throated sparrow.

in recent weeks, hughes spotted a cliff swallow for the first time while visiting lake ontelaunee, noting that it nests under the bridge at route 73. 

two years ago, hughes enrolled in an ornithology class offered by cornell university. students are free to move at their own pace in the coursework, and by now, hughes has finished four chapters in the cornell lab of ornithology handbook of bird biology.
 

each chapter is 100 – 200 pages long, with an open-book test to accompany it. the final answers can be submitted through mail or online for rapid results, hughes explained.
 

the first four chapters follow an introduction to birds, a guide to birdwatching, the external bird, and the anatomy and physiology of birds. on the tests, hughes’ average is 98.6%. the book totals around 1,000 pages.
 

“it gives me a lot of information so i can understand birds better,” hughes elaborated about why he likes this course so much, with its recommended age level of students being 15 and up.
 

“you can see them almost anywhere, at any time, they have extraordinary colors, and they’re the only living thing with feathers,” hughes beamed about why he loves studying birds, feeling that he was destined to follow them.

( a baltimore oriole photographed by eric hughes. )

(  a black crowned night heron photographed by eric hughes. )

(an eastern kingbird photographed eric hughes. )

hughes’ all-time favorite bird is the andean cock-of-the-rock, which is the national bird of peru—a place he hopes to travel to eventually.

“it has an abnormal tuft of feathers,” hughes noted. “blue jays and cardinals have their crests going from the middle of their heads and back, but the cock-of-the-rock has it in the middle of its head, down to the top of its beak as a half circle.”

hughes described its coloring as orange, pearly grey, and black.

choosing his favorite birdsong, hughes pinpointed that of the song sparrow, having recognized its call when he was young, but not learning until later which bird vocalized the tune. to hughes, the song always let him know spring was just around the corner.

his second choice for a beloved birdsong is that of the gray catbird. as would seem perhaps obvious, its music sounds much like a meow.

“the northern mockingbird can sing the call of different species,” hughes said, “and the smallest bird is the bee hummingbird—it lives in cuba and is less than three inches tall.”
 
on hughes’ bucket list is the aspiration to see every bird ever in his lifetime.

“if you are having problems with squirrels getting at your seed, and you don't know a good alternative, try safflower seed,” hughes suggested as advice to those losing birdseed to tiny but fast-sprawling mammals. “the squirrels don't seem to go after it, but the birds still love it.”

hughes recently acquired his own camera, a canon powershot sx10 is. with it, he plans to of course photograph more birds, then adding the new supply to his website.

“i can really study them through the pictures and see what they’re like,” hughes said.

to those who have never dabbled in the ways of birding, hughes said, “go outside and sit back in the woods somewhere where it’s undisturbed, be quiet, and watch what happens around you—then you’ll see why i like birds so much.”