"River Song" - American Dipper - Greeting Card

On the mossy banks of a glacier-fed river a small inconspicuous songbird perches on a rock surrounded by the strong current of cold water. This gray-brown bird bobs up and down almost compulsively, its movement breaking up its otherwise perfect camouflage with the muted colors of the riparian landscape.

The American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) is the only songbird in North America adapted to a life on (and in) the water. They do not migrate and they hunt in strong near-freezing torrents during all seasons, able to survive the cold thanks in part to extra oily feathers. Their nests are virtually invisible clumps of moss on river banks, tucked up above the water line. They are resilience embodied, withstanding some of the harshest extremes of any bird in our region.

Fun fact: dippers have bright white eyelids which is thought to help them better communicate with one another over the roar of rushing water. You won't hear them song quite as often as many other songbirds but when they do it is a beautiful melancholic trill that is the song of the river itself.

I am fortunate enough to get to see these birds just about every time in at a river. They typically stay on rocks on the middle of the current or along the edge of the far bank, bobbing up and down as they hunt or diving into the water to catch invertebrates and fish or flying low over the water using the treeless river as a highway.