Father, son join forces to solve a high-flying mystery in Andes

NORWICH, Vt. - It's a surprise to learn that the white-winged Diuca finch nests directly on glacial ice in the high Andes. The first research detailing the small bird's frigid breeding habits was recently published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

An even bigger surprise is the academic affiliation of one of the two authors of the scientific paper. Rather than the usual prestigious university, it's the Marion W. Cross Elementary School in this picturesque town on the Connecticut River.

Spencer P. Hardy, now 14, had yet to enter sixth grade when he joined forces with his father, Douglas R. Hardy - a climatologist with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst - to solve the mystery of bird nests on Peru's forbidding Quelccaya Ice Cap.

"There shouldn't have been bird nests there," said Spencer. "The elevation was too high, the environment too harsh, the habitat too extreme. Also, as far as anyone knew, only Emperor Penguins nest right on ice."

And yet on repeated scientific expeditions to the wind-blasted glacier, which lies at a lung-busting elevation of 18,600 feet, the elder Hardy kept stumbling across the nests, curious fabrications of grass and twigs.

Hardy, a glacier specialist with the UMass Climate System Research Center, is studying the dramatic shrinkage of the Quelccaya ice, a possible symptom of global warming. He'd worked on glaciers around the world and had never seen glacial birds nests. He couldn't link the nests to any particular bird; frozen water is his forte, not feathery creatures.

So he turned to a real expert - his then 11-year-old son.

"From the time Spencer was old enough to sit in a high chair, he's been captivated by birds," the older Hardy said. "His passion to figure out these improbable nests got me really motivated, as well."

Starting in 2005, they forged an informal father-son team.

The elder Hardy, 51, took digital photographs of whatever birds he encountered from June to August, when he works on the Quelccaya. He also shot close-ups of the supposed nests, most located in the "margin," or crumbling portion, of the retreating ice.

Back in Vermont, Spencer pored over the images and compared them to illustrations in library books about Andean birds. From a dozen or so contending species, Spencer narrowed the field of possible ice nest builders to two prime candidates: the white-fronted ground-tyrant - a variety of South American flycatcher - and the white-winged Diuca finch, a perching bird that feeds on seeds. These birds were generally right in size and habit, and frequently seen on the glacier's edges.

The nests themselves were roughly tapered, with the widest section at the bottom, and woven in such a way that the "cup" is 10 inches off the ice surface - perhaps giving some extra insulation for chicks.

In 2006, Hardy found 14 fragmentary nests; in 2007, he located 16. Most seem to have fallen off the lip of the glacier as the ice shrank. He also collected feathers, fragments of shell, and other evidence.

Finally, in 2008, Hardy discovered intact nests on the glacial surface itself, including one that contained abandoned eggs.

Meanwhile, repeated observations of Diuca finches in proximity to the nests pointed to that species as the nester. The Smithsonian Institution's Carla Dove - a scientist who studies feathers extracted from the engines of jet planes - identified tail feathers found in or near the nests as belonging to the high-flying finch. That pretty much cinched the case.

"We've documented nesting in a really extreme environment," said Spencer. "This must be close to the climatological and physiological limits where birds can live and breed."

The next step: Figuring out why the Diuca finch builds its nests and rears its young in such an inhospitable zone. One possibility is that the frozen surface of a glacier offers protection from predators. Spencer is now a freshman at Hanover High School in New Hampshire. He's a seasoned amateur birdwatcher with some 500 species on his "life list." He's scrutinized birds across New England as well as in California, Texas, and Puerto Rico.

He hopes to someday accompany his father to peaks in South America for a real-life look at the Diuca finch. Meanwhile, he's writing a section on cliff swallows for an official atlas of birds that breed in Vermont.

"You can discover extraordinary behavior in a species high in the Peruvian Andes, sure," Spencer said. "But keep a sharp lookout, and you can go out into your own backyard and find something [about a bird] that's unique. That's the real thrill with birds."

Colin Nickerson can be reached at nickerson.colin@gmail.com