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From a trip to the Galapagos (and on the bird wall) I am fond of the Blue-footed Booby, a sea bird. They are really beautiful and easy to get fairly close to on the islands as there are no predators. I understand they engage in biparental parenting.
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I also had an opportunity to see the Blue footed booby. It was so exhilarating to see this storied bird and to be that special place. Their peaceful behavior was a wonder because they have no fear of humans. They could actually be a bit of a nuisance if you want to walk where they are!
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Activity 1: My favourite birds that I discovered on the Wall of Birds are the Great Blue Heron and the Black-necked stilt. The heron stirs up memories from my childhood when I went on a field trip to the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve in Chilliwack, B.C. These birds are majestic. As for the stilt, I love its long legs, which really do make it look like it's walking on stilts! Activity 2: The three birds I have selected are ones I have seen in my own backyard. One is most definitely a woodpecker. I think it is either a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker. The second one is a Northern Cardinal, which is part of the finch/bunting family (songbird), as I learned in this lesson. The third bird is a seagull, which I often spot flying high overhead. I can't get a close enough look to identify what type of seagull it is. I believe this belongs to the seabirds group. Activity 3: My favourite bird from my neighbourhood is the Northern Cardinal. I love the bright red plumage of the male. It was also one of the favourites of my grandfather who passed last year. Seeing the cardinal is a reminder of him.
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Close to the Huron River in Michigan, we see Great Blue Herons, mainly in Spring, Summer and Fall. This past Sunday one was wading in a small body of water at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, one of the natural areas curated by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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You must live on the east coast. I sure do miss the colorful song birds back there. I live in Washington State now. The trees are tall and bushy and it’s hard to see what bird is singing in them.
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Hello All, I’m new to birding and right now I’m limited to feeder watching in my own yard. I try to do two sightings a day, one in the morning and one in late afternoon and submit the sightings via eBird. I can identify 12 species accurately with one exception... I’m not skilled yet in identifying the females of these species. I like to be more detailed in my descriptions by including gender in my reports. Sigh! Any suggestions would be appreciated! Jimmy
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Hi Jimmy, welcome to birding! Identifying female birds can be quite tricky. In some species, the male and female look alike so you don’t know which sex you’re looking at. With few exceptions, generally females are duller in color than males and may look quite different. Most incubation is done by females, so they then to be more cryptically colored. Here are some examples of how females differ from males in some common backyard birds. I live in the western US so most of my examples are from there. Female robins are very similar to male robins but not as brightly colored. Female house finches and most woodpeckers lack the red patches found on males. Female red-winged blackbirds are striped and can be mistaken for sparrows at first glance, but they are much larger. Female ducks are usually mottled brown and often are identified by which type of male they hang out with. Male and female doves look alike, but differ slightly in size, with the males being larger. With hawks and owls, the reverse is true in that the females are larger. Females and males of most hawks look alike. One exception is the northern harrier; males are gray and females are brown. Hope that helps. A good field guide can help you with identifying females. I prefer the Sibley guide and back it up with the National Geographic guide.
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Around my area, there are so many varieties of birds, especially woodpeckers! The most common one thatI saw was the Pileated Woodpecker. They always find their way to the trees in my backyard. I've also been spotting many bluebirds around here, and I think it may be a Moutain Bluebird. There are many songbirds around here that sing all day although I'm not exactly sure what type of songbirds they are. The chirps are so beautiful and cheery!
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For activity 1, there were so many amazing birds that I can't even begin to list them. I'd been seeing a Pine Warbler on my feeder for awhile, though not for the past week, I think it has flown on. There is a House Wren building a nest in our bird box. Just yesterday I saw an unsual light brown bird, it may have been a juvenile Brown-Headed Cowbird but I'm not sure I also can't pick a favorite bird in my neighborhood, but I have been taking some pictures, like this one of a White-Breasted Nuthatch
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Here is a Pileated woodpecker. The sound is so unique it is fun to try and track them when you hear the sound far off in the distance. There are a number of different woodpeckers I've been able to find locally (Rye, NY) including pileated, downy, red-bellied and northern flicker.
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The bird wall is absolutely amazing! I could explore it all day! It is hard to pick my favorite birds but I really love the Bird s of Paradise for their magnificent displays! Then I love the Bower birds for best building & displays as well! So I am really glad those birds were highlighted! I also loved that the mural incorporated the early birds from fossil evidence. I have been researching about these fossils & I would love to see on th e fossil history of birds! So thankful for the artist that created this walk if birds! A true genius! Than You!
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This was a terrific look at the groups of birds I like to watch. It had never crossed my mind that juncos are a type of sparrow. Of course! The Wall of Birds is beautiful. What a fantastic interactive. I will share with my students on zoom, who have yet to awaken to the awesome diversity of birds. Thank you Ms. Kim - I'll be back to travel the world of birds. Hmmm...my favorite neighbourhood bird? Hard to say as I love them all, at different times of the year. In winter, I look for the harlequin ducks to come back from their lakeside cottages. They are so beautiful. I get a kick out of oystercatchers - they're clownish and squeaky. In the spring, I do my best to glimpse a rufous - I know they won't be in BC for long and they're exquisite. Come summer, I feel happy if I spot a brown creeper or a nuthatch scooching up a tree. Their distinctive calls are the only way I can find them. Once they give themselves away, out come the binoculars. Loving this course! Thank you.
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Ditto on the junco being a sparrow! So interesting to learn. Thinking about the categories of birds already makes my bird watching more enjoyable. I see ducks and geese, robins, chickadees and nuthatches in my neighborhood. I think the black capped chickadee is my favorite. I watch them at the bird feeder on the window all year round and they make me appreciate the tenacity and beauty of life.
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One of my favorites is the Black-capped Chickadee. They're universally considered "super cute" (that's the scientific term) and have curious personalities. They're one of the first birds to come to a new feeder and easy to identify by sound even for new birders with their fee-bee song or the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" alarm call. What's not to like?
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Today I observed a variety of songbirds and waterfowl on the Charles River near my house: swan, mallard, robins, dove, and even a red winged blackbird from a distance. Used Merlin to identify this little guy as a common grackler, who got pretty close. You can't see it but the head was a brilliant blue!
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Well sometimes the favorite bird is the one close at hand. House Finches made a nest on the Easter Wreath on the front door. What fun it was to watch them grow and fledge.
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Fun!
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I'm too slow for bird photography! But I've been making friends with a Grey Catbird who lives in my backyard. I think it watches me as much I watch it! It seems to be pretty bold and isnt' afraid to perch close to get an eyeful. Catbirds are...Flycatchers? Or Treecreepers? My catbird clings to the side of one of my tree hydrangeas. Maybe the answer is Other?? I think it's Other. I also have a pair of Northern Cardinals that have such gorgeoush colors. Cardinals are in the Finch/Bunting. group. And my yard borders on a wetland, so I frequently heard Red-Winged Blackbirds calling. They are, of course, in the Blackbird group, and one of the only birds I can reliably ID by sound right now because of their distinctive song.
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Activity 3: I like to go to the beach with my camera to photograph birds. This is one of my personal favorites I took of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) with a fish in it's talons. This is one of my favorite birds because I find it very interesting how they can spot a fish from so high up and then successfully capture it.
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Activity 1: I chose the Common Loon for its haunting sound, good looks, and for being on the Canadian dollar coin, nicknamed a "Loonie." Activity 2: From three different groups, I saw the following birds in my immediate neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada: -Northwestern Crow (Songbirds), Northern Flicker (Woodpeckers). And I heard an American Eagle (Raptors). Activity 3: My favourite local bird is the black-capped chickadee because of its beautiful song "fee-bee." I heard it for years and didn't know its source till I stumbled upon a website and heard it: https://nature-mentor.com/chickadee-calls-explained/ The other day I heard it and looked for it and found it! It made me realize how important it is to learn to identify birds by ear since often you can't see them.
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Yes, the loon! We recently went on a short canoe trail with my toddler and there was a pair on nearly every lake and still they made me pause. So beautiful.
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One of my favorites that I commonly see in my neighborhood though, are Lesser Goldfinches. I love their machine gun songs and it's been nice having them as a permanent resident in the greenery of my complex. Here's a few photos I've taken:
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A bird I've captured quite a few times near me, and probably my absolute favorite shorebird, is Killdeer. It's such a joy to hear the high pitched chirping on occasion when I visit nearby shorelines. The black and white stripes are so adorable! Here is an adult w/ an immature that I saw recently:
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Here I captured a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole with a red "necklace." Absolutely stunning! Next picture, I have a group of mallards waddling along on a stormy day. Here I have a male, a white domesticated mallard, and what appears to be a hybrid of the two. Any opinion on the identification of the mallards?
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My son liked this Killdeer the most on our most recent trip. Way in the back is a black bellied whistling duck, rare for Milwaukee WI.
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I've been enjoying watching Great Blue Herons form a new colony at the urban ponds not far from our house. I think they are currently sitting on eggs! This was historically a sewage treatment catchment area that got re-puposed and rehabbed into wildlife habitat in urban Seattle. It attracts waterfowl, marsh birds and of course birders, who are always fun to talk to and willing to share their knowlege.
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This guy in backyard yesterday. Waxwing not sure if cedar or bohemian
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Definitely Cedar!
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I have always enjoyed looking for and listening to birds but I am just learning more about identification. This past year I have been trying to identify the birds I have seen on our property which includes open meadows, a forested area and a stream. Some of the favorite birds I have observed include wild turkeys, a great blue heron, and great horned owls. Two of my favorite songbirds that I have observed are the scarlet tanager and the Baltimore oriole.
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Above is on Osprey taking lunch back to the perch. Captured photo on Florida Gulf Coast.
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My current favorite is a barred owl. This pic is a barred owlet in my back yard. It's been fun watching this little one and its sibling bumble around and discover the world. I also enjoy watching the parents hunt and deliver prey for the babies.
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I hear barred owls in my neighborhood but I haven't spotted them yet. One of the things I like about FB birding is knowing to look for species when they are local. Other people mention what they have seen and heard and that helps me locate things.
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Well sometimes the favorite bird is the one close at hand. House Finches made a nest on the Easter Wreath on the front door. What fun it was to watch them grow and fledge.
Here I captured a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole with a red "necklace." Absolutely stunning! Next picture, I have a group of mallards waddling along on a stormy day. Here I have a male, a white domesticated mallard, and what appears to be a hybrid of the two. Any opinion on the identification of the mallards?
This guy in backyard yesterday. Waxwing not sure if cedar or bohemian
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