Sara

Birds matter to me in that I have always loved nature and wildlife but only recently started paying more attention to birds after trips to Belize and Egypt when I saw very strange looking birds, I enjoy making lists and submitting them to cornell for science as my first BS was in Geology and it reminds me of things I used to like doing. I already reduce my single use plastics, have for quite sometime especially as I have travelled to many countries and see the appalling usage of plastic water bottle scattered around because of tourists, currently I am in an apartment but one day I will have a piece of property and it will most definitely be a certified habitat, and not only because I am allergic to grass pollen and hate lawns haha

1. An area where I go birding is an island in a river, it has woodland areas where I see kinglets, chickadees, in some sections Ive seen waxwings and flickers, then when you round the trail it opens up on a beach where Ive seen wintering sandhill cranes, geese, cormorants, and plovers. 2. While there are some birds in both locations in Arizona, like kinglets and finches, there appear to be zero water birds in the Mt. Lemmon area leading me to believe that this area is more forested or lowland forest like, where as the Roger Road obviously has some water near by for their to be so many waterfowl sighted, it does not appear there is water at this location in summer just in the winter months.

1. Northern Cardinal does not appear to really migrate and is in the eastern side of the country year round whereas the blackburnian warbler migrates up and down that same area only hitting the main cardinal range during migrant season. The Scarlet and Western Tanagers pretty much split the country in half only staying on there sides in the US and same in central and South America with a little overlap. The ruby throated hummingbird sticks to the eastern US and Mexico and C.A, while the rufous goes up the very west coast and down over the mountains on the west and stays west in Mexico as well. The Sandhill Crane appears to migrate sort of all over the place but not the east coast and not really past Texas and Florida, whereas the yellow bellied flycatcher is only the eastern part of the US. 2. Three species that are in my area that I see year round are the scrub jay, the song sparrow, which I see constantly, and the Great Blue Heron. It says the Oregon Junco is year round but I really only ever see it in the Winter. Three birds that are seasonal are the cackling goose, the sandhill crane, and the ruby-crowned kinglet all of which I saw this fall, for the first time. 3. Both the American Goldfinch and Common Loon have much more vibrant plumage in the the summer compared to the winter, I hate to say it but their winter plumages are quite drab in comparison and also explains why when a guide pointed out a Loon this winter I was like, meh, I would not have guessed that from the pics on Merlin, makes sense now why all the cool patterns and dark heads weren't there haha. 4. At my favorite local birding place it looks like I should be able to find an orange-crowned warbler, a Nashville warbler, and a Lazuli bunting none of which I have seen before.  

1. Two birds I can confidently tell apart by shape now are the Scrub Jay and the Stellars Jay, the latter of which has a plume and a not as big of a head as the Scrub, who's tale is also rather blunt. The color also gives them away:) 2. Three birds with the same colors in different patterns that I am getting used to are the Black-Capped chickadee, whose black head and chin are very thick, the White Breasted Nuthatch who has a black mohawk and white chin, and the Red-Breasted Nuthatch who has a white eyebrow between a larger black cap than the White-breasted, and all 3 sometimes have buff brown in their underbellies. 3. Juncos feed on the ground, as well as Mourning Doves, especially near feeders, and Nuthatches tend to feed upside down, and at feeders finches tend to feed upright and are really messy. 4. My favorite bird right now would have to be the Oregon Junco, as it was my first real ID and they are back now in my neighborhood, they have a beautiful dark head with a black eye, a pinkish bill, a chestnut colored back, and a buff belly, they would come to my feeder and flick the food on the ground then hop down to eat it, when I finally looked down I noticed many Juncos hopping around on the ground eating, hopping to and from small branches in the bushes outside, and now when I go to birding areas I see them fly up from the ground as I get closer. They make kind of a chip noise that is very regular and long rapid trills that I am starting to recognize by ear now.