Sharp-shinned Hawk

Scientific Name: Accipiter striatus

Population Estimate: Unknown, but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in forested areas throughout much of the United States. Summers into Canada, winters into Mexico. In winter will often be found in treed urban areas.

Field Notes: Small, long-tailed hawks with relatively small heads. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Cooper's Hawk similar in range and coloration, but larger.

Personal Notes: Great find, and photo, by Richard in Burlington, Vermont on a cold December day.

Tufted Titmouse

Scientific Name: Baeolophus bicolor

Range / Habitat: Year-round in lowland, mature deciduous and mixed woods of the eastern United States.

Field Notes: Large, short-crested and long-tailed tit. Grey upperparts, white underparts including check. Rufous flanks. Large, black, beady eye.

Personal Notes: A wonderful find on a wonderful day with friends in New Hampshire. We had a picture for years from Minnesota that we debated about being a Tufted Titmouse. This time we were sure! We then found this bird at the far western edge of his range, in Fontenelle Forest in Omaha, Nebraska.

Great Northern Diver

Scientific Name: Gavia immer

Population Estimate: 600-650K, Least Concern status.

Range / Habitat: Breeds in tundra wetlands and freshwater lakes of much of Canada and Alaska, southern parts of Greenland, and Iceland. Winters on sea coasts or on larger lakes from Atlantic coast of Europe, to the western Mediterranean, Atlantic coast of North America down to northern Mexico, and Pacific coast of North America down to northern Mexico.

Field Notes: Large waterbird with long body that slopes to rear and sits low on water. Long, pointed bill. Breeding plumage unmistakable as in top photo. Non-breeding and juvenile with grey head and back, white chin, throat and chest as in bottom photo. Usually solitary but will be found close together in winter. Yellow-billed Loon similar coloration but with prominent yellow bill. Pacific Loon and Red-throated Loon are overall more grey, not black.

Personal Notes: We watched a mother teaching it's young how to dive in Iceland. Also known as Great Northern Loon and Common Loon. Eerie call is hallmark of the Great North Woods. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Scientific Name: Sitta canadensis

Population Estimate: 18M

Range / Habitat: Red-breasted Nuthatches are mainly birds of coniferous woods and mountains. Look for them among spruce, fir, pine, hemlock, larch, and western red cedar as well as around aspens and poplars.

  
Field Notes: Characteristic nuthatch behavior / perch (climbing down a tree) with long, slightly upcurved bill and dark eye stripe. The Boundary Waters was southernmost area of distribution for summer for this bird as compared to White-Breasted Nuthatch. It is common throughout Minnesota in the winter. It is also much smaller than the White-Breasted Nuthatch. 

White-breasted Nuthatch

Goosander

Scientific Name: Mergus merganser

Population Estimate: 2M, Least Concern status

Range: Winters throughout much of US, excluding the Southeast. Summers throughout Canada. There is a year-round population in the western US, extending up the coast to Alaska.

Field Notes: A large, diving duck with a long, thin bill. Male breeding plumage is distinct with iridescent green / black head, white neck and sides, and black back. Females have rust-colored head and crest, white chest and brown / grey back. The white chin of the female Common Merganser can be used to differentiated it from the female Hooded Merganser or female Red-breasted Merganser. Juveniles look like females. Adult females will end up raising other broods so they form large groups in the summer.

Personal Notes: Formerly known as Common Merganser.