Black Swift

Scientific Name: Cypseloides niger

Range / Habitat: Breeds in high, rocky niches in the Caribbean and at sites near the Pacific coast of  Canada, US and Mexico. Wintering grounds unknown, but they may travel as far as South America. 

Field Notes: Large, all black, swift which may have some white fringes to underparts. 

Personal Notes: Seen in flying over Maligne Gorge in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. We later saw these marked nest sites further up the gorge. 

Franklin's Grouse

Scientific Name: Falcipennis canadensis

Range / Habitat: Year-round in boreal forests and taiga throughout Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Medium-sized fowl with heavily barred back and breast. Breeding males nearly black, as above, females lighter brown, as below. Males with white-boardered black throat and red eye combs. Ruffed Grouse larger with a crest and no red eye comb.

Personal Notes: First seen in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. These birds were not shy, often found right on the side of the road, not moving even when we stopped to photograph them. We later found the male on route to Wapta Falls in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Scientific Name: Regulus satrapa

Range / Habitat: Preferred habitat coniferous forest, year-round in the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern US. Summers in Canada into Alaska, winters throughout much of the US.

Field Notes: Very small songbird with grey to olive-green upperparts and buff underparts. Yellow to orange crown patch with black border. White eyebrow and black eye-line. Ruby-crowned Kinglet lacks eyebrow and eye-line.

Personal Notes: Seen in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Red-eyed Vireo

Scientific Name: Vireo olivaceus

Population Estimate: 140M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Lowland forest of the US and Canada, excluding the far American West, in summer. Full migrant to forests of northern and eastern South America.

Field Notes: Small drab bird with olive back and white underneath. Crown grey, eyebrow white with thin black eye stripe. Eyes dark red. Song distinctive, a series of broken, slurred phrases alternating upswing and downswing.

Personal Notes: We've probably heard and even seen this common bird before our first confirmed sighting in the Spearfish, South Dakota city park. We later found this bird in migration at the El Rey ruins in Cancun, Mexico. Then, finally, at home in Minnesota. 

Buff-bellied Pipit

Scientific Name: Anthus rubescens

Population Estimate: 20M

Range / Habitat: Prefers open, rocky areas. During summer / breeding season found in tundra of northern Canada, most of Alaska, and into a portion of the most elevated regions of the American west. In winter, migrates to the southern US and all of Mexico.

Field Notes: Slender, drab bird. Appears similar to sparrows but thinner bill and longer tail. Has habit of bobbing head like a pigeon. Pale supercilium and lateral throat stripe. Light streaking on the breast. Dark legs compared to other pipits.

Personal Notes: Fortuitous sighting at Beartooth Pass (on the Wyoming / Montana border) on the Fourth of July. Seen again at Acadia NP, ME. Also known as American Pipit.

Western Tanager

Scientific Name: Piranga ludoviciana

Population Estimate: 8.9M

Range / Habitat: Summers in montane forest of western US and Canada. Winters throughout Mexico exclusive of Yucatan.

Field Notes: Breeding male (top photo) with red head, yellow belly and rump. Otherwise black with two yellow wing bars. Female or juvenile (bottom photo) drab olive yellow on head, rump, belly. Still with black back and two yellow wing bars.

Personal Notes: We first spotted the female outside our friend Patrick's window in Puerto Vallarta. We then spotted a male in classic plumage in the courtyard of the Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City, UT. The top photo was taken en route to Rainbow Lake in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana. The light was so bright that morning, the camera had a hard time with the color!

Mountain Chickadee

Scientific Name: Poecile gambeli

Population Estimate: 12M

Range / Habitat: Year-round in dry, montane forests of the American West up to western Canada.

Field Notes: Small, active passerine with oversized round head. Striking black and white head with black neck and grey body. The white eyebrow differentiates from Black-capped Chickadee, Boreal Chickadee, and Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

Personal Notes: Chickadees are hard to photograph but we have been able to "lure" them by tapping rocks together and mimicking their call.

Canada Goose

Scientific Name: Branta canadensis

Range / Habitat: Wet environments year-round in the middle latitudes of US. Summers up through Canada and Alaska, winters extending down to souther US and parts of Mexico. Introduced in parts of Europe and New Zealand.

Field Notes: Large, noisy waterfowl with long neck and high rump profile in water. Head, neck are black with white cheek patch. Back brown, belly and rump white. Brent Goose has shorter neck and white neck ring, not cheek patch.

Personal Notes: These birds are ubiquitous in Minnesota, so much so that we never photographed them until we were about to leave. We were startled to find them in New Zealand, where introduced and much more wary than in the States.

Clark's Nutcracker

Scientific Name: Nucifraga columbiana

Population Estimate: 1M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in montane pine forests of the American West. Outside breeding season this species may wander down from its traditional altitude of 3000 - 13,000 feet (500 - 3000 meters).

Field Notes: Large grey bird with prominent black wings and tail. Its call belies its inclusion in the crow and jay family. The only similar bird in its range is the Grey Jay, whose appearance is spotty throughout the Clark's range, and who is much more demure in appearance with small bill, fuzzy black cap, and no starkly contrasting black or white on the wings or tail.

Personal Notes: We originally found this bird in the High Uintas of Utah (although the photo above was taken later in the Beartooth Mountains), outside Salt Lake City. It was the call, size, and flashes of black on grey that solidified our attention. We didn't see it crack any nuts. Later we were in Lost Creek Canyon on Deseret Ranch and came across perhaps as many as one hundred of these birds flocking together. It was an unusual sight as they are usually quite solitary birds. 

Black-billed Magpie

Scientific Name: Pica hudsonia

Population Estimate: 30M - 100M, including both Pica pica and Pica hudsonia

Range / Habitat: Year-round in a variety of habitats throughout the American West, northwest Canada and up into Alaska. 

Field Notes: Large songbird with long tail. Shiny black head, tail, and back. White belly and wing patches. Deep blue on the wings as well.

Personal Notes: Striking, if common, bird of the American West. Some sources consider this bird the same species as Pica pica, which is found throughout Europe, much of Asia, and northwest Africa

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Scientific Name: Dendroica coronata

Population Estimate: 130M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Summers in western US, most of Canada, and Alaska. Winters in southern US, Mexico and Central America. Preferred habitat is temperate forest.

Field Notes: Full-bodied black, white, and grey warbler. Characteristic yellow forehead, chin, armpits and rump (the latter seen only in flight). There are plenty of other similarly colored warblers but none with this particular distribution of yellow.

Personal Notes: This species has distinct regional morphs: the Myrtle (top) is predominantly Eastern U.S., while the Audobon's (bottom) is overwhelmingly Western

Western Osprey

Scientific Name: Pandion haliaetus

Population Estimate: 500K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Migrant throughout much of the US. It winters primarily in South America and breeds in the northern US and Canada. Found around nearly any type of body of water.

Field Notes: Large raptor with black back and white chest. Wings a distinctive "M" shape in flight. Feathers cover the legs. Dark eye stripe on white head. Stick nests place conspicuously in open areas.

Personal Notes: Above photo taken in Amery, Wisconsin on a job interview. 

American Crow

Scientific Name: Corvus brachyrhynchos

Population Estimate: 31M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in fields, open woodlands, and forests -- as well as areas inhabited by people -- throughout the US. In summer they extend up into Canada. 

Field Notes: Large, all-black birds with harsh, cawing voices. Nearly identical to Northwestern Crow and Fish Crow. Common Ravens are larger with longer wings, heavier bills, and shaggy neck feathers. 

Personal Notes:

Common Raven

Scientific Name: Corvus corax

Population Estimate: 16M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Extreme habitat generalist, found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Field Notes: Large, all-black passerine with shaggy throat feathers. In flight, ravens have long, wedge-shaped tails.

Personal Notes: It's easy to see why this is such a bird of lore.

Pine Siskin

Scientific Name: Carduelis Pinus

Population Estimate: 8M

Range / Habitat: The range of the pine siskin extends south from southern Alaska and Canada, through the United States to Mexico. This species is also found as a vagrant in Guatemala.

Field Notes: The pine siskin (Carduelis pinus) is a very small songbird with brown, heavily streaked upperparts, white or grey underparts and subtle yellow markings on the tips of the tail and wings. The tail and wings are otherwise dusky brown or black, apart from two buffy wingbars, which fade to white as the individual ages. The tail is short and notched, and the yellow markings on the tail and wings are more visible when the bird is in flight. The pine siskin’s bill is sharp, pointed and notched and can vary in colour between dusky brown and black. The colour of the legs and feet varies between dark brown, red or dark horn, and the eyes of this species are brown.

Personal Notes:

Pine Grosbeak

Scientific Name: Pinicola enucleator

Population Estimate: 4M

Range / Habitat: The wide range of the pine grosbeak stretches across the northern hemisphere, from Europe, across Russia, China and Japan, to Canada and the United States. It is also found as a vagrant in western parts of Europe, such as Austria, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany.

Field Notes: The pine grosbeak (Pinocla enucleator) is a large, plump, heavy-chested bird, which differs in appearance between sexes. The distinctive plumage of the male is deep rose-pink on the head, neck, breast and rump, grey on each side of the body, and streaked black on the upperparts. The throat is grey or white and there are also white or grey patches underneath the eyes. The male pine grosbeak has a long, notched black-brown tail with a grey underside, and there are conspicuous white wingbars on its brown-black wings. The tips of some of the flight feathers are white.

Personal Notes:

Townsend's Solitaire

Scientific Name: Myadestes townsendi

Population Estimate: 800K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Found year-round in the mountainous western United States. Its range will extend some to Canada and Alaska in the summer and to lower elevations and parts of Mexico in the winter.

Field Notes: Handsome grey, long-tailed songbird with rounded head, white eye ring and understated buffy wing bars. Can have some blue to its lower back, tail. Feeds on juniper berries.

Personal Notes: This bird used to fool us, but we're onto him now! Finally heard their beautiful song in Mount Helena Park. 

American Robin

Scientific Name: Turdus migratorius

Population Estimate: 320M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round throughout most of the US in both woodlands and more populated areas. Winters extending into Mexico. Summers extending throughout Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Common, yes, but still quite striking. Robins have a white patch under their tail that can be conspicuous in flight. Juveniles has spotted breast as in the top photo.

Personal Notes: 

Red-tailed Hawk

Scientific Name: Buteo jamaicensis

Population Estimate: 2M, Least Concern status

Range: Year-round throughout the United States and most of Mexico. Summers extends into Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: The most common hawk in the United States. There are so many morphs it makes my head spin (see the Field Marks section on the Cornell site). The most reliable field note seems to be the red tail as in the top two photos above. I'm sure there are other ways to differentiate hawks, both in flight and while perched, but I just don't know them yet. I'll get back to you when I do.

Personal Notes: We have tracked many of these birds thinking they were something "different" only to find they were, while still majestic, the Red-tailed Hawk. As an aside, if you see it perching along the freeway in the United States, it's a Red-tailed Hawk. Really. Don't keep going back and forth on the freeway....

Cliff Swallow

Scientific Name: Petrochelidon pyrrhonota

Population Estimate: 90M

Range: Winters in much of South America. Summers in most of Mexico, the US, and Canada into Alaska.

Field Notes: Builds gourd-shaped nests on buildings, cliffs, and under bridges. Blue back, rufous chin, white belly and a white forehead stripe. Square tail used for propping as above. Lacks the forked tail of the Barn Swallow. The Tree Swallow does not have any rufous coloring.

Personal Notes: Such a fun group of birds to watch building and interacting at their nests.