Carolina Chickadee

Fish Crow

Black Skimmer

Boat-tailed Grackle

Common Starling

Scientific Name: Sturnus vulgaris

Population Estimate: 310M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in urban areas throughout the US and all but northernmost Canada, introduced from Europe. Similar habitat throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa. Also introduced to Australia and New Zealand.

Field Notes: Stocky, medium-sized songbird with short tail. Overall glossy black, with iridescent purple and green. Pale spots on back and brownish wings.

Personal Notes: These birds are EVERYWHERE in the US and yet we waited until 3 weeks before our departure for New Zealand to get a photo for the blog.... Also known as European Starling.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Scientific Name: Regulus calendula

Population Estimate: 70M

Range / Habitat: Temperate forest dweller. Summers throughout parts of the American West, Canada, and the interior of Alaska. Winters throughout the southern half of the US and throughout much of Mexico excluding the Yucatan.

Field Notes: Tiny, dull olive-green bird with light wing-bars and eye ring. Short tail and pin beak. Constantly in motion and continually flicking wings. Small ruby crown of the male is rarely seen. Golden-crowned Kinglet has yellow crown, white eyebrow and black eye-stripe.

Personal Notes: One of our favorite birds; we delight in seeing the crown and were fortunate to actually capture on the above photos.

Carolina Wren

Scientific Name: Thryothorus ludovicianus

Population Estimate: 17M

Range / Habitat: Found in a wide range of habitats, from swamps to forest to residential areas. Requires moderately dense shrub or brushy cover. Year-round in southeastern US and Yucatan Peninsula.

Field Notes: Small passerine with typical wren characteristics -- tail held upward, long and slightly decurved bill. Marked eyestripe. This wren has a characteristic call.

Personal Notes: Seen on nest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Later a common bird in Julie and Jason's backyard in Evansville, Indiana. Also taunted us throughout the woods of the Lowcountry. 

Northern Mockingbird

Scientific Name: Mimus polyglottos

Range / Habitat: Year-round in shrub land throughout the United States and Mexico.

Field Notes: Medium-sized grey songbird with long tail, dark wings with white wing bars, and a black eye stripe. Similar overall appearance to both the Loggerhead and Great Grey Shrike, but the shrikes have slightly different ranges and wide black mask instead of an eye stripe. Townsend's Solitaire is also similar but has a more restricted range, is the same shade of grey all over, and has a white eye ring instead of a black eye stripe.

Personal Notes: It was remarkable to watch and listen to this bird with a seemingly endless array of different melodies.

Forster's Tern

Scientific Name: Sterna Forsteri

Population Estimate: 120K

Range / Habitat: Breeds on inland marshes in the American West and parts of Canada. Winters along the southern US coast, into Mexico, and in the Caribbean. Rare vagrant to western Europe.

Field Notes: Medium-sized, black-capped tern. Breeding plumage as above. Legs are orange, which cannot be appreciated in the photo. Non-breeding plumage is unmistakable with black eye and ear patch on a white head. Overlaps some in migration and breeding range with Common Tern, which has darker mantle and duller bill and legs.

Personal Notes: We frequently saw this tern hunting over the flats of the Great Salt Lake.

Savannah Sparrow

Scientific Name: Passerculus sandwichensis

Population Estimate: 80M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Summers in northern US up through Canada and all of Alaska. Winters in southern US down through Mexico. Found in a variety of open habitats such as meadows, marshland, coastline, and tundra. 

Field Notes: Highly variable sparrow with lightly streaked breast and yellow lords. Song Sparrow has central dark chest spot and dark mustache. Vesper Sparrow has bold eye ring. Both lack the yellow lores.

Personal Notes: A pleasant surprise visitor while in a Greater Prairie Chicken blind in Wisconsin. Later seen and photographed in various places throughout the western US before finally seeing him at home in Minnesota in the spring of 2014. Ironically, seen outside Savannah, Georgia en masse in the winter of 2014, not the elusive Seaside, Saltmarsh, or Nelson's Sparrows we were hoping for. 

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

Loggerhead Shrike

Scientific Name: Lanius ludovicianus

Population Estimate: 4.2M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round throughout the southern and western US, down into Mexico. Summers extending north into Canada. Preferred habitat is semi-open areas with access to dense trees and shrub.

Field Notes: Smallish solitary predator with grey head and back. Black mask and thick, hooked bill. Wings black with white patches. Long tail. Great Grey Shrike is larger with thinner face mask and pale lower bill, though its range is more northerly and rarely overlaps. Northern Mockingbird has small black eye stripe, no mask.

Personal Notes: This bird was a great sight, perched at the ruins of Teotihuacan north of Mexico City (not the above photo, by the way).

American Mourning Dove

Scientific Name: Zenaida macroura

Population Estimate: 130M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Found anywhere except deep woods in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Year-round in most of the US and into Mexico, but extends north into Canada in the summer and south into Central America in the winter.

Field Notes: A medium-sized graceful dove with soft greyish-brown upperparts and more buffy underparts, with a greyish crown and hindneck, sometimes with a metallic purple or bronze gloss. Small head and slender tail. The eye is surrounded by a narrow ring of bare blue or greenish-blue skin, and there is a small black streak on the cheek. The sorrowful call is distinctive.

Personal Notes: I'm slightly embarrassed to say that when we first started birding we followed one of these birds at dusk, thinking we were hearing an owl call.

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:

Eastern Meadowlark

Scientific Name: Sturnella Magna

Population Estimate: 10M

Range / Habitat: The eastern meadowlark is one of the most widely distributed species of songbird. It is native to North and Central America, with its range extending into South America.  It is present throughout the year in much of eastern North America, Central America and the north of South America, breeding from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, south to the north-east of Brazil.

Field Notes: Distinctive, medium-sized songbird often found on perches. Dappled brown and black upperparts with bright yellow neck, chest, belly and forehead. Black bib. Characteristic song with slurred, flute-like whistles. Can overlap with Western Meadowlark in places, where best differentiated by voice. The feathers on its back are a mixture of browns and blacks, with an overlaid pattern of darker streaks and bars. Its underparts are bright yellow and there is a black ‘V’ across the chest.

Personal Notes:

Bufflehead

Scientific Name: Bucephala albeola

Population Estimate: 1.2M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Most winter in protected coastal waters, or open inland waters, on the east and west coasts of North America and the southern United States. Their breeding habitat is wooded lakes and ponds in Alaska and Canada, almost entirely included in the boreal forest or taiga habitat. Their distribution is limited to that of the Northern Flicker, as they use old flicker cavities as nesting sites.

Field Notes: Small diving duck. Adult males are striking black and white, with iridescent green and purple heads with a large white patch behind the eye. Females are grey-toned with a smaller white patch behind the eye and a light underside.

Personal Notes:

Black Vulture

Scientific Name: Coragyps atratus

Population Estimate: 20M

Range / Habitat: Year-round throughout southeastern and southern US, Mexico, Central America and nearly all of South America.

Field Notes: Large black bird with grey, weathered head. Vultures characterized by large size, wheeling glides, finger-like wing tips. Easy to distinguish from Turkey Vulture in flight as Black Vulture will flap wings more frequently, does not appear headless and has silvery patches at wingtips.

Personal Notes: Common vulture in Mexico though we also have seen in Florida. The bottom photo is of the vulture perched atop Chichen Itza, which was quite dramatic.

Turkey Vulture

Scientific Name: Cathartes aura

Population Estimate: 5M

Range / Habitat: Year-round throughout southeastern and southern US, Mexico, Central America and nearly all of South America. In summers will push up into the rest of the US.

Field Notes: Large black bird with small, red head. Vultures characterized by large size, wheeling glides, finger-like wing tips. Viewed when in flight, Turkey Vulture has silver from their wingtips all along the trailing wing edge, small head, and rarely flap wings. Black Vulture has silver on underside of wingtips only, obvious head, and with frequently flap wings.

Blue Jay

Scientific Name: Cyanocitta cristata

Population Estimate: 22M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in the eastern US and up into Canada in forest edges. They favor acorns and are frequently found near oaks.

Field Notes: Part of the crow family, this is a dramatic and conspicuous bird that is smaller than a crow but larger than a robin. Dramatic crest. The blue coloration is both unmistakable and even electric. Characteristic, high-pitched and far-traveling "jay" sound.

Personal Notes: One of our favorites, especially in winter.

Northern Cardinal

Scientific Name: Cardinalis cardinalis

Population Estimate: 100M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in inhabited areas such as backyards, parks, woodlots, and shrubby forest edges throughout eastern US and eastern Mexico, including the Yucatan.

Field Notes: Unmistakable in range, even the duller female.

Personal Notes: We were waiting for winter to get our dramatic Northern Cardinal photo, and here it is. We were fortunate to come across a lot of different birds at the MN Arboretum feeder.