Carolina Chickadee

Brown-headed Nuthatch

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Hermit Thrush

Scientific Name: Catharus guttatus

Population Estimate: 60M

Range / Habitat: Summers in western US, throughout Canada and into Alaska. Winters in the southern US and into Mexico.

Field Notes: Medium-sized thrush with brown / grey back and reddish tail. Black spots on chest. Thin white eye ring. Swainson's Thrush quite similar but lacks the contrasting tail.

Personal Notes: If it looks like a thrush, and acts like a thrush….
 

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

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:

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.

Belted Kingfisher

Scientific Name: Megaceryle alcyon

Population Estimate: 2M, Least Concern status

Range: Year-round on rivers and shorelines throughout most of the US. Winters down through Mexico and Central America. Summers up into Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Medium-sized bird with oversized head and bill. Shaggy blue crest and back. Both males and females have a blue "belt" around their neck, but females also have a rufous belly. Ringed Kingfisher, found throughout Mexico, Central and South America, is larger and more conspicuous with rufous extending to entire belly.

Personal Notes: The bottom photo was one of our favourite spring finds at The Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, SD in late April, 2014. 

Brown Pelican

Scientific Name: Pelecanus occidentalis

Population Estimate: 300K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Found along southern and western sea coasts of the US. Also along Caribbean, Mexico and Central America coasts.

Field Notes: Large brown water birds with white head and yellow forehead. In flight they glide just above the water and have a roller coaster pattern when they flap their wings (rising up) and glide (falling down).

Personal Notes: A lovely surprise at the Salton Sea in California, they only place these birds are reliably found inland. 

Pileated Woodpecker

Scientific Name: Dryocopus pileatus

Population Estimate: 930K, Least Concern status

Range and Habitat: Year-round in old forests of eastern US, southern Canada, and the west coast of the US. 

Field Notes: Large, black and white woodpeckers with a prominent head with red crest. White line down the sides of the throat. They show white on the wings in flight. Adult males have a red line from the bill to the throat, in adult females these are black.

Personal Notes: A majestic bird.

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....