Anna's Hummingbird

Scientific Name: Calypte anna

Population Estimate: Unknown, but Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in wooded, savannah, and urban areas along the Pacific coast of the US and extending into the southwestern US. In summer will extend up into Canada.

Field Notes: Green upper parts and grey underparts. Males with iridescent pink head and throat. Females overall duller, with few reddish feathers at throat as above. Short, straight bill. Costa's Hummingbird similar with range overlap but males with purple gorget, not pink.

Personal Notes: First spotted in urban Seattle and then later photographed in California.

Harlequin Duck

Scientific Name: Histrionicus histrionicus

Population Estimate: 190-380K, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Breeds in cold fast moving streams in northwestern and northeastern North America, Greenland, Iceland and western Russia. Winters are spent in rocky shorelines near breeding grounds. Rare migrant to northern Europe.

Field Notes: Medium-sized diving duck. White patch in front of eyes and round white ear spot in both sexes which make it unmistakable in range. Male as above.

Personal Notes: Seen at Anacortes in Washington but not photographed. Later seen on Vancouver Island, where these ducks were plentiful and beautiful. Most recently seen in the Lake Myvatn area of Iceland. As psychiatrists we love the scientific name....

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: 

Double-crested Cormorant

Scientific Name: Phalacrocorax auritus

Population Estimate: 1.5M, Least Concern status

Range: Winters in the southern US interior, and more extensively on the coasts. In summer it is widespread throughout North America.

Field Notes: Most common cormorant in North America, found along coasts but also inland. All black bird with hooked bill that is yellow at the base. Juveniles more pale, as in top photo. Often found in groups, these are heavy fliers that cruise just above the water. Great Cormorant and Brant's Cormorant have very limited overlap. The Neotropic Cormorant has a shared range along the Gulf Coast in Mexico, but the Double-crested Cormorant is larger with brighter yellow bill base, and relatively shorter tail.

Personal Notes: The drying of feathers is my favorite pose.

Great Blue Heron

Scientific Name: Ardea herodias

Range / Habitat: The Great Blue Heron is found throughout most of North America, as far north as Alaska and the southern Canadian provinces. The range extends south through Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean to South America.

Field Notes: Very large gray-blue wader. It is long legged and long necked. It is approximately four feet tall or forty-six inches (one hundred seventeen centimeters) with a wingspan of six to seven feet. The bird is about seventy-two inches wide (one hundred eighty-three centimeters). It has a blue-gray color on its belly, body, and wings. The great blue heron is not very blue. The bird's bill is yellow, long, thick, and sharp. The bird's shoulder is black. The bird's back is mainly a slate-gray color. It has a brownish-buff colored neck with a black being a border. White is the color in front of its neck with a vertical streak that is black. The bird's head is white with a black stripe above its eye. The heron weighs anywhere from five to eight pounds (two to three kilograms). A male and female heron generally have the same description.

Personal Notes:

 

California Quail

Scientific Name: Callipepla californica

Range / Habitat: Year-round in brushy areas of California and northwestern US. They have been introduced into British Columbia, Hawaii, Chile, New Zealand, and Australia.

Field Notes: Plump, grey-brown ground birds usually found in groups. White scales underneath. Males with a white frame to the head, black chin, and the somewhat silly head plume. Females overall duller and without facial markings. Gambel's Quail similar, but ranges do not overlap.

Personal Notes: Always a welcome sight on our travels. 

Western Grebe

Scientific Name: Aechmophorus occidentalis

Population Estimate: 130K, Least Concern status

Range: Summers throughout most of western US and Canada. Year-round in portions of Mexico. Winters along the entire Pacific coast of North America. Favours brackish waters. Overall a similar but expanded range compared to Clark's Grebe.

Field Notes: Large, diving water bird with striking black and white coloring on the face and the long, elegant neck. Bill is straight, long and yellow. Clark's Grebe is similar but the dark cap does not cover the eye.

Personal Notes: We first discovered these birds via kayak on Union Bay in downtown Seattle. It was a thrill to later see a pair doing some mating mimicry in Utah.

Ring-billed Gull

Scientific Name: Larus delawarensis

Population Estimate: 2.6M

Range: Summers in the northern US and into Canada. Winters along both US coasts, in the southern US and into Mexico.

Field Notes: Medium-sized gull with white head and light grey mantle. Bill yellow with black ring (or tip) at all ages. Legs are yellow. Mew Gull with darker mantle and thinner bill without black ring.

Personal Notes: Common gull in Minnesota in the summer. Amazing seeing thousands of these gulls migrating through Missouri on New Year's Day. 

Northern Flicker

Scientific Name: Colaptes auratus

Population Estimate: 16M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in open areas near trees throughout the US, interior Mexico and parts of Central America. Frequently found on the ground searching for bugs. In summer they extend up into Canada and Alaska.

Field Notes: Medium-sized brown woodpecker, spotted on the front, black scalloped edges on the back. Red crescent on the nape in the eastern US. Red malar swipe on males in the west.

Personal Notes: We are always happy to see this bird on our travels!

Dark-Eyed Junco

Scientific Name: Junco hyemalis

Population Estimate: 260M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in parts of the American west. Breeds in coniferous and mixed-coniferous forests in Canada and Alaska. Winters throughout most of the US where found in open woodlands, fields, parks, roadsides, and backyards.

Field Notes: Sparrows with crisp markings that are highly variable as above. Frequently seen foraging on the ground in a group and then will retreat to the tops of trees. In retreat, they have a fan-like tail with white flashes.

Personal Notes: Seen across the US, the variety in these birds never ceases to amaze us.

Northwestern Crow

Scientific Name: Corvus caurinus

Order: Passeriformes

Population Estimate: 1.4M

Location of Sighting: Seattle, Washington

Date of Sighting: October, 2009; May, 2011

Notes: Virtually indistinguishable from the common American Crow except by distribution. We almost had a picture of this crow with the Seattle Space Needle in the background which would have been the perfect identifying feature. We also saw an impressive display of hundreds of crows shortly before dusk flying in the same direction.

Hairy Woodpecker

Scientific Name: Picoides villosus

Population Estimate: 9M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Year-round in deciduous forests throughout North America and into Mexico.

Field Notes: Smallish woodpecker with black and white upperparts with white stripe running down the length of the back. White underparts. Red hindcrown patch in male, absent in female. Black bill the same length as depth of head, compared to Downy Woodpecker.

Personal Notes: We are always thrilled to see woodpeckers on return to the US from New Zealand. 

Rock Ptarmigan

Scientific Name: Lagopus muta

Population Estimate: 8M

Range: Found throughout the year in all treeless Arctic regions around the world.

Field Notes: Mottled dark and white in the summer, all white in the winter. Males with red marking above eyes. Some Rock Ptarmigans will have black eyestripe in winter. Willow Ptarmigan is slightly larger, found at lower and more lush altitudes, and haa more reddish tones.

Personal Notes: Only fowl indigenous to Iceland. The bird above was one of the highlights on our Skaftafell hike.

American Treecreeper

Scientific Name: Certhia americana

Population Estimate: 5.4M, Least Concern status

Range / Habitat: Prefers mature forest for breeding, but can be found in parks and residential areas during winter and migration. Year-round in western North America, northeastern US, and into Canada. In winters, filling in the remainder of the US.

 

Field Notes: Small bird scrambling up trees with slender, decurved bill. Uses stiff tail feathers to prop itself against tree trunks. Patterned brown above, pale gray or white below.

Personal Notes: Also known as Brown Creeper.