A small grassland bird that is more often heard than seen. Its song sounds like the buzz of an insect. They are usually found in tall grasses, where they nest and feed on insects and seeds. This one obliged me by landing close by on a barbwire fence which they sometimes do. Note the very long toenails.
White-bellied Hummingbird
In late 2018 we encountered this Hummingbird at the Willson Botanical Garden in Costa Rica near the Panama border. This species has a limited range and is found in Costa Rica and Panama.
Cassin's Finch
We have just come back from a 4 day birding trip to the Yuba Pass area of the Sierras. We plan to post some paintings and photos of birds we took during this trip over the next several days.
You know you are in the western mountains of the United States when you see Cassin’s Finch. The bright red bird is the male. This species is similar in appearance to the Purple Finch, but note the distinct red patch on the crown of the male’s head. The female is identified by the crisp, high contrasting stripes on the breast and belly. The female also has stripes on the under tail coverts. The female Purple Finch has solid white under tail coverts.
California Scrub-Jay
Sometimes I forget that some of our local birds are pretty interesting especially if you have not seen them before. Once we were hiking and ran into a fellow who was excited seeing a wonderful blue-colored bird. In his case it was Steller’s Jay which is a very common species in the higher wooded areas of my county. It’s tempting to say so what, but I didn’t because I too go to places and see common local birds for the first time and am both awed and excited.
The California Scrub-Jay is a noisy and curious jay that frequents open scrub lands, back yards, parks and wherever else there is a chance of finding food. It is fairly common and seeing four or five on a short hike is not uncommon.
Speckled Tanager
I know that I have already placed a photograph of this species on the blog, but I ran across this one by accident and it’s too pretty to not post. The colors of this species is hard to fathom with its intense greens, blues and yellows.
This one was seen in Southern Costa Rica near its border with Panama.
Stripe-headed Sparrow
Groove-billed Ani
My nemesis bird. It is so common in parts of the world, but I spent 2 years looking for it in the U.S. where it is fairly common in the Southern States.
Photo taken at the Vallarta Gardens near Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
Tufted Flycatcher
This small flycatcher was commonly seen during our eleven day visit in San Sebastián del Oeste and in the El Tuito area. This one was fairly cooperative and did not seem to mind me getting close for photos.
Long-eared Owl
Long-eared Owls are widespread over the North American continent. They eat small mammals and roost in dense trees. This one was seen in a vast open area in the Panoche Valley of California in a rare stand of trees in an oasis area.
Black Skimmer
While birding in Florida early in 2016 we came across a boat harbor. On one of the floats there were several Black Skimmers. They let me get surprisingly close. I put my camera down on the float and took this photo.
This bird has a shorter upper beak and uses its longer lower beak to skim the water for fish as it flies in long straight lines.
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl)
This little hummingbird is extremely territorial and makes its presence known to almost any other bird who invades its flower patch. Several times I saw this species dive bomb the larger Banaquit and always succeeded in chasing it off its territory. Seen near the Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica.
Crested Caracara
A strange bird indeed. It behaves much like a vulture and looks a lot like a hawk, but it is actually a falcon. This species is often seen walking on the ground and feeding on carrion. It is an opportunistic feeder and will eat items other than carrion such as fish, insects, etc. They are unable to open large carcasses so they are often found with buzzards who open the carcass allowing the Crested Caracara to feast.
We have seen this species in Texas at the Brownsville Landfill associating with Black Vultures. Much to our surprise we saw one not far from Portal, Arizona where this species is not common.
The Grasshopper Sparrow
This small bird is very difficult to see. In breeding season it can be heard, but barely. The pitch of its song is very high and has an insect-like buzz to it. If it’s a windy day, they are difficult to hear.
The Northern Pygmy-Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl with vole
Northern Pygmy-Owl with head turned showing fake “eyes” on back of head.
A fellow birder and I were walking in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California. We had froze in a field surrounded by scrubby willow to get a view of a Wilson’s Warbler. Out of nowhere, this bird lands next to us, probably within about 6 feet. It could barely fly. I estimated that the vole was about 2/3 of the owl’s weight. It stared at us while we took photos. We backed off and it dropped the vole. We kept going in hopes that it retrieved its prey.
Cooper's Hawk
This hawk is a sleek, rapid-flying bird that negotiates tree limbs at high speed when chasing its prey. One of its favorite prey is the Mourning Dove. Our backyard feeders attract Mourning Doves, so this means that this raptor is on the prowl.
When the backyard birds spot this raptor, they are gone in the blink of an eye. One second there are 2-3 dozen birds on the ground and at the feeders and an eye blink later there are zero birds. When this happens, I know this species is nearby.
The Five-striped Sparrow
Floy and I accompanied Ryan Phillips on a birding expedition into Southeastern Arizona. This area is known for some of the most unusual birds in the United States. The reason for these unique birds is that some of the mountains of Southern Arizona are contiguous with mountain ranges in Mexico. This enables some Neotropical birds to “hop” over the border and make themselves at home in Arizona.
The Five-striped Sparrow is a case in point because its distribution is mainly in Mexico over a strip that is about 450 miles long and less than 100 miles wide and extends from a few miles into Arizona and down the western mountain range of Mexico. This species barely makes it into Arizona and six were found about 32 miles north of the Mexican border, a few miles south of Tucson in a dry canyon. To the best of my knowledge this is as far north as they are known to occur. More details of this species can be found at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Neotropical Bird website.
Green Jay
Green Jay
Want to talk Gaudy? Talk about the Green Jay. This bird has a bizarre mix of colors: green, black, blue and yellow. I have encountered this species twice, once in Mexico and once in Southern Texas. I was unable to get what I consider great photos because the bird was either glued to a suet feeder or in the case of this photo, it stayed in the protective shade of vegetation. They have a well-developed family structure that cooperate to improved reproductive success. More information on this species can be found at: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/grnjay/introduction
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
A warbler with a lemon-yellow face that is common in the Northeast United States and Southeast Canada in the northern summer. In the summer it feeds mostly on caterpillars in coniferous and deciduous forests. This species spends the northern winter in tropical America where it eats the buds of the cecropia tree.
We have seen this species in Northern Ohio as it makes its way across the lakes to northern forests in Canada.
Photo taken at Magee Marsh, 2018.
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
The sweet song of the Yellow Warbler always puts a smile on my face as it sings “sweet, sweet, I am so sweet”. The rich buttery yellow with the reddish streaks indicate a male Yellow Warbler in the photos. Females and immatures are not as bright and lack the rich reddish streaking on the breast. The plain face with a piercing black eye is a characteristic of this species.
These photos were taken at Magee Marsh, Ohio in 2018
Nashville Warbler
I found my first ever Nashville Warbler in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Yosemite National Park. Floy and I were hiking a steep trail and we saw a little bird flitting around in a nearby tree. I was taken aback by this little beauty with a yellow-olive belly, a gray head and a distinct, complete eye ring. There is a sliver of a breeding population of this species that is found on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and up into Oregon, Washington and Southern British Columbia, but most of the breeding activity occurs in Southeastern Canada and the Northeastern United States.
This photo was taken in the Edinburg Scenic Wetland Park in Texas.