Nancy Overcott, Dana Gardner Fifty Common Birds of the Upper Midwest 2006

8/17/2019 Nancy Overcott, Dana Gardner Fifty Common Birds of the Upper Midwest 2006

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FIFTY COMMON BIRDS OFTHE UPPER MIDWEST


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A Bur Oak Book


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FIFTYCOMMON BIRDSOF THE UPPER MIDWEST

Watercolors byDana Gardner

Text by Nancy Overcott

U N I V E R S I T Y O F I O WA P R E S S

IOWA CITY


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University of Iowa Press, Iowa City52242Copyright ©2006 by the University of Iowa Press

http://www.uiowa.edu/uiowapressAll rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Omega Clay

No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meanswithout permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps havebeen taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. Thepublisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom ithas not been possible to reach.

The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is com-mitted to preserving natural resources.

Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataGardner, Dana.

Fifty common birds of the upper Midwest / watercolors by Dana Gardner;text by Nancy Overcott.

p . cm.—(A Bur oak book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.ISBN 0-87745-983-5 (cloth)1. Birds—Middle West. I. Title: 50 common birds of the upper Midwest.

II. Overcott, Nancy. III. Title. IV. Series.QL683.M55G3 7 2 00 6 2 005 05 38 38598'.0977—dc22

06 07 08 09 10 c 5 4 3 2 1


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Dedicated toA L E X A N D E R F. S K U T C H

and J O H A N C . H V O S L E F


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I N T R O D U C T I O N xi

Wood Duck Aix sponsa 1Ruffed Grouse Bonasa umbellus 3Wild Turkey Meleagris gallopavo 5Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 7Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura 9Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus 11Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus 13Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis 15American Kestrel Falco sparverius 17Killdeer Charadrius vociferus 19American Woodcock Scolopax minor 21Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura 23Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus 25Eastern Screech-Owl Otus asio 27Barred Owl Strix varia 29Whip-poor-will Caprimulgus vociferus 31Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris 33Belted Kingfisher Ceryle alcyon 35Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus 37Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens 39Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus 41Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus 43Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe 45Eastern Kingbird Tyrannus tyrannus 47Red-eyed Vireo Vireo olivaceus 49Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata 51Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor 53Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 55Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapilla 57Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor 59

C O N T E N T S


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White-breasted Nuthatch Sitta carolinensis 61House Wren Troglodytes aedon 63Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula 65Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis 67

American Robin Turdus migratorius 69Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis 71Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum 73American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla 75Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapillus 77Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus 79Field Sparrow Spizella pusilla 81Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia 83White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis 85

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis 87Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pheucticus ludovicianus 89Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea 91Bobolink Dolichonyx oryzivorus 93Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus 95Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula 97American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis 99

R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G 101B A S I C F I E L D G U I D E S T O B I R D S 103I N D E X 105


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Whenever we think we have nothing more to learn about the black-capped chickadee, itsurprises us with a new acrobatic trick. A blue jay fixes its eyes on the vertical peanut but-ter log, tries several times to land on it, and finally succeeds in exhibiting a new skill. Acardinal, whose behaviors we think we know well, astonishes us when he pokes fooddown the throat of a young chipping sparrow.Fifty Common Birds of the Upper Midwest is acelebration of these and other birds, whose ubiquitous presence offers good opportuni-ties for intimate observation, which makes them a joy to watch no matter how often wesee them.

Inspiration for this book came from the realization that ar tist Dana Gardner and I have

had the opportunity to observe the avian world through circumstances that are notavailable to many people and that we might have a different sort of perspective to offer.We have coexisted with birds, heard their songs from within our houses, felt their feath-ery touches when bringing them food, been among them by merely stepping out of ourdoors or walking through the woods and fields that surrounded us.

Our purpose is not to tell you all there is to know about a particular species but topresent a sketch of each bird that will give you a feeling for its personality and the way itlives its life. For this purpose, we use personal anecdotes and information drawn from ourown research, supplemented by other people’s stories and data gathered from books toportray each species as it goes from nestling to fledgling, to adult and breeding bird;from its habitat, food, and foraging methods to its migration patterns and distribution;from the sounds it makes to the way it looks when perched and in flight. Conservationstatus and causes for declining or increasing populations are also discussed.

Our stories and paintings may reflect your own impressions, tell you something new,encourage closer looks, or provide insights to the lives of less common birds. We hopethey will inspire interest in habitat preservation.

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Dana’s life among the birds began at the age of seven, when he and his family moved to

the village of Lanesboro in southeast Minnesota. He remembers sneaking up on ruffedgrouse that were drumming behind his house and listening to the barred owls that fre-quented his yard. His birdwatching hobby coincided with the development of his artisticabilities. As a child, he constructed elaborate zoos filled with birds and other animals hemade from modeling clay. Later, he painted the birds he saw in the woods and limestonebluffs along the South Branch of the Root River, which runs through Lanesboro.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N


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After studying biology at the University of Minnesota, Dana was drafted into the armyand stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, where he turned his talents to painting tropicalbirds. There he met the American ornithologist Alexander Skutch, who invited him to hishome in Costa Rica and eventually asked him to illustrate his books. A close friendshipensued that lasted until Skutch’s death in2004 , just before his one hundredth birthday.We have dedicated our book to Skutch as a tribute to this friendship and in memory of the man, who lived gently on the land and whose contributions to ornithology are recog-nized worldwide.

My interest in birds began when I moved with my husband to the Big Woods, an areasouth of Lanesboro reputed for its Ozarks-like culture and abundant wildlife. The birdsaround my new home quickly captured my attention. Before long, I began taking a note-book on my daily walks to record my observations, a practice that has continued formore than twenty years.

I have also explored much of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin with Carol Schumacher

and Fred Lesher, who are known all over the Midwest for their birdwatching skills, popu-lar field trips, and conservation efforts. Carol has participated in breeding bird surveysthroughout Minnesota and no one surpasses Fred’s familiarity with the Upper MississippiRiver country. Both friends have enriched my experience in the field.

Someone who not only provided me with an exceptional opportunity to learn aboutbirdlife at the turn of the last century but was also an important resource for this book isJohan C. Hvoslef, a Lanesboro naturalist, whose journals I transcribed for the MinnesotaDepartment of Natural Resources. His daily accounts of the species he saw from1881to1918have given Fillmore County the best historical records of avian life in Minnesota. Inhonor of Hvoslef’s contributions, we have included him in our dedication.

All of these experiences converged during Dana’s visits to Lanesboro, when we bene-fited from each other’s knowledge while hiking through our favorite places, his on thenorth side of town, mine on the south. Together, we have made some unusual finds, suchas a short-eared owl and Henslow’s sparrow, but have never tired of seeing the moreabundant species.

• • •

Nearly three hundred species are common in the Upper Midwest. Until we actually satdown to do it, we didn’t realize how difficult it would be to select only fifty. We solvedthe problem, in part, by concentrating on inhabitants of the forests and grasslandssurrounding Lanesboro, where our love of birds began. In spite of f inding a way to narrowour choices, we still had to exclude many familiar species, some of which deserve men-tion.

Among the raptors, we chose one eagle, one accipiter, one buteo, one falcon, and twocommon owls. That meant leaving out such species as the northern harrier that hovers


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over our fields in summer, the rough-legged hawk that hovers over our fields in winter,the peregrine falcon, returning from the edge of extinction, and the great horned owl, afierce and abundant predator.

We selected the killdeer and the American woodcock because they are the onlyshorebirds we regularly see in fields and forest thickets. However, an occasional solitaryor spotted sandpiper will bob up and down and poke its bill into mud by one of ourshaded creeks or farm ponds. A Wilson’s snipe may also flush from one of these areas.

Neither of us was willing to exclude the whip-poor-will, regardless of the fact that itsrelative, the common nighthawk with its buzzy electrical sound and white wingbars, oc-curs more often. We reluctantly decided against chimney swifts in spite of the spectacu-lar sight they offer when flying down Lanesboro chimneys to roost at night.

The inclusion of five woodpeckers was an indulgence, but even then we had troubleleaving out the red-headed woodpecker, now a species of special concern, and the yel-low-bellied sapsucker that drills rows of small holes in trees to collect sap and insects. Of

the flycatchers, only the eastern phoebe and the eastern kingbird are portrayed, but wecould just as well have chosen the eastern wood-pewee that graces the woods during breeding season with its plaintive peeaweeesong or one of theEmpidonax flycatchers, verysmall birds that are difficult to identif y because they look so much alike.

Yellow-throated and blue-headed vireos are discussed with the red-eyed vireo, but wewere sorry to leave out the warbling vireo whose monotonous warble is an integral partof riparian woodlands. Among the Corvidae, only the American crow and blue jay areregular here. Both are known for their cleverness, noisy vocalizations, and furtive be-havior. We chose the blue jay because it is easily observable at feeders. Tree and barnswallows were selected for their beauty, but northern rough-winged swallows are also

abundant here as are cliff swallows, whose mud nests decorate our barns, bridges, andlimestone bluffs.

Although the brown creeper, a little creature that looks like bark and crawls up trunksof trees in search of insects, is the only member of its family in North America, we reluc-tantly decided against it. Likewise for the small blue-gray gnatcatcher that builds a deli-cate nest in the treetops and whose relatives all live in warmer climates.

We included the house wren because it is the most familiar bird in its family. Not in-cluded are sedge and marsh wrens, which look like each other and whose names fit theirhabitats. Winter wrens, whose tinkling songs and hiccup-like call notes we usually hearonly during migration, were also excluded.

Robins and eastern bluebirds, the most beloved of the thrushes, had to be part of thisbook. That meant leaving out the wood thrush and veery whose brown backs, spottedbreasts, and habits of foraging on the forest floor make them difficult to see but whosehaunting flutelike songs echo through our woodlands in spring, summer, and fall. Of themimidae, the gray catbird won out over the brown thrasher, which is declining in popula-


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tion. Both birds mimic other species, but neither equals the mimicking capacity of thenorthern mockingbird, which is a permanent resident in Iowa and states farther south.

What to do about the warblers: More than thirty species of these small, elaboratelyplumaged insectivores occur in our region, and we had room for only two. We wouldhave liked to portray all of those that nest in our area, such as the lovely blue-wingedwarbler with its buzzy two-part song; the yellow warbler that sings sweet, sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet and sometimes builds new floors in its nest to cover up eggs of the parasitic cow-bird; or the common yellowthroat that singswichity, wichity, wichity along roadsides allsummer long.

The sparrows presented a similar problem. We arbitrarily chose four, regrettably ex-cluding such others as chipping sparrows, tame little birds that often nest in gardens andparks; savannah sparrows, who sing their names in open fields and meadows; and dark-eyed juncos, the gray and white snowbirds that winter in the Midwest and congregatearound feeders.

Two blackbird species that we did not select deserve mention. Eastern and westernmeadowlarks, with their bright yellow throats and bellies, used to sing their beautiful war-bling songs from every fence post. Now, due to significant loss of their grassland habitat,both species are in decline and we see them only now and then.

A blackbird that we considered, but decided against because we did not wish to cele-brate it, is the invasive brown-headed cowbird. Once an inhabitant of the West where itforaged for seeds and insects on open ground or the backs of bison, the cowbird ex-panded across the entire country with the rise in cattle farming, increase in waste grains,and clearing of forests. This species never makes its own nest but lays its eggs in the nestsof other birds, thus contributing to the decline of those it parasitizes. Forest-dwelling mi-

grants, including most warblers and vireos, some flycatchers, thrushes, and sparrows, andthe rose-breasted grosbeak, are particularly vulnerable to cowbird predation due to thefragmentation of woodland habitat, which forces them to nest closer to forest edges.Certain species, such as robins and catbirds, recognize the foreign eggs and eject themfrom the nest, but many others incubate the eggs and raise the interlopers at the expenseof their own young.

Of the small finches, the purple finch and pine siskin visit our feeders in winter. Thehouse finch, native to the Southwest and released by pet shop owners in the East, hasnow spread throughout the country. We decided, however, to end our book on a brightyellow note with the American goldfinch, whose cheerful presence we enjoy all year long.


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FIFTY COMMON BIRDS OFTHE UPPER MIDWEST


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Wood Duck Aix sponsa

Every spring, the squeal and splash of water as a wood duck pair rises out of the creek near my house startle me and I think,Oh yes, you’re back, I remember you. I usually don’t an-ticipate their arrival, which is surprising because it seems as if one should look forward tothe sight of the richly, almost garishly colored male. I wonder what evolutionary trail ledto its extravagant plumage. The female, in subdued tones of brown and gray, is notablefor her large, white, teardrop-shaped eye patch.

Sometimes I find a pair swimming placidly in the creek, but more often they hear mecoming and the female’s squeal is the first I know of their presence. The male has a soft,rising whistle that I don’t usually hear. I always feel guilty for disturbing them, especially

when I walk farther upstream and f ind them calmly swimming only to be disrupted by meagain.

Wood ducks begin courtship on their wintering grounds in the southeastern states. Fe-males show strong nest site fidelity, usually returning to the same site every spring. Sincemales follow their mates to the nesting range, the length of their migration varies depend-ing on their mates’ chosen sites. Their breeding habitat includes shade-protected inlandlakes, ponds, slow-moving rivers, and swamps in deciduous or mixed forests. A very smallbody of water can suffice. Dana Gardner once showed me ten chicks following their moth-er through vegetation in a normally dry area that was wet from recent heavy rains.

Nests are in cavities of large trees, two to sixty-five feet above ground, sometimes inthe abandoned cavities of other species such as the barred owl. Incubating the nine tofourteen eggs and tending the young for five to six weeks after hatching fall completelyto the females, who often lay their eggs in each other’s nests. The morning after hatching,ducklings climb with their sharp claws to the edge of the cavity, brace themselves withtheir tails, and jump to the ground.

More than any other duck, this species is a woodland bird, often perching in trees andventuring away from water to eat nuts and insects. In water, it feeds on the surface, eat-ing aquatic plants, seeds, insects, and crustaceans.

During the late nineteenth century, excessive hunting and the loss of large trees drovethe once abundant species near to extinction. In the1920 s, legal protection and theplacement of boxes in which the ducks readily nest led to a good recovery.

Although I sometimes see a mallard or a blue-winged teal in a farm pond, wood ducksare the only ducks I see regularly near my home in the woods. Regardless of how manytimes I see them, though, the female’s squeal and accompanying splash of water as a pairrises out of the creek startle me.

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Ruffed GrouseBonasa umbellus

From my porch, I saw something fluttering on a log in the woods. Looking closer, I discov-ered a chicken-size bird with its crest and neck ruffs raised, fanning its tail and rapidlybeating its wings. I felt, more than heard, the low accelerating drumming sound, like thebeating of a heart, coming from the wings of the ruffed grouse. I hear the sound daily inspring, but this was the first time I had caught the bird in the act.

In early March, the male grouse establishes a territory for courtship displays. When afemale hears the drumming, she enters the territory and mating occurs. One male maymate with several females, who then build nests by lining depressions in the ground withleaves, grass, and feathers. One spring, a grouse built a nest in which she laid ten eggs on

the edge of our driveway. She and the nest blended so well with the surroundings that wewouldn’t have known she was there if she hadn’t flushed every time we drove past.

Incubation is by the female alone and lasts about twenty-three days. The young areprecocial; that is, they leave the nest soon after hatching. In contrast, songbirds are altri-cial; they hatch featherless and blind and don’t usually fledge for about two weeks. Themother grouse leads her babies to food but they feed themselves, eating mostly insectsat first. I have sometimes come upon a mother that whines and plays the broken-wing trick to distract me from her babies, who scurry in all directions.

Ruffed grouse are permanent residents across the northern states and Canada in de-ciduous or mixed woods, where they forage on the ground, in shrubs, and in trees forbuds, leaves, flowers, seeds, fruit, and a few insects. In winter, they spend most of theirtime foraging high in trees or roosting under the snow. Walking on the snow is facilitatedby a fringe of scales that forms along each toe and enlarges the surface area of the foot.

Lanesboro naturalist Johan Hvoslef often worried that young hunters in the vicinitywould extirpate the species from the region. On September14, 1913 , he wrote, “ABonasain the valley, and below the fence in the Deep Valley I met with—flushed—the wholebrood (covey) again. It was a grand treat: I had been afraid the whole flock had been ille-gally murdered!” Although they are still hunted, the birds remain common throughouttheir normal range, with populations fluctuating in regular cycles. According to Gary Nel-

son, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Manager, ruffed grouse arepresently in a low cycle in most of the state. However, in southeast Minnesota, wherepopulations generally do not fluctuate, numbers have declined due to our maturing forests and shortage of second-growth woods that the birds prefer.

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Wild TurkeyMeleagris gallopavo

Wild turkeys inhabit forests with oak trees and clearings, where they eat primarily plantmaterials, particularly acorns, but also some insects and small vertebrates. The trees of my forest are oak, maple, and basswood with lesser numbers of other hardwoods. On thesouth side of my house is a natural clearing. It is spring. I wake to the sound of gobbling and look out on the clearing to see a male turkey, its red wattles swollen, feathers puffed,and tail fanned, strutting as though in a marching band. Six females are watching thisparade.

A male turkey will mate with several females, who build sparsely lined nests in depres-sions on the ground. Each hen lays ten to fifteen eggs, which she incubates for about

a month. The young leave the nest soon after hatching and feed themselves but sleepunder their mother’s wings at night for several weeks. In summer, I see groups of abouttwenty-five downy chicks accompanied by several hens. As the season progresses, thesame scene plays itself out with the chicks appearing larger at each sighting. When theleaves begin to turn, the males gobble and display again, not to attract mates, but as a re-sponse to the length of day being equal to that in spring. At this time of year, turkeysgather to eat acorns under the giant bur oak that grows next to my porch. At dusk, with agreat flapping of wings, these large birds fly into the tree where they spend the night.

In winter, I have seen up to sixty birds foraging together on the edge of the woods.When snow is on the ground, I like to climb in the nearby limestone bluffs and find asheltered place to sit and wait for something to come my way. It may be a curious chick-adee or a parade of deer walking below me. Piles of scat indicate the presence of coyotes.One day, a sound of barking broke the silence. I looked for dogs and hoped to see coy-otes. Soon a flock of turkeys meandered into sight. This was the first I knew of the bark-ing sounds that turkeys make.

Although they originally inhabited the eastern states and parts of the Midwest, by thebeginning of the twentieth century turkeys had nearly disappeared in many areas due tohabitat loss and diseases acquired from domestic poultry. Whether there was ever a na-tive population in Minnesota is uncertain. Beginning in the1920 s, hunting groups period-icall

y attempted to introduce turkeys not only into places they formerly inhabited butalso into new places as well. In Minnesota, the first success occurred in1973 with wildbirds transplanted from other areas. Since then, the state’s turkey population has grownto more than 30,000 with the greatest increase in and on the edges of their historicalhabitation.

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Great Blue HeronArdea herodias

During one of the most difficult times in my life, I was also discovering life along theSouth Fork of the Root River, which flows through my woods. I had a favorite log where Isat and watched rippling shadows reflected on branches above the creek, shadows of wa-ter striders and trout in the water below, and muskrats that appeared if I was quietenough. By focusing on the details of my surroundings, I was able to forget the plaguing details of my life.

I also watched the great blue heron flying overhead, its wings beating slowly and de-liberately as though it knew exactly where it was going. This flight came to symbolize forme a promise that the world would continue in its rhythm regardless of the turmoil in my

mind. Sometimes I saw the heron stepping silently through shallow water as though inslow motion or standing like a stick, waiting and watching until it suddenly grabbed a f ishin its bill and gulped it down whole. I knew this activity was a matter of life or death: thebird had to eat to live. I longed for my life to be so elemental.

Herons usually breed in rookeries in trees, twenty to sixty feet above ground. Thenest, a platform of sticks, generally contains three to five eggs. Both parents feed theirnestlings. The young leave the nest in sixty-five to ninety days. Sometimes, a single pairwill breed in isolation. I have watched such a pair return to the same nest over the SouthFork for several years.

Although great blue herons evoke consistency and patience, turmoil may also entertheir lives. In1945 , herons established a rookery in a park reserve in Anoka County, Min-nesota, just north of Minneapolis. After more than fifty years of successful nesting, inJune of 2000 the birds disappeared. Cracked shells on the ground indicated there hadbeen a hatch, but the nests were empty except for a few feathers. Area residents eventu-ally determined that high-speed boating was to blame. Research shows that herons flushoff their nests when humans come within three hundred yards, so it is not surprising thathuman activity disrupted this colony. The year after a slow-wake zone in the area becamelaw, the herons returned and stayed to raise their young.

In spite of human encroachment on their preferred habitats, heron numbers remain

stable, mostly because the birds can adapt to a variety of habitats and diets, which allowsthem to thrive around all kinds of waters, including swamps, desert rivers, lakes, andwoodland streams where they eat fish, amphibians, insects, rodents, and other birds.

My life is easier now but I still depend on the great blue heron for perspective. Shouldit disappear, I would feel less confidence in nature’s rhythms.

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Turkey VultureCathartes aura

Like a gigantic dark butterfly, the vulture rocks back and forth as it floats in the sky hold-ing its wings above its body. A dozen vultures rocking low over woods or fields tells methe birds have found something dead. These birds locate carrion by sight, by watching the actions of other vultures, and through their well-developed sense of smell, rare in theavian world. Efficient scavengers, they quickly dispose of dead animals and their poten-tial for spreading disease. Up close, the homeliness of the vulture’s bare red head maymake you forget about the beauty of its flight. Nature knew what she was doing, though,because a head with feathers that roots around in smelly carcasses would be impossibleto keep clean.

Vultures often roost together by the hundreds. Tex Sordahl, ornithologist at LutherCollege in Decorah, Iowa, showed me a roost where he and his students are studying vul-ture behavior. Among other things, they are trying to determine the roosting order be-tween adults and first-year birds. In the mornings, they have observed the vulturesspreading their wings toward the sun, presumably to raise their body temperatures fromlow nighttime levels.

During pair formation, several birds gather in a circle to perform ritualized hopping maneuvers. Nest sites are in thickets, hollow trees, caves, or old buildings. Little, if any,nesting material is used. Both parents sit on the two eggs and feed the babies by regurgi-tation. The young first fly at nine to ten weeks of age.

One spring, when Dana Gardner and I were hiking along the Root River near Lanes-boro, he told me about a vulture nest he once found in the area. He said, “The building where I found the nest was an old log barn, and the roof had collapsed so that when Ipoked my head up into the haymow it was like looking into a cave. When I did this, Iheard a loud hoarse hissing and in a corner, I saw two well-grown vulture chicks hunchedover and disgorging the smelly contents of their stomachs. They looked very comical,clothed in fluffy white down except for their naked heads.”

In summer, vultures are present throughout the country. Southern birds are perma-nent residents, but northern birds fly as far as South America for the winter. The speciesdeclined during the twentieth century, possibly due to eggshell thinning from the inges-tion of insecticides. At present, populations appear to be stable.

Because of their association with death and their ugly naked heads, vultures are oftenthe objects of fear and repulsion. While we find them disgusting for eating carrion, a be-havior that benefits us and the environment, we admire them for their elegant flight,which only pleases our senses.

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Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus

A mature bald eagle, with its white head and tail, is easy to recognize. The first time I eversaw one was in the fall of1984 while driving with friends along the Mississippi River innorthern Iowa. There we found an eagle perched in a tree. It could have been a hugephotograph of our national emblem until it turned its regal head and looked down on us.No one spoke. Words were neither necessary nor sufficient. Now, I see this once endan-gered species almost any day of the year, soaring over my woods. The displays of court-ing eagles locking their talons high in the air, then descending in a series of somersaults,can still bring me to tears.

During the early and mid-twentieth century, eagle populations plummeted. Shooting

was a major cause, but even after receiving full legal protection, their decline continuedbecause of the widespread use of DDT and other insecticides that made eggshells toothin to support incubating birds. With the banning of DDT in1972 , the species began along period of recovery.

Eagles breed at age four or five. They have long-term pair bonds. Mates may reuseand add to their stick nest for up to thirty years until it weighs well over a ton. Both par-ents incubate the two, sometimes three, eggs and feed the nestlings, which fledge at tento twelve weeks of age. For several years, I have watched an eagle nest near my home. Itis more than one hundred feet high in a white pine overlooking Duschee Creek, a desig-nated trout stream. I have watched the adults soaring with their long wings held perfectlystraight and have heard their soft whistles, which do not fit their large size. I havewatched the parents sitting on the nest and bringing food to their young. I have watchedmottled-brown nestlings exercising their great wings and venturing out on limbs adjacentto the nest. I dream of watching a first flight.

Bald eagles are primarily fish eaters. When fish are not available, they will eat birds,mammals, and other creatures. They hunt by watching from a high perch, where they cansee for long distances about five times more detail than humans can. When prey issighted, they swoop down to snatch it with their talons. Eagles sometimes steal fish fromother birds and frequently eat carrion. I have seen a dozen birds feeding on a dead animalin a farmer’s field. It is difficult to reconcile this sight with the majestic and fierce de-meanor of the bird that symbolizes our country.

I wish I could see a mature bald eagle again for the first time. Nevertheless, its surpris-ing size, pure white head, and long, dark-brown wings holding it aloft with apparent easewill never cease to be a heart-stopping experience for me.

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Sharp-shinned HawkAccipiter striatus

One day, I looked up just in time to see a sharp-shinned hawk speeding toward me downone of my woodland trails. I ducked as the bird approached and gracefully detoured overmy head. Its short, rounded wings and long tail enable easy maneuvering through mixedor coniferous forests, where its primary prey are birds from the smallest sparrows torobins, which nearly equal it in size.

Another day, I discovered a sharpy perched on a low branch deep in the woods. Icould see its red eyes looking into my blue ones, so I knew it was an adult; juveniles haveyellow eyes. I could see its reddish striped underpar ts and banded tail. Its blue wings toldme the bird was a male. I wondered what he noticed about me. Most birds capture a

whole picture at a glance rather than piecing a scene together as humans do.I usually see sharp-shinned hawks in late fall and winter. The ones I see early may be

only passing through. This species is highly migratory, breeding north to Canada andAlaska and wintering as far south as Central America. Large numbers concentrate during migration along coasts or ridges.

In courtship, mates circle together above the forest. Both sexes gather nesting mate-rial, but the female builds the nest, a platform of sticks with twigs and grass for lining,usually in a dense conifer twenty to sixty feet above ground. The male brings food to hismate while she incubates, then brings food for her to feed to the nestlings. The young areable to fly five to six weeks after hatching.

Easily confused with the Cooper’s hawk, a close relative whose plumage is nearly iden-tical, the sharpy can be distinguished in flight by its smaller head, broader hunched wingspushed slightly forward, and deeper, more flicking wingbeats. Although the Cooper’s issomewhat larger, size is not a good indicator. As with all hawks, males of these speciesare smaller than the females; a female sharp-shinned may be nearly as large as a maleCooper’s.

Sharpies often lurk around my feeders. One day, when I saw a flock of dark-eyed juncosin the nearby brush, none of them moving as much as a feather, I immediately looked forthe hawk and found it perched in a small tree. When one of the juncos made the mistakeof flying, the sharpy flew with the speed of a cat’s paw and grabbed the junco with itstalons. I felt sad for the junco while admiring the speed and concentration of the hawk.

In the mid-twentieth century, DDT and other pesticides led to a decline in sharp-shinned hawk populations. Although they have recovered somewhat since then, countshave begun to decline again, possibly due to the fragmenting of forests.

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Red-tailed HawkButeo jamaicensis

Whenever I see a large, heavy-bodied hawk with broad wings and a short, fanned tailsoaring overhead, I know it is a member of theButeogenus. I immediately look for themarkings of a red-tailed hawk. As the most widespread and familiar large hawk in thecountry, it provides a reference for comparison of all the otherButeos.

The proportions and markings of this species, however, are extremely variable, mak-ing it sometimes difficult to identify. A large red-tail can weigh twice as much as a smallerone. Immatures usually have longer tails and wings than their parents. There are sevensubspecies of this bird, which may interbreed, leading to many different plumage combi-nations. To complicate matters further, each subspecies has a light, intermediate, or dark

morph.Except for their tails, adult and immature plumage is similar. Young birds have banded

tails that gradually turn red as they age. All adults, except for the pale Krider’s form thatwinters in the southern plains, show some red on the tail. The bright red tail is diagnosticin the East. The western bird is darker but shows the same markings. Streaked belly bandsare present in all red-tails except for some southwestern birds and some Krider’s. Allforms, except for the dark morph of the western red-tail, in which markings are obscured,show commas at the wrist areas under their wings and a dark line along the leading edgeof the wing.

Red-tails excel in soaring and can also hover in the wind. In courtship, they soar in highcircles screaming a drawn-outkeeer . The male may pass food to the female in flight orstoop at her, their feet interlocking, as the female rolls over. Both sexes build their largestick nest in a tall tree with a commanding view. Both parents incubate the two to threeeggs and feed the nestlings, who leave the nest about seven weeks after hatching.

Small mammals are the red-tail’s favorite prey, but it also eats reptiles, birds, bats,frogs, and various other creatures and may feed on carrion. Habitat includes any terrainthat provides open ground and high perches for hunting—woodlands with scatteredopenings, fields, or deserts. This hawk has adapted especially well to human construc-tion, such as highways, which provide miles of grassy roadsides with abundant rodents

and with utility poles that make ideal perches.Whenever I see a hawk perched on a utility pole, I assume it’s a red-tail. I may assumetoo quickly and find on looking closer that the bird is a rough-legged hawk or anotherspecies. I used to assume that thekeeer scream always came from a red-tail. Then Ilearned that the blue jay mimics this call. Now I know that the blue jay’s imitation has aslightly different quality and shorter duration.

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American KestrelFalco sparverius

People often tell me self-righteously that they don’t need to identify birds by name in or-der to enjoy them. But, oh what you miss if you don’t know what is possible. Before webecame birdwatchers, my husband and I always paid attention to the birds of prey wesaw. We knew about the peregrine falcon and hoped to see one someday. We did notknow about the small falcon that we could see any time of year perched on power lines inopen country or on edges of forests. We never saw a kestrel until we knew of its existenceand began looking for it. About the size of a robin and half the size of a peregrine, thisbird is our smallest diurnal raptor. Like those of its cousins, the kestrel’s pointed wingtipsand long tail serve it well in high-speed chases.

Another most appropriate name for this bird is windhover. One can often find akestrel hovering over a field, suspended in the air by its rapidly beating wings, waiting topounce on a grasshopper, its favorite food. It also eats other large insects, small mam-mals, small birds, and reptiles.

In courtship, the male flies in a series of deep dives and upward swoops, calling a high-pitched killy , killy , killy at the top of each swoop. He sometimes passes food to his mate asshe flies slowly with fluttering wingbeats, holding her wings below the horizontal.

Kestrels nest in cavities of dead trees, snags, or artificial nest boxes. They use little, if any, nesting material. Both parents incubate the four to six eggs, which hatch in about amonth. For two weeks after hatching, the female stays with the young while the malebrings food. After that, the female hunts also. Fledging occurs at about four weeks of age. Juvenile males have blue-gray wings like their fathers and females have rufous wingslike their mothers.

Kestrels occur across the entire country. Northern birds may migrate south in winterwhile those in the middle and southern states are permanent residents. This species maybe declining in the northeast, but numbers remain stable elsewhere. The placement of nest boxes, especially where there are few natural nest sites, has been helpful.

Among similar-size birds, such as red-winged blackbirds and mourning doves that fre-quently perch on power lines, kestrels can be recognized from some distance by their

knobby heads, full bodies, and their horizontal position when peering at possible prey.They have a comfort zone of about fifty feet from approaching cars. When a car ap-proaches too closely, they take flight, often perching again about fifty feet ahead. I like tostop my car just before this zone, take out my binoculars, and look at the bird’s rich blueand rufous colors and the markings on its head that resemble a mustache and a sideburn.


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KilldeerCharadrius vociferus

An early migrant, the first killdeer of spring arrives in late February, singing its name as itflies over the upland areas around my woods. The killdeer is a member of the plover fam-ily, one of several shorebird families, which usually live near water. This species is alsofound in fields far from water. I have never seen this bird in the woods, but once I hear it,I know I will be able to find it a short distance away in a farmer’s field.

Plovers have round heads and short, straight bills. The killdeer has two dark breast-bands, as opposed to the single or broken breastband of other plovers. The bird is wide-spread and abundant across the country. On mud flats, when I am trying to identify someof the less common shorebirds, a killdeer is likely to frustrate me by conspicuously

sounding its alarm and causing all the other birds to fly.Its plumage pattern, however, allows this species to be equally inconspicuous. Its

white underparts take on the hue of the nearest surface, and its bold, disruptive headand breast markings that match similar breaks in the background visually separate thekilldeer into parts, making it difficult to discern the whole bird.

Because the killdeer builds its nest on the ground in an open area, such as on bare soil,short grass, or a gravel road, it seems like the nest would be easy to find. But it is only ashallow scrape in soil or gravel and matches its surroundings in a way that makes it invisi-ble until you are almost on top of it. At that point, the bird will let you know of its pres-ence by its loudkilldeer call and feigning of injury to lure you away from its nest.

Males show stronger nest site fidelity than females do. A particular pair may mate forsuccessive years. Birds that nest in the north may migrate as far south as Chile in the fall.Those in the southern states are permanent residents. In breeding season, the male fliesover the nest site with slow, deep wingbeats, calling repeatedly. Courtship displays onthe ground include sham nest-scraping movements. Both parents incubate the three tofive eggs for twenty-four to twenty-eight days. In very hot weather, they may soak theirbelly feathers to help cool the eggs.

Young killdeer are precocial: they leave the nest soon after hatching and feed them-selves, although the parents remain nearby. They eat mostly insects but also other inver-

tebrates and a small amount of seeds. Very young birds have short tails, single breast-bands, and legs that appear exceptionally long. As they follow their parents running a fewsteps, stopping abruptly, then running again, these little guys present one of the mostcomic and endearing sights of the avian world.

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American WoodcockScolopax minor

The American woodcock, also known as night partridge, timber doodle, and big-eyes, isa member of the sandpiper family but, unlike most sandpipers, it is nocturnal, secretive,and solitary and resides in forest thickets, fields, and brushy swamps instead of on mud-flats and ocean shores. Its eyes are set far back in its head, allowing the bird to watch fordanger even with its bill deep in the dirt probing for earthworms, which it may goad intomoving by a peculiar rocking motion that sends vibrations into the ground. As with otherlong-billed sandpipers, the tip of the woodcock’s bill is sensitive and flexible, facilitating its ability to find and grasp food below the surface.

One evening at dusk, toward the end of March, I hear a familiar nasal peent in the field

behind my house and know that the woodcock has returned, as he does every year atabout this time. I can’t see him at first but if I wait until the peenting stops and the musi-cal twittering of his wings begins, I can see him flying high into the darkening sky, then cir-cling overhead. When I hear a kissing sound, I know he is floating down like a leaf to landwhere he started and begin another round. Now I can dimly see his round little shape andlong bill. Every time he peents, he turns to the side, eventually coming full circle. If I listencarefully, I can hear a soft hiccup before each peent. The purpose of these elaborate dis-plays is to attract a female, who, if he is lucky, will be waiting for him as he floats to theground.

After mating, the female makes a simple nest by scraping a place on the ground inopen woods or an overgrown field and lining it with dead leaves. She incubates her foureggs alone for about three weeks. The nest is protected from discovery by her plumage,which looks like the forest floor, and by her habit of sitting tightly without flushing evenwhen a human reaches down and touches her. A few hours after hatching, the young leave the nest. The mother feeds them for several days until they begin to probe for foodon their own. They are independent at about five weeks. As with other ground nesters,the mother does distraction displays to keep predators away from her babies.

During breeding season, woodcocks are found from Minnesota to Texas and east tothe Coast. In fall, they migrate by night to their wintering grounds in the southern states.Some populations of this species are declining, due in part to habitat loss and pesticideingestion. Woodcocks are also a popular game bird, although they wouldn’t make muchof a meal, as they are slightly smaller than mourning doves and only slightly larger thanrobins.

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Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura

Most of us have woken at one time or another to the plaintive cooing of the mourning dove. We have known this bird from childhood whether we are birdwatchers or not. It ispresent during the breeding season in all the states and year round in all but the farnorth. One can see it in any kind of semi-open habitat—farms, towns, open woods, road-sides, prairies, and deserts. Mourning doves thrive in habitat altered by humans, andtheir numbers have increased as human settlement has increased.

The term “billing and cooing” comes from the mating ritual of these birds. The malestruts and coos before his mate with his chest puffed out and head nodding. Just beforecopulation, the female puts her bill inside that of her mate and they bob up and down

several times. As part of the ritual, the male also flies up, making a whistling sound withhis wings, then glides to the ground in a long circle.

The male leads his mate to potential nest sites and she chooses one, usually in a treeor shrub. He gathers nesting material and she builds the nest, a flimsy platform of twigslined with fine materials. Both parents incubate the two eggs for about two weeks. Atfirst, the nestlings receive a pure diet of “pigeon milk,” a substance rich in fat and proteinthat the adults produce in their crops. After a few days, the young birds begin to receivea mixture of pigeon milk and partially digested seeds or fruit. Fledging occurs at abouttwo weeks. Before then, the female may have already laid her second clutch of eggs inthe same nest. Mourning doves are prolific, raising as many as six broods in a season.

This bird’s diet is ninety-nine percent seeds, which it swallows whole. The seeds are ro-tated and crushed in its gizzard, a muscular section of the stomach that takes the placeof teeth and jaws. Large amounts of grit, such as sand and pebbles, which the dove alsoswallows, enhance the grinding action of the gizzard. All birds have gizzards, but theirmorphology differs depending on their diets. In birds that eat primarily soft foods, thegizzard is more like the rest of the stomach.

Although the mourning dove is hunted in many states, its numbers remain high inmost areas. However, a steady decline has occurred in Minnesota since1966 . In spiteof this decline, in2004 the state instituted a dove hunting season for the first time in

fifty-eight years. Ironically, the decline is due in part to birds dying from the ingestion of lead shot, which they swallow for grit. The dove is an emblem of peace. To shoot one forpleasure or the bit of food it might provide seems like a contradiction to me.

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Black-billed CuckooCoccyzus erythropthalmus

One day, early in my birding career, I glimpsed a strange-looking bird slipping furtivelythrough dense brush near my house. It looked larger but more slender than a robin, hada long tail, and was brownish above, whitish below. I couldn’t imagine what it was, so I be-gan methodically paging through my field guide. When I came to the cuckoos, I immedi-ately recognized the mystery bird. At that time, all I knew about cuckoos was that theyperiodically popped out of clocks singing their name.

Now I know that the cuckoo family consists of about one hundred forty speciesworldwide. The most familiar in North America are the black-billed and yellow-billedcuckoos. The common cuckoo of Europe is the bird of the clock, a bird that never builds

a nest or tends to its own young but lays its eggs in the nests of other species.The black-bill and yellow-bill sometimes lay their eggs in each other’s nests but gener-

ally tend to their own eggs and young. They do not sound like cuckoo clocks but maysound like each other. The black-bill sings a musical rhythmiccu, commonly in series of threes, but sometimes issues a guttural knocking vocalization. Its cousin sings a woodenrepeated kowpbut also makes a cooing sound. In addition to their similar vocalizations,they look very much alike, which makes them difficult to differentiate from a distance.What sets them apart are the black-bill’s small white undertail spots, reddish eye-ring,and black bill in contrast to the yellow-bill’s bold white undertail spots and yellow lowermandible. Although they are large for songbirds, their inconspicuous plumage and secre-tive habits make them easier to hear than to see.

Both species winter in South America and breed in thickets on the edges of woods ormarshes from the East to the Midwest. The black-bill breeds farthest north. Clutch sizeand population densities are associated with outbreaks of the hairy tent caterpillar, theirpreferred food. Other caterpillars and insects that they find by hopping around in shrubsor on low branches are also part of their diet, as are snails, small fish, eggs of other birds,berries, and fruit.

Males feed their mates during courtship, then help to build the nest, a loose platformof sticks placed in a bush or the dense branches of a small tree. Both sexes incubate the

eggs and feed the nestlings. The young leave the nest and climb around in the branchesas early as one week after hatching. They can fly at about three weeks.Loss of habitat due to human development is a concern for both species but more

so for the yellow-billed cuckoo, which has shown a significant decline in recent years.Black-bill populations are relatively stable. Although both species occur in my woods,the black-bill is more common.

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Eastern Screech-OwlOtus asio

A wavering whinny permeates the woods in the middle of the night. The sound seems tocome from a larger entity than the little screech-owl, which is even smaller than a cardi-nal. A long musical trill usually accompanies the whinny. Screech-owls primarily inhabitdeciduous woods but will reside in almost any area that has some open ground and largetrees, including city parks. One Halloween night, I saw a screech-owl perched like a statueabove the entrance to a church in Winona, Minnesota.

During pair formation, the male raises his wings, snaps his bill, blinks at the female,and brings food to her with much hopping and bowing. Mates preen each other’s feath-ers and sing duets. They nest in tree cavities and artificial boxes, including those meant

for wood ducks. Mates often roost together in the nest, but incubation of the four to fiveeggs for about twenty-six days is mostly by the female. Both sexes feed the young, whichfledge in about four weeks but remain with the adults for some time longer. The parentsoften bring live wormlike blind snakes to the nest. The snakes live in the debris eating in-sect larvae, thus reducing brood parasites.

The screech-owl diet consists primarily of large insects and small rodents but may alsoinclude amphibians, worms, and small songbirds. It is a common practice for songbirds togather fluttering and calling around a perched owl. This mobbing behavior helps to di-vert the predator from fledglings or annoy it enough to make it fly away. Birdwatchers,aware of this habit, often imitate the owl’s calls to draw songbirds into sight.

One day last winter, I went out with several friends, including John Hockema, who isknown for his ability to identify many species by nuances in their one-note calls, which tomost ears sound like they could be coming from any bird. He is also good at mimicking the sounds of birds. By mimicking a screech-owl that day, he drew in chickadees, nut-hatches, titmice, cardinals, and woodpeckers. While watching these birds, we noticed apattern in the bark of a dead elm that depicted a perfect image of the little owl. Whenone eye of the image slowly opened and closed and the wind rustled an ear tuft, we real-ized we were seeing a real bird.

The eastern screech-owl is present year round in the East and Midwest. It has threecolor morphs or phases, which vary from gray to red to brown. The similarly plumagedwestern screech-owl resides in the West and varies from gray to brown. The eastern pop-ulation, although still common, has gradually declined over recent years, possibly due tothe absence of trees with cavities suitable for nesting. The placement of nest boxes hashelped to slow its decline.

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Barred OwlStrix varia

When I left the city for the country, I couldn’t sleep at first because the woods were soquiet. Then one night, as I lay awake in the silence, a humanlike scream followed by ademonic cackling pierced the air, striking something primitive in me that made me forgetto breathe. The next morning, I found no dead bodies or evidence of a struggle. A fewnights later, I heard the same sounds preceded by the typicalwho cooks for you?hooting of a barred owl. Although they still strike a primitive chord, I now welcome these soundsfrom my old neighbors.

Often I will notice what looks like a growth on a tree, only to realize it is a superblycamouflaged barred owl staring at me out of its penetrating dark eyes. Eventually, the

bird lifts its wings and flies silently through the dark forest. Serrated primary feathers oneach of the owl’s wings disrupt the airflow, thus allowing for the silent flight.

In locating its prey, the owl’s large and asymmetrical ear openings are its greatest as-sets. A sound coming from above will seem louder in the ear with the higher opening. Asound from below will seem louder in the opposite ear. It can also locate the direction of a sound by the difference in time it takes to reach each ear. These adaptations allow thebird to hone in on the faint squeaking of a mouse from more than f ifty yards away.

The barred owl is a bird of deep pine and hardwood forests. An isolated woodlot withnumerous mature trees may also serve its purposes. It is a permanent resident from Min-nesota to the Gulf Coast and east to the Atlantic Ocean. Although it is relatively com-mon in our area, logging operations are reducing its available habitat.

Barred owls form long-term pair bonds and will use one nest cavity for successiveyears. Courtship and mating occur in late winter. The male feeds the incubating femaleon the nest. The young, usually two, hatch in about thirty days and stay in or near thenest for around twelve weeks.

One summer, several evenings in a row, I heard an intense insectlike hissing that rosein pitch, then stopped abruptly. It seemed slightly sinister, and I felt a delicious warinesswhile stepping through the dark. I described the sound on my birding listserv, but beforereceiving any suggestions I solved the puzzle. It must be a flying squirrel! The descriptionin my guidebook seemed to fit, and I gleefully reported it on my listserv. The nextevening, however, on hearing the sound, I looked up into a tree and saw a young owl beg-ging for food. I, of course, had to report my error, thus tarnishing my reputation as an ex-perienced birder.

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Whip-poor-willCaprimulgus vociferus

On spring and summer evenings in leafy woodlands from the East Coast to Minnesotaand south, the whip-poor-will sings its name up to1,000 times without a break. In his journal entry of June19, 1912 , Johan Hvoslef wrote, “It was really a solemn ride we hadthrough the dense dark woods below Skrukkerud with all theAntrostomus[old genusname for whip-poor-will] offering up their weird notes to the spirits of the evening—ortheir longing sweethearts.”

The whip-poor-will feeds on night-flying insects by flying out from a perch or along theedges of woods and capturing its prey in its wide gaping mouth. During the day, the birdrests on the ground, where its markings make it almost impossible to distinguish from the

leaf litter.The male sings to attract a mate or defend his territory. In courtship, he undulates,

bobs, and circles the female while making a purring sound. The female lays two eggs onthe ground without building a nest and incubates them alone for about twenty days.Both parents feed the young. Nesting is synchronized with the lunar cycle so that theparents will be feeding their young when brighter moonlight makes foraging easiest.Fledging occurs about twenty days after hatching. The mother may start a second broodwhile the father is still feeding the first.

To protect her babies, the mother engages in distraction displays. In his1976 book Parent Birds and Their Young , Alexander Skutch described watching a whip-poor-will hissing and moaning while beating her wings against the branch where she perched, then circling around him to land on the same perch and begin displaying again. After watching thisroutine for fifteen minutes he left, not wanting to prolong her distress.

My friend Karla Kinstler, director of the Houston Nature Center in southeastern Min-nesota, reported an experience she had with this bird. She wrote, “Normally we hearwhip-poor-wills way back behind our house. But in2004 a whip-poor-will repeatedlycame into the yard. On June15 I heard the familiarwhip-poor-will coming from very closeto the house, so I opened a window and slowly stuck my head outside. Without a doubt,this bird was singing from inside the garage! When my husband cautiously walked into the

garage, the bird flew right past him into the woods. I wonder what the nesting phoebe inthe garage thought of all the loud whip-poor-willing going on.”This species winters in the southeastern states and Central America. In recent dec-

ades, its numbers have decreased, possibly due to deforestation on its wintering groundsand loss and fragmentation of its habitat in northern areas. I used to hear these birds of-ten on my property. Now, I have to go elsewhere to hear their haunting songs.

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Ruby-throated HummingbirdArchilochus colubris

One day when I was hiking along Shattuck Creek in a narrow, wooded valley near myhome, a ruby-throated hummingbird whirred by on her way to a patch of grayish-greenlichen on a horizontal branch overlooking the water. I would never have recognized thepatch as a nest i f I hadn’t seen the bird settle into its tiny bowl, a bowl built to stretch likea womb as babies grow. She alone had created this small wonder from plant down, fiber,bud scales, and lichen and had attached it to the branch with spider silk. She alone wouldsit on her two eggs for about two weeks and care for her young. Then she would start asecond brood.

Besides a spectacular mating dance, the male’s only contributions to this process are

his genes. He and the female are rarely seen together except during courtship, when heflies back and forth in a wide arc like a child on a swing. His buzzing and twittering oftenalert me to this display, and I watch as his iridescent ruby throat flashes off and on. Thecolor of his throat is not due to pigment but to transparent cells over the feathers that re-flect only ruby-colored light. When the angle is just right, the color becomes visible. Thefemale and young birds have whitish throats.

Of the world’s three-hundred-some species of hummingbirds, most live in tropicalAmerica. A dozen or so live in the western states. Only the ruby-throat is common fromMinnesota to the Atlantic Coast, where it frequents open woods, gardens, or city parks,hovering to gather nectar from feeders and tubular flowers with its long, narrow bill andsticky tongue. Small insects that it snatches from the air or steals from spider webs alsoprovide nourishment.

Beating their wings eighty times per second, thus producing the sounds for which theyare named, hummingbirds can fly straight up and down, backwards, and sideways. Theselittle whirlwinds are extremely territorial, and it often seems that they could spend theirtime better by feeding than by chasing away interlopers. However, a hummer that suc-cessfully defends a patch of flowers, which produces only so much nectar a day, may findall the food it needs in that one place. Usually when I am filling the nectar feeders, one of these fearless living helicopters hovers so close that the air stirred by its propellers fansmy face.

After consuming enough food to double their weight, ruby-throats fly all the way toMexico or Central America for the winter. The males are first to come north in spring.The females soon follow, some of them returning like the great bald eagles to the samenests they occupied in previous years. In spite of a decline in recent years, this species re-mains abundant.

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Belted KingfisherCeryle alcyon

A distinctive loud rattle along the South Fork of the Root River alerts me to the presenceof a belted kingfisher. I watch as she flies downstream, making a wide detour around theplace where I stand. She lands, still rattling, on a branch overlooking the water. I noticethe raised crest of her large head and the blue and rufous bands across her breast, whichtell me she is a female. The male has only a blue band. If I am lucky, I will see her plungeheadfirst from her perch or from a hovering position into the water to catch a fish withher large bill. Like other birds such as owls and gulls, she will later cough up a pellet of in-digestible bones and scales.

Her name fits her well. In Anglo-Saxon, kingfisher means king of the fishes. In Greek,

Cerylemeans kingfisher, thus the bird’s genus name. A Greek fable states that Alcyone,daughter of Aeolus, grieved so deeply for her shipwrecked husband that she threw her-self into the sea and was transformed into a kingfisher, thus the species name.

Kingfishers are solitar y except when breeding. In display, mates make rapidly repeatedmewing calls and the male feeds the female. The nest site is at the end of a three- tosix-foot horizontal tunnel in a vertical bank near water. Both sexes excavate the tunnel.Both sexes sit on the six to seven eggs, the female at night, her mate during the day. Bothparents feed the nestlings a diet primarily of small fish but also crayfish, frogs, and in-sects. Fledging takes place at about four weeks, after which the adults teach their young to fish by dropping dead catches into the water for retrieval. About three weeks later, af-ter the young have learned to catch live food, the parents drive their offspring out of their territory.

I have seen holes in banks that appear to be kingfisher tunnels but have never seen abird entering or leaving them, nor have I ever entertained the idea of reaching inside one.However, an acquaintance once showed me the scars left from a kingfisher bill, when, asa child, she accepted a dare to poke her hand into one of these tunnels.

Of the ninety-one species of kingfishers worldwide, only the belted is common in theUnited States. Although it is present year round across most of the country, some birdsmigrate along coasts, lakeshores, and rivers to northern South America for the winter.Most kingfishers leave my area in the fall, but every year during the coldest days of Janu-ary I hear the familiar rattle coming from a perch in a bare tree over the South Fork. Pop-ulations have declined slightly in recent years, which may be due to the loss of suitablenesting sites.

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Red-bellied WoodpeckerMelanerpes carolinus

The throaty chuck, chuck, chuckof the red-bellied woodpecker is ubiquitous yet wild andprimitive, a surrogate voice of the forest, as though the trees themselves are laughing. Itsboisterous, undulating flight speaks for the energy of the woods, as though the treesthemselves are flying.

Divisions in nature are not always as distinct as we perceive them. The red-belly’s sym-biotic relationship with trees seems to blur the borders between living things. It roostsin trees, builds its nest inside them, and contributes to their health by using its chisel-shaped bill and long, barbed tongue to dislodge harmful insects. Its strong feet, with twotoes forward and back, allow it to grip a trunk so closely that the bird looks like part of

the tree, an image enhanced by the black and white barklike barring on its upperparts.The male’s bright red head and nape, however, give him away as does the female’s rednape, hind crown, and nasal areas. Stiff tail feathers brace the bird as it works itself up atrunk.

At any time of year, red-bellies interact vigorously, making it difficult to determinewhether the interaction relates to courtship or aggression. Common displays include headbowing, bill pointing, drumming, and two birds bobbing around a trunk shoutingwika,wika, wika. Mates engage in drumming duets.

A grove of poplar trees near my house has provided nest sites for many woodpeckers.On April14, 2002 , I observed a male red-belly excavating a nest hole in one of thesetrees. A few days later, he was working on another hole nearby. On May1, he was working the first one again. Both adults were entering the first hole on May10 . In the morning of May 14 , I saw the female change places with her incubating mate. By May29 , the parentswere flying from the feeders to the nest with suet, sunflower seeds, and bits of orangesfor their young. By the end of June, the young birds, then as big as their parents, werecoming to the feeders, still begging for food but also feeding themselves. They were acomical sight with their gray-feathered heads that made them look bald.

Red-bellied woodpeckers have adapted well to the presence of humans. They havebeen extending their range north for many decades and are now permanent residents

from southeast Minnesota to Texas and eastward. They probably reached southeastMinnesota about the time that Johan Hvoslef recorded his first sighting. On November10, 1906 , Hvoslef wrote, “I heard an unfamiliar sound and at last detected a bird I hadnever seen before. It was a femaleMelanerpes carolinus: its sharp, far sounding cry was re-peated every now and then. The red patch at the nap of the neck was bright and con-spicuous while the red of the belly was indistinct.”

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Downy WoodpeckerPicoides pubescens

Also called Tommy woodpecker and black and white driller, the downy is our smallestand most widespread woodpecker, residing year round throughout the country exceptfor the far Southwest. It is present in the deciduous trees of wilderness forests, second-growth woods, small woodlots, orchards, and shady neighborhoods of large cities. I findup to a dozen of these agile, acrobatic birds around my feeders every day, except during the period when they are molting. Sometimes I see them hanging upside down on weedstalks. They have the same short legs, strong claws, and stiff tails as other woodpeckers,which allow them to work their way up trunks gleaning insects both from within the bark and on the surface. Insects comprise about eighty percent of their diets, but they also

eat berries and come to feeders for sunflower seeds and suet.When I am tending the feeders, a downy will approach closely and give a soft, dry rat-

tle. At these times, I can see the dark bars on its outer tail feathers that distinguish it fromthe hairy woodpecker, a close but larger relative with a proportionally larger bill. From adistance, it is difficult to tell one species from the other. Their pik or peek calls are alsosimilar but can be learned with practice. The downy’s drumming on whatever resonantwood or metal it can find is almost slow enough to count each beat, while the hairy’s isvery fast but has longer pauses between sequences. A red patch on the back of the headis present in the males of both species and absent in the females. In both species, the ju-venile males and females have reddish foreheads.

In fall and early winter, male and female downies maintain separate territories. Eachbird excavates its own roost. In late winter, each member of a pair selects its own drum-ming post and the drumming duets begin. Over the next several months, the mates willincreasingly synchronize their activities. After beginning several excavations, the pair willfinally agree on a nest site in dead wood twelve to thirty feet above ground. Both sexesexcavate the cavity, which is usually camouflaged by surrounding lichen or moss. Thefour to five eggs hatch in about twelve days. Both adults incubate and later brood andfeed the nestlings. The male may do most of the brooding. The young leave the nest atabout three weeks of age and remain near their parents for around three more weeks. In

winter, adults and juveniles often forage with other small birds.Although by nature this species’ diet consists mostly of insects, downies come to myfeeders so consistently that it makes me wonder if the readily available and reliablesources of food at backyard feeding stations could result in an evolutionary change of diet and how such a change would affect the ecological balance.

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Northern FlickerColaptes auratus

Except for the crow-size pileated woodpecker, the northern flicker, also known as yellow-hammer, yarrup, and hairy wicket, is our largest woodpecker. Because of its large size andfull body, I sometimes mistake it for a small hawk, especially since it often perches uprightinstead of clinging to trunks of trees. But i t is not averse to tree climbing and has the samespecialized equipment for this activity as other woodpeckers.

Unlike other woodpeckers, the flicker spends much of its time on the ground looking for ants, its primary source of food. It probably consumes more ants than any bird in thecountry. Other insects, which it catches in mid-air or gleans from bark while working itsway up trunks, also provide nourishment as do fruits and berries, which it gathers by

perching on the outer limbs of trees and shrubs.The flicker’s territorial and cour tshipkuk, kuk, kuk call is similar to the pileated’s but dif-

fers in its higher pitch, faster pace, and sustained rhythm. Itswika, wika, wikacall is similarto that of the red-belly. A low-pitched throaty warble, given near the nest, warns of dan-ger. A nasal down-slurred peeoow keeps family members in touch. The bird’s nonvocaldrumming is given in short bursts.

Besides calling and drumming, flicker displays include swinging their heads back andforth and spreading their wings and tail to show off their bright undersides. Both sexesexcavate a nest cavity, with the male choosing the site in the dead wood of a tree or post.Both adults incubate the five to eight eggs, the male at night and part of the day. Bothparents feed the young, which hatch in about two weeks and fledge about four weekslater.

The northern flicker’s appearance is the most varied of any woodpecker. It has twoprimary forms, which were once considered different species. The male yellow-shafted inthe East and North has yellow wing linings, a red nape crescent, and a black mustache.The male red-shafted in the West has reddish wing linings, no nape crescent, and a redmustache. Females of both kinds lack a mustache. In the Great Plains, where their rangesoverlap, these forms interbreed, resulting in a variety of intergrades.

Some form of flicker is present year around throughout most of the country in open

forests, towns, and areas with very few trees. The yellow-shafted is the most migratory. Infall, it travels in flocks, moving east then south down the Atlantic coast. Most of thesebirds migrate out of my area in the fall, but some remain here all year long. When snow ison the ground, I most commonly hear their peeoow call, which suggests the presence of family groups. Surveys show a decline in population since the1960 s, possibly due to theencroachment of starlings on nesting sites or human use of antkillers.

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Pileated WoodpeckerDryocopus pileatus

One day many years ago, before I was a birdwatcher, I glimpsed a live cartoon character,Woody Woodpecker, while driving through the Big Woods. No one who was with me sawthe bird, and I later thought I must have imagined it. Now I know it was a pileated wood-pecker, the largest woodpecker in North America next to the similarly shaped ivory-billthat once inhabited much of the Southeast and was thought to be extinct until February11, 2004 , when it was found again in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas more than sixtyyears after the last confirmed sighting.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the clearing of forests, the pileatedseemed to be heading toward extinction also, but in the twentieth century it began

adapting to the proximity of people and second-growth forests, where only a few largetrees were present, thus ensuring its survival. It now inhabits hardwood, conifer, andmixed forests, woodlots, and parks. Any time of year, I can hear the pileated’s irregular,ringingcuk, cuk, cuk calls and see it flying through my woods. I find evidence of the bird’spresence in wood chips at the bases of dead trees where it has excavated sections asmuch as seven feet long while foraging for carpenter ants, its favorite food. Besides antsand other insects, this species also eats wild fruits, berries, nuts, and suet.

The pileated defends its large territory with slow, powerful drumming and penetrating calls. Courtship activity includes gliding flight displays, crest raising, head swinging, bob-bing around trunks, and wing spreading, which shows off the flashy white undersides of its wings. Both sexes excavate the nest cavity, which is new each year but in the same areaas previous years. The entrance is usually oval and the depth ranges from ten to twenty-four inches. Both adults incubate the three to five eggs for about eighteen days and feedthe nestlings, which fledge about four weeks after hatching but remain with their parentsfor two to three more months.

In 1987 , I discovered a pileated nestling poking its big head out of a hole about fiftyfeet high in a barkless elm near one of my woodland paths. Soon the father arrived withfood, which it jabbed down the baby’s throat. Amid much loud begging, the mother ar-rived with more food. She had a flaming red crest like the father but lacked his red mus-

tache. I returned home and called members of our fledgling bird club, who came towatch and take photographs.The pileated woodpecker has attracted the attention of people across its range from

Minnesota south to Texas and east to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the other names bywhich this bird is known—logcock, cock of the woods, and great god woodpecker—at-test to the impression it has made.

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Eastern PhoebeSayornis phoebe

The eastern phoebe is an early migrant, usually arriving in my woods in late March, whensnow is still on the ground. Its hoarse, insistentfeebeesong is a welcome sign of spring. Iwatch as it pumps its tail in its typical manner while perching conspicuously at the end of a branch, then flies out to catch an insect in midair. The phoebe is a member of the fly-catcher family, which consists of about three hundred eighty species and is the largestfamily of birds limited to the New World. Although the family name comes from thehabit of catching insects in flight, many flycatchers also gather insects from foliage.

The female phoebe arrives on breeding grounds about two weeks after the male. Pairformation occurs quickly after brief erratic flight chases. The male defends his territory

by singing, especially early in the morning. Originally, phoebes placed their nests in theniches of cliffs near water. With the advent of man-made structures, preferred nesting sites changed to such places as rafters of barns, ledges under porches, and girders underbridges. The birds often return to sites from previous years, sometimes renovating oldnests.

Every year from1998 through 2004 , a phoebe nested on a rung of our overturnedcanoe, which is stored across the rafters outside our workshop. The first year, I watchedher construct the base of her cup nest with mud pellets, then build it up with moss,leaves, and grass. Each year, she added more moss so that the sides grew from less thantwo inches to about four inches high. Each year, I watched for the wide-open bills of thebabies rising above the nest. One day in May2001 , I saw two little bills awaiting food. Aweek later, only one baby remained, a large cowbird baby that filled the whole nest. In2004 , the phoebe again raised a cowbird but every other year she raised one or twobroods of her own young. Although the male neither helps to build the nest or incubatethe eggs, he helps feed insects to the four to five nestlings, which fledge about sixteendays after hatching.

As with many of the flycatchers, phoebes recognize their own species primarily bysound. In general, passerines, or perching birds, must learn some of their vocal reper toirefrom their parents, but young phoebes know their songs from birth and can sing them

perfectly even when raised in isolation. The females also sing, which sets them apart frommost other species.Eastern phoebes inhabit open and riparian woodlands, rocky ravines, and farmland

with scattered trees. They breed from the Midwest to the East Coast and migrate to thesoutheastern states and Mexico for the winter. In spite of frequent cowbird predation,their numbers appear to be stable.

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Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus

This flycatcher, a handsome bird with sharply contrasting black and white markings, hasone touch of color, a patch of red crown feathers that are rarely visible. I have never seenthis color, but others say it appears during aggression or courtship display. In courtship,the male performs a rapid up-and-down flight, does backward flips, and hovers and tum-bles in midair. Mates commonly greet each other with a fluttering of wings.

The female, possibly with help from the male, builds a bulky cup nest of weeds, moss,bark strips, plant down, cloth, and string. Long strands of nesting materials hang off theedges. The nest is in the same area as other years, usually near the tip of a horizontalbranch in a deciduous tree or large shrub and sometimes on top of a stump in water or a

fence post in open country. Incubation is by the female and averages about seventeendays. When she finds a cowbird egg in her nest, she ejects the egg or damages it. Bothparents bring insects to their three or four nestlings and carry out fecal sacs, which theydrop from particular perches. After fledging, which occurs at around seventeen days, theyoung birds remain with their parents for about another month. The timing of breeding may relate to insect abundance.

Kingbirds are fierce protectors of their young and their territories, commonly defend-ing against humans who approach too closely and large birds such as crows, owls, andhawks. They fly as high as one hundred feet, where they persistently attack intruders fromabove. This behavior has earned them the nameTyr annus tyrannus(tyrant tyrant). Al-though not as aggressive as kingbirds, other species in this family vigorously defend theirterritories also, thus earning the whole family the common name of tyrant flycatchers andthe scientific name tyrannidae.

As with other flycatchers, the kingbird watches for insects from a conspicuous perch,flies to snatch its prey out of the air, and then returns like a boomerang to the same ornearby perch. It also hovers to pick berries and fruit out of foliage, especially on its win-tering grounds in the tropical forests of South America.

The eastern kingbird is common in summer from the East Coast to the Great Plainsand the Northwest. It frequents farmlands, roadsides, forest edges, marshes, and grass-

lands and prairies with a few scattered trees. In the past, I frequently saw this bird in thefield next to my house and heard its buzzy sputtering song. Over the years, the woodshas encroached on the field and the bird has disappeared. I still see it often, though, onnearby roadsides, perched on power lines or fence wires, where I can easily recognize itsbehavior and the conspicuous white terminal band on its tail.

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Red-eyed VireoVireo olivaceus

Af

Documents

Nancy Overcott, Dana Gardner Fifty Common Birds of the Upper Midwest 2006