The Wild Turkey
Sex Differences: Male larger, with much more prominent beard, head and neck completely bare, often bluish.
Fun Fact: The male Wild Turkey provides no parental care. When the eggs hatch, the chicks follow the female. She feeds them for a few days, but they quickly learn to feed themselves.
Wild Turkeys eat a great variety of foods, including: insects, spiders, snails, slugs, salamanders, small lizards, small frogs, millipedes, grasshoppers, very small snakes, worms, grasses, vines, flowers, acorns, buds, seeds, fruits, clovers, dogwood, blueberries, cherries, hickory nuts, beechnuts, and other vegetation.
Meleagris gallopavo
Male wild
turkey
Female wild turkey
Order:GALLIFORMESFamily: PHASIANIDAE
The Wild Turkey Territories
American Robin
Sex Differences: Sexes look similar; female paler, especially on the head.
The American Robin eats both fruit and invertebrates. Earthworms are important during the breeding season, but fruit is the main diet during winter. Robins eat different types of food depending on the time of day; they eat earthworms early in the day and more fruit later in the day.
Fun Fact: An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive into November.
Turdus migratorius
Order: PASSERIFORMES Family:
TURDIDAE
The American Robin’s Summer and Winter Territories
The Eastern Bluebird
Sex Differences: Male is a dark blue with bright reddish chest. Female is a drab gray-blue with duller reddish chest.
Fun Fact: The male Eastern Bluebird does a "Nest Demonstration Display" at the nest cavity to attract the female. He brings nest material to the hole, goes in and out, and waves his wings while perched above it.
Bluebirds feed mainly on insects but will eat fruits and berries, especially in winter. They will come to a bird feeder to eat suet and will readily use a birdbath.
Sialia sialis Order: PASSERIFORMES Family: TURDIDAE
Male eastern bluebird
Female eastern bluebird
Eastern Bluebird’s Territories
The Northern Cardinal
Sex Differences: Males are a brilliant red, and females are tan.
Brighter red males hold territories with denser vegetation, feed at higher rates, and have greater reproductive success than duller males.
Fun Fact: Northern Cardinals lay three or four pale green eggs, with brown spots. The female does most of the incubating, but the male helps when he isn't looking for food. Eggs hatch in about 12 days.
N Cardinals mostly eat fruits and seeds throughout the year, but will rely somewhat on insects during the summer. They also sometimes
eat flowers and buds.
Male northern cardinal
Female northern cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis Order: PASSERIFORMES
Family: CARDINALIDAE
Northern Cardinal’s Terrirories
The American Goldfinch
Sex Differences: Summer male is bright yellow with a black cap whereas female is drab olive. Sexes similar and drab in winter.
Fun Fact: The American Goldfinch changes from winter plumage to breeding plumage by a complete molt
of its body feathers. Their diet consists of thistle seeds but
they also enjoy seeds from birches, alders, conifers and other trees. They also eat seeds from goldenrod, asters, burdock, dandelion, chicory as well as garden seeds. Also berries and insects are apart of their diet.
Carduelis tristis Order: PASSERIFORMES Family: FRINGILLIDAE Subfamily: Carduelinae
Summer male and Winter male
Summer female and Winter male
American Goldfinch’s Terrories