2025

Barn Owl

The Barn Owl is well-known for its ghost-like appearance and eerie screeches, rather than hoots, and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Barn Owls are excellent nocturnal hunters, using their exceptional hearing and broad wings to locate prey in open habitats like fields and farmlands, often nesting in (you guessed it) barns and other rural structures.

They are birds of prey, hunting and catching small mammals, particularly voles and shrews, using extraordinary adaptations to help them hunt at night, such as incredibly sensitive hearing and the ability to spot movement in very low light. Read more

Black-capped Chickadee

This vivacious little bird lives all across North America in deciduous and mixed forests and is well known for it vocalizations, including its fee-bee song and its chick-a-dee-dee-dee call, from which it derives its name.

Black-capped Chickadees feed primarily on insects and seeds, and are known for their ability to cache food for later use during winter. The hippocampus (a major section of the brain) of the Black-capped Chickadee actually grows during the caching season, which is believed to help it better remember its cache locations! Read more

Anhinga

The Anhinga gets its name from a’ñinga in the Brazilian Tupi language and means “devil bird” or “snake bird”. The origin of the name becomes obvious when you see an Anhinga swimming with only its neck above water, which makes it look like a snake ready to strike.

It is a water bird that lives in the warmer parts of the United States including the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to Texas and in the Mississippi Valley north to Kentucky and Missouri. Read more

Chukar

The Chukar is a plump, ground-dwelling bird in the pheasant family, native to Eurasia but introduced to North America as a game bird. Chukars are known for their habit of running uphill and flying downhill, making them a challenging target for hunters.

In the non-breeding season, Chukars form small coveys of 10 or more (up to 50) birds. During breeding time cocks are very pugnacious in their calling and fighting and perform “tidbitting” displays, a form of courtship feeding where the male pecks at food and a female may visit to peck in response. Males then chase females with head lowered, wing lowered and neck fluffed. Read more

Golden-cheeked Warbler

The Golden-cheeked Warbler is an endangered species that breeds in Central Texas and is the only bird species with a breeding range restricted to Texas.

Golden-cheeked Warblers typically forage by grabbing insects from foliage and branches, a strategy known as gleaning. They also employ a strategy known as sallying by resting at branch edges until the opportunity arises to snatch insects that fly past. They feed on various insects and spiders with caterpillars a primary source of food. Read more

Least Bittern

This extremely shy bird is the smallest member of the heron family found in America.

The Least Bittern is an elusive bird spending much of its time straddling reeds. When alarmed, the least bittern freezes in place with its bill pointing up, turns its front and both eyes toward the source of alarm, and sometimes sways to resemble wind-blown marsh vegetation. This predator-avoidance behavior makes the bittern less vulnerable to many potential predators. Because of its habit of perching among the reeds, the Least Bittern can feed from the surface of water that would be too deep for the wading strategy of other herons. Read more

Green-winged Teal

These compact, perky little ducks hold the record for smallest dabbling duck in North America. They are about the size of a robin, but what they lack in size they make up in numbers with some wintering flocks containing up to 50,000 members!

Green-winged Teals inhabit inland lakes, marshes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent and aquatic vegetation.

They nest in small depressions on dry ground usually near the base of shrubs, under logs, or in dense grass. The nest is usually concealed both from the side and from above in heavy grass, weeds, or brushy cover. Read more

Smooth-billed Ani

In my quest for the rare and unusual I found this member of the cuckoo family with a magnificent proboscis. Only seen in the United States in southern Florida in open and semi-open country, the Smooth-billed Ani is one of the few bird species that has actually benefited from deforestation. It has proved to have an exceptional capacity for adaptation to new environments.

Smooth-billed Anis are always found in gregarious, noisy groups foraging for insects. In pastures, they will follow cattle and catch the insects they flush out. They forage on the ground and in bushes, running and hopping awkwardly with one member of the group perching up high as a lookout for danger. Read more

Red-headed Woodpecker

This starkly-tricolored bird is one of only four North American woodpeckers that store food. But it goes one step further and covers the stored food with wood or bark. It will also hide seeds and insects under bark, under roof shingles and in cracks in wood. Red-headed Woodpeckers eat insects, fruits, seeds, nuts, berries and even small rodents.

Their breeding habitat is open country across the east-central United States and southern Canada. Once they establish their territory the female chooses the location of the nesting cavity alerting her mate to it by tapping on the site. Both parents drill out the nesting cavity with the male doing most of the work. They excavate in dead trees and utility poles. Read more

Ruff

This Elizabethan looking shorebird lives mostly in Eurasia but is an uncommon visitor to United State’s coasts and Alaska.

Widely known for its strange looking courtship plumage and rituals, the male in spring has wildly varied colorations and patterns on their neck ruffs and head feathers. Males display during the breeding season at a lek (A lek is an assembly area where animals carry on display and courtship behavior). The Ruff is one of the few lekking species in which the display is primarily directed at other males rather than to the females. Read more

Brown Pelican

The Brown Pelican was formerly listed under the US Endangered Species Act from 1970 to 2009 as its numbers dwindled primarily due to the use of pesticides like DDT. After 1972 when the use of DDT was banned in Florida, followed by the rest of the US, they quickly recovered.

Brown Pelicans are found along the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Florida feeding mainly on fish but will also eat amphibians and crustaceans. They use a feeding strategy of diving from great heights to plunge into the water and trap fish in their large pouches. Usually flying at heights of 60 to 70 feet above the water gives them a strategic view to spot schools of fish. They plunge bill first like kingfishers snapping up prey, primarily Menhaden, which account for 90% of its diet. Eating anchovies is particularly important to the Brown Pelican’s nesting success. Read more

McKay’s Bunting

If you’re up for some high adventure then this is the bird for you. Your best chance to see it on is by traveling to its breeding grounds on remote St. Matthew Island or Hall Island in the bitterly cold Bering Sea.

These rare birds are shrouded in mystery and because where they live is so inaccessible there is little known about its habits and status.

Similar in color to the Snow Bunting but almost pure white, these tiny birds are members of the Passerine family of perching birds. Read more

Verdin

The Verdin is one of the smallest passerines (perching birds) in North America.

Loud for its size, Verdins have a variety of calls including a “tschep” sound repeated in rapid staccato often while foraging. It also has a “gee-gee-gee-gee” alarm call.

They can be found in southern Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and south to Mexico. Read more

Song Sparrow

What makes this little bird so remarkable? It is the most common and widespread sparrow native to North America. Of all the native sparrows in North America it is the most abundant, variable, and adapable.

It derives it name from its beautiful repertoire of songs. Males use their complex song to declare ownership of territory and naturally to attract a mate. Their singing is crisp and clear and although one bird may know many songs, up to 20 tunes they have been known to have as many as 1,000 variations on the basic theme! A 2022 study by Duke University found that male song sparrows memorize a 30-minute long playlist of their songs. One of the songs often heard in suburban locations closely resembles the opening four notes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Read more

Chestnut-collared Longspur

Chestnut-collared Longspurs are named for the long, slender claw (spur) on their hind toe and the rusty color on the nape of their neck.

They prefer native prairie lands with short grass and open vegetation. They forage on the ground eating mainly seeds but add insects such as grasshoppers and spiders to their diet in summer.

Like many prairie birds their numbers have diminished due to habitat loss. Read more

White-headed Woodpecker

This medium-sized uniquely colored woodpecker lives in the pine forests of the mountains of western United States. White-headed Woodpeckers typically roost in cavities, usually in ponderosa pines, but also roost in spaces behind peeling bark and in crevices within tree trunks. Cavities are also used as winter roosts, and frequently the same cavity is used over an entire season.

White-headed Woodpeckers use both live and dead trees for foraging. Pine seeds from large cones are a major part of the species diet, especially in fall and winter. They will also flake off bark to snatch insects. Unlike other woodpeckers they don’t drill holes into trees, which may explain why they have a shorter tongue than most woodpeckers. Read more

American Crow

Here a crow, there a crow, almost anywhere you go a crow. The range of this highly adaptable bird covers all of North America east to west and north to south. Crows are considered one of the most intelligent birds and have the same brain-weight-to-body as humans! Studies have shown that crows are self-aware and young crows take time to learn from their parents.

The American Crow is omnivorous and will feed on virtually anything. This is one reason why they are such a successful species. They will eat carrion, human food scraps, nuts, fish, eggs, seeds, rodents, frogs and other small animals. Read more

Eskimo Curlew

Also known as the Northern Curlew, this bird was once one of the most numerous shorebirds in the tundra of western Alaska and Arctic Canada with populations in the millions.

During the late 1800s thousands were killed every year and by the end of the century it’s estimated that over 2 million had been killed. Market hunters killed them because they were considered a delicacy and were easy to hunt because of their gregarious nature and lack of fear. At the same time their habitat of grasslands was being converted to farmland.

There has not been a reliable sighting since 1981 or a confirmed sighting since 1963. Read more

Sharp-shinned Hawk

This is the smallest hawk in the United States, slightly larger than a Blue Jay. It is widespread, living in a wide range of woodlands and forests especially broad-leaved trees like oaks.

The majority of its prey is small birds including sparrows, finches, wrens, nuthatches and even hummingbirds. Sharp-shinned Hawks employ a surprise and capture method flying out quickly from cover or through dense vegetation. Their long legs, long tails and short wings help them navigate deep woods at high speed. Read more

Yellow-headed Blackbird

A perfect match to its name, this striking bird is often found in the same marsh as the Red-winged Blackbird, displacing the smaller blackbird from sought after nesting sites.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds migrate in huge flocks usually with other species of birds. Some winter flocks are estimated to be in the millions and made up of a mix of different blackbird species as well as similar birds, like European starlings. During migration, males and females travel separately with the males typically arriving at the breeding grounds 2-3 weeks before the females. They breed in marshes across North America preferring plants such as cattails, bulrushes and reeds. Read more

American Redstart

This flashy oriole look alike is actually a warbler! Its genus name, Setophaga, is from the Ancient Greek word that mean moth eater.

The American Redstart is considered one of the most stable and abundant species of North American warblers. Its breeding territory spans southern Canada and the Eastern US. It is migratory, wintering in Central America, the West Indies and northern South America. When wintering it is often found in shade-grown coffee plantations. Read more

Yellow-rumped Warbler

This little warbler gets around. Its extensive range stretches from the eastern United States west to the Pacific, as well as Canada and south to Central America. During summer it prefers coniferous forests as its breeding habitat while during winter it is found in more open areas like shrublands.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are considered the most versatile foragers of all warblers, gleaning insects from leaves and catching them on the fly. They have even been spotted skimming insects from the surfaces of rivers and the ocean, picking them out of spider webs and snatching them off of piles of manure. Typically they eat caterpillars, beetles, ants, aphids, grasshoppers, gnats, craneflies and spiders. Males tend to forage higher in the trees than females. Read more

Northern Shoveler

Its easy to identify this dabbling duck with a large “shoveling” bill. The male’s bold coloring is another striking feature as is the female’s huge orange bill.

Like all dabbling ducks the Northern Shoveler forages head down in wetlands looking for tiny crustaceans and seeds. Their unique bill has around 110 comb- like projections that work as filters to separate food from the water. Groups of shovelers will sometimes form tight circles creating a vortex to bring food to the surface. Read more

Semipalmated Sandpiper

“The restlessness of shorebirds, their kinship with the distance and swift seasons, the wistful signal of their voices down the long coastlines of the world make them, for me, the most affecting of wild creatures. I think of them as birds of the wind, as ‘wind birds.'” — Peter Matthiessen, The Wind Birds

Like many shorebirds, the Semipalmated Sandpiper is a true marathon flyer. With a wingspan of only 12”, they make nonstop flights of over 3,300 miles from Canada to South America! These sandpipers forage on mudflats, picking up food by sight and feel using their beak. They mainly eat aquatic insects and their larvae, spiders, snails, worms and crustaceans. Like other long distance migrating birds, Semipalmated Sandpipers rely heavily on horseshoe crab eggs during spring migration. Read more

Red-faced Warbler

No it’s not embarrassed, but its startling, unmistakable face leaves no room for guesswork about this bird’s name. Red-faced Warblers are a species of New World warbler that is locally common in mountain forests of conifers and oak at fairly high elevations of 6,600 to 9,800 feet above sea level.

Its nest is a small cup constructed from leaves, grass, and pine needles hidden amongst the debris on the forest floor, buried in the ground, or sheltered under a shrub, log, or rock. They usually lay 3-4 pinkish-white eggs. They have the distinction of being one of only two North American warblers with red plumage, the other being the Painted Redstart. Read more

American Coot

Just take a look at those tootsies! This widespread bird is also known as a mud hen. Although often mistaken for a duck, it is a distant relation and belongs to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their legs and toes that help them walk on dry land.

American Coots are found near reed-ringed lakes and ponds, open marshes, and sluggish rivers. Their breeding habitat extends from marshes in southern Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as northern South America. Those in temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the southern United States. It is a year-round resident where water remains open in winter. Read more

American Herring Gull

If you seen a large gull at the beach, in a parking lot, or even at a land fill, chances are it’s an American Herring Gull. This is the most familiar “seagull” in the United States and its range covers all of North America.

American Herring Gulls are not picky eaters and will dine on fish, invertebrates and scraps they find in parking lots, picnic grounds and garbage dumps. They will steal food from other birds and humans. So, if you’re at the beach you may have to guard your lunch from these opportunist gulls. They also feed on clams and mussels by dropping them from a height on hard surfaces such as roads or rocks to break their shells. It is considered a learned behavior. Read more

Blue-footed Booby

This bird is a real stand out on the dance floor with its bright blue feet, but those blue feet are not just for show, they play an important role in their mating ritual. You can check out the dance at the link in Fun Facts. Their amazing blue coloration comes from the carotenoid pigments obtained through their diet of schooling fish.

Although native to the eastern Pacific Ocean where half the breeding population lives on the Galápagos Islands, they do visit the Salton Sea in California and the lower Colorado River. Read more

American Golden Plover

This elegant, medium-sized plover’s Latin name is pluvialis dominica. The first part refers to rain and the second part refers to Santo Domingo. It was once believed that Golden Plovers flocked when rain was imminent.

They breed in Arctic tundra in Canada and Alaska and migrate to South America. During the migration they gather in huge numbers in the American Midwest. American Golden Plovers have one of the longest migratory routes covering over 25,000 miles of which over 3,000 is across water where they cannot stop to feed or drink. Read more

Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken

This is another American bird whose population has been decimated over the decades. Where once the sound of the males could be heard throughout the gulf coast prairies of Texas and Louisiana in the early 1900s, when they numbered to about 1 million birds, now this species has dwindled to the edge of extinction.

Today, the Attwater’s Prairie-chicken is found in only two Texas counties.

The reasons for their demise are habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and overhunting. Other factors include, urbanization, industrial expansion, invasive plant species and brush encroachment due to fire suppression. Less than 1% of the estimated 6 million acres of gulf coastal prairie habitat remains today, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America. Read more

Common Raven

The Common Raven has been a bird of lore and a mysterious symbol to humans for thousands of years. It is one of the smartest birds in the world with a well-earned reputation for solving complex problems including tool usage and has learned to benefit from staying close to humans.

Common Ravens, like humans, have the ability to think abstractly, adapting their behavior by attributing their own perceptions to others. They are one of only four known animals (the others being bees, ants, and humans) who have demonstrated displacement, the capacity to communicate about objects or events that are distant in space or time. Read more

Clark’s Nutcracker

Mainly found in mountains at altitudes of 3,000–12,900 feet in conifer forests, the Clark’s Nutcracker was first described in 1805 by William Clark during the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. The other part of its name is fairly obvious. They are omnivores but their real favorite is pine nuts, which they bury in the ground during summer and retrieve in the winter by memory. One Clark’s Nutcracker can cache up to 98,000 seeds per season. This is one busy bird. They cache more than they actually need as an insurance policy again theft from others, particularly squirrels and chipmunks. Many of these cached seeds grow into new trees and so the Clark’s Nutcracker perpetuates its own habitat. The Clark’s Nutcracker is the primary seed dispenser for Whitebark Pine which is in decline due to widespread outbreaks of Mountain Pine Beetles and the long-term effects of fire suppression. Read more

Burrowing Owl

This clever bird has developed a tactic for attracting prey that is similar to baiting a hook when fishing. Burrowing Owls sometimes gather animal dung from nearby fields and place it around their burrows. The “bait” attracts dung beetles, which are major prey of theirs. One study compared dung beetle remnants in regurgitated pellets of owls that had dung placed around their burrows with those that did not. Owls with dung near their burrows consumed 10 times more beetles than the others!

Burrowing Owls have another clever trick. They often nest and roost in the burrows made by ground squirrels, a strategy also used by rattlesnakes. When threatened, the owl retreats to the burrow and produces rattling and hissing sounds similar to those of a rattlesnake. Read more

Eastern Meadowlark

“In the silver light after a storm, Under dripping boughs of bright new green,
I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks. Alone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.”

– Sara Teasdale

The Eastern Meadowlark is one of many grassland species of birds that are listed as near threatened due to disappearing grassland habitat mostly caused by development, forest succession, and large-scale agricultural operations. Near threatened means that it is likely to become endangered in the near future. Allowing marginal areas of fields on farms to seed with grass can provide nesting habitat for meadowlarks and all grassland birds. Delaying hay harvest can also improve survival, giving young meadowlarks a chance of fledging. Read more

Trumpeter Swan

In addition to its stunning wingspan, the Trumpeter Swan also is the heaviest living bird native to North America as well as being one of the heaviest living birds or animals capable of flight, and, in terms of average mass, the heaviest flying bird in the world.

The breeding habitat of Trumpeter Swans includes large and shallow ponds, undisturbed lakes, pristine wetlands, wide and slow rivers, and marshes in northwestern and central North America. The largest numbers of breeding pairs are found in Alaska. Trumpeter Swans prefer nesting sites with enough surface water for them to have space to take off, accessible and reliable food sources, shallow, unpolluted water, and little to no human disturbance. Read more

Red Crossbill

The Red Crossbill, also known as the Common crossbill, is a small bird in the finch family. Its name comes from distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them it to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.

With the right habitat, Red Crossbills have a wide range across parts of North America, inhabiting southern taiga forests from Alaska to Newfoundland, and montane coniferous forests south to Georgia in the high Appalachians, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Sierra Nevada of California. Read more

LeConte’s Sparrow

Leconte’s Sparrow is one of the smallest New World sparrows in North America.

Notoriously secretive, it spends almost all of its time under the cover of tall grasses and because it is so rarely seen, there are still many gaps in knowledge about this tiny sparrow. Nests are often very hard to find, and individuals are more often identified by sound than by sight.

During summer they feed on mostly insects such as weevils, leafhoppers, leaf beetles, stinkbugs, caterpillars, moths and spiders. Read more

Great Gray Owl

The Great Gray Owl is the tallest owl in North America and one of its most mysterious and fascinating birds. Reclusive and rarely seen, this owl is considered a “great” quest for any birder. Although the Great Gray Owl is one of the largest North American owls, much of its size is an illusion as it is mostly a ball of feathers.

Great Gray Owls live in the western forests and boreal regions of America and are fearsome hunters. Despite weighing only 2.5 pounds, they can break through hard packed snow to snatch small mammals. They hunt voles, moles, weasels, grouse, quail, ducks, frogs and even large beetles. Read more

Spectacled Eider

This uniquely colored large sea duck lives at the outer edges of the United States on the coasts of Alaska. It gets its name from the unmistakable large circular white eye patches on both male and females although the female’s “spectacles” are paler.

Their territory is so remote that their wintering grounds in the Bering Sea were not known until 1995 with the use of satellite telemetry.

Spectacled Eiders are diving ducks that can dive to depths of up to 250 feet, feeding on mollusks at sea and crustaceans, aquatic insects and plants on their breeding grounds. Read more

Swallow-tailed Kite

There’s no mistaking this agile flyer with its deeply forked tail, long pointed wings and stark black and white plumage.

Swallow-tailed Kites are amazingly graceful in flight. They are so maneuverable that they can grab a dragonfly in mid-air or snatch a lizard hiding in a treetop without so much as missing a single wing beat! They use their tails much like a ship’s rudder to veer sharply or circle and can turn it close to 90º.

This member of the raptor family is unusually gregarious with pairs nesting in close proximity. Community roosts often have hundreds of kites and they migrate in huge numbers, often in the thousands. Read more

Eared Grebe

This small waterbird is the most abundant grebe in the word and has distinctive glowing red eyes. They go from drab to fab during breeding season with golden plumes sprouting from their face.

Their breeding colonies number in the thousands in the shallow wetlands of the Western United States. Almost the entire population goes to Mono Lake, California to feast on brine shrimp, doubling their weight!

Like all migratory birds, Eared Grebes must accumulate body fat to sustain them during their long flights. They eat constantly in order to accomplish this weight gain and often double their body weight. Even their flight muscles increase in size while they “bulk up.” Read more

Evening Grosbeak

This large member of the finch family is another case of odd naming. Early English settlers, because of their erroneous belief that it came out the woods to sing only after sundown, called it the “Evening” Grosbeak. Early French settlers were more accurate calling it le gros-bec errant, meaning the wandering big-bill, or grosbeak.

Evening Grosbeaks breed in mixed and coniferous forest across Canada and the Western United States although they are spreading east. Its migration pattern is variable, sometimes reaching as far south as the southern U.S. in winters. They forage in trees and bushes in search of seeds, berries, and insects. Their large, powerful bills enable them to crush seeds that are too tough for other seed eaters such as the Common Redpoll and Pine Siskin. Read more

Turkey Vulture

This large scavenger is the most widespread of the New World vultures with territory that stretches from southern Canada to the southern tip of South America.

The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger feeding almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its food using its keen eyes and incredibly well developed sense of smell. That enables them to detect the gasses from dead animals even in the early stages of decay. The part of their brain that detects odors is unusually large allowing them to find dead animals from great heights. Read more

Virginia Rail

This famously secretive bird is about the size of a robin, and spends most of its time hidden in dense march vegetation. You may get a clue to its location from its loud grunting noise.

Virginia Rails are well adapted to move through thick almost impenetrable habitat with their long toes, flexible back bone and laterally compressed body. Virginia Rails have special forehead feathers that are adapted to the wear and tear of sharp marsh plants and pushing through extremely dense vegetation. Read more

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron, is one of only two species of night heron. Unlike the Black-crowned Night Heron, which is found worldwide, the yellow-crowned only lives in the Americas. Like all herons, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron flies with long, slow wing beats. You will often see it gliding over water with its legs easily visible, extended straight below the tail. Read more

Bufflehead

Buffleheads are North America’s smallest diving duck. The name “buffle” is French for “bulging.” Buffleheads probably got this name because of their large, bulbous head, which is much larger in proportion to their body than that of other ducks.

Buffleheads are secondary cavity nesters meaning they occupy holes excavated by other birds such as Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers. Some believe their small size may be an evolutionary response to nesting in tiny cavities. Read more

Lucifer Hummingbird

Not a devil, but devilishly good looking, this tiny bird also known as the Lucifer Sheartail, can be found in southern Arizona, west Texas and New Mexico. It has dramatic, flaring purple throat feathers and a glistening green body. It’s a member of the hummingbird species called “sheartails,” which refers to their narrow, deeply forked tail.

Lucifer Hummingbirds live in arid areas preferring altitudes of 3,500-5,500 feet mainly living on mountain slopes, in canyons and along dry washes that have desert shrubs and cacti. Read more

American Avocet

This elegant, leggy wader moves through shallow waters swishing its thin, upturned bill from side to side looking to catch aquatic invertebrates.

American Avocets were previously found across most of the United States until extirpated from breeding on the East Coast. Their breeding habitat consists of marshes, beaches, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes in the mid-west. Their migration route lands them in almost every state in the western United States and on the East Coast from Delaware south to Florida where they spend the winter. Read more

Dark-eyed Junco

This active little bird is part of a group of small new world sparrows that are common across most of temperate North America and summers as far north as the arctic. Dark-eyed Juncos breeding habitat is coniferous or mixed forest areas throughout North America.

It is a ground forager often in large flocks that have several different subspecies. Seeds make up 75% of their diet although during breeding season insects make up 50% of their diet. Young juncos rely on a diet of mainly insects. Read more

Red-Shouldered Hawk

If you’re in mature woods and near water you may have the thrill of spotting a magnificent Red-shouldered Hawk.

The Red-shouldered Hawk is a slender, forest-dwelling Buteo species found throughout much of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, as well as in Oregon, California, and Mexico. These hawks prefer large, mature, contiguous forests with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees and open understories. In the early 1900s, the Red-shouldered Hawk was the most common Buteo in New England, but intensive 20th century logging of mature forests led to loss of suitable habitat, which in turn let to increased competition and predation from Great-horned Owls. Read more