Golden-crowned Kinglets are tiny birds, not much bigger than Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, that can withstand extreme cold.Most Golden-crowned Kinglets, breed across Canada. Then they migrate to spend winter across much of the US, including the upper mid-West. Also, there are populations that are year-round residents in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains & mountainous West. This […]
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Barred Owls are busy in the fall. They start or renew pair bonds and reclaim nesting sites. Young adults build new nesting sites. All this activity is hard to miss because there is a lot of communication between pairs and between young interlopers. It is the hooting season. This is all in preparation for an […]
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An immature – yellow eyes & brown streaking – Cooper’s Hawk in our urban, deep inside-the-perimeter of Atlanta yard. This is increasingly common urban occurrence. Cooper’s Hawks are overall short to medium distance migrants. But there is growing evidence that during dispersal if a young adult emigrates to an urban setting they tend to stay […]
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There is nothing a Summer Tanager, in this case a fall migrating female, enjoys more than a fat wasp (or bee). But what about the stinger? They catch their victim in the air, take it back to a branch, & roughly rub it on the bark to remove the stinger. Then down the hatch. This […]
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Cedar Waxwings are notorious fruit and berry eaters. Zoologists consider them among the most frugivorous birds – a bird that thrives mostly on fruit and fruit-like produce of plants – in North America. Even their name is a reference to their frugivorous diets, they especially love cedar berries. In the fall large flocks can descend […]
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,,, or any other native fall-ripening berry plant. In autumn, many species of birds switch from an insect rich diet to including more ‘fruits and vegetables’. For year-round residents and partial, short-haul migrants this switch provides fats, amino acids, and antioxidants that help them recover from molting and prepare for winter. For the long-haul migrants, […]
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It’s mid-September, the heat has finally broke, and Female and immature Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are putting on the last few grams to get them across the Gulf of Mexico. It seems that one criteria for deciding if it is time to go is they can’t see their feet 🙂 As a bonus, this is the time […]
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Cedar Waxwings are winter resident fruit specialists here in metro-Atlanta. But because they are late nesters & can be short-haul migrants, going only as far north as the high-elevations of the North GA mountains, they will hang around gorging on spring\early summer berry crops. Native serviceberries are a favorite. Waxwings will gather in small flocks […]
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Velociraptor, or at least one of their descendants a Hermit Thrush, visiting our yard. There is consensus among many scientists that today’s birds are dinosaurs. Fossil evidence points to the theropods, a family of three-toed predators that included Velociraptor mongoliensis and Tyrannosaurus rex as the evolutionary lineage. Theropods share hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists, wishbones, and […]
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In field guides, this species is listed as Swainson’s Thrush, with a note that they are often called Olive-backed. And a case can be made for Salmonberry Bird, at least for the population on the NW coast of the U.S. and the coast of Canada’s Inland Passage. I’m going with Olive-backed because it could be […]
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