GREAT BACKYARD BIRD

COUNTBy: Katherine Tejeda

DARK EYED JUNCO

Description: Dark Eyed Junco is a very interesting bird. They’re easy to recognize.

Behavior Pattern: One of the most forest birds of North America. You’ll see juncos on groups at your feeders or on the ground beneath them.

Sound: They even have their own song. Juncos have a high, short chip note the note may grab other juncos to follow. A sharp but musical kew seems to show aggression and encourages two birds to move apart, it’s usually given by the dominant bird.

DARK-EYED JUNCO

CAROLINA CHICKADEE

Description: John James Audubon picked the name for this bird while in South Carolina that is why they are called Carolina chickadee, also they have a very short neck

Body: These look like Black-Capped Chickadee because of the way the body is formed. Its bill is thicker than a warbler but skinnier than a finch.

Head: Their head is very large and with their small neck they have weird body shape.

Feeding Patterns: It is very acrobatic except in breeding season. They usually fly around a large area. Even though they are a flocking animal they usually like their space while eating.

CAROLINA CHICKADEE

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER Description: I don’t think you’ll forget this

bird because it has a little red color in there head you can easily call them red headed woodpecker.

Body: Red-Bellied Woodpecker is birds with a pale color.

Feeding Patterns: You can find these birds in branches and trunks flying around looking for food.

Behavior Patterns: You can see them mostly in forests in the east.

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

DOWNY WOODPECKER Description: This black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny

branches. Downy Woodpeckers hitch around tree limbs and trunks, moving more acrobatically than larger woodpeckers. Their rising-and-falling flight style is distinctive of many woodpeckers. In spring and summer, You’ll find Downy Woodpeckers in open woodlands, particularly among deciduous tree. They’re also at home in orchards, city parks, backyards and vacant lots.

Body: .Downy and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.

Sound: Downy Woodpeckers make lots of noise, both with their shrill whinnying call and by drumming on trees.

Behavior Patterns: The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches. This black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches

DOWNY WOODPECKER

NORTHERN CARDINAL

Description: The male Northern Cardinal is responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird.

Food Patterns: They are common at bird feeders. Look for Northern Cardinals in inhabited areas such as backyards, parks, woodlots, and shrubby forest edges looking in bird feeders.

Behavior Patterns: Cardinals don’t migrate, so they’re still good in winter’s snowy backyards. In summer, their whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning. Northern Cardinals usually sit low in shrubs and trees or forage on or near the ground, often in pairs.

MALE NORTHERN CARDINAL

FEMALE NORTHERN CARDINAL

AMERICAN CROW Description: American Crows are large, intelligent,

all-black birds with hoarse, cawing voices. They are common sights in treetops, fields, and roadsides, and in habitats ranging from open woods and empty beaches to town centers.

Food Pattern: They usually feed on the ground and eat almost anything – typically earthworms, insects and other small animals, seeds, and fruit but also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests.

Behavior Pattern: Their flight style is unique, a patient. Crows are rarely found alone. Some people think its bad luck this kind of bird.

AMERICAN CROW

HAIRY WOODPECKER Description: The larger of two look alike, the

Hairy Woodpecker is a small but powerful bird that’s looking along trunks and main branches of large trees

Body: Hairy Woodpeckers have a somewhat soldierly look, with their erect, straight-backed posture on tree trunks and their cleanly striped heads. : It wields a much longer bill than the Downy Woodpecker's almost thorn like bill.

Behavior Patterns: Look for them at backyard suet or sunflower feeders, and listen for them whinnying from woodlots, parks, and forests.

HAIRY WOODPECKER

THE HOUSE FINCH Description: The House Finch is a

recent introduction from western into eastern North America (and Hawaii). . If you haven’t seen one recently, chances are you can find one at the next bird feeder you come across.

Body: That’s partly due to the cheerful red head and breast of males, and to the birds long, twittering song, which can now be heard in most of the neighborhoods of the continent

HOUSE FINCH

MOURNING DOVE Description: A graceful, slender-tailed,

small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; the way they fly is as fast and bullet straight. Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America

Sound: Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying.

MOURNING DOVE

TUFTED TITMOUSE Body: These birds have black eyes and small

bill. You can identify this bird by their Mohawk. This bird has some pointy bill because if their hungry they can find a seed and bring to their family and crack it with its bill.

Food Pattern: Tufted titmouse you can mostly find them in the eastern deciduous forest and some feeders.

Behavior Pattern: Tufted titmouse are very acrobatic and slower than a chickadee. You can find these birds mostly flying with chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpecker.

TUFTED TITMOUSE

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH Body: These birds are small with a large

head and almost no neck.

Food Pattern: White breasted nuthatch are birds that are active birds and they have a big appetite they eat seeds, meat, and insects.

Behavior Pattern: These birds are mostly in branches and trunks. Their mostly too in deciduous forest, maple trees, and oak.

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH