All in Bird Watching
The spring bird migration is underway, and warblers are heading north from their wintering grounds in the southern United States, Central America and South America. There are more than 100 warbler species in the world, and more than 50 of them can be found right here in North America.
Most people in the United States are very familiar with the American robin. This bird can be found from coast to coast and in every state in the contiguous USA, and they breed as far north as Alaska and some of the extreme northern fringes of Canada.
Yellow-rumped warblers are fairly large when compared to other warblers, since they have a wingspan of up to nine inches. But, of course, they are small when compared to many other birds.
Of the many species of ducks in the USA, the blue-winged teal is one of the favorites of many people. They are quite beautiful and the males are very distinctive-looking. Males have heavily speckled flanks and chest, and their head is dark gray with a broad white stripe between their eye and their jet-black bill.
Visitors to our Gulf coast states, like Florida, Texas and Louisiana – just to name a few – are certainly familiar with the brown pelican. Many brown pelicans are year-round residents along the salty shores of these states, but these pelicans also live along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well.
Song Sparrows are one of many “little brown birds” that can be found throughout most of North America, but they can be fairly easy to identify once you know what to look for. Like most sparrows, they are small and mostly brown in color.
The Caspian tern is the largest of all terns and can be found all over the world. It is about the size of an American crow. It migrates through much of the United States in the springtime, and in North America it breeds in isolated spots along the Great Lakes and large bodies of water in Canada.
There are dozens of species of warbler birds in the world, and a large number of them migrate into and through the United States each year. One of the most striking-looking warblers is the Black-Throated Green Warbler.
One of the most beautiful long-distance migratory shore birds of North America is the Lesser Yellowlegs. These handsome wading birds spend the winter in South America and migrate north through the entire United States, from the east coast to the west coast, up into northern Canada and Alaska to breed.
Have you ever seen a handsome black and white bird that is perched on a tree branch or fence post that suddenly flies out several feet and grabs an insect in mid-air, then flies back to the same perch?
There are plenty of shorebirds in North America, but one of the most widespread and interesting ones is the Spotted Sandpiper. These attractive birds are the size of an American Robin, but that’s where the similarities end.
Most birds do a great job of raising their young and keeping them safe from predators, but one bird species in particular uses an ingenious trick to keep people and predators away from its nest. That bird is the common Killdeer.
