Today is a photo post in praise of the great blue heron (Ardea herodias), the largest heron in North America. It can be found from southeast Alaska and southern Canada down through Mexico and the Caribbean to Central America. Wisconsin is toward the north of its winter range.
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Brown creepers (so called because they “creep” up the sides of tree trunks in search of insect eggs and other food) are new birds to me, despite that they live in all forty-eight contiguous United States and Alaska. Read more …
Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are one of the smallest ducks in North America. They’re also very skittish. Combine those two things, and you get pictures like this. Keep reading to learn why buffleheads are called buffleheads. Read more …
White-breasted nuthatches live here year-round, but are easier to spot in the winter when the leaves have fallen from the trees—though this one was in a pine-tree, so it actually wasn’t all that easy to spot. Read more …
Do red-bellied woodpeckers have red bellies? And why aren’t they called red-headed? Get the answers to these and other pressing questions. Read more …
I promised you a juvenile ring-billed gull yesterday, and now I’m delivering. Ring-billed gulls take three years to reach maturity and have fascinating variations in color and pattern as they mature. Read more …
Ring-billed gulls are called ring-billed gulls because of the black ring around their bill, which they develop after living through their first winter. They make each one of the contiguous forty-eight United States and Puerto Rico their home at one time of the year or another. Read more …
Downy woodpeckers are the smallest woodpecker I see on a regular basis, just about the size of a sparrow. When it’s cloudy and gray like today, it can be a challenge to identify them. It fact, I first mistook the one I saw this afternoon for a sparrow or other little brown job, because it was sitting on a bare branch and I couldn’t make out its distinctive black-and-white pattern against the glare of the cloudy sky. Read more …
I love cedar waxwings. They seem so unobtrusive at first glance—heck, often you don’t even see them on first, or second, or even fifth glance because they camouflage themselves so well. But they’re subtly colorful, with pale yellow bellies and those bright yellow or orange tail tips, and some with those red spots like bangles on their wings. Read more …
I saw this adorable little bird a few days ago while we were on her afternoon walk. We were near the river and I noticed a small, speckled bird with a brown back and white underside on the trunk of a tree. Read more …