Allen’s Hummingbird:

Length: 3.5 in (9 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.1 Oz (2-4 g)

Wingspan: 4.3 in (11 cm)

Allens Hummingbird, whose scientific name is Selasphorus sasin is a small, compact and stocky hummingbird found in the western united states.

Description

Male Allen Hummingbirds have a greenback and forehead, rufous loins and tail, and an orange-red throat. The female and immature Allen’s Hummingbirds are similar in appearance. They have the same color as the adult male Allen’s Hummingbirds, except they lack the throat patch. The females and immature Allen’s Hummingbirds have a dull metallic green back and pale copper flanks.

The bill of the birds is long and straight. The tail extends past the wings when the bird is at rest, and the outer feather is narrower than the other feathers.

The birds weigh approximately 2 – 4 grams, and their length is approximately 6 centimeters. Allen’s Hummingbirds have a wingspan of approximately 11 centimeters.

Habitat

Allens breed mostly in coastal forests, scrubs, and meadows. Male and female Allen’s Hummingbirds have different habitats during the breeding season whereby the male sets up a territory on exposed branches whereas the female builds a nest deep into the thickets of forest.

Food

Allen’s Hummingbirds love sugary food, especially nectar. They sip nectar from flowers like the Indian paintbrush, columbine, gooseberry, twinflower, bush monkeyflower sage, manzanita, and eucalyptus. They also eat small insects like spiders, caterpillars, and mosquitoes.

Nesting

Allen’s Hummingbirds have 1 – 3 broods every year. Their eggs are white in color and measure approximately 1.2 by o.8 centimeters. The incubation period is between 17 to 22 days.

Baby Hummingbirds stay in the nest for 22 to 25 days and then fly out to forage by themselves.

American Goldfinch:

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.7 oz (11-20 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-8.7 in (19-22 cm)

The American Goldfinch is a migratory bird widely distributed in North America. The scientific name of the American Goldfinch is Spinus tristis. There are four subspecies of the American Goldfinch, namely, the Eastern Goldfinch, the Pale Goldfinch, the NorthWestern Goldfinch, and the Willow Goldfinch.

The American Goldfinch is the only Finch in its subfamily that undergoes complete sloughing twice a year. The bird sheds all its feathers apart from the wing and the tail feathers in the autumn and spring seasons of the year.

Description

The adult male American Goldfinch is vibrant yellow with a black forehead and black wings with white marks in summer and olive in color during the winter season. The female American Goldfinch is dull yellow with two distinct wing bars in the summer and buffy brown during winter.

The birds have a short conical bill, long wings, a small head, and a small tail with notches.

The American Goldfinch weighs between 11 to 20 grams and has a length of between 11 to 14 centimeters. The birds have a wingspan of 19 to 22 centimeters.

Habitat

The birds are mostly found in weedy fields, cultivated areas, roadsides, backyards, floodplains, gardens, and orchards where thistles and asters are common.

Feeding

American Goldfinches are attracted by almost all bird feeders, including tube, platform, hanging, ground, and hopper feeders.  To be able to attract these birds, feed them on sunflower seeds that have bee hulled, Nyjer, and black oil sunflower seeds. American Goldfinches are strict vegetarians and feed on a vegetable diet only, and swallow insects occasionally only by accident.

Nesting

The birds build their nests on branches of trees or shrubs at a height of up to 10 meters.  The female American Goldfinch lays 4 to 6 bluish-white peanut size oval eggs. Incubation takes 12 to 14 days.

American Kestrel:

Length: 8.7-12.2 in (22-31 cm)

Weight: 2.8-5.8 oz (80-165 g)

Wingspan: 20.1-24.0 in (51-61 cm)

Description

The American Kestrel, whose scientific name is Falco sparverius, is the smallest and one of the most beautiful falcons in North America. It is also the most common falcon in North America. There are seventeen subspecies of the American Kestrel.

The feathers of the American Kestrel, also known as the sparrow hawk, have patterns of blue, red, grey, brown, and black, making the bird very attractive. Male Kestrels have slate-blue wings, while female Kestrels have reddish-brown wings. The birds have a pair of black mustaches on the sides of their pale faces.

The bird is roughly the size and shape of a Mourning Dove. It has a large head, long and narrow wings, and a long square-tipped tail. American Kestrels have a short, hooked bill and white cheeks.

The American Kestrel weighs between 3 to 6 ounces and has a length of 8 to 12 inches. The American kestrel wingspan is between 20 to 24 inches. The American Kestrel is leaner and less muscular than larger falcons.

Habitat

The American Kestrel is mostly found in tropical lowlands, deserts, cities, farmland, open country, alpine meadows, or wood edges. The birds are mostly spotted perched on power lines or hovering over an open field, waiting for the right time to descend upon their prey.

Feeding

The American kestrel feed on insects, grasshoppers, small birds like sparrows or bats. Individual sparrow hawks specialize in specific prey—the bird hunts by perching and scanning the ground for prey and then ambushing the prey.

Nesting

The American Kestrel lays 2 to 7 eggs which are white to pale brown with gray and brown spots. Incubation is by both the male and the female Kestrels and takes 28 to 31 days. The male feeds the female American Kestrel while she incubates the eggs.

American Redstart:

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (6-9 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-7.5 in (16-19 cm)

Description

The American Redstart is a small warbler in the family wood-warblers. Its scientific name is Setophaga ruticilla. It is brightly colored, but the colors and color pattern are so distinct that they cannot be easily confused with any other warbler. The adult males, with a blackhead, back, and throat, a white belly, and orange or yellow patches in the flight feathers and tail base are more colorful and more attractive. The females have a light gray head and bright yellow patches in the flight and tail feathers.

The birds have wide flat bills and a long, expressive tail. When in flight, it has a slim belly, deep chest, and a club-shaped tail.

The American Redstart is 11 to 14 cm in length and weighs an averagely of 8.6grams for males and 8.7 grams for females. The weight of the birds drops drastically during winter to an average of 7.2 grams for males and 6.9 grams for females. Their wingspan is between 16 to 23 centimeters.

Habitat

The American Redstart breed mostly in open wooded habitats, especially those dominated by deciduous trees. During winter, they inhabit the woodlands and open forests at lower and middle elevations.

Food

The diet of the American Redstart mainly consists of insects such as flies, caterpillars, moths, craneflies, spiders, and aphids. These birds eat insects off of leaves, twigs, and other surfaces. The birds eat a few berries and seeds from barberry, serviceberry, and magnolia.

 Nesting

The female Redstarts lay 2 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 13 days in a cup-shaped nest. Male Redstart matures within a year but has low reproductive success due to its female-like plumage.

American Robin:

Length: 7.9-11.0 in (20-28 cm)

Weight: 2.7-3.0 oz (77-85 g)

Wingspan: 12.2-15.8 in (31-40 cm)

Description

The American Robin is a migratory songbird named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast. The scientific name of the American Robin is Turdus migratorius. The bird is largely distributed in the north.

There are seven subspecies of the American Robin, namely, the eastern Robin, the Newfoundland Robin, the Southern Robin, the Western Robin, the Northwestern Robin, the Mexican Robin, and the San Lucas Robin.

The American Robins are large songbirds with a round body, long legs, and a long tail. They are the largest North American thrushes. They are gray-brown in color with warm orange underparts. A white patch on the lower belly and under the tail is conspicuous when they are flying. They have pointed, thin beaks. Female American Robins have paler heads than the male.

The birds weigh between 72 to 94 grams for the male and females 59 to 91 grams. They are 20 to 28 centimeters long and have a wingspan ranging from 31 to 40 cm.

Feeding

American Robins are attracted by platform and ground feeders.  They love feeding on peanut hearts, suet, sunflower seeds that have been hulled, fruits, and mealworms. The Robins feed mainly on fruit during the fall and winter. They sometimes become intoxicated when they feed exclusively on berries such as the honeysuckle.

Habitat

The birds usually breed in woodlands, open farmlands, and urban areas. The birds prefer large shade trees on lawns. During winter, they inhabit more open areas.

Nesting

American Robins construct their nests 1.5 to 4.5 meters above the ground in the dense bush. The female Robin lays a clutch of 3 to 5 light blue eggs and incubates them for 14 days.

American Tree Sparrow:

Length: 5.5 in (14 cm)

Weight: 0.5-1.0 oz (13-28 g)

Wingspan: 9.4 in (24 cm)

The American Tree Sparrow, also known as the Winter Sparrow, is a medium-sized bird.  They have a scientific name Spizelloides Arborea.

Description

These birds are small and round-headed, and they often flap out their feathers. This makes their plumb body look chubbier. The America Tree Sparrow has a relatively small bill and a long thin nail amongst other species of sparrow.

This bird also has a rusty cap and eye-line on its gray head.  Both the male and female American Tree Sparrow also contains a streaked brown back and a smooth gray to the buff chest.  Generally, this bird gives an impression of reddish-brown and gray. It is common for a dark smudge in the middle of the non-streaked breast.

The bird also weighs approximately 13 to 18 grams with a length of 14 cm. The estimated wingspan is 24 cm.

Habitat

The American Tree Sparrows are commonly found in weedy fields that have hedgerows or shrubs, the forest edges, and near marshes during the winter. Whenever there is a seed feeder, you are likely to see them in the backyard.

Food

These birds hop about on the ground in small flocks as they look for food.  They scrab for grass and weed seeds.  If you need to attract these birds, you can feed them on the millets, oil sunflower, cracked corn, peanut pieces, and sunflower chips. They mainly feed on these grains and berries over the winter and shift to insects during the summer.

Nesting

The female lays one egg a day until they are about 4 to 6 of them. These eggs are usually pale blue in color with a reddish speckling. During the incubation, the young ones hatch within an interval of hours, and they do not follow the order in which they were hatched.

Anna’s Hummingbird:

Length: 3.9 in (10 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 oz (3-6 g)

Wingspan: 4.7 in (12 cm)

Anna’s Hummingbird is a medium-sized bird from the Trochilidae family. This bird was named after French courtier Anna Massena. Its scientific name is the Calypte anna.

Description

This bird is among the tiniest Hummingbirds. It has a straight, shortish bill and a tail that is fairly broad, but whenever the bird is perched, the tail extends beyond the wingtips. Both the male and female Anna’s Hummingbirds have an average weight of between 3 to 6 grams and a length of 10 cm. The average wingspan is 12 cm.

Mostly, Anna’s Hummingbirds are green and gray in color. The males have their heads and throats covered in reddish-pink feathers. These feathers can look dull brown or gray without direct sunlight.

Habitat

If you want to observe these birds, you are likely to find them in yards, residential streets, riverside woods, coastal scrub, and savannas. These birds also move readily where there are Hummingbird feeders and flowering plants and also in cultivated species in gardens.

Foods

Whenever you want to attract Anna’s Hummingbirds, you can use the feeder nectar. They eat nectar from a variety of plants which includes the current, gooseberry, manzanita, and many introduced species such as the eucalyptus.  They also feed on some insects from streambanks, taken from flowers, crevices, and some caught in spider webs. Mostly they target small insects such as leafhoppers, midgets, and whiteflies.

Nesting

The Anna’s Hummingbirds clutch has two eggs which it then incubates for a period of 16 days. The eggs are white in color, and they have an average length of 1.2 to1.4 cm and a width of 0.8 to 0.9 cm.

Baltimore Oriole:

Length: 6.7-7.5 in (17-19 cm)

Weight: 1.1-1.4 oz (30-40 g)

Wingspan: 9.1-11.8 in (23-30 cm)

The Baltimore Oriole is a small new world Blackbird that is commonly known as a migratory breeding bird. This name was given as the male colors resemble those of Lord Baltimore’s court of arms. Its scientific name is the Icterus galbula.

Description

This bird is a small-sized, sturdy bodies songbird that has a thick neck and long legs.  It is smaller and slenderer than the American Robin. The bird has a long, thick base pointed bill, and this is a common feature to all the blackbird family which they belong to.

The full-grown males are flame-orange and black with a solid-black head and one white stripe on their black wings. The females and the chicks have yellow-orange on the chest, grayish on the back, and head with no bold white bar on the wings.

Both the male and female Baltimore Oriole weigh about 30 to 40 grams and 17 to 19 cm in length. The wingspan is between 23 to 30 cm.

Habitat

If you want to get these birds, look for them in leafy deciduous trees and not deep into the forays. The birds are found in open woodlands, forest edge, orchards and tree stand along the rivers, in parks and backyards.

Food

These birds can be fed on insects, fruits, and nectar, and this varies according to the seasons. They eat a wide variety of insects such as beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, and flies. They are attracted and can damage crops has mulberries, cherries, oranges, raspberries, and bananas.

Nesting

The Baltimore Oriole lays a clutch of about three to seven eggs, and it takes between11 to 14days to incubate.  The eggs are pale grayish or blue-white blotched with brown, black, or lavender. The average length of the eggs is 2.1 to 2.5 cm and the width of 1.5 to 1.7 cm.

Barn Swallow:

Length: 5.9-7.5 in (15-19 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.7 oz (17-20 g)

Wingspan: 11.4-12.6 in (29-32 cm)

The scientific name of the Barn Swallow is the Hirundo rustica. It is the most widely distributed species of the Swallow in the world. Actually, among all the passerine is it appears to be the most distributed naturally.

Description

If Barn Swallow appears is parched. It appears cone-shaped with a slightly flattened head with no visible neck and broad shoulders that taper to long, pointed wings. The tail of this bird extends beyond the wingtips giving the tail a deep fork. It has a short and pointed black bill.

This bird has a steely blue back, wings, tail, while the underparts are rufous to tawny. The face of the Barn Swallow is the blue crown. Under the tail, it also contains some white spots, but they can only be seen in a fight. The males are boldly colored than the females.

Habitat

These birds can mostly be found feeding on open habitats such as fields, parks, and roadway edges to marshes, coastal waters, ponds, and meadows.  Their nests can be spotted with ease under the eaves.

Food

The Barn Swallows are insectivores. They mainly feed on insects such as battles, bees, wasps, ants, moths, butterflies, and other flying insects. These birds feed on eggshells, small pebbles, oyster shells, and grit in order to get the needed calcium to digest insects.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of about 3 to 7 eggs and incubate them for between 12 to 17 days. The eggs are creamy or pinkish-white with brown, lavender, and gray spots. The size of the egg is 1.6 to 2.1 cm in length and 1.2 to 1.5 cm in width. They have one or two broods in a year.

Bell’s Vireo:

Length: 4.5-4.9 in (11.5-12.5 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.3 oz (7.4-9.8 g)

Wingspan: 6.7-7.5 in (17-19 cm)

Description

The scientific name of Bell’s Vireo is Vireo bellii. The Bell’s Vireo is a tiny songbird with a slim body and a long slender tail. It has a small, thick, and hooked bill. There are four subspecies of the Bell’s Vireo. The Western Bell’s Vireos, especially the Least Bell’s Vireo, are grayish on top and a whitish below. They have faint pale eyewear around the eyes and pale wing-bars. They have a heavier bill than a Warbler.

The Eastern Bell’s Vireo has a greenish tone above and a yellow wash on the sides. They have stronger wing bars than the western Bell’s Vireo. Their bills are larger than those of Warblers but a bit small for a Vireo.

Bell’s Vireo weighs between 7.4 to 9.8 grams and has a length of 11.5 to 12.5 centimeters. Their wingspan ranges between 17 to 19 centimeters.

Habitat

The Bell’s Vireos mostly stay hidden in dense vegetation and often emerge at the edges of the bushes. If you want to find the Bell’s Vireo, consider looking in shrubby places like mesquite woods, freshly planted forests, verdant arroyos, and stands of dense brush on the prairies.

Food

To attract Bell’s Vireos, let a corner of your yard be overgrown with brambles, hedgerows, or brush piles. The birds are more likely to appear in messy-looking spots. You can put insects and spiders in your messy yards, such as beetles, weevils, bees, wasps, flies, ants, grasshoppers, butterflies, and moths.

Nesting

The Bell’s Vireo clutch size is 2 to 4 eggs. The eggs are whitish in color with sparse spotting and measure between 1.6 to 1.8 cm in length and 1.2 to 1.4 cm in width. The incubation period is 14 to 15 days. The nesting period ranges between 10 to 12 days.

Belted kingfisher:

Length: 11.0-13.8 in (28-35 cm)

Weight: 4.9-6.0 oz (140-170 g)

Wingspan: 18.9-22.8 in (48-58 cm)

Description

The scientific name of Belted Kingfisher is Megaceryle alcyon. The Belted Kingfishers are broad, large-headed birds with a shaggy crest on the top and back of their heads. They have a thick, straight, and pointed bill. The birds have short legs and medium-length square-tipped tails.

Belted Kingfishers are blue-gray in color with white spotting on the tail and wings. They have a white below with a broad blue breast band. Immature Kingfishers have irregular rusty spotting in their breast band.

The Belted Kingfisher weighs between 140 to 170 grams and has a length ranging between 28 to 35 centimeters. The wingspan of the birds ranges between 48 to 58 centimeters.

Habitat

Belted Kingfishers live near streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and estuaries. They can also be found in road buildings, gravel pits as a result of the numerous human activities.

The birds hunt either by falling steeply and directly to their prey or by hovering over water with their straight bills downward before diving after a fish they spotted.

Food

To attract the Belted Kingfisher, it is most advisable that you construct a pond or a pool in your backyard. In the pool put Goldfish, arthropods, and small fish like mummichogs, trout, and stone rollers. They also feed on insects, mollusks, young birds, small mammals, and berries as well.

Nesting

These birds nest in burrows that they dig into soft earthen banks. They nest adjacent to or directly over the water. They lay 5 to 8 white eggs and incubate them for 22 to 24 days. The birds have 1 to 2 broods in a year.

Berwick’s Wren:

Length: 5.1 in (13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (8-12 g)

Wingspan: 18 cm

Description

The Berwick’s Wren, whose scientific name is a noisy, hyperactive medium-sized bird widely distributed in Western North America. The bird has white eyebrows and a striking long tail barred and tipped with white spots. They have long, slender, and slightly downcurved bills.

The male and female Berwick’s Wren birds look the same. They are brown and gray in color with a plain brown back and wings. The underparts are gray-white.

Berwick’s Wren has an average length of 13 centimeters, and their weight ranges between 8 to 12 grams. Their wingspan is approximately 18 centimeters.

Habitat

Berwick’s Wrens are mostly found in dry brushy areas, scrubs, chaparral, thickets in open areas, and open woodlands near streams and rivers. They are also found in gardens, residential areas, and parks in cities and the suburbs.

Food

To attract the Berwick’s Wren, the ideal feeder types are large tubes, suet cage, large and small hopper, platform, and ground feeders. You can put hulled sunflower seeds, suet, peanut hearts, and mealworms in the feeders. Berwick’s Wren also eats the eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of insects like wasps, butterflies, and grasshoppers.

Nesting

Berwick’s Wren usually has 1 to 3 broods in a year. They lay 3 to 8 white with reddish-brown or purplish spots eggs. Incubation takes 14 to 16 days. The eggs are approximately 1.5 to 1.9 cm in length and 1.2 to 1.4 cm wide.

Black Phoebe:

Length: 6.3 in (16 cm)

Weight: 0.5-0.8 oz (15-22 g)

Wingspan: 27-28 cm

Description

The scientific name of Black Phoebe is Sayornis nigricans. Black Phoebe are small plump songbirds widely distributed in the Western United States.

They have a sooty black body, a darker black large head, and a crisp white belly. The wing feathers’ edges are pale gray. The birds have medium-long squared tails and straight thin bills. Black phoebes often show a slight peak at the rear of the crown.

The birds are known for their distinct tail pumping. The birds call out with a shrill scratchy chip.

The birds weigh between 15 to 22 grams and are averagely 16 centimeters long. Their wingspan ranges between 27 to 28 cm.

Habitat

Black Phoebes are mostly found near water sources ranging from small streams to suburbs and rocks and cliffs of oceans. They can also be found in ephemeral ponds, parks, backyards, and cattle tanks. The birds use mud to build cup-shaped nests against bridges, overhangs, culverts, and walls. 

Food

To attract Black Phoebes, platform feeders are the ideal type of feeders. In them, you can keep small berries and fruits. You can also include insects like grasshoppers, moths, termites, wasps, dragonflies, beetles, and spiders. Black phoebes also feed on minnows and arthropods.

Nesting

Black Phoebe nests are usually 3 to 10 feet up over the water or ground. They lay 1 to 6 eggs and have 1 to 3 broods per year. Black Phoebe eggs are pure white and glossy, sometimes with light spots around the large end. Incubation takes 15 to 18 days and the nesting period is between 18 to 21 days.

Black-Billed Magpie:

Length: 17.7-23.6 in (45-60 cm)

Weight: 5.1-7.4 oz (145-210 g)

Wingspan: 22.1-24.0 in (56-61 cm)

Description

The Black-billed Magpie, also referred to as the American Magpie, is a bird from the family of Corvidae, and they are found in most parts of the US. The scientific name of the bird is Pica Hudsonia.

The Black-billed Magpies are slightly bigger than the jays. However, they have longer, diamond-shaped tails and a heavier bill. Their wings are too short of supporting their graceful flights.

These birds are black and white in general but with a blue-green flash on the wings and tail. The upper part of this bird is usually black, with a white patch in the outer wing and two white stripes on the back.

The bird weighs approximately 145 to 210 grams with a length of between 45 to 60 cm. The wingspan ranges between 56 to 61 cm.

Habitat

The Black-billed Magpie is mainly found in the urban areas, fields, and stream corridors of the west. They can also be found in flocks at the feeding lots and other places that it is easy to find food.

Food

In order to attract the Black-billed Magpie, you need the platform and ground feeders. You can put the millets, peanuts, milo, cracked corn, peanuts hearts, hulled sunflower seeds, suet, and black oil sunflower seeds. These birds have alternative diets, such as beetles and grasshoppers, as the foliage on the ground. They also depend on small mammals such as squirrels and voles. They at times steal meat from the foxes and coyotes. And can sometimes land on the top of large animals as they pick ticks off them.

Nesting

The birds have a clutch size of 1 to 9 eggs, and they take 16 to 19 days to incubate. The eggs are tan or olive-brown with a variable amount of dark brown speckles—they experience one broom per year. The chicks are hatched naked with pink skin and remain with closed eyes for seven days.

Black-capped Chickadee:

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (9-14 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-8.3 in (16-21 cm)

Description

The Black-capped Chickadee is a small songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It belongs to the Paridae family. Its scientific name is the Poecile atricapillus. It is famous for its ability to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights and a good memory to remember where it stores food.

This small bird has a large head with a short neck, and this gives it a unique, rather spherical shape.  Its tail is long and narrow with a short bill that is a little thicker than warbler’s but thinner than a finch. The cap and the bill are black with white cheeks, soft gray back, and the wing feathers are gray-edged with white. The lower/ under part is soft buffy on the sides, grading to white beneath. It is difficult to see its small eyes because the cap extends down just beyond the black eyes.

The average weight of this bird is 9 to 14 grams with a length of between 12 to 15 cm. The wingspan ranges from between 16 to 21 cm.

Habitat

The Chickadees can mainly be found in places that contain trees or woody shrubs, from the forest and woodlot to the residential areas and parks. They can also be found in the weedy fields and marshes sometimes.

Food

If you want to attract the Black-capped Chickadees, the ideal feeders are the suet cage, large and small hopper, platform, large and small tube feeder. In these feeders, you can put food like the Nyjer, safflower, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, suet, peanuts, and peanut hearts.

During the winter, they feed on seeds and berries, and insects in small quantities, but during the summer, these insects and spiders make 80 percent of their diet.

Nesting

The Black-capped Chickadees lay a clutch of between up to 13 eggs, and they incubate these eggs for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are whitish with fine reddish-brown dots. They experience one brood per year.

Black-chinned Hummingbird:

Length: 3.5 in (9 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 oz (2.3-4.9 g)

Wingspan: 4.3 in (11 cm)

Description

The Black-chinned Hummingbird is a small migratory bird that is distributed in a wide range of habitats. Its scientific name is Archilochus alexandri.

This is a small and fairly sledder hummingbird with a straight bill. The bird is dull metallic green on the upper side while it is grayish-white on the lower side. The male Black-Chinned Hummingbirds have a velvety black throat with a thin iridescent purple on the base. The females have pale throats. The three outer tails of the female have broad white tips, and for both, the bills are black.

The average weight of this bird is 2.3 to 4.9 grams, with a length of about 9 cm. The average wingspan is 11 cm.

Habitat

The Black-chinned Hummingbirds are mostly seen at the feeders or perched on the dead branches of tall trees. This bird is viewed as a habitat generalist since it can be found in lowland deserts, urban areas, mountainous forests, and in natural habitats as long as there are flowering shrubs, vines, and ta trees.

Food

If you want to attract a Black-chinned Hummingbird, the idea feeder is the nectar feeder. In this feeder, you can put the sugar water.  These birds mainly feed on the nectar from the flowers and sometimes can supplement with insects and spiders.

Nesting

This bird lays a clutch of 2 eggs which are incubated for a period of between 12 to 16 days. The eggs are white in color, and they have an average length of 1.2 to 1.4 cm and a width of 0.8 cm. They have up to 3 broods in a year.

Black-crested Titmouse:

Length: 5.9 in (15 cm)

Weight: 0.5-0.7 oz (15.2-18.4 g)

Wingspan: 9.1-9.8 in (23-25 cm)

Description

The Black-crested Titmouse, popularly known as the Mexican Titmouse, is a passerine bird that belongs to the Paridae family.  Its scientific name is the Baeolophus atricristatus.

This is a small gray songbird that has a crest that is black on the front that is usually erect. The bird also has a short tuft on the head. The upper part of this bird is gray, while the bottom part around the belly is whitish.  The bill is black with a long tail.

The average weight of the Black-crested Titmouse is between 15.2 to 18.4 grams, with an average length of 15 cm. The wingspan of this bird ranges between 23 to 25 cm.

Habitat

These birds are mainly found in the forest, woodlands, oak-juniper scrub, mesquite, thorn scrub, riparian woodland, and urban areas.

Food

If you want to attract the Black-crested Titmouse, the ideal feeders to use are the suet cage, large and small hopper, large and small tube feeder, and the platform. Inside these feeders, you can put seeds such as millets, peanuts, safflower, peanut hearts, suet, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds. These birds also feed on insects.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of about 4 to 7 eggs and incubate them for a period of 12 to 14 days.  The eggs are white, finely speckled with reddish spots. The average length of the eggs is between 1.62 to 2.02 cm and a width of 1.27 to 1.43.  These birds normally have 1 or 2 broods in a year.

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher:

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.2 oz (5.1-6 g)

Wingspan: 5.5-5.9 in (14-15 cm)

Description

The Black-tailed Gnatcatcher is a small insectivorous bird that is found in the US. Its scientific name is the Polioptila melanura. This bird is non-migratory, and it is mostly found in desert areas all year round.

This is a small slim songbird that has a thin, straight bill with a small body and a long tail. The Black-tailed Gnatcatcher is grey in color overall. It has a fine white eye-ring and a black tail that has some white flashes underside. They have a dark grey upper side and a pale gray on the underparts. Breeding males usually have a black cap.

The average weight of this bird is between 5.1 to 6 grams with a length of 11 to 13 cm. The wingspan ranges between 14 to 15 cm.

Habitat

If you want to inf the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, you will mainly get them in the desert scrub, including the washes that are densely lined with creosote and saltbush.

Food

If you want to attract these birds, you can use feeders such as the ground, platform, small and large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can pot seeds such as millets, peanuts, and Nyjer. They also feed insects and fruits. Some of the insects include caterpillars, beetles, ants, spiders, and flies.

They sometimes overcome the large prey by beating them against a branch.

Nesting

The Black-tailed Gnatcatchers have a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs that are incubated for a period of between 14 to 15 birds. The eggs are pale white to pale blue in color with variably speckled red. They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are born naked, blind, and helpless.

The average length of the eggs is 12 to 15 cm with a width of 10 to 12 cm.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Length: 4.3-4.7 in (11-12 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (7-11 g)

Wingspan: 6.7-7.9 in (17-20 cm)

The Black-throated Green Warbler is a small songbird that belongs to the family of New World Warbler. Its scientific name is the Setophaga virens.

Description

It is a medium-sized warbler that is of the same size and shape as others in the Setophaga genus. This bird has a large head with a thick, straight bill and a short tail.

The bird is generally olive-green with a white underpart, with a yellow face and a black front. The adults are more attractive and stunning with a bright yellowface and extensive black on the throat area, which turns into black streaks on the flanks. The wing bars have two black streaks.  Just like the males, the females and young ones have the same features, but they lack extensive black on the throat.

The average weight of the Black-throated Green Warbler is between 7 to 11 grams with a length of 11 to 12 cm. The average wingspan is 17 to 20 cm.

Habitat

These birds use coniferous and mixed forests, deciduous forests, and coastal cypress swamps. For the migratory birds, they frequent any wood habitat, even coming down from the canopy to feed on the fruiting shrubs. During the winter, the birds are mainly found in canopies and ta mature forests.

Food

These birds almost exclusively feed on insects during the breeding season, mainly the caterpillars. They also feed on berries whenever they are migrating and the buds of the cecropia trees during the winter in the tropics.

Nesting

The Black-throated Green Warblers lay a clutch of about 3 to 5 eggs which they proceed to incubate for 8 to 11 days. Their eggs are whitish with variable brown speckles. They experience one brood in a year. The freshly hatched chicks are usually helpless with sparse down.

Black-throated Sparrow:

Length: 4.7-5.5 in (12-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11-15 g)

Wingspan: 7.7 in (19.5 cm)

Description

The Black-throated Sparrow is a small new world sparrow that is found in most parts of the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Amphispiza bilineata. This bird is the only member of the five-striped Sparrow.

This bird is medium-sized with a large round head, a conical bill for seed-eating, and a tail that is medium in length. The most striking characteristic is the face pattern. The face is neat gray bordered by two strong white stripes and a black triangular throat patch.  The upperparts are grayish-brown, while the below body is a pale mix of cream and white. The tail is dark, with some white spots on the corners.

Both the chicks and the adults look the same, but the chicks lack the black throat patch, and they have faint streaks above and below.

The average length of this bird is 12 to 14 cm with a weight of 11 to 15 grams. The wingspan average is 19.5 grams.

Habitat

These birds are mainly found in scrubby areas, desert scrub. Canyons and washes.

Food

If you want to attract the Black-throated Sparrow, the ideal feeders are the ground and platform, and you can put some seeds such as the sunflower seeds and millets.  However, these birds also feed on insects, especially during the breeding season. They feed on the seeds during the winter season.

 Some of the insects include butterflies, robber flies, dragonflies, mantids, and moth flies.

Nesting

The Black-throated Sparrows lay a clutch of between 2 to 5 eggs and incubate them for a period of 11 to 13 days. The eggs are whitish to blue-white, and they have a length of between 1.5 to 2 cm and a width of 1.2 to 1.5 cm. They usually have 1 to 5 broods a year. The hatched chicks are naked with a sparse cover of down with the eyes closed.

Blue Jay:

Length: 9.8-11.8 in (25-30 cm)

Weight: 2.5-3.5 oz (70-100 g)

Wingspan: 13.4-16.9 in (34-43 cm)

The Blue Jay is a bird from the Cervidae family and lives in most parts of the US. Some of its population is migratory while other is not. Its scientific name is the Cyanocitta cristata.

Description

The Blue Jay is a large crested songbird with a broad, rounded tail. They are bigger than the robins but smaller than the crows.  The color of this bird is white or light grey in the underparts, with some shades of blue, black, and white on the upper part. The crest is bluish too.

The average weight of the Blue Jay is between 70 to 100 grams with a length of between 25 to 30 cm. The average wingspan is 34 to 43 cm.

Habitat

The blue Jays are birds of forest edges.  They mainly feed on acorns, and they are often found near oaks, forests, towns, woodlots, cities, and parks.

Food

If you want to attract the Blue Jays, the ideal feeders are the platform, ground, large and small tube feeders, and the suet cage. Inside these feeders, you can put seeds such as millet, cracked corn. Milo, peanuts, peanut hearts, suet, safflower, hulled sunflower seeds, and the black oil sunflower seeds. These birds also can feed on insects’ fruits and injured small vertebrates.

Nesting

The Blue Jays lay a clutch of between 2 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 17 to 18 days. The eggs are usually bluish or light brown with some brownish spots. They have one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless, naked, and their eyes are closed with their mouth lining red.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher:

Length: 3.9-4.3 in (10-11 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (4.8-8.9 g)

Wingspan: 6.3 in (16 cm)

Description

This Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is a tiny songbird that is mainly found in parts of the US. Its scientific name is the Polioptila caerulea.

This bird is generally small in size, slim, and with long legs. This bird has a long tail with a thin, straight bill. The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is a pale bluebird with grayish-white underparts, and the tail is usually black with white edges. The below area is mainly white, while the face is highlighted by a thin eye-ring.  These birds have a dark V on their foreheads extending above their eyes.

The average weight of the birds is between 4.8 to 8.9 grams, with a length of between 10 to 11 cm. The average wingspan of this bird is 16 cm.

Habitat

The Gnatcatchers can inhabit the deciduous forest and near edges, often in moister areas. They can also be found in woodlands, the shrublands, which include the oak woodlands.

Food

Mainly the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers feed on insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. In order to attract them, you can plant shrubs and other areas where the insects will be attracted, and this will consequently attract the birds.  They feed on prey such as the leafhoppers, plant bugs, leaf beetles, grasshoppers, froghoppers, and weevils.  TheThe young chicks are also fed with these same foods by their parents.

  Nesting

The Blue-gray Gnatcatchers lay a clutch of about 3 to 5 eggs which are incubated for a period of 11 to 15 days. The eggs are pale blue with some reddish to dark brown spots. They usually have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The hatched chicks are hatched helpless and naked with their eyes closed and can have little movements.

Blue-Headed Vireo:

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.5-0.6 oz (13.2-17.2 g)

Wingspan: 8.7-9.5 in (22.2-24.2 cm)

Description

The Blue-headed Vireo is a neotropical songbird that is found in the US.  Its scientific name is the Vireo solitarius. They are two subspecies that are recognized to belong to the family of Blue-headed Vireo.

This is a small, stocky songbird with a medium-long tail and fairly heavy, hooked bill, and thick legs. The bird is moss-green with a head that is bluish-grey and crisp white underneath.  The face is covered by white spectacle-like and throat. The color of the underpart is white with greenish-yellow sides. The tail is usually blackish with two white wing bars.

The average length of the Blue-headed Vireo is between 12 to 15 cm, with an average weight of 13.2 to 17.2 grams.

Habitat

These birds live in mature boreal and montane forests of many types. Migrant and wintering birds can be found in almost any forest setting but mainly in those with understory plants.

Food

The Blue-headed Vireo mainly feeds on insects and larvae. They also take spiders, bees, battles, butterflies, grasshoppers, ants, stinkbugs, and crickets. If you want to attract these birds, you should allow some shrubs and thickets around where these insects, such as grasshoppers, will breed, and this will attract the birds. They also can feed in fruits of sumac, wild grapes, dogwood, and elder.

Nesting

The Blue-headed Vireo lays a clutch of about 3 to five eggs and incubated them for between 13 to 15 days. The eggs are usually creamy white, with spark dark spots around the larger end. They have one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with tufts of down. The average length of the eggs is between 1.7 to 2.2 cm, with a width of 1.3 to 1.6 cm.

Blue-Winged Teal:

Length: 14.2-16.1 in (36-41 cm)

Weight: 8.1-19.2 oz (230-545 g)

Wingspan: 22.1-24.4 in (56-62 cm)

Description

The Blue-winged Teal is a bird species that belong to the Anatidae family together with duck. Goose and swan. The scientific name of this bird is the Spatula discors.

The Blue-winged Teal is a small dabbling duck that is slightly larger than the Green-winged Teal. It has a round head, and the bill is also large. The males have a brown body with a dark chest, a slaty blue head, and a white crescent behind the bill.  They have a small white flank patch in Infront of their black rear.

The females and eclipse males are cold, patterned brown. During the flight, they reveal a bold powder blue patch on their upper wing coverts.

The average weight of the bird is between 230 to 545 grams, with a length of between 36 to 41 cm. The wingspan range is between 56 to 62 cm.

Habitat

They are mainly found in calm bodies of water, from marshes to small lakes.  The most preferred breeding area is the prairie pothole, in grassy habitats intermixed with wetlands.

Food

The Blue-winged Teals mainly eat aquatic insects such as the midge larvae, crustaceans, clams, and snails. This means that if you want to attract these birds, you have to keep ponds which will be a breeding place for these aquatic insects.

You can also use the feeders such as the ground and platform and put some grains such as the rice, millets during the winter.

Nesting

The birds lay a clutch of about 6 to 14 birds, and they incubate them for about 19 to 29 days. The eggs are creamy white in color and are 3.8 to 5.2 cm in length and 2.9 to 3.7 cm in width. The freshly hatched chicks are covered in yellow down with a grey browneye stripe. They are able to leave the nest immediately after being hatched.  They have one brood in a year.

black and white warbler:

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (8-15 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-8.7 in (18-22 cm)

Description

The scientific name of Black and White Warbler is Mniotilta varia. The Black and White Warblers are small songbirds about the size of a black-capped Chickadee. They are medium-sized Warblers. They are boldly striped in black and white, as their name suggests. They have long black wings highlighted by two white wing bars. The adult male has a black streaking on the underparts and the cheeks. Females are paler with less streaking and a wash of buff on the flanks.

Black and White Warbler have long and slightly downcurved bills. Their tails are short, and their heads appear somewhat flat and streamlined with short necks. The end tail of the birds has distinctive large black spots. They have extra long hind claws and heavier legs than other Wood Warblers.

The Black and White Warblers are approximately 11 to 13 centimeters long and have a weight of between 8 to 15 grams. The wingspan of the birds ranges between 18 to 22 centimeters.

Habitat

Black and White Warblers prefer deciduous forests and mixed forests. During migration, they are mostly found in woodlots and forests in riparian settings. During winters, they inhabit laws, gardens, urban areas, fruit orchards, shade-coffee plantations, wetlands, and mangroves.

Food

Suet cage feeders are the ideal feeder types for Black and White Warblers. In the cage, you can put suet inside. Black and White’s Warblers also feed on arthropods like ants, flies, spiders, beetles, weevils, and leafhoppers.

Nesting

Black and White Warblers have 1 to 2 broods in a year and lay 4 to 6 eggs. The eggs are creamy white, pale bluish, or greenish-white with speckles of brown or lavender. The incubation period is between 10 to 12 days, and nesting takes 8 to 12 days.

Broad-billed Hummingbird:

Weight: 0.1-0.1 oz (3-4 g

Length: 8–10 cm (3.1–3.9 in)

Wingspan: 13 cm (5.1 in)

Description

The scientific name of the Broad-billed Hummingbird Cynanthus latirostris. It is a small Hummingbird with a long straight bill and a long tail with notches in the center. Male Broad-billed Hummingbirds have fuller tails with round corners, while the females have square-cornered tails. Adult males are rich green in color with a shiny blue throat. Their bills are red with a black tip. Immature and female Broad-billed Hummingbirds are golden-green on top and gray below with a white line behind their eyes.

Broad-billed Hummingbirds weigh between 3 to 4 grams and are between 8 to 10 cm long. They have a wingspan of approximately 13 centimeters. The male bird weighs slightly more than the female.

Habitat

Broad-billed Hummingbirds are mostly found along streams in canyons, lowland thorn forests, wet tropical deciduous forests, and mountain meadows. They nest in places with sycamores, willows, and cottonwoods. The birds are also found in flower-filled ravines and residential gardens.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Broad-billed Hummingbirds is a nectar feeder. In it, you can put sugar water made from 4 parts of water and 1 part sugar. You can also plant native flowers in your garden where the birds can sip nectar. The birds also fed on insects by flycatching them and gleaning them from plants.

Nesting

Female Broad-billed Hummingbirds build their nests 10 to 40 feet above the ground on slender descending branches of deciduous trees like pine, oak, poplar, hackberry, birch, and hornbeam.  Lay 2 to 3 white eggs. The incubation period is between 16 to 19 days and is done by females only.

Brewer’s Sparrow:

Length: 5.1-5.9 in (13-15 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11-14 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-7.9 in (18-20 cm)

Description

The Brewers Sparrow, whose scientific name is Spizella breweri, is North America’s smallest Sparrow. The birds are dainty and have slim bodies. Their tails are long and with notches. They have short round wings, and their bills are small, sharp, and cone-shaped.

The birds are dusky gray-brown and have grayish underparts. Their eyes have a thin white eye-ring. The faint gray stripe over their eyes contrasts with their dark eyeliner and has a streaked back and nape. The throat of a Brewer’s Sparrow is grayish-white.

Brewer’s Sparrow weighs between 11 to 14 grams and has a length between 13 to 15 centimeters. The wingspan of the birds is between 18 and 20 grams.

Habitat

Brewer’s Sparrows are mostly found in sagebrush, grasslands, and near tree lines in summer, as well as high elevation areas like among the subalpine trees and shrubs. In winters, they are mostly found in the open country especially deserts dominated by creosote bush. Adult brewer’s Sparrows spend most of their time foraging in shrubs during the breeding season.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Brewer’s Sparrow is the ground feeder and platform feeders. You can put black oil and hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, millet, and peanuts hearts inside the feeders. The birds also eat small insects like caterpillars, weevils, ants, grasshoppers, beetles, and spiders.

Nesting

Brewer’s Sparrow lays 2 to 5 eggs and has 1 to 2 broods a year. The eggs are blue-green spotted with dark brown or reddish-brown and are 1.6-1.7 cm long and 1.2-1.3 cm wide. Incubation takes 10 to 12 days, and nesting takes 6 to 9 days.

Boat-tailed Grackle:

Length: 10.2-14.6 in (26-37 cm)

Weight: 3.3-8.4 oz (93-239 g)

Wingspan: 15.3-19.7 in (39-50 cm)

Description

Boat-tailed Grackle is a large, tall, and thin songbird in the family Icteridae. The scientific name of this bird is Quiscalus major. The birds have long legs and long pointed bills. Male Grackles have very long tails making up almost half of their body length. They fold these tails in a V-shape like the keel of a boat.

The male Boat-tailed Grackles are black all over with a shimmering purple sheen on the head. The females are dark brown on the top and there below are russet in color with a subtle face pattern. Their eyebrows are pale, pale cheeks and a pale mustache stripe. The birds’ eye color ranges from dull brown to bright yellow.

Boat-tailed Grackles weighs between 93 and 239 grams and are 26 to 37 cm long. The wingspan of these birds ranges between 39 to 50 cm.

Habitat

The boat-tailed Grackles are coastal species.  The birds are also found in marsh grasses, boat launches, parks in urban areas, and on telephone wires. The birds stay close to salt waters and breed in marshes along rivers, lakes, ponds, and upland habitats.

Food

To attract Boat-tailed Grackles, the ideal feeder type is platform feeder. In the platform feeder, you can put sunflower seeds, millet, sorghum, corn, and fruits.  These birds also eat arthropods, mollusks, frogs, lizards, turtles, crustaceans, and tubers.

Nesting

The Boat-tailed Grackles have 1 to 2 broods per year and have a clutch size of 1 to 5 eggs. The eggs are light blue with brown and black scrawls and 2.7-3.8 cm long, and 1.9-2.4 cm wide. Both the incubation period and nesting period take 13 days.

Brewer’s blackbird:

Male measurements

Length: 8.3-9.8 in (21-25 cm)

Weight: 2.1-3.0 oz (60-86 g)

Wingspan: 14.6 in (37 cm)

Female measurements

Length: 7.9-8.7 in (20-22 cm)

Weight: 1.8-2.4 oz (50-67 g)

Wingspan: 14.6 in (37 cm)

Description

Brewer’s Blackbird is a small, long-legged songbird that looks like many blackbirds. The scientific name of this bird is Euphagus cyanocephalus. They have a long tail which is balanced by a full-body, round head, and long thick based beak. The tail of a male Brewer’s Blackbird, when it’s perched, appears widened and rounded toward the tip.

Male Brewer’s Blackbirds are black all over with a staring yellow eye and blue sheen on the head. The females are plain brown, have dark wings and tails, and have dark eyes. Immature Brewer’s Blackbirds look like washed-out light brown versions of the female Brewer’s Blackbirds.

Male Brewer’s Blackbirds weigh between 60 to 86 grams and are 21 to 25 cm long. They have a wingspan of 37cm. Female Brewer’s Blackbirds are 20 to 22 cm long and weigh 50 to 67 grams. The females have a wingspan averaging 37 cm. the birds are about the size of Red-winged Blackbirds.

Habitat

Brewer’s Blackbirds are common in towns and open habitats. The birds feed on open ground or underfoot in parks and busy streets. Their natural habitats include grasslands, meadows, woodlands, sagebrush, and marshes.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Brewer’s Blackbird is platform and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, and millet. Brewer’s Blackbirds also eat insects, small frogs, young voles, and some nesting birds like Brewer’s Sparrows.

Nesting

The Brewer’s Blackbird lay 3 to 7 eggs and have 1 to 2 brood in a year. The eggs are pale gray to greenish-white, clouded or spotted with brown, pink, violet, yellow and gray. The incubation period is 11 to 17 days. Nesting takes 12 to 16 days, after which the nestling fly out to forage by themselves.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.1-3.5 in (8-9 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 oz (2.8-4.5 g)

Wingspan: 5.25 in (13.3 cm)

Description

Broad-tailed Hummingbirds are medium-sized hummingbirds widely distributed in North America. Its scientific name is Selasphorus platycercus.  They have a lean body with a big head. They have a long bill and a long tail. The tail extends beyond the wingtips when perched, making them relatively long for a hummingbird.

The broad-tailed Hummingbird is shimmering green above with greenish or buffy flanks. The birds have a white chest and a line down their belly. Adult males have risen magenta throat patches, whereas the females and immature Broad-tailed Hummingbirds have green spots on their throats and cheeks and a pale eye-ring. The birds flash white tail tips when they spread their tails while flying.

Broad-tailed Hummingbirds have a length of 8 to 9 cm and a weight ranging from 2.8 to 4.5 grams. The birds have an average wingspan of 13.3 centimeters.

Habitat

Broad-tailed hummingbirds breed in high elevation meadows, shrubby habitats, and evergreen forests. Common habitats include pine-oak, evergreen, pinyon-juniper, and montane scrub and thickets. During migration, they move through highland meadows to the lowlands, where there are abundant flowers.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Broad-tailed Hummingbirds is the nectar feeder. In the nectar, the feeder put a sugar-water solution with a ratio of 1:4. The Broad-tailed Hummingbirds also feed on small insects, especially when they are nesting. They sometimes use the sap as a nectar substitute.

Nesting

Broad-tailed Hummingbirds lay two white eggs and incubate them for 16 to 19 days. The eggs are 1.2 to 1.5 cm long and 0.8 to 1 cm wide. Nesting takes 21 to 26 days, and the nestlings are helpless and naked when hatched.

Brown Thrasher:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 9.1-11.8 in (23-30 cm)

Weight: 2.1-3.1 Oz (61-89 g)

Wingspan: 11.4-12.6 in (29-32 cm)

The Brown Thrasher is a bird that belongs to the family of Mimidae, which includes the mockingbirds and New World catbirds.  The scientific name of this bird is the Toxostoma rufum.

Description

The Brown Thrasher is a fairly large, slender songbird that contains long, sturdy legs and a long and slightly down-curved bill.  The tail is long as well and often cocked upwards like in the Wren.

The average weight of this bird is 61 to 89 grams with a length of 23 to 30 cm. The average wingspan of this bird is 29 to 32 cm.

Habitat

The Brown Thrashers live in the scrubby fields, dense regenerating woods, and the forest edges.  They rarely move far from the thick undergrowth into which they can easily retreat.

Food

If you want to attract Brown Thrasher, the most appropriate feeders are ground and platform. You can put foods such as suet, cracked corn, peanut hearts, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds inside these feeders.

These birds also feed on insects, arthropods, along with fruits. They literally form on the ground by sweeping their bills through the leaf litter soil with quick, sideways motions.  They feed on insects such as bees, wasps, leafhoppers, treehoppers, grasshoppers, etc. The berries include blueberry, hackberries, currant, grapes, cherry, and strawberry.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 6 eggs, and they incubate for 10 to 14 days. The eggs are glossy pale blue, pale greenish-blue, with many red-brown speckles. The length of the eggs is 2.6 to 2.7 cm, with a width of 1.9 to 2 cm. The chicks are hatched with closed eyes, pink skin with scattered tufts of grey-white down. They usually have 1 to 2 broods a year.

Brown-headed Cowbird:

Male

Length: 7.5-8.7 in (19-22 cm)

Weight: 1.5-1.8 oz. (42-50 g)

Wingspan: 14.2 in (36 cm)

Female

Length: 6.3-7.9 in (16-20 cm)

Weight: 1.3-1.6 Oz (38-45 g)

Wingspan: 12.6-15.0 in (32-38 cm)

The brown-headed Cowbird is a small parasitic bird that originates from the US. Its scientific name is the Molothrus later.

Description

The Brown-headed Cowbird is a small blackbird that has a shorter tail and a thicker head than most blackbirds. The bill has a unique shape, and it is much shorter and thicker as compared to other blackbirds, almost finch-like at first sight.  In-flight, look for a shorter tail.

The male birds have black plumage and a thick brown head that sometimes look dark when there is not enough lighting or in a distance. The females are plain brown birds, lightest on the head and underparts, with the fine streaking on the belly and a dark eye.

The average weight of a male Cowbird is 42 to 50 grams, while the female is 38 to 45 grams. The average length is 16 to 20 cm for a female, while the male is 19 to 22 cm. The wingspan average is 36 cm.

Habitat

They mostly live in open areas such as the fields, pastures, meadows, forest edges, and lawns.

Food

If you want to attract the Brown-headed Cowbirds, the ideal feeders are platform, ground, and large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as cracked corn, milo, millet, oats, hulled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and black oil sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on grasses and weeds.  They also eat insects such as grasshoppers and beetles.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 1 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 12 days. The eggs are white to grayish-white with brown or gray spots. The chicks are hatched naked with eyes closed.

Brown-headed Nuthatch:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.9-4.3 in (10-11 cm)

Weight: 0.3 Oz (10 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a small songbird that is found mainly in pine forests throughout parts of the US. Its scientific name is the Sitta pusilla.

Description

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a small, compact bird. It appears to be round due to its short tail, legs, and neck. The bill is chisel-like and looks a little too big for its body.

The colors of the bird are white on the underparts and grow above with a brown head.  If you closely look at it, you will notice some white spots on the back of the head and small white spots on the tail, and they are visible on the flight.

The average weight of this bird is 10 grams with an average length of 10 to 11 cm. The wingspan range is from 16 to 18 cm.

Habitat

The Brown-headed Nuthatch resides in the pine forest in areas with loblolly, shortleaf, longleaf, and slash pine trees.  They are also common in open areas and mature pine forests.

Food

If you want to attract the Brown-headed Nuthatch, the ideal feeders are the platform, ground, large and small tube feeders, small and large hopper, and suet cage. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts, peanut hearts, suet, and hulled sunflower seeds.

They also feed on spiders and insects such as beetle larvae, cockroaches, and eggs during the warm months.

Nesting

The bird lays a clutch of 3 to 7 eggs. The eggs are usually cream-colored with reddish-brown spots and blotches. The young ones are hatched naked with patches of light grey down with their eyes closed.

Bullock’s Oriole:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-7.5 in (17-19 cm)

Weight: 1.0-1.5 Oz (29-43 g)

Wingspan: 12.2 in (31 cm)

Description

The Bullock’s Oriole is a small New World blackbird.  It is named after an English amateur and naturalist called William Bullock. The scientific name of this bird is  Icterus bullockii.

Bullock’s Oriole is a medium-sized songbird with a slim but sturdy body and medium-long tails. The Orioles are related to the blackbirds, and they share long, thick-based, sharply pointed bills.

The adults are bright orange with a black back and a large white wing patch. The face is orange with a backline through the eyes and a black throat. The females and the chicks have a head and tail that is yellowish-orange with a grayish back and white-edged wing coverts. The young male Orioles show a black throat patch.

The average weight of a Bullock’s Oriole is 29 to 43 grams with a length of 17 to 19 cm. The average wingspan is 31 cm.

Habitat

If you want to find these birds, look for them in open woodlands along streams, particularly among cottonwoods. They occur in orchards, parks, and oaks or mesquite woodlands.

Food

The Bullock’s Orioles feed mainly on fruits, insects, and nectar. To attract them, you can allow shrubs to grow, which will attract the insects and subsequently attract the birds. They get the insects from the leaves, branches, and trunks, and they also pluck insects from spider webs or in the air.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 7 eggs. The eggs are pale bluish or gray-white splotched with purplish-brown lines. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with long, sparse white down.

Bushtit:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 2.8-3.1 in (7-8 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 Oz (4-6 g)

Description

The Bushtit, also known as the American Bushtit, is the only species in the Aegithalidae family found in the new world. The scientific name of this bird is the Psaltriparus minimus.

The Bushtits are tiny, kinglet-size birds. They are plumb and longheaded with long tails and a short, stubby bill. This bird is a fairly plain brown and gray bird. The upper part is slightly darker than the underpart. The head is brown-gray, gray wings, and a tan-gray underpart.

The average weight of these birds is 4 to 6 grams with a length of 7 to 8 cm.

Habitat

The Bushtits are mainly found in the oak forest, evergreen woodlands, dry scrublands, streamsides, and suburbs. You can easily find them at an elevation of over 10000 feet.

Food

If you want to attract the Bushtit, the ideal feeders are the platform, suet cage, large and small hoppers, and small and large tube feeders. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as peanuts, suet, peanut hearts, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds.

The bird can also feed on spiders and insects, including the very tiny ones that appear on the leaves and twigs. They eat insects such as beetles, wasps, ants, and caterpillars.

Nesting

The Bushtits lay a clutch of 4 to 8 eggs and take 12 to 13 days to incubate. The eggs are white and smooth. The average length of the eggs is 1.3 to 1.4 cm, with a width of 1 cm. They usually have one to two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked and helpless.

Cactus Wren:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-8.7 in (18-22 cm)

Weight: 1.1-1.7 Oz (32-47 g)

Description

The Cactus Wren is a species that belongs to the Wren and is found mainly in the desert parts of the US. Its scientific name is the Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus.  It is the largest Wren in the United States.

The Cactus Wren is a large wren that has a long and heavy bill, a tail that is long and rounded, and wings that are short and rounded. It is the largest species of the Wrens, and it is the same size as the Spotted Towhee. This bird is speckled brown with bright white eyebrows that extend from the bill across and above the eyes to the neck side.

They have a white chest with dark speckles. The backside is brown with heavy white streaks, while the tail is barred white and black and can notice from below. Both the males and females look similar, but the chicks are paler and have brown eyes.

The average weight of this bird is 32 to 47 grams and length of 18 to 22 cm.

Habitat

The Cactus Wren mainly live in the desert, arid foothills, coastal sage scrub, and urban areas throughout the desert areas, especially areas with thorny shrubs, cholla, and prickly pear.

Food

If you want to attract a Cactus Wren, the most appropriate feeders are small and large hoppers, platform, ground suet cage, and large tube cage. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as suet, peanuts, and hulled sunflower seeds. These birds also feed on spiders and insects such as ants, needless, grasshoppers, wasp, and butterflies.

Nesting

They lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 16 to 17 days.  The eggs are usually pinkish to buff with some reddish-brown spots. They have one to 3 brooms in a year. The chicks are hatched naked.

California Scrub-Jay:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 11.0-11.8 in (28-30 cm)

Weight: 2.5-3.5 Oz (70-100 g)

Wingspan: 15.3 in (39 cm)

Description

The California Scrub-jay is a scrub jay species that originate from the US. The Scientific name of this bird is the Aphelocoma, California.

This is a fairly large songbird that has lanky dimensional.  It has a long and floppy tail, and it often adopts a hunched-over posture. It has a straight and stout bill that has a hook at the tip.

The color of the California Scrub-jay is rich azure blue and grey above, pale on the underside broken up by a blue necklace. In birds, the color blue depends on the lighting, and this means this bird can at times look simply dark.

The average weight of the bird is between 70 to 1000 grams with a length of 28 to 30 cm.  The wingspan average is 39 cm.

Habitat

If you want to find the California Scrub-jay, you can look for them in open areas, woodlands, and chaparral along the west coast and pastures, backyards, and orchards.

Food

If you want to attract the California Scrub-jay, the ideal feeder are the large tube feeder, platform, ground, suet cage, and large hopper. You can put food types such as the suet, cracked corn, peanuts, millet, milo, peanut hearts, hulled sunflower, and black oil sunflower seeds inside the feeders. During the summer, these birds also feed on insects and fruits. They also eat small animals such as lizards and nesting birds.

Nesting

The California Scrub-jay lays a clutch of between 1 to 5 eggs and takes 17 to 19 days to incubate them. The eggs are usually pale green blotched with olive or pale grey with some brown spots.  The average length of the eggs’ is 2.4 to 3.4 cm and has a width of 1.9 to 2 cm. The hatched chick is usually helpless, naked, and eyes are closed.

California Towhee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-9.8 in (21-25 cm)

Weight: 1.3-2.4 Oz (37-67 g)

Wingspan: 11.4 in (29 cm)

Description

The California Towhee is a bird that belongs to the family of Passerellidae, and it originates from the US. Its scientific name is the Melozone crisis.

The California Towhees is essentially a large sparrow with a sparrow’s short, rounded wings. Long and a thick seed for seed cracking. However, these birds are larger and bulkier. The long tail and short wings can give the bird an ungainly look in flight.

The bird is uniformly pale brown except for the rusty patch under the tail and around the bill.  Both the males and females look similar.

The average weight of the California Towhee is 37 to 67 grams with a length of 21 to 25 cm.  The wingspan average is 29 cm.

Habitat

The California Towhees live in chaparral and other tangled, shrubby, and dry habitats. They can also be found in homes in the small backyards and neighborhood parks.

Food

If you want to attract the California Towhees, the ideal feeders are the platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as hulled sunflower seeds, millet, milo, cracked corn, peanut hearts, and black oil sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on grasses and herbs, which are supplemented with the insects such as grasshoppers and beetles. They also eat berries such as elderberry, coffeeberry, poison oak, plums, acorns, etc.

Nesting

The California Towhees lay a clutch of 2 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are pale blue-white, sparsely spotted. The chicks hatched are naked except for the sparse, wispy down feathers, and the eyes are usually closed.

Canyon Towhee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-9.8 in (21-25 cm)

Weight: 1.3-1.9 oz (37-53 g)

Wingspan: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)

The Canyon Towhee is a bird that belongs to the family of Passserellidae.  Its scientific name is the Melozone fusca.    

Description

The Canyon Towhees are large sparrows that have a fairly long tail, chunky bodies, and short rounded wings. They also have a short bill that is thick at the base, and the longs are long. These birds are generally plain brown as they come.  They have a warm rusty undertail covert, a buffy throat, and a hint of the reddish crown.

The average weight of these birds is 37 to 53 grams and has a length of between 21 to 25 cm. The average wingspan is usually 29.21 cm.

Habitat

The Canyon Towhees are mainly found in desert grassland with scattered dense shrubs, rocky terrain, dry watercourses with mesquite, and other dry shrubby places. These birds shy away from the suburban neighborhoods, favoring areas that are remote and sparsely populated.

Food

If you want t to attract the Canyon Towhee, the ideal feeders are the platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as millet, milo, cracked corn, peanut hearts, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds. These birds also feed on plants such as chickweeds, pigweed, and lupines. They also eat berries and small invertebrates such as insects, spiders, snails, and millipedes.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of between 2 to 6 eggs. The eggs are bluish-white to pearl gray with some brown, black, or purple spots. The length of the eggs is about 2.1 to 2.7 cm, and the width is 1.5 to2 cm.

Carolina Chickadee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.9-4.7 in (10-12 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (8-12 g)

Wingspan: 5.9-7.9 in (15-20 cm)

The Carolina Chickadee is a small Passerine bird that belongs to the family of tit Paridae. The scientific name is the Poecile carolinensis.

Description

The Carolina Chickadee is a small approachable bird that has a short neck and large head, and this gives it a unique spherical body shape. It has a fairly long tail, and the bill is thicker than that of warblers but thinner than that of a finch.

These birds have a black cap and a bib separated by a stark white cheek. The wings, back, and tail are soft gray in color. The average weight of this bird is 8 to 12 grama and has an average length of 10 to 12 cm. The wingspan ranges between 15 to 20 cm.

 Habitat

The Carolina Chickadee mainly resides in the forested areas or in the urban and suburban yards, or in the parks with large trees.

Food

If you want to attract the Carolina Chickadees, the most appropriate feeders to use are the suet cage, platform, large and small tube feeders, and the large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the hulled sunflower seeds, suet, peanuts, black oil sunflower seeds, safflower, Nyjer, and peanut hearts.

 In the winter season, the diet of these birds is half plants and half animals, while the rest of the year, they mainly feed on insects and spiders.

Nesting

The Carolina Chickadees lay a clutch of 3 to 10 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 15 days. The eggs are white with fine dots to small blotches of reddish-brown. The average length of the eggs is 1.5 c and a width of 1.1 cm. They experience one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked except for wisps down on the head, wings, and the rump.

Carolina Wren:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.5 in (12-14 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.8 oz (18-22 g)

Wingspan: 11.4 in (29 cm)

The Carolina Wren is a popular species of the wren that resides in most parts of the Americas. The scientific name of this bird is the Thryothorus ludovicianus.  

Description

The Carolina Wren is a small Chunky bird with a round body and a long tail that it cocks upwards so often. The head is large with a little neck, and the distinctive bill marks it as a wren; long, slender, and downcurved. The birds are bright unpatterned reddish-brown with a long white elbow stripe, dark bill, and white in and throat.

The average weight of the bird is 18 to 22 grams with a length of 12 to 14 cm. The wingspan average is 29 cm.

Habitat

If you want to see or listen to the Carolina Wrens as they sing and call, you should go to the dense vegetation in the wooded areas and more so in forest ravines and neighborhoods. They love to move low through tangled understory; they frequent backyard brush piles and areas chocked with vines and bushes.

Food

If you want to attract the Carolina Wrens, the ideal feeders are large and small hoppers, suet cage, large tube feeder, ground, and platform. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the suet, hulled sunflower seeds, and peanut hearts.

These birds also feed on insects and spiders. Insects include beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, and moths. They also feed on fruits and berries in small amounts.

Nesting

The Carolina Wrens lay a clutch of 3 to 7 eggs and incubate them for  12 to 16 days. The eggs are white, cream, or pinkish-white with fine rusty brown spots. They usually have one brood in a year.  The hatched chicks have their eyes closed with a pale grayish down.

Cassin’s Finch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3 in (16 cm)

Weight: 0.8-1.2 oz (24-34 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-10.6 in (25-27 cm)

The Cassin’s Finch is a bird that belongs to the Finch family of Fringillidae. The scientific name of the bird is the Haemorhous cassinii. 

Description

The Cassin’s Flinch is a small songbird that has a head and a short-medium tail.  They also have a fairly long bill that is straight-sided, and their tails are obviously notched. They have long wings, and whenever they have perched, the tips project farther down the tail than in other finches.

The male is rosy pink overall, with the most intense red on the crown. The females and the chicks are brown and white birds with crisp, dark streaks on the chest and the underparts. Both the male and females have streaked under tail coverts and often show a thin white eye-ring.

The average weight of this bird is 24 to 34 grams, with an average length of 16 cm. The wingspan ranges between 25 to 27 cm.

Habitat

The Cassin’s Finches are mainly found in the evergreen forests in the mountains up to around 10000 feet high.  They may move to lower elevations during winter.

Food

If you want to attract the Cassin’s Finch, the ideal feeders are the platform, large and small hopper, and large and small tube feeders. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the Nyjer, hulled sunflower seeds, and the black oil sunflower seeds. They also feed on fruits and insects. Some of the fruits include grapes, mulberries, firethorn berries, and cotoneaster berries.

Nesting

The Cassin’s Finch lay a clutch of between 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 days. The eggs are light greyish blue, speckled with black, brown, and purplish. They have one to two brooms in a year. The hatched chicks are usually covered with sooty gray down.

Cedar waxwing:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)

Weight: 1.1 oz (32 g)

Wingspan: 8.7-11.8 in (22-30 cm)

  Description

The scientific name of Cedar Waxwing is Bombycilla cedrorum. It is a medium-sized sleek bird with a large head. The birds have short necks and short wide bills. The crest on their head often lies flat and droops over the back of the head. The birds have broad wings that are pointed like those of Starling’s and short square-tipped tails.

Cedar Waxwings are pale brown on the head and chest and light gray on their wings. The underpart is pale yellow, and the tail is gray with a bright yellow tip. The face of a Cedar Waxwing has a narrow black mask outlined in white. Their wing feathers have red waxy tips that are not much conspicuous.

The birds fly in big unruly flocks that grow, shrink, divide and rejoin like starling flocks. Cedar Waxwing weighs approximately 32 grams and is 14 to 17 cm long. The wingspan of the birds ranges from 22 to 30 cm.

Habitat

Cedar Waxwing can be found low in berry bushes, high in evergreens, or along rivers and over ponds. They inhabit deciduous, coniferous, and mixed woodlands, especially areas along streams, sagebrush, and desert washes. Cedar Waxwing, during winters, is found in open woodlands, parks, gardens, forest edges, and second-growth forests.

Food

To attract Cedar Waxwing birds, the ideal feeder type is a platform feeder. In the feeder, you can put fruit such as berries for the bird to feed on. They also feed on protein-rich insects like mayflies, dragonflies, stoneflies, and leaf beetles.

Nesting

Cedar Waxwing lay two to 6 eggs and have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The eggs are pale blue or blue-gray, sometimes with black or gray spots, and are 1.6 to 2.9 cm long and 1.4 to 1.8 cm wide. Incubation takes 11 to 13 days, while nesting takes 14 to 18 days.

Chestnut-baCked Chickadee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.9-4.7 in (10-12 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (7-12 g)

Wingspan: 7.5 in (19 cm)

Description

Chestnut-backed Chickadee is the smallest Chickadee. The scientific name of the bird is Poecile rufescens. The birds have large heads and small bills. They have a long narrow tail and short rounded wings. The bird is bold black and white on the head, similar to other Chickadee, but their back and sides are chestnuts instead of the typical slaty gray color of Chickadee’s backs. Their flanks are either dull gray or rich brown.

The birds are active, sociable, noisy and match the rich brown bark of the coastal trees. They make a conspicuous chick-a-dee call note.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee weighs between 7 to 12 grams and is 10 to 12 centimeters long. The wingspan of the birds is approximately 19 centimeters.

Habitat

Chestnut-backed Chickadees are mostly found in dense wet coniferous forests, including Monterey, ponderosa, sugar pines, incense-cedar, and redwoods. They can also be found in some deciduous forests in willows, along streams, eucalyptus groves, and along edges of oak woodlands. The birds also inhabit the urban and rural areas.

Food

The ideal feeder types to attract Chestnut-backed Chickadee are large tube feeders, small tube feeders, large hoppers, suet cage, small hoppers, and platform feeders. In these feeders, you can put black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, Nyjer, suet, peanuts, peanut hearts, and mealworms. The birds also feed on insects and arthropods like caterpillars, leafhoppers, and spiders.

Nesting

Chestnut-backed Chickadees lay 1 to 11 eggs and have 1 to 2 broods in a year. Their eggs are white with reddish to light-brown spots and are 1.4 -1.7 cm long and 1.1-1.3 cm wide. Incubation takes 12 to 18 days, and the nestlings are hatched naked and eyes closed. The nesting period is 18 to 21 days.

Chestnut-sided warbler:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.5 in (12-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (10.7-14.3 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-8.3 in (19-21 cm)

A chestnut-sided Warbler is a slim Warbler with a long tail. The bird often holds the long tail cocked or raised above the body line, making the tail appear longer. Breeding adult Chest-sided Warblers are crisp gray and white with a yellow crown. They also have black face markings and rich chestnut flanks. The males are more richly marked than their female counterparts.

Non-breeding adults and immature Chestnut-sided Warblers are bright lime green above with a neat white eye-ring. They have two wing bars and pale gray to white underparts.

Chestnut-sided Warblers often raise their tails and droop their wings as they move through the branches.

Chestnut-sided Warblers weigh 10.7 to 14.3 grams and are 12 to 14 cm long. The wingspan of the birds ranges from 19 to 21 centimeters.

Habitat

Chestnut-sided Warbler’s breed in young deciduous habitats and thickets, especially in places where trees and shrubs have been regenerating. These include areas where logging, fire, flooding, or storm damage has occurred. These birds migrate through wooded or shrubby habitats, including mature forests.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Chest-nut Warbler is ground feeder. In the feeder, you can put dry seeds and small fruits. The birds also feed on insects like caterpillars, fly larvae, locusts, leafhoppers, and cankerworms.

Nesting

Chestnut-sided Warblers lay 3 to 5 eggs and have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The eggs are creamy-white or greenish with brown speckles and are 0.6 to 0.7 inches long and 0.5 to 0.6 inches wide. Incubation takes 11 to 12 days, and the chicks are hatched helpless with sparse down. The nesting period is 10 to 11 days.

Chipping Sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.6 oz (11-16 g)

Wingspan: 8.3 in (21 cm)

Description

The scientific name of Chipping Sparrow is Spizella passerine. The chipping sparrow is a slender, long-tailed sparrow. The bird has a medium-sized bill which is a little bit small for a sparrow.  Chipping sparrows are clean and crisp, have frosty underparts, and have a pale face. They have a black line through the eye and a bright rusty crown.

During winters, the birds are subdued, buff-brown, and have darkly streaked upper parts. The black line through their eye is still visible in winter, and the cap is still warm but more subdued reddish brown. Non-breeding birds are paler than breeding birds.

Chipping Sparrows weigh between 11 to 16 grams and are 12 to 15 centimeters long. The wingspan of the bird is 21 centimeters.

Habitat

The Chipping Sparrow is mostly found in open woodlands and forests with grassy clearings. They can also be found in parks, along roadsides, and residential areas, especially in shrubby and tree-lined backyards. The birds mostly inhabit trees like birch, oak, eucalyptus, aspen, and pecan tree.

Food

To attract Chipping Sparrows, you can use a large hopper, small hopper, platform, or ground feeders. In the feeders, you can put hulled sunflower seeds, Nyjer, cracked corn, millet, and milo. Chipping Sparrows also feed on protein-rich insects and small fruits like cherries.

Nesting

Chipping Sparrows lay 2 to 7 eggs and have 1 to 3 broods per year. The eggs are pale blue to white, lightly streaked or spotted with black, brown, or purplish in color. The incubation period is 0 to 15 days, while nesting takes 9 to 12 days. Hatched nestlings are naked, helpless, eyes closed with a few feathers on the head and body.

Clark’s Nutcracker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 10.6-11.8 in (27-30 cm)

Weight: 3.7-5.7 oz (106-161 g)

Wingspan: 24 in (61cm)

Description

The scientific name of Clark’s Nutcracker Nucifraga columbiana. The birds are the shape of a crow and the size of a jay. They have a round head and black crests. Their tails are short tails and a long, straight, and sharp-tipped black bill. Clark’s Nutcrackers are pale gray in color and have black wings. When the birds are flying, they show large white patches along the trailing edges. They have a broad white along the edges of their black wings. The birds have black legs and feet.

Clark’s Nutcrackers have a weight of 106 to 161 grams and are 27 to 30 centimeters. Crack’s Nutcrackers have a wingspan is approximately 61 centimeters.

Habitat

Clark’s Nutcrackers are mostly found in high elevation areas, shrubby whitebark, limber pine, small lakes near creeks, and moist meadows. During winters, they move to low elevation areas into forests of limber pine, southwestern white pine, Douglas-fir, pinyon-juniper, or Jeffrey pine.

Food

The Clark’s Nutcrackers are mostly attracted by large hopper, platform, and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put peanuts, mealworms, black oiled sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, and suet. Clark’s Nutcrackers also eat insects, spiders, and small vertebrates such including small birds, ground squirrels, chipmunks, toads, and carrion.

Nesting

Clark’s Nutcrackers lay 2 to 6 eggs and have only one brood in a year.  The eggs are pale greenish in color and have brown, olive, or gray speckles. They are usually 2.9 to 3.7 cm long and 2.2 to 2.5 cm wide. Incubation takes 18 days, while the nesting period is 20 days. The nestlings are helpless, with sparse white down and closed eyes when they are hatched.

Clay-colored Sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1–6 in (130–150 mm)

Weight: 12 g (0.42 oz)

Wingspan:  7.5 in (190 mm)

The scientific name for Clay-colored Sparrow is Spizella pallida. As the name suggests, the bird is clay-colored, petite, and trim sparrows. They have a slender body, small bills, and a long tail with notches. They have a peculiar smell, and slender shapes are about the size of a Chipping Sparrow.

Clay-colored Sparrows are mostly pale and tan gray with a contrasting face pattern. They have a finely streaked crown and a pale stripe over the eye. The dark eyeliner does not reach the front of the eye. Their cheeks are also darker.

Non-breeding and immature Clay-colored Sparrows have a pale mustache and gray collar and a pale area in front of their eyes.

Clay-colored Sparrow weighs approximately 12 grams and is 130 to 150 mm long. The birds have a wingspan approximating 190 mm.

Habitat

Clay-colored Sparrows breed in shrublands, field edges, and thickets. The birds forage low in shrubs or on the ground within a shrubby cover. The birds breed and feed in different areas. During winter seasons, the birds live in deserts and upland plains among thorn scrubs, brushy hillsides, and grassy fields.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Clay-colored Sparrows is ground feeder. In the feeder, you can put sunflower seeds, millet, and corn. Clay-colored Sparrows also feed on leaf buds of grasses and insects like grasshoppers, moths, leafhoppers, and ants.

Nesting

Clay-colored Sparrows have 1 to 2 broods in a year. Incubation takes 10 to 14 days, and the nestlings are hatched naked with sparse downy feathers. Nesting takes 7 to 9 days, after which the chicks go out and forage by themselves.

Cliff Swallow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1 in (13 cm)

Weight: 0.7-1.2 oz (19-34 g)

Wingspan: 11.0-11.8 in (28-30 cm)

The Cliff Swallow, also known as the America Cliff Swallow, is a member of the passerine bird family Hirundinidae. The scientific name of this bird is the Petrochelidon pyrrhonota. The scientific name was derived from ancient Greek. They are extremely social.

  Description

These compact Swallows have rounded, broad-based wings, a small head, and a medium-length squared tail. Whenever there is poor lighting, the Cliff Swallow looks brownish with dark throat and white underparts, while in proper; lighting, you will see their metallic, dark-blue backs and pale, pumpkin-colored rumps. 

They also have rich, brick red faces and a bright buff-white forehead patch like a headlamp. Some young chicks show whitish throats in summer and fall. The average weight of the bird is 19 to 34 grams with a length of 13 cm. The wingspan ranges between 28 and 30 cm.

Habitat

The Cliff Swallows initially opted to build their nests on raised cliffs, but due to the expansion of roads, they now opt to build in the bridges, overpasses, and culverts. They mainly feed in areas near and over water, frequently mixing with other species of Swallow.

Food

Cliff Swallow eats flying insects almost all year round, and they do so in groups.  They feed on the wing above grassy pastures, plowed fields, and other open places. If you want to attract these birds, you can keep some shrubs around for the insects to be available. This will consequently attract the birds.

Nesting

The Cliff Swallow lays a clutch of 1 to 6 eggs and incubates it for between 10 to 19 days. The eggs are white, creamy, or pinkish with brown speckles or blotches.  They experience 1 or 2 broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with bare pink skin.

Common Grackle

Length: 11.0-13.4 in (28-34 cm)

MEASUREMENTS

Weight: 2.6-5.0 oz (74-142 g)

Wingspan: 14.2-18.1 in (36-46 cm)

Description

The Common Grackle is a large icterid that is mostly found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Quiscalus quiscula.  

The Common Grackles are large, blackbirds that have long legs and long tails.  It also has a flat head and a bill that is longer than most of the blackbirds, with the hint of a downward curve. Whenever they are in flight, the wings appear shoer as compared to the tail. The males are a bit larger than the females.

They appear black from a distance but up close, their glossy purple heads contras with bronzy iridescent bodies. The females are less glossy compared to males. The chicks are dark brown with dark eyes.

The average weight is 74 to 142 grams with an average length of 28 to 34 cm. The wingspan ranges between 36 to 46 cm.

Habitat

The Common Grackles mainly live in agricultural fields, feedlots, parks, and suburban lawns. They are also popular around open habitats, including the woodland, forest edges, meadows, and marshes.

Food

If you are interested in attracting the Common Grackles, the ideal feeders are the Platform, ground, and the large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the milo, millets, peanut hearts, peanut, cracked corn, safflower, suet, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on fruits and small animals such as fish, frogs, caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers’ mice and other birds.

Nesting

The Common Grackles lay a clutch of 1 to 7 eggs and incubate them for a period of 11 to 15 days. The eggs are light blue, pearl grey, white, or dark brown, usually spotted with brown. They experience 1 to 2 broods a year. The chicks are hatched blind and naked.

Common Ground-Dove

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-7.1 in (15-18 cm)

Weight: 1.0-1.4 oz (28-40 g)

Description

The Common Ground-Dove is a small bird that inhabits most parts of the Americas. It is considered the smallest dove that exists in the US.  Just as the name suggests, it spends most of its time on the ground. Its scientific name is Columbina Passerina.

The Common Ground Doves are small doves with short round wings, short tails, and a short, thin bill. They are stocky with short legs, and they shuffle as they walk. Generally, these birds are sandy brown and have some dark spots on the wing coverts.

The males have a pinkish wash on the head, neck, and chest and bluish clowns. Both male and female have a fine, dark scaling on the neck and chest and a pinkish-red bill with a dark tip. The average weight is 28 to 40 grams with a length of between 15 to 18 cm.

Habitat

They live in open or shrubby areas where there is plenty of tall grove trees or grasses and this includes the open savannas and riparian corridors. They also live in urban areas and suburbs where they frequent yards and edges.

Food

If you are interested in attracting the Common Ground-Dove, the ideal feeders are the Platform, ground, and large hopper. You can put inside some of the foods like milo, millet, oats, cracked corn, and the hulled sunflower seeds.

These birds also eat insects and berries.  During the spring and summer, they feed on snail shells to recover the calcium lost to eggs and crop milk during the nesting.

Nesting

The Common Ground Doves lay a clutch of q to 3 eggs, and they proceed to incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are uniformly white and smooth. They usually have one to four broods in a year.   Chicks are hatched with their eyes closed and bodies covered with sparse grey down.

Common Yellowthroat

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.3 oz (9-10 g)

Wingspan: 5.9-7.5 in (15-19 cm)

Description

The Common Yellowthroat is a new world warbler. In the US, it is commonly known as the Yellow Bandit. Its scientific name is the Geothlypis trichas.    

The Common Yellowthroat is a small songbird that has a chunky, rounded head and medium length, slightly rounded tails. The adult males are bright yellow below with a sharp black face mask and olive underparts.  A thin whitish line sets of the black mask from the head and neck.

The young males show traces of the full mask of the adult males. The females are plain olive-brown with a yellow brightening the throat and the undertail. They have no black masks.

The average weight of this bird is 9 to 10 grams with a length of 11 to 13 cm. The wingspan ranges from 15 to 19 cm.

Habitat

The Yellowthroats live in open areas with thick, low vegetation ranging from marsh to grassland to open pine forest. They use even a wider suite of habitats during the migration.

Food

The Yellowthroats mainly eat from the ground, eating spiders, insects from the leaves, barks, branches, flowers, or fruits. Some of these insects include grasshoppers, bees, wasps, beetles, flies, and bugs. If you want to attract these birds, the ideal thing is to ensure there are shrubs and some ground vegetation on the compound, and they will come hunting for food.

Nesting

The Common Yellowthroats lay a clutch of between 1 to 6 eggs, and they incubate them for 12 days. The eggs are white with markings of grey, lilac, reddish-brown or black. They experience one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with dark orange skin and a wisp of greyish down.

Curve-billed Thrasher:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 10.6-11.0 in (27-28 cm)

Weight: 2.1-3.3 oz (60.8-93.6 g)

Wingspan: 13.4-13.6 in (34-34.5 cm)

Description

The Curve-billed Thrasher is a nonmigratory medium-sized mimid that originated from some parts of the United States.  The scientific name of this bird is the Toxostoma curvirostre.

The Curve-billed Thrasher is a lanky songbird with a long, curved bill, long tail, and thick legs, resembling a mockingbird but bigger with a different bill. The bird is grayish-brown above, paler off-white below mottled with indistinct gray-brown speckling. The eyes are orange-yellow.

The average weight of these birds is 60.8 to 93.6 grams, with an average length of 27 to 28 cm. The wingspan ranges from 34 to 34.5 cm.

Habitat

The Curve-billed Thrasher lives mainly in deserts, brushlands, thorn scrub, arid canyons, and pinyon-oak scrub.

Food

If you want to attract the Curve-billed Thrasher, the ideal feeders are the Platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the suet, hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, milo, and millet. These birds also feed on a number of insects, spiders, and snails, along with fruits. They forage on the ground using the bill to sweep back and forth through leaf litter and soil.

Nesting

The Curve-billed Thrashers lay a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 15 days. The eggs are light bluish-green to pale yellow with reddish-brown speckling. They experience one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are nearly naked and helpless with a sparse long gray down.

Dark-eyed Junco:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.1 oz (18-30 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-9.8 in (18-25 cm)

Description

The Dark-eyed Junco is a species of the junco, a group of small, grayish new world sparrows. This bird is common in some parts of the United States. The scientific name of this bird is the Junco hyemalis.

The Dark-eyed Junco is a medium-sized sparrow that has a rounded head, a short, stout bill, and a fairly long tail. The Juncos vary according to regions, but in general, they are dark gray or brown birds with a pink bill and outer tail feathers that are white and periodically flash open, on flight.

The average weight of the bird is 18 to 30 grams with an average length of 14 to 16 cm. The wingspan ranges from 18 to 25 cm.

Habitat

The Dark-eyed Juncos bred in coniferous or mixed coniferous forests in Most parts of America.  You can likely find these birds in woodlands, fields, parks, and roadsides.

Food

If you want to attract the Dark-eyed Junco, the ideal feeders are the Platform, ground, and the large hopper. Some of the foods you can put inside these feeders are milo, oats, millets, safflower, Nyjer, peanut hearts, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds.

During the breeding season, these also eat insects, including butterflies, beetles, caterpillars, ants, wasps, and flies.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are white, gray, pale bluish-white, or pale greenish-white with brown, gray, and green speckles. They experience 1 to 3 broods a year.  The chicks are hatched naked except for the dark gray down on the back, and their eyes are closed.

Dickcissel:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.4 oz (25.6-38.4 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-10.2 in (24.8-26 cm

Description

The Dickcissel is a small American seed-eating bird that belongs to the family of Cardinalidae.  The scientific name of this bird is the Spiza Americana.  

The Dickcissel is compact and sparrow-like with a full chest, a large, thick bill, and a relatively short bill. The adult males are usually greyish on the head with a yellow face and chest, crossed with a bold black V.  The backside is brown and grey with warm reddish-brown shoulders. 

The females are similar but have a more subdued pattern and lack a black V on the throat. The young chicks are browner without the cool grey or bright yellow tones.

The average weight of the bird is 26.6 to 38.4 grams, with an average length of 14 to 16 cm. The wingspan rages from 24.8 to 26 cm.

Habitat

The Dickcissels are mainly found in tall grasslands, including the prairies, hayfields, lightly grazed pastures, and roadsides.

Food

The Dickcissels mainly feed on both insects and seeds during the breeding season.  The insects include caterpillars, termites, grasshoppers, flies, wasps, beetles, and they eat the spiders too. 

If you want to attract this bird, you can use feeders such as the ground and Platform. Inside these feeders, you can put in foods such as rice and sorghum.

Nesting

The Dickcissels lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are unmarked, pale blue. The average length of the eggs is 2 to 2.2 cm, with a width of 1.6 to 1.7 cm. The chicks are hatched almost naked, helpless with sparse white down.

Downy Woodpecker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)

Weight: 0.7-1.0 oz (21-28 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-11.8 in (25-30 cm)

Description

The scientific name of Downy Woodpecker is Dryobates pubescens. They are small with a chisel-shaped straight bill, which appears too small for the bird’s size. The birds have blocky heads, wide shoulders, and straight-backed posture.

Downy Woodpeckers have a checkered black and white body. Their above is black checked with white on the wings, and the head is boldly striped. The back of a Downy Woodpecker has a broad white stripe down the center. The male Woodpeckers have a small red patch on the back of their heads, and the outer tail feathers are white with a few black spots.

Downy woodpeckers weigh 21 to 28 grams and are 14 to 17 cm long. The birds’ wingspan ranges between 25 to 30 cm.

Habitat

Downy Woodpeckers are often found in open woodlands, especially in the deciduous woods, brushy or weedy edges, and along the streams. They can also be found in orchards, city parks, backyards, and vacant lots.

Food

To attract Downy Woodpeckers, the ideal feeder types to use is platform feeder, large hopper, small hopper, or a suet cage. In the feeders, you can put peanut hearts, safflower, peanuts, mealworms, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, and suet.  The birds also feed on insects like beetle larvae, caterpillars, bark beetles, and apple borers.

Nesting

Downy Woodpeckers lay 3 to 8 white eggs and have one brood in a year. The eggs are 1.9 to 2 cm long and 1.4 to 1.5 cm wide. Incubation takes 12 days, and nesting takes 18 to 21 days. The nestlings are hatched naked with pink skin, eyes closed, and with a sharp egg tooth at the tip of the bill.

Eastern bluebird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-8.3 in (16-21 cm)

Weight: 1.0-1.1 oz (28-32 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-12.6 in (25-32 cm)

Description

The scientific name for this bird is Sialia sialis. The Eastern Bluebird is a small thrush with a big round head. The bird has large eyes, a plump body, and an alert posture. Eastern Bluebird’s bill is short and straight.

The male Eastern Bluebirds are deep blue on the top side and brick-red or rusty on both the breast and throat. They often look plain gray-brown from a distance. Female Eastern Bluebirds are greyish above and have bluish wings and tails. They have a subdued orange-brown breast.

The birds forage by fluttering to the ground and grabbing insects or catching them mid-air.

Eastern Bluebirds weigh 28 to 32 grams and are 16 to 21 centimeters long. The wingspan of the birds ranges between 25 to 32 cm.

Habitat

The Eastern Bluebirds are mostly found in meadows, open areas surrounded by trees, and areas with sparse ground cover. They are also common in golf courses, along roads, field edges, and other open areas like suburban parks and backyards.

Food

The ideal feeder type to attract Eastern Bluebird is Platform and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put mealworms, fruits, peanut hearts, and suet. These birds also feed on insects like caterpillars, crickets, spiders, grasshoppers, and beetles.

Nesting

Eastern Bluebirds lay 2 to 7 eggs and have 1 to 3 broods in a year. The eggs are pale blue or rarely white. The eggs are 1.8 to 2.4 cm long and 1.5 to 1.9 cm wide. The incubation period is 11 to 19 days, and the nesting period is 17 to 21 days. The nestlings are hatched naked except for sparse tufts of dingy grey down and their eyes closed.

Eastern Kingbird:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.5-9.1 in (19-23 cm)

Weight: 1.2-1.9 oz (33-55 g)

Wingspan: 13.0-15.0 in (33-38 cm)

Eastern Kingbird is a medium-sized songbird in the tyrant family. Its scientific name is Tyrannus tyrannus.

Description

The bird has a large head with an upright posture and a square-tipped black tail. Their bills are short and straight. Eastern Kingbirds are black on the top and white underparts. The head of the flycatcher has a darker shade than the wings and the back. The tail has a conspicuous white tip.

Eastern Kingbirds usually have concealed crowns of yellow, orange, or red feathers on their heads. The birds raise the bright crown patch and stretch its beak wide open, revealing a red gape when it spots a potential predator.

 Eastern Kingbird weighs 33 to 55 grams and is 19 to 23 cm long. They have a wingspan ranging between 33 to 38 cm. the birds are the size of robins.

Habitat

Eastern Kingbirds can be found in open habitats such as yards, fields, pastures, grasslands, or wetlands habitats. They are often spotted sited on fence wires waiting to catch an insect. During winters, they mostly inhabit the forests and forage in flocks in the forest canopies.

Food

The ideal feeder to attract Eastern Kingbirds in the ground feeder. In the feeder, you can put fruits and berries like blackberries and cherries. Eastern Kingbirds may visit open yards with scattered vegetation, trees, and many insects. They feed on insects like locusts, bugs, flies, beetles, bees, grasshoppers, among others.

Nesting

Eastern Kingbirds lay 2 to 5 oval eggs and have only one brood in a year. The eggs are pale and smooth with a striking ring of irregular reddish spots. The eggs are 2.1 to 2.7 cm long and 1.6 to 2 cm wide. Incubation takes 14 to17 days, and nesting takes 16 to 17 days.

Eastern Meadowlark

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.5-10.2 in (19-26 cm)

Weight: 3.2-5.3 oz (90-150 g)

Wingspan: 13.8-15.8 in (35-40 cm)

Description

The Eastern Meadowlark is a medium-sized icterid bird that resembled the Western Meadowlark, and it is mostly found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Sturnella magna. 

The Eastern Meadowlarks are medium-sized songbirds that are chunky and have short tails and long bills that resemble a spear shape. During the flight, their rounded wings, short tails, and long bills help set them apart from the rest of the grassland birds.

These birds are pale brown marked with black, with bright yellow underparts and a bold black V across the chest. Though most of the tail is brown with a blackish barring, the outer feathers are white and conspicuous during the flight.

The average weight of the bird is 90 to 150 grams with a length of 19 to 26 cm. The wingspan ranges from 35 to 40 cm.

Habitat

The Eastern Meadowlarks live in farm fields, grasslands, and wet fields. The nest is on the ground and sing from exposed perches such as treetops, fenceposts, and utility lines.

Food

If you want to attract the Eastern Meadowlarks, the ideal feeder is the ground, and you can put foods such as the hulled sunflower seeds and the cracked corn.  These birds mostly feed on insects, including crickets, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and grubs. They also eat fruits. They get the food by walking on the ground and probing with the bill.

Nesting

The Eastern Meadowlarks lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs which they incubate for 13 to 16 days. The eggs are white with variable speckles and spots. They have one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are mostly naked with pinkish-orange skin and sparse down along back above eyes.

Eastern Phoebe:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.7 oz (16-21 g)

Wingspan: 10.2-11.0 in (26-28 cm)

Description

The Eastern Phoebe is a small passerine bird. The scientific name of this bird is the Sayornis phoebe.

The Eastern Phoebe is a plumb songbird with a medium-length tail. It appears big-headed for a bird of its size. The head appears flat at the top, but phoebe sometimes raises the feather up into a peak. They have a short, thin bill used for catching insects.

These birds are brownish-gray above and off-white below with a dusky wash to the sides of the breast.  The head is the darkest part among the upper parts.  Birds in the fresh fall plumage show whitish edging on the folded wing feathers and faint yellow on the belly.

The average weight of the bird is 16 to 21 grams with a length of 14 to 17 cm. The wingspan ranges from 26 to 28 cm.

Habitat

The Eastern Phoebe prefers open woods such as yards, parks, woodlands, and woodland edges.  They usually breed around the buildings and bridges on which they construct their nests under the protection of the eave or ledge.

Food

The Eastern Phoebes mainly feed on flying insects.  The common preys include wasps, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies, midges, flies, moths, and cicadas.  They also eat spiders, ticks, millipedes, and sometimes small fruits.

To attract the birds, you need to ensure the environment attracts the insects, which are the primary food. You can keep the bushes and shrubs.

Nesting

The Eastern Phoebe lays a clutch of between 2 to 6 eggs, and they incubate them for 15 to 16 days. The eggs are white, sometimes speckled with reddish-brown. They experience one to two broods a year.  The hatched chicks are usually helpless with their eyes closed and with a sparse gray down.

Eastern Towhee

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.8-8.2 in (17.3-20.8 cm)

Weight: 1.1-1.8 oz (32-52 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-11.0 in (20-28 cm)

Description

The Eastern Towhee is a large new wild sparrow. The scientific name is the Pipilo erythrophthalmus.

The Towhees are more of large sparrows.  They have a thick, triangular, seed cracking bill as a tip-off; they are in the family of sparrows. They also have a chunky body and a long-rounded tail.  The males are bold sooty black on the upper part and on the chest with warm rufous sides and whitish on the abdomen. Females have a similar pattern but are rich brown, whereas the males are black.

Habitat

The Eastern Towhees are mainly found in brush, tangles, thickets, and along forest edges where there is plenty of leaf litter for the birds to forage in.

Food

If you want to attract the Eastern Towhees, the ideal feeders are the platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the millet, milo, cracked corn and peanuts hearts, black oils, sunflower seeds, and the hulled sunflower seeds.

Nesting

The birds lay a clutch of between 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days.  The eggs are usually creamy, grayish, pinkish, or greenish-white spotted and speckled down. They experience 1 to 3 broods in a year. The average length of the bird is 2 to 2.6 cm, with an average width of 1.7 to 1.9 cm. The chicks are born naked except for the sparse tufts of grayish down and with their eyes closed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Eastern Wood Pewee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9 in (15 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.7 oz (10-19 g)

Wingspan: 9.1-10.2 in (23-26 cm)

Description

The Eastern Wood-Pewee is a small tyrant that resides in some parts of the US. The biological name is the Contopus virens.

The Eastern Wood Pewees are medium-sized flycatchers with long wings and tails. Just like the Pewee species, they have short eggs, upright postures, and a peaked crown that give the head a triangular soap.

The birds are olive-gray with dark wings and a little to no yellow on the underparts.  The sides of the breasts are dark with an off-white throat and berry giving a vested appearance of typical pewees. They show little or no eye-ring.  The adults have thin, white wing bars while the young are buffy.  The underside of the bill is mostly yellow-orange except for the young ones.

The average weight of the bird is 10 to 19 grams with an average length of 15 cm. The wingspan ranges from 23 to 26 cm.

Habitat

The Eastern Wood-Pewee is mostly found in deciduous forests and woodlands, but you may find them in ideally any forested places. This includes the woodlots for breeding as long as it is fairly open.

Food

These birds capture small insects by sallying out from a dead branch partway up in the canopy. It may also glean insects from foliage or the ground.  Some of the insects include moths, wasps, beetles, stoneflies, grasshoppers, bees, and mayflies.  They also feed on a small number of vegetables, including the berries and fruits such as dogwood, blueberry, raspberry, and poison ivy. To attract these birds, you need to have a place where the insects can breed, like in shrubs and bushes.

Nesting

The Eastern Wood Pewees lay a clutch of between 2 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are white or creamy with a wreath of brown or purple speckles. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with sparse down feathers and closed eyes.

Eurasian Collared-Dove

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 11.4-11.8 in (29-30 cm)

Weight: 4.9-6.3 oz (140-180 g)

Wingspan: 13.8 in (35 cm)

Description

The Eurasian Collared-Dove is a species of doves that are found in parts of the US.  Its scientific name is the Streptopelia decaocto.  It is not listed as an endangered species due to an increase in its population.

The Eurasian Collared-Doves have a plumb body, a small head, and a long tail. Compared to the Morning Doves, they are larger but slimmer and larger tailed than the rock pigeon.  They have broad and slightly rounded.  The tail is squared off the tip.

The birds are chalky light brown to gray buff birds with broad white patches at the tail. The collar of the bird is a narrow black crescent around the nape of the neck.  Whenever the bird is perched, or it is on flight, the wingtip is darker than the rest of the wing.

The average weight of the bird is 140 to 180 grams with a length of 29 to 30 cm. The average wingspan is 35 cm.

Habitat

The Eurasian Collared Doves mainly live in the urban and suburban areas in many parts of the US. In the rural areas, you will easily find them on the farms and in livestock yards where grains are available. During the cold seasons, the flocks might roost together in large trees.

Food

If you want to attract these birds, the appropriate feeders are the platform, ground, and large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as milo, millets, black oil sunflower seeds, cracked corns, peanut hearts, and hulled sunflower seeds.

They also eat some berries and green plants as well as small invertebrates.

Nesting

The Eurasian Collared Doves lay a clutch of 1 to 2 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 19 days. The eggs are smooth, white, and slightly glossy. They experience 3 to 6 broods in a year. The hatched chicks are covered in down.

European Starling:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.9-9.1 in (20-23 cm)

Weight: 2.1-3.4 oz (60-96 g)

Wingspan: 12.2-15.8 in (31-40 cm)

Description

The Common Starling, also known as the European Starling, is a medium-sized bird that belongs to the family of Sturnidae.  In Great Britain, it is simply known as the Starling. Its scientific name is the Sturnus vulgaris.

The Starlings are chunky and blackbird-sized but with short tails and long slender beaks. During the flights, their wings are short and pointed, which makes them look like small, four-pointed stars.

The Starlings look black when viewed from a distance.  They are purplish-green during the summer with yellow beaks. While In winter, they are brown covered in brilliant white spots. The average weight of these birds is 60 to 96 grams and an average length of 10 to 23 cm. The wingspan ranges from 31 to 40 cm.

Habitat

The Starlings are mainly found in the urban areas, suburbs, and countryside near human settlements. They feed on the ground on lawns, fields, sidewalks, and parking lots. They perch and roost high on wires, trees, and buildings.

Food

If you want to attract the Starlings, the ideal feeders include the large hopper, suet cage, platform, ground, and large tube feeder. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as oats, milo, peanuts, cracked corn, suet, millet, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds.

The Starlings eat almost everything, but mainly they eat the insects, invertebrates when they are available.  The common preys include grasshoppers, flies, spiders, millipedes, snails, earthworms, and beetles. They also feed on fruits and wild berries.

Nesting

The Starlings lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 days. The eggs are bluish or greenish-white. They experience 1 to 2 broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with sparse grayish down.

Field Sparrows

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11-15 g)

Wingspan: 7.9 in (20 cm)

Description

The Field Sparrow is a small New World Sparrow that belongs to the family of Passalidae. The scientific name of this bird is the Spizella pusilla. 

The Filed Sparrows are small, slender Sparrows that have a relatively short conical bill, rounded head, and somewhat long tails. These birds are warm-colored with a unique eye-ring, a pink bill, and pale grayish underparts with soft orangey highlights.

The head is pale gray with a bright rufous crown and a wide rufous line behind the eye. The whitish throat is bordered by soft orange rufous lateral throat stripes. The backside is brown with black streaks, all of which contrasts with the gray rump and tail.

The average weight of these birds is 11 to 15 grams with a length of 12 to 15 cm. The wingspan average is 15 cm.

Habitat

The Field Sparrows are known to many as the old field specialists. They are mainly found in areas with tall grasses and brush that are growing up into small trees and shrubs and particularly thorny shrubs such as the reses and briars.

Food

If you want to attract the Field Sparrows, the ideal feeders are the large and small hoppers, platform, and the ground. You can put foods such as millet, cracked corn, and hulled sunflower seeds inside those feeders.

They also feed on the insects such as butterflies, weevils, beetles, grasshoppers, and cicadas.

Nesting

The Field Sparrows lay a clutch of 1 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 17 days. The eggs are white to creamy with pale purple, reddish-brown, or gray spots. They experience one to five broods a year. The freshly hatched chicks are helpless, eyes close and with mouse-gray down along feather tracts.

Fox Sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-7.5 in (15-19 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.6 oz (26-44 g)

Wingspan: 10.5-11.4 in (26.7-29 cm)

Description

The Fox Sparrow is a large New World sparrow and the only member of the genus Passarella. The scientific name for Fox Sparrow is Passerella iliaca. There are four types of Fox Sparrows; Red Fox, Sooty Fox, Slate-colored Fox, and Large-billed Fox.

The Fox Sparrow is a large and round-bodied sparrow with a stout bill and medium-length tail. Fox Sparrows are rust-brown above with a mix of rust and gray on the head.

The bird has heavy brownish splotches on the flanks and the center of its chest. Some Fox Sparrows have yellowish bills, while others have dark gray bills. Fox Sparrows have a streaked underneath and are among the largest sparrows.

The bird’s average weight is 26 to 44 grams, and its average length is 15 to 19 centimeters. The wingspan of the Fox Sparrows ranges between 26.7 to 29 cm.

Habitat

Fox Sparrows breed in dense mountain scrub, thickets, chaparral, and coniferous forests. These birds nest in brushy fields at high elevation areas and forage in the leaf litter of open hardwood forests and swampy thickets when migrating.

Food

To attract Fox Sparrows, the ideal feeders are platform and ground feeders. In the feeders, you can put foods such as Nyjer, cracked corn, milo, and millet.

Fox Sparrows feed mainly on insects during the breeding season. Such insects include fly larvae, ants, caterpillars, bees, ants, scale insects, and beetles.

Nesting

Fox Sparrows lay a clutch of 2 to 5 eggs and incubates them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are pale bluish-green with cloudy markings of reddish-brown. The birds have only one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are helpless and downy.

Gila Woodpecker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.7-9.4 in (22-24 cm)

Weight: 1.8-2.8 oz (51-79 g)

Wingspan: 15.8-16.5 in (40-42 cm)

Description

Gila Woodpeckers are desert birds in the family of Picidae. The scientific name of Gila Woodpecker Melanerpes uropygialis.

Gila Woodpeckers are medium-sized Woodpeckers and have a long-pointed bill. Gila Woodpeckers are grayish brown and have brilliant black and white barring on the wings, back, and on their tails.

The outer wings of the birds are black with a crescent-shaped white patch at the base of the primary feathers when flying. Male Gila Woodpeckers have a red patch in the center of their crown. Females and immature Gila Woodpeckers lack the red cap on their crowns.

Gila Woodpeckers have an average weight of 51 to 79 grams and a length of 22 to 24 cm. the wingspan of the birds ranges from 40 to 42 cm.

Habitat

Gila Woodpeckers are be found in arid environments, more so the deserts and in dry forests.  The birds are among the most dominant bird species in the desert environment. They nest in stands of saguaro cactus, desert scrub, arroyos, and washes, as well as in small towns.

Food

The ideal feeders to attract Gila Woodpeckers are platform, tube, and suet feeders. In these feeders, you can put corn, suet, fruits, and nuts like pecans. Gila Woodpeckers also eat small vertebrates and insects. The birds forage mostly in dead vegetation on trunk bark or large branches.

Nesting

Gila Woodpeckers lay a clutch of 3 to 6 white eggs and incubate them for 13 to 14 days. The birds have 1 to 3 broods in a year. The eggs are 2.29 to 2.74 cm long and 1.66 to 2.01 cm wide. The nestlings are naked and helpless when they are hatched.

GoldEN crowned Kinglet:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.1-4.3 in (8-11 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.3 oz (4-8 g)

Wingspan: 5.5-7.1 in (14-18 cm)

Gold-crowned Kinglets are small songbirds widely spread in North America. They belong in the family Regulidae. The scientific name of the Gold-crowned Kinglet is Regulus satrapa.

Description

Gold-crowned Kinglets have a rounded body with short wings and a skinny tail. The head of the bird is relatively large, and its bill is thin and short. These bills make it easier for the birds to glean small insects. The birds are smaller than Chickadees but larger than Hummingbirds.

Gold-crowned Kinglets have pale olive upperparts and gray underparts. The birds have a black and white striped face and a bright yellow-orange crown patch. Gold-crowned Kinglets have a thin white wing bar and yellow edges to their black feathers. The crest of these birds is flashy lemon-yellow.

Golden-crowned Kinglets have an average weight of 4 to 8 grams and are 8 to 11 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 14 to 18 cm.

Habitat

Gold-crowned Kinglet’s main habitat is in coniferous forests and breeds in boreal or montane forests and conifer plantations. The birds, during winter, can be found in deciduous forests, suburbs, swamps, bottomlands, and scrubby habitats.

Food

The ideal feeder to attract old-crowned Kinglets is platform feeders. In the feeder, you can put foods such as mealworms, black oil sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and hulled sunflower seeds. Gold-crowned Kinglets mainly feed on insects and small soft-bodied arthropods and their eggs.

Nesting

Gold-crowned Kinglets lay a clutch of 3 to 11 eggs and have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The eggs are white or creamy with pale brown and lilac spots. Incubation takes 15 days, while nesting takes 16 to 19 days. Hatched nestlings are helpless and naked except for tufts down on the top of the head.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-7.1 in (15-18 cm)

Weight: 1.1-1.2 oz (30-33 g)

Wingspan: 9.74 in (24.75cm)

The Golden-crowned Sparrow is one of the five species of large American Sparrows. It belongs in the genus Zonotrichia and has no subspecies. The scientific name of Golden-crowned Sparrow is Zonotrichia atricapilla.

Description

Golden-crowned Sparrows are large sparrows with long tails and small heads. The bill of the bird is short and firm, suitable for seed-eating. The bills of the birds are grayish.

 During summer, adult Golden-crowned Sparrows have streaked brown upperparts and a smooth gray to brown underparts. The birds have a black crown and a bright yellow forehead. Immature and winter Gold-crowned Sparrows are duller, with the brown color replacing the black on the head. The birds have a smaller and dull yellow crown stripe.

Golden-crowned Sparrow’s average weight is 30 to 33 grams and is 15 to 18 cm long. The birds have an average wingspan of 24.75 cm.

Habitat

Golden-crowned Sparrows are breeds mostly in shrubby tundra habitats near the coast or in the mountains. The birds live near willows, alders, and short conifers. The Gold-crowned Sparrows live in riparian thickets, chaparral, gardens, and the brush during the winter season or when in-migration.

Food

To attract Golden-crowned Sparrows, the ideal feeders to use our platform and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put millets, cracked corn, safflower, hulled sunflower seeds, milo, and black oil sunflower seeds. The birds also feed on fruits like apples, grapes, apples, and olives and insects like ants, bees, moths, and termites.

Nesting

Golden-crowned Sparrow lay 3 to 5 eggs and incubate 11 to 13 days. The eggs are smooth, pale blue to greenish-blue with reddish-brown and pale gray speckles. The birds have 1 to 2 broods in the year, and they nest their nestlings for9 11 days. The chicks are hatched feeble and uncoordinated with their eyes closed.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.7-10.2 in (22-26 cm)

Weight: 2.6-3.5 oz (73-99 g)

Wingspan: 16.5-17.3 in (42-44 cm)

Golden-fronted Woodpeckers are widely distributed in the US. The scientific name for this bird is Melanerpes aurifrons.

Description

The Golden-fronted Woodpeckers have large bodies and a long beak. They have red feathers at the base of the bill. The tail of the bird is black with white speckles.

Gold-fronted Woodpecker’s backs are barred with black and white and with a tan breast. Male Gold-fronted Woodpeckers have a yellow spot in front of the eyes and a red crown. The birds have a yellow-orange nape. The female Golden-fronted Woodpeckers have a yellow lower belly and a yellow patch in front of their eyes. The birds also have a yellow nape. Immature Gold-fronted Woodpeckers are duller with fine streaking on their crowns and breasts. They have a faint color on their nape and nasal tufts.

Golden-fronted Woodpeckers weigh between 73 to 99 grams and are 22 to 26 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 42 to 44 cm.

Habitat

Golden-fronted Woodpeckers live in open to semi-open woodlands, second-growth forests, and brushlands—the bird’s nest in tall trees of Pecan, oak, and mesquite. The birds can also be found in fence posts, telephone poles, and bird boxes.

Food

The diet of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers consists of insects and vegetable matter such as acorns, wild fruits, corn, and berries. Such insects include grasshoppers, beetles, and ants. To attract Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, the ideal feeder to use is the suet cage or platform feeder. In the feeders, you can put suet, black oil, sunflower seeds, corn, and fruits.

Nesting

The Golden-fronted Woodpeckers lay 4 to 7 white eggs and incubate them for12 to 14 days. The birds have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The birds are hatched naked and helpless with closed eyes. The nesting period is 30 to 32 days.

Gray Catbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-9.4 in (21-24 cm)

Weight: 0.8-2.0 oz (23.2-56.5 g)

Wingspan: 8.7-11.8 in (22-30 cm)

Description

Gray Catbirds are medium-sized North and Central American perching birds belonging to the mimid family. The scientific name of the Gray Catbird is Dumetella carolinensis.

These slender, medium-sized songbirds with long, round, and black tails. The birds have a narrow straight bill and long legs. Their wings are broad and round.

Gray Catbirds are salty gray with a black cap, black tail, and a rich rufous-brown patch under the tail. The bird often perches, holding its tail down giving it a hunchbacked look. Gray Catbirds mimics the songs of other birds and usually sing at all hours of the day.

Gray Catbirds’ average weight is 23.2 to 56.5 grams, and their average length is 21 to 24 cm. the birds have a wingspan ranging from 22 to 30 cm.

Habitat

Gray Catbirds can be found in dense tangles of shrubs, small trees, vines, along forest edges, streamside thickets, and old fields. Due to human disturbance, the birds also inhabit the roadsides, abandoned farmland, residential areas, and fencerows.

Food

To attract Gray Catbird, you can use a fruit feeder and putting grape jelly, halved oranges, apples, and mealworms in them. You can also plant shrubs consisting of plants like wild blackberry and wild grapevines in your backyard. The birds also eat insects and garden pests.

Nesting

 Gray Catbirds lay1 to 6 eggs and have 2 to 3 broods in a year. The eggs are turquoise green and sometimes with small red spots. The incubation period is 12 to 15 days. The chicks hatched are naked, helpless, eyes closed, and partially covered with dark brown or gray down.

Great Crested Flycatcher:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-8.3 in (17-21 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.4 oz (27-40 g)

Wingspan: 13.4 in (34 cm)

Great Crested Flycatcher is a large insect-eating bird in the genus Myiarchus. It is the widest spread bird in this genus. The scientific name of the Great Created Flycatcher is Myiarchus crinitus.

Description

Great Crested Flycatchers are large with a long and slender body. The birds have broad shoulders and large heads. The bird’s crest is not very prominent despite its name. Great Crested Flycatchers have a wide at the base and a straight bill. The tail of the bird is fairly long.

Great Crested Flycatchers are reddish-brown on the upper body with a brownish-gray head, gray throat and breast, and bright lemon-yellow belly. The upperparts are brown, highlighted by rufous-orange flashes in the tail and primary feathers. The birds have a black bill that shows a bit of pale color at the base.

Great Crested Flycatchers weigh 27 to 40 grams and are 17 to 21 cm long. The wingspan of the bird is, on average, 34 cm.

Habitat

Great Crested Flycatchers are mostly found in woodlots and open woodland, especially among the deciduous trees. During winter, the birds inhabit semi-open habitats, and during migration, they live in wooded and shrubby habitats. The birds exploit a niche higher in the canopy than other birds to avoid direct competition for food.

Food

To attract Great Crested Flycatchers, you can plant whole foods such as berries and fruits in your backyard. The birds swallow the fruits whole and regurgitate the pits several at a time. The birds also feed on insects like beetles, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, and crickets.

Nesting

Great Crested Flycatchers lay 4 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 15 days. The eggs are creamy-white to pinkish buff with brown, purple, or lavender smears. The chicks are hatched helpless, eyes closed and naked with a grayish down.

Great-tailed Grackle:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 15.0-18.1 in (38-46 cm)

Weight: 3.7-6.7 oz (105-190 g)

Wingspan: 18.9-22.8 in (48-58 cm)

The Great-tailed Grackle, also known as the Mexican Grackle, is a medium-sized and highly social passerine that is common in the US.  It is a member of the Icteridae family. The scientific name of this bird is the Quiscalus mexicanus.  

Description

The male Great-tailed Grackles are usually long-legged, slender black birds with a flat-headed profile and stout, straight bill.  The male tapered tail is nearly as long as its body, and it folds into a unique V or keel shape. The females are half the size of the males with long, slender tails.

The male Grackles are black with piercing yellow eyes and black bills and legs.  The female is dark brown above, paler below with a buff-colored throat and stripe above the eye. The young chicks have dark brown plumage with streaked underparts and a dark eye.

The average weight is 105 to 190 grams with a length of 38 to 46 cm. The wingspan ranges from 48 to 58 cm.

Habitat

The Great-tailed Grackles are mainly found in rural and developed areas, foraging on agricultural fields and feedlots and in the suburbs, including the golf courses, cemeteries, parks, and neighborhood lawns.  They roost in large trees, vegetation sedge marshes, lakes, and lagoons.

Food

If you want to attract Great-tailed Grackles, the ideal feeders are the large hopper, platform, and Ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as millets, cracked corn, safflower, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds.

They also feed on small animals, and they include grasshoppers, spiders, wasps, worms, beetles, tadpoles, snails, frogs, and lizards.

Nesting

The Great-tailed Grackles lay a clutch of 1 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 14 days. The eggs are bright blue to pale bluish gray marked with a dark brown to black sirs and splotches. They experience one to two broods a year. The chicks are hatched blind and mostly naked with salmon-colored skin.

Green-winged Teal

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 12.2-15.3 in (31-39 cm)

Weight: 4.9-17.6 oz (140-500 g)

Wingspan: 20.5-23.2 in (52-59 cm)

The Green-winged Teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Anas carolinensis.

Description

The Green-winged Teals are very tiny ducks. They are short, blocky bodies, and their tails sit high out of the water. The head is large, the neck is short, and the bill is relatively small. The adult males usually have grayish bodies with a narrow white vertical stripe extending from the waterline to the shoulder.  Whenever there is good lighting, their dark heads are cinnamon with a wide green swoop from the eye to the back of the neck.

The females are brown with a yellowish streak along the tail. Both the male and female have green wing patches in the speculum, but these may be hidden when not in flight. The average weight of this bird is 140 to 500 grams with a length of 31 to 39 cm. The wingspan range is 52 to 59 cm.

Habitat

These birds breed in dense vegetation along the river deltas. During the winter and migration, they can be found in shallow wetlands, coastal marshes, and estuaries.

Food

These birds are mainly aquatic invertebrates and seeds. They feed in shallow water near shorelines, on mudflats, and in agricultural fields. Some of the plants they feed on include pondweeds, grasses, smartweeds, swamp timothy, and bulrush. Animals include the mollusks, midges, tadpoles, and crustaceans.

If you want to attract the Green-winged Teals, you can build ponds around the compound.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 6 to 9 eggs and incubate them for 20 to 23 days. The eggs are creamy-white to pale olive-buff.  The hatched chicks have open eyes covered in yellow and dark olive-brown down.

Hairy Woodpecker

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-10.2 in (18-26 cm)

Weight: 1.4-3.4 oz (40-95 g)

Wingspan: 13.0-16.1 in (33-41 cm)

The Hairy Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker that is found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Leuconotopicus villosus.

Description

The Hairy Woodpecker is a medium-sized bird with a fairly large head, a long, straight, chisel-like bill, and stiff long tail feathers to lean against tree trunks. The bill is nearly the same length as the head.  These birds are contrastingly black and white. The black wings are checkered with white; the head has two white stripes. A large white patch runs down the center of the black back.

The average weight of the bird is 40 to 95 grams with a length of 18 to 26 cm. The wingspan ranges from 33 to 41 cm.

Habitat

The Hairy Woodpeckers are mainly found in mature forests. They are found in woodlots, suburbs, parks, and cemeteries as well as forest edges, open woodlands of oak and pine, recently burned forests, and stands infested by bark beetles.

Food

If you want to attract the Hairy Woodpeckers, the ideal feeders are the suet cage, platform, and large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as peanuts, suet, peanut hearts, black oil sunflower seeds, safflower, and hulled sunflower oil.

Mainly these birds feed on insects such as beetles, ants, and moths.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 12 days. The eggs are all white. They experience one brood in a year. The chicks are hatched naked with pink skin and a sharp egg tooth at the end of the bill.

Harris’s Sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-7.9 in (17-20 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.7 oz (26-49 g)

Wingspan: 10.6 in (27 cm)

The Harris’s Sparrow is a large sizes sparrow that is mainly found in the US. Its scientific name is the Zonotrichia querula.

Description

Harris’s Sparrows are large and chunky birds. They have a round barrel-shaped chest that makes their round head look a little small for their body.  They have a long tail and a medium-sized conical bill.

They are steaky brown and black overall with a black bib, face, and crowns. As these birds grow older, the parts around the face change from patchy black to full black when they grow into adults. The breeding birds have a gray cheek and nape, while these areas are non-brown to the others.  Both the adults and young ones have a pink bill, a white belly, and back streaks down the bark.

The average weight of this bird is 26 to 49 grams with a length of 17 to 20 cm. The wingspan average is 27 cm.

Habitat

The Harris’s Sparrows are mainly found in open tundra mixed with white pine, black spruce, larch, alder, and willow.  During the winter, they use hedgerows, agricultural fields, shrubby pastures, backyards, and shrubby areas near the streams and great southern plains.

Food

If you want to attract Harris’s Sparrow, the ideal feeders are the platform and Ground. Inside these feeders, you can put some foods such as the cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, millets, and hulled sunflower seeds.

They also feed on plant materials, fruits and insects. Some of the birds include beetles, butterflies, and other insects.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and proceed to incubate them for a period of 12 to 14 days. The eggs are pale green with irregular spots and blotches. The average length of the egg is 1.8 to 2.5 cm, with a width of 1.5 to 1.8 cm. The hatched chicks are usually helpless and naked with sparse gray down.

Hermit Thrush:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-7.1 in (14-18 cm)

Weight: 0.8-1.3 oz (23-37 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-11.4 in (25-29 cm)

The Hermit Thrush is a medium-sized bird in the US. The scientific name of these birds is the Catharus guttatus.

Description

The Hermit Thrushes have a chunky shape similar to an America Robin but a bit smaller. They stand upright often with the slender, straight bill is slightly raised. Just like other thrushes, the head is round and the tail fairly long.

This bird is a rich brown on the head and back, with a distinctively warm, reddish tail. The underparts are pale with on the breasts. The average weight of the birds is 23 to 37 grams and with a length of 14 to 18 cm. The average wingspan is 25 to 29 cm.

Habitat

If you want to see the Hermit Thrush, look for them in the forest understories, especially around the edges and openings.

Food

If you want to attract the Hermit Thrush, the ideal feeders include the platform and Ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as peanut hearts. These birds feed on the insects such as beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, and flies. During the winter, they change their diet to fruits and wild berries.

Nesting

The Hermit Thrushes lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and take 11 to 13 days to incubate them. The eggs are light blue, sometimes spotted with brown. They experience one to 2 broods a year.  The average length of the eggs is 2 to 2.5 cm, with a width of 1.5 to 1.8 cm. The hatched chicks are helpless with just a few tuffs of dark gray.

House Finch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1-5.5 in (13-14 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.9 oz (16-27 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-9.8 in (20-25 cm)

The House Finch is a small bird in the finch family, which is common in the US. The scientific name of the bird is the Haemorhous mexicanus.

Description

These birds are small in body size, and they too have a fairly large beak and a long flat head. The wings are short, making their tail seem long by comparison. The majority of the finches have uniquely notched tails, but the house finch has a relatively shallow notch in its tail.

On the face side and upper breasts, the male Finches are rosy with streaky brown back, belly, and tail. During the flight, the red rump is conspicuous.  The adult females are not red, and they are grayish-brown with thick, blurry streaks and an indistinctly marked face.

The average weight of the bird is 16 to 27 grams and has a length of  3 to 14 cm. Its wingspan ranges from 20 to 25 cm.

Habitat

The House Finches are mainly found in the city parks, backyards, urban centers, farms, and forest edges across the US. They are also found in their native habitats of deserts, grasslands, chaparral, and open woods.

Food

If you want to attract the House Finches, the ideal feeders to use are the small and large hoppers, large and smaller tube feeders, and the platform. The ideal food to put inside these feeders includes the black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, Nyjer, and safflower.

 They also feed in insects, buds, and fruits. Some of the wild foods they feed on are mulberry, cherries, peaches, pears, blackberries, plums, strawberries, and figs.

Nesting

The House Finches lay a clutch of 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 14 days. The eggs are pale blue to white, speckled with fine, black, and pale purple. Within a year, they experience 1 to 6 broods.  The chicks are hatched naked except for the sparse white down along feather tracts with the eyes closed.

House Sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-6.7 in (15-17 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.1 oz (27-30 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-9.8 in (19-25 cm)

The House Sparrow is a small bird from the sparrow family Passalidae, and it is widespread through most parts of the world. The scientific name of the bird is Passer domesticus.

Description

The House Sparrows are chunkier compared to the North American Sparrows and fuller in the chest with a larger rounded head, shorter tail, and stouter bill than most American Sparrows.

The male Sparrows are bright-colored birds with gray heads, white cheeks, a black bib, and ferrous neck, although, in the urban areas, you may see some that are dull and grubby. The females are plain buffy-brown overall with dingy gray-brown underparts. Their backs are noticeably striped with buff, black and brown.

The average weight of this bird is 27 to 30 grams with a length of 15 to 17 cm. The wingspan ranges from 19 to 25 cm.

Habitat

The House Sparrows are known to love living around people.  They are mainly found in the city streets, taking handouts in parks and zoos, or cheeping from a perch on your roof or trees in your yard. They are also in the countryside around the farmsteads.

Food

If you want to attract the House Sparrows, the ideal feeders are the platform, ground, large hoppers, and large tube feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as millet, milo, cracked corn, hulled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and the black oil sunflower seeds.

During the summer, they also feed on insects and also feed them to their chicks.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of v1 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 14 days. The eggs are light white to grayish-white or bluish-white with some gray or brown spots. They experience 1 to 4 broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked with bright pink skin and closed eyes.

House Wren:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (10-12 g)

Wingspan: 5.9 in (15 cm)

The House Wren is a small songbird from the wren family Troglodytidae, which is mostly found in America. The scientific name of this bird is the Troglodytes aedon.

Description

A House Wren is small and compact with a flat head and fairly long curved beak. It is short-winged, keeping its long tail sometimes cocked above the line of the body or slightly dropped.The House wren has short wings and along tail that it mainly keeps cocked above the line of the body or sometimes slightly dropped.

Generally, the body of this Wren is brown with darker barring on the tail and wings. This bird has an eyebrow that is common in wrens, but in this bird, it is fainter. The average weight of this bird is 10 to 12 grams with a length of 11 to 13 cm. The wingspan average is 15 cm.

Habitat

During the summer, the House Wren eat at home in open forests, forest edges, and in areas with scattered grass and trees. Backyards, farmyards, and city parks are the ideal places for them. During the winter, they become more secretive and move to brushy tangles, thickets, and hedgerows.

Food

The House Wren feed on insects and spiders, including beetles, earwigs, flies, springtails, caterpillars, and daddy longlegs. They also feed on the snail shells for calcium.

Nesting

The House Wrens lay a clutch of 3 to 10 eggs and incubate t6hem for 9 to 16 days. The eggs are white, pink-white, grayish speckled with reddish-brown. The hatched chicks are usually naked, pink, and have their eyes closed.

Inca Dove

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-9.1 in (18-23 cm)

Weight: 1.1-2.0 oz (30-58 g)

The Inca Dove, also known as the Mexican Dove, is a small new world dove. Its scientific name is the Columbina Inca.   

Description

The Inca Dove is a small and slender dove with a long, squarely tipped tail and a small head. It also has a thin and slightly drooping bill and short legs. This bird is the color of desert sands. Its tan feathers are edged in dark brown, creating a scaly pattern over the whole body.  The underparts and the face are paler than its back.

During the flight, the underwings flash a rich chestnut, and the outer tail feathers flash white. The average weight of this bird is 30 to 58 grams with an average length of 18 to 23 cm.

Habitat

The Inca Doves are mainly found in residential areas, including parks, cities, towns, and farms. While in these areas, they use open areas with scattered trees and sparse shrub cover.

Food

If you want to attract the Inca Doves, the ideal feeders are the platform, ground, and large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the Nyjer, cracked corn, millet, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds. They almost feed on the seeds exclusively and walk on the ground picking them.

Nesting

The Inca Dove lay eggs that are white and unmarked. They also experience 2 to 5 broods in a year. The average length of the egg is 2 to 2.5 cm with a width of 1.5 to 1.8 cm. The incubation period takes 13 to 15 days. The chicks are hatched naked and with sparse down.

Indigo Bunting:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.1 in (12-13 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.6 oz (12-18 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-8.7 in (19-22 cm)

The Indigo Banting is a small seed-eating bird that belongs to the cardinal family, Cardinalidae. It is migratory. The scientific name of this bird is the Passerina cyanea.     

Description

The Indigo Buntings are small, stocky birds with short tails and short thick conical bills. Whenever they are on the flight, they appear plumb with short, rounded tails.

A breeding male species of this bird is usually blue almost everywhere, with slight rich blue on the head and a small silver-gray bill. The females are usually brown with a faith streaking on the breast, a whitish throat, and sometimes a touch of blue on the wings, tail, or rump. The young males are patchy blue and brown.

The average weight of this bird is 12 to 18 grams with a length of 12 to 13 cm. The wingspan ranges from 19 to 22 cm.

Habitat

These birds are commonly found in weedy and bush areas, especially where the field meets the forest. They love edges, hedgerows, overgrown patches, and brushy roadsides. When they are not singing from the tallest perches in the area, they can be seen foraging among the seed laded shrubs and grasses.

Food

The Indigo Buntings feed on small seeds, berries, buds, and insects.  Some of the seeds they feed on include thistles, goldenrods, dandelions, and grains such as oats. Some of the berries include blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, serviceberries, and elderberries.  They feed on insects such s caterpillars.

Nesting

The Indigo Bunting lay a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are usually unmarked white, and some have brownish spots. They experience 1 to 3 broods in a year.  The chicks are hatched naked, helpless, and with closed eyes.

Juniper Titmouse

MEASUREMENTS

Weight: 0.3-0.8 oz (10-22 g)

This is a passerine bird that belongs to the tit family Paridae. The scientific name of the bird is Baeolophus ridgwayi.  The Plain Titmouse was split into Oak Titmouse and Juniper Titmouse due to unique differences in song.

Description

The Juniper Titmouse is a small songbird, but with a long body, short neck, and medium-long tail, makes it look bigger than it is. A short crest, the fairly large a pointed silhouette. It has a short bill that is fairly thick and round.

This bird is gray overall with a slightly paler gray belly. The dark eye stands out on an otherwise plain gray bird. The bill is dark.  The average weight of the bird is 10 to 22 grams.

Habitat

The Juniper Titmouse occurs in pinyon pine and juniper woodlands from about 2250 to 8000 feet. They also opt to live in old woodlands where older trees offer a ready cavity for them to nest.

Food

If you are wanted to attract a Titmouse, the ideal feeder is the suet cage, large and small tube feeder, large and small hopper, and platform. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as peanut, safflower, suet, peanut hearts, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds. They also feed on insects such as flies, leafhoppers, caterpillars, beetles, and more.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 4 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 16 days. The eggs are white and are unmarked. The hatched chicks are helpless.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

Weight: 0.7-1.7 oz (21-48 g)

Wingspan: 13.0 in (33 cm)

The Ladder-backed Woodpecker is a species that is found in the Us. The scientific name of this bird is the Dryobates scalaris.

Description

The Ladder-backed Woodpecker is a small woodpecker with a square head, short neck, and a stiff tail that they lean against for support. The bill is small but straight and chisel-like. Above the meat stripes, the Ladder-backed Woodpeckers are black and white like the ladder rungs on its backside, and it has a more checkered pattern on its wings.

The underparts are buffy white or grayish, stripped with black. The buffy white face is broken by black lines that extend from the bill and eye and join at the neck. The males have red crowns while the females have blackish crowns.

The average weight of these birds is 21 to 48 grams with a length of 16 to 18 cm. The wingspan average is 33 cm.

Habitat

The Ladder-backed Woodpeckers live in very dry areas such as the deserts, desert scrubs, thorn forests, and pinyon-juniper woodlands.

Food

The Ladder-backed Woodpeckers mostly feed on the insect larvae and big insects. Some of these insects include beetles, leafworms, ants, caterpillars, and they occasionally eat the cactus fruits. They rarely feed on the ground.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs. These eggs are white in color and unmarked. The average length of the egg is 1.7 to 2.3 cm and has a width of 1.4 to 1.7 cm. They experience one brood in a year. The chicks are hatched naked and helpless.

Lazuli Bunting:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1-5.9 in (13-15 cm)

Weight: 0.5-0.6 oz (13-18 g)

Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)

The Lazuli Bunting is a small bird that is found in the US. It is named for the gemstone lapis lazuli. The scientific name is the Passerina amoena.

Description

The Lazuli Bunting is small. Finchlike, a songbird with a bill that is cone-shaped and a forehead that is gently sloppy. The tail is notched or slightly forked. The adult breeding males are brilliant blue along with a pumpkin-colored breast and white belly. The adult males have a white shoulder parch that stands out on perched and flying birds.

The females are warm grayish brown above with a blue tinge on the wings and tail, two buffy wing bars, and an unstreamed pale cinnamon tan breast. The average weight of these birds is 13 to 18 grams with a length of 13 to 15 cm. The wingspan average is 22 cm.

Habitat

The Lazuli Bunting lives in brushy hillsides, areas near streams, wooded valleys, thickets, and hedges, along with agricultural fields, recently burned areas, and residential areas.

Food

These birds pick caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers, ants, butterflies, beetles, and other insects. They also fed on berries and seeds from serviceberry, chokeberry, wild oats, chickweed, and other grasses. If you want to attract these birds, you can use feeders such as the platform and ground and put in some foods such as millet.

Nesting

The Lazuli Buntings lay a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are pale blue to faint greenish-blue or white. They experience one to two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked with sparse down scattered along the spine and head.

Loggerhead Shrike

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.9-9.1 in (20-23 cm)

Weight: 1.2-1.8 oz (35-50 g)

Wingspan: 11.0-12.6 in (28-32 cm)

The Loggerhead Shrike is a passerine bird in a family of Lamnidae. It is among the few members of the shrike family that arere-found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Lanius ludovicianus.

Description

The Loggerhead Shrikes have a thick body. They have a large blocky head and a thick bill with a small hook. The tail is fairly long and rounded.

It is a gray bird with a black mask and white flashes in the black wings. This bird has a gray head that contrasts with the black bill, white throat, and black mask. The tail is black with white corners, and the wings are black with white at the end of primaries that form a small handkerchief spot when the wing is closed and large white patches in flight. The young ones have a darker barring above and below.

The average weight f the bird is 35 to 50 grams with a length of 20 to 23 cm. The wingspan range is from 28 to 32 cm.

Habitat

They are found in open country with scattered shrubs and trees. They can also be found in more heavily wooded habitats with large openings and in a very shirt habitat with few or no trees.

Food

The Loggerhead Shrikes feed on insects and other arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and birds. They also feed on roadkill and carrion sometimes. The insect dominates the diet of these birds. Some of the vertebrates include mice, snakes, frogs, turtles, sparrows, goldfinches, and more.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 5 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 15 to 17 days. The eggs are grayish buff, marked with gray to yellowish-brown. They experience two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are naked, blind, and helpless with closed eyes.

Lesser Goldfinch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.5-4.3 in (9-11 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (8-11.5 g)

Wingspan: 5.9-7.9 in (15-20 cm)

Lesser Goldfinch is small songbirds forming the American Goldfinches together with the American Goldfinch and Lawrence’s Goldfinch. The scientific name of Lesser Goldfinch is Spinus psaltria.

Description

Lesser Goldfinch is tiny and has stub-bills. The birds have long pointed wings and short tails with notches. 

The male Lesser Goldfinch is bright yellow below with a glossy black cap and white patches in the wings. The backs of the birds can be glossy black or dull green. Males also have a black tail with large white corners. Female and immature Lesser Goldfinches have olive backs, dull yellow underparts, and black wings marked by two whitish wing bars.

 Lesser Goldfinch has an average weight of 8 to 11.5 grams and are 9 to 11 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 15 to 20 cm.

Habitat

Lesser Goldfinch mostly feeds in weedy fields, budding treetops, and brush of open areas and edges. They also live in mountain canyons, desert oases, and the suburbs. The common habitats include pinyon-juniper, cottonwood, cedar, pine woodlands, oak, chaparral, and willows.

Food

To attract Lesser Goldfinch, the ideal feeders to use are large tube feeders, small tube feeders, large and small hoppers, and platform feeders. In these feeders, you can put black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, and Nyjer. The birds occasionally supplement their diet with insects such as plant lice.

Nesting

Lesser Goldfinches lay 3 to 6 pale blue-white and unmarked eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The birds have only one brood in a year. The nestlings are hatched naked, blind, and totally dependent on their parents for food. The nesting period is 12 to 14 days.

Lucy’s Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.5-4.7 in (9-12 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (5-8 g)

Wingspan: 1.9-2.4 in (4.9 to 6.1 cm)

Lucy’s Warblers are small new world Warblers widely distributed in North America. The bird is one of the only two Warblers to nest in cavities. The scientific name of Lucy’s Warbler is Leiothlypis luciae.

Description

Lucy’s Warbler is small, compact, and delicately built. They have short tails and short, thin bills. The tail is 33 to 41 mm long, and the bill averages 7.8 9 mm long.

Adult male Lucy’s Warblers are grayish with a cinnamon rump and a crown patch. They have a small rusty patch on their crown. Female and immature Lucy’s Warblers are duller with rump and yellowish-brown or reddish yellow crown. They have a plain face and a faint buffy wash on the flanks.

Lucy’s Warblers have an average weight of 5 to 8 grams and are 9 to 12 cm long. The wingspan of the birds ranges between 4.9 to 6.1 centimeters.

Habitat

Lucy’s Warblers nests in deserts stand of mesquite, acacia, willows, tamarisk, and hackberries. They also have habitats in cottonwood and at higher elevations in dry open forests with walnut, sycamore, and oak. Lucy’s Warblers move to wetter habitats after breeding, thus utilizing both the grasslands and the riparian areas.

Food

Making your backyard insect-friendly will attract Lucy’s Warblers. The birds can be attracted by suet and platform feeders. In the feeders, you can put suet, peanut butter, oranges, and jelly. The birds mostly feed on insects like caterpillars, leafhoppers, bees, wasps, spiders, bugs, and small beetles.

Nesting

Lucy’s Warblers lay 3 to 7 eggs and incubate them for approximately 12 days. The eggs are white with fine reddish spots concentrated at the large end. The chicks are hatched naked and helpless.

Marsh Wren

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.9-5.5 in (10-14 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (9-14 g)

Wingspan: 5.9 in (15 cm)

The Marsh Wren, also known as the Long-billed Marsh Wren, is a small songbird in the Wren family widely distributed in North America. The scientific name for the Marsh Wren is Cistothorus palustris.

Description

The Marsh Wren is a small, plump Wren with a rounded body and a short tail. The bird often holds up its tail almost vertically above its back. Marsh Wrens have long, thin bills and short wings.

Marsh Wrens are rusty brown above with black and white streaks down its back. However, the underparts of Marsh Wrens are paler and lack black and white streaks. The birds also have pale white eyebrows and unstreaked shoulders.

Marsh Wrens weigh 9 to 14 grams and are 10 to 14 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is approximately 15 cm.

Habitat

Marsh Wrens are mostly found in wetlands filled with cattails, sedges, bulrushes, phragmites, and saltmarshes filled with cordgrass. During winter, the birds occupy brushy thickets near tidal saltmarshes, weedy agricultural canals, and wetlands.

Food

To attract Marsh Wrens, the ideal feeders to use our platform or tray feeders. In them, you can put peanut hearts, mealworms, peanut butter, and suet. Marsh wrens mostly forage close to the water and occasionally fly up to catch passing insects.

Nesting

Marsh Wrens lay 3 to 10 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 16 days. The eggs are brown with dark spots—Marsh Wrens experience 1 to 2 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched helpless with wisps of down.

Mountain Bluebird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.9 in (16-20 cm)

Weight: 1.1 oz (30 g)

Wingspan: 11.0-14.2 in (28-36 cm)

Mountain Bluebirds are small thrushes found in mountainous areas. The bird belongs to the genus Sialia. The scientific name of Mountain Bluebird is Sialia currucoides.

Description

Mountain Bluebirds have round heads and straight thin bills. The birds have long wings, long tails, and leanness compared to other bluebirds.

Male Mountain Bluebirds are sky-blue with somehow dark wings and tails. The underparts of the bird are a bit paler with white under the tail. Female Mountain Bluebirds are grey-brown with flushes of pale blue in the wings and tails. They occasionally show a mixture of orange-brown on their chests. Immature Mountain Bluebirds have fewer spots than other immature bluebirds and black spotting on their backs. The bill of a Mountain Bluebird is entirely black.

Mountain Bluebirds approximately weigh 30 grams and have a length of 16 to 20 cm. the wingspan of the bird is 28 to 36 cm.

Habitat

Mountain Bluebirds occupy wide open spaces in areas of middle and higher elevations. The birds breed in native habitats like sage brushes, steppe, alpine tundra, and prairies. During winter, the birds can be found in lower elevation areas like in meadows, hedgerows, flat grasslands, pinyon-juniper, oak-juniper woodlands, and in agricultural areas.

Food

Platform feeders and suet cages are ideal feeders to attract Mountain Bluebirds. In these feeders, you can put mealworms, sunflower seeds, suet, and fruits. The birds also feed on insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, and caterpillars.

Nesting

Mountain Bluebirds lay 4 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 17 days. The eggs are pale blue to bluish-white and are paler than those of other bluebirds. The birds have one or two broods in a year. Hatched nestlings are helpless and have no feathers.

Mountain Chickadee:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.5 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4 oz (11 g)

Wingspan: 7.5 in (19cm)

A Mountain Chickadee is a small songbird in the Paridae family. The scientific name for Mountain Chickadee is Poecile gambeli.

Description

Mountain Chickadees are tiny and have large heads. The birds have small bills, rounded wings, and long narrow tails.

Mountain Chickadees are grey with a striking black and white on the head. Mountain Chickadees have a distinct white stripe over their eye that separates them from other Chickadees.

Mountain Chickadees’ overall weight is 11grams, and the overall length is 11 to 14 cm. the wingspan of the bird is approximately 19 cm. They are relatively the same size as the Black-capped Chickadees.

Habitat

Mountain Chickadees are common in evergreen forests with pine, spruce-fir, pinyon-juniper, and mixed conifer. The birds inhabit the higher slopes conifers except when nesting when they seek out any available aspen trees for their soft and easily excavated wood.

Food

To attract Mountain Chickadees, the ideal feeders to use are large tube feeders, small tube feeders, large hopper, small hopper, platform feeder, and suet cage. In these feeders, you can put black oil sunflower, hulled sunflower seeds, safflower, peanuts, suet, peanut hearts, and mealworms. The birds also feed on protein-rich insects and spiders.

Nesting

Mountain Chickadees lay 5 to 9 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 15 days. The eggs are flat white, sometimes with red speckles. The birds have 1 or 2 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched naked, eyes closed, and with tufts down on the head and along the spine. The young Mountain Chickadees stay in the nest for 17 to 23 days while being fed by both parents.

Mourning Dove:

MEASUREMENTS

Male

Length: 9.1-13.4 in (23-34 cm)

Weight: 3.4-6.0 oz (96-170 g)

Wingspan: 17.7 in (45 cm)

Female

Weight: 3.0-5.5 oz (86-156 g)

Wingspan: 17.7 in (45 cm)

Mourning Dove, also known as the American Mourning Dove or the Rain Dove, is a medium-sized member of the dove family, Columbidae. Other names used to refer to the Mourning Dove are the Turtle Dove, Carolina Pigeon, and Carolina Turtledove. The scientific name for the Mourning Dove is Zenaida macroura.

Description

Mourning Doves have plump bodies with short legs and small bills. The head of the bird appears small in comparison to the body. They have a long, pointed tail that is unique among other North American Doves.

Mourning Doves are grey to delicate brown above with large black spots on their wings and a black-bordered white tip to the tail feathers. They have a pale peach-colored below. The birds have a long thin tail and a thin black bill. The legs of the birds are pinkish. The eyes are dark, surrounded by light skin. Adult male Mourning Doves have a distinct bluish-grey color on their crowns. Females have more brown coloring and are a little smaller than males.

Male Mourning Doves weigh 96 to 170 grams and are 23 to 24 cm long. Their wingspan is approximately 45 cm. Females weigh 86 to 156 grams and have a wingspan of 45 cm.

Habitat

Mountain Doves live in the open country, scattered trees, and woodland edges. You will rarely find these birds in the deep woods. The birds feed on the ground in grasslands, agricultural fields, roadsides, and backyards.

Food

To attract Mourning Dove, you can use a large hopper, platform, and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put milo, oats, Nyjer, cracked corn, millet, peanut hearts, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, and safflower. The birds sometimes eat snails, weeds, herbs, and berries.

Nesting

Mourning Doves lay two white eggs and incubate them for 14 days. The birds have 1 to 6 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched with their eyes closed, helpless, sparsely covered in cream-colored down, and dependent on the adults for warmth. The young doves stay in the nest for 12 to 15 days.

Nashville Warbler:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.5 oz (6.7-13.9 g)

Wingspan: 6.7-7.9 in (17-20 cm)

Nashville Warblers are small songbirds in the New World Warbler family. The scientific name for Nashville Warbler is Leiothlypis ruficapilla.

Description

Nashville Warblers are compact with a round head and a plump body. They have short tails and fine, straight, and pointed bills.

Nashville Warblers are yellow with a greenback, grey head, and a white eye-ring. The lower belly of the bird is white and is sandwiched in between yellow breasts and yellow undertail coverts. The bill of the birds is black. The birds have no wing bars. Adult male Nashville Warblers have a rusty brown patch on their crown, often covered by grey feathers making it less visible. Females and immature Nashville Warblers have more washed out and pale colors.

Nashville Warblers weigh 6.7 to 13.9 grams and are 11 to 13 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 17 to 20 cm.

Habitat

Nashville Warblers are mostly found in shrubby second-growth habitats. The birds breed in mixed-species forests, tamarack, spruce, scrub oak, and brushy black oak groves. During winter, the birds move to low and open deciduous and mixed tropical forests as well as suburban gardens.

Food

To attract Nashville Warblers, you can use suet cages or a nectar feeder. During winter, the bird supplements their diet with berries and nectar. In the suet cage, you can put suet cakes and sugar solution in the nectar feeder. The birds feed on insects such as leafhoppers, caterpillars, beetles, budworms, flies, and grasshoppers.

Nesting

Nashville Warblers lay 4 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 12 days. The eggs are white with brown spots. The birds have only one brood in a year. The chicks are hatched helpless with some sparse dark brown down. Nestling takes 9 to 11 days.

Northern Cardinal:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-9.1 in (21-23 cm)

Weight: 1.5-1.7 oz (42-48 g)

Wingspan: 9.8-12.2 in (25-31 cm)

The Northern Cardinal, also known as the Redbird, Red Cardinal, or the Common Cardinal. It is a medium-sized songbird in the genus Cardinalis. The scientific name for Northern Cardinal is Cardinalis cardinalis.

Description

The Northern Cardinal has a long tail, short thick bill, and a prominent crest. The birds usually sit with a hunched-over posture with the tail pointing straight down.

Northern Cardinals have a black face and red-orange bill. Male Northern Cardinals are brilliant red with a reddish bill, black throat, and a black face around the bill. Female cardinals are pale brown with warm reddish tinges in the tail, wings, and crest.

Northern Cardinals weigh 42 to 48 grams and are 21 to 23 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 25 to 31 cm.

Habitat

Northern Cardinals are found in dense shrubby areas such as forest edges, overgrown fields, hedgerows, marshy thickets, regrowing forests, mesquite, backyards, and ornamental landscaping. The birds usually nest in dense foliage and look for conspicuous high perches for singing.

Food

The ideal feeders to attract Northern Cardinals are ground, platform, large hopper, and large tube feeders. In these feeders, you can put milo, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, millet, safflower, and cracked corn. Northern Cardinals also eat beetles, flies, centipedes, spiders, moths, butterflies, leafhoppers, cicadas, and crickets.

Nesting

Northern Cardinals lay 2 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 13 days.  The eggs are greyish-white, buffy white, or greenish-white with pale grey to brown speckles. The birds have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched clumsy, eyes closed and naked except for the sparse tufts of greyish down.

Northern Flicker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 11.0-12.2 in (28-31 cm)

Weight: 3.9-5.6 oz (110-160 g)

Wingspan: 16.5-20.1 in (42-51 cm)

The Northern Flicker, also known as the Common Flicker, is a medium-sized bird in the Woodpecker family. It is one of the few migratory Woodpeckers. The scientific name for Northern Flicker is Colaptes auratus.

Description

Northern Flickers are slim, fairly large Woodpeckers with rounded heads and slightly downcurved bills. They have a long-flared tail that tapers to a point.

Northern Flickers appear brownish with a white rump patch which is conspicuous when the birds are flying and also visible when perched. The birds have a black bib and a spotted berry. The undersides of the tail feathers and wings are usually bright yellow or red for the eastern birds and western birds, respectively. The plumage is usually brown and patterned with some black spots, bars, and crescents. Female yellow-shafted Northern Flickers lack the black mustache found in the male Flickers.

Northern Flickers weigh 110 to 160 grams and are 28 to 31 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 42 to 51 cm.

Habitat

Northern Flickers have habitats in woodlands, forest edges, open fields with scattered trees, city parks, and the suburbs. The birds can also be found in wet areas such as streamside woods, flooded swamps, and marsh edges.

Food

Ideal feeders to attract Northern Flickers are a large hopper, platform feeder, or a suet cage. In these feeders, you can put black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, millet, peanut hearts, safflower, peanuts, or suet. Northern Flickers also eat insects, especially ants and beetles.

Nesting

Northern Flickers lay 5 to 8 white eggs and incubate them for 11 to 13 days. The birds experience only one brood in a year. The chicks are hatched naked, pink in color, eyes closed, with clumsy movements, and with a sharp egg tooth at the tip of their bills. Nestling takes 24 to 27 days.

Northern Mockingbird:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-10.2 in (21-26 cm)

Weight: 1.6-2.0 oz (45-58 g)

Wingspan: 12.2-13.8 in (31-35 cm)

The Northern Mockingbird is a Mockingbird in North America known for its mimicking ability. The scientific name of the Northern Mockingbird is Mimus polyglottos.

Description

Northern Mockingbirds are medium-sized mockingbirds, leaner than a thrush and with a long tail. The birds have small heads and long thin bills with hints of a downward curve. They have long legs and short, round and broad wings that make the tail appear long when they fly.

Northern Mockingbirds are grey-brown with paler breasts and bellies. The birds have two white wing bars on each wing. Perched birds have a visible white patch in each wing that becomes large white flashes when the birds fly. The white outer tail feathers of the mockingbirds are flashy when they are flying.

Northern Mockingbirds weigh 45 to 58 grams and are 21 to 26 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is 31 to 35 cm.

Habitat

Northern Mockingbirds are common in areas with open ground and shrubby vegetation like hedges, fruiting bushes, and thickets. The birds prefer grassy areas to bare spots when foraging on the ground. You can find the birds in parks, cultivated land, suburban areas and backyards.

Food

To attract Northern Mockingbirds, you can use platform or ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put peanut hearts, mealworms, fruits, hulled sunflower seeds, or suet. During summer, the birds mostly feed on insects such as beetles, moths, butterflies, earthworms, grasshoppers, and wasps.

Nesting

Northern Mockingbirds lay 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are pale blue or greenish-white with red or brown spots. The birds experience 2 to 3 broods in a year. Chicks are hatched naked, blind, helpless, and with a light grey down.

Northern Parula

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-4.7 in (11-12 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.4 oz (5-11 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

The Northern Parula is a new world Warbler that breeds in the US. Its scientific name is the Setophaga Americana.

Description

These are small wood-warblers that have a short tail and a thin pointy bill. They are plumb little warblers about the same size as a kinglet. The adult male is usually bluish in the whole body with a yellow-green patch on the back and two white wing bars.

The chest band separates the bright yellow throat and chest. The adult females are pale than males and typically have no breast band like that of the males. Both the male and female have a unique white eye crescent. The young ones are paler than adults, and they do not have a chestnut breast band.

The average weight of the bird is 5 to 11 grams with a length of 11 to 12 cm. The wingspan ranges from 16 to 18 cm.

Habitat

The Northern Parulas are commonly found in deciduous forests in the southern part, while in the north, they are common in evergreen forest. The key feature that should be in both areas is the moss. During the winter period, they forage on the fields, plantations, pastures, scrubs, and forests.

Food

The Northern Parulas mainly feed on spiders and different types of insects, particularly the caterpillars. They also feed on others such as bees, wasps, beetles, flies, moths, and locusts, among others. During the winter, they sometimes eat berries, seeds, and nectar.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are white to creamy white speckled with brown, red, grey, or purple. They experience one to two broods a year. The chicks are hatched helpless with eyes closed.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.6 oz (10-18 g)

Wingspan: 10.6-11.8 in (27-30 cm)

The Northern Rough-winged Swallow is a tiny migratory swallow that is just the same as the Southern Rough-winged Swallow. Its scientific name is the Stelgidopteryx serripennis.

Description

The Northern Rough-winged Swallow is a small bodies bird that has a small head and bill. They fly on long and relatively broad pointed wings. The tail is square.

The bird is brown in entirety and has a dingy chest and throat that fades to white—both the male and female look similar. The only difference in the young ones is the cinnamon wing bars. The average weight of these birds is 10 to 18 grams with a length of 12 to 15 cm. The wingspan range is from 27 to 30 cm.

Habitat

These birds are commonly found in areas that are close to water, and they nest in burrows that have been excavated by other animals as well as in gutters, drainpipes, boxes, walls, and bridges.

Food

The Northern Rough-winged Swallows feed over water by taking small insects’ midair or sometimes picking them from water. If you want to attract them, you can create artificial waters like in a pond where its food will be readily available.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 4 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 16 to 17 days. The eggs are white in color. They experience one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked, helpless with sparse down.

Northern Shoveler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 17.3-20.1 in (44-51 cm)

Weight: 14.1-28.9 oz (400-820 g)

Wingspan: 27.2-33.1 in (69-84 cm)

The Northern Shoveler, commonly known as a Shoveler in Britain, is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the US. Its scientific name is the Spatula clypeata. 

Description

The Northern Shoveler has a shovel-shaped bill that quickly separates it from the other dabbling ducks. The bird is medium-sized and tends to sit with its rear higher out of the water, almost as if its bill is pulling its front half down.

Breeding male Northern Shovelers are bold white, green blue and rust with a white chest and white lower sides. They have a green head, long oversized black bill and yellow eyes. The males flash blue on the upper wing and green on the speculum when flying. Female and immature Northern Shovelers are mottled in brown and have powdery-blue on the wings that is visible on perching birds. The birds have conspicuous large orange bills and orange legs.

Northern Shovelers weigh 400 to 820 grams and are 44 to 51 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 69 to 84 cm.

Habitat

Northern Shovelers breed in shallow wetlands with submerged vegetation and nest in the neighboring grassy fields. The birds forage in lakes, wetlands, saltmarshes, wastewater ponds, estuaries, flooded fields, and agricultural ponds.

Food

To attract Northern Shovelers, consider putting up and putting aquatic invertebrates in the pond. Ground feeders are also ideal for attracting Northern Shovelers. Inside, you can put peanuts. The birds also feed on tiny crustaceans.

Nesting

Northern Shovelers lay 8 to 12 eggs and incubate them for 22 to 25 days. The eggs are pale greenish-grey or olive-buff. The birds have only one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are covered in down and are able to walk and swim.

Nuttall’s Woodpecker:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

Weight: 1.1-1.6 oz (30-45 g)

Wingspan: 13.0-16.1 in (33-41 cm)

The Nuttall’s Woodpecker is a species of Woodpecker that is named after naturalist Thomas Nuttall in 1843. The scientific name of the bird is the Dryobates nuttallii.   

Description

The Nuttall’s Woodpecker is a small woodpecker that has a chisel-shaped bill. It has a small rounded head, a flat back and an elongated appearance. These birds are black and white striped.  Both the genders have white stripes across their cheeks, while on the back of the males’ heads, they have a red patch. The cack side has narrow bars that are black and white with a solid black patch at the upper back.

The underparts are whitish with sporting and barring on the flanks. Chicks have more greyish or buffy underparts than adults. The average weight of the bird is 30 to 45 grams and has a length of 16 to 18 cm. The wingspan ranges from 33 to 41 cm.

Habitat

The Nuttall’s Woodpecker lives in oak woodlands all year round. They also use wooded suburban areas and the woodlands near the streams with cottonwoods, willows, and sycamores.

Food

These birds spend most of their time in the woodlands, but they do not eat acorns. They feed on insects such as beetles, termites, ants, beetle larvae, and millipedes found in oaks, willows, and cottonwoods. They hunt for these insects from the bark of trees or vegetation. They also feed on fruit and berries such as poison oak, elderberries, and blackberries.

Nesting

The Nuttall’s Woodpeckers lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs. The eggs are whitish and unmarked. The average length of the eggs is 1.9 to 2.5 cm and a width of 1.5 to 1.7 cm. The hatched chicks are naked and helpless.

Oak Titmouse

MEASUREMENTS

Weight: 0.3-0.7 oz (10-21 g)

The Oak Titmouse is a passerine bird that belongs to the Tit family Paridae. The plain Titmouse eas split into Oak Titmouse and the Juniper Titmouse in 1996. The scientific name of this bird is the Baeolophus inornatus.

Description

The Oak Titmouse is a tiny sunbird that has a shorty, stubby bill, a short crest, and a medium ling tail. These birds are plain grey-brown. They are slightly darker above than below and may show a slight buffy wash on the flanks.

The average weight of the Oak Titmouse is between 10 to 21 grams.

Habitat

The Oak Titmouse is strongly tied to the oak trees, although they also live in areas of open pine or mixed oak-pine forest. These birds are almost entirely restricted to dry slopes in some parts of the US, but they are also found in other areas too.

Food

If you want to attract the Oak Titmouse, the ideal feeders are the suet cage, platform, small and large hopper, and the small and larger tube, feeders. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as safflower, peanut hearts, peanuts, suet, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on insects and small invertebrates, mostly during the warmer months. Some of the invertebrates it feeds on include aphids, beetles, caterpillars, treehoppers, leafhoppers, wasp, flies, and many more.

Nesting

The Oak Titmouse lay a clutch of 3 to 9 eggs and incubate them for a period of 14 to 16 days. The eggs are usually white, sometimes speckled with a faint reddish-brown.  They experience one to two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless.       

Orange-crowned Warbler

MEASUREMENTS                 

Length: 4.3-5.5 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (7-11 g)

Wingspan: 7.5 in (19 cm)

The Orange-crowned Warbler is a small songbird that belongs to the family of new world warblers. The scientific name of this bird is the Leiothlypis celata.

Description

The Orange-crowned Warbler is a small songbird. They have noticeably thin, sharply pointed bills compared to other warblers. They have short wings and short square tails.

These birds are fairly yellowish or olive.  They are more yellow on the pacific coast and greyer, particularly on the head farther east. They also have a thin white or yellow stripe over the eye and a pale partial eye-ring.

The average weight of the bird is 7 to 11 grams with a length of 11 to 14 cm. The average wingspan is 19 cm.

Habitat

The Orange-crowned Warblers mainly live in dense areas of deciduous scrubs, usually within or adjacent to the forest. They can also be seen from the low elevation oak scrub to stunted forest near timberline. During the migration, you may find them in nearly any habitat though they still prefer the dense, low vegetation.

Food

The Orange-crowned Warblers mainly feed on invertebrates which include ants, caterpillars, flies, and spiders.  They supplement their insect diet with fruits, berries, seeds, and plant galls.  They are also known to be regular visitors at the sap wells drilled by sapsuckers and some other woodpeckers.  They also get nectar from the flowers.

If you want to attract these birds, you need to have a garden with fruits and berries or some vegetation that will attract the insects.

Nesting

The Orange-crowned Woodpeckers lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs. The eggs are usually white to cream, finely speckled with reddish-brown or chestnut. The hatched chicks have their eyes closed, skin covered in sparse, and have a dark grey down.

Orchard Oriole

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-7.1 in (15-18 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.0 oz (16-28 g)

Wingspan: 9.8 in (25 cm)

The Orchard Oriole is the smallest species of the icterid. The scientific name of this bird is Icterus spurius.

Description

The Orchards Orioles are tiny songbirds but larger than the warblers and vireos. They have medium-length tails, a straight, sharply pointed bill, and a rounded head. The adult males are black above and rich reddish-chestnut below. The head and throat are black, with a reddish-chestnut patch at the end of the wing. The female Orchards are greenish-yellow and have two white wing bars with no black.  The young males look similar to the females but have black around the bill and throat.

The average weight of the bird is 16 to 28 grams with a length of 15 to 18 cm. The wingspan average is 25 cm.

Habitat

The Orchard Orioles spend the summer in open woodlands and areas of scattered trees across the US. They can also be found along the river edges, in parks and orchards, and in pastures with scattered trees.

Food

The Orchard Orioles mainly feed on insects and other arthropods along with some fruits and nectar; some of these insects include the wasp, ants, bugs, grasshoppers, mayflies, crickets, beetles, and spiders.

When they are migrating, the flocks feed on ripe berries such as chokecherries, mulberries and others.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 4 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are light blue or grey with dark markings of purple, brown, grey or black. They also experience 1 to 2 broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless, covered with pale grey to tan down.

Ovenbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.5 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.0 oz (16-28 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-10.2 in (19-26 cm)

The Ovenbird is a small migratory songbird that belongs to the new world warbler family. Its scientific name is the Seiurus aurocapilla.

Description

The Ovenbird is a chunky, larger than average, an average warbler but still smaller than a song sparrow. It has a round head, a fairly thick bill for a warbler, and a jaunty tail often cocked upwards.  They are olive-green above and spotted below, with bold black and orange crown stripes. A white eye-ring gives it a somewhat surprised expression. It also has some pink legs.

The average weight of this bird is 16 to 28 grams with an average length of 11 to 14 cm. The wingspan ranges from 19 to 26 cm.

Habitat

The Ovenbirds breed in closed-canopy forests, in particular, deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous woods. You may find them in most forest types, from rich oak or maple woods to dry pine forests, although they avoid wet or swampy areas.

Food

The Ovenbirds mainly feed on forest insects which range from beetles, ants, caterpillars, flies and others. These insects are mainly found on the barks, leaf surfaces, and others in the air.

If you want to attract these birds, you can ensure there are shrubs and bushes around so that the inserts can breed in there, and this will attract the birds.

Nesting

The Ovenbirds lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs they proceed to incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are white with reddish-brown spots and speckles. These birds experience one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless, covered in dark grey to pale brown down, with eyes closed and mouth open.

Pacific Wren

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.1-4.7 in (8-12 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (8-12 g)

Wingspan: 4.7-6.3 in (12-16 cm)

The Pacific Wren is a tiny songbird that is mainly found in the United States, and it belongs to the family of new world wren, Troglodytidae. The scientific name of the bird is Troglodytes pacificus.

Description

The Pacific Wren is among the smallest wrens in the US, and it has a short stubby tail which it usually holds upright. They have a small and short tail that gives them a round appearance. They have short wings and a thin bill.

This bird is brown all over its body with darker brownish-black barring on the wings, tail, and belly.  The face is brown with a slight pale mark over the eyebrow. The average weight of this bird is 8 to 12 grams with an average length of 8 to 12 cm. The wingspan rages from 12 to 16 cm.

Habitat

The Pacific Wren is commonly found in old-growth evergreen forests. They also breed in deciduous forests, tree islands, and mixed-species forests near the streams. They forage and build nests near the fallen logs, dead trees, upturned tree toots, understory cover of mosses and ferns often near water.

Whenever the breeding season is over, they can also be found inhabiting places like parks and gardens.

Food

The Pacific Wrens are insectivores. They feed on insects such as caterpillars, beetles, ticks, bees, millipedes, flies, and spiders.  They move slowly on the ground or above the ground inspecting the vegetation or the decaying woods for food.  Whenever the breeding season is over, these birds may sometimes feed on juniper berries to supplement the diet.

Nesting The Pacific Wrens lay a clutch of 1 to 9 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 17 days. The eggs are white with small pale to reddish-brown spots. These birds experience one to two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked with only a few straggly down feathers.

Palm Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.5 in (12-14 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (7-13 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-8.3 in (20-21 cm)

The Palm Warbler is a small songbird that belongs to the family of new world warbler. Its scientific name is the Setophaga palmarum.

Description

The Palm Warblers are small songbirds with a fuller-looking belly. Their posture is more upright than an ordinary warbler and more like a pipit, especially noticeable when they are on the ground. The tails and legs of this bird are longer than most warblers, and this contributes to the pipit-like shape. 

These birds are dull brownish-olive above with a yellow under the tail and throat. When in flight, the outside corners of their tails flash white. In the eastern birds, the belly is yellow, while in the western birds, the belly is white.  During the breeding season, both males and females have some rusty streaking on the belly. The non-breeding birds have a paler yellow undertail and a dull brown crown.

The average weight of this bird is 7 to 13 grams with a length of 12 to 14 cm. The wingspan range is 20 to 21 cm.

Habitat

The Palm Warblers use the weedy fields, forest edges, fence rows, and other areas with scattered trees and shrubs during the migration.  They then move to the boreal forest, where they use bogs with thick ground cover.

Food

The Palm Warblers generally feed on insects as their primary food. These insects include caterpillars, flies, and beetles. During the winter, they also feed on seeds and berries such as bayberry, sea grape, and hawthorn whenever it is available.

The ideal feeders for these birds are the suet cage, platform, and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as hulled sunflower seeds and suet.

Nesting

The Palm Warblers lay a clutch of 4 to 5 eggs. The eggs are white speckled with brown and lavender spots.  The hatched chicks are usually naked with patches of light brown down.

Phainopepla

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-8.3 in (18-21 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.0 oz (17.9-28.1 g)

Wingspan: 10.6-11.4 in (27-29 cm)

The Phainopepla, also known as the Northern Phainopepla, is a silky flycatcher bird in the family Ptiliogonatidae. The name Phainopepla is a Greek name meaning ‘shining robe’ named after the male’s plumage. The scientific name of Phainopepla is Phainopepla nitens.

Description

Phainopepla is a lean songbird with long tails and distinct shaggy crests. The birds are usually larger than a Juniper Titmouse but smaller than a Northern Cardinal.

Adult male Phainopepla is glossy black with red eyes and large white patches in the wings. The patches are only visible when the bird is in flight. Adult female Phainopepla is mousy greyish brown with red eyes. The females have white edgings on their wing feathers. Immature Phainopepla has brownish eyes.

Phainopepla weighs 17.9 to 28.1 grams and is 18 to 21 cm. The wingspan of the birds is 27 to 29 cm.

Habitat

Phainopeplas mostly occur in desert washes with mesquite, Palo Verde, ironwood, smoke tree, and acacia. The birds nest on these same desert trees and feed heavily on berries of the desert mistletoe. The birds are also found in open oak-sycamore woodlands, boxthorn scrub, Joshua tree desert, and chaparral.

Food

The ideal feeder to attract Phainopeplas is a platform feeder. In the feeder, you can put fruits and mealworms. The birds also eat mistletoe berries, boxthorn, elderberry, redberry, juniper, and sumac fruits. They feed flying insects like beetles, caterpillars, and bugs as well. Nesting birds feed their chicks with protein-rich insects.

Nesting

Phainopeplas lay 2 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 16 days. The eggs are round, light greyish, and with small dark spots. The birds experience only one brood in a year. The chicks hatched are helpless with sparse white down and greyish-black skin. Nesting takes 14 to 20 days.

Pileated Woodpecker

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 15.8-19.3 in (40-49 cm)

Weight: 8.8-12.3 oz (250-350 g)

Wingspan: 26.0-29.5 in (66-75 cm)

Pileated Woodpecker is the second largest, Woodpecker widely distributed in North America. The scientific name of Pileated Woodpecker is Dryocopus pileatus.

Description

Pileated Woodpeckers are very large, with long necks and a  crest that is triangular shaped and sweeps off the back of the head. The birds have a long chisel-shaped bill about the same size as their head. The wings are broad when on flight.

Pileated Woodpeckers are mostly black and have white stripes on the face and the neck. The birds have a flaming-red crest. Male Pileated Woodpeckers have a red stripe on the cheek. The bird reveals large white underwings and small white crescents on the upper side and at the base of the speculum when flying.

Pileated Woodpeckers have a weight of 250 to 350 grams and a length of 40 to 49 cm. the wingspan of the birds is 66 to 75 cm.

Habitat

Pileated Woodpeckers are mostly found in mature deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous woodlands. The birds also occur in younger forests that have scattered, large, dead trees or downed woods. The birds have started inhabiting suburban areas with large trees and patches of woodland.

Food

The ideal feeder to attract Pileated Woodpeckers is the suet cage. In the cage, you can put foods such as mealworms, peanut hearts, peanuts, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds or suet. The birds also feed on wild fruits and nuts, and carpenter ants, woodboring beetle larvae, termites, caterpillars, and grasshoppers.

Nesting

Pileated Woodpeckers lay 3 to 5 white eggs and incubate them for 15 to 18 days. The birds have only one brood in a year. Nesting takes 24 to 31 days. The chicks are hatched naked and helpless.

Pine Siskin

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.5 in (11-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.6 oz (12-18 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-8.7 in (18-22 cm)

The Pine Siskin is a migratory bird found in the US and belongs to the family of finch. This bird has an extremely sporadic winter range. The scientific name of this bird is Spinus pinus.

Description

The Pine Siskins are tiny songbirds that have sharp, pointed bills and short notched tails. The uniquely shaped bill is slenderer than that of most finches. You can observe their pointed wingtips and their forked tails when they are on the flight.

The Pine Siskins are brown and very streaky birds with yellow edgings on the tails and wings. Flashes of yellow can erupt as they take flight, flutter at the branch’s tips, or display during mating. The average weight of this bird is 12 to 18 grams with a length of 11 to 14 cm. The wingspan ranges from 18 to 22 cm.

Habitat

Despite the fact that the Pine Siskin prefer evergreen or mixed evergreen and deciduous forests with open canopies, they are opportunist and adaptable in their search for seeds. They also feed in the weedy fields, scrubby thickets, or backyards and gardens. They also flock around the feeders, more so the thistle feeders in woodlands and suburbs.

Food

If you want to attract the Pine Siskin, the ideal feeders are the small hoppers, platform, round, and small and large tube feeders. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as the hulled sunflower seeds, Nyjer, and black oil sunflower seeds. They also feed on insects such as the spiders and grubs from the leaves and branch tips, and they sometimes catch them midair. They also feed on the mineral deposits such as ashes, road salts, and fresh cement.

Nesting

The Pine Siskin lays a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and incubates them for 13 days. The eggs are pale greenish-blue with brown or reddish-brown spotting. These birds experience one to two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are helpless with their eyes closed and with a dark gray down on head and back.

Pine Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1-5.5 in (13-14 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (9-15 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-9.1 in (19-23 cm)

The Pine Warbler is a small songbird of the new world warbler family. The scientific name of this bird is the Setophaga pinus.

Description

The Pine Warblers are hefty long-tailed warblers that have a stout bill.  The tail tip usually appears to have a central notch.  These are yellowish birds with olive backs, whitish berries, and two popular white wing bars on gray wings. The males are the brightest, and the females or the young ones are more subdued and can even appear gray-brown.

The average weight of this bird is 9 to 15 grams, with an average wingspan of 19 to 23 cm.

Habitat

The Pine Warblers spend most of their time in pine trees. They can be in a pine forest or a deciduous tree. They are found in the same habitats in winter, but they also visit backyards and come to bird feeders to eat seeds and suet.

Food

If you want to attract the Pine Warbler, the ideal feeders include the suet cage, platform, small hopper, large and small tube feeder. Inside those feeders, you can keep foods such as the suet, hulled sunflower seeds, and peanuts.

These birds mainly feed on caterpillars, spiders, and other arthropods. They also take some fruits as seeds, especially during the colder months. During the migration, they at times feed on the deciduous trees.

Nesting

The Pine Warbler lays a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and proceeds to incubate them for ten to13 days. The eggs are whitish, grayish, or greenish-white with brown speckles.  They experience 1 to 2 broods in a year.

Purple Finch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-6.3 in (12-16 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.1 oz (18-32 g)

Wingspan: 8.7-10.2 in (22-26 cm)

The Purple Finch is a small bird from the finch family Fringillidae. The scientific name of this bird is the Haemorhous purpureus.

Description

The Purple Finch is larger and chunky compared to other small forest birds such as the chickadees and the kinglets. They have a powerful and conical beak larger than any sparrow. The tail is short and notched at the tip.

The male species of this bird are pink-red on the breast and the head, mixing with the cloudy white on the belly and brown on the back. The females have no red. They are coarsely streaked with strong facial marking, including a whitish eyestripe and a dark line down the side of the throat.

The average weight of this bird is 18 to 32 cm with a length of 12 to 16 cm. The wingspan ranges from 22 to 26 cm.

Habitat

These birds mainly breed in the coniferous forest or mixed deciduous and coniferous woods.  They can be found in a wider variety of habitats during the winter, and they include the old fields, forest edges, shrublands, and backyards.

Food

If you want to attract a Purple Finch, the ideal feeders are the large and small tube feeders, large and small hoppers, and the platform. Inside the feeders, you can put food such as the millet, black oil sunflower seeds, Nyjer, and the hulled sunflower seeds.

They also feed on the nectar fruit and berries, and soft buds. 

Nesting

The Purple Finches lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs and proceed to incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are pale greenish-blue marked with brown and black. They experience one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked and helpless.

Purple Martin

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.5-7.9 in (19-20 cm)

Weight: 1.6-2.1 oz (45-60 g)

Wingspan: 15.3-16.1 in (39-41 cm)

The Purple Martin is the largest Swallow in North America. The birds belong in the genus Progne, and their scientific name is Progne subis.

Description

Purple Martins are very large and have broad chests. The bids have bold, slightly hooked bills and shot forked tails. The wings of the birds are long and tapered.

Purple Martins are not truly purple despite their name. Adult male Purple Martins are shiny, dark blue-purple with brown-black wings and tails. Female and immature Purple Martins are duller with variable amounts of gray on their head and chest. The birds have a whitish lower belly and a gray collar around the neck.

Purple Martins weigh 45 to 60 grams and are 19 to 20 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 39 to 41 cm.

Habitat

Purple Martins breed along forest edges, rivers, and urban areas. The birds forage over towns, parks, cities, dunes, open fields, wet meadows, beaver ponds, streams, and other open areas. During winter, the birds live in savannas and agricultural fields.

Food

To attract Purple Martins, you can put out crushed eggshells to give the birds a source of grit for digesting insect exoskeletons. Purple Martins’s diet includes beetles, flies, grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies, wasps, moths, bees, spiders, cicadas, termites, and mayflies.

Nesting

Purple Martins lay 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 15 to 18 days. The eggs are pure white and smooth. The birds experience 1 to 2 broods in a year.  Hatched chicks are weak with bare pink skin and are nestled for 27 to 36 days.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 9.4 in (24 cm)

Weight: 2.0-3.2 oz (56-91 g)

Wingspan: 13.0-16.5 in (33-42 cm)

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are medium-sized Woodpeckers in the Picidae family. The name of this bird is misleading as the prominent red part of its plumage is on the head and not the belly. The scientific name for Red-bellied Woodpecker is Melanerpes carolinus.

Description

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are shinny and round-headed. They are the same size as the Hairy Woodpecker but lacks blocky outlines. The birds have long chisel-shaped bills and central tail feathers.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are pale with boldly black and white striped back, wings and tail, and a flashing red cap and nape. The belly of the birds is pale, and the bill is brownish and black in adults. The birds have white perches near the wingtip when in flight. Female Red-bellied Woodpeckers lack the red crown.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers weigh 56 to 91 grams and are approximately 24 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 33 to 42 cm.

Habitat

Red-bellied Woodpeckers can be found in most forests, woodlands, and wooden suburbs, including oak-hickory forest, pine-hardwood forest, maple and tulip-poplar stands, and Pine Flatwoods. They also inhabit the river bottoms and wetlands.

Food

Feeders that attract Red-bellied Woodpeckers are large hopper, suet cage, platform, and nectar feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, safflower, peanut, mealworms, peanut hearts, cracked corn, sugar water, suet, or fruits. The birds also feed on insects, spiders, and other arthropods.

Nesting

Red-bellied Woodpeckers lay 2 to 6 smooth white eggs and incubate them for 12 days. The birds experience 1 to 3 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched naked, helpless, and with their eyes closed. Nestling takes 24 to 27 days.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3 in (11 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (8-13 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-7.9 in (18-20 cm)

Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small active songbird in North America. The scientific name of Red-breasted Nuthatch is Sitta canadensis.

Description

Red-breasted Nuthatches are compact birds with a sharp appearance and a prominent long pointed bill. The birds have very short tails and very short necks. The body of red-breasted Nuthatches is plump or barrel-chested, and their wings are short and very broad.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are blue-gray with greatly patterned heads. The birds have a black cap and stripe through their eyes, broken up by a white stripe over the eye. The birds have black eyebrows and white eyebrows. The underparts of the bird are rich rusty cinnamon and paler in female Nuthatches.

Red-breasted Nuthatches weigh eight to13 grams and are approximately 11 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 18 to 20 cm.

Habitat

Red-breasted Nuthatches mainly occur in coniferous forests of spruce, pine, fir, larch, hemlock, and western red cedar. During winter, the birds inhabit the orchards, scrubs, parks, shade trees, and plantations.

Food

Red-breasted Nuthatches are attracted by large tube feeders, small tube feeders, large hopper, small hopper, suet cage, and platform feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, peanuts, mealworms, peanut hearts, and suet. The birds also feed on insects and other arthropods such as beetles, caterpillars, ants, spiders, and earwigs.

Nesting

Red-breasted Nuthatches lay 2 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are white, creamy, or pinkish-white with reddish-brown speckles. The birds experience only one brood in a year. The chicks hatched are naked and helpless and are nestled for 18 to 21 days.

Red-eyed Vireo:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.1 in (12-13 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.9 oz (12-26 g)

Wingspan: 9.1-9.8 in (23-25 cm)

A Red-eyed Vireo is a small American songbird that looks like a warbler but not closely related to New World Warblers. The scientific name for this bird is Vireo olivaceus.

Description

Red-eyed Vireos are large and chunky with long angular heads. The birds have a thick neck and a strong long bill with a visible hook at the tip. The birds generally have a broad body and a short tail.

Red-eyed Vireos have olive-green upper parts and a white below. The head of the birds has a strong pattern with a gray crown and white eyebrow stripe bordered by blackish lines. The flanks and under the tail of the birds have a green-yellow wash. Adult Red-eyed Vireos have red eyes that appear dark from a distance. Immature Red-eyed Vireos have dark eyes.

Habitat

Red-eyed Vireos can be found in residential areas, parks, cemeteries with large trees, and deciduous trees such as maples. Red-eyed Vireo’s breed in deciduous and mixed forests with shrubby understories during summer. During winter, the birds occur in high elevation rainforests, mangroves, plantations, forest edges, gardens, and arid areas with adequate vegetation.

Food

To attract Red-eyed Vireos, you can use the suet cage feeder and put suet, mealworms, or fruits in the feeder. The bird also feeds on insects like caterpillars, moths, beetles, treehoppers, scale insects, beetles, ants, and wasps, as well as spiders and snails.

Nesting

Red-eyed Vireos lay one to 5 eggs and have 1 to 2 broods in a year. The eggs are dull white with sparse sepia speckles and are incubated for 11 to 15 days. Chicks are hatched helpless, eyes closed with sparse down on the pinkish-orange skin of their head, back, and wings.

Red-headed Woodpeckers

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.5-9.1 in (19-23 cm)

Weight: 2.0-3.2 oz (56-91 g)

Wingspan: 16.5 in (42 cm)

Red-headed Woodpeckers are small or medium-sized Woodpeckers in North America. The scientific name for Red-headed Woodpecker is Melanerpes erythrocephalus.

Description

Red-headed Woodpeckers are fairly large with round heads and short, stiff tails. The birds have powerful spike-like bills. The birds are about the size of a Hairy Woodpecker.

Adult Red-headed Woodpeckers have bright red heads, white underparts, and black backs. The birds have large white patches in the wings that make their lower back appear all white when perched. Immature Red-headed Woodpeckers have gray-brown heads and rows of black spots near the trailing edge of the white wings.

Red-headed Woodpeckers weigh 56 to 91 grams and are 19 to 23 cm long. The wingspan of the bird is approximately 42 cm.

Habitat

Red-headed Woodpeckers can be found in deciduous woodlands with beech or oak, river bottoms, burned areas, orchards, beaver swamps, grasslands with scattered trees, farmlands, parks, roadsides, and forest edges.  During the breeding season, the birds inhabit the dead or partially dead trees. In winter, the birds live in mature stands of forest, especially oak, maple, ash, beech, and oak-hickory.

Food

To attract red-headed Woodpeckers, the ideal feeder to use is the suet cage. In the feeder, you can put black oil sunflower seeds, corn, and suet. The bird’s insect diet consists of honeybees, grasshoppers, midges, beetles, and cicadas.

Nesting

Red-headed Woodpeckers lay 3 to 10 white eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The birds experience one or two broods in a year. The chicks are hatched naked and with their eyes closed. The nestlings spend 24 to 31 days in the nest being fed by their parents.

Red-winged Blackbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-9.1 in (17-23 cm)

Weight: 1.1-2.7 oz (32-77 g)

Wingspan: 12.2-15.8 in (31-40 cm)

Red-winged Blackbirds are passerine birds of the Icteridae family. The scientific name for Red-winged Blackbird is Agelaius phoeniceus.

Description

Red-winged Blackbirds have broad shoulders and slender conical bills. The birds have a medium-length tail. The birds usually show a hump-backed silhouette while perched. The male Blackbirds sit with their tail slightly flared.

Male species of this bird are glossy black with shoulder badges that are red and yellow in color. The females are crispy-streaked and dark brownish with paler breasts. The birds have a whitish eyebrow and a yellowish wash around the bill.

Red-winged Blackbirds weigh 32 to 77 grams and are 17 to 23 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is 31 to 40 cm.

Habitat

Red-winged Blackbirds usually breed in wet places like fresh or saltwater marshes and rice paddies. They also breed in dry places such as the sedge meadows, fallow fields, and alfalfa fields. The birds occasionally nest in wooded areas along waterways. During winter, the birds can be found in feedlots, pastures, grasslands, and agricultural fields.

Food

To attract red-winged Blackbirds, you can use large tube feeders, large hopper, platform, and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as oats, millet, cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and milo. Red-winged Blackbirds also feed on insects.

Nesting

Red-winged Blackbirds lay 2 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are pale blue-green to gray speckled with black or brown. The birds experience 1 or 2 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched blind, clumsy, and naked with scant buffy or grayish down. The nesting period is 11 to 14 days.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-8.3 in (18-21 cm)

Weight: 1.4-1.7 oz (39-49 g)

Wingspan: 11.4-13.0 in (29-33 cm)

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a large seed-eating Grosbeak in the Cardinal family. The scientific name for the bird is Pheucticus ludovicianus.

Description

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are stocky, medium-sized songbirds with short necks. The birds have very large triangular bills and broad chests. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have medium-length square tails.

Adult male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are black and white with a brilliant red chevron extending from their black throat to the middle of the breast. Female and immature Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are brown and covered with heavy streaks. They also have a bold whitish stripe over their eyes. The males usually flash pink-red under the wings while the females flash yellow under the wings. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks show white patches in the wings and tail.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks weigh 39 to 49 grams and are 18 to 21 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 29 to 33 cm.

Habitat

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks occur in deciduous-coniferous forests, moist deciduous forests, semi-open habitats, and in the thickets. The birds move towards secondary growth woods, suburban areas, gardens, orchards, parks, and forest edges near marshes, streams, pastures, and ponds. During winters, the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks live in forests and semi-open habitats.

Food

To attract Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, you can use tube feeders, hopper feeders, and tray feeders. In the feeders, you can put black oil sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, chopped tree nuts, cranberries, suet, or raw peanuts. The birds also feed on an animal diet like beetles, ants, sawflies, bugs, butterflies, moths, and bees.

Nesting

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks lay 1 to 5 eggs and incubate for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are pale green to blue with reddish-brown or purplish spots. The birds experience 1 to 2 broods in a year. Hatched chicks are naked, helpless with sparse white down. Nestling takes 9 to 12 days.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.5-4.3 in (9-11 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (5-10 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a tiny passerine bird that is spread in most parts of the US. It belongs to the family of a kinglet. The scientific name of this bird is the Corthylio calendula. 

Description

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a small songbird with a relatively large head, almost no neck, and thin tails. They have a bill that is very small, thin, and straight. These birds are olive green with an outstanding white eye-ring and white wing bars.

The average weight of this bird is 5 to 10 grams with an average length of 9 to 11 cm. The wingspan ranges from 16 to 18 cm.

Habitat

The Ruby-crowned Kinglets mainly inhabit tall, dense conifers forests such as spruce, fir, and tamarack. You can also easily find them in shrubby places, deciduous forests, suburbs, and parks.

Food

To attract t the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, the ideal feeders include the suet cage and platform. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as hulled sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and suet.

These birds also feed on spiders. Pseudoscorpions and other types of insects such as wasps, aphids, ants, and bark beetles. They also feed on fruits and berries such as the poison-oak berries and the dogwood berries.

Nesting

The Ruby-crowned Kinglets lay a clutch of 5 to 12 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are drab white spotted with red-brown. These birds experience one brood a year. The egg usually has a length of 1.3 to 1.5 cm and a width of 1 to 1.2 cm. The hatched chicks are usually helpless and completely naked without any down.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 2.8-3.5 in (7-9 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 oz (2-6 g)

Wingspan: 3.1-4.3 in (8-11 cm)

The Rudy-throated Hummingbird is a small bird that is a species of hummingbirds, and it breeds in the US.  It is also migratory. Its scientific name is the Archilochus colubris.

Description

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a small hummingbird that has a slender, slightly downcurved bill and short wings that do not reach all the way to the tail whenever the bird is sitting.

On the back and crown, these birds are bright or golden-green, with gray-white underparts. Male species of this bird have a brilliant red throat that seems dark when it is not exposed to good light. The average weight of this bird is 2 to 6 grams with a length of 7 to 9 cm. The wingspan ranges from 8 to 11 cm.

Habitat

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird lives in open woodlands, meadows, forest edges, and in parks, backyards, and gardens.

Food

If you want to attract the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, the ideal feeder is the nectar feeder, and inside this feeder, you can put sugar water. These birds mainly feed on nectar from plant flowers such as trumpet creeper, cardinal flower, jewelweed, honeysuckle, red buckeye, and the red morning glory.

These Hummingbirds can also catch small insects’ midair and pull them out of spider webs. Some of these insects include small bees, flies, mosquitoes, gnats, among others. They also can pick small caterpillars from the plant leaves.

Nesting

These Hummingbirds lay a clutch of 1 to 3 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are very tiny, white, weighing probably half a gram. They experience one to two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked apart from two tracks of gray down along the back, and the eyes are closed.

Rufous Hummingbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 2.8-3.5 in (7-9 cm)

Weight: 0.1-0.2 oz (2-5 g)

Wingspan: 4.3 in (11 cm)

The Rufous Hummingbirds is a small hummingbird that is known for its extraordinary fighting skills. Its scientific name is the Selasphorus Rufus.

Description

The Rufous Hummingbird is a fairly small Hummingbird that has a slender, nearly straight bill, a tail that tapers to a point when folded, and fairly short wings that do not reach the end of the tail when the bird is perched.

Whenever it is in good light, the male Rufous glows like coal; on the back, the color is bright orange while the belly with a vivid iridescent red throat. On the other hand, the females are green above with rufous washed flanks, rufous patches in the green tail, and often a spot of orange in the throat.

The average weight of this bird is 2 to 5 grams with a length of 7 to 9 cm. The wingspan average is 11 cm.

Habitat

The Rufous Hummingbirds breed in open areas, parks, yards, and forests up to treelines.  During the migration, they pass through the mountain meadows as high as 12 600 feet, where the nectar-rich tubular flowers are blooming. During the winter, they inhabit places like shrubby openings and oak-pine forests in the middle of high elevation.

Food

If you want to attract the Rufous Hummingbirds, the ideal feeder is the nectar feeder, and inside this feeder, you can put sugar water.  These birds primarily feed on nectar from flowers such as the fireweed, lilies, mints columbine, among others.

They also supplement t6heir diet by getting proteins and fats from insects such as flies, midges, and gnats. They catch some like aphids from plants and others midair.

Nesting The Rufous Hummingbirds lay a clutch of 2 to 3 eggs and incubate them for 15 to 17 days. The eggs are tiny and white in color. They experience one brood in a year. The chicks have their eyes closed and naked when they are hatched.        

Savanna Sparrow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.9 in (11-15 cm)

Weight: 0.5-1.0 oz (15-28 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-8.7 in (20-22 cm)

The Savanna Sparrow is a small new world sparrow. The scientific name of this bird is the Passerculus sandwichensis.

Description

The Savanna Sparrow is a medium-sized sparrow with short notched tails. The head appears small for the plumb body, and the crown feathers often flare up to give the bird’s head a small peak. This bird has a thick-based bill for eating seeds, and it is small for a sparrow.

These birds are brown above and white below with crisp streaks throughout. Their upper parts are brown with black streaks, and the underparts are white with thin brown or black streaks on the breasts and flanks. It also has a small patch on the face above the eye.

The average weight of this bird is 15 to 28 grams with an average length of 11 to 15 cm. The wingspan ranges from 20 to 22 cm.

Habitat

The Savanna Sparrows breed in open areas with low vegetation from tundra to grassland, marsh, and farmlands. Even during the winter, you will still find Savanna Sparrows on the ground or in low vegetation areas; You can also look for them along the edges of roads adjacent to farms.

Food

To attract the Savanna Sparrows, you can use feeders such as the hoppers and platform, and inside the feeders, you can put food such as the sunflower seeds. 

However, during the breeding season, these birds feed on insects and spiders. Some include grasshoppers, beetles, and bugs.  Whenever they are in coastal areas, they can also feed on small crustaceans.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are pale greenish, bluish, tan, or white with speckles and streaks. They experience 1 to 4 broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked with yellow-orange skin, and the eyes open in 4 to 5 days.

Say’s Phoebe

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7 in (17 cm)

Weight: 0.7-0.8 oz (21-22 g)

The Say’s Phoebe is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family that is commonly found in the United States. The scientific name of the bird is Sayornis says.

Description

The Say’s Phoebe is a slender, long-tailed flycatcher that appears large-headed for a bird of its size. The head of this bird often looks flat at the top, but they sometimes raise their head feathers into a small peak at the back.

These birds are pale brownish-gray above with a cinnamon belly, a blackish tail, and a gray breast. The chicks look the same as the adults but browner, and they may have buffy wing bars.

The average weight of these birds is 21 to 22 grams, with an average length of 17 cm.

Habitat

The Say’s Phoebes prefer living in an open country, sage bush, foothills, dry barrens, badlands, canyons, and borders of the deserts. They avoid forests. They often gravitate to buildings that are not closely tied to watercourses like other phoebes.

Food

The diet of the Say’s Phoebes entirely consists of insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, bees, crickets, and flies. They sally from low perches to catch the insects, midair or pounce on them on the ground.

Nesting

The Say’s Phoebes lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 18 days. The eggs are pure white and unmarked and may sometimes contain reddish spots. These birds experience one or two broods a year. The chicks are hatched with closed eyes and naked.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.7-14.6 in (22-37 cm)

Weight: 1.3-2.0 oz (36-56 g)

Wingspan: 5.9 in (15cm)

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a kingbird in the tyrant Flycatcher family named for their aggressive nature. The birds are also referred to as the Swallow-tailed Flycatcher or the Texas bird of Paradise. The scientific name for this bird is Tyrannus forficatus.

Description

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are lean and thick-billed kingbirds. The birds have very long stiff tails with the outer tail feathers longer than the central tail feathers. Male Scissor-tailed Flycatchers have longer tail feathers than female and immature birds.

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are pale gray with blackish wings and black tails with white edges. Adult Flycatchers have salmon flanks extending to underwing patches. This is visible and conspicuous in flying birds. Male Flycatchers are colored more intensely than their female counterparts.

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers weigh 36 to 56 grams and are 22 to 37 cm long. The birds have an average wingspan of 15 cm.

Habitat

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers usually breed in savannas with scattered trees, shrubs, brushes, towns, farm fields, pastures, and parks. The birds spend their winter in humid savannas, pastures, agricultural lands, scrublands, scrublands, towns, villages, and the edges of tropical deciduous forests.

Food

To attract scissor-tailed Flycatchers, you can plant berry bushes such as mulberry and hackberry in your backyard. The birds feed on insects like grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles and rarely forage on berries in live oak, post oak, hackberry, or red mulberry trees.

Nesting

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers lay 3 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 23 days. The eggs are white or creamy speckled with dark red, reddish-brown, or brown. The birds experience one or two broods in a year. The chicks hatched are helpless with reddish-brown skin and sparse white down. Nestling takes 14 to 17 days.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-7.1 in (15-18 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.8 oz (18-51.5 g)

Wingspan: 13.8-14.6 in (35-37 cm)

Semipalmated Sandpipers are small shorebirds in the Scolopacidae family. The scientific name for Semipalmated Sandpiper is Calidris pusilla.

Description

Semipalmated Sandpipers are small and plump with straight, thin, and tubular bells. These bills do not droop or turn downwards at the tip. The wings of the bird, when folded, are the same length as the tail.

Breeding adult Semipalmated Sandpipers have brown, black, gold, and rufous spots above and pale underparts. The head, breast, and nape of the birds have brown streaks. The flanks are white, and the legs are dark. Non-breeding semipalmated Sandpipers are plain with mousy grayish-brown upperparts and pale underparts. They also have a pale line over their eyes. Immature semipalmated Sandpipers are similar to non-breeding adults except for their neat scaly pattern on the upper parts.

Semipalmated Sandpipers weigh 18 to 51.5 grams and are 15 to 18 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is 35 to 37 cm.

Habitat

Semipalmated Sandpipers nest in low tundra near marshes and ponds where there are sedges, grasses, mosses, willows, birch, and berry plants. The birds forage in mudflats, the wet and plowed agricultural fields, sewage ponds, river margins, and estuaries. During winter, the birds can be found in tidal flats near river mouths, bays, and estuaries.

Food

Semipalmated Sandpipers are attracted to ground feeders, and in the feeder, you can put mealworms. Semipalmated Sandpipers normally feed on arthropods, mollusks, small crustaceans, and marine worms.

Nesting

Semipalmated Sandpipers lay four es and incubate them for 19 to 22 days. The eggs are white, buff, or olive with hazel, cinnamon, or chestnut brown marks. The birds experience only one brood in a year. Chicks are hatched active and covered with down.

Song sparrow:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-6.7 in (12-17 cm)

Weight: 0.4-1.9 oz (12-53 g)

Wingspan: 7.1-9.4 in (18-24 cm)

Song sparrows are medium-sized New World Sparrow. The name Song Sparrow is derived from its colorful collection of songs. The scientific name of Song Sparrow is Melospiza melodia.

Description

A song sparrow is a bulky, medium-sized sparrow with a long round tail. The birds have a heavily built bill that is considered short for a Sparrow and a round head. The birds have broad wings.

Song sparrows are brown and heavily streaked on their white chest and flanks. The birds have an attractive mix of warm red-brown and slaty gray on their head. The shade of the colors and the amount of streaking varies extensively across North America. The coarse streaks on the breast of the birds converge into a central spot. The birds have russet stripes on the crown and through their eyes and broad mustache stripe.

Song Sparrows weigh 12 to 53 grams and are 12 to 17 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is 18 to 24 cm.

Habitat

Song Sparrows occur in an enormous variety of open habitats like tidal marshes, desert scrub, pinyon pine, arctic grasslands, prairie shelterbelts, pacific rain forests, aspen parklands, chapparal, agricultural fields, overgrown pastures, forest edges, freshwater marsh, lake edges, and the suburbs. The birds can also be found in mixed woodlands of deciduous woodlands.

Food

Song Sparrows are attracted by ground and platform feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as milo, peanut hearts, cracked corn, millet, Nyjer, safflower, black oil sunflower seeds, or hulled sunflower seeds. The birds also feed on weevils, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, spiders, snails, earthworms, and midges, among others.

Nesting

Song Sparrows lay 1 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 15 days. The eggs are blue, blue-green, or gray-green with brown, red-brown, or lilac speckles. The birds experience 1 to 7 broods in a year. The chicks are hatched blind, clumsy, and naked with sparse blackish down and are nestled for 9 to 12 days.

Spotted Towhee

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-8.3 in (17-21 cm)

Weight: 1.2-1.7 oz (33-49 g)

Wingspan: 11.0 in (28 cm)

Spotted Towhee are large New World Sparrows in the Passerellidae family. The scientific name for Spotted Towhee is Pipilo maculatus.

Description

Spotted Towhees are large sparrows with heavily built bodies. The birds have thick pointed bills, short necks, and long rounded tails.

Male Spotted Towhees have jet-black on the head, upperparts, and throat with bright white spots on the wings and back. The birds have warm rufous flanks and a white belly. Female Spotted Towhees are grayish-brown on the head, throat, and upperparts with the same patterns as the male. White corners in their black tails are visible when the birds fly.

Spotted Towhees weigh 33 to 49 grams and are 17 to 21 cm long. The birds have a wingspan of 28 cm.

Habitat

Spotted Towhees occur in dry thickets, forest edges, old fields, brushy tangles, chappal, shrubby backyards, canyon bottoms, and coulees. The birds feel at home in areas with dense shrub cover and plenty of leaf litter where they can scratch around.

Food

To attract Spotted Towhees, the ideal feeders are ground and platform feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as milo, millet, peanut hearts, cracked corn, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds. The birds also feed on insects and leaf-litter arthropods like sowbugs, millipedes, and spiders.

Nesting

Spotted Towhees lay 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are white, gray, green, or pinkish with reddish, brown, gray, or purple speckles. The birds experience 1 to 3 broods in a year. Chicks are hatched blind, clumsy, and naked except for the sparse tufts of grayish down and are nestled for 10 to 12 days.

Steller’s Jay:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 11.8-13.4 in (30-34 cm)

Weight: 3.5-4.9 oz (100-140 g)

Wingspan: 17.3 in (44 cm)

The Steller’s Jay is a North American bird closely related to the Blue Jay but with a black head and upper body. The bird is also referred to as the Long-crested Jay, Pine Jay, or the Mountain Jay. The scientific name for Steller’s Jay is Cyanocitta stelleri.

Description

Steller’s Jay is a large songbird with a chunky body and a large head. The birds have round wings and long full tails. Steller’s Jays have long, straight, slightly hooked, and powerful bills. The birds have a projecting triangular crest that stands nearly straight up from their head.

Steller’s Jays appear very dark from a distance and lack the white underparts of most species of Jays. The head of the bird is charcoal black, and the body is blue with almost sparkling light blue on the wings. The birds have conspicuous white markings above their eyes.

Steller’s Jay weighs 100 to 140 grams and is 30 to 34 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is approximately 44 cm. Steller’s Jays are about the size of the Western Scrub-Jay.

Habitat

Steller’s Jays are mostly found in coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests. The birds are also found in arid pine-oak woodlands and lower evergreen forests and in deserts during winter. The birds are also a familiar sight in campgrounds, picnic areas, parks, and backyards.

Food

Steller’s Jays are attracted by feeders like the large tube feeder, large hopper, suet cage, platform, and ground feeders. In these feeders, you can put foods such as black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, peanuts, peanut hearts, milo, millet, or suet. The birds also feed on insects, small animals, eggs, and nestlings.

Nesting

Steller’s Jays lay 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 16 days. The eggs are bluish-green with dark brown, purplish, or olive spots. The birds experience only one brood in a year. Hatched chicks stay in the nest for 16 days while being fed by their parents.

Summer Tanager:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7 in (17 cm)

Weight: 1.1 oz. (30 g)

Wingspan: 28-30 cm

Summer Tanagers are medium-sized American songbirds in the Cardinal family. The scientific name of Summer Tanager is Piranga rubra.

Description

Summer Tanagers are heavily built songbirds with big bodies and large heads. The birds have large and thick bills that have blunt tips. The tails of Summer Tanagers are long, longer than that of Scarlet Tanagers.

Adult male Summer Tanagers are bright red all over. Female and immature Summer Tanagers are bright yellow-green and pale bills. The underparts and the head are yellower than the rest of the body, while the back and wings are slightly greener. Immature male Tanagers can be patchy yellow and red when shedding feathers. The females have pinkish or horn-colored bills.

Summer Tanagers weigh approximately 30 grams and are approximately 17 cm long. The wingspan of the birds is 28 to 30 cm.

Habitat

Summer Tanagers, mainly bronze, live in gaps and edges of open deciduous pine forests, willows, cottonwood woodlands, mesquite, and salt cedar stands.  During migration, the birds can also be found in parks, gardens, and beach ridges. The birds spend their winters in open and second-growth habitats.

Food

Summer Tanagers are attracted by berry bushes and fruit trees that are near their forest habitats. The birds mostly feed on bees and wasps, aerial and terrestrial invertebrates such as spiders, cicadas, beetles, ants, termites, grasshoppers and bugs, and fruits like blackberries, pokeweed, citrus, and bananas.

Nesting

Summer Tanagers lay 3 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 12 days. The eggs are pale blue to pale green with brown speckles. The birds experience one or two broods in a year. The chicks are hatched with eyes closed, helpless, and covered with yellowish-grey down feathers.

Tree Swallow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.9 Oz (16-25 g)

Wingspan: 11.8-13.8 in (30-35 cm)

The Tree Swallow is a migratory bird that belongs to the family of Hurundinidae. The scientific name of this bird is the Tachycineta bicolor.

Description

The Tree Swallows are tiny songbirds that are usually streamlined and have both a squared or notched tail and long, pointed wings. They have very short and flat bills.

The adult male species of this bird are blue-green above and white below with blackish flight feathers and a thin black eye mask. The females are duller with more brown in their upper parts, while the young ones are completely brown above. The young ones and some females can show a weak, blurry grey-brown breast band.

Habitat

The Tree Swallows breed in open habitats such as the wetlands, usually adjacent to the water. They nest in artificial nest boxes as well as in tree cavities. Foraging flocks can be seen frequently over wetlands, water, and agricultural fields.

Food

The Tree Swallows live on a diet of insects, but they occasionally catch other small animals and may also eat plant food during the bad weather when the preys are scarce. In the east, all kinds of insects, including sawflies, bees, ants, wasps, beetles, stoneflies, mayflies, and more.

During the breeding season, they eat high calcium items such as fish bones, clamshells, and others.

Nesting

The Tree Swallows lay a clutch of 4 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 20 days. The eggs are pale pink, turning to pure white within four days. They experience one or two broods every year.  The hatched chicks are helpless, with closed eyes and pink skin sparsely covered with down.

Tufted Titmouse

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm)

Weight: 0.6-0.9 Oz (18-26 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-10.2 in (20-26 cm)

The Tufted Titmouse is a small songbird that belongs to the chickadee family Paridae and is mainly found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is Baeolophus bicolor.

Description

The Tufted Titmouse look large among the small birds that come to the same feeders with them, an impression that comes from their large heads and eyes, thick necks, and full-bodied. The pointed crest and stout bill help identify them even in silhouette.

These birds are soft silver-grey above and white below with a rusty or peach-colored wash down the flanks. A black patch just above the bill makes the bird look snub-nosed.

The average weight of this bird is 18 to 26 grams with a length of 14 to 16 cm. The wingspan ranges from 20 to 26 cm.

Habitat

The Tufted Titmouse is mostly found in the woodlands below 2000 feet elevation, including the deciduous and evergreen forest. These birds are also common to visitors at the feeders and can be found in backyards, orchards, and parks.

Food

If you want to attract the Tufted Titmouse, the ideal feeders are large and small tube feeders, suet cage, and platform, large and small hopper. In these feeders, you can put food such as safflower, peanuts, suet, black oil sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and hulled sunflower seeds.

They also feed on insects, especially during the summer. They include the caterpillars, bugs, treehoppers, wasp, and ants, among others. They also feed on berries to supplement their diet.

Nesting

The Tufted Titmouse lay a clutch of 3 to 9 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. The eggs are white to creamy white, spotted with chestnut red, brown, purple, or lilac. They experience one brood in a year. The chicks are hatched naked, pink, and with their eyes closed.

Veery

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.7-7.1 in (17-18 cm)

Weight: 1.0-1.9 oz. (28-54 g)

Wingspan: 11.0-11.4 in (28-29 cm)

The veery is a small thrush species that is found in the United States and is a member of a group of closely related and similar species in the genus catharus. Its scientific name is the Catharus fuscescens.

Description

The Veeries are medium-sized thrushes smaller than the American Robin but similar in shape. They have a plumb body, round head, a straight, narrow bill, and fairly long wings and legs.

Most of these birds are uniformly bright cinnamon-brown above with indistinct spotting on the chest and pale underparts. The throats are white with a buffy-orange cast.

The average weight of the bird is 28 to 54 grams, with an average length of 17 to 18 cm. The average wingspan is 28 to 29 cm.

Habitat

The Veeries breed in rich deciduous woodland and forest with a well-developed understory across the US. During the winter, these birds select the same habitat structure in the tropics. During the migration, you are likely to encounter a species in nearly any woodlot or any other treed area.

Food

The Veeries mainly feed on insects and other invertebrates during the breeding season. During the summer and fall, they feed on fruits mostly. Some of the insects they feed on include beetles, caterpillars, ants, wasps, grasshoppers, bugs, and flies. Some of the fruits include juneberries, sumac, dogwood fruits, elderberries, blackberries, strawberries, and wild grapes.

Nesting

The Veery bird lays a clutch of one to five eggs and proceeds to incubate them for 10 to 14 days. The eggs are usually greenish-blue, rarely spotted with brown.  They experience one to two broods in a year. The average length of the egg is 2.1 to 2.5 cm, with a width of 1.6 to 1.8 cm. The hatched chicks are usually naked, with eyes closed, and have a scanty grey down on the head and back.

Verdin:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.5-4.3 in (9-11 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz. (5-8 g)

The Verdin is a small bird of penduline tit species. It is the only species in the genus Auriparus. Its scientific name is the Auriparus flaviceps.

Description

The Verdin is a small chickadee-like songbird with a slight body, moderately long tail, small head, and a tiny pointed bill. The adult birds are greyish with yellow heads. They have a small chestnut patch at the bend o the wings. The young ones are similar, but they lack yellow and chestnut colors.

The average weight of these birds is 5 to 8 grams with an average length of 9 to 11 cm.

Habitat

The Verdin nests and forages in thorny deserts scrub with scattered trees. They are permanent residents in the arid areas in the US.

Food

If you want to attract a Verdin, the ideal feeder is the nectar feeder. Inside this feeder, you can put sugar water. These birds also feed on insects and spiders, fruits, and plant matters in small amounts.

To be able to capture the insects, they move fast and with agility through small branches, often hanging upside down or using their feet to survey the undersides of the leaves. Some of the insects they feed on include leafhoppers, aphids, beetles, caterpillars, wasps, and spiders.

Plants food include palm, agarita, hackberry, wolfberry, and mesquite.  They also eat the seedpods from legumes such as paloverde, mesquite, and ironwood.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 6 eggs. The eggs are usually light greenish with irregular dark reddish spots, especially at the larger end. The chicks are hatched naked and helpless.

Vermilion Flycatcher

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.8-5.4 in (12.3-13.8 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11.3-14.8 g)

The Vermilion Flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family that is found in most parts of the US. The scientific name of the bird is Pyrocephalus obscurus.

Description

The Vermilion Flycatcher is a small, stocky flycatcher with an upright posture. It has a flat head, a slender tail, a barrel-chested with a slender tail, and a broad straight bill. The adult males are brilliant orange-red with a dark brown mask through the eyes and a brown back, wings, and tail.

The females and the young ones are grey-brown with faint streaks on the breast and a salmon-red blush on the underparts. The bill is black in color.

The average weight of the bird is 11.3 to 14.8 grams, with a length of 12.3 to 13.8 cm.

Habitat

The Vermilion Flycatcher is mainly found inhabiting shrubby habitats, including scrubby desert, the lands that are lightly cultivated, and riverine woodlands and shrubby tropical lowlands.

Food

The Vermilion Flycatchers mainly feed on flying insects. They capture these insects on the wing by suddenly flying out from an exposed perch. They typically feed within 10 feet of the ground. Some of the insects they feed on include grasshoppers, bees, beetles, crickets, and more.

If you want to attract these birds, you should allow some shrubs around the compound so as to provide the habitat for the insects and the birds consequently.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of two to four eggs and incubate them for 13 to 15 days.  The eggs are usually white or creamy with bold dark blotches and a small light spot. They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with sparse whitish down, back skin blackish.

Vesper Sparrow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1-6.3 in (13-16 cm)

Weight: 0.7-1.0 oz (20-28 g)

Wingspan: 9.4 in (24 cm)

The Vesper Sparrow is a medium-sized new world sparrow. It is the only member of the genus Pooecetes. Its scientific name is the Pooecetes gramineus.

Description

The Vesper Sparrows are not such large sparrows with a fairly small conical bill, a chunky body, and a long notched tail. They have crisp steaks and are brown in color overall. The notable characteristic is the white eye-ring, white outer tail feathers that are seen on the flight, a pale cheek patch. They also have a distinctive but difficult see chestnut patch on the shoulder.

The average weight of the bird is 20 to 28 grams with a length of 13 to 16 cm. The average wingspan is 24 cm.

Habitat

The Vesper Sparrow is found in open grassy areas, including the prairie, weedy fields, sagebrush, steppe, meadows, pastures, and the roadsides. They tend to keep away from areas with tall grass and wetter areas.

Food

The Vesper Sparrows feed by scratching on the ground to uncover seeds of grasses, weed, and grain crops. They also pick insects and spiders from low plants during the breeding season.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are usually whitish with variable brown or purplish spots. The average length of the egg is 1.9 to 2.3 cm, with a width of 1.3 to 1.7 cm. They experience one to three broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless with sparse tufts of down.

Violet-green Swallow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7 in (12 cm)

Weight: 0.5 oz (14 g)

Wingspan: 10.6 in (27 cm)

The Violet-green Swallow is a small passerine bird that belongs to the swallow family and lives in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Tachycineta thalassina.

Description

The Violet-green Swallow is a small, sleek bird with long pointed wings and slightly forked tails. Their wingtip extends beyond their short tail, especially noticeable when perched.

At first sight, they appear dark above the crisp white below. When exposed to light, the back that is usually greenish-bronze together with the violet rump come to life. Al, the birds have a white belly that wraps around to the upper side of the rump, creating saddlebags. The male species usually have white cheek patches, while the females and the chicks have dusty cheeks.

The average weight of these birds is 14 grams, with a length of 12 cm. The average wingspan is 27 cm.

Habitat

Violent-green Swallows breed in open woodlands, including deciduous evergreen and mixed-species woodlands, especially where old cavity-filled trees occur. They also visit the lakes and streams where they feed on the flying insects.

Food

The Violet-green Swallows feed on flying insects such as leafhoppers, flies, aphids, leaf bugs, and beetles. They also catch small insects’ midair.  They also fly low above the water bodies and fields as they catch insects, and they also forage high above the ground. To attract them, you can ensure there are shrubs around the garden that will attract the insects hence attracting the birds.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 4 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 15 days. The eggs are pure white with no marking. They experience one or two broods a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked with their eyes closed with bits of fluffy down on the back.

Warbling Vireo

Measurements

Length: 4.7-5.1 in (12-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.6 Oz (10-16 g)

Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)

The Warbling Vireo is a small songbird that is mainly found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Vireo gilvus.

Description

The Warbling Vireo are small, chunky songbirds that have a thick, straight, slightly hooked bill. They are medium-sized for vireos, with a fairly round head and a medium-length tail and bill. These birds are grey-olive above, and whitish below washed on the sides and vent with a yellow.

They have a dark line through the eyes and a white line above the eye. In most of them, the lore is white. Worn mid-summer, these birds can be nearly entirely grey above and whitish below. The average weight of these birds is 10 to 16 grams with a length of 12 to 13 cm. The wingspan average is 22 cm.

Habitat

The Warbling Vireo is mainly in the deciduous forests throughout the year though they also use some mixed coniferous and deciduous habitats. Even during the migration, they will prefer to stay in areas with tall trees.

Food

The Warbling Vireo mainly feeds on insects and other invertebrates such as caterpillars, moths, and butterflies. They also feed on beetles, bees, ants, spiders, and wasps. During the winter, they also feed on fruits and berries such as elderberries and others.  You will find them foraging mostly in treetops, gleaning insects from leaves and sometimes hovering and flycatching.

Nesting

These birds lay eggs and incubate them for 12 to 14 days. They experience one or two broods in a year. The eggs are usually white with a few scattered dots of reddish or dark brown. The hatched chicks are usually naked, helpless with dark-yellow skin, and the eyes are closed.

Western Bluebird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.5 in (16-19 cm)

Weight: 0.8-1.1 oz. (24-31 g)

Wingspan: 11.4-13.4 in (29-34 cm)

The Western Bluebird is a small thrush that lives in the United States. Its scientific name is the Sialia Mexicana

Description

Western Bluebird is a small thrush that usually perches upright. They are stocky with thin, straight bills and fairly short tails. The male birds are usually shiny blue above with rust-orange extending from a vest on the breast onto the upper back. The females are grey buff with a pale orange wash on the breast and blue tints to the wings and tail.

The throat is blue in males and grey-buff in females, and the lower belly is whitish. The average weight of this bird is 24 to 31 grams with a length of 16 to 19 cm. The wingspan ranges from 29 to 34 cm.

Habitat

The Western bluebirds are mainly found in open woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous. They also live in backyards, burned areas, farmlands from sea level far up into the mountains.

Food

The Western Bluebirds mainly eat insects during the summer, while during the winter, they feed on fruits and seeds. They mainly catch ground-dwelling insects such as beetles, ants, grasshoppers, wasp, and caterpillars. They also feed on small invertebrates on beaches.

If you want to attract these birds, the ideal feeders are the platform and ground, and inside these feeders, you can put foods such as dried worms, hulled sunflower seeds, and black oil sunflower seeds.

Nesting

The Western Bluebirds lay a clutch of 2 to 8 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 17 days. The eggs are pale blue and unmarked. They experience one to three broods in a year. The young ones are hatched bare, with pink skin, and the eyes are closed.

Western Kingbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.9-9.4 in (20-24 cm)

Weight: 1.3-1.6 oz (37-46 g)

Wingspan: 15.0-16.1 in (38-41 cm)

The Western Kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher that is found in most parts of the US. Its scientific name is the Tyrannus verticalis.

Description

The Western Kingbirds are somehow large birds with broad shoulders and large heads. They have long wings, heavy and straight bills, and a medium-length, square-tipped tail. These birds have a gray head with a belly that is yellowish in color and a throat and chest that is somehow white. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers that are especially conspicuous in flight.

The average weight of the bird is 37 to 46 grams with an average length of 20 to 24 cm. The wingspan ranges from 38 to 41 cm.

Habitat

The Western Kingbirds live in open habitats where they perch on utility lines, fences, and trees. They prefer valleys and lowlands, including grasslands, deserts, sagebrush, agricultural fields, and open woodlands. Mainly they are found in areas of below 7000 feet in elevation.

Food

The Western Kingbirds are insectivores, just like other flycatchers.  They hunt by sight during the day, and they perform some maneuvers as they catch the prey midair. They catch more than one insect before returning to the perch, and they hit them against the perch to subdue them. Some insects they feed on include wasps, bees, grasshoppers, spiders, caterpillars, moths, and butterflies.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 19 days. The eggs are white, creamy, or pinkish with heavy blotches of black, brown, or lavender. They experience one or two broods in a year.

The hatched chicks are usually helpless and sparsely covered in a white down, and their eyes are closed.

Western Meadowlarks:

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-10.2 in (16-26 cm)

Weight: 3.1-4.1 oz (89-115 g)

Wingspan: 16.1 in (41 cm)

The Western Meadowlark is a medium-sized icterid bird. The scientific name of the bird is the Sturnella neglecta.

Description

The Western Meadowlark is the same as the robin in size but a bit chunkier and shorter tail, long, slender bill, with a flat head.

For this bird size, the wings are round and short, and the tail is too short, stiff, and spiky. They have a yellow underpart with intricately patterned brown, black, and buff underparts. A bright V shape crosses the bright yellow breast. During the winter, it is gray.

Contrasting stripes of dark brown and light buff mark the head. During the flight, the feathers of the outer tail flash white. The average weight of this bird is 89 to 115 grams and has a length of 16 to 26 cm. The average wingspan is 41 cm.

Habitat

The Western Meadowlarks prefer the wide-open spaces of native grasslands, the agricultural fields for spring and summer breeding, and winter foraging. They can also be found in medium-height grasses and in tall fields. 

Food

If you want to attract the Western Meadowlarks, the ideal feeder is the ground. On the ground, you can put food such as hulled sunflower seeds and cracked corn. These birds also feed on the insects to supplement their diet.

They feed on insects such as ants, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and cutworms during the late spring and summer. They also eat the eggs of other grassland birds occasionally, and also; they can feed on carcasses during the summer.

Nesting

The Western Meadowlarks lay a clutch of 5 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 16 days. The eggs are white spotted with brown, rust, and lavender. The hatched chicks have closed eyes, naked and with pinkish-orange skin. They experience one or two broods in a year.

Western Tanager

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.5 in (16-19 cm)

Weight: 0.8-1.3 oz (24-36 g)

The Western Tanager is a medium-sized American songbird that was formerly placed in the tanager family. Its scientific name is the Piranga ludoviciana.

Description

The Western Tanagers are stocky songbirds, fairly small but noticeably larger and heavy bodies compared to the warblers. They have short, thick-based bills and medium-length tails. The male adult is tallow with black wings and a flaming orange-red head. The wings have two bold wing bars. The upper one is yellow, while the lower one is white in color.  Both the tail and bark are black.

The young ones lack red during the fall, while during the spring, they show less red on the head relative to that on the adults.

The average weight of this bird is 24 to 36 grams with a length of 16 to 19 cm.

Habitat

The Western Tanager breed mostly in coniferous forests though they are not particular choosy on which conifer species. They breed in juniper pine mixtures at low elevation up to spruce-fir near the tree line. During the migration season, you will find them in nearly any shrubby or wooded area, while during the winter, they are mainly found in pine-oak woodland and forest edge.

Food

During the breeding season, these birds mainly feed on stinkbugs, grasshoppers, crane flies, beetles, termites, ants, wasps, among others. During the fall and winter, they feed on fruits. They include blackberries, elderberries, hawthorns, wild cherries, and others.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and proceed to incubate them. The eggs are blue or bluish-green, sometimes almost white and sparsely spotted with gray-brown.  The hatched chicks are usually helpless and eyes closed.

Western Wood-Pewee

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11-14 g)

Wingspan: 10.2 in (26 cm)

The Western Wood-Pewee is a small tyrant flycatcher that is found in most parts of the United States. The scientific name of the bird is Contopus sordidulus.

Description

These are medium-sized birds that have a peaked crown that makes their head look triangular.  They perch upright in the canopy. They have long wings that help in separating them from similar-looking Empidonax flycatchers.

These birds are grayish-brown overall with two pale wing bars. The underparts are whitish, and they have smudgy gray on the sides and breasts. The face is dark grayish brown with little to no eye-ring. The bill is mostly dark, with yellow at the base of the lower mandible.

The average weight of this bird is 16 to 14 grams with an average length of 14 to 16 cm.

Habitat

These birds use open woodlands, forest edges, and forests near the streams with large trees, open understories, and standing dead trees.  The common tree species include the pinyon pine, cottonwood, sycamore, ponderosa pine, aspen, and spruce. They avoid dense forests.

Food

The Western Wood-Pewee mainly feed on insects such as spiders, ants, bees, flies, wasps, beetles, crickets, dragonflies, and moths.  They sit on a dead perch at the end of the branch for a long period waiting for the insect to fly by, and they catch them midair.

Nesting

The Western Wood-Pewee lay a clutch of 2 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 14 to 15 days. The eggs are creamy-white with brown blotches. The hatched chicks are usually naked with a small amount of whitish down.

White-breasted Nuthatch

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.1-5.5 in (13-14 cm)

Weight: 0.6-1.1 oz (18-30 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-10.6 in (20-27 cm)

The White-breasted Nuthatch is a small songbird that belongs to the family of nuthatch, and it is mostly found in the US. Its scientific name is the Sitta carolinensis.

Description

The White-breasted Nuthatch is the largest among the nuthatches but still a small bird with a large head and almost no neck. The tail is very short, and the long, narrow bill is straight or slightly upturned.  This bird is gray-blue on the back.

The cap and neck frame the face, and it ends up looking like this bird is wearing a hood. The lower belly and under the tail are often chestnut. The average weight of the bird is 18 to 30 grams and has a length of 13 to 14 cm. The wingspan length ranges from 20 to 27 cm.

Habitat

These birds are agile, and they inhabit along large branches and trunks as they probe into bark furrows using their bills that are straight and pointed.

Food

If you want to attract the White-breasted Nuthatch, the ideal feeders are the suet cage, large and small hoppers, platform, large and small tube feeders. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as safflower, suet, peanut hearts, and peanuts.

These birds also feed on insects such as the weevil larvae, beetles, treehoppers, and beetle larvae.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of five to nine eggs and proceed to incubate them for 13 to 14 days. The eggs are creamy-white to pinkish-white speckled with reddish-brown, gray, or purple. These birds experience one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless and naked except for some down.

White-crowned Sparrow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.9-6.3 in (15-16 cm)

Weight: 0.9-1.0 oz (25-28 g)

Wingspan: 8.3-9.4 in (21-24 cm)

The White-crowned Sparrow is a medium-sized bird that is a member of the new world sparrow family.  It is a species of the passerine. The scientific name of this bird is the Zonotrichia leucophrys.

Description

This is a large sparrow that has a long tail and a small bill. The head can look smooth and flat, depending on the bird’s altitude. The first impression of this bird tends to be a plain, pale gray bird; next, your eye is drawn to the very bold black and white stripes on the head and pale pink or yellow bill.

Then you’d birds of this species have a brown marking on the head. The average weight of this bird is 25 to 28 grams with an average length of 15 to 16 cm. The wingspan ranges from 21 to 24 cm.

Habitat

The White-crowned Sparrows are mainly found in places where safe tangles of brush mix with the open or grassy ground for foraging.

Food

If you want to attract the White-crowned Sparrow, the ideal feeders include the platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as hulled sunflower seeds, cracked corn, millet, milo, and the black oil sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on weeds, grasses, and insects such as beetles, wasp, caterpillars, and others.

Nesting

The White-crowned Sparrows lay a clutch of 3 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 14 days. The eggs are greenish, greenish-blue, or bluish spotted with reddish-brown. They experience one top three broods in a year. The hatched chicks are born with sparse down feathers with their eyes closed.

White-eyed Vireo

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.3-5.1 in (11-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.5 oz (10-14 g)

Wingspan: 6.7 in (17 cm)

The White-eyed Vireo is a small songbird that breeds in the United States. The scientific name of this bird is the Vireo griseus.

Description

The White-eyed Vireo is a small songbird that has a thick, straight, and slightly hooked bill. It has a rather compact body and a thick neck.  These birds wear a yellow spectacle surrounding their white eyes, and yellow washed sides, a gray head, a white chest and throat, and two white wing bars.  The chicks have a dark eye that turns white in their first winter or spring.

The average weight of the bird is 10 to 14 grams with an average length of 11 to 13 cm. The wingspan average is 17 cm

Habitat

The White-eyed Vireos are found mainly in deciduous scrub, overgrown pastures, forested edges, old fields, second-growth forests, and streamside thickets. In some areas, they also inhabit mangroves.

Food

The White-eyed Vireos mainly feed on caterpillars, beetles, leafhoppers, moths, lacewings, and spiders. They swallow small items on the spot, but for the large ones, they pin them down using their feet before eating them. 

During the non-breeding season, they also feed on fruits such as poison ivy, dogwood, pokeweed, sumac, as well as tropical fruits.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 3 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 13 to 15 days. The laid eggs are white in color and with sparse spotting. They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are naked and with closed eyes.

White-throated Sparrow

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 6.3-7.1 in (16-18 cm)

Weight: 0.8-1.1 oz (22-32 g)

Wingspan: 7.9-9.1 in (20-23 cm)

The White-throated Sparrow is a bird of the new world sparrow family passerellidae. The scientific name of the bird is Zonotrichia albicollis.

Description

The White-throated Sparrow is a large, full-bodied sparrow with a prominent bill, long legs, rounded head, and narrow bill. This bird is brown above and gray below with a similar pattern on the head.  The head is striped with black and augmented by a yellow between the eye and the bill and bright white throat.

 You will also see a less boldly marked form with a buff on brown face pattern instead of white and black. The average weight of the bird is 22 to 32 grams with a length of 16 to 18 cm. The wingspan ranges from 20 to 23 cm.

Habitat

The ideal places to find the White-throated Sparrows are in woods, at forest edges, in the regrowth that follows logging or forest fires, at pond and bog edges, and in corpses near the tree line.  During the winter season, you will find them in thickets, overgrown fields, suburbs, parks, and woodsy. They sometimes come into the backyard for birdseed.

Food

If you want to attract the White-throated Sparrow, the ideal feeders include the platform and ground. Inside these feeders, you can put food such as milo, cracked corn, millet, black oil sunflower seeds, and hulled sunflower seeds.

These birds also feed on the weeds and grasses, including buckwheat, ragweed. They also eat fruits such as the grape, sumac, rose, blueberry, cranberry, mountain ash, and dogwood. They sometimes eat some insects such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, beetles, and dragonflies.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of one to six eggs and incubate them for 11 to 14 days. The eggs are very pale blue or greenish-blue speckled with purplish, chestnut, and lilac.  They experience one to two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually naked except for sparse patches of brown down on the head, back and wings with closed eyes.

White-winged Dove

MEASUREMENTS

Weight: 4.4-6.6 oz (125-187 g)

Wingspan: 18.9-22.8 in (48-58 cm)

The White-winged Dove is a dove that originated from the United States. The scientific name of this bird is Zenaida Asiatica.

Description

The White-winged Doves are plumb, Square-tailed doves with relatively long, thin bills and small heads. These birds are brown overall with a dark line on the cheek. A white stripe at the edge of the folded wing becomes, as the bird takes a flight, a bright flash in the middle of a dark wing.

The tail of this dove is tipped in white and set off with black stripes from the gray underside.  Their faces are ornately marked with a black streak on the cheek and blue skin around the red eyes.

The average weight of this bird is 125 to 187 grams, with an average wingspan of 48 to 58 cm.

Habitat

The ideal place to get the White-winged Doves is in the deserts, in the cities, the suburbs, and the coastal areas. They occasionally visit the backyards and feeders.

Food

If you want to attract the White-winged Dove, the ideal feeders include the large hopper, ground, and platform. Inside these feeders, you can put foods such as oats, milo, hulled sunflower seeds, millet, cracked corn, and black oil sunflower seeds.

Just like any other bird, this bird feeds on small stones to help them pulverize plant materials in the gizzard, and they also feed in snails and bone fragments as their source of calcium.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of one or two eggs and incubate them for 14 to 20 days. The eggs are creamy-white or buff with a dull texture.  They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks have closed eyes and dark skin coated with long off-white down feathers.

Wilson’s Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 3.9-4.7 in (10-12 cm)

Weight: 0.2-0.3 oz (5-10 g)

Wingspan: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)

Wilson’s Warbler is a small bird from the new world warblers. The scientific name of this bird is the Cardellina pusilla.

Description

Wilson’s Warbler is among the smallest warblers.  They have a long, thin tail and a small thin bill. They appear large-headed and round-bodied for their size. These birds are bright yellow below and yellowish olive above. Their black eyes stand out on throe cheeks that era yellow in color. 

The males have a unique black cap.  The females are similar to the males but show the difference in the amount of black on the head top, from a few blackish feathers to a small dark cap. The young females have an olive crown and a yellow eyebrow.

The average weight of this bird is 5 to 10 grams with a length of 10 to 12 cm. The wingspan ranges from 14 to 17 cm.

Habitat

These birds mainly live in the mountain meadows and thickets near streams, mostly those with willows and elders.  They also breed along the lake edges, bogs, and aspen stands.  Some breed in shrubby habitats and in the young stands of the conifers, elders, or maples.

During the migration, they can be found in shrubby areas, suburban, desert scrub, woodlands.

Food

The Wilson’s Warblers feed on the larvae insects, spiders, beetles, and caterpillars off leaves and twigs. They also hove of fly out and back to catch flies, mayflies, bees, aphids, and others. During the winter, they also drink honeydew, which is a sweet liquid excreted by scale insects as they feed on oak trees.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 2 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 13 days. The eggs are white to creamy white with fine reddish-brown speckling or spotting.  They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks have closed eyes and are mostly naked.

Wood Thrush

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.5-8.3 in (19-21 cm)

Weight: 1.4-1.8 oz (40-50 g)

Wingspan: 11.8-13.4 in (30-34 cm)

The Wood Thrush is a passerine bird that is native to the United States and is closely related to other thrushes, such as the American Robin. The scientific name of this bird is the Hylocichla mustelina.

Description

The Wood Thrush is a potbellied bird with a short tail, a big head, a straight bill, and an upright posture. These birds are warm reddish-brown above and white with bold black spots on their underparts. The young ones show a somewhat muted version of the same pattern. All of them have a bold white eye-ring.

The average weight of the Wood Thrush is 40 to 50 grams, with a length of approximately 19 to 21 cm.  The average wingspan is 30 to 34 cm.

Habitat

The Wooden Thrushes live mainly in deciduous and mixed forests in the United States where there is a presence of large trees, shade, moderate understory, and enough leaf litter for foraging.  During the winter, they move to the lowland tropical forests in the US.

Food

The Wood Thrushes mainly feed on the leaf litter invertebrates and fruits from the shrubs.  Some of the invertebrates they feed on include ants, beetles, flies, caterpillars, and spiders. The fruits include the Virginia creeper, fox grape, holly, blueberry, dogwood, black cherry, poke the wood, and others.  The fruits are more fed on during the winter and migration season.

Nesting

The Wood Thrushes lay a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 15 days. The eggs are turquoise-green and have no marking. These birds experience one or two broods in a year.  The hatched chicks are usually helpless, with closed eyes with the only wisp of gray down.

Wood house’s Scrub-Jay

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 11.0-11.8 in (28-30 cm)

Weight: 2.5-3.5 oz (70-100 g)

The Wood house’s Scrub-Jay is a species of the Scrub Jay that mainly lives in the United States. The scientific name of this bird is the Aphelocoma  woodhouse.

Description

The Wood house’s Scrub-Jay is a fairly large, lanky songbird that has a long, floppy tail and an often hunched-over posture. The bill is fairly long and straight with a pointed tip. The bird has a blue and gray above with a grayish belly and a whitish throat that are separated by partial breast band blue.

In many birds, the blue color depends on the lighting, and this means this bird can look dark sometimes. The average weight of this bird is 70 to 100 grams with an average length of 28 to 30 cm.

Habitat

The Wodehouse’s Scrub-Jays are mainly found in open habitats and pinyon-juniper woodlands of the intermountain west and also in the pastures and the backyards.  Typically, though not always in lower and drier areas tan the Steller jays.

Food

If you want to attract these birds, the ideal feeders are the ground, platform, large tube feeder, suet cage, and a large hopper. Inside these feeders, you can put in foods such as the suet, peanut hearts, millet, black oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, and peanuts.

During the summer, these birds also feed on fruits and insects.  They also feed on small animals such as lizards.

Nesting

The Wood house’s Scrub-Jays lay a clutch of one to five eggs and incubate them for 17 to 19 days. The eggs are pale green blotched with olive or pale gray with brown spots.  The hatched chicks are naked and helpless with closed eyes.

Wren-tit

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 5.5-5.9 in (14-15 cm)

Weight: 0.5-0.6 oz (13-16 g)

Wingspan: 6.9-7.1 in (17.5-18 cm)

The Wren-tit is a small bird that lives in the US. It is the only species in the genus of the Chamaea. The scientific name of this bird is Chamaea fasciata.

Description

The Wren-tits are small birds that have fairly large and rounded heads and short, rounded wing that gives them an overall plumb appearance. They have long tails and long legs, which they often hold up and away from their body at different angles. They have short and slightly curved bills.

These birds are plain brownish-gray with paler, slightly streaked, pale pinkish bellies. They have unique pale eyes. The average weight of the bird is 13 to 16 grams with an average length of 14 to 15 cm. The wingspan ranges from 17.5 to 18 cm.

Habitat

These birds mainly live in coastal scrubs and chaparral along with the west cist, including the parks with shrubs and yards. They also live in thickets along the creeks, oak woodlands, mixed evergreen forests, and dense shrublands with blackberry, California lilac, coyote bush, and manzanita.

Food

The Wren-tits mainly feed in insects such as beetles, caterpillars, ants, and spiders from the barks and twigs.  They also stretch their necks to reach fruits and berries. Some of the berries they feed on include coffee berry, twinberry, snowberry, blackberry, elderberry, and others.

Nesting

Then Wren-tits lay a clutch of one to 5 eggs and incubate them for 11 to 18 days. The eggs are uniform with some greenish-blue. The hatched chicks are usually naked with closed eyes and are helpless.

Yellow Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.1 in (12-13 cm)

Weight: 0.3-0.4 oz (9-11 g)

Wingspan: 6.3-7.9 in (16-20 cm)

The Yellow Warblers is a new world warblers’ species mainly found in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Setophaga petechia.

Description

The Yellow Warblers are small, evenly proportioned songbirds that have a medium-length tail and a rounded head.  The straight, thin bi is relatively large for a warbler. These birds are uniformly yellow in color. The males are bright and egg York yellows with reddish streaks on the underparts. Both the male and female flash yellow patches in the tail. The face is unmarked, accentuating the large black eye.

The average weight of this bird is 9 to 11 grams with an average length of 12 to 13 cm. The wingspan ranges from 16 to 20 cm.

Habitat

The Yellow Warblers breed mainly in shrubby thickets and woods, particularly along the watercourses and in wetlands. During the winter, they can be found in mangrove forests.

Food

The Yellow Warblers mainly feed on insects that they pick from the foliage or capture on short flights or as they hover to reach leaves. Some of the insects they feed on include wasps, beetles, leafhoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and midges.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 1 to 7 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 13 days. The eggs are grayish or greenish-white with dark spots. The average length of the eggs is 1.5 to 2.1 cm, with a width of 1.2 to 1.6 cm. The hatched chicks are usually helpless, with light gray down.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 7.1-8.7 in (18-22 cm)

Weight: 1.5-1.9 oz (43-55 g)

Wingspan: 13.4-15.8 in (34-40 cm)

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker that breeds in some parts of the United States. The scientific name of this bird is Sphyrapicus varius.

Description

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a small, fairly small woodpecker with a stout, straight bill.  To form a peek at the back of the head, these birds often hold their crown feathers up.

These birds are mainly black and white with patterned faces.  Both the male and females have a red forehead, and the males have a red throat too.  They also have a long white stripe along the folded wing.  These birds have bold black and white stripe curve from the face towards a black chest shield and white or yellowish underparts.

The average weight of this bird is 23 to 55 grams with a length of 18 to 22 cm. The wingspan ranges from 34 to 40 cm.

Habitat

The Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers live in both the hardwood and conifer forests up to about an elevation of 6500 feet.  They sometimes nest in groves and small trees such as the aspens, and they then spend the winter in woodlands.

Food

If you want to attract the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, the ideal feeder is the suet cage. Inside this feeder, you can pit some suet or dried mealworms. The main source of food for this bird is the sap, as the name suggests.

These birds also fed on the insects and spiders, gleaning them from beneath a tree bark like other woodpeckers. They also perch on tree branches and catch the flying insect’s midair.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of 4 to 6 eggs and incubate them for 10 to 13 days. The eggs are white.  They experience one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are usually bare and blind with pink skin and a gray bill. The eyes are closed but open at eight days.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 10.2-11.8 in (26-30 cm)

Weight: 1.9-2.3 oz (55-65 g)

Wingspan: 15.0-16.9 in (38-43 cm)

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a cuckoo, and it is mainly found in the United States. The scientific name of this bird is the Coccyzus americanus.

Description

They are fairly long, large, and slim birds. The length of the bill is almost the same as the head. They have a flat head, a thin body, and a very long tail. During the flight, the wings look swept back.

These birds are clean whitish below and warm brown above. They have a blackish mask across the face and a yellow eye-ring.  During the flight, the outer part of the wings flashes rufous. From below, the tail has wide white bands and narrower black ones. The bill is mostly yellow.

The average weight of this bird is 55 to 65 grams with a length of 26 to 30 cm. The wingspan rages from 38 to 43 cm.

Habitat

The Yellow-billed Cuckoos live among the canopies of deciduous trees. You can also find them in woodland patches with gaps and clearings. In some places, these birds are restricted to the cottonwoods dominated forests that line larger rivers running throughout the country.

Food

The Yellow-billed Cuckoos mainly feed on caterpillars, and it is supplemented with beetles, ants, and spiders. During the summer and fall, they forage n small wild fruits such as elderberries, wild grapes, and blackberries.  During the winter, the fruits and seeds become the main part of the diet.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of one to five eggs and incubate them for 9 to 11 days. The eggs are smooth, unmarked, pale bluish-green fading to light greenish-yellow. The birds experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are born naked, and the eyes are open.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 8.3-10.2 in (21-26 cm)

Weight: 1.6-3.5 oz (44-100 g)

Wingspan: 16.5-17.3 in (42-44 cm)

The Yellow-headed Blackbird is a medium-sized blackbird and the only member of the genus Xanthocephalus. The scientific name of the bird is Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus.

Description

They are fairly large blackbirds that contain a stout body, a conical bill, and a large head. The males are striking blackbirds with a yellow head and chest and a black body with some large white patches at the end of the wing.

The females and the young ones are brown instead of black with duller yellow heads.  The young males show some white at the end of the wing while the females do not. The average weight of these birds is 11 to 100 grams, with an average length of 21 to 26 cm. The wingspan rages from 42 to 44 cm.

Habitat

The Yellow-headed Blackbirds roost and breed in wetlands with freshwater that has dense, emergent vegetation such as the cattails. They sometimes feed on the fields, typically wintering in large, open agricultural areas.

Food

These birds mainly feed on insects during the summer and the seeds for the rest of the year.  They catch the aquatic animal on the surface of the water, including beetles, flies, ants, grasshoppers, spiders, and caterpillars.

When it is not the breeding season, they forage in the uplands eating the grains and weed seeds. They also flip over the sones to unearth the food.

Nesting

The Yellow-headed Blackbirds lay a clutch of 2 to 5 eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are grayish to greenish-white, splotched with brown, rufous, and pearl gray.  The average length of the eggs is 2.3 to 2.8 cm and a width of 1.7 to 1.9 cm. They experience one brood in a year. The hatched chicks are helpless with their eyes closed. They also have pink skin covered with patches o tawny down, and their mounts are bright red and pink.

Yellow-ramped Warbler

MEASUREMENTS

Length: 4.7-5.5 in (12-14 cm)

Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (12-13 g)

Wingspan: 7.5-9.1 in (19-23 cm)

The Yellow-ramped Warbler is a regular species that is common in the US. The scientific name of this bird is the Setophaga coronate.

Description

The Yellow-ramped Warblers are fairly large, full-bodied warblers that have a big head, sturdy bill, and a long narrow tail. During the summer, both the male and female are a smart gray with flashes of white in the wings and yellow on the face side and rump.

The males are usually strikingly shaded, while females are duller and may show some brown, with bright yellow rump and usually some yellow on the sides. The average weight of the bird is 12 to 13 grams with an average length of 12 to 14 cm. Th wingspan ranges from 19 to 23 cm.

Habitat

During the winter, the Yellow-ramped Warbler lives in the open coniferous forests and edges and, to a lesser extent, deciduous forest. They then move to open woodlands and shrubby habitats, including the coastal vegetation, residential areas, and parks during the fall and winter.

Food

If you want to attract the Yellow-ramped Warblers, the ideal feeders are the suet cage, large and small hopper, large and small tube feeders, platform, and nectar feeder. Inside the feeders, you can put food such as peanut hearts, suet, peanut hearts, and sugar water.

They also feed on the insects such as leaf beetles, caterpillars, weevils, ants, and grasshoppers during the summer. As they migrate, they also feed on a number of fruits and berries.

Nesting

These birds lay a clutch of one to six eggs and incubate them for 12 to 13 days. The eggs are white, speckled with brown, reddish-brown, gray, or purplish gray. They experience one or two broods in a year. The hatched chicks are usually helpless, naked with a sparse down.