Bird watching is a great way to get closer to nature. What better way than watching birds from the comfort of your backyard!
Minnesota is home to a variety of bird species. A number of these birds live in Minnesota year-round while others are migratory birds and thus, only appear during certain seasons.
So, if you are wondering, what birds are in my backyard in Minnesota, read on to find out how to attract and identify these beautiful birds to your backyard.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yellow-rumped Warbler – tO DO
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
