Birds Archives - Heartland Safari

A skeleton of a bat against a black background. The wings and legs are spread, showing the same set of bones that make up a human’s arms and legs with five fingers and toes at the end of each limb.

Bones: Comparative Anatomy

Updated January 13, 2025

By Dr. Jessica LaPrice Dr. LaPrice teaches biology at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Recently I visited her at her university where she showed me a goat skeleton once used in a comparative anatomy class. It reminded me just how similar our skeletons are to Dave’s and Clancy’s, and even to that goat. […]

The mud and grass nest of a barn swallow sticks to the side of a joist in the shed

Grace and Beauty: Barn Swallow

Updated December 16, 2024

We have an old shed on Owl Acres where we keep firewood and the Farmall “A” tractor that Bryan uses for mowing. Inside the shed, up against one of the beams, is a carefully constructed nest. It’s made of mud and straw and has one side plastered against the beam. The nest was built in […]

Birds

A robin has built its nest braced between the downspout and red siding on the house next to the bedroom window

Many Strategies; Same Goals: Bird Nests

Updated December 2, 2024

Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees, it’s easier to see all the bird nests that served as home for a variety of birds last summer. They didn’t all build their nests in trees, though. A robin built one up in the corner of the house just outside the bedroom window. A Baltimore […]

Birds

Songbird sits on a sunflower bud. Indigo Bunting has a solid, deep blue color

Learning to Sing: Indigo Bunting

Updated August 4, 2024

A male indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) arrived on Owl Acres in early May after a long nocturnal trek from the Caribbean. He decided to stay and began singing his song to attract a mate. I’ve thought that a bird’s song was something hard-wired into his brain, and therefore all indigo buntings should sound the same. […]

Birds

A slender songbird sits on a twig, backed by a blue sky and a puffy white cloud. Gray Catbird sings from his large repertoire.

Sitting Pretty: Gray Catbird

Updated May 27, 2024

A gray catbird added his song to the chorus on Owl Acres on May 5 of this year. He sat high in a tree in the “catbird seat” and called to all and sundry that he was here and ready to start courting. His repertoire of songs includes the mewing sound that gets him his […]

Birds

A pair of Baltimore Orioles sit on a bird feeder specially designed to attract them. It holds two small glass cups filled with grape jelly. Next to the jelly cups are two halves of an orange secured on spikes. The birds chow down on the fruit. We refill it once or twice a day.

Lordly Livery: Baltimore Oriole

Updated May 13, 2024

Last year in early May, a Baltimore oriole landed on the car in the driveway. He had just come back from the south and was looking for a place to call his own. He started singing to his reflection in the car window. His reflection didn’t sing back. He tried pecking at it, but something […]

Birds

A showy, chicken-size bird struts in a tallgrass prairie. Ring-neck pheasant has a ring of white feathers encircling his neck. His long, tapering tail feathers are half again the length of his stout body.

Asian Beauties: Ring-Neck Pheasants

Updated March 25, 2024

A couple of years ago, in early spring, I heard a cock pheasant crowing as he walked across the driveway on Owl Acres. He was probably on his way to find some mates. His call was a harsh squawk which the ladies apparently find attractive. If he was lucky, he put together an entire harem […]

Birds

White and black bird with a crimson head, round, black eye and slender beak, looks over its shoulder as it clings to a tree trunk. Red Headed Woodpecker

Flashy Feathers: Red-Headed Woodpecker

Updated March 18, 2024

Several species of woodpeckers live on Owl Acres. In the winter, we see the downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers at the bird feeder. Once in a while a red-bellied woodpecker visits the feeder as well. Northern flickers live in the woods, and a red-headed woodpecker was seen climbing a tree outside the dining room window […]

Birds

A Red-Wing Blackbird sits on a twig and yells at the neighbors. Black songbird with crimson epaulets at the shoulders.

Conkeree: Red-Wing Blackbird

Updated March 11, 2024

It’s hard to get an exact set of syllables that mimic or illustrate a bird song. We attach words like the robin’s “cheerily cheerily cheer up cheer up” or the white-throated sparrow’s “O Canada Canada,” but it’s not exact. We keep trying to get it just right. One of the most familiar and recognizable birdsongs […]

Birds

Common House Finch perches amid small branches in a tree. Brown body, and a brown-red head and neck, and a short, cone shaped beak.

Charming Invasives: House Finches

Updated March 4, 2024

Several fairly aggressive little songbirds tend to dominate the bird feeder, giving the house sparrows a run for their money. Like the sparrows, these little birds are not native to Owl Acres but have moved in to stay. Their story is similar to that of their rivals the house sparrows, but took place nearly a […]

Birds