Birds Archives - Heartland Safari

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

Head shot of a small raptor. Sharp-shinned hawk is blue-grey on top and white-tan underneath. Round head, red eye faintly ringed in yellow. Short, hooked beak.

Little Raptor: Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Updated January 22, 2024

On a winter day just after a blizzard, Bryan was cleaning the snow off the bird feeder when a small hawk swooped past him. At only three feet above the ground, the little raptor skimmed between the house and the bird feeder and glided up to perch in one of the elms in the north […]

Birds

A flock of fat birds of both sexes sits amid the dense foliage of a prickly hedge. House Sparrow.

Shakespeare again: House Sparrows

Updated January 8, 2024

One of the most familiar sounds on Owl Acres any time of the year is the scolding of house sparrows. They seem to have a lot to say even when it’s really cold out. We hear them as Dave, Clancy and I head off for our morning walk. In the spring and summer, their noisy […]

Birds

Family Life: American Crow

Updated December 28, 2023

As we start our daily walk, Dave and Clancy and I hear a crow calling from a tree in the woods. Its harsh and easily recognized caw-caw occurs throughout the year, including through the winter. I don’t think we have any crows staking out territory on Owl Acres. We do have visitors quite often, though. […]

Birds