Birds Archives - Heartland Safari

Carolina wren sits on a twig. Round songbird faces the camera, looking up and left in frame. Tail is carried high with rakish white eyebrow and buff colored breast to complete the suite of visual cues. We’ve only heard its call here on Owl Acres, but we’ll try to pick it out from the crowd at the bird feeder.

Out of Place?: Carolina Wren

Updated August 31, 2026

Throughout the spring and summer of this year, I have taken a few minutes each morning to explore the soundscape. With the help of the Merlin Bird ID app, I capture the voices of whatever birds happen to be singing or chattering at the time. Since the first day of spring, and periodically thereafter, we […]

Birds

Great Blue Heron in flight, viewed from below against a cloudless blue sky. Blue-grey soaring bird with wingspan much longer than its body length. Long slender legs trail behind and neck curved into an “S” shape bears its head with a long, sharp bill. The Heron carries a long twig for nesting material. (Note how many times “long” is used in this description. It’s the right word for this bird.)

Magic Dust: Great Blue Heron

Updated August 7, 2026

Early of a summer morning, I hear the rather unlovely squawk of a bird flying overhead. It beats its wings slowly as it cruises over the fields. Its legs trail behind as though forgotten, and its neck is scrunched into an S shape against its chest. It sounds like a great blue heron, but I […]

Birds

To join America’s 250th Birthday Party, Heartland Safari presents this image of a Yellow Billed Cuckoo. The pen and ink drawing was made around 250 years ago by Ann Lee. We invite you to follow the link above and read more about the young lady whose work has time-traveled a quarter of a millennium to grace today’s post.

Late to the Party: Yellow-Billed Cuckoo

Updated July 8, 2026

A few days into summer, around 6:30, I woke to a bird piping repeatedly outside my window. We hadn’t heard this bird before. It sang a greeting in a series of uniform piping calls. Perhaps it was looking for a mate, or perhaps he was just calling hello on his way to the forests farther […]

Birds

Tyrant in the Trees: Eastern Kingbird

Updated June 1, 2026

An eastern kingbird (Tyrannus Tyrannus) arrived on Owl Acres in late April and he, or another just like him, is still here, singing his complex, buzzy song in the dawn chorus. He spent the winter in the treetops of the Amazon, gorging on fruit and a few insects. When it comes time to mate, though, […]

Birds

A grey-and-chestnut songbird perches in a diamond shaped opening in a chain link fence. Careful composition, placing the green background in soft focus, creates a portrait of wildlife successfully adapting to life in proximity with humans. Images such as this don’t happen by accident. They result from preparation, patience and opportunity. Heartland Safari salutes the photographers who create these gems and make them available for us to enjoy.

Surveying the Soundscape: Chipping Sparrow

Updated April 24, 2026

For the past three years or so, I’ve been using the Merlin app to survey the birds on Owl Acres. I’ve sampled them in early morning most every day from March 1 into June. It’s been fascinating to find out which birds have stayed over the winter, which have moved in over the winter, and […]

Birds

Mottled grey, white, brown and black songbird crouches menacingly on a weathered board. Eurasian Tree Sparow sports a black bib similar to (and easily confused with) its cousin English Sparrow. We can’t tell the difference, but Merlin Bird ID to the rescue.

Benign Invader: Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Updated April 6, 2026

I think we’ve all heard the story of rabbits in Australia—how they were introduced on purpose because the Europeans who settled there thought it was a good thing to diversify the fauna in this new land. And then they discovered that rabbits were breeding like—well like rabbits—and eating all the grass. Somebody got the brilliant […]

Birds

In this “Only a Mother Could Love” view, a ragged-looking Spotted Towhee is pictured in molt. Most of his fluffy head feathers have been shed and he’s a sorry sight. This normal process will have the songbird re-feathered in a few days.

March Migrator: Spotted Towhee

Updated March 29, 2026

A spotted towhee (Pipilo maculate) is visiting Owl Acres. Perhaps he got blown off course due to all the wind we’ve been having, or maybe he’s on his way to the arroyos and canyons of the desert southwest, or the mountains of the Rockies after a vacation in the south. Spotted towhees range from Western […]

Birds

View looking up at a handsome green and yellow songbird singing from a twig. Yellow warbler

Mutual Defense Pact: Yellow Warblers

Updated March 15, 2026

It’s the middle of March, and all the yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia) are in Mexico or the Caribbean for the winter. Some of them will stay there throughout the year, nesting in the mangroves. Others will populate the mangrove swamps in Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America during the winter but make the trek from […]

Birds

A brown creeper displays its remarkable camouflage as it clings to the flaky bark of a tree. The little bird is almost invisible even in this close-up photo.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Brown Creeper

Updated February 19, 2026

The brown creeper (Certhia americana) is one of the birds that frequent Owl Acres occasionally. Last spring I captured the song of one on my Merlin app. Although I haven’t been monitoring the birds this winter, it is likely that out in the woods, a brown creeper will set up housekeeping. Camouflage is one of […]

Birds

The house-style birdseed feeder hangs from a shepherd’s hook on a cold day. The world is stark white after yesterday’s snow. A mixed flock of juncos, cardinals, finches, sparrows, chickadees and a few others forage on the ground while a few more kick out seeds from the tray above.

Who’s Who?: Sparrows vs. Finches

Updated December 14, 2025

There’s snow on the ground and more coming, and the temps have dropped below zero. A mixed flock of birds comes and goes at the bird feeder as we watch through the study window. When blue jays or cardinals appear, the little birds all disappear. When the bigger birds have had their fill, the flock of […]

Birds