Birds Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Heartland Safari

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

Hard to choose between gruesome roadside dining or sublime, soaring magnificence. But, here’s the magnificence. Large bird with small red head, black body and arms, and broad-spread wings with white trailing edges, soars in a blue sky. Sunlight edges its wings in gold. Turkey Vulture.

The Clean-Up Crew: Turkey Vulture

Updated December 18, 2023

One day recently we were driving along a gravel road near Owl Acres when a wild turkey flew out of the ditch and hit the car, breaking off the mirror and killing the bird. Almost before the dead turkey hit the ground, a big dark bird with a naked red head plummeted from the sky, […]

Birds

Bird with bright blue wings and a feather crest perches atop a feeder attached to a tree trunk. Black-edged, light grey face with round black eye. The blue jay grips a seed in its black beak.

A Trick of the Light: Blue Jays

Updated December 4, 2023

Blue. A primary color. One of the most beloved colors. And, speaking of Owl Acres, a rare color indeed, if you don’t count the sky and the blue jays. The sky is blue. But not really. That is, it looks blue because of the way the air molecules in the atmosphere scatter the short blue […]

Birds

A small, grey song bird with a feathery crest sits on a twig, staring down a pretender. Tufted titmouse.

Peter-Peter-Peter: Tufted Titmouse

Updated November 30, 2023

Some 25 songbirds overwinter here on Owl Acres and surroundings. Sturdy little fellows that they are, they have figured out how to find food and survive in subzero temperatures. One food source that gets their attention is backyard bird feeders like the one we enjoy on Owl Acres. These little birds tend to flock together […]

Birds

Bird with red crown (indicating male), tight white and black stripes in back and fluffy light grey breast, clings to a tree trunk, inspecting the suet feeder overhead. Red Bellied Woodpecker.

How Do They Do That?: Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Updated November 30, 2023

There’s a lot of drumming going on at all seasons on Owl Acres. Our band consists of seven of the 23 species of woodpeckers native to North America. When we put up our birdfeeder this winter, one of our first visitors was a red-bellied woodpecker come to investigate the new food. He didn’t stay long […]

Birds

Rump-on view of a Cedar Waxwing displaying all the colorful markings of this beautiful songbird. Slate-grey back with tailfeathers tipped in bright yellow. Red tips of secondary flight feathers peek out from folded wings. Soft yellow green breast, salmon-brown head and feather crest, and a rakish, black bandit-mask with thin white outline.

Berries Please: Cedar Waxwing

Updated October 9, 2023

On a cool morning in early October, Dave and I stopped to enjoy the soundscape on our morning walk. The crickets had center stage, but several birds weighed in as well. One high-pitched clear whistle followed by a high-pitched trill that sounded almost like a cricket came from what my Merlin Bird ID app told […]

Birds

Mourning dove the way Iowans usually see them, sitting on an overhead wire, out by the road. Gray-tawny bird with slender, slightly curved beak.

Sad and Soothing: Mourning Doves

Updated July 20, 2023

I’m sitting in my study with the windows open, listening to my favorite bird singing his love song. This bird is probably the first bird I ever was able to identify by sound because of its signature song—a low coo followed by a high note and two or three low coos. I found his song […]

Birds

Brown Thrasher. Brown songbird with a white breast striped with thin brown lines, gets a drink in a birdbath.

Champion Mimic: Brown Thrasher

Updated June 8, 2023

Early in the evening on a blustery April day, I heard a bird singing a melodious but changing song. He sang a phrase twice, then switched to another song. I had just been introduced to the song of the brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) and was ecstatic to actually capture its song on this afternoon. The […]

Birds