Day 213: Double-crested Cormorant

The Double-crested Cormorant is a seabird that lives along inland waterways and coastal areas across North America. This species is all black with a bare patch of orange-yellow facial skin. During breeding season, it gains a small double crest of black and white feathers.

Double-crested Cormorants mainly eat fish, and they hunt by swimming and diving. Their feathers are not waterproof, so they spend a lot of time drying their feathers out.

Day 212: Kentucky Warbler

The Kentucky Warbler is a shy warbler that is more often heard than seen. It breeds in deciduous forests in the southeastern U.S.

Kentucky Warblers are mostly an olive-green in color on the top and a brilliant yellow below from their throat to their belly. They have a large black mask with a yellow pattern that runs from the beak and encircles the eyes.

We saw a family of Kentucky Warblers a few weeks ago (in Maryland). There were at least three of them flying around one area. Though we heard them singing and chirping, it was very hard to find one out in the open. Here's my best photo from that day, you can just make out the warbler's face:

Here's Jared's nice photo, taken a few months earlier:

Day 211: Brown Pelican

The Brown Pelican is only one of three pelicans found in the Western Hemisphere. It is a permanent resident of the coastal marine environment from central North America southward to northern South America.

Brown Pelicans are noted for their spectacular head-first dives to trap fish in their expandable pouches. Of the world’s pelican species, only Brown Pelicans feed by this plunge-diving method. 

Day 210: Bufflehead

The Bufflehead is a small American sea duck. Adult males are striking black and white, with iridescent green and purple heads. They are migratory birds, and many winter on the east and west coasts of North America and the southern U.S.

Buffleheads have evolved their small size in order to fit the nesting cavity of the Northern Flicker. Due to their small size, they are highly active, undertaking dives almost continuously sustained by their high metabolism.

Day 209: Red-breasted Nuthatch

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a small songbird that has blue-grey upperparts and cinnamon red underparts. They can be found in conifer forests from the Pacific Coast of British Columbia to the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia, extending southward into the mountains of the American Southwest and the southern Appalachians in the East.

They are easy to identify from their call alone, which is very high-pitched and nasal (I read it described as sounding like a toy tin horn). We heard several during a trip to western Maryland a few months ago, but they were all very high in the trees and kept moving around, so they were difficult to photograph. You can barely make out a blurry bird in these two pictures, but it's the best I could do!

Day 208: Blue-winged Teal

I have another blue-winged bird for you today - the Blue-winged Teal. This species is a small North American dabbling duck. It is common during breeding season in the north-central United States and prairie Canada, and it winters farther south.

The adult male Blue-winged Teal has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent and a light brown body. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts.

We actually saw the Blue-winged Teals below during our Puerto Rico trip back in March.

Day 207: Blue-winged Warbler

The Blue-winged Warbler breeds in eastern North America in southern Ontario and the eastern U.S. The breeding male Blue-winged Warbler is unmistakable. It is yellow above and below, and its wings are gray with two white bars (not sure where the blue-winged name comes from). This species forms two distinctive hybrids with the Golden-winged Warbler.

Day 206: Great Black-backed Gull

The Great Black-backed Gull is the largest gull in the world. It breeds on the European and North American coasts and islands of the North Atlantic. We see this species fairly often when we take a trip to Maryland's eastern shore.

Great Black-backed Gulls are opportunistic and get most of their food from scavenging and capturing fish. I didn't realize this, but they are also highly predatory and frequently hunt and kill smaller prey themselves, behaving more like a raptor. The details get a little gruesome...according to Wikipedia:

"The Great Black-backed Gull relies on aggression, physical strength and endurance when hunting, seizing the prey, muscling it into a position where it cannot escape and is unable to fight back effectively (e.g. pinning it to the ground, or holding it aloft) and allowing it to struggle to exhaustion. At this point, the gull will reposition its grip and attempt to break the prey's neck with a bite or vigorous shake, or dispatch it with hammer blows to the skull from the beak. The Great Black-backed Gull may also attempt to use the environment to its advantage, attempting to hold the prey animal's head under water so as to drown it, smashing its skull against the ground, or a rock, or dropping it from a height onto a hard surface and following up with a diving strike from the beak."

Day 205: Veery

The Veery is a small species of thrush that can be found in the deep woods of the U.S. and Canada. This bird has a breezy downward-spiralling flute-like song, often heard from a low but concealed location. The most common call is a vee-er, which gave this bird its name.

Adults are mainly light brown on the upperparts. The underparts are white and the breast is lighter brown with dark spots.  Birds in the east are more cinnamon on the upperparts, while western birds are more olive-brown. We saw a Veery in a nearby park during spring migration.

Day 204: Bank Swallow

The Bank Swallow is one of the most widely distributed swallows in the world. This species likes to nest in streamside banks and bluffs of rivers and streams. Bank Swallows are brown on top, white below, with a narrow brown band on the breast.

Day 203: Black-bellied Plover

The Black-bellied Plover is a medium-sized bird that breeds in arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant and can be found worldwide in coastal regions when not breeding. In North America, this species goes by the name of the Black-bellied Plover. In other parts of the world, it is called the Grey Plover.

In spring and summer, adult Black-bellied Plovers have a black face, neck, and breast with a white border. During the fall, they molt to plain grey plumage, as you can see below. We saw this Black-bellied Plover on Maryland's eastern shore.

Day 202: Ruddy Duck

Ruddy Ducks are small, stiff-tailed ducks (you can see their tails sticking up in the photos below). They can be found throughout much of the U.S. and Mexico in both breeding and wintering populations. In Maryland, they are normally here during the winter.

Adult males have a rust-red body, a blue bill, and a white face with a black cap. Adult females have a grey-brown body with a greyish face with a darker bill, cap and a cheek stripe. Sorry these photos aren't better, I took them before we got the new lens earlier this year!

Day 201: Bonaparte's Gull

Bonaparte's Gulls are one of the smallest gulls in North America. They are an often abundant migrant and winter visitor over much of the continent, but one of the least known of the gulls with respect to breeding. Bonaparte's Gulls winter in large flocks in coastal areas of North America (both east and west), close to human activity.

Day 200: Saltmarsh Sparrow

Day 200 of blogging! Hard to believe I've made it this far...only 166 days to go. We are taking a trip to Colorado in August and should get quite a few new western birds, so I hope to have plenty to post about for the next few months.

We saw a little Saltmarsh Sparrow a few weeks ago during a summer visit to Maryland's eastern shore. They live in the same salt marsh habitat as the Seaside Sparrow (which we also saw lots of), but they are lighter in color and have orange on their face. This little guy was pretty cute, it looked like he was trying to do the splits.

Day 199: Snowy Egret

Snowy Egrets are small white herons. They have a long black bill and long black legs with yellow feet. During the breeding season, adults grow long plumes on their backs, giving them a "shaggy" look.

Snowy Egrets breed in inland and coastal wetlands from the lower Great Lakes and southwestern U.S. to South America. Their breeding range in eastern North America extends along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Maine to Texas, and inland along major rivers and lakes.

Day 198: Black Vulture

Black Vultures are ugly birds - there's no nice way to put it. I got up close and personal with one a few weeks ago, and it seemed to tolerate my incessant snapping of photos. It just stared back at me with a face that only a mother could love.

 Black Vultures are common throughout the south and east U.S. through much of South America. Like the Turkey Vulture, the Black Vulture is the scavenger of the natural world. They mostly feed on carrion, but will also kill small or newborn animals when the opportunity strikes (which Turkey Vultures typically will not do). In heavily population areas, Black Vultures are known to feed at garbage dumps. Also like the Turkey Vulture, Black Vultures have a sharp sense of smell.

When flying, Black Vultures hold their wings level, while Turkey Vultures hold their wings in a V-shape.

Day 197: House Wren

The House Wren is a small songbird that is widely distributed from Canada to southernmost South America. This species enjoys living in open, shrubby woodlands, and often inhabits small town and suburban backyards and city parks.

Day 196: Black-necked Stilt

The Black-necked Stilt is a beautiful shorebird. It has striking black and white plumage, bright red eyes, and long pink legs. This species can be found from the coastal areas of California through parts of the interior western U.S. and along the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Florida. It can be found in small pockets along the eastern U.S. shoreline, as well. It also lives through Mexico and Central America to the Caribbean.

Jared saw a large group of Black-necked Stilts during our trip to Puerto Rico in March and took the lovely picture below. More recently, we saw a single Black-necked Stilt during a trip to Maryland's eastern shore.

Jared's amazing picture from Puerto Rico

Our recent sighting of a Black-necked Stilt in Maryland

Day 195: Common Merganser

The Common Merganser is a type of duck that lives in rivers and lakes of forested areas in North America, Europe, and northern and central Asia. Like other merganser species (I've blogged about the Hooded Merganser), the Common Merganser has a crest of longer head feathers, but these usually lie smooth on the head, only occasionally forming a crest.

A few weeks ago, we saw a female Common Merganser with a bunch of chicks in the Potomac River. It was so cute to watch the chicks swim back and forth following the mother. Adults females, as you can see below, are largely grey with a reddish-brown head. You can make out the reddish heads on the chicks, as well.

Day 194: Brown-headed Nuthatch

The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a particularly cute bird, and we had a great time watching a group of them a few weeks ago. They are small songbirds that can be found throughout pine forests in the southeastern U.S.

We watched several birds chip away at the bark of pine trees, digging for insects. They appeared quick and inquisitive, and did not shy away as we inched closer for photos. They make very cute squeaking sounds as well, that sound similar to a rubber duck toy.