Day 274: Hammond's Flycatcher

The Hammond's Flycatcher is another bird that we saw caught and tagged in Colorado. It's grayer than the Cordilleran Flycatcher and breeds in coniferous forests in the western United States, Alaska, and Canada.

Day 273: Cordilleran Flycatcher

Happy Saturday! It's a good day when the Aggies win!

I only have a few more Colorado birds left, then I'll be going back to birds that we've seen in Maryland. We saw the next few birds after they were caught to be tagged. While this is cheating a little bit, I'm still counting them towards my list, since they were released back into the wild.

Today's bird, the Cordilleran Flycatcher, breeds in the Rocky Mountains. It is very difficult to identify this bird in the wild, since many flycatchers look closely alike. The best ways to distinguish species of flycatcher are by voice, by breeding habitat, and by range.

When this bird was caught and examined, the tagger spent several minutes measuring different parts of its body to make sure it was identified correctly.

Day 272: Orange-crowned Warbler

The Orange-crowned Warbler is one bird that has alluded me in Maryland, but we were fortunate to find one in Rocky Mountain National Park during our August trip. You can't tell very well from this dark picture, but they have olive-grey upperparts, yellowish underparts with faint streaking and a thin pointed bill. They breed in open shrubby areas across Canada, Alaska, and the western United States.

Day 271: Pine Grosbeak

We saw two Pine Grosbeaks while driving up a windy mountain road in Rocky Mountain National Park. The reddish bird is the male, and the brownish bird is the female.

Day 270: Swainson's Hawk

We saw several Swainson's Hawks during our Colorado trip. One was perched very close on a power line as we drove by. As it flew off, it scared the Western Kingbird that was sitting right next to it.

Day 269: Lesser Goldfinch

The Lesser Goldfinch is a small songbird that is a relative of the American Goldfinch. It can be found in the southwestern United States. This was one of the last birds we saw on our Colorado trip, on the way back to the airport. Unfortunately, the camera battery died before I could get better pictures!

Day 268: Horned Lark

The Horned Lark is another bird we saw in Colorado. We saw them both in the prairie lands and in the high altitude meadows in the mountains.

Day 267: Brown-capped Rosy Finch

The Brown-capped Rosy Finch is another bird that Jared was excited to find in Colorado. We saw a flock of these birds on one of our hikes in the high alpine meadows. Their breeding habitat is mountain peaks in the central Rocky Mountains. Adult birds are brown on the head, back, and breast with pink on the belly, rump, and wings.

Day 266: Vesper Sparrow

We saw a couple of Vesper Sparrows in the high altitude areas in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Day 265: Eurasian Collared Dove

Eurasian Collared Dove in Colorado (we saw one while exploring the Pawnee National Grasslands).

Day 264: California Gull

Super tired....long week. Don't feel like writing/researching much tonight, so I'll just share a few photos. California Gulls that we saw in Colorado from a distance. Smaller than Herring Gull but larger than Ring-billed Gull, found in western North America.

They're the bigger gulls at the top of this photo:

Day 263: Lark Bunting

Lark Buntings are medium-sized sparrows that breed in prairie regions in Canada and the mid-western United States. We saw several flocks of Lark Buntings while we were driving around the prairies in northeastern Colorado. Male birds are black except for a white wing patch.

Day 262: Franklin's Gull

The Franklin’s Gull is a small, black-hooded gull that nests in marshes of interior North America. We saw a flock of Franklin's Gulls in eastern Colorado.

Day 261: Wilson's Phalarope

The Wilson's Phalarope is a wading bird that breeds in the western United States and Canada. When feeding, this species will often swim in a small, rapid circle, forming a small whirlpool. It will then pick out insects or crustaceans with its skinny, straight bill.

We saw a group of Wilson's Phalaropes on the edges of a lake in eastern Colorado, where we were exploring the prairie lands.

Day 260: Black-headed Grosbeak

Another bird we saw in Colorado is the Black-headed Grosbeak, a medium-sized seed eating bird in the same family as the Northern Cardinal. They are migratory and can be found in the western half of the United States.

Day 259: Western Wood Pewee

The Western Wood Pewee is a small flycatcher that looks very similar to the Eastern Wood Pewee (they were once considered to be one species). They breed in open wooded areas in western North America.

Day 258: Bullock's Oriole

The Bullock's Oriole is a small type of blackbird that are native to western North America. At one time, this species and the Baltimore Oriole were considered to be a single species, the Northern Oriole.

Bullock's Orioles are sexually dimorphic, and males are more brightly colored than females, with bright orange and black plumage.

Day 257: Brewer's Sparrow

The Brewer's Sparrow is a small bird found in brushy areas in western Canada and the western United States.

Day 256: Baird's Sandpiper

The Baird's Sandpiper is a small sandpiper that breeds in the northern tundra from eastern Siberia to western Greenland. They migrate long distances and winter in South America. These birds forage by moving about mudflats, picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects, also some small crustaceans.

Day 255: Townsend's Solitaire

The Townsend's Solitaire is a medium-sized thrush found in western North America. It has a short black bill, a white eye ring, and gray plumage.