Day 251: Cassin's Finch

The Cassin's Finch breeds in coniferous forests in the mountains of western North America. Adult males have bright red plumage, and females are lighter brown with brown streaks.

Day 250: Mountain Bluebird

The Mountain Bluebird made for a bright, cheerful addition to our Colorado bird list. Adult males are turquoise-blue and somewhat lighter underneath, while females have duller blue wings and a gray breast. Mountain Bluebirds are migratory and can be found throughout the western United States and Canada.

Day 249: Green-tailed Towhee

The Green-tailed Towhee is the smallest towhee (I wrote about the Eastern Towhee on Day 4 of this blog) and breeds throughout most of the interior of the western United States.

Green-tailed Towhees have a distinct white throat, reddish cap, and bright green stripes on the edge of their wings. I read that they are uncommonly seen because of their tendency to stay under cover, and I would consider that to be a true statement, since we only saw a handful during our trip to Colorado.

Day 248: Williamson's Sapsucker

We were lucky to see both a male and female Williamson's Sapsucker one morning when we joined a bird walk in Rocky Mountain National Park. This medium-sized woodpecker breeds in open forested areas with conifers in western North America from northern Mexico to British Columbia.

Adult males are iridescent black on their head, back, sides and tail. They have a white stripe behind the eye and a lower white stripe across each side of the head, a red chin and a bright yellow belly. They have black wings with large white patches. The female is completely different in appearance and was once considered to be a different species.

 Female

Day 247: Wilson's Warbler

The Wilson's Warbler is another bird we were happy to get in Colorado. It breeds across Canada and south through the western United States. This species is mostly green above and yellow below. Males have a black crown which is usually missing in the female.

Day 246: American Pipit

Pipits occur on all continents, except Antarctica, with many species that are often difficult to distinguish from each other. The American Pipit is a drab, inconspicuous, migratory songbird that occurs throughout North America and south to El Salvador. It is one of a very few species of ground-inhabiting songbirds that breed at high altitudes in alpine meadows and on the arctic tundra. We saw many American Pipits during our high altitude hikes in Colorado.

Day 245: Gray Jay

The Gray Jay can be found in boreal forests across North America and in subalpine forests in the Rocky Mountains. It's a member of the crow and jay family.