Photo Album

Mourning Dove

Houese Finch (F)

Eastern Bluebird (M)

Tufted Titmouse

Random photos of various species of birds.

White-Crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow- Spec. Name: Zonotrichia Leucophrys

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrows appear each winter over much of North America to grace our gardens and favorite trails (they live in parts of the West year-round). The smart black-and-white head, pale beak, and crisp gray breast combine for a dashing look – and make it one of the surest sparrow identifications in North America. Watch for flocks of these sparrows scurrying through brushy borders and overgrown fields, or coax them into the open with backyard feeders. As spring approaches, listen out for this bird’s thin, sweet whistle.

• Size & Shape
  The White-crowned Sparrow is a large sparrow with a small bill and a long tail. The head can look distinctly peaked or smooth and flat, depending on the bird’s attitude.

• Color Pattern
  First impressions of White-crowned Sparrows tend to be of a plain, pale-gray bird; next your eye is drawn to the very bold black-and-white stripes on the head and the pale pink or yellow bill. Learn this bird's size and shape so you're ready to identify young birds that have brown, not black, markings on the head.

• Behavior
  You’ll see White-crowned Sparrows low at the edges of brushy habitat, hopping on the ground or on branches usually below waist level. They’re also found in open ground (particularly on their breeding grounds) but typically with the safety of shrubs or trees nearby.

• Habitat
  Look for White-crowned Sparrows in places where safe tangles of brush mix with open or grassy ground for foraging. For much of the United States, White-crowned Sparrows are most likely in winter (although two races live year round in the West, along the coast and in the mountains).

Copyright © 2011 Cornell University --- Photographs © 2011 H.J. Ruiz

Rock Pigeon

Rock Pigeon - Spec. Name: Columba Livia

Rock Pigeon

A common sight in cities around the world, Rock Pigeons crowd streets and public squares, living on discarded food and offerings of birdseed. In addition to the typical blue-gray bird with two dark wingbars, you'll often see flocks with plain, spotted, pale, or rusty-red birds in them. Introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1600s, city pigeons nest on buildings and window ledges. In the countryside they also nest on barns and grain towers, under bridges, and on natural cliffs.

• Size & Shape: Larger and plumper than a Mourning Dove, Rock Pigeons are tubby birds with small heads and short legs. Their wings are broad but pointed wings and the tail is wide and rounded.
• Color Pattern: Variable in color, but most birds are bluish gray with two black bands on the wing and a black tip to the tail. Most birds have iridescent throat feathers. Wing patterns may include two bars, dark spots, or can be plain. The tail is usually dark tipped.
• Behavior: Pigeons often gather in flocks, walking or running on the ground and pecking for food. When alarmed, the flock may suddenly fly into the air and circle several times before coming down again.
• Habitat: Pigeons are familiar birds of cities and towns. You'll also see them around farmland and fields, as well as in their archetypal habitat, rocky cliffs.

• Note: Photographs are © H.J. Ruiz

Weekly Photo Art

American Robins

Purple Finch

Purple Finch - Spec.Name:  Carpodacus Purpureus 

Purple Finch (M)

This is a bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
The Purple Finch is one of 24 birds in the genus Carpodacus and is included in the finch family, Fringillidae, which is made up of passerine birds found in northern hemisphere and Africa. The Purple Finch was originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789.

There are two subspecies of the Purple Finch, C. p. purpureus and C. p. californicus. C. p. californicus was identified by Spencer F. Baird in 1858. It differs from the nominate subspecies in that it has a longer tail and shorter wing. The plumage of both males and females are darker, and the coloration of the females is more greenish. The bill of C. p. californicus is also longer than that of the nominate subspecies.

Description

Purple Finch (F)

Adults have a short forked brown tail and brown wings and are about 15 cm (4 in) in length and weigh 34 g (1.2 oz). Adult males are raspberry red on the head, breast, back and rump; their back is streaked. Adult females have light brown upperparts and white underparts with dark brown streaks throughout; they have a white line on the face above the eye.

Habitat and distribution

Their breeding habitat is coniferous and mixed forest in Canada and the northeastern United States, as well as various wooded areas along the U.S. Pacific coast. They nest on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a tree.

Birds from northern Canada migrate to the southern United States; other birds are permanent residents.

The Purple Finch population has declined sharply in the East due to the House Finch. Most of the time, when these two species collide, the House Finch out competes the Purple Finch. This bird has been also displaced from some habitat by the introduced House Sparrow.

Behavior

Diet: These birds forage in trees and bushes, sometimes in ground vegetation. They mainly eat seeds, berries and insects. They are fond of sunflower seeds, millet, and thistle.

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Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe - Spec. Name: Sayornis Phoebe

This is a small passerine bird. This tyrant flycatcher breeds in eastern North America, although its normal range does not include the southeastern coastal USA.

Eastern Phoebe

It is migratory, wintering in the southernmost USA and Central America. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe. This is one of the first birds to return to the breeding grounds in spring and one of the last to leave in the fall. They arrive for breeding in mid-late March, but they return to winter quarters around the same time when other migrant songbirds do, in September and early October; migration times have stayed the same in the last 100 years.
This species appears remarkably big-headed, especially if it puffs up the small crest. Its plumage is gray-brown above. It has a white throat, dirty gray breast and buffish underparts which become whiter during the breeding season. Two indistinct buff bars are present on each wing. Its lack of an eye ring and wingbars, and its all dark bill distinguish it from other North American tyrant flycatchers, and it pumps its tail up and down like other phoebes when perching on a branch. The Eastern Phoebe's call is a sharp chip, and the song, from which it gets its name, is fee-bee.

The Eastern Wood-pewee (Contopus virens) is extremely similar in appearance and voice. It lacks the buff hue usually present on the lighter parts of the Eastern Phoebe's plumage, and thus has always clearly defined and contrasting wing-bars. It also does not bob its tail habitually, and appears on the breeding grounds much later though it leaves for winter quarters at about the same time as the Eastern Phoebe.

The breeding habitat of the Eastern Phoebe is open woodland, farmland and suburbs, often near water. This phoebe is insectivorous, and often perches conspicuously when seeking food items. It also eats fruits and berries in cooler weather.
It often nests on human structures such as bridges and buildings. Nesting activity may start as early as the first days of April. The nest is an open cup with a mud base and lined with moss and grass, built in crevice in a rock or man-made site; 3-8 eggs are laid. Both parents feed the young and usually raise two broods per year. The Eastern Phoebe is occasionally host to thenest-parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater).

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Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Shiny Cowbird

 Shiny Cowbird - Spec. Name: Molothrus Bonariensis 

Shiny Cowbird

This is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America apart from the most dense jungles, mountains and deserts (although spreading into these habitats as they are modified by humans), the coldest southernmost regions (e.g. Tierra del Fuego), and on Trinidad and Tobago. It has relatively recently colonised Chile and many Caribbean islands, and has reached the USA, where it is probably breeding in southern Florida. Northern and southernmost populations are partially migratory.

It is a bird associated with open woodland and cultivation. The male’s song is a purr and whistle, purr purr purrte-tseeeee. The male’s call is a sharp whistled tsee-tsee, but the female makes a harsh rattle.

Like most other cowbirds, it is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of many other bird species, such as (in Brazil) the Rufous-collared Sparrow and the Masked Water-tyrant. The eggs are of two types, either whitish and unspotted, or pale blue or green with dark spots and blotches. The host’s eggs are sometimes removed, and if food is short their chicks may starve, but larger host species are less affected. The incubation period of 11–12 days is shorter than that of most hosts. Extermination of the Shiny Cowbird within the tiny range of the Pale-headed Brush-finch has resulted in a population increase in this critically endangered species.

The male Shiny Cowbird is 20.3 cm long, weighs 45 g and is all black with an iridescent purple-blue gloss. The smaller female is 19 cm long and weighs 31 g. Her plumage is dark brown, paler on the underparts. She can be distinguished from the female Brown-headed Cowbird by her longer, finer bill, pale superciilium and stronger face pattern. There is an all-black plumage variation, and the northern subspecies M. b. cabanisii of Panama and northern Colombia is paler than the nominate M. b. bonariensis. Juveniles are like the female but more streaked below.

This abundant and gregarious bird feeds mainly on insects and some seeds, including rice, and forages on the ground or perches on cattle.