UNP-0054, New September 2002. Marilyn Simpson-Johnson, L.M.S.W., C.A.D.R., Extension Urban Specialist, Family Welfare, Urban Affairs and New Nontraditional Programs Unit, Alabama A&M University

Photographers: Art Today (Great Egret & Barn Swallow); Mike Danzenbaker (Northern Flicker); Don DesJardin (Mourning Dove); Jim Roetzel (Cardinal); Brian Small (Blue Jay); and Ann & Rob Simpson (Robin)

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Birds of Triana--FIELD GUIDE

Introdution

This bird guide provides information that will help you identify seven of the most common birds found in Triana, Alabama.

American Robin

Scientific Name: Turdus migratorius.

Other Possible Names: Thrush

Description: Babies are spotted, otherwise adults have a gray upper body with a brick red breast; head and tail of males are black and dark gray in females; both have bright yellow bills and white orbital markings around the eyes.

Facts: One of the first birds to sing long morning choruses of paired phrases of two or three syllables that alternate in pitch, indicating the start of spring.

Location: Found in North America from extreme northern Canada and as far south as Guatemala.

Diet: Insects such as earthworms, beetles, and grasshoppers; also eats fruit such as pokeberries, cherries, grapes, mistletoe, and the fruit of the Sabal Palm located in the Southern states.

Barn Swallow

Scientific Name: Hirundo rustica.

Other Possible Names: None listed.

Description: Upper body is glossy steel blue with a white underside and a chestnut forehead, chin, and throat.

Facts: Colonizes in six to eight pairs; nests are built with straw and mud, and lined with feathers; makes thousands of trips to gather mud that is worked into pellets and carried to the nest in their bills.

Location: North America, Europe, Asia, Burma, Israel, and Northern Africa; also breeds from Alaska to Canada and south through central Mexico; builds nests near the ceiling on a beam or tucked under the eaves or in agricultural and suburban areas, marshes, and lakeshores.

Diet: Insects including flies, aphids, beetles, moths, mayflies, caterpillars, and grasshoppers.

Blue Jay

Scientific Name: Cyanocitta cristata.

Other Possible Names: None listed.

Description: Bright blue with white and black on wings, tail, and facial markings.

Facts: Bold, traveling in noisy family groups in late summer and fall; makes a variety of sounds a jay-jay call, a bell-like tull-ull call, a mellow whistled teekle, a variety of harsh chattering notes and growls and the scream of the red-shouldered hawk.

Location: The nest is situated between 8-20 feet up in a coniferous or deciduous tree; found east of the Rockies from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico westward.

Diet: Mostly vegetarian, but also eats insects and bird's eggs, small birds, and other small vertebrae animals.

Cardinal

Scientific Name: Cardinalis cardinalis

Other Possible Names: None listed

Description: Males have bright red crests, black faces, and stout red bills; females are red with a buff-brown tinge on crests, wings, and tails.

Facts: Cardinals are noted for their loud, clear-whistled songs often sung from a high treetop song post; variations and accents have been noted in cardinal songs; more states have adopted the Northern cardinal as their state bird than any other bird, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Location: Found in backyards in the eastern half of the United States, and from the South, East, Midwest, and as far west as California; cardinals typically make their habitats in brushy areas and undergrowth, edges and clearings, parks, and residential areas; and winter flocks can be as large as 60 to 70 individuals in areas of abundance.

Diet: Up to one-third of the cardinal's summer diet consists of insects, but in winter, 90 percent is vegetation.

Great Egret

Scientific Name: Casmerodius albus.

Other Possible Names: Great White Heron or the American, Common, Large or White Egret.

Description: Great egrets have white bodies, yellow bills, black legs and feet, and a wingspan greater than 50 inches. Facts: Nests are made of reeds and sticks and are often high up in trees with as many as five or six eggs; in the breeding season both males and females exhibit long back plumes.

Location: Spends the winter from South Carolina southward and as far north as Massachusetts in the summer.

Diet: Outstanding fishermen, they stand motionless in the water and wait for fish; snakes, frogs, or insects.

Mourning Dove

Scientific Name: Zenaida macroura

Other Possible Names: None listed.

Description: Sandy buff color with a pointed tail bordered in white.

Facts: Most widely hunted and harvested game bird; its name comes from its song, a low-toned moaning cooah, coo, coo, coo; flocks are formed in every season, except when the birds are breeding, they disperse in pairs; found in warm climates, mourning doves produce up to six broods per year, the most of any native bird; and typically lays two eggs in a evergreen trees.

Location: Found in a variety of nests, including clumps of grass in the United States, southern Canada, and throughout the Great Plains in the Midwest.

Diet: Feeds primarily on the ground, consuming waste grain such as wheat, buckwheat, and weed seeds.

Northern Flicker

Scientific Name: Colaptes auratus.

Other Possible Names: Yellowhammer.

Description: Brownish woodpecker; brown back with dark bars and spots, whitish or buff below with black spots; black crescent on breast; and white rump.

Facts: Unlike woodpeckers, Northern flickers are unable to drill into hardwood; they need rotten or soft trees to build their nests.

Location: Range extends throughout North America; also migrates to the southern United States and spends winters throughout the Southwest and Florida; lives in an assortment of woodland and human habitats near parks, meadows, fields, farms, savannas, swamps, or forests as far north as Canada and as far south as Central America.

Diet: Insects such as beetles, caterpillars, and ants; eats fruits and berries such as apples, grapes, persimmons and dogwood berries, pokeberries and huckleberries; and visits suet feeders.

References

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Source. Retrieved August 30, 2002, from, http://www.birdsource.org.

National Wildlife Federation. ENature.com.™ Retrieved August 29, 2002, from http://www.enature.com/guides/select_Birds.asp.

Nature of New England. Birds of New England. Retrieved August 29, 2002, from http://www.nenature.com/Birds.htm.

United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Retrieved August 30, 2002, from http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov.