Bird of the Day - Eastern Phoebe

The Bird of the Day today is the eastern Phoebe.  It is related to the other phoebes and the flycatchers.  The eastern Phoebe has a distinctive habit of pumping its tail up and down while perching, distinguishing them from the pewees.

I took this picture in Roseville, Minnesota.

Bird of the Day - Northern Cardinal

Male Northern Cardinal

Female Northern Cardinal

The Bird of the Day today is the northern cardinal.  It has one of the easier scientific names to remember - Cardinalis cardinalis.

The range of the northern cardinal goes from the southern half of Minnesota to the Baja Peninsula, covering most of the eastern United States and Mexico.

It is in the family Cardinalidae.  That family includes such birds as the tanagers, dickcissel, various buntings, and many of the grosbeaks.

I saw the pictured northern cardinals in Roseville, Minnesota.  They can be challenging to photograph since they do not stay still for long periods of time.  Both of these pictures were taken through a window.

Both the male and female northern cardinals sing throughout most of the year.  One of the variations of their song is "cheer, cheer, cheer!"

Bird of the Day - Hooded Merganser

 The Bird of the Day today is the hooded merganser.  I saw the pictured bird in a pond swimming next to some wood ducks.  It was in the distance, but I spotted it with my long zoom lens.  

 I enjoy all of the types of mergansers, but was especially thrilled to see this one.  The most common bird in this family that I see is the common merganser, followed by the red-breasted merganser.  I very rarely get a sighting of the hooded merganser.

 The hooded merganser is much smaller than the common and red-breasted mergansers.  Female hooded mergansers have yellow on their lower mandible (bill), as opposed to an orange or red bill on the other mergansers.

Bird of the Day - American Crow

 The Bird of the Day today is the American crow.  It is a part of the Corvidae family, which includes: ravens, crows, jays, magpies, jackdaws, and nutcrackers.  In Minnesota, the relatives include the common raven, blue jay, Canada jay (formerly the gray jay), and rarely the black-billed magpie.

The crows inhabit all the continents except Antarctica.  They are one of the most intelligent birds on Earth.  If you want to see a great documentary about crow intelligence, watch the PBS documentary A Murder of Crows (not to be confused with the multiple murder mysteries of that name).  A "murder of crows" is the common name for a flock of crows.

The reason that they are so talkative is that they are communicating with each other.  Over 100 different crow calls have been identified by scientists.  There is strong evidence that not only do they communicate with other adults, but they pass on information to their young as well.

Crows have a strong problem solving ability.  The documentary above shows a crow solving a 3-part puzzle to get a treat, crows solving a touch screen puzzle as fast as human kids (and faster than dogs), finding how to break open nuts without shattering them, passing information on to their young, and much more.

If you take the time to learn about these often misunderstood birds, you will find that they are quite fascinating.

Bird of the Day - Osprey

Today's Bird of the Day is the osprey.  I saw this pair of birds at a baseball field at Central Park in Roseville, Minnesota.  One light pole held the male, one held the female, and the next light supported their nest.  Ospreys and bald eagles have similar nests.

 The osprey is one of my favorite birds to watch while it is fishing.  When it spots a fish from the air, it will fold its' wings, and dive in the water from about ten feet.  A few moments later, it surfaces, shakes its' feathers, and takes off (hopefully with a fish).

The osprey is smaller than both the bald eagle and the turkey vulture, but all three birds love to soar.  Ospreys soar with down-turned wings, eagles soar with wings in a straight line, and turkey vultures have V-shaped wings when soaring.

Osprey Nest

Bird of the Day - Great Egret

 The bird of the day is the great egret.  It is in the family Ardeidae, meaning it is related to hurons and bitterns.

The bird pictured is a breeding male.  It has a more colorful bill, and long feathery plumes extending beyond the tail, which distinguish it from non-breeding birds.

I photographed this bird in a wetland in Roseville, Minnesota's Central Park.

Bird of the Day - American White Pelican

The bird of the day is the American white pelican.  I will occasionally see them on the Gunflint Trail, but they can be a lot more common in other parts of the state.  Last April, my family and I drove along the Mississippi from Onalaska, Wisconsin to the Twin Cities and saw many large flocks of these beautiful birds.  I took the included pictures on about April 14, 2019.

The spoon-shaped plate on top of the beak is only on the breeding adults.  According to the National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America, the plate is shed after the eggs are laid.

The American white pelican is a very large bird.  It is roughly 62 inches long, with a wingspan of 108 inches.  Put another way, it is 5 feet, 2 inches long, and has a wingspan of 9 feet!

Bird of the Day - Mallard

The mallard is one of the most widespread ducks in the world.  It has populations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.  The only continent in which it does not reside is Antarctica.

An interesting fact about mallards is that the males arrive with their bright colors in the spring, turn brown (like the females) for much of the summer, and have the bright feathers again when they depart on their migration in the autumn.  The reason for this is autumn is courtship season, and spring is mating season.  They don't need to have their bright feathers in the middle of the summer to attract a mate, and those fancy feathers take a lot more upkeep than the duller brown feathers.

Bird of the Day - Pied-billed Grebe

Grebes are a fascinating group of ancient diving birds.  The modern grebes are said to go back 40 million years, and their ancestors are thought to go back 80 million years.

The pied-billed grebe is one of the smaller grebes found in Minnesota.  I have seen it throughout the eastern half of the state.

Other species of grebe I have spotted in Minnesota include many sightings of the red-necked grebe, and one sighting of the horned grebe.

Bird of the Day - Wild Turkey

 The bird of the day for today was the runner up for the national bird of the United States.  Benjamin Franklin wanted to wild turkey instead of the bald eagle.

 When I was growing up in the Twin Cities, I never saw a wild turkey.  They were even rare in far southern Minnesota.  Through very successful reintroduction efforts (since 1971 according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources), the wild turkey has spread across the bottom 2/3 of Minnesota.  It is now a common bird.

The pictures of this wild turkey male were taken in the Twin Cities.  There was a female nearby which he was trying to impress with this display.

Bird of the Day - Ring-billed Gull

One of the most common gulls in Minnesota is the ring-billed gull.  It is smaller than the herring gull (Minnesota's other extremely common gull), and has a distinctive black ring around the bill and yellow feet.  In the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, you are more likely to see the ring-billed gull in the inland lakes, and the herring gull by Lake Superior.

Bird of the Day - Canada Goose

One of the most common types of geese in the upper-midwest and Great Lakes regions is the Canada goose.  It is a large goose who likes lakes, ponds, fields, and golf courses.

Interestingly enough, the plural of Canada goose is Canada geese (not Canadian geese).  The ornithologists did not talk to the grammar experts before putting out the common name of this bird.

A great Canada goose movie is called Fly Away Home.  It is an inspirational birding movie where a father and daughter lead a flock of Canada geese from Ontario to the south-eastern United States with ultralight planes.  It's based off of real life experiments in which whooping cranes were led on their first migration with ultralights.

Bird of the Day - American Robin

One of the great symbols of spring is the American Robin.  This beautiful bird is a member of the thrush family, which includes such birds as: the veery, hermit thrush, wood thrush, and Swainson's thrush.

The American robin is named after the European robin.  They both have darker backs with red-orange breasts, but are not actually related to each other.  The European robin is smaller, and the red-orange color extends to the bottom of their faces.  Interestingly enough, the American robin is related to the European blackbird, and the European robin is related to the American blackbird.

Bird of the Day - Bald Eagle

Our national bird is the bald eagle.  Here are some interesting facts about this majestic bird:

1. The common and scientific names of the bald eagle refer to the white feathers.  "Balde" is the old English word for white.
2. The scientific name for the bald eagle is Haliaeetus leucocephalus.  Haliaeetus means sea eagle or fish eagle.  Leuco means white.  Cephalus means head.
3. Bald eagles do not get their full white head and tail until they are 3 - 5 years old.  In their first year, they totally lack the white head and tail as well as the yellow bill.
4. Bald eagles are known to have lived for 25 years in the wild, and 50 years in captivity.
5. A bald eagle can exert 400 lbs. of pressure with its talons.
6. Females are larger than males (reverse sexual dimorphism).
7. Females weigh up to 9 lbs. in Florida, and 16 lbs. in Alaska.  Larger animals generally do better in colder environments.
8. Bald eagle populations were decimated by hunting and D.D.T.  Until relatively recently, they were very rare.  They are now common, and their comeback has been a huge success story.
9. It is illegal to possess bald eagle feathers without a permit.
10. Lead is one of the biggest killers of bald eagles.  They often time get poisoned from hunter's gut piles which contain pieces of lead shot.  It is better for the eagles if hunters use copper shot.
11. Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be our national bird because he claimed the eagle was a scavenger and a coward.  
1. The eagle does scavenge, but also hunts and is skilled at catching fish.  
2. When eagles are choosing mates, they fly to high elevations, lock talons, and free fall.  The male who holds on the longest wins the affections of the female.  Based on that evidence, the eagles are neither pure scavengers or cowards.
12. A bald eagle can see a rabbit running about 3-miles away.  It has monocular and binocular visions, meaning it can look in two directions at once.
13. A great place to visit (after the pandemic) is the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.  Many of the facts above are found on their website (https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org).
14. A fun way to watch bald eagles close up is on the Decorah Eagle Cam.  The website is https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/.  You can also link to several other great bird cams from that site.

Bird of the Day - Common Goldeneye

One of my favorite diving ducks to reside in the Arrowhead Region is the common Goldeneye.  They are especially beautiful in the Grand Marais Harbor in the late winter and early spring.

The male have a green head with a striking white spot behind the bill.  His bill and upper back are black, while his lower back and sides are white.  The eyes of both genders are a bright gold color.

Goldeneye females have brown heads, with a yellow tipped bill.  Her back and sides are grayish-brown with some white spots.

Goldeneyes as well as many other birds lose their bright plumage after the spring mating season.  This is the time to see them in their finest colors.

I took the goldeneye pictures for this article more than a month ago while I was is Grand Marais.

Bird of the Day - Herring Gull

Many years ago, I volunteered with another naturalist in the Chippewa National Forest.  Just for fun, he would point at a herring or ring-billed gull, and tell his audience that he would give them a dollar if they could guess that bird.  Without fail, someone would answer "seagull."  He would then say, "No. There's no such thing as a seagull."  If you look it up any field guide, you will find that he was correct.

The bird that most people know as the seagull is actually the herring gull.  It is a large gull; adults have a white head and breast, a yellow bill and eyes, a grey back, and black wing tips with white spots.  The immature herring gull has a black bill tip, and the adult gulls have a red spot on the inferior (bottom) part of the bill.  There are many variations in the plumage of the herring gull, which depend on such things as age and time of the year.

In Great Lakes legends, the gulls were the spirits of the lost sailors.  It was considered good look to have one land on your ship, and bad luck to shoot one.

I took the pictures for this article more than a month ago in the Grand Marais Harbor.  There are numerous species of gulls in Grand Marais, Minnesota during the year, but the herring gull is the most common.  They tend to gather around large bodies of water, and you can't get any bigger than Lake Superior in the middle of North America.

Bird of the Day - Wood Duck

I am going to start a new feature on this blog called Bird of the Day.  I'll put out a series of short articles showing photographs of different birds.  Some of the pictures are recent, while others may be from years ago.

I was recently out walking my dog, and came across a family of wood ducks in a pond.  They were swimming in the water, standing on branches, and eating vegetation beneath the surface.  This seems to be a banner year for wood ducks, since I have seen them consistently in several locations.