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.