May 2024 - Say’s Phoebe

This slender, long-tailed flycatcher appears large-headed for a bird of its size. They are pale brownish gray above with a cinnamon belly, a blackish tail, and a gray breast. Like other phoebes, the Say’s Phoebe often wags or pumps its tail when perched, although not as frequently as Eastern and Black phoebes.

When foraging, Say’s often perch around eye level on exposed twigs, jumping up to snatch a flying insect and returning to the same or a nearby perch. They live in open country, avoid forests, and often gravitate to buildings. One or both phoebes often return to the same territory year after year, sometimes even reusing nests from the previous year, but it’s not clear if it is with the same mate.

The song of the Say’s Phoebe consists of 2 rather simple vocalizations repeated over and over: a clear, slurred whistle and a burry, hiccupping note. Each phrase is less than 1 second long, but they repeat the phrases for several minutes.

Birds breeding in Alaska, Canada, and the northern U.S. migrate south to Mexico or to the southwestern United States. Phoebes breeding in the Southwest do not migrate and are present year-round.

April 2024 - Ruddy Duck

Ruddy Ducks are compact, thick-necked waterfowl with seemingly oversized tails that they habitually hold upright. Breeding males are almost cartoonishly bold, with a sky-blue bill, shining white cheek patch, and gleaming chestnut body. They dive to feed on aquatic invertebrates, especially midge larvae and feed most actively at night, so you’ll often see Ruddy Ducks sleeping during the day with head tucked under a wing and tail cocked up.

Unlike most ducks, they form pairs only after arriving on the breeding grounds each year. Males perform unusual courtship displays in which they stick their tails straight up while striking their bills against their inflated necks, creating bubbles in the water as air is forced from their feathers. They punctuate the end of the display with a belch-like call.

Usually silent, the female gives a nasal call to beckon her brood, a high-pitched call to ward off amorous males, and a hiss when threatened.

They are short-distance migrants moving in small groups of 5–15 individuals, usually at night. Ruddys follow several migratory corridors fanning to the southwest, south, and southeast from their northern breeding grounds.

March 2024 - Northern Pintail

Northern Pintails are elegant, long-necked ducks with a slender profile. The tail is long and pointed, but it is much longer and more prominent on breeding males than on females and nonbreeding males. In flight, the wings are long and narrow.

Breeding male Northern Pintails stand out with a gleaming white breast and a white line down their chocolate brown head and neck. They dabble on the surface of the water and filter out seeds and insects with their bills. They also waddle at the edges of wetlands and through agricultural fields feeding on grain and insects. They are generally social birds and rarely fight with other ducks.

When it comes to breeding, Northern Pintails don't waste any time. They start nesting as soon as the ice starts to thaw, arriving by late April in places as far north as the Northwest Territories, Canada. They migrate at night at speeds around 48 miles per hour. The longest nonstop flight recorded for a Northern Pintail was 1,800 miles. A long-distance migrant and one of the first ducks to migrate south to wintering grounds in the southern half of the United States, Mexico, and Central America.

February 2024 - Long-eared Owl

Long-eared Owls are lanky owls that often seem to wear a surprised expression thanks to long ear tufts that typically point straight up like exclamation marks.

These nocturnal hunters roost in dense foliage, where their camouflage makes them hard to find, and forage over grasslands for small mammals.

The species is quite vocal, and makes an incredible variety of hoots, squeals, barks, and other noises. They are nimble flyers and hunt by making low, coursing passes over open ground with hearing so acute they can snatch prey in complete darkness.

Prey includes small mammals, voles, many kinds of mice, kangaroo rats, shrews, pocket gophers, and young rats or rabbits. They swallow their prey whole and then regurgitate the indigestible parts in pellets, usually one per day. They rarely hunt before true dark.

This owl winters throughout their breeding range, but some individuals migrate long distances (usually at night). Birds banded in the northern US and southern Canada have been recovered in Mexico. This species often roosts communally during the winter months.

January 2024 - Northern Bobwhite

Northern Bobwhites are small quail with rounded bodies, small heads, rounded wings, and short tails. An emphatic, whistled bob-white ringing from a grassy field or piney woods has long been a characteristic sound of summers in the Eastern countryside.

It’s quite a bit harder to spot a Northern Bobwhite, as the bird’s elegantly dappled plumage offers excellent camouflage. They travel in coveys and run across the ground from the shelter of one shrubby patch to another. When they are flushed, they explode into flight with quick wingbeats and then duck into the nearest cove. At night, coveys usually roost on the ground (or occasionally in vegetation) in a close-packed, outward-facing circle with their tails pointing toward the center, probably to conserve heat and stay on the alert.

The male and the female jointly choose a nest site on the ground or in low vegetation, usually within 65 feet of an opening such as a field or road. They work together to dig a scrape in the ground, about 6 inches across and 2 inches deep, and line it with grass and other dead vegetation. They often weave weeds and grasses into an arch to completely hide the nest from view. Nest building takes about 5 days.

December 2023 - White-winged Scoter

The White-winged Scoter is a large sea duck with a heavy, sloping bill and bold white patches in the wing. Males are velvety black with a dashing, upturned comma of white around the eye and an orange-tipped bill. Juveniles and females also have the large white wing patches but are otherwise dark brown with a paler belly.

In winter these birds eat mussels, holding their breath for a minute or more, deep underwater, while they wrestle the shellfish free from rocks. They breed around lakes of the far north, where their diet changes to crustaceans and insects. The brushy areas around the lakes are ideal for concealing the nest, which is sometimes 300 feet or so from the lakeshore.

Silent at sea except during the most vigorous courtship displays, when both sexes give a high-pitched, piping whistle. Like other scoter species, makes a whistling sound with the wings in flight.

The White-winged Scoter is a medium-distance migrant and is listed as a regular visitor to Iowa by the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union (IOU).

November 2023 - Tundra Swan

First described by Meriwether Lewis as “whistling swans”, a sound made by their wings, Tundra Swans are the smallest of the three swan species in North America. Still, it is larger and has a relatively longer necked than any goose. There are two subspecies of Tundra Swan:  The “whistling swan” is found in the Americas while the Eurasian subspecies is known as the Bewick’s Swan.

Adult Tundra Swans are entirely white while immature birds are grey tinged on the wings, head, and neck. Tundras are best differentiated from Trumpeter Swans by their smaller size and the shape and coloration of their bills. Tundra Swans have a yellow “blotch” on their bills just in front of their eyes. However, color intensity and blotch size can be variable.

The black area of the bill between the two eyes is straight to slightly rounded in Tundra Swans while it is pointed or V-shaped in Trumpeter Swans. The black facial skin of the Tundra almost appears to “pinch off” from the eye of the bird. In Trumpeters, that skin forms a smooth cone from the bill to the eye, no “pinch”.

The calls of male and female birds are varied and are smoother and higher pitched than those of Trumpeter Swans.

Tundra Swans nest in Alaska and Canada in tundra and along lakes, ponds, and pools of river deltas. The birds mainly eat plants although mollusks and arthropods provide some variety to their diet. During migration and on their wintering grounds the birds will glean agricultural waste (corn, soybeans) as well as consuming growing winter crops (winter wheat, barley) in addition to their staples of aquatic vegetation.

Tundra Swans are medium-distance migrants. They are rare to uncommon in winter over parts of the interior United States. Those breeding in eastern Alaska and Canada winter in the eastern Great Lakes and all along the East Coast but seem to concentrate in coastal mid-Atlantic states.

October 2023 - Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the largest raptors in North America. Gold feathers gleam on the back of its head and neck; a powerful beak and talons advertise its hunting prowess. They favor partially or completely open country, especially around mountains, hills, and cliffs. They use a variety of habitats ranging from arctic to desert, including tundra, grasslands, coniferous forests, farmland, and areas along rivers and streams.

For their first several years of life, young birds have neatly defined white patches at the base of the tail and in the wings. Golden Eagles prey mainly on small to medium-sized mammals, including hares, rabbits, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and marmots.

They are not big talkers. Their occasional calls tend to be high, weak, and whistled. You’re most likely to hear these birds during breeding season, when nestlings’ high-pitched begging calls can travel a mile or more, and adults announce food deliveries with a wip or a wonk.

Short to medium distance migrant, Northern breeders (in Alaska and Canada) migrate up to thousands of miles to wintering grounds; southern pairs tend to be resident year-round.

September 2023 - Broad-winged Hawk

A small, stocky raptor with black-and-white bands on the tail, the Broad-winged Hawk is a bird of the forest interior. They breed in large deciduous or mixed forests throughout the eastern United States and southern Canada and can be hard to see during the nesting season. They hunt small animals from perches underneath the forest canopy. When they spot prey, they swoop down to snatch it from the forest floor.

Their call is a plaintive, high-pitched whistle that lasts 2–4 seconds with a short first note and a long second note: kee-eee. They give this call on the nest and in flight throughout the year.

One of the greatest spectacles of migration is a swirling flock of Broad-winged Hawks on their way to South America. Also known as “kettles,” flocks can contain thousands of circling birds. Scientists used satellite transmitters to track four Broad-winged Hawks as they migrated south in the fall. The hawks migrated an average of 4,350 miles to northern South America, traveling 69 miles each day. Once on their wintering grounds the hawks did not move around much, staying on average within a 1-square-mile area.

August 2023 - Warbling Vireo

The rich song of the Warbling Vireo is a common sound in many parts of central and northern North America during summer. They have a good name—the males sing a fast, up-and-down, rollicking song that suits the word ‘warbling.’ It’s a great bird to learn by ear, because its song is its most distinctive feature.

Otherwise, Warbling Vireos are fairly plain birds with gray-olive upperparts and white underparts washed with faint yellow. They have a mild face pattern with a whitish stripe over the eye.

They stay high in deciduous treetops, where they move methodically among the leaves hunting for caterpillars. They forage sluggishly, intently peering at leaf surfaces from a single perch before pouncing or moving on. They often nest around people, including in neighborhoods, urban parks, orchards, and campgrounds.

Warbling Vireos are a medium- to long-distance, nocturnal migrant. Some birds in Mexico may be nonmigratory.

July 2023 - Sage Thrasher

This smallest of the thrashers is a widespread denizen of the West’s vast sagebrush steppe. Sage Thrashers are furtive creatures that hunt for insects beneath a protective sagebrush canopy. In spring the males sing seemingly endless cascades of song from tall perches, one singing male went on for over 22 minutes without taking a break! It breeds exclusively in shrub-steppe habitats—the vast, open landscapes of the interior West. They require relatively dense ground cover for concealment, but also some bare ground for foraging and for getting around on their feet, which they often do in preference to flying. Typical of thrashers, the Sage Thrasher is elusive when disturbed, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight. Knowing the habitat this species prefers, one has to wonder why one of these Thrashers was found singing on a dirt/manure pile in Plymouth County, Iowa in June 2013 and remained there for several days to the enjoyment of many local birders!

June 2023 - Wilson’s Phalarope

Wilson’s Phalaropes are small shorebirds with long legs, slender necks, and very thin, straight, long bills. They have sharply pointed wings.

In breeding season females are more colorful than males, with a dark line through the eye extending down the neck. Unlike most birds where the female has the predominant role in caring for young, female phalaropes desert their mates once they’ve laid eggs. While the male raises the young by himself, the female looks for other males with which to mate. This unusual mating system is called polyandry, and it’s reflected in the way the two sexes look, with the females more brightly colored than the males.

Phalaropes are the only shorebirds that regularly swim in deep water. They bob on the surface, often spinning in circles to bring small food items within reach of their slender bills.

A long-distance migrant, females depart breeding areas first, followed by males and finally juveniles. By mid-September, they are in South America.

May 2023 - American Pipit

The American Pipit is a small, slim songbird with a short, thin bill, and medium-length tail. Brownish or grayish above, pale below, with most subspecies showing streaks in the breast and sides. Pipits walk energetically through fields in search of food, strutting quickly forward with jerks of the head, almost chicken-like in their gait.

Nesting in the far north and on mountaintops, American Pipits can be found throughout the continent during migration or winter. In those seasons they are usually in flocks, walking on shores or plowed fields, wagging their tails as they go. Look and listen carefully for flocks in farm fields and other open areas, where pipits blend with the ground color or can be hidden by stubble.  Often they are detected first as they fly over high, giving sharp pi-pit calls. 

They have a long hind toe (called a hallux) and toenail, similar to longspurs. This adaptation probably helps them when walking and foraging on unstable ground, such as snowfields and mudflats. They are medium to long-distance migrants.

April 2023 - Bufflehead

Bufflehead are very small compact ducks with large rounded heads and short, wide bills. Males are striking black-and white from a distance. A closer look at the head shows glossy green and purple setting off the striking white patch. Females are a subdued gray-brown with a neat white patch on the cheek. They swim buoyantly and take flight by running a short distance on the surface. Bufflehead dive underwater to catch aquatic invertebrates and at the end of a dive, they may bob to the surface like a cork.

When courting females, male Buffleheads swim in front of them, rapidly bobbing their heads up and down. They nest in old woodpecker holes, particularly those made by Northern Flickers, in the forests of northern North America. They are seldom seen on dry land: females walk only when they lead their ducklings from the nest to the water or when they’re forced to switch ponds with their ducklings.

Medium-distance migrant and those that breed west of the Rockies migrate to the Pacific Coast, while those that breed in central Canada migrate east or south.

March 2023 - Common Merganser

Common Mergansers are streamlined ducks that float gracefully down small rivers or shallow shorelines. The males are striking with clean white bodies, dark green heads, and a slender, serrated red bill. The elegant gray-bodied females have rich, cinnamon heads with a short crest.

These large ducks nest in hollow trees. After the chicks leave the nest in summer, the female stays with them as they grow up. Look for them leading ducklings from eddy to eddy along streams or standing on a flat rock in the middle of the current.

They mostly eat fish, but they also eat aquatic invertebrates (including insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and worms), frogs, small mammals, birds, and plants. They find their prey by sight, often probing sediments and underwater stones with their slender bills, which have sharp serrations for grasping slippery prey. 

In winter, mergansers form large flocks on inland reservoirs and rivers. Short-distance to medium-distance migrant, they are often the last waterfowl migrant to move south in the fall and the first to return north in the spring.

February 2023 - Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle has been the national emblem of the United States since 1782. These regal birds aren’t really bald, but their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast to their chocolate-brown body and wings.

Once abundant in North America, the species became rare in the mid-to-late 1900s—the victim of trapping, shooting, and poisoning as well as reproductive failures caused by pesticides. Its recovery is a spectacular conservation success story as numbers have increased by nearly 4% per year between 1966 and 2019 and by the late 1990s, breeding populations of Bald Eagles could be found throughout most of North America.

They build some of the largest of all bird nests—typically 5 to 6 feet in diameter and 2 to 4 feet tall and may be reused (and added to) year after year.

They are powerful fliers—soaring, gliding, and flapping over long distances. In one of several spectacular courtship displays, a male and female fly high into the sky, lock talons, and cartwheel downward together, breaking off at the last instant to avoid crashing to earth.

For such a powerful bird, the Bald Eagle emits surprisingly weak-sounding calls—usually a series of high-pitched whistling or piping notes. Immature Bald Eagles spend the first four years of their lives in nomadic exploration of vast territories and can fly hundreds of miles per day. Resident to long-distance migrant, migration patterns depend on age, breeding location, and food availability

January 2023 - Eastern Screech-Owl

If a mysterious trill catches your attention in the night, bear in mind the spooky sound may come from an owl no bigger than a pint glass. Common east of the Rockies in woods, suburbs, and parks, the Eastern Screech-Owl is found wherever trees are, and they’re even willing to nest in backyard nest boxes.

These supremely camouflaged birds hide out in nooks and tree crannies through the day, so train your ears and listen for them at night. They can be either mostly gray or mostly reddish-brown (rufous). Whatever the overall color, they are patterned with complex bands and spots that give the bird excellent camouflage against tree bark. Eyes are yellow.

Smaller birds can help you find screech-owls during the day. Listen for a commotion of Blue Jays, chickadees, and titmice—they may be mobbing a screech-owl (or other raptor), swooping around it with noisy calls. This can be enough of a nuisance to make the owl move on, and it alerts other birds to the predator’s presence and teaches younger members of the flock about the danger.

Screech-owls regurgitate the bones, fur, and feathers of their prey in an oval pellet, usually once or twice a day and the ground beneath habitual owl roosts can be littered with pellets. It is non-migratory.

December 2022 - Common Loon

The eerie calls of Common Loons echo across clear lakes of the northern wilderness. After sundown, many North Woods lakes reverberate with the echoes of loon wails and yodels and tremolos. Summer adults are regally patterned in black and white. In winter, they are plain gray above and white below. They are less suited to land, and typically come ashore only to nest. In flight, notice their shallow wingbeats and unwavering, bee-lined flight path. They are powerful, agile divers that catch small fish in fast underwater chases. Their fishing pursuits underwater are something to behold. Loons shoot through the water like a torpedo, propelled by powerful thrusts of feet located near the rear of their body. When their quarry changes direction, loons can execute an abrupt flip-turn that would make Olympic swimmers jealous: they extend one foot laterally as a pivot brake and kick with the opposite foot to turn 180 degrees in a fraction of a second. They are a medium-distance migrant from northern lakes to coastal ocean waters and can be seen locally during migration.

November 2022 - Tufted Titmouse

A little gray bird with an echoing voice, the Tufted Titmouse is common in eastern deciduous forests and a frequent visitor to feeders. The large black eyes, small, round bill, and brushy crest gives these birds a quiet but eager expression that matches the way they flit through canopies, hang from twig-ends, and drop in to bird feeders. When a titmouse finds a large seed, you’ll see it carry the prize to a perch and crack it with sharp whacks of its stout bill. They nest in cavities but aren’t able to excavate them on their own. They use natural holes and old nest holes made by several woodpecker species, including large species such as Pileated Woodpecker and Northern Flicker. Additionally, Tufted Titmice also nest in artificial structures including nest boxes, fence posts, and metal pipes. The Tufted Titmouse’s song is a fast-repeated clear whistle: peter-peter-peter which is repeated up to 11 times in succession. Titmouse calls are nasal and mechanical. A scratchy, chickadee-like tsee-day-day-day is the most common. Cornell Lab Range Maps show it as a resident species in Eastern and Southern Iowa and it is a rare visitor to western Iowa. The above image kindly provided by Todd Wheelock was taken at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center on Tuesday, 25 October 2022.

October 2022 - Chimney Swift

The “flying cigar” silhouette of the Chimney Swift is a common sight all summer in the skies over eastern cities and towns as it nimbly maneuvers over rooftops, fields, and rivers to catch insects. They grab large insects with their bills; small ones go right down the throat. This enigmatic little bird spends almost its entire life airborne. When it lands, it can’t perch—it clings to vertical walls inside chimneys or in hollow trees or caves. Their nest is a half-saucer of loosely woven twigs, stuck together and cemented to the chimney wall or rock face with the bird’s glue-like saliva from a gland under its tongue. Both parents independently contribute to the nest by breaking off small twigs with their feet while flying through branches and returning to the nest site with the twigs in their bills. The young outgrow the nest after about two weeks and have to cling to the nearby wall, in many cases even before their eyes are open. Be sure to keep an ear out for their distinctive, high-pitched chattering calls—they often call on the wing while foraging. During migration, thousands of swifts roost together in chimneys, funneling into them at dusk in spectacular tornado-like flocks. A long-distance migrant, they migrate to South America each winter flying across the Gulf of Mexico or skirting it along the Texas coast.

September 2022 - Least Tern

Everything about the Least Tern is sharp, from its brilliant yellow bill, to its crisp black-and-white head pattern, to its slender pointed wings and forked tail. This smallest of the world's terns is a noisy presence around its breeding colonies and in coastal waters or broad inland rivers. They fly with jerky wingbeats, hover briefly as they take aim, and then dive into the water to catch small fish. Breeding males often bring these fish back to feed their mates, leading to graceful aerial displays. Their nest is simply a scrape in the sand or other substrate, sometimes with pebbles, shells, or bits of vegetation added. The scrape typically measures about 4 inches across by 0.8 inches deep. The interior population of the least tern has declined due to loss of habitat from dam construction and river channelization on major rivers throughout the Mississippi, Missouri, and Rio Grande river systems. This species can be found locally in season, on Missouri River sandbars in the Ponca State Park area.

August 2022 - Limpkin

The gangly, brown-and-white Limpkin looks a bit like a giant rail or perhaps a young night-heron. Its long bill is bent and twisted at the tip, an adaptation for removing snails from the shell. Limpkins are tropical wetland birds whose range reaches into Florida. This bird’s haunting cries, heard mostly at night, are otherworldly and unforgettable.

Limpkins specialize in eating apple snails, which they hunt both day and night. They often leave telltale piles of snail shells at the edges of freshwater wetlands where hunting is good.

The Limpkin's bill is uniquely adapted to foraging on apple snails. The closed bill has a gap just before the tip that makes the bill act like tweezers. The tip itself is often curved slightly to the right so it can be slipped into the right-handed curve of the snail’s shell. Limpkins stalk snails by slowly walking through shallow water or on top of floating vegetation.

Limpkins are not migratory. Dispersing individuals are occasionally found far from range, especially during severe drought. Both Iowa and Nebraska have recorded the first-ever confirmed sightings of this species in 2022. One of those sightings in Iowa was at Little Storm Lake!

July 2022 - Least Bittern

The furtive Least Bittern is often little more than a voice in the reeds that is frustratingly difficult to locate. But these diminutive herons reward patience and will charm birders persistent enough to discover them in their wetland haunts. They’re smartly clad in chestnut, buff, and black, have long legs and toes, daggerlike bills, and long necks that they often keep drawn in, giving a hunched appearance. When alarmed, it freezes in place with its bill pointing up, turns both eyes toward the source of alarm, and sometimes sways to resemble windblown marsh vegetation. Perhaps surprisingly, they use areas with deeper water than the much larger, longer-legged American Bittern. They can do this because their long, agile toes and curved claws allow them to grasp reeds and hunt small prey while suspended from these precarious over-water perches. When hunting, the birds stand (or hang from reeds) motionless near the water’s edge, jabbing at prey with the bill. Is a medium- to long-distance migrant and found locally in season.

June 2022 - Ovenbird

The Ovenbird's rapid-fire teacher-teacher-teacher song rings out in summer hardwood forests from the Mid-Atlantic states to northeastern British Columbia. It’s so loud that it may come as a surprise to find this inconspicuous warbler strutting like a tiny chicken across the dim forest floor. Its olive-brown back and spotted breast are excellent disguise as it gleans invertebrates from the leaf litter. Its nest, a leaf-covered dome resembling an old-fashioned outdoor oven, gives the Ovenbird its name. Ovenbirds spend much of their time foraging on the ground, often walking with a herky-jerky, wandering stroll that is unlike most terrestrial songbirds. Territorial males are very vocal and often sing from tree branches, occasionally quite high up. This is one of the few songbirds that habitually sings in the heat of midafternoon. Long-distance migrant, Ovenbirds breeding east of the Appalachians overwinter in Florida and the Caribbean, while those breeding further west fly to Mexico and Central America. Found locally in season at Stone Park, Adams Homestead, Crystal Cove, and Bacon Creek.

May 2022 - Spotted Sandpiper

The dapper Spotted Sandpiper makes a great ambassador for the notoriously difficult-to-identify shorebirds. They occur all across North America, they are distinctive in both looks and actions, and they're handsome. In breeding season Spotted Sandpipers have bold dark spots on their bright white breast and an orange bill. Spotted Sandpipers are often solitary and walk with a distinctive teeter, bobbing their tails up and down constantly. When foraging they walk quickly, crouching low, occasionally darting toward prey, all the while bobbing the tail. In flight, Spotted Sandpipers have quick, snappy wingbeats interspersed with glides, keeping their wings below horizontal. Look for Spotted Sandpipers nearly anywhere near water—along streambanks, rivers, ponds, lakes, and beaches, particularly on rocky shores. Listen for a few high whistled notes as they take off from the shoreline.

April 2022 - Common Nightingale

The common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is the bird of legend. From Aristophanes’s 414 BC comedy The Birds to the present day this is the bird, the muse of writers throughout history and across the world. This small passerine, a member of the Old World flycatchers (Muscicapidae), has a powerful, beautiful song. The song has been described as one of the most beautiful sounds in nature, inspiring songs, fairy tales, opera, books, and a great deal of poetry. The birds are so named because they frequently sing at night as well as during the day.

 It is slightly larger (5.9 to 6.5 inches) than the European robin. It is plain brown above, buff to white below, and has a reddish tail. It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in forest and scrub in Europe and the Palearctic, and wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are three subspecies. It is not found naturally in the Americas.

 It nests on or near the ground in dense vegetation. In the U.K., the bird is at the northern limit of its range which has contracted in recent years, placing it on the red list for conservation. By contrast, the European breeding population is estimated at between 3.2 and 7 million pairs, giving it green conservation status (least concern).

So why is this Old World species our Bird of the Month? Well, it is the stuff of legend and the nightingale is the national bird of Ukraine. One legend tells how nightingales once only lived in India, when one nightingale visited Ukraine. Hearing sad songs from the people, the nightingale sang its song to cheer them up. The people responded with happy songs, and since then, nightingales have visited Ukraine every spring to hear Ukrainian songs. National poet Taras Shevchenko observed that "even the memory of the nightingale's song makes man happy."

March 2022 - Sharp-shinned Hawk

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is a daring, acrobatic flier which often appears in a blur of motion and disappears in a flurry of feathers. These raptors have distinctive proportions: long legs, short wings, and very long tails, which they use to speed through dense woods to surprise their prey, typically songbirds. They may also pounce from low perches. Songbirds make up about 90 percent of the Sharp-shinned Hawk’s diet. Birds the size of American Robins or smaller (especially warblers, sparrows, and thrushes) are the most frequent prey. They carry their prey to a stump or low branch to pluck it before eating.

Backyard bird feeders attract Sharpies Hawks from time to time but studies indicate that feeders don’t greatly increase a bird’s chances of being taken by a Sharp-shinned Hawk. When flying across open areas they have a distinctive flap-and-glide flight style and their small heads do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip.

Their typical call is a high-pitched, frantic kik-kik-kik which is used as an alarm call, during courtship, and by young birds just before they fledge. They’re easiest to spot in fall on their southward migration, or occasionally at winter feeders.

February 2022 - Snowy Owl

Thick feathers for insulation from Arctic cold make Snowy Owls North America’s heaviest owl, typically weighing about 4 pounds. They spend summers far north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings, ptarmigan, and other prey in 24-hour daylight. In years of lemming population booms they can raise double or triple the usual number of young. Unlike most owls, Snowy Owls are diurnal and they will hunt at all hours during the continuous daylight of an Arctic summer. They may eat more than 1,600 lemmings in a single year. Both sexes, but particularly the males, make low, powerful, slightly rasping hoots. They’re often given two at a time but may include up to six hoots in a row. These can be heard for up to 7 miles on the tundra, and other owls often answer with hoots of their own. Snowy Owls do a lot of sitting. They sit still in the same spot for hours, occasionally swiveling their head or leaning forward and blinking their big, yellow eyes to get a closer look at something. During irruptive years, which may be attributed to lemming cycles farther north, they can flush south throughout the lower 48 states. They are a bird that can get even non-birders to come out for a look.

January 2022 - Common Redpoll

Common Redpolls are brown and white birds with heavily streaked sides. Look for a small red forehead patch, black feathering around a yellow bill, and two white wingbars. Males have a pale red vest on the chest and upper flanks. They are energetic little birds that forage in flocks, gleaning, fluttering, or hanging upside down in the farthest tips of tree branches. They move frenetically, foraging on seeds in weedy fields or small trees one minute and swirling away in a mass of chattering birds the next. Their buzzy zap and rising dreeee calls are distinctive. Like many finches, they have an undulating, up-and-down pattern when they fly. Most people in North America get to see Common Redpolls only in the winter, when the birds come to feeders or forage on small seeds in trees or in weedy fields. They’re particularly likely to come to nyjer feeders, though they may also take black oil sunflower or scavenge opened seeds left behind by larger-billed birds. An irruptive migrant, they move south irregularly in winter following patterns in food supply. Along with Pine Siskins they are among the best known finches to do this.

December 2021 - White-winged Crossbill

A gem of the northern woods, White-winged Crossbills often first appear as a bounding, chattering flock moving between spruce trees. Rose-pink males and greenish females and immatures spend most of their time prying into spruce cones with their twisted bills. Flocks work around treetops animatedly, hanging upside down like parrots, challenging others that come too close, then abruptly flying off to the next tree. They also descend to the ground to gather grit for digestion. To extract seeds from conifer cones, they usually grasp the cone with one foot and bite the cone where the scales meet, opening a gap between the scales, which can be widened with more action of the bill and by twisting the head. The seed can then be extracted using the tongue and longer upper mandible. They are an irruptive species and when cone crops fail in their normal range, they can move far to the south. Ornamental spruces planted in cemeteries and parks often attract winter wanderers, and they also sometimes show up at feeders. Both males and females sing a series of trills interspersed with rattles, chirps, and warbles. The commonly heard call from perched and flying birds is a rapid chut-chut-chut-chut similar to flight calls of redpolls.

November 2021 - Blue Jay

This common, large songbird is familiar to many people, with its perky crest; blue, white, and black plumage; and noisy calls. Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds. Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping spread oak trees after the last glacial period. They make a large variety of calls that carry long distances and the most often heard is a loud jeer. Other calls include clear whistled notes and gurgling sounds. Most calls are produced while perched within a tree. Usually flies across open areas silently, especially during migration. The vocalization most often considered a song is the “whisper song,” a soft, quiet conglomeration of clicks, chucks, whirrs, whines, liquid notes, and elements of other calls; a singing bout may last longer than 2 minutes. A resident or short distance migrant and can be found locally year round.

October 2021 - Ruby-crowned Kinglet

A tiny bird seemingly overflowing with energy, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet forages almost frantically through lower branches of shrubs and trees. Its habit of constantly flicking its wings is a key identification clue. Smaller than a warbler or chickadee, this plain green-gray bird has a white eye-ring and a white bar on the wing. The male’s brilliant ruby crown patch usually stays hidden—your best chance to see it is to find an excited male singing in spring or summer.

This tiny bird lays a very large clutch of eggs—there can be up to 12 in a single nest. Males sing a jumbled but distinctive song that builds to an incredibly loud ending when you consider how small these birds are. The song lasts about 5 seconds. It starts with soft, high notes that accelerate into a musical twittering, and then abruptly shifts into a loud series of 2- or 3-parted notes.

A short-distance migrant, they breed across far northern North America as well as the western mountains. Most migrate to the southern and southwestern United States and Mexico for the winter and can be found locally during migration.

September 2021 - Northern Parula

Northern Parulas are small wood-warblers (about the size of a Kinglet) with a short tail and a thin, pointy bill. A warbler of the upper canopy, the Northern Parula flutters at the edges of branches plucking insects.

This bluish-gray warbler with yellow highlights breeds in forests laden with Spanish moss or beard lichens, from Florida to the boreal forest, and it's sure to give you "warbler neck." It hops through branches bursting with a rising buzzy trill that pinches off at the end. Its white eye crescents, chestnut breast band, and yellow-green patch on the back set it apart from other warblers. Adult females are a bit paler and typically lack the male's breast band.

Before this species received the name Northern Parula (a diminutive form of parus, meaning little titmouse), Mark Catesby, an English naturalist, called it a "finch creeper". John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson called it a "blue yellow-backed warbler." Long-distance migrants, Parulas spend the winter months in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. They can be seen locally during migration.

August 2021 - American Goldfinch

This handsome little finch, the state bird of Iowa, is common at feeders, where it takes primarily sunflower and niger seeds. They are active, acrobatic finches that balance on the seedheads of thistles, dandelions, and other plants to pluck seeds.

They have a bouncy flight during which they make their po-ta-to-chip calls. Spring males are brilliant yellow and shiny black with a bit of white. Females and all winter birds are more dull but identifiable by their conical bill; pointed, notched tail; wingbars; and lack of streaking.

They breed later than most North American birds and wait to nest until June or July when milkweed, thistle, and other plants have produced their fibrous seeds, which goldfinches incorporate into their nests and also feed their young. They are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.

When Brown-headed Cowbirds lay eggs in an American Goldfinch nest, the cowbird egg may hatch but the nestling seldom survives longer than three days. The cowbird chick simply can’t survive on the all-seed diet that goldfinches feed their young. They are short distance migrants and found locally year round.

July 2021 - Common Gallinule

The Common Gallinule swims like a duck and walks atop floating vegetation like a rail with its long and slender toes. This boldly marked rail has a brilliant red shield over the bill and a white racing stripe down its side. It squawks and whinnies from thick cover in marshes and ponds from Canada to Chile, peeking in and out of vegetation. This species was formerly called the Common Moorhen. It is most likely to make its presence known vocally first, but don't worry, this rail is easier to see than most. Listen for a strange clucking and whinnying coming from thick marsh vegetation and start scanning the edges. It often peeks in and out of vegetation, either walking atop vegetation or swimming along the edge. It may also forage alongside American Coots in open water—its red shield sticking out like a sore thumb. Short to medium-distance migrant and leaves the northern parts of its range in the fall for ice free areas farther south. Is a regular visitor to Iowa but rare in NW Iowa.

June 2021 - Louisiana Waterthrush

The ringing song of the Louisiana Waterthrush, in cadence so like the rushing streams that are its home, is one of the first signs of spring in eastern North America. Its brown plumage and bold streaking help explain why this member of the warbler family has the word “thrush” in its name. At all seasons, this species stays close to moving water—especially forested streams and creeks—and bobs its rear end almost constantly. Nests are typically within recesses along a streambank, often beneath a log or within a root tangle on the southern side of the stream. They make the foundation of the cup nest from plant stems, pine needles, wet leaves, and dry leaves. Mud, often collected from the stream bed, holds the outer portion of the nest together. Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes can be hard to tell apart. Louisiana favors the running water, while Northern more often uses still or stagnant water. The supercilium is thicker in Louisiana and tends to flare at the rear. Found locally in season at Stone Park.

May 2021 - Black-crowned Night-Heron

Black-crowned Night-herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water and are the most widespread heron in the world. They give a barking squawk when disturbed and vigorously defend feeding and nesting territories, sometimes striking with their bills and grabbing each other’s bills or wings. Resident to medium-distance migrant, they spend the winter in southern and coastal portions of their breeding range as well as across Mexico and Central America, where they use mangroves, marshes, swamps, lagoons, and flooded rice fields. Are found locally occasionally, during migration.

April 2021 - Cinnamon Teal

The male Cinnamon Teal shimmers with a rich ruddy plumage, made all the more incandescent by the summer sun slanting across reedy wetlands in interior western North America. Males molt this brilliant plumage soon after breeding, becoming much more similar to female and immature birds. The breeding male has a red eye, long dark bill, and mostly vivid rusty plumage, with brownish back, and white underwing. Female, immature, and nonbreeding males are mostly rich brownish overall. All adults have a sky-blue patch in open wing, similar to other teal. They feed much like other dabbling ducks, taking most of their food at or near the surface by rapidly opening and closing the bill to take seeds, aquatic vegetation, zooplankton, and insects. Look for them feeding at the fringes of shallow wetlands, among or at the edges of rushes, sedges, and reeds. Although a more western species, it is considered a regular visitor to Iowa during migration, but in very limited numbers.

March 2021 - Ring-necked Pheasant

Ring-necked Pheasants stride across open fields and weedy roadsides in the U.S. and southern Canada. Males sport iridescent copper-and-gold plumage, a red face, and a crisp white collar; their rooster-like crowing can be heard from up to a mile away. The brown females blend in with their field habitat. Introduced to the U.S. from Asia in the 1880s, pheasants quickly became one of North America’s most popular upland game birds. Watch for them along roads or bursting into flight from brushy cover. Pheasants, along with most members of the grouse family, have specialized, powerful breast muscles—the “white meat” that you find on a chicken. These muscles deliver bursts of power that allow the birds to escape trouble in a hurry, flushing nearly vertically into the air and reaching speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour. They usually walk or run and only occasionally resort to flying, usually when disturbed at close range. They are nonmigratory and found locally year round.

February 2021 - Lapland Longspur

Despite being one of the most abundant breeding songbirds in North America, the Lapland Longspur is remarkably easy to overlook. It breeds in the remote High Arctic and winters in vast agricultural fields that are often devoid of other birdlife in that season. The vast majority of North American birders encounter Lapland Longspurs in the winter months, when the birds filter down into southern Canada and the northern United States. Their name refers to the Lapland region of Scandinavia, which is partly in Sweden and partly in Finland. The name “longspur” refers to the unusually long hind claw on this species and others in its genus. Breeding males have a bold black face bordered by a swooping yellow-white line and a rich rufous patch on the back of the neck. Females are similar but lack the extensive black. In winter, males and females retain an echo of face pattern but lack the blocks of color, becoming overall pale brown and streaked like the one in the above picture found locally in season.

January 2021 - Great Horned Owl

With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics. Great Horned Owls are nocturnal and their extremely soft feathers insulate them against the cold winter weather and help them fly very quietly in pursuit of prey. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. If you hear an agitated group of cawing American Crows, they may be mobbing a Great Horned Owl. Found locally at Stone Park, Owego Wetlands, and Adams Homestead.

December 2020 - Ring-billed Gull

The Ring-billed Gull is a medium-sized gull with a fairly short, slim bill. When the gull perches, its long, slender wings extend well past its square-tipped tail. In flight, the birds move lightly on easy flaps of their fairly slender wings. During their first two years, Ring-billed Gulls are a motley brown and gray with a pink bill and legs. Ring-billed Gulls are more commonly seen inland than most other gull species. They can be found at reservoirs, lakes, ponds, streams, landfills, parking lots, and shopping malls. Able to thrive on almost any available source of nutrition, Ring-billed Gulls eat mostly fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, grain, and garbage. They nest in colonies numbering from 20 to tens of thousands of pairs and build their nests on the ground near freshwater, usually on low, sparsely vegetated terrain. Short- to medium-distance migrant. Many birds migrate along coasts, including the Great Lakes, and major rivers. Ring-billed Gulls spend the winter throughout the southern United States.

November 2020 - Surf Scoter

The black-and-white patches on the heads of male Surf Scoters prompted this sea duck’s nickname “old skunkhead,” although the big, sloping orange bill is at least as distinctive. In winter, look for these dark-bodied sea ducks (and the browner females) near to shore, defying ocean waves with a quick dive just before they break. They breed in far northern Canada and Alaska, where the boreal forest gives way to open tundra.

Look for this widespread and numerous sea duck in winter along both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. They're often in large flocks, and may be with with all-dark Black Scoters and larger White-winged Scoters, so it’s worth looking carefully through groups, especially if you have or can borrow a spotting scope. Despite their seagoing habits, they do occur inland on lakes and reservoirs during migration, especially during storms (rain with fog or low ceiling is ideal) as they wait for better weather. Stopovers on lakes inland apparently are mostly for resting, not for feeding.

October 2020 - Swainson’s Hawk

A classic species of the open country of the Great Plains and the West, Swainson’s Hawks soar on narrow wings or perch on fence posts and irrigation spouts. These elegant gray, white, and brown hawks hunt rodents in flight, wings held in a shallow V, or even run after insects on the ground. In fall, they take off for Argentine wintering grounds—one of the longest migrations of any American raptor. Groups of soaring or migrating hawks are called “kettles.” When it comes to forming kettles, Swainson’s Hawks are overachievers: they form flocks numbering in the tens of thousands, often mixing with Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged Hawks, and Mississippi Kites to create a virtual river of migrating birds. Can be found locally in open areas during migration.

September 2020 - Yellow Warbler

North America has more than 50 species of warblers, but few combine brilliant color and easy viewing quite like the Yellow Warbler. In summer, the buttery yellow males sing their sweet whistled song from willows, wet thickets, and roadsides across almost all of North America. The females and immatures are not as bright, and lack the male’s rich chestnut streaking, but their overall warm yellow tones, unmarked faces, and prominent black eyes help pick them out. They eat mostly insects that they pick from foliage or capture on short flights or while hovering to reach leaves. Yellow Warblers build their nests in the vertical fork of a bush or small tree such as willow, hawthorn, raspberry, white cedar, dogwood, and honeysuckle. The nests of the Yellow Warbler are frequently parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird. The warbler often builds a new nest directly on top of the parasitized one. Found locally in season.

August 2020 - Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A flash of green and red, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is eastern North America’s sole breeding hummingbird. These brilliant, tiny, precision-flying creatures glitter like jewels in the full sun, then vanish with a zip toward the next nectar source. Feeders and flower gardens are great ways to attract these birds, and some people turn their yards into buzzing clouds of hummingbirds each summer. It beats its wings about 53 times a second and it’s extremely short legs prevent it from walking or hopping. They normally place their nest on a branch of a deciduous or coniferous tree; however, these birds are accustomed to human habitation and have been known to nest on loops of chain, wire, and extension cords. Enjoy them while they’re around; by early fall they’re bound for Central America, with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. Found locally in season.

July 2020 - Red-headed Woodpecker

The gorgeous Red-headed Woodpecker is so boldly patterned it’s been called a “flying checkerboard,” with an entirely crimson head, a snow-white body, and half white, half inky black wings. These birds don’t act quite like most other woodpeckers: they’re adept at catching insects in the air, and they eat lots of acorns and beech nuts, often hiding away extra food in tree crevices for later. They give all kinds of chirps, cackles, and other raucous calls. Their most common call is a shrill, hoarse tchur, like a Red-bellied Woodpecker’s but higher-pitched and less rolling. Irregular short-distance or partial migrant, Red-headed Woodpeckers usually leave the northern and western parts of their range for winter, but where they go depends on acorn and beech nut crops. Can be found locally in areas such as Owego Wetlands, Stone State Park, and Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve.

June 2020 - Great Crested Flycatcher

A large, assertive flycatcher with rich reddish-brown accents and a lemon-yellow belly, the Great Crested Flycatcher is a common bird of Eastern woodlands. Its habit of hunting high in the canopy means it’s not particularly conspicuous—until you learn it’s very distinctive call, an emphatic rising whistle. Males and females share four basic daytime calls. The most characteristic and frequent call is a loud, penetrating whee-eep whistle that rises quickly and ends abruptly. They are sit-and-wait predators, sallying from high perches (usually near the tops of trees) after large insects, returning to the same or a nearby perch. They are the only Eastern flycatchers that nest in cavities and they weave shed snakeskin into their nest. Medium- to long-distance migrant (it’s possible that individuals in southern Florida do not migrate). Found locally at Bacon Creek and Stone State Park.

May 2020 - Semipalmated Plover

A small dark shorebird with a single band across its chest, the Semipalmated Plover is the most common plover seen on migration in most areas. Searches for prey visually, runs several steps, stops, stares, and then pecks or quickly snatches at prey. Favors open habitats on migration including broad mudflats, flooded fields or even plowed fields with other shorebirds. On its breeding grounds in the north, it avoids the tundra habitat chosen by most shorebirds, nesting instead on gravel bars along rivers or ponds. In such surroundings, its seemingly bold pattern actually helps to make the plover inconspicuous, by breaking up its outline against the varied background. The name "semipalmated" refers to partial webbing between the bird's toes. Found locally at places like Snyder’s Bend during migration.

January 2020 - Prairie Falcon

Prairie Falcons are large falcons about the size of a peregrine. They have pointed wings and medium-long tails and occur in wide-open habitats of the West, including sagebrush, desert, prairie, agricultural fields, and alpine meadows up to about 11,000 feet elevation.

They nest on ledges on sheer rocky cliffs. Prairie Falcons often hunt from low altitudes, flapping powerfully across open areas and surprising prey such as ground squirrels and other small mammals and birds as they hug the ground contours to stay out of view. In flight, look for the dark triangle of “armpit” feathers that distinguish it from other light-colored falcons. Resident to short-distance migrant, most Prairie Falcons don’t migrate directly to wintering areas, but instead “wander” east or even north of their breeding grounds before moving south and is occasionally found locally at these times.

December 2019 - Red Crossbill

A fascinating finch of coniferous woodlands, the Red Crossbill forages on nutritious seeds in pine, hemlock, Douglas-fir, and spruce cones, sometimes in flocks which often fly in unison from tree to tree. Their unusual, twisted bill that crosses when closed allows them to break into unopened cones, giving them an advantage over other finch species. A bird's biting muscles are stronger than the muscles used to open the bill, so the Red Crossbill places the tips of its slightly open bill under a cone scale and bites down. The crossed tips of the bill push the scale up, exposing the seed inside. Their song is a variably sweet, loose trill or warble and adult males sometimes perch on top of conifers to sing and watch for predators. Erratic dispersals (irruptions) often occur during years with poor cone crops, but not a true migrant. Has been found locally at Graceland Cemetery.