More Sabiston's Hawk activity...

The Swainson's Hawk pictured above was recently passed along to my partner Pat by a friend of hers in Barrie, Ontario, north of Toronto, Ontario.

This bird has probably just finished a winter migration from perhaps Alaska or Yukon to Argentina and back up again, a trip possibly of 20,000 kms!  Swainson's Hawks are noted for the longest migrations of any raptor in North and South America.

I have spotted them in Aurora, Ontario for the past two years and except to see them again this year.

More to come shortly, I hope...

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BarrytheBirder

Evening Grosbeaks declining...

 

Male / Photo by Bellmare Celine / Macauley Library

Female / Photo by BarrytheBirder

                                                                                                  Image - Birds Canada

Birds Canada has selected the Evening Grosbeak as its 2026 Avian Ambassador.   83% of the Evening Grosbeak population has been declining across its range in lower Canada and the U.S.A. since the 1970s.   Go to Birds Canada for more information.

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BarrytheBirder

Brant Geese heading to northern Canada...

Airforce Beach - Comox, Vancouver Island

Photos by Dave Kemp

Brant Geese  are seen returning to Kye Bay/Airforce Beach, near Comox, Vancouver Island.   The Brants are in search of their favourite foods: eelgrass and sea lettuce.   These geese are heading north to their summer breeding grounds in northern Canada, as well as northern Greenland and Russia.

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BarrytheBirder

American Crow (Corrus Brachyrynchos)

                                                                                                  Photos by BarrytheBirder

There are approximately 40 to 50 known species of crows and ravens in the world, all of which belong to the genus Corvus within the Corvidae family.  The term 'crow' often refers to smaller, black species, but this genus this genus also includes larger, glossy blackbirds known as ravens, rooks and jackdaws, covering more than 45 species overall.

Crows are found worldwide, inhabiting different regions of North America, parts of South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.   They are not found in the high Arctic or Antarctica.

America Crow, Fish Crow, Hooded Crow, Carrion Crow, and Large-billed Crow are common examples of the species.

The American Crow is a large bird L 24" (61cm), with a large head and long heavy bill.   It is common throughout most of its normal range in a broad variety of habitats.   Its normal range is from north-central British Columbia across Canada to Newfoundland. south to California, east Texas and Florida.

Common Crows winter in southern Canada and across most of the U.S.A.

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                                                                                                             BarrytheBirder

Doves and pigeons in North America...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Mourning Dove

There are three pigeons and four doves to be found in lower Canada, the U.S.A, Mexico and central America.   One pigeon and one dove are most notable: the Rock Pigeon and the Mourning Dove.   I have no affection for Rock Doves, but I am very partial to the Mourning Dove, and have been so ever since first becoming aware of them.

The Mourning Dove has a trim body and a long tail that tapers to a point.   It has black spots on the upper-wings wings and a pinkish wash below.   In flight, they show white tips on their outer tail feathers.

The Mourning Dove's call is a mournful 'oowoo - woo - woo - woo', and its wings produce a fluttering whistle as the bird takes flight.

It is a abundant and widespread dove, found in a wide variety of habitats.

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Barry the Birder

Bald Eagles on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Photos by Dave Kemp

Flowers at Filburg Park, Vancouver Island

Above and below

Snowdrops

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BarrytheBirder

Eagles on Vancouver Island...

 Photos by Dave Kemp

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle Immature

Full B.C. moon

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Barry Wallace

My first Barred Owl photos...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Hereabout then are some of the first photos I ever took of a Barred Owl, near to where I lived in King City, Ontario, just north of Toronto, Ontario.   It was on November 30 of 2018, and I published them shortly thereafter in this blog space.   

Barred Owls (Strix varia) are seen only by those who seek them out in their dark retreats, usually thick groves of trees in lowland forests.   They rest quietly during the day, coming out at night to feed on rodents, birds, frogs, and crayfish.   If disturbed, they will fly easily from one grove of trees to another.

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BarrytheBirder

Tricoloured Heron (Egretta tricolor)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Tricolored Heron

This is a bird I most familiar with in the Yucatan Peninsula area of Mexico.   They have white bellies and forenecks that contrast with mainly dark blue upperparts.   Their bills are long and slender.   The birds in these photos were very accommodating to the dozens of tourist-photographers, like me, surrounding them. 

These birds were formerly known as the Louisiana Heron.  

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BarrytheBirder

Rufous-sided Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The Rufous-sided Towhee is a long-tailed robin-sized bird, that occurs widely in forest undergrowth, woodland edges and brushy areas.   It usually feeds on ground in underbrush, foraging noisily in leaf litter by kicking backwards with both feet,   It makes low, short flights from cover to cover.

Rufous-sided Towhees breed from southern British Columbia, east to southern Maine and south to California, northern Oklahoma, eastern Louisiana and Florida.   They winter from southern British Columbia and southern Massachusetts, to lower central U.S., primarily Texas.

Males are primarily black above with a black hood, contrasting with chestnut sides and white underparts.  Females are primarily brown above. 

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BarrytheBirder

Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae)

                                                                               Photo: Bird Bliss

The Lyrebird has been described as nature's ultimate impressionist.   It will mimic a multitude of sounds from other birds, to camera shutters, chainsaws and even car alarms, among others.

Lyrebirds are either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds in the genus Menura, and the family Menuridae.

Wikipedia says they are notable for mimicking a variety of of natural and artificial sounds from their environment, and for the striking beauty of the male's huge tail, especially when fanned out in courtship display.

Lyrebirds have unique plumes of subtly coloured tailfeathers and are among Australia's best-known native birds. 

Wikipedia Photo

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BarrytheBirder

Great White Egret (Ardea alba)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

I took the two photos, above and below, at few years ago at the expansive and well-known Luther Marsh, north-west of Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.  The Luther Marsh can be a bit of a hotspot in southern Ontario each year for Great Egrets.   

This elegant wader, with the a heavy yellow bill and black legs, can be found across the extreme lower reaches of Canada in summer and fall, and in eight or nine eastern U.S. states as well as  the eastern coastline of the U.S. from southern Canada, through Florida and down to Mexico, plus the coastlines of three western coast U.S states.

Egrets populations were decimated by hunting for their white feathers back about 1900, when their recovery was due largely thanks to the Audubon Society, a newly formed birding association at the time.

This bird is widely regarded as a form of the Great Blue Heron.

    

In the two photos above and below, A Great Blue Heron and and a Great White Egret encounter each other in a small pond in Aurora, Ontario, but the meeting quickly becomes a dispute.   In this encounter, the Great Blue Heron prevailed.

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BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)

                                                                     Photos by BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawks are normally found throughout the west half of the U.S.A., as well as the southern edge of Canada's prairie provinces and the northern edge of Mexico.   The pictures featured here were taken far to the east of that normal range, in southern Ontario on the northern edge of Lake Ontario.   It was second year that the Swainson's were seen in this spot.  The first year, 2024, is was a mated pair that were seen.   In 2025, it was presumably the same mated pair that showed up, and went on to raise four young hawks of their own.     \

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BarrytheBirder

Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Common Tern

The Common Tern breeds from northern Alberta, Ontario and  Newfoundland, south to the Dakotas, Great Lakes (rare) and Gulf of St. Lawrence; as well as along the Atlantic Coast south to the Carolinas.  They winter in the tropics, rarely on the Gulf Cast.

Common Terns are medium-sized (14 1/2"), slender swallow-like tern with a blck cap and a deeply forked tail.   Their flight is swift and graceful.

They hover ands dive for small fish.

They nest  in large colonies on islands, beaches, sandbars, gravel banks, and occasionally marshes.   They lay their eggs in a simple scrape on open ground.  

They will vigorously attack predators and human intruders in their colonies, and may even strike with their bills!

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BarrytheBirder

Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers of forest and woodlands; often visiting gardens and residential areas and parks, but less often than Downy Woodpeckers.   They are found coas-to-coast across lower Canada, all of the USA and upper Mexico.

Foraging mainly on trunks and large branches of of trees, they are mainly insectivore, with over 75% of their diet consisting of larvae from wood-boring beetles, bark beetles, ants, and moths.   They also consume spiders, caterpillars, and, in winter, rely heavily on backyard suet, sunflower seeds, peanuts and tree nuts.   They forage by hammering and excavating trees to find insects.

The Hairy is approximately 50% larger than the Downy Woodpecker (9 1/4" to 6 3/4").

Hairy female

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BarrytheBirder

Why are Nighthawks (Nightjars) called goatsuckers?

 
Photo: Humans & Nature

Nighthawks are nicknamed 'goatsuckers" due to an ancient, mistaken belief that they used their small, wide-mouthed beaks to suck milk from goats at night,   This myth, which established their scientific family name Caprimulgidae (Latin for "goat-milker"), originated because these birds were often seen flying around livestock to eat the insects attracted to them.

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BarrytheBirder

Owl species in North America...19

                                                                                   Photos by Barry the Birder

Hawk Owl

                              Snowy Owl

There are 19 regularly occurring species of owls in North America (specifically Canada and the U.S.A.), ranging from the tiny Elf Owl to the large Great Grey Owl.   These birds are found across various habitats, including forests, deserts and grasslands.

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BarrytheBirder

Last birds in the field guide...

 

Eurasian Siskin

Masked Tityra

My 'New' National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, edited by Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer has a section in the  back of the book entitled "Rarities from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe".   This section of the 431-page guide lists 85 species of birds.   The very last bird shown is the Eurasian Siskin (pictured above).

The Eurasian Siskin is a palearctic species with about six records from northeastern North America, but the origin of these has been questioned, with a male photographed at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon on June 23, 1983, being perhaps the most compelling.   The male is distinctive with a black forecrown and chin, olive above, and extensive yellow below.

The most striking, in appearance (for me), of the 85 listed rarities, is the Masked Tityra.   It is common from northwestern and northeastern Mexico. There is one record from south Texas park in 1990.   Males are pale gray above and whitish below with contrasting black on face, most of wings and thick subterminal tail band.   Bare skin on face and base of thick bill is pinkish red.

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BarrytheBirder