Still more about Swainson's Hawks...

 

                                                                                             Photos by BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawks now a family of SIX!

Just when I thought I had finished with Swainson's Hawks for this year, I was surprised yesterday to see a sixth Swainson's Hawk flying overhead with the five Swainson's Hawks I have been writing about for the past few months.   I have no idea if it is related the the original five, but the skies overhead are getting a bit crowded with this species far from its normal range in the American midwest.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Little Green Woodpecker (Campathera maculosa)

Photo: INaturalist/oppiska

Little Green Woodpecker...also known as "the Yaffle"

A lunch-mate where I live asked me recently if I had heard of a woodpecker called a Yaffle.   I was baffled.   I checked my 'World Checklist of Birds' by Monroe and Sibley and then went online for more information.   The Yaffle or  Little Green Woodpecker (a.k.a. Golden-backed Woodpecker) is a species of bird in the family Picidae and found in west-central Africa.

The Little Green Woodpecker lives in forest edges and forest-shrub mosaics.  An old country name for the Little Green Woodpecker is 'Yaffle' because of the laughing sound it makes.   

It is one of approximately 250 woodpecker species in the world.   It is a small but fairly hardy species and its range is expanding in several African countries.   The IUCN has assessed the 'Yaffle' as a least-concern species. 

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Dar-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

MALE

                                  FEMALE

The Dark-eyed Junco is a common sparrow found across southern Canada and all of the United States.   They are usually found  and breeds in mixed or coniferous woodlands.   It is found in a wide variety of habitats in migration and in winter in gardens, city parks, fields, roadside thickets, usually in flocks.   Dark-eyed Juncos normally feed on the ground on seeds and insects.

Until recently, many forms of Juncos were considered to be separate species but since they interbreed wherever they meet, they are now considered a single species.   The eastern form  of Junco, once called the 'Slate-coloured Junco' is usually the only Junco found in eastern North America.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

A charming deep blue finch that inhabits woodland clearings and edges, thickets, brushy borders, regenerating pastures and open country in the eastern United States and south-central Canada.   It is rare but regular to Atlantic Canada.   It is 5 1/2" long, like most other buntings, and its song is bright jumble of strident warbling that can last well into August.   It winters primarily in Central America to nw. Columbia.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Hybrids are a challenge to identify...

Got a guess?

My guess is a Grackle and Red-winged Blackbird.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

HUMMINGBIRD HARMONY...

                                                                       Photos by BarrytheBirder

                       Ruby-throated Hummingbird 

                                                       (Archilochus alexandri) 

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Last Swainson's Hawk blog for a while...

 

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

I have written nine or ten blogs for over a year about Swainson's Hawks appearing here in Aurora, just north of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Swainson's Hawks normally reside in the central U.S., but one arrived here in 2024, returned here with a mate in 2025 and then produced three fledglings here.

Will any of them return next year?   We shall see.   After all, the three new fledglings (now Canadians) have helped to extend the Swainson's normal range even further east.  In fact, truth be told, this is probably not the first time this has happened here.

More to come 2016 hopefully.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder        

How many flightless bird species in the world?

                                 Ostrich picture by Holger Teichmann / Cornell Lab of Ornithology

I thought this would be easy.   Ostrich, Penguin, Rhea, Emu, Cassowary..... Ummmmm? 

Apparently there are 60 flightless birds in the world!

Add 166 extinct flightless birds and the total of extant and extinct birds is 226!

There is a ton of information online about this subject, so I will end this blog entry here and now.   Phew!

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder (83 years old but not extinct yet)

Young Swainson's Hawk is one of three in Aurora this summer

                                                                                    Photos by BarrytheBirder

Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)

Pictured here is fledgling Swainson's Hawk perched next to the Delmanor Retirement Residence in Aurora, Ontario, 50 kilometres north of Lake Ontario, in Canada.   It is one of three young Swainson's hawks that are the offspring of two Swainson's Hawks that I have been writing about in this space for several months.   Normally these birds are found in central North America, (particularly in the U.S. mid-west).   The fact that three of these fledglings have been born in eastern North America, suggests that they may have just expanded the traditional range of this species eastward!

These three fledglings, assuming they make it to maturity, will probably migrate south to Florida, and beyond perhaps, with their parents, in the fall of this year.   They would supposedly and consequentially head back north, from whence they came, in the spring of next 2026, probably never to visit their species' traditional home range much further west.   Hopefully, all three of the fledglings will survive to maturity and fulfil their proposed destiny, like others may have done before, perhaps.  

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Canada's Goose

 

                                                                      Photos by BarrytheBirder

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

Found in every province and state of Canada and the United States, including Alaska.  They winter in Canada's maritime provinces, Mexico, the 'Gulf Coast' and Florida. They are well-known for their large V-shaped migration flocks.   

Canada Geese have a black head and neck marked with a distinct white "chin strap", stretching from ear to ear.   There are at least seven subspecies in North America and they vary overall in colour and size.    

They are quite tolerant of humans and will nest in suburbs and municipal parks.   They gather on large lawns, parks, golf courses, corn fields and any open-country environment, particularly when molting.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratur)

Seen preening (above and below)

Flickers are members of the Woodpecker family of birds and are found in Canada, the U.S., including Alaska, and Mexico.   Previously there were three forms of Flickers which were considered three different species: "Yellow shafted", "Red-shafted" and "Gilded" - but no longer.

They are large and active birds regularly seen in open suburban areas and open woodlands.   They frequently feed on the ground .

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Not purple - but 'rose red'

My National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America says the Purple Finch is rose red over most of its adult body and brightest on the head and rump.   They are moderately common in eastern North America and are normally found in mixed woodland or coniferous borders. They have a rich, somewhat short warbling song.   I had them regularly in winter at the backyard feeders.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder 

Birdbaths...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

                                                                              Photos by BarrytheBIrder

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The House Finch is a common bird normally found in a variety of habitats, and is found at its northern limits in central Ontario, where I live about 50 kiolmetres north of Toronto on Lake Ontario, where I live in Aurora.   The House Finch was introduced in the East in the 1940s, and quickly included all of the lower U.S.A., southern Canada and parts of Mexico.   Its voice is a lively, high-pitched song that consists mainly of varying strident 3-note phrases.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry the Birder

Here's a quiz...

Ruby-crowned Hummingbird

Photo by Brian Kulvete / Macaulay Library

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Photo by David Turgeon / Macaulay Library

Which one is bigger?

Newer  birding field  guides, such as my Kenn Kaufman Focus Guide (year 2000), describe both of these very small birds as being 3 1/2 inches in size.   I always thought the Ruby-throated Hummingbird was the smallest bird in Canada and the U.S., but apparently the Golden-crowned Kinglet is the same size.   Actually neither of these birds is the smallest bird on this continent.   The record belongs to the 3" Caliope Hummingbird, which happens to weigh  just 2-3 gm. on average.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder  

Ohhh...to live where Bald Eagles fly overhead!

                                                                          Photo by Dave Kemp

My email acquaintance Dave Kemp, from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, occasionally sends me photos he has taken of Bald Eagles from where he lives in the Comox Valley in B.C.   I live in Aurora, Ontario, about 50 kilometres north of Toronto, Ontario, and have never seen  a Bald Eagle overhead there.   I do have a boat trip planned where I will be visiting the Kawartha Lakes in Ontario.   Bald Eagles do inhabit those lakes and I look forward to seeing and perhaps photographing some there.

Other Bald Eagles photos taken by Dave Kemp in the past...

Please comment if you wish.

Barry the Birder

Swainson's Hawk has raised a family!

Photo by BarrytheBirder

The Swainson's Hawk that showed up here in Aurora, from the central U.S.A. in 2024, then returned with a mate in early 2025, is now being seen over Aurora with its mate PLUS three young Swainson's Hawks...a family of five!

I hope to get a photo of the two parent Swainson's with at least one of the offspring, if not more, in the near future.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The  Mourning Dove is the most abundant and widespread dove in southern Canada, the U.S. and Mexico and is found in a wide variety of habitats.   It has a slow, mournful cooing sound: "Cooowah, cooo, coo, coooo".   Its wings produce a loud fluttering whistle as the bird takes flight.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder