On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Albatrossity
I thought I had run out of subjects for the Winter Birds in Flyover Country series, but it turns out I had a few more opportunities to get out and see birds this week, so here’s another. One of those opportunities came up after we had a few days of snow and heavy overcast, when it was getting pretty boring to stay inside and just watch the feeders (although I did get my first COVID vaccine shot on one of those days, so that wasn’t boring!). It was still overcast, but the snow reflected a lot of light, and so I got a bunch of what is known in the portraiture biz as “high-key”, aka nearly shadowless, portraits of some of our local birds. Hope you enjoy them!
This one might be my favorite of the batch. American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) in the sunflower patch.
Another sunflower patch picture – American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), sitting on its lunch.
Adult White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) posing sweetly in the sunflowers.
First-year White-crowned Sparrow, watching the action in the sunflower patch.
Adult male Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), slate-colored version, hunting for seeds in the fluffy snow.
One of the other sights (and sounds!) of winters in Flyover Country would be the large flocks of Snow Geese (Anser caerulescens) that are now winter-resident. Historically these flocks would fly right over us and winter on the Gulf Coast. For the last 20-25 years, they stop here and only leave if the winter gets exceptionally brutal. This is not one of those winters. If you look closely, just left of center in this flock, you can see the adult Bald Eagle that spooked them all into the air.
Adult male Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus). These are not colorful birds in general, but this one has plenty of subtle hues and textures to show off on an overcast day.
Another of the infinite varieties of the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). This is a young Krider’s Hawk (B. j. kriderii), a pale subspecies that breeds on the prairies of Alberta and the Dakotas. This bird was stunningly white underneath, as you can see. I hope it comes back next year as a full adult!
Finally, a bird that makes its living by feeding on other birds, a Merlin (Falco columbaris). If you have an older field guide you can find it under Pigeon Hawk. This is a first-year bird of the taiga subspecies (F. c. columbaris). I am really pleased with this shot simply because these are very small and very fast, and I have never gotten a decent in-flight shot of one in the past. These are only winter residents here, hopefully this one will make it through the winter and return to the boreal forest, find a mate, settle down, and raise more young Merlins this summer.
oldster
Beautiful birds, Albatrossity!
May I ask for help with IDing a bird?
Looks and feeds like a nuthatch, but instead of blue-black back and white belly, it’s back is a rufous brown and its belly a caramel yellow. Slight brown-on-brown horizontal barring on tail.
Same masking on eyes as regular nuthatch.
I have looked at pics of the red-breasted nuthatch, and it’s not that. Red-breasted still has the bluish-black back of the regular nuthatch. On this one, the back looks like rich dog fur, between an Irish setter and a chocolate lab.
Up here in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York.
Any thoughts welcome.
eclare
I like the action in the snow geese photo!
MazeDancer
Such pretty photos!
Betsy
Getting out to bird is so fun. In fact it’s about the only thing I have left at this point.
KSinMA
Beautiful. That first photo is stunning.
Albatrossity
@oldster: Carolina Wren?
Betsy
@oldster: A couple of suggestions:
Carolina Wren is expanding its habitat northward.
Brown Creeper forages on tree trunks like a nuthatch.
These are similar in some ways to a white-breasted nuthatch (when you say “regular nuthatch,” I’m assuming this is the nuthatch you mean — little bit unsure because the White-breasted Nuthatch doesn’t have an eye mask).
raven
Awesome. . . again.
oldster
@Albatrossity:
I think you got it! The coloring and size check out.
Thanks!
oldster
@Betsy:
Thank you, Betsy! I think it’s the Carolina wren. They are coming in for sunflower seeds. And I am keeping all of the feeders full — there’s a lot of snow out here for a visitor from Carolina.
Tdjr
So beautiful!! I’m in awe.
Albatrossity
@oldster: Great, that’s a cool bird, and lots of fun to watch as they peek and poke into everything. And not a lot of smaller birds have the horizontal barring on the tail that you mentioned
They have definitely expanded to the north in recent years. Here’s the sightings map for that species in NY state, from eBird.
Betsy
@oldster: Carolina Wren’s range is not the Carolinas; that’s just the species name.
Silly, kind of like the Louisiana Waterthrush and the Nashville Warbler and the Kentucky Warbler and the Baltimore Oriole and the Northern Cardinal.
Glad you found your ID! Always fun to have a new yard bird.
Wanderer
Beautiful photos.
Betsy
@oldster:
Here’s a link to the range map with expansion indicated as a dotted line:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Carolina_Wren/maps-range
And much more info about the Carolina Wren can be found by starting from that link.
You’ll hear their loud song, and be aware they’ll try to nest in your shed or garage if you leave the door open for even a few minutes.
Hell, they’ll nest on YOU if you stand still long enough.
Mary G
That first one is gorgeous, like an old fashioned print my grandmother had. Is it your sunflower patch, for convenience, or do you go to a farm or wherever farther from human habitation? Do you ever recognize individual birds that come back from previous winters, if they have idiosyncratic markings or something? Do I ask too many questions?
My right wing neighbors have had a series of tomcats that they let roam free in the hood. I’m afraid to put up bird baths or feeders. The latest one is so obnoxious at taunting my two cats through the French doors to the patio that my housemate put aluminum foil over the bottom panels of the door. She enjoys watching on the security cams that show him pacing back and forth trying to see if it’s clear again and sends me video clips of him stretching as far up on his tiptoes as he can to try to see over the foil. Curses! Foiled again!
Albatrossity
@Betsy: Indeed. Years ago I had to constantly remove (daily) the start of a Carolina Wren nest in my Weber BBQ kettle. They are persistent!
And we also had one come into the house through the mail slot, which had been left open. I came home to a disaster, curtains down, lots of stuff knocked off shelves, as it appeared that the cats had been trying to catch the wren all day long… Fortunately I was able to capture it and release it outside. I hope it told all of its friends about the experience, and cautioned them against exploring that mail slot!
But they are fun birds to have around, noisy and inquisitive.
Albatrossity
@Mary G: Not my sunflower patch, it was at a local state park. As far as the smaller birds go, I have not recognized returning birds that are not banded. In the days when I would band birds, we would be thrilled to get a bird that we had banded in previous years, but without the band I would not have been able to recognize it as an old friend.
Re your neighbor’s cats, maybe your town or city has ordinances about letting pets roam off leash?
Don
I particularly liked the Eagle in the geese image. The size comparison is remarkable. I’m reminded of the “murmuration of starlings” videos in which one can spot the marauding raptor acting as a forcing function on the flight patterns.
Mary G
@Albatrossity: Dogs, yes, cats no. This was a hotbed of John Birchers when I was growing up and there is a lot of ingrained “don’t mess with my freedums” left. He’ll get run over by a car like they usually do and someone from their megachurch will give them another. They name them all Charlie and assure me that they are sweet and loving. They are not. I did get them to put a bell on them. I don’t know if that helps or not.
Albatrossity
@Mary G: Too bad. Of course, libertarians like that don’t take kindly to you wanting to retain your freedoms to do what you want in your yard… It’s not your freedoms that they are really concerned with!
stinger
So that’s where my goldfinches went!
Wonderful set of photos, Albatrossity. Each one is perfection. I can’t begin to see the details of coloring and feathering in real life, so these photos are astonishing to me. The Junco, the Rough-legged Hawk, the Merlin, all of them, are a revelation.
citizen dave
Love the photos–beautiful as always!
Re: Carolina Wren, I saw them in my yard (central Indiana) this summer. I’m terrible at identifying birds, but did load a phone app–BirdNET–that listens to your recording and tells you what bird(s) it hears. It told me Carolina Wren. I recommend the app
I do a LOT of bird (and squirrel) feeding my yard, though. Sunflower seeds, suet, dried worms for the bluebirds, thistle for the finches. It’s a regular smorgasbord.
JustRuss
Kudos for getting the white-crowned sparrow to look into the lens. Thanks, these make for a nice start for a Monday.
TomatoQueen
Lovely lovely birbs (favorite is that lunch-sitting Goldfinch) and elegant raptors esp the Merlin
me: Merlin! Do you see the Merlin? (high squeaky voice) Do you see him?
Merlin the Apex Predator: Brrp? Brrp? (digs claws into my leg, leaps to the floor, chases little ball)
4D*hiker
Thank you for sharing the photos. Your presentation of the humble sparrow is just stunning.
J R in WV
Another great photo set. I can’t pick a favorite at all. The Geese flock, like 10,000 birds, all aloft because of the one Eagle, that’s pretty special. And I found the eagle in the photo, hurray! And the hawks, great work!
The Goldfinch is a little dowdy in his winter garb. We have a ton of them here in the summer, and when a small flock explodes off a stem of goldenrod it’s so startling, streaks of gold shooting into the air right in front of you.
Thanks again for sharing yet more great birds!
mvr
Once again these are nice photos and I especially like the first one. I have real trouble telling my sparrows apart.
We have two Carolina Wrens hanging out here in Southeast Nebraska. First IDed one in the Summer by the call and comparing it with my Audubon Bird Guide App which lets you play various calls for comparison. (I’ll have to check out the one Citizen Dave mentioned above that listens for the call.) Made me relatively proud given that we are a little to the West of its official range and it was small and I’m not good at bird id. They have stuck around and seem to like feeding from a couple of the flat feeders I made and also our nut feeder. I’m going to make a couple of wren houses to put up. Apparently Carolina Wrens like a slot entryway rather than a hole. And they like choices so I’ll make a couple.
Thanks!