Friday, June 29, 2012

Feathered Friday: the Eastern Meadowlark



Am always happy when I find a Lang Elliott video for my Feathered Friday featured bird. I choose each week's bird based on my recent experience with that bird. For instance, two days ago while driving the country roads of Gettysburg, I heard the distinctive song of the Eastern Meadowlark. The meadowlark belongs to the Family Icteridae, otherwise known as blackbirds.

I'm always trying to think of a phonetic interpretation for the meadowlark's song . . . but never can. For example, the Eastern Towhee is known to sing "Drink your tee-ee-ee! Drink your tee-ee-ee!" But what does the meadowlark sing? If you can translate the meadowlark's song into words, please share it with us.

Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!

Georgia Anne

Friday, June 22, 2012

Feathered Friday: a Family Reunion

Let's use Week 13  to look back at the dozen birds  we've met during the last three months, and group these into their respective families for a family reunion.

(Last week I featured the Eastern Phoebe, so here's a photo of one in my backyard.  He's been around since early spring, and I watch him hunt for insects every evening.)

If you're new to birding, I want you to appreciate how each bird species belongs to a larger family grouping, and that typically its easier to identify families more so than individual species.  So let's take roll call (below) of the birds we've met and their families.

Warblers (Family Parulidae)
Common Yellowthroat
Ovenbird (a somewhat "uncommon" warbler to my mind)


Thrushes (Family Turdidae)
American Robin
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush

Flycatchers (Family Tyrannidae)
Eastern Phoebe

Owls (Family Strigidae ... In time, we'll meet a second family of owls.)
Barred Owl

Mimics (Family Mimidae)
Northern Mockingbird


Woodpeckers (Family Picidae) 
Red-bellied Woodpecker


Sparrows (Family Emberizidae)
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee ("a kind of large sparrow")


Cardinals (Family Cardinalidae)
Northern Cardinal

In three months, you've added 12 birds (distributed through 8 families) to your Online Life List.  Congratulations! And if you've seen or heard these birds out in the real world, I hope you've added them to your regular Life List.

If you're new to this web site but would like to become an Online Birder, simply read my blog posts and watch the Youtube video of each featured bird.  (Feathered Friday began on March 30, 2012.) Then add each bird to your Online Life List.  Be sure to tell friends who might also be interested, and meet me--and the upcoming featured bird--next week, right here on Feathered Friday.

Till then  . . . Keep birds in your heart!

Georgia Anne

Friday, June 15, 2012

Feathered Friday: the Eastern Phoebe



This week let's meet a member in the family of flycatchers:  Tyrannidae.  

Flycatchers, like the Eastern Phoebe, are so named because they catch insects "on the wing."  I watch one every evening from my  back porch.  In fact, I'm watching him right now!  

My spring and summertime guest uses as his perch a perfect L-shaped branch that hangs below (and at the farthermost edge)  a mighty limb in a Black Locust. From here the phoebe swoops out over the yard, executing all kinds of aerial stunts to catch his insect of choice. And then to his perch he returns.  In fact, his (or her) routine is so predicable, I know the time of the day to find him.  Right now.

I've taken his photo but the distance is too great (for my camera) to reveal anything but a small grayish bird.  If you want a proper introduction to the Eastern Phoebe, enjoy the YouTube video. 


And until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!


Georgia Anne


Friday, June 8, 2012

Feathered Friday: the Ovenbird



Was just out in the woodlands behind my property, enjoying the ending day with Bridget, my dog, listening to the melodic songs of a Hermit Thrush and the more strident "stylings" (ha!)  of the Ovenbird.  If you're following my posts, you know that I introduce each species as a family member. For instance, the Hermit Thrush belongs to the Thrush Family or Family Turdidae . . . as does the American Robin . . . as does the Eastern Bluebird. The idea is that if you learn to identify the family to which a bird belongs, then identifying the specific species becomes easier.   Or so in most cases.

But this isn't one of those cases.

For example,  based solely on his appearance, many people new to "birding" might  guess the Ovenbird is a member of the thrush family.  At one time, I too thought so. (To compare the two birds, check my post of May 4 on the Hermit Thrush). However, the Ovenbird is actually a warbler . . . and thus belongs to the Family Parulidae.  (See last week's post on the Common Yellowthroat to meet a member of Parulidae). 

To my mind, warblers are colorful little birds (most possess some extent of yellow plumage) that spend much of their time flitting among the high branches of tree crowns.  But then there's the Ovenbird, who spends much of his time on the woodland floor scratching the leaf litter for insects. Yet he's a warbler.  Go figure.

I'm no ornithologist and so don't know the characteristics (genetic) that make an Ovenbird a warbler, but warbler he is, even if not typical.  No one ever said learning to identify birds is easy . . . but it is rewarding and fun!

So until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart (and head)!

Georgia Anne


Saturday, June 2, 2012

Feathered Friday: the Common Yellowthroat



I'd like to introduce the Common Yellowthroat--bird #10 on our Online Life List and a member of the Family Parulidae  (otherwise known as warblers).   Colorful small songsters with some extent of yellow to their plumage (there are exceptions), warblers get their name from their "warbling" songs and are spring and summer inhabitants of North American woodlands (they "winter" in Central and South America).

Spring is my favorite season of the year partly because in April and May, the warblers return in waves to our woodlands. For instance, a species that doesn't breed in your region might settle into a neighboring woodland to spend to a few days feeding and resting before taking again to the sky.  Others, however, will find their breeding ground near your own backyard (if woodlands are nearby).

In Clearfield County (where I lived before moving to Gettysburg), a creek  and woodland bordered my property.  Common Yellowthroats find this kind of wet, bushy  habitat ideal for breeding and each spring they returned--to my great delight.  And throughout the spring and much of summer, I'd see and hear them singing their characteristic song that some describe as "wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty," while I often also heard "the-witch-is-here! the witch is here!"

Wonder what the Yellowthroat's song will sound like to you?

Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!

Georgia Anne