More Common Birds in Our Backyard

These are the most common birds I've been seeing in our yard. They're not listed in any particular order (taxonomically or otherwise), but more in the order that I saw them or was thinking about them as I wrote this.

Part 1 (goes to separate page)
American Robin
Northern Cardinal
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
Mourning Dove
House Wren
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Part 2 (below)
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
European Starling
Common Grackle
White-breasted Nuthatch
Baltimore Oriole
Carolina Wren
American Crow
Downy Woodpecker

Tufted titmice are cute little birds with a crest like the cardinal or blue jay, but in a more subdued gray color. We see them often at our sunflower seed feeder and hanging out with the chickadees and nuthatches.

They live year-round in wooded areas of the Eastern half of the United States.

An interesting fact is that they hoard food in the fall and winter (as do the chickadees). They'll take one sunflower seed, shell it, then fly off to store it, then come back for another seed.

Another interesting fact is that they often line their nests with hair sometimes plucking it directly from the animal itself!

The tufted titmouse song is a fast, repeated whistle, Peter, peter, peter, peter, peter.
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Listen to the Tufted titmouse
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Photo by Ken Thomas and released into the public domain.

The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only hummingbird in eastern North America, and migrates down to Central America for the winter. Did you know that a hummingbird flaps its wings about 50 times per second?

My husband plants canna lilies each year, and ruby-throated hummingbirds love them, along with some of the other brightly colored flowers we have in our backyard. We also have a hummingbird feeder next to our deck near a window, and we see them stop by a few times a day during the summer. They don't like to share, though, and the bolder (or hungrier!) one will chase off other hummingbirds.

Sometimes they'll stop by even when we're sitting out on our deck. We'll hear the hum of their wings that notifies us they're around. Sometimes they'll briefly stop in front of us, hovering in mid-air to take a look at us, then they're off again.
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Listen to "hum" of Ruby-throated hummingbird wings.
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Image of Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Feeding from Flower

I often see groups of starlings in the grass looking for insects, worms, or other crawly things. From a distance they look like many other dark-colored birds, but up close they have beautiful coloration. In the fall and winter they are dark with white spots and a dark beak, and in spring and summer, they turn a glossy and iridescent with a yellow beak.

I used to think they were called "starlings" because of their many white spots, but apparently they get their name from their appearance as they fly -- a four-pointed star.

European Starlings were let loose in Central Park in New York City in the late 1890's by a group who wanted the United States to have all the birds that were mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. Now these birds cover much of North America, and many people think of them as pests.

European Starlings have many different calls, and they're great mimics, sometimes sounding like other birds. Starlings raised in captivity can mimic human speech (see following YouTube video).
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Listen to European Starling.
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Photo by foxypar4 under Creative Commons 2.0

The Common Grackle is in the Blackbird family, and can be found in all but the western third of the United States. It's found year round in the eastern half of the U.S.

The Common Grackle is a large bird with long legs and long tail. Like the starlings, grackles look black from a distance, but up close you can see their glossy, iridescent blue-purple heads and a bronzy iridescent body.

Grackles are very common in areas where people live, in lawns and fields, with a mix of trees and more open areas. They're omnivores, and will eat seeds, fruit, garbage, insects and other bugs of all kinds, other birds(!), molluscs, fish, crustaceans, salamanders, and frogs. They're a nuisance bird in corn fields, and cost farmers millions of dollars by eating corn. Since grackles are large, they easily crowd smaller birds off of bird feeders.

Common grackles have a variety of whistles, croaks, and squeaks. Their calls are often likened to the sound of a squeaky rusty gate.
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Listen to Common Grackle "squeaky rusty gate".
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Photo by Mdf, and used under Creative Commons 3.0 license

White-breasted Nuthatches are very common at our sunflower birdfeeder. I sometimes see them making repeated flights to the feeder, grabbing a sunflower seed, then flying back to a tree. They'll also hang out in our moraine locust tree near the birdfeeder, either on the branches or upside down on the trunk (as in this typical position in the photo).

Nuthatches also like to eat insects and other bugs, including grubs, beetles, and spiders.

The White-breasted Nuthatch has a call that sounds like a persistant "nasal yammering".

Sometimes nuthatches are confused with the Black-capped Chickadee by beginning backyard birders. See the video of the black-capped chickadees and nuthatches eating out of a person's hand, below, to compare them.
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Listen to the White-breasted Nuthatch
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Photo by qmnonic under Creative Commons 2.0 license

Baltimore Orioles are striking to see with their brilliant orange and black coloring in the males and bright yellow and brown-black in the females. Their summer range includes most of the eastern half of the United States and parts of Canada.

They prefer high trees near open areas, such as in our local park areas, but they've made more appearances in our backyard this year too. Their song is a rich whistle that varies from bird to bird. In the past few years when I've occasionally heard it sing, I've been excited because I think I'm hearing a new bird. I've heard it more often this year, and am now more familiar with the variations.

Baltimore Orioles can be attracted to your backyard by pieces of oranges put out for them, or even grape jelly! They may also try to use hummingbird feeders.
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Listen to the Baltimore Oriole
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Image by Sean Cuill under Creative Commons license

The Carolina Wren is fairly new in our area in southeast Michigan. I remember hearing it for the first time in 2005 or 2006, and realizing that it wasn't a familiar bird to me. It's "tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle" call is a loud sound for such a small bird. It's not similar to the songs of other wren species, like the house wren. It's larger than a house wren, with a longer bill.

I haven't seen the Carolina Wren at our feeders, but I've read that they occasionally like peanuts and suet. Usually they eat insects and spiders, finding them on the ground, on tree trunks, or on branches. It can eat large insects by breaking them apart -- hammering them with its bill and shaking them.

The range of the Carolina Wren has slowly been extending northward from the southeastern part of the United States as the winters have become a little warmer further north. This bird doesn't migrate, but is sensitive to the cold, and its population drops during cold winters.
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Listen to the Carolina Wren
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Image by Sean Cuill under Creative Commons license

We occasionally have crows trying to feed from the birdfeeder, but they look ungainly and uncomfortable in their attempts. We see them on the lawn sometimes, but more often in trees and flying. They're large, all black birds with a hoarse "caw"-ing sound, and they tend to gather with other crows rather than be by themselves.

I don't remember that crows were common in the city 20 years ago -- I associated them with being more of a "country bird". But they're very common in our neighborhood now. We see flocks of them wheeling across the sky in the evenings, especially in winter, as they settle down to roost for the night.

Crows are omnivorous and will eat almost anything including insects, seeds, fruits, nuts, garbage, carrion, and baby birds.

Crows are curious birds, and very intelligent, and may work together to figure out how to get at different foods. Crows in captivity have been known to make and use tools. (See Life History of the American Crow, near the bottom.)
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Listen to the American Crow
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Photo by Mdf under Creative Commons License 3.0

We often see Downy Woodpeckers at our feeder along with chickadees and nuthatches, especially in the winter. These three species of birds often group together as a way to more easily protect themselves from predators, and to make it easier to find food.

Downy Woodpeckers are the smallest and most common of the woodpeckers in North America, and can be found in most of the United States and Canada.

An interesting fact is that Downy Woodpeckers use drumming on a tree trunk as a call. They also have high-pitched "whinny" calls and short "pik pik" notes.

Only the male has the small patch of red on its head - otherwise males and females look alike.

Downy Woodpeckers can be confused with Hairy Woodpeckers which are a little larger and have a longer beak.
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Listen to the Downy Woodpecker
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Photo by Jarek Tuszynski under Creative Commons 3.0 license

For more information on these birds, and other birds, I strongly recommend:
-- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds online guide.
-- Backyard Nature's Backyard Birds

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