Birdwatching with Kids: NJ Backyard Birds

CARDINAL (Northern Cardinal)

Cardinals seem to show up more in the winter. And thank goodness they do! They add bright splashes of color to an otherwise monotonous gray landscape.

The dull gray Cardinals are the females or the youth.

Cardinals are skittish around our birdfeeder - and definitely prefer the big seeds, high quality stuff.

Takiela's Field Guide Basics (see book above) says:

Size: 8-9"
Nest: cup
Migration: no
Food: seeds, insects, fruit, will come to seed feedes
Notes: Male feeds female during courtship. Latin name means "important."

Bald Eagle

These, on rare occassions, are seen year-round in the tree tops of the Northwestern tip of New Jersey (where we're lucky enough to live!).

Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Size: 31 - 37"
Migration: partial, to southeastern states
Food: fish, carrion, ducks
Notes: Young ones attain white head at about 4 or 5 years old.

American Goldfinch

These males are striking! But be forewarned - you won't recognize them in the winter when they have the dull olive yellow color of the females - you have to wait until the males molt in the Spring to their bright yellow!

Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Size: 5"
Nest: cup
Migration: partial, moves around North America in flocks (but year-round in NJ)
Food: seeds, insects, will come to seed feeders

These guys enjoy thistle. Thistle feeders are like these a.k.a. finch feeders - look like mesh bags with thin long black thistle seeds inside. The birds like to peck the seeds out of the tiny bag holes - just as they would peck it off of the thistle plants.

Mourning Doves

These beautiful birds are priceless. We had one build a nest right in front of our front door. The mourning dove never left the nest. I truly don't now how "they" did it - although I believe that the male & female take turns giving us the appearance of one bird. They sat motionless on that nest just looking at us every morning and every evening with those gentle eyes.

Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Size: 12"
Year-round in NJ
Food: seeds, will come to seed feeders (but ours like to eat from the ground better)
Notes: Tend to mate for life (7 - 10 years). Flimsy platform nest often falls apart in a storm. Name comes from mournful cooing.

Our family's Mourning Dove anecdote: For months we heard an owl in the evening and in the morning, but not at night time. We kept wondering how an owl's clock could be so backwards. Come to find out, we weren't hearing an owl at all - we were hearing the soft "cooo, cooo" of our morning dove friends.

Blue Jays

It's hard sometimes to be grateful for Blue Jays who are such aggressive birds. But we are grateful, because they are also the watchdogs of the neighborhood. And when trouble (in the form of circling hawks) comes calling, you can be sure our Blue Jays are sounding the alarm to all of the others to get out of sight & to protect their young!

Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Size: 12"
Male & female look alike.
Food: insects, fruit, carrion, seeds, nuts, attracted to seed feeders
Migration: no (year-round in NJ)
Notes: Feathers do not actually have blue pigment, rather refracted sunlight casts blue light.

Woodpeckers - Downy, Red-bellied, Pileated

(in that order, and size order, and in order of most frequency to our home)

Downy Woodpeckers are frequent visitors to our special brick woodpecker birdfeeders. [don't use regular suet; use the kind with big seeds for woodpeckers] Of course, they compete with the squirrels who like the big chunks of large seeds.

And boy do they get made when their food is gone! They took to rapping on our house! We also learned that they love our house rafters because that's were bees/hornets/wasps have laid their eggs - which evidently are tasty treats for the woodpeckers!

Woodpeckers are so much fun to watch - they hop vertically and horizontally - just amazing! And they're fun to watch them do their drumming thing.

a href=">/www.amazon.com/Birds-Jersey-Field-Guide-Guides/dp/1885061897/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196392903&sr=8-1">Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Downy size = 6" Males have red spot on back of head. Year-round in NJ; One of the most abundant woodpeckers. Will come to seed & suet feeders.

Red-bellied looks like a cartoon character; size = 9" apx. (will come to seed & suet feeders)

Pileated size = 19", will come to suet feeders, favorite food is carpenter ants, relatively shy & prefers large tracts of woodland.

White-breasted Nuthatch

These guys are fun regulars. They can hop unside down - all the way down a tree trunk.

Tekiela's Field Guide says:

Size: 5 - 6"
Non-migrator; year-round in NJ
Nest: cavity
Food: insects, seeds, will come to seed and suet feeders