Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)
Clearly we don’t have the habitat for this birds, but every couple of years we look out the window and see this giant bird, perhaps attracted by our little pond, mistaking it for something larger. We don’t have any fish to attract them, but I imagine our toads are at risk (though they aren’t generally out during the day).
- Learn more:
- American Bird Conservancy: Bird of the Week
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Great blue heron – Dinosaur bird?
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Turkey Vulture
We haven’t had a turkey vulture land in our yard, but they’re flying overhead so often I wanted to include them (as of 2023). There have actually been quite a few flying around the neighborhood, but I’m only counting the ones that are in my immediate airspace.
- Learn more:
- NY Times: Why vultures might just be the smartest birds above the block
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Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Mallard ducks originally were infrequent visitors, but have started to come around more routinely in the last few years. I find them quite charming as a pair, but they have become a problem. There’s just not enough food or space for them in our yard. After a while, we realized they were eating our tadpoles and dragonfly larvae! And one year they tried to nest in our hedgerow. I would love to have habitat for them, but our yard isn’t suitable. It makes me sad to see them “homeless,” but I wish they would find a more suitable location.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Mallards
- American Bird Conservancy:
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Sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus)
A sharpie (or is it a Cooper’s?) used to be a fairly regular visitor throughout the year, though not every day. He doesn’t seem to be around as much anymore, but I suspect he’s around more than I realize — probably all those times the yard is devoid of birds.
Some people object to hawks because they kill other birds. (Are humans fit to pass judgment on this?) Although it’s sad to see him grab a bird, this is part of life and just what hawks eat. We have bushes for birds to escape to (and we’re always rooting for him to get a house sparrow!)
NOTE: This is an adult since it has horizontal bars; juveniles have vertical stripes.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Sharp-shinned hawk
- Audubon: A beginner’s guide to IDing Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks
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Cooper’s hawk (Astur cooperii)
This is the first time (Nov. 2024) that I’ve ID’d a hawk as a Cooper’s hawk. I suspect there have been others, but I’ve generally assumed that they were sharpies.
This time I used Merlin photo bird ID, and so I’m more confident it’s a Cooper’s. I think this happens to be a juvenile.
He was watching for a small bird that had just gone into the meadow area in my back yard.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Cooper’s hawk
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Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
I wonder if this is what the birds have been complaining about the last few weeks? This is the first time I’ve seen this hawk in our yard, but maybe I hadn’t noticed it before. Unfortunately as I went out into the back yard I scared it away from its perch in the wild cherry tree, but at least I was able to grab my camera in time to get its picture. A magnificent bird!
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds:
- Red-tailed hawk
- Red-tailed hawk cam – Watch them live on the Cornell campus!!
- American Bird Conservancy: Bird of the Week
- Cornell’s All About Birds:
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Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
We had a small flock of turkeys stroll through our yard a few years ago. There are turkeys about a mile away in an undeveloped area; I don’t know how they made their way to our yard. I don’t expect we’ll see them often or ever again. This is the only photo I managed to get, showing one of them flying away.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Wild turkeys
- American Bird Conservancy: Wild turkeys
- Bird Watcher’s General Store: Wild turkey’s nest
- National Wildlife Federation: Six tips for feeding wild turkeys with your garden
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Rock pigeon (Columba livia)
Fortunately pigeons haven’t come into our yard since our habitat has matured. This is odd because there’s a flock of them that seems to live a few blocks over (in the photo), and we do offer corn grits at our feeder.
Maybe they just don’t like natural landscaping as much as conventional lawn and landscaping. I’m happy they stay out of our yard, though.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Pigeons
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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
We love mourning doves, though we know not everyone does. Maybe it’s because we rarely have more than two or three at a time.
Their apparent cluelessness is part of their charm. We enjoy watching them trying to figure out simple tasks such as how to get from one side of a fence to the other side. It doesn’t seem to occur to them to fly over it. They face a similar dilemma getting from the top of the hopper-style bird feeder to the perch.
- Learn more:
- Cornell’s All About Birds: Mourning doves
- American Bird Conservancy: Bird of the Week
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