Birds of Minnesota

1. Birds of Minnesota By: Alan Thompson and Anastasia Nereson

2. Common Loon Gavia immer • Song: • Common Food Sources: salt and fresh water fish, such as: pike, trout, bass, and herring • Interesting information: • -MN state bird • -dive up to 200 feet underwater to fish • -heavy bones and eyes that focus both in air and water adapt for diving

3. Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias • Song: • Common Food Sources: • mostly fish, but also: frogs, • snakes, birds, small mammals, • crayfish, dragonflies • Interesting information: • -Length: 38 inches • -Wingspan: 70 inches • -Long neck, legs • -Holds neck in an "S" curve at • rest and in flight • -Swallow their food whole, choke on • too large of prey Female GBH Male GBH

4. Canada Goose Branta canadensis • Song: • Common Food Sources: • Interesting information: • -Some migratory populations don’t go as far south as they previously did • -Large water bird • -Has a white chinstrap

5. Mallard Anas platyrhynchos • Song: • Common Food Sources: Insects, larvae, aquatic invertebrates, seeds, aquatic vegetation, grain • Interesting information: • -Ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds • -Mostly monogamous • -Sexually dimorphic • -Female incubates and cares for eggs Female Male

6. Wood Duck Aix sponsa • Song: • Common Food Sources: • vegetation, insects, snails, • tadpoles, and salamanders • Interesting information: • -Forages while swimming • -Females lay 9-15 eggs • -Preferred habitats include • wooded swamps and • freshwater marshes Male Female

7. Red-Tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis • Song: • Common Food Sources: • Small/medium sized mammals, birds, • Interesting information: • -North American population is increasing • -Common raptors • -Mostly monogamous

8. Osprey Pandion haliaetus • Song: • Common Food Sources: • Different types of fish • Interesting information: • -Dive feet first for prey • -Only North American raptor that eats almost only fish

9. Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus • Song: • Common Food Sources: • fish, ducks, muskrats, • turtles, rabbits, and snakes • Interesting information: • -most commonly found in Alaska • -open water is a necessity for eagles • -adopted as national bird in 1782

10. American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos • Song: • Common Food Sources: • Interesting information: • -Most victimized by West Nile virus • -Wingspan is 85-100 cm • -14 years, 7 months is the oldest recorded age of a wild crow

11. Red-Headed WoodpeckerMelanerpes erythrocephalus • Song: Listen • Common Food Sources: Beech and oak mast, • seeds,nuts, berries, fruit, insects, bird eggs, • nestlings, mice. • Interesting information: • -One of four woodpeckers that stores food • -Only one known to cover the stored food with • wood or bark • -Attacks other birds to keep them out of its territory • -Known to remove the eggs of other species • from nests, destroy nests, and puncture duck • -Most omnivorous woodpecker

12. Ring-Necked Pheasant Phasianus colchicus Male Pheasant Female Pheasant • Song: • Common Food Sources: • Seeds, grain, grasses, leaves, roots, nuts, insects • Interesting information: • -Males are brightly colored, • -Female smaller and cryptically colored • -One male keeps other males away from group of females breeding season • - Long tail, which is often held cocked up at an angle

13. Wild Turkey Meleagris gallopavo • Sound: • Common food sources: seeds and insects • Interesting facts: turkeys are ground-dwelling birds, have extremely powerful legs, bare heads and necks, have slightly down-curved bill, tips of tail are chesnut-brown in the East and white in the Southwest. Male Female

14. American Robin Turdus migratorius • Sound: • Common food sources: berries, nuts, flower nectar, tree sap, dead animals, seeds, insects, worms. • Interesting facts: have dark grey back with dark stripes on a white throat, largest thrush in North America (adults about 9-10 inches), nest in open woodlands and grasslands.

15. Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis • Sound: • Common food sources: insects, other invertebrates, grasshoppers, beetles, worms, fruits like blackberries, honeysuckle, snails. • Interesting facts: general habitat applies to hardwoods and grasslands, small thrush, medium-sized body, usually have more than one successful brood a year. Male Female

16. Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis • Sound: • Common food sources: sunflower and safflower seeds, fruits, insects. • Interesting facts: the large, conical beaks are ideal for the Northern Cardinal in order to crack open the seeds they eat, often in family units versus flocks, Northern Cardinal couples are monogamous, females lay two to three eggs each times they give birth. Female Male

17. American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis • Sound: • Common food sources: grains, small seeds, thistles, sunflower seeds and lettuce. • Interesting facts: American Goldfinch species is abundant, they are popular birds that can be tamed and kept in a cage, usually reside in shrubby places, old fields, parks and gardens. Male Female

18. Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata • Sound: • Common food sources: fruits, nuts, seeds, insects, mice, frogs, and they often steal food from other animals. • Interesting facts: the Blue Jays’ eating habits help plants disperse their seeds, these birds use “body-fluff” bobbing motions with their bodies when fighting to intimidate other birds, pairs form monogamous bonds that usually last until one of the birds dies.

19. Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica • Sound: • Common food sources: flies, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and dragonflies. • Interesting facts: Barn Swallows are native in all biogeographic regions except Antarctica and Australia, incredibly adaptable birds as far as habitat goes, they fly over open areas when migrating, they weigh anywhere between 17 and 20 grams. Female Male

20. Northern Oriole Icterus galbula • Sound: • Common food sources: insects, caterpillars, fruit, nectar and spiders. • Interesting facts: females have no solid black hood and are dull, whereas males are brightly colored with a black hood, have long and pointed beak, and long tails. The Northern American Orioles are named after similar-looking birds of the Old World.

21. Ruby Throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris • Sound: • Common food sources: small insects, flower nectar and tree saps. • Interesting facts: nests are constructed of thistle and dandelion down, eggs are white, female have a white throat and males have a red throat, the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds have green iridescent backs, and they hover at flowers. Female Male

22. Common Raven Corvus corax • Sound: • Common food sources: mostly feed on carcasses torn by wolves, etc. • Interesting facts: Common Ravens are crafty, cunning and opportunistic. They are very intelligent and make good parents. When airborne, they look very graceful.

23. WARBLERS • Deciduous • Hooded Warbler  • (Wilsonia citrina) • Coniferous • Black-throated blue warbler • (Dendroica caerulescens) • Differences: • Yellow/Dark Blue • Hooded population is common and increasing in some areas • Blue population is stable • Commonalities: • Eat insects and spiders (food source) • Found mainly in the northeastern U.S. • Sexually dimorphic

24. Aquatic Birds • Coniferous • Trumpeter Swan • (Cygnus buccinator) • Differences: • Black/White Colors • Whistle/Honk • Weight: 800-180 g (Grebe) • Weight: Weight: 7700-12700 g • Prairie: • Western Grebe • (Aechmophorus occidentalis) • Commonalities: • Long Neck • Eat • Found • Not sexually dimorphic

25. Ground Nesting Birds Male Spruce Grouse Male Wild Turkey Male Prairie Chicken Female Spruce Grouse Female Wild Turkey Female Prairie Chicken

26. Ground Nesting Birds • Deciduous: • Wild Turkey • (Meleagris gallopavo) • Food: buds, grasses, grain, berries, insects, frogs and snakes • Weighs 2500-10,800 g • Sexually dimorphic • Lost by one vote in 1782 to become national bird • Prairie: • Greater Prairie-chicken • (Tympanuchus cupido) • Food: plants & insects • Weighs 700-1200 g • Sexually dimorphic • Very rare and near-extinct due to habitat loss • Do not migrate • Male ritual of “booming” • Coniferous • Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) • Food: spruce needles and buds • Weighs 400-650 g • Sexually dipmorphic • Found in northern MN only • Generally quiet • Olive eggs with variable spots

27. Deciduous Forest Great Horned owl Bubo virginianus Prairie Grassland Burrowing owl Athene cunicularia Coniferous Forest Short-eared owl Asio flammeus All three owls sing alike, with the “ooo” sounds. Female and males look alike in each species, though the females are often a bit larger. Short-eared owls are medium-sized. Burrowing owls are small. Great horned owls are large owls. Owls

28. Coniferous Forest Boreal chickadee Peocile hudsonicus Deciduous Forest Black-capped chickadee Poecile atricapillus Both chickadees are small, short-billed, black birds with white cheeks. Both species hide their food for later recovery. Black-capped chickadees songs are complex and sound very language-like. Boreal chickadees songs are scratchy and sound like, “chick-a-dee-dee”. Chickadees

29. Deciduous Forest Brewer’s blackbird Euphagus asanocephalus Coniferous Forest Red-winged blackbird Agelaius phoenuceus Both birds are medium-sized songbirds. Brewer’s blackbird males are iridescent black and females are smaller and a dull gray-brown. Red-winged blackbird males are black with red shoulders and females are brown striped all over. Blackbirds

30. Deciduous Forest White-breasted nuthatch Sitta carolinensis Coniferous Forest Red-breasted nuthatch Sitta canadensis Both species have rapidly increasing population numbers. Red-breasted nuthatches migrate South very early, and they begin in around July. White-breasted nuthatches migrate in flocks in the winter. Nuthatches

31. MN state bird: Common Loon • Identification Tips: • Length: 24 inches • Wingspan: 58 inches • Sexes similar • Large diving bird, large bill • Feet set far back on body • Description of a basic adult: • Pale gray bill • Gray-brown cap, forehead, nape, and back • White face, eye ring, chin, throat, foreneck and belly • Found in northern MN, Alaska & Canada • Lead and Mercury poisoning are significant causes of death • After molting its wing feathers in winter, the loon is flightless • Also known as the “Great Northern Diver”

32. Works Cited • http://www.wildlifeseeds.com/foodplots/turkey/ • www.pbase.com • jmusic-man.livejournal.com • http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/ • http://whatbird.com/ • http://www.all-birds.com/feeding-birds.htm • http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/eastblue/ebreq.htm • www.statesymbolsusa.org • http://www.aspensongwildbirdfood.com/wildbirds/speciesprofiles/detail.php?id=44 • http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.treknature.com/photos/5415/femcardinalsnowberry-web • http://www.answers.com/topic/american-goldfinch • http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=male+american+goldfinch • http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=female+american+goldfinch&btnG=Search+Images • http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Hirundo_rustica.html • http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&q=female+barn+swallow • http://www.howardsview.com/Birds/BlueJay.jpg • http://sdakotabirds.com/species/photos/baltimore_oriole_male.jpg • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Male_Ruby-Throated_Hummingbird_1.jpg • http://farm1.static.flickr.com/65/196656256_f2016b728b.jpg • http://kaweahoaks.com/html/raven01.jpg • http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/24/common-raven-no-birdbrain/

33. Works Cited: • http://www.minnesotacabinandlandrentals.com/pages/recreational_land.html • http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/common-loon.jpg • http://www.junglewalk.com/popup.asp?type=a&AnimalAudioID=345 • http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/Bird-sounds.htm • http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Aves.html • www.reference.com