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Birds
The most common birds in the Metro Parks:
1. Blue jay
2. Northern cardinal
3. Black-capped chickadee
4. American crow
5. Red-tailed hawk
6. American robin
7. American goldfinch
8. Turkey vulture
Blue jay
The only times blue jays are quiet are during breeding and the spring migration. These noisy birds have many calls, like a clear whistle, a clicking chatter and even a low, melodious song. But the call readily identified is the loud and shrill “Jaaaaaay.”
Because of their size (11 inches long with a 16-inch wingspan), blue jays can be aggressive at feeders and will rob eggs and babies from nests of other birds. Despite their overbearing habits, these birds are beautiful in their shades of bright blues and dazzling whites. The flashes of white on the tips of their tails are visible as they leave behind their mayhem. Blue jays gather in large, roving flocks in the fall, and then spend winter in smaller groupings. Ornithologists are still determining the distances and nature of their migration.
Northern cardinal
One of the most beautiful sights on a winter’s day is the male cardinal perched on a branch in his spectacular bright-red feathers. If you pay close attention, the female is close by, but her colors are of muted tans and reds. She needs this camouflage because she is the parent in charge of sitting on the nest. Both have crests and red or red-orange beaks. Young cardinals look like the female, but have dark beaks until they molt into adult plumage.
Cardinals will eat berries, insects and spiders, and dine on sunflower and safflower seeds from feeders. In fact, they will be one of the first at dawn and last at dusk to visit. Late in summer, some adult cardinals are without feathers on their head due to feather mites that gain a stronghold on nests used for a second or third brood. (Because their skin is black, the bald head is obvious.) Birds clean their feathers everyday to rid themselves of mites and dirt, but are unable to reach their heads. Luckily, the mites die in cold weather and cardinals quickly grow new feather hats for winter.
Black-capped chickadee
The black-capped chickadee is truly the delight of the backyard feeder. With its black cap and bib, white cheeks and belly, grayish feathers on its back highlighted with white edges, and tan painted sides, this inquisitive little bird will make many quick trips to the feeder, pick out a seed and dash away. The seed may be eaten or hidden in a limb or bark for another time. They are not intimidated by larger birds, or even birds of prey that might be watching. They are quick to scold intruders with an angry “chickadee-dee-dee-dee!” or happily call out to other chickadee friends. They whistle a happy two-note song, the second note being lower.
Chickadees can be trained to take seed from a person’s hand. It takes great patience and time to build trust. If you’re not patient enough to do this in your own back yard, you can try offering seed at Firestone Metro Park and F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm. However, for the health of the park and other animals, please don’t leave seed on the ground.
American crow
Because american crows will eat just about anything – insects, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, berries, bird eggs, nestlings, carrion and garbage – they have adapted to living in cities, suburbia and parks. They live in family groups of parents and young from previous years that help raise the newest brood. The American crow is 17 inches, weighs about a pound, is all black, and has a short tail and broad wings. They are not able to soar like eagles, hawks or turkey vultures; therefore, they have to continuously flap in flight. Crows are great “watchdogs.” Their screaming “caaw,” “caaw,” “caaw” is a good warning to all animals that something has come into view, maybe even a human.
West Nile Virus took a large toll on the crow population. However, their numbers are coming back, quite possibly with immunities to the virus.
Red-tailed hawk
The red-tailed hawk is the largest and most common buteo in the country. A buteo is a raptor or bird of prey with a stocky, strong body, broad wings, and wide, round tail. It weighs in at two and a half pounds, is 19 inches long, and has a wingspan of 49 to 50 inches. Red-tails soar effortlessly and majestically high in the afternoon sky, and perch along roadsides and edges of open land. In the field, pasture, marsh, meadow and park habitat is their banquet of mice, moles, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, other mammals and snakes. Their eyesight is so great that they can spot their food while soaring, and can hover in mid-air while they locate their prey. Winter brings red-tails from Canada to Ohio. They may even fly as far south as Panama.
There can be a lot of color variation in the red-tailed population, but adult red-tails are easily identified by their rust colored or brick-red tail. However, the tail has horizontal bands of brown and white until the bird’s second year. If the bird is soaring, it can be identified by a band of striping on its light belly.
American robin
The robin is our biggest and most common thrush, belonging to the same family as the bluebird and wood thrush. Its familiar orange breast and dark gray back is easy to identify, but unnoticed may be the white underbelly and partial white eye ring. At 10 inches with a wingspan of 17 inches, it weighs under three ounces.
Robins have a beautiful song of short, warbled phrases, like “cheeryup cherrily.” They happily sing from before sunrise to after sunset. Robins prefer to eat earthworms, locating them by sight, not sound, and feed their young insects. Robins change their diet in the winter, eating berries and fruit. The species has two or three broods each year. The male will care for the fledglings while the female is incubating the next brood of eggs.
American goldfinch
Thanks to the popularity of backyard bird feeding, many people have witnessed the dramatic yearly color changes of the American goldfinch. In winter, the drab olive-yellow plumage is good protection for this very small two-ounce bird. Come March, the goldfinch slowly molts, or looses the drab feathers, for its bright lemon-yellow color. The male is most spectacular with yellow on his body, black cap, black wings and tail. The female is not quite as decorated because she spends 95% of her time on the nest, where she is fed by her mate.
Goldfinches nest late in the warm season, waiting for the seeds of thistle and other plants to feed their young. They fill their crop (a sack in the bird’s gullet that softens food for digestion) with seeds, and then regurgitate a mass of seed and mucus into the nestling’s mouth. They are quite acrobatic when collecting seeds, perching on delicate flower heads and swaying on thin stems. The female builds the nest with fibers she strips from dead trees, weeds, filaments from wind-dispersed seeds, cattails, spider webs and caterpillar silk. Thistle is their favorite food, but the birds also eat insects, plant lice and caterpillars. Although not correct, they are sometimes referred to as yellow canaries, because their song is similar.
Turkey vulture
The red-headed turkey vulture (sometimes called a buzzard) is the ultimate, ultra-light soaring machine. At 26 inches long with a wingspan of 70 inches, its body looks heavy but only weighs four pounds, as compared to an eagle’s weight of nine and a half pounds. Because their body is so light, they often look like they are teetering on the broad wings of their V-shaped glide. High in the sky, vultures use their great sense of smell to locate road kill or other dead animals. They are one of nature’s garbage disposals, cleaning up the final cycle of life. Their return from migration is usually timed with the mid-winter warming and bountiful remains of winter’s toll.
Head and neck feathers are absent on vultures, allowing them to stick their heads into a decomposing animal to feast. The long, hooked bill acts as a fork and knife. And when it gets hot, vultures will defecate on their own legs, letting the water in the feces evaporate and cool them down. Despite the gross habits of the vulture, it is a social bird, roosting with others of its kind.
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