Tacony Creek Park Bird Guide This Guide Belongs To

Tacony Creek Park Bird Guide This guide belongs to

Bring this guide with you each time you come for a walk in Tacony Creek Park. Bring a friend! It also helps to have a good bird identification guide and binoculars.

This checklist has been compiled from the Birds of Fairmount Park Urban Greenways IBA, prepared by Keith Russell of the National Audubon Society.

Cover: Bird walk, Tacony Creek Park Birds, left to right: Wood Thrush, Great Crested Flycatcher and Warbling Vireo (www.birds.audubon.org) Back: American Robin, Downy Woodpecker and Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Allison Ostertag), Bird Walk, Tacony Creek Park

1 What is TTF? The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF) is dedicated to improving the health and vitality of our watershed by engaging our communities in education, stewardship, restoration, and advocacy. What is a Watershed? A watershed is all of the land that drains rainwater into a particular body of water. Philadelphia is in the Delaware River Watershed, whose five main watersheds are the Pennypack, Darby-Cobbs, Poquessing, Wissahickon, and our watershed, Tookany/Tacony-Frankford.

What is the #1 Source of Watershed Pollution? Rainwater carries chemicals, trash and other materials over land and into storm drains, dumping them directly into our creeks, streams and rivers. Runoff harms everything from plants and wildlife to the water we drink.

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Creek Watershed Our watershed is the 33 square miles of land that drains into the Tookany/ Tacony-Frankford Creek. Tookany Creek begins in Montgomery County and flows into Philadelphia north of Cheltenham Avenue, where it is known as the Tacony Creek. The Tacony used to meet the historic Wingohocking Creek in Juniata, where the name was changed once again to the Frankford Creek. From there, it flows into the Delaware River, just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge. Learn more at www.ttfwatershed.org 2 Tacony Creek Park

Carolina Wren

Tacony Creek Park provides habitat for birds in a variety of landscapes, from hardwood and riparian forest, to upland meadows, wetlands and the creek itself. The better quality the habitat, the more birds feel at home in the park.

Let’s help the birds by removing trash and invasive plants, and adding native plants and habitat structures such as nest boxes for ducks. Make a difference by working with us to improve the health of the creek in your backyard and community! Along with the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Water departments, we invite you to join us in the ongoing restoration of this historic park and creek. TTF offers fun, educational park activities from plantings, cleanups, and storm drain marking to nature and bird walks... plus our annual block parties at Tacony Creek Park Gateways!

3 Bird Identification Tips

Hints to help you identify species.

Look for: Look at Wing Shape size

color and markings on the feathers

beak shape

wing shape

tail shape

behavior: how is it moving?

location of the bird: is it on the ground, in a tree, on the water, in a brush pile? Birds prefer specific types Compare of habitat. Tail Shape

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S 89:| Playground C G 89:| r e e ! ! Tacony Creek Trail 89:| k Feet Deni E HUN Juniata Boys Piccoli 0 750 1,500 TI NG PA RK 1 inch = 1500 feet AVE & 89:| Girls Club 6 Birds of Tacony Creek Park Perching Birds Red-winged Blackbird * Eastern Kingbird * Rusty Blackbird Golden-crowned Kinglet Eastern Bluebird Ruby-crowned Kinglet Bobolink Purple Martin Indigo Bunting * Northern Mockingbird * Northern Cardinal * Common Nighthawk Gray Catbird * Red-breasted Nuthatch Yellow-breasted Chat White-breasted Nuthatch * Black-capped Chickadee Baltimore Oriole * Carolina Chickadee * Orchard Oriole * Brown-headed Cowbird * Ovenbird Brown Creeper Northern Parula Red Crossbill Eastern Phoebe * White-winged Crossbill Rock Pigeon * American Crow * Common Redpoll Fish Crow * American Redstart Black-billed Cuckoo American Robin * Yellow-billed Cuckoo Pine Siskin Mourning Dove * American Tree Sparrow House Finch * Chipping Sparrow * Purple Finch Field Sparrow Acadian Flycatcher Fox Sparrow Alder Flycatcher House Sparrow * Great Crested Flycatcher * Lincoln’s Sparrow Least Flycatcher Nelson’s Sparrow Olive-sided Flycatcher Savannah Sparrow Willow Flycatcher Song Sparrow * Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Swamp Sparrow Blue-gray Gnatcatcher * White-crowned Sparrow American Goldfinch * White-throated Sparrow Common Grackle * European Starling * Blue Grosbeak Bank Swallow Evening Grosbeak Barn Swallow * Rose-breasted Grosbeak Cliff Swallow Ruby-throated Hummingbird * Northern Rough-winged Swallow* Blue Jay * Tree Swallow Dark-eyed Junco Chimney Swift * 7 Scarlet Tanager Worm-eating Warbler Summer Tanager Yellow Warbler Brown Thrasher Yellow-rumped Warbler Bicknell’s Thrush Yellow-throated Warbler Gray-cheeked Thrush Louisiana Waterthrush Hermit Thrush Northern Waterthrush Swainson’s Thrush Cedar Waxwing * Wood Thrush * Whip-poor-will Tufted Titmouse * Eastern Wood-Pewee * Eastern Towhee Carolina Wren * Veery House Wren * Blue-headed Vireo Marsh Wren Philadelphia Vireo Winter Wren Red-eyed Vireo * Common Yellowthroat Warbling Vireo * Yellow-throated Vireo Woodpeckers Bay-breasted Warbler Northern Flicker * Black-and-white Warbler Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Blackburnian Warbler Downy Woodpecker * Black-throated Blue Warbler Hairy Woodpecker * Black-throated Green Warbler Red-bellied Woodpecker * Blue-winged Warbler Red-headed Woodpecker Canada Warbler Cape May Warbler Water-loving Birds Cerulean Warbler Wood Duck Chestnut-sided Warbler Great Egret Connecticut Warbler Canada Goose * Golden-winged Warbler Ring-billed Gull Hooded Warbler Black-crowned Night-Heron Magnolia Warbler Great Blue Heron Mourning Warbler Green Heron Nashville Warbler Killdeer Orange-crowned Warbler Belted Kingfisher Palm Warbler Mallard * Pine Warbler Hooded Merganser Prairie Warbler Solitary Sandpiper Tennessee Warbler Spotted Sandpiper Wilson’s Warbler American Woodcock

* species known to breed locally 8 Raptors

Bald Eagle American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon Merlin Northern Goshawk Osprey Northern Harrier Eastern Screech-Owl * Broad-winged Hawk Great Horned Owl * Cooper’s Hawk * Long-eared Owl Red-shouldered Hawk Northern Saw-whet Owl Red-tailed Hawk * Black Vulture Sharp-shinned Hawk Turkey Vulture * species known to breed locally

Field notes and sketches:

9 Resources and Links

Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership www.ttfwatershed.org

Cornell Lab of Ornithology www.birds.cornell.edu

National Wildlife Federation www.nwf.org

PA Audubon Society www.pa.audubon.org

Bird Philly www.birdphilly.org

Clean Your Water www.stormwaterPA.org/TTF

Philadelphia Water Department www.phillywatersheds.org

Philadelphia Parks and Recreation www.phila.gov/parksandrecreation

Fairmount Park Conservancy www.myphillypark.org

Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @TTFwatershed #TaconyCreekPark #DiscoverTCP

10 Downy Woodpecker

American Robin

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

4500 Worth Street Philadelphia PA 19124 215.744.1853 www.ttfwatershed.org [email protected]