BIRDS of TRIANA

AMERICAN ROBIN Turdus migratorius

GREAT EGRET Casmerodius albus

MOURNING DOVE ARCHIVEZenaida macroura

FIELD GUIDE BLUE JAY Cyanocitta cristata INTRODUCTION

4 Cardinal Scientific Name: Cardinalis cardinalis Other Possible Names: None listed Description: American Males have bright red Robin Barn crests, black faces, and 1 Swallow stout red bills; females are 2 Blue red with a buff-brown Scientific Name: Jay tinge on crests, wings, and Turdus migratorius. Scientific Name: 3 tails. Facts: Cardinals are Other Possible Names: Hirundo rustica. Other noted for their loud, clear- Thrush Description: Possible Names: None Scientific Name: whistled songs often sung Babies are spotted, listed. Description: Cyanocitta cristata. from a high treetop song otherwise adults have a Upper body is glossy Other Possible Names: post; variations and accents gray upper body with a steel blue with a white None listed. Description: have been noted in cardinal brick red breast; head and underside and a chestnut Bright blue with white songs; more states have tail of males are black forehead, chin, and throat. and black on wings, tail, adopted the Northern and dark gray in females; Facts: Colonizes in six to and facial markings. cardinal as their state bird both have bright yellow eight pairs; nests are built Facts: Bold, traveling in than any other bird, includ- bills and white orbital with straw and mud, and noisy family groups in ing Illinois, Indiana, markings around the eyes. lined with feathers; late summer and fall; Kentucky, North Carolina, Facts: One of the first makes thousands of trips makes a variety of sounds Ohio, Virginia, and West birds to sing long morn- to gather mud that is a jay-jay call, a bell-like Virginia. Location: ing choruses of paired worked into pellets and tull-ull call, a mellow Found in backyards in the phrases of two or three carried to the nest in their whistled teekle, a variety eastern half of the United syllables that alternate in bills. Location: North of harsh chattering notes States, and from the pitch, indicating the start America, Europe, Asia, and growls and the South, East, Midwest, and of spring. Burma, Israel, and North- scream of the red-shoul- as far west as California; Location: Found in ern Africa; also breeds dered hawk. cardinals typically make North America from from Alaska to Canada Location: The nest is their habitats in brushy extreme northern Canada and south through central situated between 8-20 feet areas and undergrowth, and as far south as Guate-ARCHIVEMexico; builds nests near up in a coniferous or edges and clearings, mala. the ceiling on a beam or deciduous tree; found east parks, and residential Diet: Insects such as tucked under the eaves or of the Rockies from areas; and winter flocks earthworms, beetles, and in agricultural and subur- southern Canada to the can be as large as 60 to grasshoppers; also eats ban areas, marshes, and Gulf of Mexico westward. 70 individuals in areas of fruit such as pokeberries, lakeshores. Diet: Mostly vegetarian, abundance. Diet: Up to cherries, grapes, mistle- Diet: Insects including but also eats insects and one-third of the cardinal's toe, and the fruit of the flies, aphids, beetles, bird's eggs, small birds, summer diet consists of Sabal Palm located in the moths, mayflies, caterpil- and other small vertebrae insects, but in winter, 90 Southern states. lars, and grasshoppers. animals. percent is vegetation. This bird guide provides information that will help you identify seven of the most common birds found in Triana, Alabama.

Mourning 6 Dove Northern 7 Flicker Scientific Name: Zenaida macroura Scientific Name: References Other Possible Names: Colaptes auratus. None listed. Description: Other Possible Names: Cornell Lab of Orni- Great Sandy buff color with a Yellowhammer. thology Bird Source. Egret pointed tail bordered in Description: Brownish Retrieved August 30, 5 white. Facts: Most woodpecker; brown back 2002, from, http:// widely hunted and har- with dark bars and spots, www.birdsource.org. Scientific Name: vested game bird; its whitish or buff below with Casmerodius albus. name comes from its black spots; black crescent on National Wildlife Other Possible Names: song, a low-toned moan- breast; and white rump. Federation. Great White Heron or the ing cooah, coo, coo, coo; Facts: Unlike woodpeckers, ENature.com.™ American, Common, flocks are formed in Northern flickers are unable Retrieved August 29, Large or White Egret. every season, except to drill into hardwood; they 2002, from http:// Description: Great egrets when the birds are breed- need rotten or soft trees to www.enature.com/ have white bodies, yellow ing, they disperse in build their nests. Location: guides/ bills, black legs and feet, pairs; found in warm Range extends throughout select_Birds.asp. and a wingspan greater climates, mourning doves North America; also migrates than 50 inches. Facts: produce up to six broods to the southern United States Nature of New En- Nests are made of reeds per year, the most of any and spends winters through- gland. Birds of New and sticks and are often native bird; and typically out the Southwest and England. Retrieved high up in trees with as lays two eggs in a ever- Florida; lives in an assort- August 29, 2002, many as five or six eggs; green trees. Location: ment of woodland and human from http:// in the breeding season Found in a variety of habitats near parks, mead- www.nenature.com/ both males and females nests, including clumps of ows, fields, farms, savannas, Birds.htm. exhibit long back plumes. ARCHIVEgrass in the United States, swamps, or forests as far Location: Spends the southern Canada, and north as Canada and as far United States Geo- winter from South Caro- throughout the Great south as Central America. logical Survey, De- lina southward and as far Plains in the Midwest. Diet: Insects such as beetles, partment of the north as Massachusetts in Diet: Feeds primarily on caterpillars, and ants; eats Interior. Patuxent the summer. Diet: Out- the ground, consuming fruits and berries such as Wildlife Research standing fishermen, they waste grain such as apples, grapes, persimmons Center. Retrieved stand motionless in the wheat, buckwheat, and and dogwood berries, poke- August 30, 2002, water and wait for fish; weed seeds. berries and huckleberries; from http://www.mbr- snakes, frogs, or insects. and visits suet feeders. pwrc.usgs.gov. BARN SWALLOW Hirundo rustic NORTHERN FLICKER CARDINAL Colaptes auratus Cardinalis cardinalis

Marilyn Simpson-Johnson, L.M.S.W., C.A.D.R., Extension Urban Specialist, Family Welfare, Alabama A&M University

ARCHIVEPhotographers: Art Today (Great Egret & Barn Swallow); Mike Danzenbaker (Northern Flicker); Don DesJardin (Mourning Dove); Jim Roetzel (Cardinal); Brian Small (Blue Jay); and Ann & Rob Simpson (Robin)

For more information, call your county Extension office. Look in your telephone directory under your county’s name to find the number.

Published by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M and Auburn Universities) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of UNP-54 Agriculture. An Equal Opportunity Educator and Employer.