A bird has a sleek crest, a black mask across the silky brown face, a berry in its mouth, and a yellow band across the tip of its tail. It must be a Cedar Waxwing!
The bright yellow iris of the male Brewer’s Blackbird contrasts sharply with its glossy black plumage. The female is gray by comparison, but both sexes maintain the confident, strutting air of their walk.
The Black-billed Magpie is a flashy black and white corvid that prefers open areas in the western United States and Canada. In Washington State it is common east of the Cascade Range.
An iconic bird of the sagebrush country, the Greater Sage-Grouse is under threat. Its fate depends on keeping its required sage habitat and maintaining freedom from disturbances due to human activity.
The Rufous Hummingbird is one of our beloved Northwest breeding birds which is awaited by birders as a sure sign of Spring. Its breeding area includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Western Montana, British Columbia, and south-central Alaska.
The Great Blue Heron (GBHE) is about 46" long and has a wingspan of 72". The Puget Sound region has a specific sub-species, Ardea herodias fannini. It is our largest and most common heron, about the size of a Sandhill Crane.
Green Herons belong to the genus Butorides, which refers to being “bittern-like” and derives from Butor, an Old English word for bittern. They are the species virescens, from the Latin viresco, to become green (Holloway, 2003).
The Belted Kingfisher (BEKI) is 13” long with a wingspan of 20”. The genus name Ceryle (ah-SER-ih-lee) is from the Greek kerylos, a halcyon, or in Latin halcyon, a kingfisher.
The American Bittern (AMBI) is about 28” long with a wingspan of 42”. The genus name Botarus (boh-TAW-rus) is from the Latin botarus, a bittern, and the species name lentiginosus , freckled, referring to the speckled plumage.
The Band-tailed Pigeon (BTPI) is about 14 in. long. When you first see the BTPIs, they tend to resemble some of the darker rock doves, or city pigeons. Distant flocks distinguished from rock doves by uniform appearance.
The mournful oowoo wooo woo woo (Alderfer) is the source of the Mourning Dove’s name. But its genus Zenaida, which it shares with the White-winged Dove Z. asiatica and Zenaida Dove Z. aurita, is named for a princess.
The genus name Callipepla (cal-ih-PEP-lah) is from the Greek kallos, beautiful, and peplos, a ceremonial robe, “beautifully adorned”, in reference to the bird’s plumage.
In the middle 1970s a local breeder in the Bahamas was burglarized and several Eurasian Collared-Doves were released. Soon thereafter he released the remaining 50 birds he had
