Category Archives: Birds – Waterfowl

Birds commonly found in or near waterways.

Great Egret

Posted on by

great egret_5663

While visiting southern Illinois and searching for reptiles and amphibians along the banks of the Big Muddy River, I came across a number of these majestic birds.

great egret_5614

The Great Egret is a member of the heron family. This bird is the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed to stop the slaughter of herons for their showy plumes. It is our second largest heron; only the Great Blue Heron (shown in photo above with Great Egrets) is bigger.

great egret_5654

In the early 20th century, they were almost hunted into extinction for their long, attractive feathers that were commonly used as decoration for ladies hats, but their numbers have increased over most of its range and they continue to expand their territories. During the breeding season, both males and females grow long lacy, delicate and flowing plumes on their backs that curl over their tails.

great egret_5619

With a wingspread of 55 inches, their wings are longer and wider than most other white herons. During the day, they forage alone or in mixed flocks, catching fish by standing motionless in the water. The neck has a characteristic kinked S-curve. When prey comes within striking distance, they spear it with their long, sharp bill. The largest part of their diet consists of fish, frogs and crayfish.

great egret_5646

A group of egrets has many collective nouns, including a “congregation,” “heronry,” “RSVP,” “skewer,” and “wedge” of egrets.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Ring-billed Gull

Posted on by

Ring-billed Gull_8447

This is Ohio’s most common gull – it is also easy to identify. The head, neck and underparts are white and the relatively short bill is yellow with a dark ring. Its back and wings are silver gray.

Ring-billed Gull_8476

As you might expect gulls usually are found near large bodies of water; these were photographed near Lake Erie. Though this species is also a familiar sight in the shopping mall parking lots of the United States, where it can regularly be found congregating in large numbers.

Ring-billed Gull_8483

These birds forage for food and pick up objects while swimming, walking or wading. They also steal food from other birds and frequently scavenge. They have an omnivorous diet which may include insects, fish, grain, eggs, earthworms and rodents. These birds are opportunistic and have adapted well to taking food discarded or left unattended by people.

Ring-billed Gull_8506

Ring-billed Gulls nest in colonies on the ground, or sometimes in trees near lakes. They often nest near other water birds. The male and female work together to build the nest out of twigs, sticks, grasses, leaves, lichens and mosses.

Ring-billed Gull_8484

Females usually lay three eggs. The eggs are light blue, green or brownish and spotted. Both the male and female both incubate the eggs for about 20 to 31 days. After the chicks hatch, both parents take care of them.

Ring-billed Gull_8496

Ring-billed Gulls are highly social, occupying large colonies, especially during the breeding season. They defend small territories within nesting colonies. They engage in play, dropping objects while airborne, then swooping down to catch them.

Ring-billed Gull_8482

They often associate with other species of gulls, ducks and cormorants. By forming mixed flocks, birds help each other stay alert for potential danger.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Solitary Sandpiper

Posted on by

solitary sandpiper_7649

Walking along on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath, I occasionally come across this bird. The Solitary Sandpiper is not a social species. It is usually seen alone, although sometimes small numbers gather in suitable feeding areas.

solitary sandpiper_2815

This bird is usually found along the banks of wooded streams, in narrow marsh channels and sometimes along the edges of open mudflats. Solitary Sandpipers usually forage in shallow water, picking up food items from the surface or probing into the water and mud. They may also use their feet to stir up small creatures from the bottom.

solitary sandpiper_7655

These birds have a characteristic behavior of bobbing the front half of their bodies up and down. When alarmed, they often fly straight up in the air to escape, a flight pattern that is perhaps an adaptation to the closed wooded areas they inhabit.

solitary sandpiper_7663

They seek out both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates as their main food source. These include insects and insect larvae, spiders and worms.

solitary sandpiper_2804

Its habit of nesting in the abandoned nests of other birds is unique among North American shorebirds, which generally nest on the ground.

solitary sandpiper_7667

A group of these birds has many collective nouns, including a “bind,” “contradiction,” “fling,” “hill,” and “time-step” of sandpipers.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Green Heron

Posted on by

swamp 003

The Green Heron is stocky, dark colored and small for a heron. This crow-sized bird is solitary and secretive.

greenheron_8920

It inhabits small, freshwater wetlands, ponds, and stream-sides with thick vegetation along the edges. I have seen a far number of them on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath.

green heron_6585

The Green Heron is one of the few birds known to use tools. It will attract prey with “bait” (feathers, small sticks, live insects or berries) that it drops into the water. This hunting technique has earned them the distinction of being placed among the world’s smartest birds. This one is using a blade of grass.

green heron_5307

I once saw one of these birds seemly cooperating with a Common Snapping Turtle, herding fish into an area where they could be easily caught.

greenheron_2962

This bird tends to forage from a perch, where it stands with its body lowered and stretched out horizontally, ready to thrust its bill at unsuspecting prey. Fish are its main source of food, though it is opportunistic feeder, also eating frogs, crayfish and large insects.

green heron_0372

The Green Heron lays three to six eggs in a nest made of sticks. Both the female and male make the nest. The male gathers the materials and the female constructs the nest.

greenheron_2959

A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a “battery,” “hedge,” “pose,” “rookery” and “scattering” of herons.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Cinnamon Teal

Posted on by

Cinnamon Teal 005

This small brightly colored duck caught my eye when I was visiting the bay area of California. The Cinnamon Teal is small, with bright rust colors on the male and duller brown plumage on the female. It lives in marshes and ponds, and feeds mostly on plants.

Cinnamon Teal_2857

Mating pair bonds are renewed each season, during the winter. Females attract the males by swimming in front of the desired mate. Cinnamon Teal are usually found in small flocks, comprising pairs of birds.

Cinnamon Teal_2854

They are very agile in flight. The birds make sudden and sharp turns while flying low and they take off to flight directly from water. Cinnamon Teal usually feed in shallow water where they scoop up floating plants, seeds and insects. They will also dive for food.

Cinnamon Teal_2862

It was neat to encounter this western species of duck that I have never seen before.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Red-breasted Merganser

Posted on by

Red-breasted Merganser_1725

Near Station Road Bridge on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath, I encountered a group of very cool, colorful birds. Red-breasted Mergansers are sometimes referred to as “sawbills” due to the toothy edges of their bills, which allow them to more easily grasp fish.

Red-breasted Merganser_1884

The male shows a striking, wide band of white that extends almost the full length of the body and a dark band across his chest. The dark, tufted green head appears black at a distance. This bird’s slender neck and tapered body give it a streamlined appearance when in flight.

Red-breasted Merganser_1853

The female Red-breasted Merganser has a has a cinnamon-brown head and dusky gray back, occasionally enlivened by a small white blotch in front of the tail. The female also has lighter red eyes and feet than the male, which tend to be a deep red. Both females and males have a double crest of plumes at the back of their heads.

Red-breasted Merganser_1865

Red-breasted Mergansers search for fish mainly in shallow waters. They are a “diving duck” rather than a “dabbler” like a Mallard. They have rapid, efficient flight and can swim and dive well by propelling themselves with their feet. However, they cannot walk well, because their feet are so far back on their bodies.

Red-breasted Merganser_1852

These birds are highly social and are usually seen in groups, except during breeding season, when pairs separate to mate and nest. During their fall migration they may gather in large groups of up to 15,000. Red-breasted Mergansers are commonly seen foraging for food and nesting near other bird species.

Red-breasted Merganser_1890

They locate food in several different ways: They float at the surface, looking underwater as they go; they dive in deep or shallow water to search for prey; or they dive in formation with other Red-breasted Mergansers to herd schooling fish.

Red-breasted Merganser_1796

The unique bill, vibrant colors, and shaggy crest on the back of the head give these birds a distinct visual appeal. Watching their diving and social behavior made for an enjoyable outing that took place only a few minutes from my home.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

American Coot

Posted on by

american coot_0330

The American Coot is also known as a Mud Hen. The Toledo Mud Hens are a minor league baseball team located in Toledo, Ohio that are named after this bird. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America.  These were seen on the Lake Erie shore.

american coot_0322

Though commonly mistaken to be ducks, American Coots belong to a distinct order, a group of shoreline birds called Rails. Instead of having the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step in order to facilitate walking on land.

american coot_0337

This is a social bird species that lives in flocks. Coots are the only members of the Rail Family to live in groups. They can make a wide variety of noises, from grunting to clucking, as a means of communication, between each other and to threatening predators.

american coot_0311

They are nicknamed “marsh hen” or “mud hen” because of they way their heads bob when they walk or swim.  They eat small aquatic animals, insects and vegetation. American Coots have the ability to dive for their food, much like ducks. When diving, they gather plants that grow on the bottom of waterways. After bringing plants up to the surface, they go through them looking for edible parts.

american coot_0326

A group of these birds has many collective nouns, including a “codgery,” “commotion,” “fleet,” “shoal” and a “swarm” of coots.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

American Black Duck

Posted on by

The American black duck is not really black – it is more of a dusky brown. It blends in well and hides in plain sight in the shallow wetlands of the Cuyahoga River floodplain.

Male and female American Black Ducks are remarkably similar in appearance, which is unusual for waterfowl. These days they can be seen staking out nest sites in preparation for egg laying. The female usually selects an area in a clump of grass, under a shrub or tree.

Numbers of this duck declined sharply in the mid-twentieth century. Hunting regulations seem to have helped to stabilize their numbers, though the continental population of these birds is less than half of its historical size.

These ducks forage for food by dabbling; they tip their heads down and lift their tails up so they can probe the mud and water for submerged plants, seeds and invertebrates.

An average-sized clutch of 9 eggs hatch after just under a month of incubation. Ducklings appear in May and early June and are mobile within a few hours of hatching.

The American Black Duck is shy and is widely regarded as the wariest of all ducks. It is often seen in company of Mallards. If a mother is killed or separated from her brood, another American Black Duck with ducklings of her own, regardless of their age, will quickly adopt the orphans.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Belted Kingfisher

Posted on by

The kingfisher actively hunts for small fish by perching on limbs over the water. When it spots a fish, it leaves its post and hovers over the water until it plunges in after its prey.

After snapping up a fish with its bill, the bird takes it back to its perch, where it stuns the fish by beating it against a branch or tree trunk before gulping it down.

Somewhat larger than a pigeon, they can grow up to 13 inches long. Belted Kingfishers have a large, shaggy crest and a long, heavy beak – causing them to look rather top-heavy.

This bird is a female. Belted Kingfishers are unusual in that females are more colorful than males, which lack the rust colored markings.

They are often first detected by their distinctive dry, rattling call. They do not hesitate to scold any invader who enters their hunting territory – including humans. I discovered this particular bird’s territory on the Erie Canal Towpath last Summer; I can usually find her there whenever I visit the area.

Water is not only their resource for obtaining food, but it can provide an escape route as well. A trick Belted Kingfishers use to avoid being caught by hawks is to dive into the water at the last minute.

These birds are solitary except during breeding season, when the male and female will dig a tunnel into a mud bank. The tunnel, which can be up to eight feet long, has a small chamber at the end. Belted Kingfishers sometimes share their tunnel with swallows, which make small “rooms” off of the tunnel’s “main hallway.”

With its brushy crown, energetic flight, and piercing call, the Belted Kingfisher seems to have an air of royalty as it patrols the shoreline of its domain.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail

Double-crested Cormorant

Posted on by

While on a visit to CanalWay Center I saw this cool bird. The gangly Double-crested Cormorant is a prehistoric-looking, matte-black diving bird with yellow-orange facial skin. It is a large waterbird with a small head on long, kinked neck. This bird has a thin, strongly hooked bill. During breeding season, adults develop a small double crest of stringy black or white feathers.

Double-crested Cormorants float low on the surface of water and dive to catch small fish. After feeding, cormorants need to dry their wings. They do not have oil in their skin to protect their feathers from getting wet, like ducks and other water birds do. Cormorants find a perch and stretch their wings out until they are dry.

There is no other bird in Ohio that has undergone the tremendous population explosion of this bird. The use of unregulated pesticides like DDT caused a severe decline in their numbers from the 1950s through the 1970s. The comorant’s comeback is a result of the disappearance of these toxins from the environment.

Double-crested Cormorants often associate with other birds. Nests are built in trees alongside Great Blue Herons and other heron species. Cormorants will feed with other water birds, such as gulls, ducks and herons. These birds help each other with finding food and watching for predators. When threatened, a Double-crested Cormorant may vomit fish at a predator.

Third Eye Herp
E-mail