A mid-sized, chunky heron species, the well-camouflaged and secretive American Bittern nests and forages in densely vegetated marshes. When disturbed, it will stand stock-still with its bill pointing straight upwards, its long and heavily streaked neck blending into the reeds and grasses. This hard bird to spot, and you’re more likely to hear it strange gulping “pump-er-lunk” call than to actually see it.

The American Bittern feeds on broad range of fish, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and even small mammals. A stealthy hunter, like other herons it will spear is prey and swallow it whole, head first. And like owls, it will regurgitate undigestable parts as pellets.

The Great Crested Flycatcher’s grandiose name is a little misleading. It is large for a flycatcher, but smaller than a robin, and its “crest” is really a peaked crown. Like other larger flycatchers, it has a big head and shoulders, and both sexes sport a distinctive yellow belly. It’s a very vocal bird; its trills and “reep” calls are familiar in Georgian Bay’s mixed coniferous and deciduous woodlands during spring and summer.

Great Crested Flycatcher is of course an insectivore. It will “sally” from a prominent perch after insects, and then typically return to the same perch with its meal. As cavity nesters, Great Crested Flycatchers are attracted to dead, hollow snags for both feeding perches and nesting sites, and will readily move into boxes.

Read more about the Great Crested Flycatcher here.

The smaller of the two main Tern species that nest on Georgian Bay, the Common Tern is easily distinguished from the much larger, gull-sized Caspian. Both Tern species are colonial, meaning that they nest in groups, and in the case of Georgian Bay, on rocky islands.

Common Terns are graceful and agile flyers and will suddenly pivot and dive the water after small fish, their primary food source. They have an elaborate courtship “dance” that begins in the air and continues onto the ground. The male Tern seals the deal with food offerings to the female. Both sexes have similar breeding plumage, and their shrill, chittering calls will be familiar to many.

The most widespread tern species in North America, the Common Tern’s numbers have mostly recovered from their over-harvesting for millinery trade in late 19^th century (entire birds were mounted on hats), but the Great Lakes colonies have declined again more recently. This is likely due to habitat loss, and increasing competition from expanding gull populations.

Common Terns migrate to South America, as far as Chile and Argentina, where they spend the winter on saltwater coasts. Like other “seabirds” are able to drink seawater due to nasal glands that excrete excess salt.

Read more about the Common Tern here.

The House Wren exhibits certain positive human attributes: it’s a chatty,
very energetic and cheerful bird. It also has a bit of a dark side, being a tough, highly territorial customer. House
Wrens will actually kick other birds and their eggs out of a nesting site so that they
can move in. They have other interesting nesting behaviour too. Males will
start building multiple nests in order to better his odds of attracting a
mate. This is also thought to be intended to throw off would-be competitor
male Wrens, or even to be decoys to fool predators. Adults will often
collect and deposit spider egg sacs into the nest; it’s believed that the
hatched spiders will feed on the mites that plague nestling Wrens.

One of the most widespread of all North American songbirds, the House Wren
is an insectivore and a cavity nester and is readily attracted to nesting
boxes.

Read more about the House Wren here.

The Brown Thrasher is member of Mimidae, the avian family that includes mockingbirds and catbirds. The Mimidae are prodigious singers and talented mimics; the Brown Thrasher is believed to repertoire as many as 1000 songs, many of them borrowed from other birds. Its song is typically short and loud, with two or three repetitions of single phrases before moving on.

As might be suggested by name and appearance, the Brown Thrasher is territorially aggressive bird that will defend it nest as vigorously as Red-winged Blackbird, meaning that humans and dogs risk severely pecked head of venture too near.

A long and slender bird, the Brown Thrasher’s colouring and markings are similar to Wood Thrush’s: reddish-brown upper parts and heavily streaked white underparts. Are fairly omnivorous in feeding preferences and will eat berries, seeds, nuts and invertebrates as available. Thrashers are partial to low tangled scrub as cover, and also for foraging and nesting, but they will often deliver their impressive vocal displays from treetop or other prominent location.

Read more about the Brown Thrasher and listen to song here.

One of the earliest arrivals of the wood warblers, the Black-and-white is easily identified by its unmistakable bold markings. Females are often slightly paler with more gray and white on the face and throat than the male pictured here, but otherwise look quite similar. Black-and-white Warblers can often be found scrambling up and down tree trunks foraging for invertebrates in the manner of a Nuthatch or Creeper, and have adapted to this feeding behaviour by developing an elongated rear claw and heavier, sturdy legs. The Black-and-white is a habitat generalist overall but prefers deciduous and mixed forest for breeding. Although the Black-and-white feeds primarily in the trees, like many warblers it is a ground nester.

This bird is a real scrapper, and will defend its territory from other songbird species as well as other Black-and-whites. This aggression can continue well past breeding season and even onto its wintering grounds post-migration.

Read more about the Black-and-white Warbler and listen to its call here.

One of the smaller of the “buteo” hawk species, the historically very common Red-shouldered Hawk underwent a serious population decline after the large scale clearing of Ontario’s forests around the turn of the 20^th century. Happily though, their numbers have now recovered to where the species has been “downlisted” at both federal and provincial levels to Not at Risk.

The handsome Red-shouldered is a raptor of mixed forest and wetlands. It shares its preferred habitat and prey species with the Barred Owl, but Red takes the day shift to Barred’s night activity, meaning they co-exist very nicely. They will though defend their territory very aggressively against other daytime intruders.

In flight the Red-shouldered fans its banded tail and appears to reach its wings forward, giving it distinctive silhouette.

Georgian Bay and the North Channel are northern edge of bird’s breeding range. It is large non-migrating population in the States, but the Ontario birds will fly as far south as Mexico for the winter.

Read more about the Red-shouldered Hawk and listen to “kee-aah” call here.

Small, acrobatic and noisy woodpeckers, Downies are habitat generalists but favour deciduous woodlands for feeding. They are common visitors to backyard feeders where they will partake of sunflower seeds and peanuts, on top of the suet that attracts the other woodpecker species. Males and females forage separately during the winter; the bossy males will drive the females away from the easier pickings (peckings?).

Easily confused with the larger Hairy Woodpecker, the Downy has a proportionally much smaller and stubby bill, and barred or spotted black and white outer tail feathers. The Hairy has a large, chisel-like bill and all-white outer tail feathers.

Like most woodpeckers, the Downy has an undulating up-down flight pattern. Also like most woodpeckers it has a harsh rapid fire staccato call, in the Downy’s case high-pitched and descending, that makes it pretty easy to identify by ear.

To read more and hear the Downy’s call click here.

The beautiful male Indigo Bunting is Georgian Bay’s only all-blue bird. It sings enthusiastically all summer long from treetops, not stopping at the end of breeding season like most other birds. Despite this, you won’t easily learn its song. Indigo Buntings learn to sing from nearby birds, and their melody varies throughout “neighbourhoods” and across generations. In time, you can learn to identify certain patterns that are present throughout the species.

Closely related to Cardinals and Tanagers, the Indigo Bunting has a similar strong conical finch-like bill. Buntings are seasonally omnivorous, they can be attracted to backyard finch feeders but will eat mostly berries and insects during the summer.

Indigo Buntings like to nest and forage where fields and clearings meet forest or low brushy understory, also in recently cleared and recovering areas such as hydro cuts, and even roadsides. Like so many songbird species their numbers have been in sharp decline, and it’s believed that climate change may expand their range northward. Indigo Buntings moved into the Maritime provinces from Maine during the 1970s.

Read more about the Indigo Bunting here.

A Wood duck drake in breeding plumage is a striking sight; its vivid colours and patterns are unmistakable. A relatively diminutive duck, a “Woodie’s” un-ducklike behaviour includes perching in, and flying through trees.

This is a genuine wetland duck. During the nesting season Wood ducks will be found in backwaters, swamps, bogs and close to streams inland from coastal Georgian Bay. They prefer vegetation-heavy open water for foraging, including emergent rushes, grasses and cattails as well as both live and deadfall trees, and tangled scrub. This provides cover and safety for them; Wood ducks are very wary and skittish birds.

Wood ducks are “secondary cavity nesters” meaning that they can’t excavate their own nesting holes, and must find a pre-existing cavity. Because of this they are easily attracted to nest boxes. They prefer to nest in trees over or very near to water. The nest can be up to 60’ above ground level, making a big jump to earth for the little ducklings!

Female Wood ducks will often engage in “egg dumping” in other Wood duck nests, leaving the eggs to be hatched and the ducklings raised by another female.

The Wood duck’s call is also unusual, it might be described as a series of whistles or even squeals – certainly not a “quack”.

Read more about the Wood Duck and listen to its call here.

A common visitor to backyard feeders, the Chipping Sparrow is easily identified by its bright rufous cap, black eyeline and plain gray belly. It has a distinctive loud trilling song; the “Chipping” in its name may be deceptive. Chipping Sparrows favour trees, particularly conifers, and parkland (forest interspersed with open meadow) as habitat but will often be found feeding on the ground. It is fundamentally a seed-eater but appears to shift to protein (insects and small invertebrates) during the breeding season.

Female Chipping Sparrows are known for being exacting about their nests, and will often abandon a half-built attempt to begin again somewhere else. The final result is a rickety, see-through affair of twigs and grasses that somehow gets the job done.

Read more about the Chipping Sparrow here.

Like many warblers, the Common Yellowthroat is more often heard than seen, and the male’s witchety-witchety-witchety song will be familiar to many.

A very widespread North American breeder, the Common Yellowthroat favours wetland areas, and in particular low-lying tangled scrub for cover and nesting.

Like so many of our songbirds, Common Yellowthroat numbers have declined sharply. It’s estimated that since 1966 their overall population has dropped as much as 40%, largely due to habitat degradation.

The male bird has a distinctive black mask, bright yellow throat and white “eyebrow”, making it easy to identify.

Read more about the Common Yellowthroat and listen to its witchety-witchety song here.

A large and handsome woodpecker, the Northern Flicker is by preference a ground feeder whose diet consists mostly of ants and beetles. Like most woodpeckers, Flickers are “primary” cavity nesters (“secondary” cavity nesters use secondhand burrows and holes dug by another bird or animal), but despite this they can be attracted to nesting boxes. Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers are highly migratory, and most will fly south for the winter.

The loud “drumming” that Flickers and other woodpeckers perform is actually intended as a territorial display and to attract mates, and is not the “woodpecking” associated with feeding. The desired effect of drumming is to be as loud as possible, and some birds will choose to drum on buildings’ flashing or metal siding to achieve the desired volume and resonance. Real birding aficionados can identify a woodpecker’s species by the rhythm and speed of its drumming.

Read more about Northern Flickers here.

The real harbinger of spring in southern Ontario, you know the seasonal corner has been turned when you hear (or see) a Red-winged Blackbird.

Male Red Wings are noisy and very much on display during breeding season, which begins right about now. They guard their nests aggressively, and there are many documented Red Wing attacks on unsuspecting humans passing too close to a low-built nest. Red Wings have a preference for nesting and foraging in marshy areas and wetlands, but can be found in dry upland locations as well. Their spring and summer diet is mainly insects, but this will shift to grains and seeds during migration and over the winter. Red-winged Blackbirds will join huge flocks that include other blackbirds, grackles, cowbirds and starlings for their fall migrations.

Listen to the Red-winged Blackbird’s song in the video to the left, and see if you can hear it yet among the birds outside. Read more about Red-winged Blackbirds here.

We hope you’re all preparing for a fantastic long weekend, and ready to participate in our Georgian Bay bird survey! We’re looking forward to hearing about the birds you see and hear over the weekend, and creating a snapshot map of birds on the Bay. Report your sightings using the link above anytime during or after the weekend.

Before we start, there’s time for one final Bird of the Day… the American Woodcock! A small species of Snipe, the American Woodcock is most easily spotted in the spring when males perform a fascinating aerial courtship display at dusk. Its fantastic camouflage makes it difficult to detect at other times. Although this is a bird of young forests and shrubbed field habitat, it is in fact considered a shorebird. The Woodcock has a famous, and slightly silly, walking style – check it out here.

Georgian Bay Bird of the Day: Wood Thrush

A beautiful singer, as are other thrushes, the reclusive Wood Thrush is much easier to hear than see. Known to nest predominantly in deciduous forest, we are lucky that it makes an exception in the case of Georgian Bay. The Wood thrush’s numbers are in decline and it is a listed species at risk; it is a common target of brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds, and it is also thought that acid rain is severely depleting their mostly ground-dwelling invertebrate prey.

Today we feature Buffleheads!

The Bufflehead is a beautiful, tiny cavity-nesting duck most commonly seen on Georgian Bay during their spring and fall migrations. Some will spend the summer on Georgian Bay’s more northern reaches, but the bulk of Buffleheads head for lakes in the forests of central western Canada.

Buffleheads are diving ducks, able to compress the air out of their feathers and swim completely underwater in search of food. They are also one of the few mostly monogamous ducks, splitting up for a time after breeding but returning to the same mate year after year.

Today’s Bird of the Day is the Barn Swallow, a once-familiar Georgian Bay species whose numbers have sadly been declining.

Once cave-nesters, Barn Swallows now build their small mud nests almost exclusively in human structures. They are frequent residents of Georgian Bay’s boathouses and sheds, and elsewhere, as their name suggests, barns. One of several swallow species that you can find around Georgian Bay, the Barn Swallow’s most obvious distinguishing feature is its very deeply forked tail.

Barn Swallows are aerial insectivores, meaning they feed by hunting insects in flight. Watch for them swooping low over the ground or water when bugs are out. Unfortunately, Barn Swallows are included in the general decline of aerial insectivore species that has been occurring over the past few decades, and many people report no longer seeing them in the places where they used to nest. The reasons for the decline aren’t fully understood, but reduced insect numbers (due to pesticides and other factors) likely has something to do with it.

Do you have, or did you have resident Barn Swallows on the Bay? Let us know!

Read more about Barn Swallows here.