Brown-Headed Cowbird - interesting factoid: they place their eggs in other nests and expect the other bird to raise it's babies. It is a type of blackbird. The following site has a sound-byte of it's call. It is very unique: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/id
Red-Winged Blackbird- (Note how his feet are spread and grasping their own branch for balance) 
Hawk - I have not yet identified this one. I have spent a bit of time trying but with no success. Many hawks have brown or red eyes where this one has yellow. I found one quite similar but then found out it was only in Mexico. My problem may be that it changes color in the winter and the bird books don't show the winter coat. 
Canadian Geese - (Note the egg in the nest) Factoid : these geese usually spend 12 hours a day eating. 
Common Loon - (Due to the long dives under the water I was not able to get a great shot. The following picture off the Minnesota DNR site helps to identify what we saw.) Factoid: Unlike most birds, their bones aren't hollow. They can fly 75 mph. They are known to live to 30 years old. 
American White Pelican - (Sorry it's so blurry, he was sitting in the middle of the lake) Factoid: The knob on it's bill is only there during mating season. It falls off after it lays eggs. 
Unknown Bird - Can anyone help me? The closest I came was the Least flycatcher. The following picture shows its tiny narrow bill. Most yellowish birds do no have this narrow of a bill.
4 comments:
Hi Alissa, I enjoyed your bird photos. Our bird book indicates that your hawk is definitely a Marsh Hawk, which is now preferably called a Northern Harrier (male). Look at Google images, then Northern Harrier pictures, page 8. The first bird on the page had a very definite yellow eye. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=northern+harrier+photos&sa=N&start=126&ndsp=18
The male and female look very different. The female is very brown and the male is gray. Strikingly different. These hawks also do their nesting on the ground, and live in marsh and woodland areas.
We have such a cool family. Great research and photographs!
I'm impressed with your photographs, Alissa!
We see Red Wing Black Birds when we walk at Crown Hill Lake near out home. When we lived in Denver we would walk at Bluff lake. They had a "bird quiz" there where it gave birds sounds and the name. One was Red Wing Black bird. We never saw one at Bluff Lake but when we moved here we heard one at Crown Hill and knew right away it was a Red Wing Black Bird because we had listned to the quiz so many times!
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