Bird of the Week

American Robin, Turdus migratorius Bill Rowe The American Robin is one of our best-known birds, as well it should be: it is a common nesting bird in 49 states out of 50 (sorry, Hawaii) and all the Canadian provinces. It occurs…

Greater White-fronted Goose, Anser albifrons Bill Rowe All through October and November, day and night, flocks of geese pass overhead as they migrate from their nesting grounds to their wintering areas. Besides our common Canadas, these include several other species, of…

Pine Siskin, Spinus pinus Bill Rowe Watch your feeders: Pine Siskins are here already. Like some other species that nest in the boreal forest (the pine/spruce/fir forest of Canada and the northernmost states), they are irruptive, which means that every few years…

Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus Bill Rowe Owls make up the order Strigiformes, one of the most distinctive and easily recognized groups of birds the world over. Nearly anywhere you go, there will be multiple species of owls around, but your…

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Setophaga coronata Bill Rowe Here in early October, most of our 35 species of warblers are getting close to finishing their passage through Missouri; the great majority of them are now farther south and heading for the tropics, with…

Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata Bill Rowe The familiar, handsome Blue Jay is one of three corvids that normally occur in Missouri—corvids being crows and their relatives in the family Corvidae (our other two actually are crows). Wherever you go in North America, in…

Forster’s Tern, Sterna forsteri Bill Rowe If you find yourself around a large lake or river, spring through fall, you have a chance of seeing some terns. These are close relatives of gulls, but more elegant and (to some) more appealing,…

Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum Bill Rowe The understated beauty of Cedar Waxwings makes them a perennial favorite, whether you’re seeing them for the first time or the thousandth. Usually in flocks, they fly with a tight school-of-fish synchronization that helps distinguish…

Common Nighthawk, Chordeiles minor Bill Rowe Although a Common Nighthawk does “hawk” for insects in the sky, it isn’t actually a hawk at all. It belongs to a world-wide family that goes by the name of nightjars (after a European species)…

Carolina Wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus Bill Rowe Wrens are practically a New-World specialty: in all of Europe and Asia there is just one species, the Eurasian Wren, while in the Americas there are 87 of them, with a majority in the tropics.…