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Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster Bill Rowe Perhaps you’re thinking, “Wait…there’s some mistake. This is not a Missouri bird!” And you would have been right until nine days ago, when a Brown Booby was discovered along the Current River in southernmost Missouri.…

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus Bill Rowe This bird causes confusion: some call it a "red-headed woodpecker," and it is. But it isn't a Red-headed Woodpecker, capitalized, which is a different species with an entirely red head. The Red-bellied Woodpecker has a…

Green Heron, Butorides virescens Bill Rowe For anyone who grew up in the midwestern countryside, summer may evoke the memory of a little Green Heron flying over the fields at sunset from one pond or creek to another—a regular sight nearly…

Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Passer montanus Bill Rowe This year marks a special sesquicentennial: it was in 1870 that North America’s first Eurasian Tree Sparrows were released in Lafayette Park, St. Louis City, as part of an effort by German immigrants to…

Great Crested Flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus Bill Rowe One group that’s important to learn, with thirteen regular species in our area, is the family Tyrannidae, the New-World flycatchers—birds of trim shape and alert posture that capture insects of all types. A good…

Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula Bill Rowe The Baltimore Oriole, state bird of Maryland, is the first blackbird to be our Bird of the Week. Wait…what? Yes, that’s right: orioles are in the blackbird family Icteridae, known to birders as icterids.…