Unit%20XII%20Summer%20Birds%20in%20Kansas%20Information

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Unit XII Summer Birds in Kansas Information
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Introduction to Summer Birds

• Many of our summer birds do not spend the entire
  year here they are insectivores (few bugs out in
  winter).
• Most migrate south for winter, and will go to
  Caribbean Islands, South and Central America,
  U.S. Gulf Coast.
• Many fly across the Gulf of Mexico during
  migration. These birds are called Neotropical
  migrants or trans-gulf migrants.
• Many wintering habitats are under extreme
  pressure and are being destroyed due to logging,
  agriculture and urban sprawl (same as summer
  habitat here!)
• Many of these migrant birds are dropping
  dramatically in numbers due to habitat
  destruction.

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Summer birds, cont.

• Many of these birds migrate back to U.S. for
  summer and they follow the green wave of
  spring as trees are leafing out from south to
  north, the insects are timing their emergence to
  the new green leaves (food source), and many of
  these birds follow this timing to take advantage
  of the insect prey that is now available to them.

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Summer birds, cont.

• Migration has a tremendous cost many birds die
  from starvation and exhaustion during migration,
  but for the ones that make it back, there is
  plenty of food available and not nearly as much
  competition for food and nesting territory as
  there is in the tropics.
• Many small birds migrate at night the air is
  cooler so they dont overheat, the atmosphere is
  more laminar (smooth--it has less disturbance) so
  they can fly easier, and many of the predatory
  species (hawks, eagles, falcons) migrate during
  the day.

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Summer birds, cont.

• Many of these birds use the stars to navigate.
  Can become confused by lights from cities, tall
  buildings and towersTV, cell phone, radio. Many
  of these towers can cause massive kills when
  birds fly into them or circle around them,
  disoriented.
• Many of these birds do not stay here for the
  winter they are insectivores. There are not
  enough insects around for them to eat, therefore
  they migrate to the tropics where food is still
  plentiful in winter.

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Occurrence of a species, general terms

• Regular about same numbers at same time of year.
• Irregular numbers or distribution may very each
  year
• Local present at a few places
• Casual very small numbers in most years
• Vagrant rarely, but can be expected every few
  years
• Accidental far out of its normal range not
  expected
• Presence in proper habitat
• Rare only few individuals seen in a season
• Uncommon small numbers present but can be found
• Common easily found in good numbers
• Abundant large numbers, widespread and
  conspicuous

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Barn Swallow
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Barn Swallow

• Family Hiruninidae, the Swallows.
• Common breeding bird from late April to October.
• Insectivoreeats insects, often caught on the
  wing (while flying)
• Raises one or two broods a season
• Swallows have a forked tail.

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Eastern Bluebird
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Eastern Bluebird nest box
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Eastern Bluebird chicks
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Eastern Bluebird

• Family Muscicapidae, the Thrushes.
• Primarily an insectivore, but in winter eats
  berries, fruit and suet.
• Favors edge habitat between woods and open land,
  farm land, orchards, parks.
• Cavity nesterfaces strong competition from
  non-native House Sparrows and Starlings.
• Does very well with nesting in bluebird trails,
  a line of bluebird boxes along edges, brushy
  fields, roadsides where predators are excluded.
  Should have boxes baffled and entrance holes
  protected to prevent snakes and other predators
  from preying on them.

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Great Blue Heron
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Great Blue Heron
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Great Blue Heron

• Family Ardeidae, the herons, egrets and bitterns
• Found in nearly any farm pond, lake edge or
  stream in Kansas.
• Wades in water and watches for fish and frogs,
  and then catches them in their beak and swallows
  them whole.
• Can be found in winter as long as there is open
  water. Moves south if water freezes, and moves
  back north when water becomes open again.

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Great Egret
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Great Egret

• Family Ardeidae, the herons, egrets and bitterns
• Found in nearly any shallow water or pond in
  Kansas, same habitat as great blue heron.
• A bit smaller than a great blue heron.
• Fishes for food by walking slowly in the water,
  watching and catching fish in long pointed beak.

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Common Grackle
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Common Grackle

• Family Icteridae, the blackbirds
• Extremely common in summer.
• Males are large birds bigger than a blue jay but
  smaller than a crow.
• Black, but have an iridescent sheen in sunlight.
  Yellow eyes.

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Indigo Bunting
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Indigo Bunting

• Family Cardinalidae, the cardinals, grosbeaks
  and buntings
• Males are an unreal, electric blueabsolutely
  beautiful, especially in full sunlight.
• Females are very dull brownno distinctive
  markings.
• Size of a sparrow.
• Neotropical migrant found here from about late
  April through October.
• Common birds of forest and edge habitat, and
  brushy areas.

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Red-tailed Hawk
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Red-tailed Hawk

• Family Accipitridae, the hawks, eagles, kites
• Most common hawk in eastern Kansas.
• Often seen sitting on utility poles or fences
  along roadsides.
• Highly variable plumage.
• Holds wings in pretty much straight out from body
  while soaring, may be in a very slight V shape.
• Hunts for mainly rodents, but will also eat
  snakes, birds and lizards.
• Adults have red tails, juveniles do not.

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Red-winged Blackbird
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Red-winged Blackbird

• Family Icteridae, the blackbirds
• Very common bird in March-late fall.
• Common nesting species anywhere cattails are
  found.
• Can find them during winter, but they are in
  large mixed flocksthese are the large black
  clouds of swirling, turning blackbirds you can
  see over fields in the winter.

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Turkey Vulture
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Turkey Vulture

• Family Cathartidae, the vultures (New World
  vultures)
• Found here from mid-March through mid-October.
• Holds wings in distinctive V-shape (dihedral)
  while soaring, and teeters on wind.
• Rarely flaps wings, rather rides warm air
  thermals and glides.
• Very important scavenger. Eats dead animals and
  one of the few birds with a good sense of smell.

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Meadowlark sp.
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Meadowlark sp.

• Family Icteridae, the blackbirds
• Eastern and Western meadowlark both occur here.
• Look extremely similar, and often cannot tell the
  difference until they sing. They have very
  different songs.
• Western Meadowlark is the Kansas State Bird.
• Nests in open country and prairie habitat, and
  builds nest on ground.

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Green Heron
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Green Heron

• Family Ardeidae, the herons.
• Small, chunky heron with short legs.
• Usually solitary prefers streams, ponds, and
  marshes with woodland cover.
• Eats small fishes, insects, crustaceans, and
  frogs. Also takes most animals small enough to
  eat.

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Ruby-throated Hummingbird
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird

• Family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds
• Hovers at flowers to sip nectar with needle-like
  bills. Twittery calls. Males throat feathers
  look black in poor light.
• Extremely small birds.
• Only common hummingbird found in eastern U.S.
• Drinks nectar. Will come to feeders that contain
  1 part sugar to 4 parts water, boiled to
  dissolve, and cooled. (Do NOT add red coloring).
• Feeder nectar must be changed every few days when
  it gets cloudy.
• Very tamewill come right up to people if they
  sit still.

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Common Nighthawk
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Common Nighthawk

• Family Caprimulgidae, the nighthawks and
  nightjars.
• Common summer resident throughout Kansas.
• Seen in woodlands, suburbs, towns, usually in the
  evening as it flies around and catches insects.
• During courtship, the males enter a dive and then
  pull up sharply, and as the wind rushes over the
  wings it makes a very loud rushing sound.
• Call is a loud peent when flying.

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Northern Oriole
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Northern Oriole

• Family Icteridae, the blackbirds
• Found throughout Kansas.
• Comes to bird baths, feeders with fresh fruit.
  They will come to gather colorful yarn if put out
  during breeding season.
• Bright and conspicuous birdsone of our
  best-known birds.
• Eats insects, necter and fruit.
• Builds a neat, pendulum-shaped nest of woven
  fibers that hangs down from a branch with a hole
  in one side.

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Brown Thrasher
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Brown Thrasher
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Brown Thrasher

• Family Mimidae, the mockingbirds and thrashers.
• Notable singers
• Also called the planting bird, because when this
  bird arrives in April, it is time to plant peas.
• Common in hedgerows, brush, woodland edges, often
  close to human habitation.

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Eastern Kingbird
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Eastern Kingbird

• Family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers.
• Common throughout Kansas in the summers.
• Seen in woodland clearings, farms, orchards,
  roadsides. They often sit on exposed perches and
  fly out after insects.
• Slate-gray back, white belly and a white band
  across the tip of its black tail.

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Western Kingbird
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Western Kingbird

• Family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers.
• Common throuhout Kansas in the summers.
• Often perches on wires, fences or posts in open
  country such as roadsides. They often sit on
  exposed perches and fly out after insects.
• Has gray head, yellow belly, and dark wings.

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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

• Family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers.
• Common in southern 2/3 of Kansas in the summers.
• A southern-plains specialty birdone that
  birders come from all over to see. Range is
  throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and that
  is about it.
• Very long, forked tail that often spreads open
  when it flies.
• Often seen perched on utility poles, fences,
  posts in open country and roadsides. They often
  sit on exposed perches and fly out after insects.

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American Kestrel
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American Kestrel
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American Kestrel

• Family Falconidae, the falcons
• Smallest falcon species.
• They wind-hover they hover in same place in
  the sky and watch the ground below them for
  preymostly insects but also snakes, mice, frogs,
  lizards.
• Also hunts from exposed perches. Typically eats
  grasshoppers and small rodents.
• Prefers open habitat with scattered trees.

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Rock Dove
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Rock Dove

• Family Columbidae, the pigeons and doves.
• This is the highly variable city pigeon.
• Non-native. Introduced from Europe, it is now
  widespread and common, especially in urban
  settings.
• In Kansas, it is often seen on wires and under
  underpasses.
• Wide range of color variation, they can be white,
  reddish, gray and dark with iridescence, or
  combinations.

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Killdeer
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Killdeer (broken wing display)
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Killdeer

• Family Charadriidae, the lapwings and plovers.
• Most common shorebird in Kansas.
• Only shorebird with the black double breast
  bands.
• Nests on open, flat ground, flat rooftops, gravel
  driveways, etc.
• They run and stop abruptly when foraging for
  food.
• Parents will pretend to have a broken wing when
  predators come too close to the nest, and then
  they will fly off when they draw predator far
  enough away.

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Belted Kingfisher
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Belted Kingfisher

• Family Alcedinidae, the kingfishers
• Only kingfisher species north of Texas and
  Arizona.
• Often sits on branches or power lines over open
  water watching for small fish or frogs.
• It completely dives into the water after its
  prey, mostly fish, and flies back to perch to eat
  it.

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Wild Turkey
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Wild Turkey

• Family Phasianidae, the partridges, grouse and
  turkeys.
• Largest game bird in North America, and is
  slightly smaller than domestic turkeys.
• Found throughout Kansas in open forest habitat,
  and has been restocked through much of its former
  range.
• Forages on ground for seeds, nuts and insects.
• Roosts in trees at night.

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Yellow Warbler
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Yellow Warbler

• Family Parulidae, the wood-warblers
• The group of birds called Warblers are very
  colorful, active birds.
• Neotropical migrants.
• Small, insect-eating birds, usually found near
  tree tops.
• Most migrate through eastern Kansas from about
  May 5-May 15.
• Yellow warbler nests here in summer, and is a
  more common warbler in our area.

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Brown-headed Cowbird
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Brown-headed Cowbird

• Family Icteridae, the blackbirds.
• Common in woodlands, farmlands, suburbs. Found
  across U.S.
• Males song is squeaky and gurgling.
• They are a brood parasite, which means they lay
  their eggs in other birds nests to be raised and
  fed! They dont raise their own young.

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House Wren
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House Wren

• Family Troglodytidae, the wrens
• Wrens are chunky birds with slender, slightly
  curved bills. Tails are often uptilted.
• Will nest in bushes, low trees, brush piles,
  firewood piles. Can easily be attracted to nest
  boxes hung in yards.
• Insectivore.
• Very vocal for such a small bird.

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Downy Woodpecker
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Downy Woodpecker

• Family Picidae, the woodpeckers
• Smallest woodpecker in Kansas
• Males have red crown patch. Females dont have
  any red on head.
• Eats sunflower seeds from feeders, but prefers
  suet from suet feeders.
• Shy birds, often hide on opposite side of tree
  trunk
• Use their tail as a brace when they climb up a
  tree.
• In winter can be found in mixed flocks of
  chickadees, kinglets and titmice.

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House Finch
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House Finch

• Family Fringillidae, the finches
• Males have red wash on face, head and chest.
  Females are brown and white streaked.
• Readily eat sunflower seed from feeders.
• They occur where humans live.

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Blue Jay
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Blue Jay

• Family Corvidae, the Corvids, crows and jays
• Common resident in Kansas
• Readily eats seed from feeders and also likes
  acorns and other nuts.
• Territorial and very aggressive, especially when
  nesting.
• Migrates farther south in the fall, and our
  winter birds may be northern breeders, or our
  numbers may simply be augmented by northern birds.

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Black-capped Chickadee
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Black-capped Chickadee

• Family Paridae, chickadees and titmice
• Small, gregarious birds
• Year-round residents
• Readily eats sunflower seeds at feeders
• Often found in mixed flocks with downy
  woodpeckers, kinglets and titmice in winter.
• This species has been hit hard by West Nile
  Virus, and their numbers have declined in recent
  years.

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American Robin
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American Robin chicks
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American Robin

• Family Turdidae, thrushes
• Common transient, and summer resident statewide
  size of wintering population varies with food
  supply and weather conditions.
• One of best-known and popular species in Kansas.
  
• Eats beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas, a large
  number of earthworms, etc.
• Also eats wild cherries, grapes, mulberry fruits,
  pokeweed, juniper berries, etc.

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References

• National Geographic Field Guide to North American
  Birds.
• Birds in Kansas, Volumes I and II, by Max
  Thompson and Charles Ely.
• Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds, Fourth
  Edition, 1980, by Roger Tory Peterson
• Peterson Field Guide to Advanced Birding, 1990,
  by Kenn Kaufman
• Educators Guide to Bird Study, Cornell
  Laboratory of Ornithology, accessed May 3, 2007,
  online at http//www.birds.cornell.edu/schoolyard/
  index.html
• Kansas Ornithological Society Checklist of Birds,
  10th edition, 2003, accessed May 3, 2007, online
  at http//www.ksbirds.org/kos/kos_pubs.html