Jamestown Beach:
3-31-12
American Goldfinch
Description: Small, bright yellow bird with short beak, black wings with white patches, and short tail.
Black Vulture
Description: Large bird similar to the turkey vulture, but has black feathers with white tips and a darker head.
Canada Geese
Description: Large long necked waterfowl with black head, white cheek and strap, brown chest and back.
Backyard: Newport News
Dark-eyed Junco
3/22
Description: Medium Sparrow with medium gray fade, short beak, long tail,white underparts.
Newport News Park:
Blue Jay
3/29
Description: Large deep blue song bird with crest, white underparts and varied speckling down back.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
3/28 and 4/2
Description: Very small blue grey bird with white eye ring and white underside. Long tail with outside white tail feathers.
Brown Creeper
3/30
Description: Small brown bird streaked with white on upper side and white underneath. Long thin bill with long tail known for "creeping" along trees.
Brown-headed Cowbird
3/22
Description: Smaller blackbird with brown head and black body and short but stout beak.
American Crow
3/29
Description: Large black colored bird with thick straight beak, rounded short tail, often form flocks
Downy Woodpecker
3/29
Description: Small woodpecker similar to the hairy woodpecker. Checkered pattern appears down its back. Red patch on the back of the head indicates a male
Mariners Museum Park:
Graylag Goose
3/23
Description: Large goose with large head and bill. Body is bulky with orange or pink bill and pink legs and feet.
Great Blue Heron
3/23
Description: Blue to gray in color with a sharp looking bill, feathers are lighter towards the front of the wing and darker at the back.
Newport News Park:
Great Egret
3/25 and 3/30
Description: Large white heron with black legs and feet and long yellow bill.
Hairy Woodpecker
3/30 Description: Larger size than Downy, bill is almost as long as the head, red patch on the head (male), checkered wings, white patch extending down the back.
Common Tern
4/2 Description: Medium sized tern appearing to look almost like a gull, all black cap (breeding), white overall, white wings with black tips. Very similar to the Forster's Tern but can be distinguished by the dark tips on the wings and more vibrant orange legs and bill with more prominent black extending from the tip.
Osprey
4/2 Jamestown Beach &3/23 Mariners Museum Park
Description: Large hawk, fly with a crook in the wing, brown coloration on top with prominent white underneath, white head and brown stripe leading through the eye.
Juvenile Bald Eagles
3/31 Jamestown Beach
Description: Large bird with brown appearance and white mottling underneath the wings, black beak is slightly curved downward. Different from adult bald eagles, lack white head.
Newport News Park:
Mute Swan
3/28 Description: Similar to Tundra Swan, but has an orange bill and dark face, slender long neck, has a large size.
Pied-billed Grebe
3/29
Description: Small brown diving bird, small thick bill, black throat and ring around the bill in summer.
Red-winged Blackbird
3/29
Description: Glossy black bird with red and yellow patches on the wings with a medium length tail.
Red bellied Woodpecker
3/29
Description: Similar in size to the Hairy Woodpecker, has a round head with black and white bars down the back, red cap and nape.
White-breasted Nuthatch
3/28
Description: Small, large head with little neck, short tail, bill is long and slim, a gray to blue coloration is on the back, face and underparts are white.
Wow Eric. Awesome bird list and pictures!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCheck your tern ID. The Caspian Tern doesn't have a highly forked tail like the one in your picture. Look to see what terns have the highly forked tail and can be found in VA and get back to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the help narrowing it down. Common tern seems to be it.
ReplyDelete