3.21.23 Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago, IL

 

House Sparrows, although not native to the Americas, can be found all over the USA, in Southern Canada,  and in about half of South America.

Red-winged Blackbirds are often very curious. While walking, they would come right up to us, and sometimes pose for pictures.

Red-wings look for food on the ground, so if you want to attract them, but not rats, you can spread seeds on a table that rats can't get on.

Fox Sparrows are ground foragers, and have four main groups with different colors, varying from red to tones of grey, making them hard to spot and to identify.

To attract Northern Cardinals, put out sunflower seeds, and if you leave undergrowth in your yard, you might get Cardinals nesting on your property!

House Sparrows are so well adapted to people that if you have bird food, seeds are best, you can sit down with it in your hand, and the sparrow might come up and eat out of your hand.

American Coots are not ducks! While they may look like ducks like Mallards and Teals, they are more closely related to Sandhill Cranes and Rails.

While adult male Red-breasted Mergansers are more colorful than females, they are also weirder. Males will dunk their chests and raise their heads when around females, and look very silly doing it. 

Red-breasted Mergansers are also known as "sawbills" due to the serrations on their beaks, which are used to grip fish.

American Coots have nests that float on the water. These nest are able to float by being lightweight and being attached to upright reeds.

Mallards are found in almost all of the world North of the Equator! They even breed on some parts of Greenland!

Mallards are known to sometimes show up in peoples swimming pools!

This Ring-billed Gull caught some kind of crustacean or fish in one try!

Crows and Magpies are in the same family as Jays like Blue and Stellar's Jays!

There are at least 11 subspecies of Canada Goose, and, in general, they get smaller farther North, and darker farther West.

The oldest recorded Canada Goose was 33 years and 3 months old!

Common Grackles are varied eaters, and can be attracted to feeders with anything from suet to fruit to seeds.

Common Grackle males have blue heads and bronzy bodies, but you can only see the hue of their bodies in good lighting.

This female house sparrow is identifiable by their lighter colors and plain chest.

Like many grebe species, Horned Grebe chicks ride on their parent's back, in between their wings.

In this picture, you get to see just how much smaller Horned Grebes are than Mallards. Being only 12in to 15in, they don't get very close to the 20in to 26in of a Mallard.

This, and a couple other European Starlings, were in the grass, looking for small insects.

We first thought that this pair of Killdeer were plovers, but upon further inspection of the photos, realized they were Killdeer.

Killdeer are called so because of their call, a shrill kill-deer. In the eighteenth century, people noticed that and gave them names like the Noisy Plover and the Chattering Plover.

There are over 12 different colorations of Dark-eyed Junco, some even having yellow eyes, despite there being a species of Junco called a Yellow-eyed junco!

Northern Cardinals are very territorial, and if they see their reflections, they may fiercely attack them.

Male Red-winged Blackbirds are so territorial that they are known to sometimes attack horses!

The oldest Red-winged Blackbird on record was 15 years and 9 months old when it was found, alive but injured, and after recovering from it's injuries, was returned to the wild.

Despite their name, American Tree Sparrows are ground birds, not tree birds.