My adventures in the woods, streams, rivers, fields, and lakes of Michigan

My bird gallery


I am going to post one photo of every species of birds that I have a good photo of here on this page. If there is a difference in appearance between the males and females of a species, I will post one of each. This isn’t close to being finished yet, I hope that I am never able to finish it. I would like to be able to continue to add more species to it, along with replacing some of the original photos with better ones taken at a later date.

Birds

Year round residents

Black capped chickadee

Northern cardinal, male

American Goldfinch, male

American goldfinch, female

Gold-crowned kinglet

European starling

Blue jay

House finch, male

House finch, female

Mourning doves

Red bellied woodpecker

White breasted nuthatch

Summer residents

American robin

Brown headed cowbird, female

Brown headed cowbird, male

Red winged blackbird, male

Red winged blackbird, female

Eastern Phoebe

Chipping sparrow

Northern flicker

Eastern towhee, female

Baltimore oriole, male

Yellow warbler, male

Yellow-rumped warbler, female

Scarlet tanager

Belted kingfisher

Barn swallow, male

Waterfowl

While all of these species may not nest at the apartment complex, I have taken these photos here and the species are fairly regular visitors here.

Mallard, female

Mallard, male

Canada goose

Blue-winged teal, male

Gadwall, male

American coot

Pie-billed grebe, male

Wood duck, male

Raptors

These do not nest here, but are seen regularly.

Red-tailed hawk

And on occasion, I see bald eagles here.

Bald eagle in flight

30 responses

  1. You should enter Audubon’s photography contests, if you haven’t already.

    Like

    August 17, 2021 at 5:32 pm

    • Thank you very much for the kind words! I have entered a few contests, including Audubon’s, however, my photos seldom rate very high. I did get a second once in a local contest, behind a photo of a caged animal. That was the last contest I entered.

      Like

      August 18, 2021 at 7:59 am

  2. Stunning!

    Like

    May 30, 2018 at 4:22 pm

  3. I’m able to see and photograph most of these species, too, along the Maumee River behind our apartment building! Nice to meet someone else who has had the same experience. Your shots are beautiful. I do several blogs that feature birds and animals, including one, Horses and Animals Are Talkin that takes the humorous side, letting the subjects do lots of their own talking.

    Like

    November 15, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    • Thank you very much for the nice comment! The gallery that you commented on is rather old, but it got me started on shooting more photos of birds.

      I’ll bet that you do see a great many birds along the Maumee River, I’ll be sure to check out your blog to see them.

      Liked by 1 person

      November 15, 2016 at 11:52 pm

      • You’re certainly welcome! It’s always nice to meet a fellow writer/photographer, here, on WordPress regardless of the timing of his/her work! Thanks for the exchange, too.

        Liked by 1 person

        November 15, 2016 at 11:57 pm

  4. Birds definitely have memory. They come for the bread I leave in the same place every day. Squirrels know where the daily peanuts stash is too.

    Like

    May 23, 2016 at 8:17 am

    • Thank you very much Carl! Some birds make better use of their memory than others do though.

      Like

      May 23, 2016 at 11:26 am

  5. Nice format for a photo review. Or maybe something like Birds on Twigs, Flying Birds, Birds Eating….

    They are all great viewing, Jerry. My favorites are always the waterbirds (and cedar waxwings)!

    Like

    February 21, 2016 at 9:26 am

    • Thank you very much Judy, but those photos are so old that I don’t even remember which ones I posted. That was back before I started doing a post on each species, and that it was supposed to show the variety of birds that I saw. I’m surprised that you found that page now.

      Like

      February 21, 2016 at 1:38 pm

  6. I once had a bird clock and at every hour, a different bird would sing. I enjoyed looking at these pictures 🙂

    Like

    February 21, 2016 at 2:31 am

  7. Andrew Sturgess

    I can tell that you have made progress since I see that some of the birds are labeled correctly later on. I spend some time looking at shorebirds at Pte Mouille and it does take some time to pick out the distinctions since they are all variations on the same theme.. I was just looking for images of stilt sandpipers the other night and your blog showed up in Google. I was surprised to see that your “stilt” was a yellowlegs. The “Bairds Sandpiper” is actually a least sandpiper and some semipalmated sandpipers.Your life list may be longer that you think already:-) I did not necessarily want to post this publicly but just let you know privately somehow.
    Best regards,
    Andrew

    Like

    August 8, 2014 at 6:57 am

    • Thank you again for your assistance in making the proper ID! Now I know where the photos of semipalmated sandpipers went, and how they were replaced with photos of Baird’s sandpipers in the folder of saved photos I have. I must have mixed those two species up as I was sorting the photos and sending them to folders to be posted later. The stilt was a similar mistake, but I think that I deleted the photos of a stilt sandpiper that I had.

      The mistakes that I made were as I was just getting started with the project, and I’ve changed how I photograph species now, I learned my lesson. Before, I shot everything I could find, hoping to ID them later. Now, I make the ID, and then shoot photos. Also, since those were done shortly after I started the project, I was in too much of a hurry to get some posts done, I’ve since slowed down.

      I’m not proud, if you see that I’ve made mistakes, please let me know, and thank you again for your help!

      Like

      August 8, 2014 at 9:18 am

  8. Andrew Sturgess

    Shorebirds are tricky to ID and I think some of your shots of those birds may be mislabeled. In other shots they are correctly ID’ed. I am in agreement with your mission to enjoy and record nature for others that may not get the opportunity to get out with the mosquitoes themselves.

    Andrew

    Like

    August 7, 2014 at 8:06 pm

    • Thanks for the taking the time to view my blog and to leave a comment. I’m sure that you’re correct, I’ve made some mistakes in my identifications of some of the shorebirds. It’s really no excuse, but the first photos of many of the birds were all taken on one day, when there were hundreds of over a dozen species in the Muskegon area, in the fall. I came home with nearly 500 photos to sort through and try to ID the birds in their fall plumage, making identifying them even harder. This spring I was able to re-shoot many of the species in their breeding colors making identifying them easier, plus, I’m more knowledgeable about shorebirds now. So, I plan to update most of the shorebird posts as I get better photos that I can ID positively. It’s a work in progress, eventually, I’ll get it right.

      Like

      August 8, 2014 at 1:26 am

  9. Beautiful photos of beautiful birds, treat for the eyes. Thanks for sharing the post.

    Like

    June 22, 2013 at 7:03 pm

  10. OMG! Lovely photos ^_^

    Like

    June 19, 2013 at 7:57 am

  11. ” Barn, we called here ‘Murai Batu’ … and I loved this bird “

    Like

    May 18, 2013 at 3:17 am

  12. Exquisite, thank you!!!!!

    Like

    April 15, 2013 at 2:47 pm

  13. They are so lovely. Listening to the songs of the birds is music to my ears.

    Like

    March 29, 2013 at 1:21 am

  14. snowbirdpress

    There is something about a bird that gives us wings…. Thanks, Merrill

    Like

    June 4, 2012 at 8:19 pm

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