These striking birds boast black bodies paired with crisp white bellies for striking patterning, serving multiple essential roles within their environments. Their high contrast plumage plays an integral part in helping these species adapt.
This bird lives in open oak woodlands, savannas and grasslands. It feeds on seeds, nuts, fruit, insects, small mammals and carrion for sustenance; drinking from streams, ponds and lakes for water consumption.
Black-capped Chickadee
This common bird is a beloved backyard feeder favorite, easily recognized across much of northern United States and Canada by its cheerful-sounding chick-a-dee-dee call notes. Foraging involves hopping from tree to tree or climbing around them while often hanging upside down; food items stored for later are known as caching which helps it survive winter; similarly it also has the unique ability, like some hummingbirds or predatory birds, to reduce body temperature for short periods during extremely cold nights in order to conserve energy and conserve energy use.
Black-capped Chickadees pair up according to rank; males in high rankings usually pair with other high ranking females, though this could change during breeding season. Chickadees dig their own nest cavities in soft wood such as dead trees, snags or stumps but will use manmade nest boxes too if available; nests are cup shaped containing coarse vegetation such as animal fur with up to 13 eggs laid per female over an incubation period of 12-13 days before incubation by another female begins! Chickadees are permanent residents throughout their range – you don’t need to move anywhere to get back home again!
Black-capped Chickadees can often be seen near woodland edges and parks. Their range extends from forests and woodlots to groves and shade trees, and winter flocks often include other species such as White-breasted Nuthatches and Kinglets. Furthermore, Black-capped Chickadees thrive in suburban environments due to the abundant habitat and food sources they offer.
These birds are very adaptable and can thrive wherever there are trees – from forest edge habitats, residential neighborhoods and suburban yards, all the way through to urban parks and yards. Their numbers remain stable or increasing across their range and they remain one of North America’s most widely distributed songbird species.
Black-capped Chickadees can often be found feeding from backyard feeders in winter. Their swift movements take each seed from their feeder with just one flick of their wings. Inquisitive creatures, Black-capped Chickadees also explore human activity more thoroughly than many other species do; even in their natural environment they tolerate close human approaches and will sometimes take seed directly from one’s hand!
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch birds inhabiting coniferous woods and western mountains are well known to climb tree trunks and branches to search for food along bark crevices and crevices, caching food items in crevices or caching them in bark crevices, caching them temporarily within bark crevices, caching items within its bark for later consumption, perching in open air to watch flying insects fly overhead and watching for flying insects overhead. Easily identifiable by its nasal “yammering” call and having black crown, black superciliary stripe, sides of head covered by gray back with blueish gray back and cinnamon colored belly; wings long with long pointed primary feathers which also share common territory; sometimes mistaken for Dark-eyed Junco, which shares similar northern forest habitat as well but has an alternative call but is easily distinguished by having shorter tail.
Male and female birds work together during breeding season to excavate and line a nest, applying resin from conifer trees at its entrance to keep ants, rodents, and other predators out.
Red-breasted Nuthatch birds usually nest alone; however, during winter they can sometimes be found in pairs or small flocks of mixed birds. While they can travel considerable distances in search of food sources, most often staying within their breeding territory in the north woods and west mountains. Neighborhood feeders often welcome them foraging alongside Chickadees, Cardinals, and Woodpeckers.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch’s flight pattern varies, with quick bursts of fast flight followed by periods of glide. It moves around trees by hopping, using its wings and claws as leverage points.
Red-breasted Nuthatches in their juvenile plumage resemble one another closely; males and females look virtually indistinguishable from one another. Young nuthatches more closely resemble adult males than adult females! The best way to distinguish sexes in these birds is through skull pneumatization and open wing condition (see ages), since differences in tail shape, color or condition between age or sex tend not to vary significantly over time (making such methods ineffective for identification purposes).
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch songbirds stand out among their relatives with their distinctive white face and head markings, known for being similar to that of woodpeckers, and known for their distinct climbing and foraging habits; typically decending tree trunks headfirst before hanging upside-down from branches using strong feet before foraging along trunks, branches or sometimes on the ground with its powerful beak hammering open seeds or nuts it encounters when reaching them – often frequenting backyard bird feeders where large seeds like sunflower and peanut butter seeds or nuts will be found as food sources.
White-breasted Nuthatch birds can be found throughout most of their range in woodlands, forests and parks; from suburban gardens and cemeteries to suburban woodlands and forests. Breeding sites for this bird include old-growth deciduous, pine-oak and spruce-fir woodlands as well as ponderosa pine forests and sagebrush-pinyon woodlands; they may also nest at higher elevations in montane pine-oak and pinyon-juniper woodlands – however these birds also found at higher elevations when found nesting within montane pine-oak and pinyon-juniper woodlands.
It is a noisy species with numerous vocalizations; its mating song consists of rapid nasal qui-qui-qui, while contact calls between members of a pair typically use thin squeaky nits repeated as many as 30 times per minute. Other calls include high rapid shrill kri kri repeated multiple times with increasing intensity; Rocky Mountain and Great Basin subspecies give louder nasal calls called yididititititit and Pacific birds use softer beeerf calls.
While typically territorial songbirds that keep to themselves throughout the year, winter sees them joining foraging flocks led by chickadees or titmice as part of foraging flocks led by chickadees or titmice to make foraging easier and provide additional eyes that watch for predators.
The White-breasted Nuthatch is relatively common across much of its eastern range and appears to have stable numbers across its large habitat range. While its population does not approach either population criterion for listing on the IUCN Red List, its habitat has become imperiled due to fragmentation caused by development – thus qualifying as Least Concern species; its natural range extends from southern Canada through northern United States and Mexico.
White-bellied Go-away-bird
This spectacular bird belongs to the Turaco family. Found throughout Africa and often found near acacia savannas or woodland areas, its White-bellied Go-away-bird can be distinguished from others of its species by having a white belly with visible white baring along its tail and under wings, smaller size, longer head crest over wings and an average length of 51 cm (20 inches).
Corythaixoides leucogaster stands out among its relatives due to its distinguishing physical features; such as its striking barefacedness. As one of four subspecies comprising the Go-away-bird family, this beautiful species stands out with nicknames that reflect this: these include “Barefaced Go-Away-Bird,” and even more often “Bare-faced Lourie.”
Bare-faced Go-away-birds, often called Barefaced Go-awaybirds, are predominantly gray in color with long pointed gray and black tails that feature an iridescent white median band when in flight. Male birds feature black bills while greenish hued females have greenish-black bills; both species possess surprising climbing abilities; this robust-looking bird often can be found climbing trees searching for insects to eat.
It also feeds on fruits, leaves, seeds, pods, and flowers of Acacia plants; acts as an efficient seed disperser; has even been known to raid orchards of fruiting trees and vegetable crops; its loud nasal “haa haa haa” call is part of its signature noise; calls may also be given serially; two Go-away birds may even perform duet calls simultaneously.
In the wild, this bird typically nests in pairs; however, they are highly social animals and may join other acacia turacos to form large flocks. Male and female partners share incubation duties while the latter also provide brooding support and feeding services for chicks. Although not currently quantifiable, its population has yet to be quantified and classified as “least concern”, since its status does not meet criteria of endangered or threatened status.