Favorite Birds for Children to Observe
A Guide to Backyard Birds that are Commonly Seen
Mar 16, 2009
All these birds will come to feeders and can be easily recognized if you know a few facts about them. They are found in most regions of North America, at least some variety of each.
Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles love fruit and will come to a feeder for a sliced orange, a cup of grape jelly or sugar nectar like hummingbirds drink. They are about 7 to 8 inches long and colored bright orange with a black head, wing tops and orange and black tail. Bullock’s Oriole is similar, but has more yellow color less black on face and white streaks on its wings. Many people are intrigued by the nests of orioles which they build hanging down from a “V’ in a tree branch.
Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds come in many species, but the ruby-throated hummingbird is the one seen most by anyone east of the Rocky Mountains. Other varieties can be spotted in California and warm western coastal states and in some of the Gulf States. Hummers will come to liquid feeders or drink from any bright colored glass or plastic receptacles that it can get underneath. They like to sip from bright-colored flower blossoms like the orange trumpet vine.
People are often fascinated by the size of hummers and how they can fly. The nests are almost impossible to spot as they look so much like a small knot or lichen on a tree branch. The two eggs are smaller than jelly beans and hatch in 13 to 16 days.
Hummingbirds will often fight to run off other hummers at the nectar feeders. Their wings make a humming sound because they fly so fast zipping here and there. Hummers eat all day about every 15 minutes. At night they go into turpor (like overnight hibernation.) and sit perched on a nest or small branch. They don’t move as their bodies slow almost to unconsciousness. The black-chinned hummingbird and the Rufous hummingbird are two other common hummers.
Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers enjoy suet feeders. Suet is a combination of meat fat and nuts, berries, corn, and such made up into a cake. The woodpeckers love peanuts and will come to a suet basket or rack. There are eleven varieties seen in North America. The most likely to be found at a feeder are the small Downy and Hairy woodpeckers or the Northern Flickers. The flicker is large (12 or 14 inches) and has a white front with black spots. His neck has a black “U” shape across it. The wings are black and white stripped and the head is brown and gray with a red patch across the throat or the nape of the neck
The red-bellied woodpecker has a pale pink belly He is black and white streaked with a patch of red on his head or neck. The yellow-bellied sapsucker sips tree sap from holes he pounds in the tree bark. The most well known woodpecker is the red-headed which has a full red head and neck and is otherwise white and jet black with no strips.
Woodpeckers nest in hollow places in trees. They eat ants, berries, flying insects, acorns and tree sap.
Sparrows
Sparrows are a large group of birds with many different species included. Some of the common ones are Song sparrows, American Tree sparrows, White-crowned sparrows, Chipping and Clay-colored sparrows, Grasshopper, Savannah, Harris’s, and Vesper sparrows. There are at least 21 species found in North America. Most are streaked with brown, pale yellow, rust brown or gray on white with white bellies, short gray beaks. Sparrows are small birds usually 4 or 5 inches. Sparrows build nests on the ground around the base of grasses and small shrubs, or cattails.
Backyard birds are fun to watch. Learning to recognize the common birds is a great hobby. Woodpeckers, hummingbirds, sparrows, and Orioles are among the favorites.
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