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15 Unexpected
Birds That Could Show Up in Your Yard
by
Rick Blom
Bird
Watcher's Digest
No matter where you live in North America (except for those handful of readers whose home is north of southern Canada), if you have a feeder or merely pay attention when you are out in the garden, you have probably seen starlings, house sparrows, mourning doves, American robins, red-winged blackbirds, and American crows. If you live in the East you can add chickadees, cardinals, white-throated sparrows, and northern mockingbirds. Westerners get juncos of several flavors, spotted towhees, Audubon's warblerss, and black-headed grosbeaks. Every section of the continent has its distinctive assemblage of yard and feeder birds. Compare almost anyone's yard list with the range maps in the field guide and you can figure out where they live.
We get familiar with our regular visitors and come to expect them, so much so that sometimes we get jaded and stop expecting new birds. Seeing the same birds over and over tends to slow us down, to dull our senses.
The following list is intended to jolt us out of our complacency a bit, to re-invigorate us. They are fifteen birds that could show up in any yard, anywhere on the continent, and many of them are birds observers rarely think about. The typical reaction is: "Oh, that would never show up in my yard&emdash;It doesn't even occur around here. Besides, it would be a lifer."
Yes it could. Some are a bit rarer than others, some occur only in migration, but they are all found throughout the continent and could be observed from almost any yard. They are mostly not birds you can go out and "get" any time you want, but if you pay attention often enough and long enough they are more than likely to appear. It might take years. Doesn't matter. It is the looking, not the finding that counts.
My Top 15 Unexpected Birds
1. Cooper's hawk: If you have a feeder you can get a Coop. They go where the birds are.
2. Common nighthawk: Late in the day in August and September, if you step out and look up, you have a shot at seeing a nighthawk or two or a hundred.
3. Willow flycatcher: The only Empidonax flycatcher that could occur anywhere, and does. I hope it is spring and that it sings.
4. Cliff swallow: Most swallows are widespread but this is the one many people overlook and assume is rare. It will probably be flying by, but it will be there.
5. Red-breasted nuthatch: No, they don't come south in numbers every winter, but when they do they tend to be everywhere.
6. Swainson's thrush: Spring and fall you can hear them calling as they fly over at night, but if you have a few trees or a shady bush to hide under it could be on the ground.
7. Hermit thrush: Just as likely as Swainson's, but it will come a bit later in fall and may stay the winter if you have berry producing plants in the yard.
8. Orange-crowned warbler: Yes, oranged-crowned. Anywhere. probably overlooked because it is dull, is a skulker, and shows up later than most other warblers in fall.
9. Nashville warbler: Another overlooked warbler, especially in the East. Learn the song of this bird and the following one and your chances go way up.
10. Wilson's warbler: The third of the three "rare" warblers that can show up anywhere but many bird watchers think of as rare.
11. Savannah Sparrow: The first of four continent-wide sparrows that are usually scarce in yards, but they will show up, especially after a bad storm. All are more common than generally thought and all are overlooked in part because of their similarity to song sparrows.
12. Vesper sparrow: The hardest of the group but a widespread, common migrant.
13: Fox Sparrow: Okay, they don't look that much like song sparrows unless you are used to seeing song sparrows on steroids. They tend to show up in bunches for a few days in early spring.
14: Lincoln's sparrow: Less likely to be at the feeder, although it happens. Any thick bush will do. It is the one most likely to be passed off as a song sparrow.
15: Pine siskin: The "winter finch" that is continent-wide in invasion years and often mistaken for a house finch when it joins the horde at the thistle feeder.
You may have seen one or two of these birds in your yard already, but I bet that there are a least a few you never even considered before. Add them to your Why Not? list, and while you are looking for them you never know what else you will find. Remember, it is not the destination, it is the journey that counts.
Bonus List: 15 Birds That Have Seen Your Yard as They Flew By. Imagine if you had been looking up at the right moment. Obviously this list could be longer. There are 15 possible fly-bys that are ducks! These are just appetite whetters.
1. Common loon
2. Double-crested cormorant
3. Great blue heron
4. Northern harrier
5. Bald eagle
6. Osprey
7. Merlin
8. American kestrel
9. Peregrine falcon
10. American coot
11. Spotted sandpiper
12. Forster's tern
13. Belted kingfisher
14. Horned lark
15. American pipit
And if you look at the list and doubt some of the birds: I have seen every one of them over my yard and it only took 25 years!