Spring has to be the favorite season for bird-watchers.
But even if you are not one, it always feels pleasant to be surrounded by wonderful birds that add new colors to the sky.
What are Springs Migratory Birds?
It still remains one of the greatest mysteries how birds know when to travel and where to go. Most of the birds return from the South during the early spring.
However, it is not just these migratory birds but also the ones that just travel short distances.
The birds who remain in their nests also come out and become more active as the spring arrives.
The shift happens quite quickly. One day it will be all quiet, and the next morning, the air will be filled with sounds of beautiful bird songs.
It is also the time when most birds prefer to mate. No wonder spring is really the season when love can truly be felt in the air.
Let’s discuss in detail some of these magnificent birds that come with the arrival of spring.
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse is the bird that fills the air with its pleasant songs as the spring comes.
These are small birds, but they have a stock body. They have a prominent-looking crest. The feathers on top beautifully transition from dark to light grey.
The feathers at the bottom are white. On the sides, you will also notice a streak of orangish-peach.
Tufted Titmouse belongs to the family of the tit and chickadee. The genus’s name is Baeolophus bicolor. The name itself describes its appearance.
Baeolophus means crest, while bicolor means two-colored. These two features are the most prominent ones, as discussed earlier.
These birds are most commonly known as the birds that make the sound which goes like peter-peter.
Its habitat consists of mixed woods like parks, gardens, etc. They prefer to take home in deciduous places.
Their diet mainly consists of caterpillars during summers. However, they also consume small nuts, fruits, seeds, and snails.
They pick up their food from the ground and tree branches. They also save some for later use.
Tufted Titmouse is the bird that you may notice visiting your bird-feeder regularly. They are also curious birds by nature. You will often notice them peeping through your windows.
Tufted Titmouse makes their nests by finding a cavity in a tree trunk. These cavities can either be natural or be an old nest abandoned by a woodpecker.
Tufted titmouse will line these cavities with soft material. Sometimes, they even pluck out hair from dogs and use it to line the nest.
They lay five to seven eggs per clutch. The offsprings of tufted titmouse often stay with their parents. This is not something common for birds.
These offspring, at times, will even stay in the nest after the first year of life and help their parents in raising a new clutch.
Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal is another songbird on our list.
This mid-sized bird can be easily spotted owing to its vibrant red color. Hence, it is also known as the redbird or red cardinal.
They are most commonly found southeast of Canada and in eastern parts of the United States.
This bird also has a distinct crest like that of a tufted titmouse. Males are bright red in color, while females are duller in comparison.
The face of the male is black in color. The demarcation is so sharp that it almost feels as if they are wearing a mask. This similar mask of females is grey in color.
Northern Cardinal belongs to the family of Cardinalidae. There are over 19 sub-species of this bird.
The males are slightly larger than the females. Both males and females possess crimson-colored beaks.
Males of the bird will perch themselves high up on a tree and make loud sounds. They do this in order to claim their territory. They are territorial songbirds.
They do not naturally make these songs but rather learn them over time.
This is the reason why the song of one cardinal living in one place will differ from those inhabiting a different place.
These territorial songbirds can become quite aggressive when it comes to defending their territory. They will run after other males entering their territory to fight them.
One interesting fact about these birds is that they will often get confused when they catch their reflection of shin surfaces.
They will confuse it with a male entering the territory and so will be seen fighting their own reflection.
Northern Cardinals often mate for life. Once they have chosen their mate, they will sing together and travel together.
Even if the pair ends up getting separated while migrating, they will both come back to their nest only and be reunited.
Northern Cardinals are granivores which means that they acquire nutrition by feeding on seeds. However, it is not uncommon for them to eat small insects or snails.
Females are often solely responsible for building the nests.
The females will break twigs until their easily moldable and then wrap them around their bodies. They will then push it into a cup shape with their legs.
Males will often be seen bringing raw material like twigs to the female for nest-building.
Red-winged Blackbirds
This beautiful bird is amongst the five species of the genus Agelaius. This bird belongs to the family of Icteridae.
There are over twenty sub-species of the red-winged blackbird. They are also small songbirds.
The red-winged blackbird got this name because of the red patch on the wings of males. Both males and females are black in color.
Males are slightly larger than females. Females are found to be a little duller in color at the bottom.
Both males and females display a streak orangish-yellow over the wings when sitting. When males take flight or spread their wings, a dark red patch can be seen.
Youngs of red-winged blackbirds is very light in color. In the passerine family of birds, young acquire the adult plumage before the age of one.
This makes a one-year-old bird and adults indistinguishable from each other.
Red-winged birds are an exception to this. Their young attain the adult plumage after almost one and half years of age, so you can easily tell apart young from adults.
The red patch on the males of the red-winged blackbird is not only for decorative purposes. It serves an important role while claiming and defending their territory.
Males with smaller spots can be easily scared off, while the ones with bigger spots get to defend their territories easily.
The red-winged blackbirds inhabit most of North America except for dry arid places. They majorly feed on seeds and small leaves but occasionally consume insects as well.
The Northern Mockingbird
The Northern Mockingbird is a famous mid-sized bird of Spring. It is most commonly found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
In appearance, the Northern Bird is grayish-brown in color with white spots around their wings. Their wingspan is 30 to 35 cm wide.
Did you know that a Northern Hummingbird can learn more than 200 songs in their life?
Northern Mockingbird is also known as ‘many-tongued mimic’ in Latin. The bird is popular for mincing the songs of other birds and animals.
You can easily identify a Northern Hummingbird in your backyard by its sweet sound.
When it comes to diet, the Northern Hummingbird typically likes to feed on fruits, seeds, and grains.
However, when it gets too hot, they prefer juicy insects and bugs like beetles, grasshoppers, ants, wasps, etc.
Downy Woodpeckers
Downy Woodpecker is another stunning looking bird of spring.
It is a very small bird with a short black bill. The base color of the bird is white with a contrasting black pattern all over.
The head of the bird is covered with black stripes, while the wing is a mix of black and white spots.
Downy woodpeckers are the most common amongst all woodpeckers to be paying a visit to your backyard.
But unlike most spring birds, they are not songbirds as they do not produce loud noises from the mouth.
This, however, does not mean that they do make any sound at all. They make sounds by drumming on tree trunks.
It is a common misconception that these woodpeckers drum on trunks looking for food.
They hardly make any noise when they are eating food, even when they are vigorously digging into tree bark for it.
They mainly feed on insects. They make their nests inside a dead tree trunk. The pair together makes the nest.
They usually stay inside their nests in winters and come out of it in early springs.
Downy woodpeckers are the smallest species of woodpeckers in North America.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of many adorable-looking spring birds that are seen as soon as the snow starts to melt. They bring with them the sound of joy.
Most of these are migratory birds returning from the South. Some of them are also permanent but are only seen in spring when they come out looking for mates
We hope that after reading this blog, you now know what the best time of the year is to get your binoculars and go for birding.
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