Black-throated Green Warbler

An abundant breeder of the northeastern coniferous forests, the Black-throated Green Warbler is easy to recognize by sight and sound. Its dark black bib and bright yellow face are unique amongst Eastern birds, and its persistent song of "zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee" is easy to remember.

We saw this guy in Rocky Branch State Park near Tuscaloosa Alabama. It may have been because of early migration since these specific birds aren't seen in Alabama unless its during the fall or spring migration. So we were pretty luck to see him!

The male Black-throated Green Warbler sings persistently during the breeding season. One individual was observed singing 466 songs in one hour.

Red-eyed Vireo

One of the most common birds of the Eastern forests, the Red-eyed Vireo is heard far more than it is seen. It sings continuously from the forest canopy from dawn to dusk. The vireo's song is a series of phrases interspaced with short pauses, like the song of an American Robin broken into pieces.

Although animal food makes up 85 percent of its summer diet, the Red-eyed Vireo may be completely frugivorous (fruit-eating) during the winter. The Red-eyed Vireo is a common host to the Brown-headed Cowbird, which lays its eggs in the vireo's nest. Red-eyed Vireos living year-round in South America may be a separate species.

Black Vulture

With sooty black plumage, a bare black head, and neat white stars under the wingtips, Black Vultures are almost dapper. Whereas Turkey Vultures are lanky birds with teetering flight, Black Vultures are compact birds with broad wings, short tails, and powerful wingbeats. The two species often associate: the Black Vulture makes up for its poor sense of smell by following Turkey Vultures to carcasses. Highly social birds with fierce family loyalty, Black Vultures share food with relatives, feeding young for months after they’ve fledged.

In the U.S., Black Vultures are outnumbered by their red-headed relatives, Turkey Vultures, but they have a huge range and are the most numerous vulture in the Western Hemisphere. One-on-one at a carcass, Black Vultures lose out to the slightly larger Turkey Vulture. But flocks of Black Vultures can quickly take over a carcass and drive the more solitary Turkey Vultures away. Black Vultures lack a voice box and so their vocal abilities are limited to making raspy hisses and grunts. Although Black Vultures and their relatives live only in North and South America, the oldest fossils from this group—at least 34 million years old—were found in Europe.

Mississippi Kite

July 19th I was walking to my car to go to work.  It was about 7:20am and I saw a Mississippi Kite soaring above me and swooping down in a dive bomb position and then darting back up to a safe altitude.  It was magical and I ran into the apartment to get my camera.  I snapped 4 blurry photos.  The next day was the weekend and I woke up early to made a little trek across the parking lot to the area I've seen the bird before.  I was amazed to find SEVEN mississippi kites all in the same area!  They were darting and dancing all over the open field!  It was one of my favorite birding moments and Susanne was unable to wake up to see it with me :(

A graceful, long-winged raptor, the Mississippi Kite is found in scattered localities across the southern and central United States. Mississippi Kites have been known migrate south in huge flocks and hundreds and hundreds of Kites have been witnessed flocking across Texas.

Great Crested Flycatcher

A treetop hunter of deciduous forests and suburban areas, the Great Crested Flycatcher is easier to hear than to see. The only eastern flycatcher that nests in cavities, it often includes snakeskin in the nest lining.

The Great Crested Flycatcher is a bird of the treetops. It spends very little time on the ground, and does not hop or walk. It prefers to fly from place to place on the ground rather than walk.

Osprey

Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons.

I witnessed an osprey in Tuscaloosa but this photograph was taken two years ago in Tampa Bay Florida.

An Osprey may log more than 160,000 migration miles during its 15-to-20-year lifetime. Scientists track Ospreys by strapping lightweight satellite transmitters to the birds’ backs. The devices pinpoint an Osprey's location to within a few hundred yards and last for 2-3 years. During 13 days in 2008, one Osprey flew 2,700 miles—from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, to French Guiana, South America. Ospreys are unusual among hawks in possessing a reversible outer toe that allows them to grasp with two toes in front and two behind. Barbed pads on the soles of the birds' feet help them grip slippery fish. When flying with prey, an Osprey lines up its catch head first for less wind resistance. Ospreys are excellent anglers. Over several studies, Ospreys caught fish on at least 1 in every 4 dives, with success rates sometimes as high as 70 percent. The average time they spent hunting before making a catch was about 12 minutes—something to think about next time you throw your line in the water. The oldest known Osprey was 25 years, 2 months old.

Indigo Bunting

The all-blue male Indigo Bunting sings with cheerful gusto and looks like a scrap of sky with wings. Sometimes nicknamed "blue canaries," these brilliantly colored yet common and widespread birds whistle their bouncy songs through the late spring and summer all over eastern North America. Look for Indigo Buntings in weedy fields and shrubby areas near trees, singing from dawn to dusk atop the tallest perch in sight or foraging for seeds and insects in low vegetation.

Indigo Buntings migrate at night, using the stars for guidance. Researchers demonstrated this process in the late 1960s by studying captive Indigo Buntings in a planetarium and then under the natural night sky. The birds possess an internal clock that enables them to continually adjust their angle of orientation to a star—even as that star moves through the night sky. Like all other blue birds, Indigo Buntings lack blue pigment. Their jewel-like color comes instead from microscopic structures in the feathers that refract and reflect blue light, much like the airborne particles that cause the sky to look blue.