Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you aaaaall? Listen for screams and barks, too.
This is the call that one expects to hear in the deep wooded areas of the country. A Barred Owl will sit upon a perch near the trunk of a tree awaiting prey to appear in front of it on the ground. Then it silently drops upon its victim. Depending upon the season, it does basically the same thing, but the real treat is to observe it perched over water fishing. Running after small mammals or reptiles will have you cheering for the raptor, even possibly becoming amusing at the antics.
It is a somewhat easy woodland owl to be heard, but not always easy to locate. An area chicken farmer invited me to visit around dusk while he was still living near me, and he said that I would surely see this raptor. He was correct, but it moved shortly after he did. It was one that I'd been hearing for years, even as close as my neighbor's yard in an old, large oak.
Barred Owl, Light Adult
Payne County CBC, 2017
Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls are mortal enemies. They will not normally be seen in the area of one another, so if you have one, you'll not have the other, unless the Great Horned Owl wishes to dine upon a nestling.
Nearly any mature forest with an open understory should net you this solitary visitor. They will hunt small mammals, and most are nocturnal.
Barred Owl, Dark Adult
Sequoyah NWR, Vian, OK
Nesting occurs in a tree cavity or a hole in a broken limb, and occasionally even in the top of a broken snag.
They are considered an invasive species in the west, especially the northwest, where they have been providing competition for their native Northern Spotted Owl. The Northern Spotted Owl is a threatened species in the old growth coniferous forest. They will hybridize with the spotted owl, which also helps to threaten the purity of the species.
The female is larger than the male, and they have feathers over the feet and legs.
This sandpiper is a bird of shallow waters, where many or a few may congregate to rest or to feed. Food is obtained by walking along with heads down and sweeping the long, thin bill from side to side.
It can be found in marshes, ponds, lakes, lagoons, sewage ponds, flooded fields, mudflats, ponds, etc. The avocet will also sometimes swim and feed by tipping like a dabbling duck on small crustaceans, insects, seeds, and aquatic vegetation.
Its non-breeding plumage is black and white, but in spring it will have a lovely pink to rusty brown head and neck, making it quite distinctive.
Breeding Plumage, 2014
Boomer Lake Park, OK
They could winter in Mexico or along the Florida or southern California coasts, making it a medium distance migrant.
Birds pair in late winter and both birds will incubate, as well as defend the nest site and forage together. Mercury (from coal burning plants), as well as selenium will cause low reproductive success and the death of embryos and chicks.
Natural wetlands are disappearing for reasons of farming and building, and at the present, populations are stable, making this a species of low concern.
This polyandrous (female has more than one mate) shorebird turns the tables on the male. She is the one that calls the shots and competes to attract males. The most remarkable and curious thing is that the male has higher levels of prolactin, which carries parental care, so it makes sense that the male would want to care for the young.
The Spotted Sandpiper is known for teetering and bobbing as it moves, and if disturbed will fly just above water or land with shallow, rapid wingbeats. Even from a distance, seeing the constant bobbing indicates to birds that it is, indeed, the most common of sandpipers. This also includes young birds that have just left the nest.
Spotted Sandpiper, Breeding Plumage
The nest is a scraped depression on the ground around sticks, plants and grasses and is three hundred feet or so from the shoreline of quiet waterways, such as lakes, rivers, streams, or marshy areas. These birds are a freshwater habitat lover, and are found in the riparian woods, on mudflats, as well as along lakeshores, where they will dine upon small insects, fish, crabs, and the like.
This sandpiper is either alone or with one other bird, and is a stiff winged flier, calling peet-peet-peet, when disturbed.
Not only are they very distinctive and easy to identify in breeding plumage, they are even easy to tell in non-breeding plumage. Observe the general shape, markings, and size, as well as the length of the bill and white eyebrow, and you'll have the species down pat in no time.
Very similar to sallying for insects like other flycatchers, Say's Phoebe is the largest phoebe, as well as the loveliest. Found in more open expanses than the typical phoebe, it will sometimes hover when foraging.
This tyrant flycatcher was named after a naturalist, Thomas Say, who first encountered it in Colorado in 1819.
Adult Say's Phoebe
Observed in western Oklahoma, even more so on the Panhandle, it is surprisingly easy to view this bird, sometimes even at close range. This phoebe will often nest at Black Mesa on cliff crevices, rocky outcroppings, and on horizontal ledges under bridges. It appears that they prefer shortgrass prairie country including sunlit canyons, open spaces near buildings, and mountain meadows of Black Mesa State Park. As long as it is dry and desolate, this passerine will be open to the location.
Males arrive first on the nesting grounds and will quickly choose territories, which are in the neighborhood of a couple of acres. The male will call for a mate and usually finds one quickly, so nesting begins soon after. Nests mays be found in or on manmade structures, or abandoned mine shafts and caves.
Ranges have been expanding over the years.
The female will locate her nest site, and she will construct her nest, while she allows the male to observe.
Stocky with rounded wings and a short tail, this classic buteo gives the distinct impression that it is not wise to mess with the best.
There are several subspecies and morphs that funnel through Oklahoma when it is time for fall migration at the end of August through September. They will all fan out via the Great Plains and then will head directly to their home bases, sometimes as late as December. One can conceivably see Harlan's, Southwestern, Western, Krider's, and Eastern Red-tailed Hawks perched upon trees or fenceposts to assist in keeping down the rodent population.
Juvenile Eastern Red-tailed Hawk
Usually uncommon, yet widespread, the Red-tailed Hawk is the bird of choice for many falconers, who must learn how to handle the bird properly, take it out for prey hunting, and get it through the winter. Licensed to be responsible for the bird, an apprentice falconer must prove him or herself to be worthy to keep a raptor in his or her care. Eighty to eighty-five percent of first year birds cannot survive their first winter, usually due to lack of food, so the falconer provides the opportunity for that bird to succeed. When it gets through that winter, it can hopefully, be assured of a long and well-fed life, as well as passing on good genes to its sires.
Adult Fuertes x Eastern Red-tailed Hawk
These raptors prefer open habitat for hunting purposes, which is perfect for sighting prey, as well as thick groups of tall trees for nesting. Nests are platform types from fifteen to seventy-five feet high in their tree of choice, frequently oaks and sycamores. They are made of twigs, lined with green vegetation, bark strips, and sometimes soft feathers. They usually breed from mid-March to mid-April and young are in the nest from early May to mid-June in Oklahoma.
The female, who is the larger of the pair, takes responsibility for brooding purposes, but both will incubate. The male takes over feeding both the female and the young. Young are hatched over several days. By the time they are a month old, they are branching in the trees, and will fly around six weeks of age. They will be independent of their parents in about a month.
Juvenile Eastern Red-tailed Hawk
Young give their respect and a wide berth to the Bald Eagle if it happens to be hunting in the same area.
The Southwestern or Fuertes Red-tail was given its name by the late George Miksch Sutton, a truly gifted ornithologist and artist of Oklahoma. The subspecies was named in honor of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, an excellent wildlife artist. This bird is very light and is differentiated by the breast streaking, and Sutton even indicated that the breeding bird in Oklahoma is the Fuertes. However, there is much conjecture upon this and I have even had disagreements myself with ornithologists much more experienced than I am.
The Eastern Red-tail is non-migratory and varies much in physical attributes, and many would say that this is the hawk of Oklahoma. Others have indicated that perhaps the Eastern has mixed with the Fuertes, or the Fuertes is not even here.
Western Red-tails are noticeably darker and were bred in the northwestern part of the country.
Harlan's Hawks look quite black, with a white streak upon the breast, yet their DNA is very close to the Eastern subspecies. They seem to be quite suspicious of people and will go out of their way to get away from them. John James Audubon named this subspecies after a medical doctor and friend, Richard Harlan.
The Krider's Hawk is white on both the head and the tail. Eastern and Krider's also tend to breed together.
Red-tailed Hawks are some of the most difficult birds to actually identify, as well as the light, medium and dark morph tags. As you learn more about the species and see the varieties in the field, it may only confuse you more. However, you will observe noticeable behavioral differences as the years progress in your studies. Keep at it, and get out in the winter, where you will a chance to actually observe all these subspecies in the Great Plains.
More often heard than seen, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo has a call that will not be confused with another bird. Its loud and harsh kuk-kuk-kuk-kukk-kowp-kowp in staccato, lends the sound of a much larger bird than it is.
In a good year for webworms, this cuckoo is found everywhere in deciduous trees, waiting for the webbed nests of the fall webworm. Uncommon in wooded areas near water, in second-growth forest along riparian corridors, and in willow or cottonwood groves, the good sized, thin bird often sits upon a limb in silence.
The yellow orbital ring and the yellow bill with the white throat, breast, and belly with the large white tips on the black feathers easily give its identity away. From the top of its head to the end of its tail, it measures a good foot.
An Oklahoma summer resident, it relishes in caterpillars, which it finds on twigs and within leaves.
During nesting time, both members of the pair incubate and brood the young. Second clutches are not out of the ordinary, and the young will wander around the branches before they become flighted.
Surprisingly, rain crows or storm crows as they are known in the South, are rather gregarious, sometimes in the area of other birds, such as the American Robin, out in the open and foraging on the ground in shaded areas. Many of my sightings have been with this bird out in the open.
The cuckoo had been in a steep decline until the past few years when its loss of habitat by farmland and development caused much consternation. It was hardest hit in the extreme western regions causing near extirpation. These long distance migrants are also very susceptible to collision with manmade structures. It has proven to be an excellent candidate for habitat restoration, which only takes a few years.
