Big T Birds

With spring in the air, the birds at Big T are spending more time foraging, calling, and showing off to attract mates. We have some year-round residents, some on-and-off-again visitors, and some summer residents. The best place for bird watching around here is in Big T’s Outdoor Education Center on the other side of the Masonville Road.

The American Robin is one of the most common birds in North America. It is a fairly large songbird and can be recognized by its gray-brown upper body with an orange-red belly. Robins also have a darker head, with white patterning around the eye, and a mostly yellow beak. Their call is a melodious “Cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up.”

Bald Eagles have been spotted at Big T over the playground on occasion. Since bald eagles eat mainly fish, this is probably because the Big Thompson River is just on the other side of Highway 34. Bald eagles are one of the largest raptors (bird of prey) in North America, and the adults cannot be mistaken for any other bird, with their pure white head and tail against a dark body. Their call is harder to use to identify them, as it is a weak, high-pitched chirping, piping or whistling sound. The bold call you hear from eagles in the movies is actually the call of the red-tailed hawk, another one of our local raptors.

If you walk over to the Outdoor Education Center right now, before the leaves come out on the deciduous trees, you may see a hanging woven nest in a tree-top just east of the path. This nest is probably from last year’s Bullock’s Orioles. These birds nest here in the summer, and are bright orange with white wing-bars and a black throat patch and eye-line, and black along their backs. Listen for their interspersed chattering, chirping and whistling.

Keep your ears open all year round for the little Black-capped Chickadees, mostly creamy-gray birds with a dark black cap, white cheeks, and a black throat patch. They especially like our over-grown shrubs in the center of the Outdoor Education Center, and the taller evergreen trees. They make a high sing-song call of “Fee-bee-yee” or “Cheese-bur-ger” in addition to their buzzing call that gives them their name, “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee.”

More information on birds of all types can be found in The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America and on the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s website: www.allaboutbirds.org (this website is especially helpful to listen to bird calls, and look for birds by name or shape, as well as giving lots of information about how to identify birds).

Happy Bird-watching!


(The week's Nature and Science Corner)