The cinnamon teal is a colorful duck that is found in the western portions of North and South America. It is the only duck that has separate breeding populations on each of the continents. In North America they breed in the western United States and Mexico. Their breeding does not extend as far east as most other species of western ducks, ending before the center of the US. In South America they breed primarily in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Most of the birds that breed in the US migrate to Mexico or the California coast for the winter. Most the birds that breed in Mexico and South America are year round residents of theri breeding ground.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
There are two different color variations of white-throated sparrow. There is the white crowned, an example of which is the first picture, and the tan-crowned, pictured above. The males of both varieties prefer white-crowned females, however the females all prefer the tan-crowned males. It appears that the white crowned birds are more aggressive then the tan crowned. So the guys are looking for an aggressive women while the females are looking for a laid back dude. You can see in the picture above that white-crowned sparrows eat a variety of fruits and berries. They also eat a lot of the seeds from different grasses as well as insects that they find while foraging on the ground.
Friday, January 3, 2014
So I started 2014 off with a bang. I did not get out on the first but I spent most of the day Friday running around Dakota County, where I live. With the cold front that hit this past weekend we have a good influx of snowy owls (top). Snowy owls are usually found around the arctic circle but in years where there is a lack of food or they have a productive breeding year owl migrate south into southern Canada and the US. The northeast US has been experiencing a snowy invasion for a while now but it started out kind of slow here and just kicked in the past week. I found 4 different owls yesterday and it is estimated that we could have 7 or more just in this area. My second bird is another arctic visitor. The long-tailed ducks breed in pretty much the same range as the snowies do. Most long-tailed ducks migrate to the east or west coast of the US during the winter. For the past few years though we have had one or two that winter at the confluence of the St Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The water there usually stays open unless it gets really cold and the long-tailed duck usually join with flocks of other diving ducks, such as common goldeneye and mergansers, and fish the icy water. I hope that my next set of birds is this good but it is going to be hard to beat this pair.