Here are a few male rose-breasted grosbeaks I met on a recent walk.
Last year I wrote about finding a house wren and not being able to find it on the eBird list only to discover that the name of the bird had been officially changed to northern house wren.
Well, this year, there were two more similar name changes. First, the yellow warbler is now the northern yellow warbler. I think most people will continue to call it yellow warbler for years to come, but the familiar, loquacious yellow bird that nests throughout New England is, indeed, now the northern yellow warbler.
The reason for the change is to differentiate the migratory yellow warbler (the one we see in New England in spring and summer) from the non-migratory yellow warbler that is a year-round resident of the Caribbean, parts of Central and South America, and extreme southern Texas and Florida. That bird is now called the mangrove yellow warbler.
It seems to me they could have just added mangrove to the non-migratory bird’s name and left the more common yellow warbler’s name alone. But they did what they did, and we all have to get used to it.
By the way, “they” refers to the American Ornithological Society and other ornithologists and taxonomists. The name change has little to no impact on the casual birder. It has some significance for those who study birds for a living and those who keep fastidious life lists.
I discovered the other name change by accident. By now, most people are familiar with birding app Merlin. That’s the one that can, among many other things, identify nearby birds by their songs or calls. The “home page” of the app has a feature that randomly selects a local bird as your Bird of the Day. When you use the app and that bird is heard, it puts a little “Your Bird of the Day” message next to the entry.
Always one to welcome a new challenge, however inconsequential, I began a quest to find my Bird of the Day whenever I took a birdwalk. I don’t exactly knock myself out looking for the bird, but I get a small measure of satisfaction whenever the Bird of the Day message shows up on my list.
One day in mid-May, warbling vireo came up as my Bird of the Day. This will be easy, I thought. By mid-May, warbling vireos are seemingly everywhere and easy to spot and even easier to hear. Sure enough, shortly into my walk that day, I heard a warbling vireo. I glanced down at the phone to discover there wasn’t a Bird of the Day message next to the warbling vireo that showed up on the list.
I was confused for a few moments before realizing that Merlin identified the bird as an eastern warbler vireo, not simply warbling vireo even though “warbling vireo” was indeed my Bird of the Day. Apparently, they updated the name on the species-heard list but not as a Bird of the Day. If finding the Bird of the Day was a lucrative pursuit, I would have protested about getting cheated out of my bird that day. But it’s not, so I hardly gave it another thought — until now, that is.
So, yes, the bird New Englanders have been calling warbling vireo for so long is suddenly the eastern warbling vireo. Similar to the house wren and yellow warbler, the name change resulted from a split of a bird that formerly was considered the same species. The eastern warbling vireo breeds in the eastern and central parts of the U.S., while the western warbling vireo breeds out west. There is very little crossover range for the species.
In the grand scheme of things, not much has changed. People will continue to call the northern house wren a house wren, the northern yellow warbler a yellow warbler and an eastern warbling vireo a warbling vireo. But, in case you ever come across a birder in the woods who is a stickler for names, now you know the new official names.
Summer gets a bad rap for birdwatching.
Sure, it’s not as exciting as the spring migration when every day is a new discovery and a whirlwind of birding activity, but the summer has its own rewards. The most exciting part of summer birdwatching, of course, is discovering nesting activity and watching young birds grow. There’s much more to summer birdwatching, however.
First, let’s acknowledge some of the challenges to birdwatching in the summer. Finding a bird in the woods becomes extremely difficult as the leaves are out in full force. You can drive yourself batty trying to find an eastern wood pewee high atop a leafed-out maple or oak.
Birds are also much less vocal in the summer than they are in the spring. Very often in birdwatching, birds are heard before they are seen. You hear a bird, look in that direction, and you find the bird. It’s not always that easy, for sure, but you get the idea. In the summer, birds don’t always give us that verbal cue, making it much more difficult to spot them. Birds don’t want to be seen in the summer, as they are on nests or raising young. The last thing they want is to be discovered, so they remain hidden and silent.
Finally, birdwatching hours in the summer are not conducive to late sleepers or those who turn in early. The long days mean that the sun rises early and sets late. True of all seasons, the best time to watch birds in the summer is early morning or evening. By 9 a.m., the sun is already high and harsh in the sky, and the temperature is rising. You can still find birds in the afternoon, but even the birds seek out shade when it’s too hot.
Now on to the good stuff.
It’s always a thrill to see birds carrying nesting material or food for young in their bills. One of my favorite photos I took is a gray catbird with a bill full of insects. It paused on a perch just long enough before heading to its nest. The bird had five or six insects, all of a different variety, in its bill.
If you are lucky enough to find a nest, it is fun to watch the progress from eggs to babies to fledglings. This should be done in a cautious manner, of course. I wrote earlier this year about watching a pair of northern flickers hollow out a nest in a dead tree in my yard. You can’t see inside a woodpecker nest, but I know they are still there and likely have eggs now. Once they hatch, the baby birds will call constantly for food. It’s fun to watch the dutiful parents make several trips back and forth to the nest.
Summer is the best time to see waders in New England. Waders are tall, skinny birds found around the water, such as herons and egrets. While some great blue herons are year-round New England residents, most arrive in the spring and leave in the fall. That leaves summer as the best time to spot them. Since they are around water, they don’t have the cover of leaves to hide them.
Similarly, ospreys are a summer treat to see, especially around coastal areas, but also around large inland lakes and rivers. Ospreys were rare sightings in New England a few decades ago, but their population has increased dramatically to the point they are common sightings in the summer. Connecticut and Massachusetts, for example, each have more than 1,000 osprey nests. New Hampshire is estimated to have about 150 nests.
Another nice thing about birdwatching in the summer is that it can be done anywhere and combined with other outdoor activities. Going to the beach? Keep an eye out for shorebirds, terns and ospreys. Taking a hike? Look for woodland birds. Neighbor having a barbeque? Look for blue jays, nuthatches, catbirds, goldfinches, wrens and other backyard birds.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention hummingbirds. For some people, a highlight of summer is watching hummingbirds visit their feeders, potted flowers or flower gardens.
And, if the birding gets really slow in August, that’s a great time to look for butterflies, dragonflies and other creatures in fields and meadows.
Summer is often paired with words such as doldrums, dog days, dragging or sweltering. For birdwatchers, it’s just a different season with new opportunities.
Now that the spring migration is over, at least for the most part, it’s time to turn our attention to summer birdwatching.
Before we do that, I want to recap my spring birdwatching highlights. Spring highlights often begin and end with warblers, and this spring was no exception, although some non-warblers are certainly worthy of inclusion here.
It was another good spring for warblers. I’ll get into some of the less common ones later in the column, but the warblers that are often seen in New England did not disappoint. Yellow warblers were, and continue to be, seemingly around every corner. Their ubiquitous song is inescapable. (Not that I’d want to escape it in the first place.)
Other common warblers seen on nearly every walk this spring include common yellowthroats, black-and-white warblers, blue-winged warblers, palm warblers, ovenbirds, American redstarts, yellow-rumped warblers and pine warblers.
While the warbler action was pretty consistent, it was a slow spring for some of the other colorful birds we look forward to seeing after every long winter. The only scarlet tanager I’ve seen so far was a female that I saw briefly in the canopy weeks ago. I did, however, receive emails from both Pat from Sandwich and Greg from Tilton with photos attached of male scarlet tanagers at their feeders. Scarlet tanagers are not considered common feeder birds, but they will occasionally visit for suet or mealworms.
Thankfully, tanagers nest throughout New England so my window is far from closed.
It’s also been rather slow for rose-breasted grosbeak and indigo bunting sightings. By this time of the year, I’ve usually seen dozens of grosbeaks and at least a few buntings. So far, I’ve seen only a few grosbeaks and not a single bunting. Indigo bunting did come up on my Merlin app a few times, but I was never able to spot it.
Baltimore orioles, on the other hand, have been plentiful this spring on my walks. The other day, I spotted a bird near the top of a dead tree. Even at about 100 yards, I could see the bright orange plain as day. A peer through my binoculars confirmed that it was an oriole.
Warbling vireos, which were pervasive on my walks last spring, were somewhat more scarce for me this spring, but still plentiful. Red-eyed vireos were plentiful as well. Of course, catbirds and eastern towhees were constant companions too.
Less common warblers are always a thrill to see and a highlight of spring birdwatching. This year, my top warblers included hooded warblers, northern parulas, magnolia warblers, black-throated blue warblers, chestnut-sided warblers, and a Wilson’s warbler. Hopefully, I’ll make it to northern New Hampshire a few times this summer and find a few more warblers to add to the list.
Overall, it was a good spring for spotting migrants. Now it’s on to summer birding. Next week, we’ll look at some of the things to look for in the bird world during the summer.
While the majority of spring migrants are still working their way north, many of New England’s year-round birds are already getting down to the business of nesting.
I’m sure I’ll see plenty of nesting activity as the spring progresses, but last week I witnessed two interesting scenes related to nesting.
The first was in my backyard. As I approached one of my birdfeeders to throw in a handful of safflower seed, I noticed a northern flicker dart off into the woods. Its white rump patch gave away its identification. I was fairly certain the flicker had been clinging to a topped-off dead tree a dozen or so yards away from the feeder, and I made a note to approach the feeder more carefully next time.
Sure enough, I returned half an hour later and found a flicker on the same snag. I kept my distance this time and watched as the flicker worked on hollowing out a hole in the snag. I observed for a few minutes and went back into the house.
Over the next several days, I watched a male and female flicker take turns hollowing out the hole. It was slow-going, but the flickers kept at it dutifully. I’ll continue to watch the progress, and, hopefully, the flickers will successfully build a nest there and raise young. That would make for an interesting spring and summer in my yard.
Watching how slow the progress was and how much work the flickers put into making the cavity, I have new respect for woodpeckers and how difficult the job of securing the future of the species is. I also see why so many birds and animals utilize old woodpecker holes for their own nesting purposes. The hard construction work has already been done.
I read that flickers are uncommon among woodpeckers in that they often reuse cavities from the previous year. I don’t blame them. I can’t imagine doing that every year.
From that hopeful scene to one a bit darker: I was sitting in my office when I noticed movement through the window. The motion stopped in a tangle of vines where the parking lot and woods meet. I lifted my binoculars (yes, I have a pair at the office) and spotted a robin sitting in a nest. I was excited and concerned at the same time. While the nest itself was pretty well hidden, it was right at the edge of the woods and fairly obvious with the bird in the nest.
I watched a male and female come and go throughout the day and even shared the news with some co-workers. Even while I thought about how neat it would be to have a flicker nesting at my home and nesting robins visible through my window at work, I remained cautiously optimistic about the robins.
Later in the afternoon, I saw a blur flash past my window. By this time, a car in the lot had blocked part of my view of the vines where the nest had been built. I had a feeling what the blur was, but hoped I was wrong.
I stood, and my fears were realized. A red-shouldered hawk was standing on the nest tearing it apart. The robins took a few swipes at the hawk, but the larger bird of prey hardly seemed to notice.
The robins, of course, abandoned the nest and haven’t returned. Thankfully, it’s still very early in the season, and the robins can try again–hopefully, in a better place next time.
I was confused about the encounter. The obvious conclusion is that the hawk raided the nest to eat the eggs. However, I don’t think the robins had eggs in the nest yet. I had just noticed the robins for the first time that day. Surely, since it was in direct sight of my office window, I would have noticed the robins building the nest prior to that day.
Then why would the hawk go after the nest like that? Maybe it attacked the nest in the hopes that there would be eggs or baby birds in it and came up empty. Or perhaps it was a territorial message, as red-shouldered hawks do nest on the property.
Regardless of the reason, I wish the robins luck with their next attempt. I also wish the hawk luck on its next quest for food. And, of course, I wish the flickers luck in their nesting season.
At first it looked like a growth on the tall bush near my bird feeding station. I quickly realized it wasn’t a growth at all but rather a yellow-bellied sapsucker hugging a small branch.
It was a first-year bird, and its dark coloration, lack of red head or throat, and barred plumage made it look like part of the bush. It also caught me by surprise because yellow-bellied sapsuckers are migratory and are not frequent visitors to feeders. It was also perfectly still for several minutes as, from the comfort of my living room, I watched it brave the single-digit temperatures.
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This fox had no consideration for my sleep schedule.
I was sound asleep when the fox decided it was a good time to sit on the shared driveway that separates my house from my neighbor’s house and start barking over and over. I rolled over, tapped the screen on my phone and saw 3:01 displayed.
The fox was about 15 yards away from where I had been enjoying a good night’s sleep. I pulled back the curtain and there it was, plain as day (even though it was the middle of the night), sitting in the middle of the driveway barking away.
If you’ve ever heard a fox barking, you know it’s not like a dog barking. We’ve all been jarred awake by dogs barking before, but that sound is familiar, and usually the owner is quick to respond and stop the barking.
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It’s time for one of my favorite annual columns, as I take a look at my top 10 birding/wildlife moments from the past year. It’s always fun to look back at a year’s worth of For the Birds columns and pick the moments that continue to resonate with me the most.
Here are my top 10 birding moments of 2025:
10. Early in 2025, when ice still dominated most ponds and rivers, I found a small unfrozen pond with a hooded merganser pair and a small flock of ring-necked ducks. The pond was small enough to afford good photo ops of the birds but large enough that they felt safe on the opposite shore.
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It’s never too late to celebrate Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday, which occurred this year on December 2, is a day that supports acts of giving, most notably donating money to charities of one’s interest. It follows Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Unlike those other days, Giving Tuesday encourages people to think outwardly in their giving.
While that specific date is when many nonprofit organizations make a push to raise funds for their cause (you probably received many emails that day), the spirit of Giving Tuesday is a year-round concept.
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The fall hawkwatching season is winding down. Raptor sightings at the various dedicated locations are slowing down, with only a handful of birds counted each day as November progresses.
It’s a good time, therefore, to check in to see how the various hawkwatching sites fared this year. New England has several popular sites, but Pack Monadnock at Miller State Park in Peterborough is New Hampshire’s most active and popular site. The hawk count is a project of the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock.
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Birds of New England.com 