Wildlife of the Week: A Titmouse, Night Heron, and a Cooper's Hawk

 

 

I'm testing out a new kind of post. Since I have lots of photos and it will take me a while to write about them all, I figured I'd include some shorter posts as well. My plan for these short "Wildlife of the Week" posts is to include 3-4 photos of birds, animals, or plants along with a few fast facts about them. You might see some of these photos again in the longer posts later on!

So with that said, this week we have the Tufted Titmouse, a Black Crowned Night Heron, and a Cooper's Hawk. Enjoy!

Tufted Titmouse

This Tufted Titmouse was super cute and was just posing on a wire. They make several bright, happy songs and calls, including one that sounds like "peter peter peter." Scroll down a little from the Range and Identification section of their Audubon page and you'll find recordings of their calls, so you can have a listen.^[1] Interestingly, while both the male and female birds sing, the males sing more.^[2]

 

Scientific Name: Baeolophus bicolor

Seen: Perched on a wire.

Month: February

Black-Crowned Night Heron

The Black-crowned Night Heron is another bird that I always like seeing. They just seem peaceful. One interesting article reported that a Black-crowned Night Heron had been observed taking pieces of bread people had thrown in the water and using them to fish.^[3] It was observed moving a piece of bread to where it had been hunting, waiting, and then eating a fish that (it's assumed) came to check out the bread. Then it repeated the process. Smart bird!

Scientific Name: Nycticorax nycticorax

Seen: Near a lake

Month: February '24 

Cooper's Hawk

I was very excited to see this Cooper's Hawk sitting on a street light. I always like seeing raptors, but it was especially cool to spot this one chilling somewhere not in a park. Since it has yellow eyes, we can tell that this bird is immature.^[4] They will turn red as it becomes an adult.

Here's one more photo of this cool hawk:

Scientific Name: Accipiter cooperii
Seen: Sitting on a street light
Month: July '24

Learn More About These Birds:

1.  Audubon. (n.d.). Tufted Titmouse.
2. Alsop, F. J. (2002). Birds of North America (American ed.). Dorling Kindersley Limited.
   
3. Riehl, C. (2001). Black-crowned Night Heron fishes with bait. Waterbirds, 24(2), 285-286. https://doi.org/10.2307/1522044
4. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Cooper's Hawk: Identification. All About Birds.