Ruby-throated Hummingbird

No, that isn’t someone’s house in the background, just a research outpost.

This is a ruby-throated hummingbird, or Archilochus colubris. This one’s a female, though, so she doesn’t have a ruby throat (gorget). Like all hummingbirds, she’s incredibly athletic, having the highest metabolism of any animal, able to beat her wings over 200 times per second, and breathing 4 times per second at rest. And yet, despite usually needing to refuel after ten minutes, she can somehow fly for 20 hours straight across open ocean during migration season.

Photo taken: Aug. 28, 2022

Cardinal Chick

I found this little guy hopping around with his parents an hour before sunset. I think it had trouble learning to fly, or at least was scared of something, as it holed itself up in this fence in my backyard for the night. Thankfully, it has loving parents that protected it until they managed to convince the chick to fly off with them early this morning~

This is a northern cardinal, or Cardinalis cardinalis. I would’ve thought it was too late to have chicks bouncing around, but cardinals sometimes have two broods in a year, nesting between late February and early September.

Photo taken: Jul. 15, 2022

Bald Eagle

I didn’t know that eagles would go after fish as small as the ones that appear to be in this one’s talons, if those are even fish in the first place?

This is a bald eagle, or Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Over a dozen countries have eagles on their flags and/or emblems, though only the country whose birthday is celebrated today uses the bald eagle specifically. Unlike the country as a whole, certain American territories use it directly on their flags. There’s the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is essentially a stylization of the Great Seal of the United States, but I personally prefer American Samoa, whose diving eagle holds the two traditional Samoan emblems in its talons.

Photo taken: Aug. 19, 2019

Gadwall

Incoming~

This is a gadwall, or Mareca strepera. Gadwalls live in the northern hemisphere, spanning most of North America and Eurasia as well as the North African coast and the Nile basin. An extinct subspecies of gadwalls, Coues’s gadwall is known by only two juveniles from Kiribati — smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Photo taken: Apr. 16, 2022

Double-crested Cormorant

The way it holds its head above its neck looks awfully taxing from a human perspective…

This is a double-crested cormorant, or Phalacrocorax auritus. Relating to long bird necks but not actually cormorants, a Stanford study published in 2015 (article) found that certain birds like swans use a system similar to a car’s suspension to keep their heads steady in flight.

Photo taken: May 23, 2021

Mallard Silhouettes

Getting ready to land~

These are mallards, or Anas platyrhynchos. Originally, I thought that these were American black ducks, but one helpful trick to tell black ducks apart from mallard hens is that a mallard hen will have two white lines outlining the blue patch on its wings, as you can see on the duck in the center, while a black duck will not.

Photo taken: Sept. 4, 2021

Common Moorhen

The bright red frontal shield certainly makes an impression~

This is a common moorhen, or Gallinula chloropus. It’s also known as “swamp chicken” and “waterhen”, though the latter of the two might cause some confusion when compared to the watercock. Watercocks are not the male versions of waterhens, but actually a completely different, albeit somewhat related, species.

Photo taken: Apr. 21, 2022

Common Kestrel

Its fanned-out tail looks huge compared to its legs~

This is a common kestrel, or Falco tinnunculus. When hunting, they prefer to hover in mid-air like this one is doing, allowing them to quickly swoop down if they spot prey — mostly small mammals like mice, voles, and shrews — in the distance.

Photo taken: Apr. 22, 2022

Blue Jay

I can never seem to get over the fact that plumage can have such clean lines between the head and body, yet go wild within one or the other all the same…

This is a blue jay, or Cyanocitta cristata. Like many other birds, they are named after one of their most common calls, but they also frequently mimic the calls of nearby hawks with frightening accuracy, possibly to alert other jays in the area of its presence.

Photo taken: Feb. 14, 2021

Mallard

In this position, she looks almost like a seaplane splashing down~

This is a mallard, or Anas platyrhynchos. If you notice, there’s a dark spot on her bill, which is completely normal and harmless, though I happened across one person in a bit of a panic, saying, “Help! Duck’s beak seems to be rotting?” in a forum post.

Photo taken: Apr. 4, 2021