What is your favorite bird? And every fowl encounter you've had under the sun

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We live in the inland northwest. I am a member of Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, and I use their online checklist to submit bird counts on a fairly regular basis. I took their correspondence course in bird biology a few years back, and still have the printed course materials. Today, they’re doing all of that online.

Unfortunately, we have a bark beetle out here that keeps killing the pine trees and other conifers, and it has been necessary to clear out dead trees and fallen logs as a fire prevention measure. Because of this, we don’t nearly the number of evergreens we had when we moved up here.

We also had some neighbors who cut down a lot of the natural privacy screen that separated their property from ours, so they could profit off of the timber, via logging.

We used to have Brown Creepers, Pygmy Owls, various warblers in the Spring, and other species which don’t come around, anymore. One year, we had an irruption of Black-Headed Grossbeaks. Saw them that one year, and never again.

You probably have seen my photos in another thread in this forum of the huge woodpecker holes that a Pileated left in a dying Cedar tree. I’ll try to repost them here, since this is a birding thread. I was working in my garden one day, and actually saw the Pileated pecking at that tree trunk, but didn’t have my camera with me then.
 
Here are the pics of the Pileated woodpecker holes left in the huge, dying Cedar.

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Except that Pileated Woodpeckers aren’t little birds. They are actually quite large. Right now, I don’t have a picture of one. Maybe someone else here can post a pic of a Pileated?
 
Very similar to the Pileated is the suspected-to-be-extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker of Louisiana and deep South forest lands.

Cornell’s Ornithology folks took a trip down there and claimed they had seen an Ivory-Billed and had it on video tape. The the image is so fuzzy, one can’t really tell, and it’s suspected it was just a common Pileated.

I hate to write off any species as extinct unless we can be absolutely certain it is, like the Passenger Pigeon. Scientists have been surprised by species thought to be gone forever suddenly showing up, again.

Let’s hope it’s that way with the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.
 
The Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico, similar to the Ivory-billed and Pileated Woodpeckers, is extinct.

When asked what it was like to shoot the last Imperial Woodpecker, the shooter replied, “It was a grand piece of meat”.

Here’s the last pileated I saw. This is on the National Bison Range in Montana last September. Let’s hear it for bad bird photos!

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Perhaps the most colorful bird in the United States is the Painted Bunting of the deep South. Nearly every color of the rainbow on the males.
 
JanR said:
Perhaps the most colorful bird in the United States is the Painted Bunting of the deep South. Nearly every color of the rainbow on the males.
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They actually come into SE Arizona though I haven’t seen one yet. They’re coming into areas that were once inhabited by cows. My aunt lives in the cross timber country of Texas. It’s a veritable Painted Bunting breeding factory. Here’s the best photo I could muster from my last visit.

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Their range is expanding. Could that be because of all the bad weather the deep South has had, recently?
 
Well The dodo if it was not extinct
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rofl

So I will go with the Cardinal
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From the pictures I’ve seen of it, assuming they are realistic depictions, the Dodo was a silly looking bird. Still, it was a bird, and worth saving, if that had been possible.

The greater tragedy is the Passenger Pigeon. They once were abundant in this country by the billions, yet we managed to wipe them all out within a few short years.

The extinction of the Great Auk is another sin against nature. The last breeding pair was destroyed, along with their single egg, and that was deliberate.

Shame on us!
 
JanR said:
Their range is expanding. Could that be because of all the bad weather the deep South has had, recently?
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I checked their range maps and in the US they’re a breeding bird in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana and part of South Carolina. They winter in south Florida which is where I saw my first one in my grandparents back yard in the late '70’s. I imagine the individuals we’re seeing in SE Arizona come from populations in Mexico. Sadly, I’ve seen them being sold as cage birds, along with Lazuli Buntings on the streets of Nogales.
 
I am fascinated by all birds, but corvids are my favorite: all types of crows, Eurasian magpies and jackdaws delight me to no end.
 
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Jays are included as corvids. Out here, we have two species – Canada Jays (also known as gray jays), and Stellers Jays. We’re a little too far west for the standard Blue Jay that everyone is familiar with.

We also have Black-Billed Magpies and Common Ravens. In town, there are crows.
 
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I completely forgot about jays! I googled some photographs of Canada Jays, Steller’s Jay and Black-Billed Magpies, and they are all such attractive birds. Common Ravens are also quite gorgeous.
 
In a very limited section of California, and only there in the U.S.A., there is a population of Yellow-Billed Magpies. All other Magpies in the U.S.A. are black-billed. The plumage is the same with both species of Magpie.
 
The Tucson Valley Christmas Bird Count is coming up. I’ve got the same area as before, which is where I live, work and worship, so I know it pretty well. Unlike past years I have the whole day off, so I’m going to bird all day long. I’m pretty excited about it. Did a little scouting last Sunday. Recorded 19 species including this red bird.

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Here’s a Yellow-rumped Warbler at at my water feature. If you look real close you can barely see it’s yellow rump.

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