Birds of O'Hara Woods

Eastern Wood Pewee - photo by Kara Morales. Eastern Wood-Pewees are medium-sized flycatchers with long wings and tails. Like other pewee species, they have short legs, upright posture, and a peaked crown that tends to give the head a triangular shape. Eastern Wood-Pewees are olive-gray birds with dark wings, and little to no yellow on the underparts. The sides of the breast are dark with an off-white throat and belly, giving a vested appearance typical of pewees.

Great Crested Flycatcher - photo by Kara Morales. A large, assertive flycatcher with rich reddish-brown accents and a lemon-yellow belly, the Great Crested Flycatcher is a common bird of Eastern woodlands. Its habit of hunting high in the canopy means it’s not particularly conspicuous—until you learn its very distinctive call, an emphatic rising whistle. Like many flycatchers they have a powerful build with broad shoulders and a large head. Despite its name, this bird’s crest is not especially prominent. The bill is fairly wide at the base and straight; the tail is fairly long.

Song Sparrow - photo by Kara Morales. A rich, russet-and-gray bird with bold streaks down its white chest, the Song Sparrow is one of the most familiar North American sparrows. It’s one of the first species you should suspect if you see a streaky sparrow in an open, shrubby, or wet area. If it perches on a low shrub, leans back, and sings a stuttering, clattering song, so much the better. Song Sparrows are streaky and brown with thick streaks on a white chest and flanks. On a closer look, the head is an attractive mix of warm red-brown and slaty gray, though these shades, as well as the amount of streaking, vary extensively across North America.

Swamp Sparrow - photo by Jay McGowan

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - photo by Kara Morales.

Swainson's Thrush - photo by Kara Morales. More likely to be heard than seen, Swainson’s Thrushes enliven summer mornings and evenings with their upward-spiraling, flutelike songs. These largely arboreal foragers pluck berries, glean bugs from leaves, or perch on branches and stumps. They also bound across the forest floor to catch insect prey. They breed in the north and the mountainous West, but they become very widespread during migration. These medium-brown birds with pale underparts have spotted chests and large, puffy eye rings that extend in front of the eye, creating “spectacles.”

Blue-winged Teal - photo by Jay McGowan

Eastern Warbling Vireo - photo by Kara Morales. The rich song of the Eastern Warbling Vireo is a common sound in many parts of eastern and central North America during summer. It’s a great bird to learn by ear, because its fast, rollicking song is its most distinctive feature. Otherwise, Eastern Warbling Vireos are fairly plain birds with gray-olive upperparts and white underparts washed with faint yellow. They have a mild face pattern with a whitish stripe over the eye. They stay high in deciduous treetops, where they move methodically among the leaves hunting for caterpillars.

Purple Martin - photo by Reanna Thomas

Sandhill Crane - photo by Kara Morales. Sandhill Cranes are very large, tall birds with a long neck, long legs, and very broad wings. The bulky body tapers into a slender neck; the short tail is covered by drooping feathers that form a “bustle.” Sandhill Cranes have an elegance that draws attention. These tall, gray-bodied, crimson-capped birds breed in open wetlands, fields, and prairies across North America.