Welcome to our site!

This site has been designed to help you locate and identify birds in Central Oklahoma. The next twenty posts are dedicated to different birds which can be found in Oklahoma. Before you begin please take some time and learn how to attract birds.

How to Attract Birds
An easy way to start out attracting birds is to put up a bird feeder. We'll help you choose feeders and foods that appeal to the birds you want to attract, plus we'll tell you where to put your feeder and how to maintain it. And we can give you some hints about food items, such as eggshells, fruits, and mealworms, that provide extra nourishment for some wonderful species.

More Important Information
Some birds, especially woodpeckers and chickadees, excavate cavities in tree trunks for nesting and roosting. Many other species, such as wrens, bluebirds, and some ducks and owls, nest in cavities that other birds have made. Nest boxes offer these birds a place to raise their young, especially where natural cavities are at a premium. Our nest box section describes the features of a good nest box, where to place it, and how to avoid predators. Our nesting section also lists some nesting materials you can offer that will help a wide variety of species.

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Common Name: Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Scientific Name: Sphyrapicus varius

Habitat: Breeds in young forests and along streams, especially in aspen and birch.

Range: The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker lives in the Eastern United States and Central America.

Interesting Fact: The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker frequently uses human-produced materials to help in its territorial drumming. Street signs and metal chimney flashing amplify the irregular tapping of a territorial sapsucker. The sapsucker seems to suffer no ill effects of whacking its bill on metal, and a bird will return to a favorite sign day after day to pound out its Morse code-like message.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-Bellied_Sapsucker/id

Picture Retrieved from: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/Images/Glossary/Yellow-bellied_Sap_Sucker.jpeg

The Red-Headed Woodpecker

Common Name: Red-Headed Woodpecker

Scientific Name: Melanerpes erythrocephalus

Habitat: Breeds in deciduous woodlands, especially beech or oak, river bottoms, open woods, groves of dead and dying trees, orchards, parks, open country with scattered trees, forest edges, and open wooded swamps with dead trees and stumps. Attracted to burns and recent clearings.

Range: The Red-Headed Woodpecker lives in the Eastern United States.

Interesting Fact: The Red-headed Woodpecker is one of only four woodpeckers known to store food, and it is the only one known to cover the stored food with wood or bark. It hides insects and seeds in cracks in wood, under bark, in fence posts, and under roof shingles. Grasshoppers are regularly stored alive, but wedged into crevices so tightly that they cannot escape.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). Red-Headed Woodpecker. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-Headed_Woodpecker/id

picture retrieved from: http://www.birdsasart.com/Red-Headed-Woodpecker-looking-away-Rondeau-ONT-_H2D0613.jpg

The Red-Eyed Vireo

Common Name: Red-Eyed Vireo

Scientific Name: Vireo olivaceus

Habitat: Breeds in deciduous and mixed deciduous forests.

Range: The Red-Eyed Vireo summers in the Eastern United States and winters in South America.

Interesting Fact: The Red-eyed Vireo is a common host to the Brown-headed Cowbird, which lays its eggs in the vireo's nest.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). Red-Eyed Vireo. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-Eyed_Vireo/id

picture retrieved from: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/ibt/userfiles/image/photos/800/red-eyed-vireo--tom-munsonf.jpg

The Field Sparrow

Common Name: Field Sparrow

Scientific Name: Spizella pusilla

Habitat: Breeds in old fields, woodland openings, and edges.

Range: The Field Sparrow lives year-round in the Eastern United States.

Interesting Fact: The Field Sparrow often feeds directly on fallen seeds. It may fly to the top of grass stalks, let its weight carry the stems to the ground, and then begin removing the seed.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). Field Sparrow. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Field_Sparrow/id

Picture retrieved from: http://www.audubon.org/news/pressroom/CBID/Hi_Rez_images/Field_Sparrow_Howard_B_Eskin.jpg

The Wood Thrush

Common Name: Wood Thrush

Scientific Name: Hylocichla mustelina

Habitat: Breeds in the interior and edges of deciduous and mixed forests, generally in cool, moist sites, often near water.Requires moderate to dense understory and shrub density with a lot of shade, moist soil, and decaying leaf litter. Shows much variation in habitat use, from mature deciduous forests in the Southeast, to shrubby second-growth forests and suburban parks in the Northeast to riparian habitats in the Great Plains. Winters in lowland tropical forests. Most numerous in interior understory of tropical primary, closed-canopy, semi-evergreen, broad-leaved, and mixed palm forests at 50-1000 m elevation.

Range: The Wood Thrush summers in the Eastern United States and winters in South America

Interesting Fact: Wood Thrushes may raise more than one brood each season. When the first brood fledges, both parents feed all the young, but when the last brood fledges, they divide the work, each one caring for half the brood.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). Wood Thrush. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Thrush/id

Picture retrieved from: http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/images/wood-thrushwtmk.jpg

The House Sparrow

Common Name: House Sparrow

Scientific Name: Passer domesticus

Habitat: House Sparrows have lived around humans for centuries. Look for them on city streets, taking handouts in parks and zoos, or cheeping from a perch on your roof or trees in your yard. House Sparrows are absent from undisturbed forests and grasslands, but they’re common in countryside around farmsteads.

Range: The House Sparrow lives in the United States in its entirety and much of Western South America.

Interesting Fact: The House Sparrow takes frequent dust baths. It throws soil and dust over its body feathers, just as if it were bathing with water. In doing so, a sparrow may make a small depression in the ground, and sometimes defends this spot against other sparrows.

Source: Cornell, University (2009). House Sparrow. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from All About Birds Web site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Sparrow/id