northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here are a couple interesting-looking birds I encountered last month: Bobolinks . These are males in their breeding plumage; their non-breeding plumage looks awfully similar to female plumage, which is far less eye-catching. The buttery-yellow on the head and the patches of white elsewhere contrast sharply with their black plumage, making these guys extremely easy to identify. These birds like fields/meadows/pastures. They'll sometimes be seen above the vegetation line eating seeds off of plants, but they'll also hit the ground to forage for insects living within the vegetation. Bobolinks are kind of the swingers of the New World blackbird family , having polygynous males and polyandrous females. This means Bobolink nestlings might be as closely related to the "nest next door" as they are to the ones they were raised with. As a species, Bobolinks have no really close relatives, and are the only species in their genus. Bobolinks are also impressive migrators, spendin...

Here's a (non-baseball playing) Baltimore Oriole I met in late May. He and his (presumed) mate were flying around near the Orchid Range's Outdoor Education booth. I don't spot these guys very often, but their population seems to be doing reasonably well. They're considered a type of blackbird even though they probably have more orange on them than black. And these birds have a sweet tooth, being particularly fond of brightly colored fruit. I lost track of this couple. I haven't seen them in the area since this picture, so perhaps they elected to start a family on another part of the property. May 28, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133215338, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)