More Birds We Have Seen in the Eastern US Quiz

Answer: towhee

The robin-sized towhee used to be called the "ground robin" by country people, because of its reddish sides and habit of sorting through leaves on the ground. One range map says it should winter along the Ohio River, but apparently there's some variation, because when we lived near the river, the return of the towhees scratching in the undergrowth and giving one of their several calls, including chewink or tow-hee, was a happy sign of spring.

Answer: snowbird or junco

The snowbird is aptly named. It winters from Ohio and Virginia south, entertaining listeners with its variable, melodic songs. There are numerous closely related species, all called snowbirds, predominantly in shades of gray with various white patches.

Answer: bald eagle

The national symbol of the USA is making a comeback. Though still not plentiful, bald eagles were removed from the list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in 2007, in the lower 48 states. Some areas have a breeding pair who are given names and watched fondly by local residents.

Answer: screech owl

Screech owls are small brownish owls in mottled colors, well camouflaged, and even harder to see because they're nocturnal, so they're rarely out in the daytime. They have ear tufts and yellow eyes, unremarkable in appearance among the various eastern North American owls.

Their nests are generally in tree cavities well above human head level. Their call is what makes them stand out, and I love to hear the ghostly little trill.

Answer: indigo bunting

Female indigo buntings are brown, as are male ones in the winter. In summer, the male puts on its fancy plumage and can be seen in areas similar to where the bluebird perches--fields, farmland, open woods. The male will alight on a high location and sing a complex song of paired notes, gradually descending in pitch.

The birds eat both seeds and berries, as well as caterpillars and other insects, though the young are fed mostly insects to give them more protein, until they can graduate to adding less nutritionally dense seeds and berries.

Answer: bluejay

Bluejays, with their raucous cries, will gang up on anything they perceive as an interloper in their territory and chase it away. Cats can get dive bombed, beak first, by a crowd of angry bluejays. During happier times, bluejays have a surprising variety of songs and whistles, sometimes imitating the cry of the red shouldered hawk.

There is debate on why, but it may be to scare other birds away from food. Jays also have the intelligence of crows and other birds in the corvid family, being able to use tools to get food in experiments set up to test them.

Answer: yellow breasted chat

The yellow breasted chat is the largest New World warbler and may even be miscategorized and not actually a warbler, but that's what it is for now, according to scientists. It lives in abandoned farmland and along fields, and is declining somewhat due to habitat loss, but is currently not at any risk. Chats protect their nests, so cowbirds don't take advantage of them, and they have an abundant food supply, eating anything from caterpillars to seeds.

Answer: tufted titmouse

The tufted titmouse often shows up at birdfeeders in winter. Despite seeming like a polite little songbird, it can be aggressive, lining its nests with animal hair sometimes taken directly from the living animal too quickly to notice. The titmouse will carefully maneuver itself around smaller birds to take the largest and best seeds at a feeder, and has been known to create a stash of seeds before the start of winter, usually with the hulls removed, within 150 feet of a bountiful location like a feeder, though chickadees do this also.

The titmouse has various sounds and is talkative, often singing "peter-peter-peter."

Answer: yellow billed cuckoo

The yellow-billed cuckoo has one other related species overlapping its range, the black-billed cuckoo, and you can guess how to tell them apart. The yellow billed ones are more apt to be heard, though, especially as the skies darken and a breeze picks up, indicating rain. Unlike the European and Asian cuckoo, the North American cuckoo rarely lays its eggs in other birds' nests.

The cowbird is more likely to do that in the USA.

Answer: downy woodpecker

Only the male has a red spot on the back of its head, but otherwise, both males and females appear similar, sporting black backs and wings speckled with white, and a white stomach overall. The downy woodpecker can live in the forest, but will also come to parks, large backyards and suet feeders.