other-songbirds

Western Meadowlark

Western Meadowlark

The Western Meadowlark (WEME) is 9-1/2" long. The WEME has a yellow breast and belly with a black V-shaped breast band. Upper parts are dark brown with dusky edges. When the bird is flushed it shows a conspicuous patch of white on each side of a short tail and flies with several rapid wingbeats alternating with short glides.

Pine Siskin

Pine Siskin

The genus name Carduelis (Card-dyou-EE-liss) is from the Latin carduus, thistle (eats seeds of thistle). The species name pinus (PINE-us) is Latin for pine which is its common name apparently from the siskin of Europe, a yellow-green finch. Siskin  apparently is derived from Danish sidsken  or Swedish siska, a “chirper.”

Western Wood-pewee

Western Wood-pewee

A bird of open woodlands, the Western Wood-Pewee is widespread in the western United States as far east as the western side of the plains states. It is most often seen calling pee-er from an open branch from which it will also sally forth to catch a variety of insects including flies, bees, wasps, beetles, moths and bugs (Bemis & Rising).

Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike

Like a sentinel, as described by its species name excubitor, Latin for watchman or guard, the Northern Shrike surveys its territory from a low perch on a shrub or post. With precision it hunts using a direct flight toward its prey-a small rodent or another bird-and dispatches it quickly by “pounding its bill into the base or back of the skull and the using its hooked bill severing the spinal cord between the neck vertebrae as falcons do” (Sibley).