39 posts
White-crowned sparrows breed primarily in northern Canada and Alaska, but winter all across the United States. They’ve been known to fly hundreds of miles in a single night enroute to warmer climes for the winter. Like the white-throated sparrow, they have distinct black and white head stripes, but no
February 22, 2026
Ed. note: We had a complaint about not using standard scientific style in writing about birds. It comes down to the difference between scientific journal style vs. newspaper style. Capitalizing the species is the scientific style, while down styling as many words as possible is the news world's
February 15, 2026
Pine warblers breed in Kentucky and begin to return to the area in early February. As the name implies, pine warblers spend most of their time in pine trees, where they build nests hidden in pine needles near the tops of these trees. They’ll typically lay 3 to 5
January 25, 2026
Blue jays are intelligent and well-known for their loud, raucous calls. In addition to their own sounds, blue jays often mimic the cry of hawks. Experts aren’t sure whether this is a warning that a hawk is in the area or a means of dispersing other birds from food
January 18, 2026
The red-bellied woodpecker has already been sited
January 04, 2026
At a distance, common grackles look like large blackbirds and sound like a rusty door hinge. But up close, their yellow eyes are rather expressive and their feathers have an almost peacock-like iridescence. Grackles, like northern flickers, allow ants to crawl on their feathers and secrete formic acid, which helps
December 28, 2025
White-breasted nuthatches have large hind claws that help them creep headfirst down trees, searching the bark for insects. They may also be stashing seeds or insects under the bark for later, using moss or lichen to help hide their cache. Nuthatches were named for their practice of jamming nuts and
December 21, 2025
House finches have been becoming more prevalent in Kentucky in the past several decades after a few were brought from the southwestern United States and released on Long Island, New York in 1940. They quickly spread to all of the eastern states. Males look similar to purple finches but are
December 14, 2025
A male purple finch, in the words of naturalist Roger Tory Peterson, is a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” While found in Kentucky, purple finches have become less common over the past decades as the population of house finches (next week’s feature) has grown. The National Audubon Society’s
December 07, 2025