17 Beautiful Birds of Connecticut

 

Birds in Connecticut List

• American Robin
• Blue Jay
• Northern Cardinal
• Mourning Dove
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Tufted Titmouse
• American Goldfinch
• Baltimore Oriole
• Common Grackle
• House Finch
• Northern Shoveler
• Cinnamon Teal
• Broad-billed Hummingbird
• Red-necked Phalarope
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Tricolored Heron
• Sharp-shinned Hawk

American Robin

The American robin is the state bird of Connecticut. The American robin is a large songbird with a large round body, long legs, and a long tail. Robins are the largest thrushes in North America, and their profile offers a good opportunity to learn the basic shape of most thrushes.

Robins are also a good benchmark for comparing the size and shape of other birds. American robins are grayish-brown birds with warm orange underparts and dark heads. In flight, a white patch on the underside of the belly and under the tail can be conspicuous.

Compared to males, females have paler heads that contrast less with the gray back.

Blue Jay

Songbird with a large crested head and a broad, rounded tail. Blue jays are smaller than crows, bigger than robins.
White or light gray below, various shades of blue, white and black above.

Blue Jays make a wide variety of calls that travel long distances. Most calls are made while the jay is perched inside a tree. It usually flies silently through open areas, especially during migration.

Keep food in the throat pouch to store elsewhere; when eating, it holds a seed or nut at its feet and opens it.
Blue jays are birds that border the forest.

Acorns are a favorite food and are often found near oak trees, towns, cities, parks, forests, and groves.

Northern Cardinal

The northern cardinal, also known as redbird, common cardinal, or just cardinal, is a species of passerine bird in the Cardinalidae family that lives in Central and North America.

An interesting fact is that only the males of this species have this color since the plumage of the females is brown and gray, but this characteristic of the male is very important since the redder and brighter their plumage, the more possibilities they have to mate.

It inhabits from the South of Canada to the North of Guatemala, Belize, passing through the eastern part of the United States from Maine to Texas and through Mexico.

It can be found in forests, gardens, swamps, and much of Central America and the entire north of the continent, feeding on herbs, grains, seeds, fruits, and, to a lesser extent, plant sap.

Mourning Dove

It has a plump body and a long tail, with short legs, a small bill, and a head that appears particularly small compared to the body.

The long, pointed tail distinguishes it from other North American pigeons.
Mourning doves are typically found in open country. They have a delicate brown to tan beige coloration on the outside, with black spots on the wings and white tips with black edges on the tail feathers.

Mourning doves fly fast with powerful wingbeats, sometimes making sudden ascents, descents, and dodges, their pointed tails spreading out behind them.

Black-capped Chickadee

This little bird has a short neck and a large head, giving it a unique and somewhat circular body shape. It also has a long, thin tail and a short bill, much thicker than a warbler but smaller than a finch.

The cap and bib are black, the cheeks are white, the back is soft gray, the white-edged wing feathers are gray, and on the sides graduated to white below, the underparts are soft beige.

The hat reaches a little below the black eyes, making it impossible to see the tiny pupils. In any area of trees or woody shrubs, from forests and wooded parcels to suburbs and suburban parks and even fields of scrub and salt marshes, chickadees can be found.

Tufted Titmouse

In the eastern United States, the common garden bird.

Silvery gray above and white below, with a rusty color on the sides, they have a black spot just above the bill.

Tufted Titmouses can be found throughout much of the eastern forest below two thousand feet in height. Tufted Titmice are also frequent visitors to feeders and can be found in parks, backyards, and orchards.

American Goldfinch

Usually, goldfinches flock with Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. The males in the spring are bright yellow and glossy black with a little white. Its strong sexual dimorphism characterizes them.

The male, which in winter has a green-blue to brown plumage, looks bright yellow in summer to attract females during the mating season, while in summer the females’ dull yellow-brown plumage becomes lighter.

With a conical beak to extract the seeds and agile feet to grip the stems of seedheads when feeding, the American goldfinch is a granivore and adapted for seedhead consumption.

This finch is known to eat garden vegetation as well and is particularly fond of beet greens. It is a social animal, and, when feeding and migrating, will gather in large flocks.

During nest building, it can act territorially, but this aggression is short-lived. Its breeding season is related to the peak supply of food, starting in late July, which is relatively late for a finch in the year.

Generally, this species is monogamous, and each year it produces one brood.

Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore Orioles are medium-sized, stout-bodied songbirds with thick necks and long legs that are narrower and thinner than an American robin.

They have long, thick-based, pointed beaks, a trademark of the blackbird family to which they belong. Fiery orange and black, adult males have a solid black head and a white stripe on their black wings.

Orange-yellow on the chest, greyish on the head and tail, with two white bands on the wings, are female and juvenile males.

Common Grackle

Common Grackles are large, lanky blackbirds with long legs and long tails. The head is flat and the bill longer than in most blackbirds, with a hint of a downward curve. In flight, the wings appear short compared to the tail.

Males are slightly larger than females. Common blackbirds appear black from a distance, but up close their bright purple heads contrast with iridescent tan bodies. A bright golden eye gives Grackles an intense expression.

Females are slightly less bright than males. Young birds are dark brown with dark eyes.

You will often find Common Grackles in large flocks, flying or foraging in grass and agricultural fields. They strut on their long legs, pecking for food.

At feeders, common Grackles dominate the smaller birds. When resting, they sit high in trees or on telephone lines, keeping up a raucous chatter. Flight is direct, with stiff flapping.

House Finch

House Finch is a small finch with red head native to the western part of the United States, southwestern Canada, and Mexico.

Following the deliberate release of cage birds in New York in 1939, the species has expanded to connect with western populations, which are also in an expansionary phase.

Much appreciated by canariculturists because of how easy it is to breed in captivity, it has been the subject of massive catches in its original distribution area.

For this reason and due to the commercial interest it has acquired, the species has been taken to many countries in Europe and the rest of the world.

Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler has a shovel-shaped bill that distinguishes it from other dabbling ducks. It is a medium-sized duck that sits with its back slightly raised above the water, almost as if its bill is pulling its front half down.

Male shovelers can be found in a variety of colors, including white, blue, green, and rust, but their most distinguishing feature is their white chest and lower sides. Males flash blue on the upper wing and green on the secondary wings while flying (the speculum).

Female and immature shovelers have brown mottling and powdery-blue wings that are sometimes visible on resting birds. Their most noticeable field mark is their very large orange bill.

Cinnamon Teal

A small duck with a large head and a rather long bill that is longer than the Blue-winged Teal’s but shorter than the Northern Shoveler’s.

The breeding male has a red eye, a long dark bill, and mostly vibrant rusty plumage, with a brownish back and a white underwing. Females, immature males, and nonbreeding males are mostly rich brownish in color. All adults, like other teal and shovelers, have a sky-blue patch in the open wing.

Cinnamon Teal flocks dabble for food at the water’s surface in marshes, sometimes feeding like shoveler flocks and moving in the same direction.

In western North America, Cinnamon Teal breed and molt in freshwater wetlands with emergent vegetation.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

A small hummingbird with a long, straight bill and a notch in the center of its tail. Males have fuller tails with rounded corners than females (female tails have squared corners).

Adult males are a rich green color with a gleaming blue throat (gorget) and a red bill tipped in black. Females are golden-green on top and gray on the bottom, with a white line behind the eye. Immatures resemble females (immature males often show the beginning of a blue-green gorget).

Nests in mountain stream canyons up to 6,500 feet in elevation, usually with sycamores, cottonwoods, and willows. After breeding, they may be able to forage at higher elevations, up to 10,000 feet.

Red-necked Phalarope

Small, dainty shorebird with a slender neck and very thin, sharp bill that sits high on the water.

Females outperform males in intelligence. Adults have a white throat, a reddish patch on their neck, and a gray body with buffy markings on their wings. Nonbreeding birds have gray upper and white lower feathers, a streaky back, and a black ear patch.

Feeds by spinning in circles frantically, attracting invertebrates to the surface to eat. Usually found in small flocks, but can congregate in large numbers, particularly during fall migration. Occasionally seen alongside the larger, thicker-billed Red Phalarope.

Breeds on the Arctic tundra, migrates inland or to the sea, and spends the winter on the sea.

Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorants are large, kinked-necked waterbirds with small heads. They have thin, strongly hooked bills that are about the length of their heads. Their bulky bodies are sunk low in the water.

Adults are brown-black in color, with a small patch of yellow-orange skin on the face. Immatures are browner overall, with the palest areas being the neck and breast. Adults develop a small double crest of stringy black or white feathers during the breeding season.

Double-crested Cormorants float near the water’s surface and dive to catch small fish. They stand on docks, rocks, and tree limbs with their wings spread open to dry after fishing.

Tricolored Heron

A medium-sized heron with a long, dagger-like bill. It has a long, thin neck that curves up to a small head.

A vibrant heron in blue-gray, lavender, and white. They have a white belly, unlike other dark herons. Breeding birds have small white plumes on the back of their heads, a bright blue patch of skin around the bill, and pink legs. Nonbreeding birds have yellowish legs and lack the flourishes of breeding birds. Juveniles have a rusty neck and feathers with rusty edges.

Forages alone or at the edge of mixed wading bird groups. Slowly stalks fish or pirouettes with abrupt stops and turns while flapping its wings.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawks have short, rounded wings and are small, long-tailed hawks. They have small heads that do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings when flying. The tail is square-tipped and may have a notch at the tip. Females are significantly larger than males.

Adults have a slaty blue-gray upper surface with narrow, horizontal red-orange bars on the breast. The underparts of immature birds are mostly brown, with coarse vertical streaks on white. Young and adults have broad dark bands across their long tails.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are fast fliers that fly through dense woods to catch their prey, which is usually songbirds. They do not stoop to catch prey from above.