Back to All Events

Wooded Island Bird Walk

  • Wooded Island, Jackson Park Meet at the west side of the Columbia Basin Chicago, IL, 60637 United States (map)

Photo: Bufflehead by Mick Thompson

Hello everyone,

Well, we achieved our goal of having more bird species than birders this week, but not by much. We didn’t have any extra-special species but the behavior of some of the species we did have was interesting.

Our Red-breasted Mergansers were back on the east lagoon, looking lovely, except for the young males who are still working on growing in their adult plumage. They looked pretty scruffy, but cute, with their multi-colored feathers. We had one female Common Merganser too. Last winter we had a regular flock of Red-breasted Mergansers along with one female Common. Could they be the same birds?

There was a bunch of Goldfinches at the top of a tree in the former rose garden, looking just like leaves until you looked closely with your binoculars. They had us fooled at first!

Robins were all over the place and they even had a flyabout with some of the Goldfinches. We saw a few large flocks of Starlings, and one very large murmuration was joined by a Cooper’s Hawk – that would explain why the murmuration broke up and went in different directions. The hawk didn’t catch any of the Starlings while we were watching, fortunately.

BIRDERS: Jen, JC, Cheryl, Jennie, Paul, Mark C., Eric, Lucy, Kristin, Bruce, Tracy, Marisa, Renate, Marian.

TIME: 8:00am to 10:45am     

WEATHER: Low 40s, cloudy, light winds

Compiler: Cheryl

Photographer: Eric

  1. Canada Goose   Number observed: 193

  2. Mallard   Number observed: 8

  3. Common Merganser   Number observed: 1

  4. Red-breasted Merganser   Number observed: 25

  5. Ring-billed Gull   Number observed: 4

  6. Great Blue Heron   Number observed: 4

  7. Cooper's Hawk  Number observed: 1

  8. Downy Woodpecker   Number observed: 1

  9. Northern Flicker   Number observed: 2

  10. American Crow   Number observed: 7

  11. Black-capped Chickadee   Number observed: 4

  12. European Starling   Number observed: 38

  13. American Robin   Number observed: 31

  14. House Finch   Number observed: 2

  15. American Goldfinch   Number observed: 21

  16. Dark-eyed Junco   Number observed: 10

  17. Northern Cardinal   Number observed: 4

 

If you’d like more information about a bird, check out the All About Birds ID guide:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/

Corrections, additions and comments are welcome.

Good birding everyone,

Jennie

Earlier Event: November 25
Wooded Island Bird Walk
Later Event: December 9
Wooded Island Bird Walk