A somewhat unusual bird sighting

[Terrierman]

I was in Nevada this weekend.  Yesterday morning we were having breakfast with family.  We were sitting on the deck while breakfast was cooking and a bird I'd never seen before landed in the dead top of one of the trees.  Obviously a raptor, largish - bigger than a redtail - gray with a black marking around the eyes.  Looked it up and it's a Mississippi Kite.  Apparently a pair returns to their house and yard every year.  They're very territorial and dive bomb Matt sometimes when he's mowing.

Big time migrators, they winter in Brazil.  There's a very small spot in SW MO that's identified as a summer breeding ground - typically their range is further south and east.  Oddly enough, there's another small spot in Central Iowa and another in Ohio that are also identified as summer breeding grounds.

Lane has seen them when he was doing controlled burns in Louisiana.  They would hunt the smoke when a burn was in progress, taking advantage of insects fleeing from the fire.  

Sometimes it pays to keep binoculars in the truck, that was a cool sighting and I actually learned a little something.

[FishnDave]

Cool!  I didn't know they were in central Iowa!

I saw a beautiful bird this weekend...unfortunately it was not alive.  Indigo Bunting.

[fishinwrench]

Speaking of abnormal birds, I saw what I think was a baby owl trying to get a drink from my test tank the other day.   Can owls fly when they are only about the size of a pack of cigarettes ?  

He/she looked like a walking/flying lemon.  

[Dutch]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

I was in Nevada this weekend.  Yesterday morning we were having breakfast with family.  We were sitting on the deck while breakfast was cooking and a bird I'd never seen before landed in the dead top of one of the trees.  Obviously a raptor, largish - bigger than a redtail - gray with a black marking around the eyes.  Looked it up and it's a Mississippi Kite.  Apparently a pair returns to their house and yard every year.  They're very territorial and dive bomb Matt sometimes when he's mowing.

Big time migrators, they winter in Brazil.  There's a very small spot in SW MO that's identified as a summer breeding ground - typically their range is further south and east.  Oddly enough, there's another small spot in Central Iowa and another in Ohio that are also identified as summer breeding grounds.

Lane has seen them when he was doing controlled burns in Louisiana.  They would hunt the smoke when a burn was in progress, taking advantage of insects fleeing from the fire.  

Sometimes it pays to keep binoculars in the truck, that was a cool sighting and I actually learned a little something.

I’ve never seen one or for that matter never heard of them before.

[Terrierman]

46 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

Cool!  I didn't know they were in central Iowa!

I saw a beautiful bird this weekend...unfortunately it was not alive.  Indigo Bunting.

They are a beautiful blue, that's for sure.  We see a few around here - always a welcome bit of eye candy.

[Gavin]

Cool! Love to birdwatch. As for little owls, Screetch Owls are common in MO but rarely seen. They are about the size of a cardinal or starling.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Saw a group of Old Squaws (or Longtail ducks as they're called now due to PC culture) at Clinton Lake in Kansas this February. Must've gone blown off course by a few thousand miles.

 

[MOFishwater]

We had a bunch of Mississippi Kites in our neighborhood (44/Meramec river bottoms in Eureka) last year, very cool birds! We had lots of time to take long morning walks being stuck home from the pandemic. Been anxiously scanning for them for a month or so and finally saw another one last night taking my daughter to soccer practice. 

Not sure if last year was an odd year or not; i saw kites down along River des Peres/44 and some at forest park on my lunch break. Hopefully we'll have a lot around the neighborhood again. You can pick em out a mile away, definitely a 'sporty', streamlined shape, easy to differentiate from our normal hawks. Cool birds for sure.

[tjm]

On 5/3/2021 at 9:09 AM, Terrierman said:

They are a beautiful blue, that's for sure.  We see a few around here - always a welcome bit of eye candy.

I used to think so, until I saw one change color from flat black to brilliant blue in mid air. The younger males are brown as are the ladies. In full shade the older males appear black. I would like to see a picture of that dead bird  taken in shade without a flash, see how a camera reacts to the lighting effects.

Quote

The birds are indigo buntings, migratory songbirds that arrive from winter homes in southern Mexico ... the blue color on the males is a trick of light performed by feather structure that diffracts light to show the blue wave length.

The birds are plumed virtually in black, not blue. And because the blue is a light show rather than pigmentation, the birds can appear to have several shades of the color.

 

[Quillback]

Saw a male summer tanager a couple of days ago by my house, they look so much like cardinals as far as coloration.  According to the guides they are fairly common, but I only see maybe one or two a year.