G R E A T H O R N E D O W L
Feather tufts like ears are for display.
The bird has claws with a grip powerful
enough to sever the spine of their prey,
be it rodent, skunk or geese. Specialized
serrations on their flight feathers give these
nocturnal hunters a deadly stealth flight.
Great Horned Owls are widely found,
living in desert and forest. They also
make a good living off of park squirrels,
who were just hanging out in the
center of town.
B A L T I M O R E O R I O L E
These woodland song birds breed in summer
and migrate to Central and South America for
the winter. They eat both insects and fruit, as
well as nectar and bird-loving grape jelly. Their
hanging sock nests are weaved from plant fibers,
string and the mangled hair you couldn't do
a thing with.
They are Maryland's state bird and mascot
for Baltimore's baseball team.
G R E A T B L U E H E R O N
Standing four feet tall and having a wingspan
of nearly seven feet, the Blue Heron is the
largest waterbird found in North America.
Herons weigh no more than seven pounds
despite their size because of the hollow
bone structure, common to all birds of flight.
Specialized neck vertebrae gives them
blazing speed when striking for their prey.
They eat most any animal they can swallow
whole... fish, frogs, lizards, insects, gophers,
other birds. They build their stick nests bunched
together atop high trees that thrive in salt and
freshwater wetlands.
C O M M O N C O R M O R A N T
These are large diving birds are found in lakes,
rivers, estuaries and coastal waters most anywhere
on the globe except the polar caps.
They don't walk, not even like a penguin.
They land on tree limbs and power lines and
take their naps on narrow ledges found on
the face of cliffs.
They spread their wings to dry their flight feathers,
which are not fully waterproof. That seems a
surprising shortcoming for an aquatic bird,
but it works. Their wings are what they are
because their makeup gives the cormorant
an advantage at diving and their pursuit
of small fish.
C A R O L I N A P A R A K E E T
A highly social, boisterous parrot that flocked
together by the hundreds. They were the only
parrots native to the United States having
what it took to endure cold weather.
It fed on the poisonous seeds of the Cocklebur
which made this parrot possibly toxic to its
predators. Still this bird is extinct. It's colorful
feathers provided plumage for hats and fashion accents.
Farmers considered them an agricultural pest and
took every opportunity to kill them by the hundreds.
Today they are a prime candidate for extinction
reversal. Their genetic information has been extracted
from museum samples and successfully sequenced.
This species may one day be revived from some lab
petri dish.
C A L I F O R N I A C O N D O R
With a wingspan of nearly ten feet and weighing
in at an amazing twenty-five pounds this vulture
is the largest land bird in North America. They
are also among the longest living birds at sixty
years. Using wind and updrafts the condor can
cover 250 miles in a day, hunting for dead deer,
cattle or beached mammal to devour.
In 1982 the California Condor's numbers had
dwindled to near extinction, with only 22 individuals
left in the wild. These individuals were captured
in a first step to repopulate the region with birds
that were hatched from an intensive captive
breeding program.
As of 2022 the Condor population has grown to over
500 birds, with 347 having been reintroduced into
the wild. Still, the initial reasons for the declining
population in the wild remain.
J O H N J A M E S A U D U B O N
1 7 8 5 - 1 8 5 1
Audubon was a self taught artist and naturalist.
His book, The Birds of America, with its 435
hand colored prints, was a seminal publication
in the study of birds. His original illustrations
were life size, painted from fresh killed specimens.
They were first wired into the pose he desired
to illustrate. An animal too big to fit on the paper
used in his illustrations would then be contorted
to an unnatural degree to make the image fit.
Life size was all important.
Audubon was an historic conservationist
and a notable proponent of slavery
in the years leading up to the
American Civil War.
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OVER EASY
