Almost always perched prominently on low vegetation, fences or buildings along water courses, the Black Phoebe makes itself obvious. It constantly wags it tail up and down and regularly finds a home in suburban areas of the west. It feeds on insects by constantly searching the ground and air around its perch. When the phoebe sees insect movements, it rushes down to the water\'s surface or up into the air above its perch to grab the insect expertly in its broad bill. Often puts it open mud nest in shady areas of bridges, buildings and other human structures.
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With a range that covers most of the world, this peculiar heron is quite successful. It can be found in marshy areas, swamps, pond edges, lakes, mangroves, agricultural fields and moist grassy areas. It feeds on fish, mice, frogs, and salamanders, but it also frequently raids nests of other herons, ibis and terns to eat nestlings. Its own nest is a large, bulky affair constructed of twigs and sticks and placed in reeds, low trees or shrubs near the water\'s edge. Often the nests are built in small but loose colonies.
Restricted to poor and open desert areas, the Bendire\'s Thrasher is most easily seen singing from a high perch or telephone pole or running with its tail up in the air across the ground between sparse bushes. This species rarely enters urban and only occasionally suburban areas. Its cup-like nest is placed in a bush or small tree and is constructed from small twigs, grass and leaves. They eat seeds in the winter and large insects in the Spring and Summer.
Rarely venturing from the dense undergrowth of bushes and short trees along steams and moist areas, you will hear 20 Bell\'s Vireos for every one you see. During the breeding season it gleans insects from the bottoms of leaves and vegetation, but in the Fall and Winter, it relies heavily on fruits. The deep nest hangs suspended in the fork of small branches and is made up of dead leaves and bark and held together with spider webbing. The population that nests in southwestern California is in serious decline due to destruction of the riverine riparian) habitats it depends on.
With a range from Alaska to the Andes of South America, this is one of the most wide spread pigeons in the Western Hemisphere. In North America it is associated with conifers and oak woodlands, where it feeds on acorns and other seeds. The Band-tailed Pigeon is usually seen in small flocks. Its crude nest of open twigs is placed in the fork of a high branch or near the trunk of a tall tree, usually high in the canopy. Timing and area of nesting is often determined by density of acorn and pinecone production.
Occurring only in pine-oak woodlands of western mountains, this woodpecker is often quite tame and easy to see as it pecks the surface of trunks and dead limbs at low to medium heights in the trees. It eats mainly insects but also fruit and acorns. Frequently the Arizona Woodpecker joins mixed species foraging flocks of titmice, bushtits and nuthatches. The nest is a cavity in a dead branch of a broad-leafed tree.
One of our most readily recognized One of our most readily recognized species in North America, it is also one of the most widely distributed. The American Robin\'s accommodation to suburban and urban lawns in the Midwest and East make it a symbol of Spring\'s arrival in many areas. In the West it is more restricted to ground and undergrowth of oak and coniferous forests in the mountains, although wintering flocks often descend to lower elevations, especially where fruiting trees are available.
This species is dependent on oaks and acorns for its survival. It stores acorns for the winter by jamming surplus acorns one by one into shallow holes pecked out in a tree, telephone pole or fence post. Up to 50,000 acorns have been counted on the trunk of a single \granary\ tree, but it also stores other nuts when they are available. The Acorn Woodpecker is an unusually noisy species and lives in colonies of up to 16 individuals that are made up of at least two breeding pairs and all their offspring from previous nestings.
Widespread, the Yellow Warbler nests in a wide variety of habitats from open broad-leafed forest and arctic willows to desert riparian forests. It gleans insects from leaves at mid to high levels in the trees, but will also eat fruits in late summer. The nest is a small cup-shaped structure made of grass and shredded bark and placed in low bushes to branches in high cottonwoods and willows. The resident population on the coasts of Mexico to Ecuador is considered a separate species by some experts, the Mangrove Yellow Warbler.
This stately shorebird passes the winter in small flocks foraging in shallow fresh, brackish or salt water mudflats. They pick small fish, insects, snails worms and other small animals from the water or surface of the mud. They winter as far south as southern Argentina. On their breeding grounds along coniferous forest ponds, their nests are depression in the moss usually protected by a log or low tree bough.