Hobbies And Interests
Painted Buntings
A sweet repetitive birdsong with intermittent loud chirps emanates from the Mississippi brush in the early spring. The song is that of the juvenile male painted bunting with his red breast and blue tinted head. He prefers to be in a wooded area near water. His range is the Atlantic coast south to New York, the Midwestern United States and California. The adult female painted bunting is bright green with a yellow green breast, while the adult male is multi-colored.
Cardinals
Loud varied whistling from wetland gardens or the edge of a wooded stream is heard from the conical bill of the cardinal. Abundant in the Eastern and Central United States, male cardinals, 8-3/4 inches tall, are bright red, while the female cardinal is brown with subdued red wings, tuft and tail. The rose-breasted grosbeak with mixed red and black feathers can be found in the Central and Western part of the United States and also belongs to the family Cardinalidae.
Scarlett Tanagers
Hoarse calls of male scarlet tanagers are heard in forests on the East Coast as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Tennessee. The brilliant red male scarlet tanager with contrasting black wings is green and red in the fall, but changes to yellow and green during the winter.
Robin Red-Breast
The American robin red breast, which is actually gray brown with a dark red breast above a white underside, covers all of North America. The Western robin's colors are less vivid than the Eastern robin, and the Alaskan robin has white corners on its tail. The robin eats worms, insects and berries, and they nest in sheltered places.
Red-Breasted Sapsuckers
Boring holes into trees, the red-breasted sapsucker woodpecker has a red head and breast with white on his wings. His black back is visible as he bores a straight row of holes into a tree to drink sap, which attracts edible insects. The red-breasted sapsucker is seen in coastal forests at low elevations. They fly south in the winter.