Bird Watching in Ohio

With their vibrant yellow feathers and black cap, male American goldfinches are one of the most recognizable birds in Ohio, especially in the spring and summer. Females are a more subdued yellow-brown. Both males and females have black and white barring (or stripes) on their wings. 

In the late summer, males lose their bright yellow feathers and grow in duller yellow-brown feathers for the duration of fall and winter. They look incredibly similar to females during these seasons.

With their dull black backs and warm reddish-orange breast, American robins are familiar sights across Ohio, as they hop through yards and parks looking for earthworms to tug from the ground. 

Robins are often considered one of the first signs of spring, as they begin to appear more often out in the open as the days start to lengthen and warm. But, robins don't typically migrate; instead, they move to live in forests and woods during the winter, where they can forage seeds, nuts and fruits more easily. 

Found in forests throughout the state, barred owls are known for their call “Who cooks, who cooks, who cooks for you?”

These year-round residents can be hard to spot, though, as they're well-camouflaged and silent fliers. Barred owls aren't picky eaters. While they mostly eat small mammals like chipmunks or mice, they'll also hunt and eat amphibians, reptiles, birds and invertebrates. 

Barred owls are also homebodies. Studies have shown they don't typically move more than six miles from their preferred habitat. So, if you spot one in the forest, you could easily see it again near the same area. 

Though they're tiny birds, Carolina wrens have mighty voices. Throughout spring and summer, their "teakettle teakettle" call can be heard throughout backyards and forests. 

Like other birds, Carolina wrens breed and raise their young in spring and summer. However, they will form pair bonds at any time of the year, and these pair bonds last for life. The male and female will stay in their territory year-round, foraging and roosting together each day. 

Cooper's hawks are medium-sized woodland hawks, hunting smaller birds through the trees. They also can be frequent visitors to bird feeders to hunt the birds that gather there. If you spot a Cooper's hawk hanging around your yard and feeders, you can take your feeders down for a few days, and they'll move on. 

While adult Cooper's hawks are a blue-grey with a reddish barring on the breast and red eyes, immature Cooper's hawks are mostly brown and white with yellow eyes. This can make identifying the hawks incredibly tricky!

At just a little bigger than sparrow-sized, downy woodpeckers are the smallest woodpeckers in Ohio. They're built like a typical woodpecker, though, with a chisel-like beak, wide shoulders and a straight, upright back. 

You'll find downy woodpeckers in open woodlands (if not in your neighborhood), where they're just as likely to hunt for insects on trees and on tall weeds like goldenrod. 

Downy woodpeckers look incredibly similar to hairy woodpeckers, and they can be challenging to tell apart for new birders. Hairy woodpeckers are bigger than downies, though, and have a longer beak. 

While Eastern bluebirds are year-round in southern Ohio, they only visit northern Ohio during the spring and summer breeding season. 

Male bluebirds are a brilliant blue on their backs with rust orange on their chests. Females are a more subdued slate grey with dull orange on their chests. However, females do have bright blue on their wings and tails. 

Bluebirds compete with European starlings and house sparrows for nest cavities, and, as a result, their population began to decline in the early 20th century. However, the introduction of nest boxes and bluebird trails helped the species bounce back. 

Ohio’s state bird is one of the easiest and most common birds to spot in our state. Males are bright red with an orange beak while females are a more muted brown. They're often found at feeders. 

In the spring, when male cardinals begin to court females, they will present their prospective mate with a seed or nut. If she accepts the gift, he'll feed it to her. From there, they'll build a nest together and raise one to two broods of babies in the summer. 

American redstarts are a type of warbler, which are small insect-eating songbirds. About half of the warblers in North and South America migrate from the tropics in the spring to nest in the north. Once breeding season is over, these warblers migrate back down south to the tropics for the winter.

American redstarts winter in Central America and the northern part of South America, coming to Ohio in the spring and summer to breed and raise their young. They prefer to settle in woodlands, often near water, where they dash through the trees catching insects. 

Male redstarts are mostly black with a white belly and bright orange on their sides, wings and tail. Females are grey with a white belly and yellow along their sides, wings and tail.

Blackburnian warblers are typically transitory migrants in Ohio, making brief stops here on the way to their breeding grounds in the north and east from northern South America. 

Male Blackburnian warblers are striking birds with a mix of black and white feathers set off against vibrant orange and yellow markings around their faces and throats. In fact, they're the only warbler in North America with an orange throat. 

Female Blackburnian warblers are more drab, with olive-grey feathers instead of black, yellow and orange along their faces and throats. 

These tiny warblers prefer to spend their time high in the forest canopy, making them particularly challenging to spot. It's easiest to find them during migration, when they're closer to eye level and not keeping to the tree tops. 

Male cerulean warblers are true to their name, sporting bright sky-blue feathers with cerulean streaks around their neck and sides and white feathers on their throats, chests and bellies. Females are more subdued, but still colorful, with blue-green on their heads and backs and pale yellow feathers on their throats, chests and bellies. 

Long-distance migrants, they fly north to Ohio from wintering in the Andes Mountains in South America. During spring and summer in Ohio, they can be found among the highest tree tops in deciduous forests, chasing bugs through the canopy. They spend most of their time 50 feet or more off of the ground, so you'll need to look up to spot these brilliant blue birds. 

The population of cerulean warblers declined 63% between 1966 and 2019. Habitat loss both in their wintering grounds in South America and their breeding grounds in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys is the biggest reason for their decline.

Indigo buntings are small, but stocky songbirds, about the size of a sparrow. Breeding males are bright blue all over, with a touch of black on their wings and tails. Females, on the other hand, are brown with a whitish throat, light streaking on their chest, and faint touches of blue on their wings and tail. Both males and females have a silver-grey beak.

These birds migrate from Central America to most of the eastern half of the United States and a few western states to breed. You can find them in weedy meadows or fields near trees, where they hunt insects and forage for seeds in low vegetation. 

Indigo buntings are nighttime migrators, using the stars for guidance. Unfortunately, that means that they can be disoriented by artificial lighting outside during their migration journeys. Turning off outside lighting during peak migration periods can help ensure they arrive where they're going safely.  

Male magnolia warblers have a bright yellow throat, chest and belly, with striking black stripes around their necks and down their undersides. They have a black mask around their eyes and grey heads, with white highlights on their wings. 

Female magnolia warblers lack the black highlights and striping of the males. Instead, they're a bright yellow underneath with light grey on top. 

Ohio is mostly a rest-stop site for magnolia warblers, as they make their way to Canada and the northeast United States. They prefer to live in conifer forests in both their summer and winter homes. 

Male rose-breasted grosbeaks are beautiful black-and-white birds with rose-red feathers across their throats and tapering down their chests. Females are brown with white above their eyes, with yellow chests that have brown streaking. 

They migrate from their winter homes in northern South America and Central America to the eastern half of the United States and up into Canada during the summer. Southern Ohio mostly sees rose-breasted grosbeaks as they pass through, while the birds will settle to breed in the northern half of the state. 

Rose-breasted grosbeak males are known for their beautiful singing, which is a long string of rising and falling sweet whistles. While females don't sing this song, mated pairs will sing softly to each other when they exhange incubation duties on the nest. 

Tree swallows are high-flying acrobats, as they dive, swerve and spin chasing insects in mid-air over fields and wetlands. Both males and females have iridescent deep-blue feathers on their heads and backs, with white undersides and faded black on their wing and tails.

They migrate from Central America to the northern half of the United States and Canada for breeding in the summer. They typically nest in tree cavities near fields and forest edges but will also build homes in nest boxes. 

Migrating tree swallows can form flocks of hundreds of thousands of birds that roost together during the night.

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers are sort of year-round residents of Ohio, spending their winters in the south-west part of the state and migrating north to northern Michigan and Canada in the spring and summer to breed. They do not breed in Ohio, though; they prefer young northern deciduous forests to raise their young. 

These woodpeckers are known for pecking shallow holes in neatly organized rows along trees, where they lap up the leaking sap. 

Both male and female sapsuckers have black and white feathers, with a red cap on top of their heads and yellowish underparts. Only males, however, also have a red throat. 

American tree sparrows are plump little birds with a rusty-brown cap on a grey head. Their bodies are streaked with brown, grey and white feathers, with a buff to white breast and belly. 

These birds spend their summers in the far north of Canada, coming south to Ohio for the winter. Despite their name, these birds aren't tree dwellers; instead, they spend most of their time on the ground. 

While overwintering in Ohio, these sparrows are pretty exclusively seed and berry eaters. However, in their summer breeding grounds, they eat insects almost exclusively. 

Once on the brink of extinction, bald eagles are becoming a more common sight along the rivers, streams and wetlands of Ohio. Even so, they remain a breathtaking sight in the wild if you see one. 

While they're year-round residents in Ohio, late winter offers an exceptional chance to spot them as they begin their breeding season.

Bald eagles typically nest in tall, sturdy trees and prefer easy access to bodies of water. A pair will usually mate for life and return to the same nesting site year after year. They'll add on to the nest throughout this time, and some older bald eagle nests can be quite large!

Nests can take up to three months to build, and eggs are incubated for a little over a month. Once hatched, the babies will stay in the nest for two to almost four months. By building their nests and breeding in winter, bald eagles give their young plenty of time to grow and be ready to be on their own by the next winter. 

Brown creepers are small birds that you'll most likely spot as they climb up large trees in a tight spiral. However, you'll need to look closely, as they're well camouflaged against the trunks. They have streaked brown and white feathers along their heads and backs and are white to buff underneath. 

These birds eat insects they find along tree trunks. In the winter, while insects are still their primary source of food, they will also supplement their diet with seeds. 

Brown creepers spend their non-breeding season in Ohio but migrate east and north for the spring and summer breeding seasons. 

These hardy medium-sized sparrows are easy to spot, with their dark-grey feathers contrasting with a bright-white belly and pink bill. 

Dark-eyed juncos breed in Canada and Alaska but migrate south to Ohio for the winter. While here, they forage for seeds and berries along the ground and are frequent visitors to feeders. 

They're one of the most common birds in North America and are found throughout the continent, as far south as Mexico and into the upper north of Canada. 

The great horned owl is probably the first owl you think of. They're the owls of stories and myth, with deep hoots, earlike tufts of feathers and intense yellow eyes. 

They're also powerful predators, often taking down birds and mammals larger than themselves. Great horned owls are found throughout North America and are one of the most common owls in Ohio. 

Great horned owls are monogamous and will usually stay with the same partner in the same territory year after year. Their breeding season begins in winter, and the pair will defend their territory fiercely from other owls and predators. 

They build a new nest each year, usually "adopting" and building over one that was built by another species. They incubate their eggs for about a month to five weeks, and owlets will stay in the nest for about a month and a half. 

In late winter, around February, you can often hear great horned owls hooting and calling as they establish and defend their nesting territories. 

Northern saw-whet owls are tiny, not much bigger than an American robin, and have large round heads with big yellow eyes. Overall, they're a mottled brown and white bird with more white around their faces and a buff or brown-streaked chest and belly.

In the very northern parts of Ohio, these owls are year-round residents, but for most of the state, they're only seen during the late fall and winter non-breeding season.

They're highly nocturnal owls and are seldom seen, but if you live near woods, you may hear them calling in the evening during the winter and early spring.

Northern saw-whet owls mostly hunt mice and eat their catch over the course of two meals. Females are the sole incubators of the eggs, but males (and even older nestlings) help to care for the brood until they leave the nest.

With their bright yellow "eyebrows" and white throat patch, white-throated sparrows are one of the easier small brown sparrows to identify. Aside from the yellow patches, they have black and white stripes along their heads and are grey around their faces and chests. The rest of their body is a streaky brown and black, with some white highlights. 

White-throated sparrows spend their summers in Canada and migrate to Ohio and other parts of the eastern and southern United States for winter.

They like to forage on the ground in woods and forest edges, looking for seeds and berries. In their northern breeding grounds, they also eat insects. 

Like the American tree sparrow, white-throated sparrows are largely ground dwellers, even nesting on or near the ground during breeding season. 

Winter wrens are an almost perfectly round, plump ball of a bird. They have short, upright tails and are mostly different shades of brown with darker stripes on the belly, wings and tail. 

Like their relative the Carolina wren, winter wrens are incredibly loud singers, considering their tiny size, and will sing so vigorously that their bodies shake and bounce up and down. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, per unit of weight, winter wrens are 10 times louder than a crowing rooster when they sing!

Winter wrens spend their summers in the northernmost part of the eastern United States and up into Canada, coming south to Ohio in the winter. 

Surprisingly, they're relatively weak fliers and spend most of their time hopping along the ground among fallen logs and roots. In the Ohio winter, you're likely to spot them in more open woods, perched on stumps or brush.

The largest of the North American herons, great blue herons can be spotted just about anywhere there is a body of water. The adults are a grey-blue with a black stripe over their eyes and white along their faces and down their necks. They often stand and fly with their long necks held in an "S" position, though when a male courts a female, they will fly with their necks held straight. 

While they are skilled at fishing, great blue herons do not exclusively eat fish. They'll eat pretty much anything they can catch, from fish to frogs to small mammals. They catch their prey by either grasping it or impaling it with their bill, then they swallow it whole. Great blue herons typically live near freshwater habitats but might also be seen hunting in grasslands and farming fields. 

During most of the year, great blue herons are typically solitary birds. However, in their breeding season, they will gather to nest in large colonies called rookeries. Within the rookeries, heron pairs will nest within the same trees. Males and females will pair for a season but will change partners each year. 

About the size of a crow, green-winged teals are the smallest dabbling ducks in North America. Dabbling ducks are shallow-water ducks that feed along the surface of the water or by tipping their heads under water. 

Males have bright chestnut heads with a green mask around the eyes. Their bodies are a mottled grey, with a lighter speckled belly. Females are a mottled brown all over with a buff stripe near their tail. True to their name, both males and females have green patches on their wings. 

The best time to spot green-winged teals in Ohio is during spring and fall migrations. They typically land in shallow wetlands to forage on their way to and from their northern breeding grounds. 

It's easy to know what you're looking at if you spot these striking ducks. Named for their tall head crests, hooded mergansers look like the punk rockers of the duck world. With their head crests raised, these ducks look like they have a spiked haircut, while when the crest is lowered, they look like they have a small ponytail. 

Male hooded mergansers have black heads with a distinctive large white patch that varies in size depending on if their head crest is up or down. The males are mostly black on their backs, with brown sides and white chest. Females are greyish-brown, but their head crests are a warm reddish-brown. 

These ducks prefer to live on small ponds and rivers, where they can dive for fish, crayfish and other aquatic animals. Their eyes are adapted to seeing underwater, and they will catch their prey with their thin, serrated bills. 

Ospreys are the only raptors in North America that hunt fish by diving into water to catch them. In fact, ospreys eat fish almost exclusively, which also makes them unique among our native birds of prey. 

Ospreys are large hawks but are slender and long-legged. They're brown on top and white on their undersides. Their heads are white, with a wide brown stripe around and behind their eyes. 

You'll find ospreys close to open waters with abundant fish. Ospreys do not typically live in Ohio year-round. The northwest part of Ohio serves mostly as a stopover for migrating ospreys, while the rest of the state hosts these maginificent hawks for their breeding season. 

Ohio is the summer breeding home for pied-billed grebes, which can be found on ponds and lakes with ample vegetation like cattails. 

Pied-billed grebes are small birds, a little larger than a robin, but smaller than a crow. They're typically brown all over, but during breeding season their throat is black and they develop a distinctive black stripe on their whitish bills. 

Pied-billed grebes are diving birds—so much so that they're really awkward on land. Their legs are located far back on their bodies, which makes them excellent divers and swimmers. However, the positioning of their legs makes for poor walking skills out of the water. 

As a result, they typically spend most of their time on the water, where they dive to hunt fish, crustraceans, amphibians and insects. They'll also dive or sink to just below the surface of the water—sometimes with their chicks under their wings—to escape predators. 

An endangered species in Ohio, sandhill cranes are a spectacular sight to see if you can catch them flying overhead during migration or glimpse them as they forage around wetlands and open fields. 

They're large, tall birds, with long, slender necks and legs. Adults are a slate grey, with red on their faces above their bills. 

When migrating, sandhill cranes form enormous flocks, sometimes numbering in the thousands. They winter in the southern United States down into Mexico, flying north to the northern U.S. and Canada to breed in the summer.

Sandhill cranes prefer open wetland habitats, where they can feed on seeds and plants. 

Everything about trumpeter swans is impressive. They're North America's largest native waterfowl, clocking in at 25 pounds and up to six feet long. Being that big comes with a cost, though. They need at least a 100-foot-long runway to get up the speed to take off in flight. 

Adult trumpeter swans are all white with a black bill and black legs. Immature swans are more grey with white highlights and have a pink spot in the middle of their bills. 

Trumpeter swans are a species of concern in Ohio. They can be found across the northern portion of the state during their summer breeding season and in the southeast of Ohio during the non-breeding time of the year. 

They prefer shallow lakes, ponds, rivers and marshes and will build their nests on beaver and muskrat dams. In the winter, you might see them foraging in agricultural fields. 

Virginia rail are found only in the northernmost part of Ohio, along the freshwater marshes around Lake Erie during their breeding season in the summer. 

Between an American robin and a crow in size, these stealthy birds prefer to remain hidden in marsh grasses, where their rusty-brown coloration helps them blend in. Adults have grey faces with orange beaks. Their bodies are mostly brown, with black and white barring on their bellies and rumps. Their tails have a bright white patch underneath. 

These birds are crepuscular, meaning they're more active at dawn and dusk. They're secretive and hard to spot, though, so looking for them requires a lot of patience. 

Virginia rails hunt for insects, snails, small fish, amphibians, crayfish and other invertebrates around marsh edges. Because of this, they're adept at walking through soft mud and dense wetland vegetation. 

Although the American kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America (about the size of a mourning dove), it’s still a fierce and powerful hunter. 

American kestrels are distinctively marked falcons. Males have grey-blue wings and a slate-colored cap on their heads. They also have two black vertical stripes on their faces. Their backs are a warm cinnamon brown, and their bellies are a buff color with black spots. Females are a rusty brown all over, with a fainter grey on their faces. 

Kestrels prefer open areas with few trees, where they can hunt insects and small rodents or birds. They tend to hunt from perches, watching carefully for potential prey before taking off to seize it in their talons. 

They are year-round residents in Ohio. Keep an eye on fences, telephone poles or signs when you’re out in farm country to spot these little raptors. 

Strictly nocturnal, barn owls are silent and deadly predators of the night. They're lanky owls, with a white heart-shaped disk on their face. Their bodies are a light brown overall, with white chests and bellies. 

Unlike the hooting calls of many other owls, barn owls have a raspy, hissing call that sounds quite eerie. They prefer to roost in hidden, quiet places such as tree cavities or caves. However, they've adapted well to humans, often taking up residence in barns (hence their name) and other buildings. 

Barn owls eat mostly small mammals, swallowing them whole. Later, they will cough up pellets of bones and other undigestible parts of their prey. These owl pellets provide scientists a great way to study owls and their habitats. 

One of two species of vulture native to Ohio, black vultures are easy to identify by their bald black heads and dusty black plumage. When they're flying, you can see they also have white patches on the undersides of their wings. 

Unlike many raptors, black vultures are monogamous and stay with their mates year-round. They're also devoted parents, feeding their young up to eight months after they've fledged. They also maintain tight family bonds throughout their lives, often meeting up with and roosting with their grown young in the evening. They also work together to defend their territories from nonrelatives. 

Black vultures eat carrion, soaring high in the sky to spot carcasses and keep an eye on turkey vultures, which have a better sense of smell. Occasionally, black vultures will kill small mammals, including young livestock, other birds, or other animals to eat. 

Black vultures are found more abundantly in the southern United States but have moved into Ohio in recent years, living in the state year-round. 

Eastern screech owls are tiny raptors, not much bigger than an American robin. They're stocky birds and have small earlike tufts and yellow eyes. They can be either mostly grey or mostly rusty brown, but their feathers have complex patterns and spots to help them blend in with tree bark. 

If you haven't seen an Eastern screech owl, you might have heard one at night. They have a distinctive trilling song that sounds almost like a whinny. They also make low hoots, loud barks and loud screeches to defend their nests. 

Eastern screech owls aren't picky eaters and will consume whatever they can catch. Their prey includes earthworms, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals. 

These owls are year-round residents in Ohio and can be found just about anywhere there are trees. 

Roughly the same size as a crow, peregrine falcons are the largest falcons in most of North America. Adults are blue-grey on their backs with light bellies and chests. They have bright yellow circles around their eyes, and their bills are yellow fading to grey at the hooked end. 

Peregrine falcons primarily eat birds, though they are indiscriminate about what kind they hunt. They watch for prey from a high perch, then pick it from midair. 

Known as one of the fastest fliers in the world, peregrine falcons can reach speeds of up to 200 miles per hour when they dive toward their prey. Even in regular chases, they're speedy and can reach up to 69 miles per hour in flight!

Thanks to pesticide poisoning, peregrine falcons were virtually extinct in eastern North America by the middle of the 20th century. But, dedicated recovery efforts have paid off, and these birds have made huge rebounds and are regularly seen in these states. 

In Ohio, peregrine falcons are year-round residents in the southern half of the state and migrators through the northern half. 

Red-tailed hawks are one of the most common hawks in North America. They often perch on top of road signs, telephone poles and tall trees, watching for the movements of small mammals to hunt. They're also often spotted soaring over open fields, slowly circling as they watch for prey.

They're large hawks with broad wings and a short, broad tail. Most red-tailed hawks are brown on their backs and white or buff on their chests and bellies. True to their names, their tails are usually a reddish-brown above and pale below. 

These hawks are found throughout Ohio. Often the best way to spot them is to go for a drive and watch for them perched on fenceposts or signs. 

Fun fact: The shrill cry of a red-tailed hawk is often dubbed in for the call of bald eagles and other raptors in film and TV. 

Red-shouldered hawks are medium-sized hawks with dark brown-and-white patterned wings and rusty-brown barring on their chests and bellies. When they're in flight, you can see pale crescents near their wingtips. 

These nosy hawks are found in and around deciduous forests that are close to rivers or swamps. There, they hunt and eat small mammals, amphibians and reptiles. They hunt from perches, scanning the ground for prey, then diving quickly to catch it. 

Red-shouldered hawks are found throughout Ohio. One of the easiest ways to spot them is to listen for their distinct "kee-aah" call. 

One of the most common sights in the Ohio summer sky is a soaring turkey vulture, coasting along on rising heat thermals looking for food. 

Turkey vultures are part of nature's clean-up crew, eating carrion (dead animals). They use their keen sense of smell to find carcasses as they soar. In fact, their sense of smell is so precise it can detect odors in just a few parts per trillion. Such a sharp sense helps them find meals that might be under a forest canopy or otherwise hidden from view. 

While they look black from a distance, turkey vultures are more of a dark brown up close, with some dusty black highlighting. Their most distinguishing feature is their bright red, bald head. It's featherless to help the vultures stay clean while they eat their meals.