Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos
Identification Tips:
- Length: 9 inches
- Slender bill
- Gray head and upperparts
- Yellow eye
- White underparts
- Long black tail with white outer tail feathers
- White wing bars
- White patch in wing, especially visible in flight
- Black legs
- Sexes similar
- Juvenile has spotted breast
- Most often found in scrubby habitats and in urban areas
Similar species:
Shrikes are similar but have black masks and thicker bills. Sage Thrasher
is similar to juvenile mockingbird but lacks white wing patches and has
darker, more extensive spotting below. Rare Bahama Mockingbird (stray to
Florida) has streaked flanks and lacks wing patches.
Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.
Source: USGS
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Wood duck
Aix sponsa
Identification Tips:
- Length: 13.5 inches Wingspan: 28 inches
- A medium-sized duck with a long crest on head
- Long-winged and long-tailed
- Blue-green speculum with white rear border
Adult male alternate:
- Alternate plumage worn from Fall-through early summer
- Red bill
- Red eye
- Green head
- Striking white stripes about face and crest with a large white
throat patch and "fingerlike" extensions onto cheek and neck
- Chestnut breast and neck with vertical white stripe at lower
margin
- Golden flanks bordered above by a white flank stripe
- White belly
- Iridescent dark green-blue back and wings
Adult male basic:
- In basic plumage, the male resembles the female,
but often retains the distinctive neck patch and red bill
Adult female:
- Gray bill
- White teardrop shaped patch around eye
- White throat
- Gray-brown head and neck
- Gray-brown breast stippled with white and fading to a white belly
- Dark brown back
Juvenal plumage:
- Gray bill
- Female similar to adult female
- Males similar to adult females, but with white neck patch
Similar species:
Adult male is unmistakable. Female, immature and eclipse
males are nondescript, but distinctive in face pattern, shape and
speculum pattern.
Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.
Source: USGS
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