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This page is for the birds that belong to any other order besides Passeriformes. The Passeriformes are often referred to as the "Perching Birds", but that's probably not a good common name since plenty of non-Passeriformes can perch as well (as these photos will show).
This stately fellow is a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). It's a bird-eater, and we occasionally see one feeding in our trees. Check out those claws!
Here is a younger Cooper's Hawk which came down to drink from our pond.
This is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), which is very similar to a Cooper's Hawk but a little smaller (about the size of a Blue Jay, whereas Cooper's Hawks are about the size of Crows).
The sun was setting as I took this photo of a Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis), an insect-eating bird of prey that can often be seen soaring over our neighborhoods on narrow, pointed wings. They have white bodies and heads and gray wings, with a dark patch in front of the eyes.
Here is a Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo linneatus). We mostly see these hawks in the winter, and they're the ones with the "Kee-yer" call that Blue Jays can sometimes be heard mimicking.
This hawk looks similar to the one on the left, but the white stripes on the tail are much thicker. It's a Broad-Winged Hawk (Buteo playpteris). They migrate over us in large swirling groups, called "kettles". This one landed high in our tree to eat a blue jay, which is why it was difficult to photograph.
These cute little birds are Inca Doves (Columbina inca). We're pretty close to the most northern extent of their range, and don't see them too regularly.
This is a male Pigeon, which is actually the domesticated version of a type of Dove called a Rock Dove (Columba livia).
Here is a pair of White-Winged Doves (Zenaida asiatica).
This is a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura).
On rare occasions we've seen Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) like this female. Males have red chins. Sapsuckers hammer lines of little holes encircling the trunks of trees, and return later to eat the insects attracted to the sap.
This is an Eastern Screech Owl, peeking at us from a hole in one of our trees. It's the gray version (there's also a reddish form).
The top picture above shows a female Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). They're somewhat common. A rarer relative is the Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus), which is almost identical but with a longer beak. I believe that may be a Hairy Woodpecker silhouetted in the photograph on the bottom.
By far our most common woodpecker is the Red-Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). This is a female in the photo at the top. In males the red cap extends all the way to the beak. The bottom picture is a cavity that Red-Bellies carved into one of our trees, but they later decided they didn't like the location and abandoned it before actually building their nest.
Yellow-Crowned Night Herons (Nyctanassa violacea) like these normally live near water, but they are getting used to prowling our neighborhood lawns at night. Perhaps they are looking for toads to eat. On occasion they nest in our largest oak trees, as you see here.
We don't have a hummingbird feeder, but we do have a few plants that hummingbirds occasionally feed at. They move pretty quickly, and tend not to stay in one place for long, but I did get this blurry photo of a Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Archilocus colubris) female resting momentarily on a branch.
This is a Black Bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis). They like sitting in trees just as much as water, and have a whistling call that gives them their name.
One summer this Muscovy Duck (Carina moschata) took up residence in the front yard of our across-the-street neighbors. He was quite friendly, and would walk right up to us. After a month or so he decided to move on...
This is a White Ibis (Eudocimus albus). They use that long down-curved beak to probe through wetlands looking for food. Lately a flock has been seen picking through the front lawns of our neighborhood.
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