50 Fun Facts About North American Birds

US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of which birds?

Canada geese knocked out both engines, and DNA tests on the remains confirmed the species. All 155 people aboard survived the landing that became known as the Miracle on the Hudson.

Which introduced predator kills billions of US birds each year, a 2013 study estimated?

Domestic cats kill between 1.3 and 3.7 billion birds a year in the United States, the review found, and cats without owners do most of the damage.

Which bird, released in New York's Central Park in 1890, has since spread across North America?

The European starling arrived when Eugene Schieffelin's acclimatisation society freed about 60 birds, and the continent's population has been put at some 150 million.

Which bird, North America's tallest, was taught a migration route by following ultralight aircraft?

The whooping crane was down to 21 wild birds by 1941, so pilots later led captive-raised chicks from Wisconsin to Florida to found a second migrating flock.

Plume hunters nearly wiped out US egrets around 1900 to decorate which fashion item?

Women's hats carried egret plumes and sometimes whole stuffed birds. The plumes grown for courtship were the most prized, so hunters struck at nesting colonies.

The blue jay has no blue pigment, so what produces the vivid colour that people see?

Feather structure does the work: the inside of each feather interferes with light, and the only pigment present is melanin. Crush a blue feather and the colour disappears.

Which bird, once the most abundant in North America with flocks of billions, was extinct by 1914?

The passenger pigeon once numbered around three billion, and one flock was said to take 14 hours to pass. The last bird, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Which US state's bird is the California gull, said to have saved pioneer crops from crickets in 1848?

Utah honours the bird with the Seagull Monument in Salt Lake City, a tribute to the flocks that settlers credited with eating the crickets devouring their crops.

Which waterbird, famous for its wailing calls on northern lakes, appears on Canada's one-dollar coin?

The common loon gave the coin its nickname, the loonie, when it entered circulation in 1987. The two-dollar coin that followed in 1996 was promptly dubbed the toonie.

Which hawk's scream do film-makers dub over footage of the bald eagle, whose own call is weak?

The red-tailed hawk gives a hoarse, rasping scream lasting two to three seconds, and television uses it as a stock sound for almost any bird of prey.

Which North American game bird was first domesticated in Mexico and reached Europe as a farm animal?

The wild turkey was tamed by native peoples of Mexico and shipped to Europe, and settlers then carried its farmyard descendants back across the Atlantic in the 17th century.

Which red songbird is the state bird of seven US states, more than any other species?

The northern cardinal is named after Catholic cardinals and their red robes, and the female sings clear, whistled songs just as the male does.

Which US president created the first national wildlife refuge, at Florida's Pelican Island, in 1903?

Theodore Roosevelt signed the order after two bird protectors visited him at home. Paul Kroegel, a German immigrant who had sailed out to guard the nesting birds, became the first manager.

Which artist created the 435 life-size plates of The Birds of America, first published from 1827?

John James Audubon showed every bird at life size, so the pages stood more than three feet tall. A copy sold for $8.8 million in 2000, then a record for a book at auction.

Which hummingbird, the most common in eastern North America, can cross the Gulf of Mexico nonstop?

The ruby-throated hummingbird weighs about three grams, yet it can double its fat reserves and then burn them all in a 20-hour crossing with no food or water.

Which bird has North America's widest wingspan, about three metres, and vanished from the wild in 1987?

The California condor was down to 27 birds when the last wild one was caught on Easter Sunday 1987. Captive-bred birds have since been released in California, Arizona and Mexico.

The greater roadrunner, which can sprint at 20 mph across the desert, belongs to which bird family?

Cuckoos count the greater roadrunner as their largest member in the Americas, and its scientific name means Californian earth-cuckoo. It eats scorpions, tarantulas and young rattlesnakes.

Which songbird is the state bird of Texas, Florida and three other southern states?

The northern mockingbird carries its talent in its scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, the many-tongued mimic. It copies artificial and electronic noises as well as birdsong.

Which pesticide, banned from US farms in 1972, had thinned the eggshells of bald eagles and ospreys?

DDT left shells so thin that eggs often cracked before hatching. Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring stirred the public outcry that led to the ban.

Which Arctic owl, the official bird of Quebec, sometimes irrupts far to the south in large numbers?

The snowy owl is often active in daylight, which is unusual for an owl, and a female named Hedwig is Harry Potter's pet in the J. K. Rowling books.

Mountain, western and eastern bluebirds all belong to which family of songbirds, known for fine singing?

Thrushes include some of the continent's best singers: a male wood thrush can sing two notes at once, which gives its song a flute-like quality.

Clark's nutcracker, which finds its buried pine seeds by memory months later, is in which bird family?

Crows share the family Corvidae with jays and magpies, and Clark's nutcracker can find its buried seeds with great accuracy up to nine months after hiding them.

The kingbirds of North America belong to which group, the world's largest bird family with over 400 species?

Tyrant flycatchers owe their name to the eastern kingbird, which the naturalist Mark Catesby described as the tyrant in the 1730s. The family is found almost everywhere in North and South America.

Puffins, murres and guillemots belong to which family of seabirds that resemble penguins but can fly?

Auks evolved their upright, black-and-white look separately from penguins, and every living species can fly. The one that could not, the great auk, is extinct.

Which lawn bird, the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin, is named after a European bird?

The American robin was named for its reddish-orange breast, though it is not a close relative of Europe's bird. At some 370 million, it is the continent's most abundant landbird.

Which bird of eastern North America nests almost entirely in birdhouses and gourds put up by people?

The purple martin has leaned on people for centuries: the Cherokee hung hollowed gourds for it before Europeans arrived. It is the largest swallow in North America.

Which North American songbird never builds a nest and lays its eggs only in other birds' nests?

The brown-headed cowbird never builds a nest, leaving more than 220 host species to raise its young. Its English name comes from its habit of feeding near cattle.

Which woodpecker, the largest confirmed in North America, chips rectangular holes in trees to reach ants?

The pileated woodpecker is believed to be the model for the look of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, drawn by Walter Lantz. Carpenter ants are its favourite food.

From which US state do migrating godwits begin the longest nonstop flight of any bird, to New Zealand?

Alaska is the launch point for a Pacific crossing of more than 11,000 km, flown in about eight days. The birds shrink their digestive organs to carry more fat as fuel.

Which technology lets ornithologists track the birds migrating over the United States on a given night?

Weather radar picks up flocks as well as rain. Birds that migrate in the dark avoid predators and overheating, then land in the morning to feed.

The American kestrel, barely bigger than a blue jay, is the smallest of which raptors in the Americas?

Falcons were long confused with other raptors: this one was called the sparrow hawk until 1983, a name dropped as a misnomer because the two groups are only distantly related.

Which bird of prey is shown on Mexico's coat of arms, perched on a cactus and devouring a snake?

The golden eagle on the emblem recalls the Aztec legend that their capital, Tenochtitlan, should be founded where an eagle was seen eating a snake on a prickly pear.

Which small songbird, the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts, is named after its own buzzy call?

The black-capped chickadee hides seeds for winter, and the hippocampus, the memory centre of its brain, grows during the caching season to help it find them again.

Red knots time their spring stopover at Delaware Bay to feast on the eggs of which animals?

Horseshoe crabs spawn just as the birds arrive, and the eggs refuel a journey of more than 14,000 km from the Arctic to the southern tip of South America.

Which university's Lab of Ornithology launched eBird, a global database of bird sightings, in 2002?

Cornell built the site so that anyone's sightings could feed research, and by 2021 birdwatchers around the world had logged more than a billion observations.

Which colourful North American waterfowl nests in tree cavities, so its day-old young must jump down?

The wood duck has sharp claws for perching in trees, unlike most of its relatives. Nest boxes and the ponds made by returning beavers helped it rebound from heavy hunting.

Which pink wading bird of Florida and the Gulf Coast feeds by swinging its beak from side to side?

The roseate spoonbill owes its colour to a carotenoid pigment in its diet, just as a flamingo does. Plume hunters almost drove it to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Which songbird is named for the 17th-century lord whose coat of arms shared the male's orange and black?

The Baltimore oriole is the state bird of Maryland, and it is both the namesake and the mascot of the city's Major League Baseball team.

Which crested North American songbird sometimes gets intoxicated by eating overripe, fermenting fruit?

The cedar waxwing is named for the red tips on some of its wing feathers, which look like drops of sealing wax. It is often seen in fruiting trees, where an overripe crop does the damage.

Which bird, North America's only aquatic songbird, walks underwater along mountain streams to find food?

The American dipper was the favourite bird of the naturalist John Muir, who gave it a whole chapter of his book The Mountains of California.

Which songbird, no heavier than a ballpoint pen, flies nonstop over the Atlantic for about three days?

The blackpoll warbler nearly doubles its body mass before leaving the northeastern coast, then rides a shift in the winds some 2,500 km to the Caribbean or South America.

Which North American game bird stays abundant even though hunters shoot over 20 million of them a year?

The mourning dove can raise up to six broods a year in warm areas, which is how it withstands the pressure. Its name comes from its doleful, cooing call.

Kirtland's warbler, down to 167 singing males in 1974, breeds only in dense young stands of which tree?

Jack pine stands of the right age once sprang up after wildfires. With fires suppressed, foresters harvest and replant the trees to keep the bird's Michigan stronghold young.

Which shorebird, nicknamed the timberdoodle, performs a spiralling display flight at dusk in spring?

The American woodcock has eyes set so high on its head that its field of view is probably the widest of any bird: a full 360 degrees around and 180 degrees overhead.

Which owl, once called the tiger of the air, is among the few predators that regularly hunt skunks?

The great horned owl takes all six North American skunk species, including adults three times its own weight, and one nest held the remains of 57 striped skunks.

Which extinct bird was last seen in 1932 on Martha's Vineyard, a lone male nicknamed Booming Ben?

The heath hen was so common in colonial New England that it may have been served at the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving. By 1890 no more than 200 survived, all on that one island.

Which wetland region of the northern Great Plains hosts over half of North America's migratory waterfowl?

The Prairie Potholes were left by glaciers that retreated about 10,000 years ago. The region holds only a tenth of the continent's waterfowl breeding habitat, yet about half of its main game species breed there.

Which owl of the desert Southwest often nests in old woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti?

The elf owl is the world's smallest owl, about the size of a sparrow, and it plays dead when grabbed so that a predator relaxes its grip and lets it slip away.

Which North American plover is named for its shrill call and fakes a broken wing to lure predators from its nest?

The killdeer has a call that sounds like the words kill deer, and it will nest far from water on open ground, sometimes even on flat gravel rooftops.

Which fish-spearing bird of southern swamps swims with only its neck above water, earning the nickname snakebird?

The anhinga lacks waterproof body feathers, so it gets soaked when it dives and must perch with its wings spread to dry. Its name comes from a Tupi word translated as devil bird or snake bird.