Two Piping Plovers were photographed at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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The Piping Plover is a small pale bird, the color of dry sand, with an incomplete dark ring around the neck, and throat, belly and undersides white, with yellow legs, yellow beak with a black tip. In winter the legs and bill are dark. It has a range of south Canada to northeast and central United States. It has a habitat of sand beaches and tidal flats. It has a diet of insects, marine worms, and crustaceans. It moves about in quick fashion and abrupt stops, and is hard to see when on the sand when foraging by pecking.
This male Harlequin Duck was photographed at the cruise ship dock in Juneau, Alaska.
The female Harlequin Duck was photographed at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois on 2/16 2012.
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The male Harlequin Duck is a small slaty duck with chestnut sides and odd white patches and spots. The female Harlequin Duck is a dusky brown with three white spots on the side of its head, and no wing patches. It has a habitat of mountain streams in summer and rocky coastal waters in winter, and favors extremely turbulent streams. Its diet consists of mollusks, crustaceans, plant material, and insects.
The Least Sandpipers were photographed at Vernon and Horicon Marshes in Wisconsin.
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The Gray Jay was photographed at Denali Princess Lodge In Alaska.
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The Gray Jay is a gray fluffy bird about the size of a Robin with a white forehead, black cap, and gray back and wings, a light striped gray breast, and gray legs. The juvenile is darker sooty gray all over with a whitish chin whisker. They have a range of boreal forests of North American, Canada and Alaska. They have a habitat of spruce and fir forests. It has a varied diet of insects, spiders, berries, seeds, fungi, small rodents, small bird eggs, and carrion. They can be fearless, a nuisance, and steal food at campsites.
Photos of Birds by Common Name by Sid Hamm 