Beyond the Birdfeeder: 5 under-the-radar birds to look for this spring

Eastern Towhee

Photo credit: National Audubon Society

The Eastern Towhee may visit your feeder, but prefers to pick through the fallen seeds on the ground below your station. This super-sized sparrow is mostly black (brown in females), with a white breast and a distinct auburn patch between the wing and breast (the black is replaced by brown in females). Turn your eyes to the ground beneath thick underbrush, shrubs, and overgrown tangles along the edges of your yard or at the edge of a forest.  Viewed in side profile they slightly resemble a chicken, and similarly rummage and root around the leaf litter the way a curious rooster would, doing a backward-hop dance to clear leaves and uncover insects. Natural social-distancers, towhees will be found alone or with partners, preferring to spend their time apart from other members of their species. 

Northern Flicker

Photo credit: National Audubon Society

An intricately colored woodpecker, the northern flicker is the only member of its family to spend most of its time on the ground. While it bears some resemblance to red-bellied woodpeckers, flickers are more brown in color, have a distinct leopard-print breast, and most famously feature a dark and bold black collar and in Minnesota a yellow band along the tail. Look for small flocks or pairs in open woodlands, grassy roadsides, and even mowed areas such as ballparks or backyards. Using a curved beak and an abnormally long tongue, flickers probe the ground and topsoil, collecting ants and beetles using their forked and sticky tongue. While they are distinct from other woodpeckers in where they choose to hunt, northern flickers still nest in tree hollows and loudly drum like other woodpeckers.  

American Redstart

Photo credit: National Audubon Society

Although it arrives in early May, the American Redstart looks like the warbler most enthusiastic about Halloween. Among shrubs, forest edges, and small trees, look for flashes of black and orange whirling in a blur of hyperactivity. This small warbler is always in motion, plucking insects off of leaves and branches as it flares its slightly-forked tail to goad the bugs into revealing themselves. If you are lucky enough to spot it catching its breath, note the near pitch-black head and upper breast, back, and wings, punctuated by a white lower breast and orange wing bars in mature males. Females feature a similar pattern, except for a grey, not black head, and the male’s traffic-cone orange is replaced by a softer yellow. The misnomer Redstart is a bird of constant entertainment, if you’re patient enough to locate one in the first place!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Photo credit: National Audubon Society

Once you’ve honed your spotting skills tracking the jubilant redstart, take your trained eye to the lower and mid-levels of the forest and try your hand at finding the golf-ball-with-wings sized Ruby-crowned Kinglet. An unremarkable tan covers most of both sexes body, punctuated only by a white wing bar and muted black and yellow patterning following the wings to their tips. In males, if you are lucky they will display a blazing-red patch atop their head, which puffs up into a mohawk in moments of excitement or display (if the crown is yellow and black, you’ve spotted its cousin the Golden-crowned Kinglet). Like the redstart, this little ball of energy frantically hops and flutters amongst the leaves as it looks for insects to eat, often singing all the while.  

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

Photo credit: National Audubon Society

The worst thing that can be said about the Yellow-rumped warbler is that they only grace us with about a month of their time in spring before moving on to their northern breeding grounds in Canada’s boreal forests. Spring migration overlaps with the molting season, leaving this medium-sized warbler a dazzling mezcla of bright yellow, black, white, and blue-grey. It looks, in many ways, like a franken-bird; note the black and white speckled breast, a paper-white chin, an oversized black eye bar, and of course the yellow patch where the lower back meets the base of the tail. This is a versatile and omnivorous bird, able to swoop and snatch flying insects like a flycatcher, scoop water bugs off a stream or lake’s surface, and pluck insects off of leaves all in a day’s work. Color variations during the molt can make identification tricky, so try hard to visually confirm the yellow rump and consult your preferred birding resources.