H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 | "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds – The world is my backyard!

V.I.B. Gallery – Field Sparrow

V.I.B. (VERY IMPORTANT BIRDS) GALLERY

© HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birding, birds, Field Sparrow, nature, photography, photos of birds

What’s Up? Little River Canyon

Little River Canyon National Preserve

I took a visit to this lovely place in Alabama with my family last Saturday. We wanted to see the colorful foliage before the leaves fall. It was a cool day, rainy and gray but that would not deter us from our commitment to go. I have some information about the Preserve and a photo gallery, samples of what we saw.

Little River Canyon National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located on top of Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne, Alabama, and DeSoto State Park. wikipedia.org

nps.gov

Location: Cherokee and DeKalb County, Alabama, U.S.
Latitude: 34.41664
Longitude: -85.71508

Photo Gallery

© HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: Little River Falls, nature, photography, What's Up?

My Visitor: White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

The white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is a small songbird of the nuthatch family which breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North America. It is a stocky bird, with a large head, short tail, powerful bill, and strong feet. The upperparts are pale blue-gray, and the face and underparts are white. It has a black cap and a chestnut lower belly. The nine subspecies differ mainly in the color of the body plumage.

Like other nuthatches, the white-breasted nuthatch forages for insects on trunks and branches and is able to move head-first down trees. Seeds form a substantial part of its winter diet, as do acornsand hickory nuts that were stored by the bird in the fall. The nest is in a hole in a tree, and the breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a deterrent to squirrels. Adults and young may be killed by hawks, owls, and snakes, and forest clearance may lead to local habitat loss, but this is a common species with no major conservation concerns over most of its range.