Field Journal 2

My bird walk was on 2/19/21. I started at 2:06 pm and ended at 3:36 pm. I walked from the UVM medical center to Harris-Millis Hall, to Redstone Campus, and then University Heights. The weather was overcast and 28 degrees with 1mph wind and flurries. The habitat was street, campus, and construction with some woodland areas. There were open areas and dense, tall conifer tree areas.
At first, it was hard to find many birds. A lot of the identification had to come from sound rather than sight as it was an overcast day so you couldn't always see the birds. We saw a couple of flocks of birds including Common Redpolls, Mallards, American Robins, and European Starlings. The American Robins had congregated on top of a Redstone campus building and a tree next to it. This made it fairly easy to get a sketch of the American Robin.
I took interest in watching the American Robin fly since I observed so many of them. To me, their flight patterns seemed to be like butterfly flaps. They would flutter their wings for a couple of seconds and then pull them in while simultaneously bopping up and down in the sky. It looked as if their wings were going in a more up and down motion rather than a circular motion. I also watched the American Crow fly and they had a different wing pattern. The American Crow had a circular flap and soared.
I was informed that the American Crow has an elliptical wing and this type of wing makes it easier to navigate within trees and woodland areas. The American Robin has a long tail and wings with a pointed shape. This is more frequent for birds with a quick flapping motion that migrates. The American Robin could be easily identified by the quick flaps and a pointed tip on the wings. However, the most distinctive factor to a robin is the red belly that can be seen when they fly overhead.

My sketch of an American Robin: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T_GS8viiW9tt9oZv_RHTwxj1OpR4gQg5/view?usp=sharing

Julkaistu helmikuu 21, 2021 03:52 IP. käyttäjältä betseyroselocke