Common Midwest Birds

Found just about everywhere in the Midwest, American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are large, all black birds known for their loud, hoarse "caw" sounds. They're highly intelligent and adaptable, able to live just about anywhere that has some open space, trees or other high places to perch and regular sources of food.  

As for what they eat, the answer is ... just about anything. They're not picky birds and will eat everything from nuts and seeds to fish and young turtles. They'll dig into human garbage and carrion, too. 

Because of this, crows will sometimes come to feeders, particularly platform or tray feeders. For tips on attracting crows to your yard, check out this short video on feeding crows from a crow scientist, Dr. Kaeli Swift. 

Preferred Foods: black oil or hulled sunflower seeds, whole or shelled peanuts

Fun Fact: Young American crows will help their parents raise young for a few years. In fact, most American crows do not leave to breed until they are at least four years old. 

In summer, male American goldfinches (Spinus tristis) are a sunny yellow, while the females remain a drab olive. In fall, both molt into much more muted colors for winter. Plant coneflowers and native milkweed (both will work in pots) to provide blooms for pollinators and then seeds for goldfinches!

Preferred Foods: nyjer seed, black oil or hulled sunflower seeds

Fun Fact: Goldfinches are strict vegetarians, eating seeds from flowers and grasses almost exclusively. 

This one is a two-fer, as there are two distinct (but nearly identical-looking) species of chickadees in the Midwest: the black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina (Poecile carolinensis).

With their adorably round heads and energetic curiosity about everything (including people!), chickadees are well-known and commonly spotted throughout the Midwest. Both species readily come to feeders and nest around human dwellings. 

But how do you know which species of chickadee you’re seeing? Location and/or sounds. 

• Location: If you’re in Michigan, Wisconsin, the northern halves of Illinois, Indiana, or northern or eastern Ohio, you’re seeing a black-capped chickadee. If you’re in southern Illinois or Indiana or the southwest corner of Ohio, you’ve spotted a Carolina chickadee. 
• Song: Telling these two apart by songs will likely need a little practice, but black-capped chickadees whistle a two or three-note call, with the first note being slightly higher than the rest. Carolina chickadees sing a faster, four or more-note song, with each note varying in pitch. 

Preferred Food: black oil or hulled sunflower seeds, mealworms, nyjer, shelled peanuts, safflower seeds, suet

Fun Fact: To add to the id confusion, where the two chickadee species overlap, they will sometimes mate with one another and produce a hybrid that can sing either species’ song or a mix of the two!

The tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is a common bird through most of the Midwest, unless you're in the northern part of Wisconsin or Michigan's Upper Peninsula. These tiny,  gray birds are found in deciduous forests, but are also familiar in backyards and urban parks. Their alarm call fades slowly, making it seem as if they're on the move, even though they're staying in one place. 

Preferred Foods: black oil or hulled sunflower seeds, mealworms, nyjer, shelled peanuts, safflower seeds, suet

Fun Fact: Tufted titmice may be small, but they are bold—they will pluck hair directly from animals like raccoons or squirrels to line their nests. 

Introduced to the United States in the late 1800s, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are now widespread across North America and one of the most common birds you'll see at feeders. 

They're very vocal and gregarious birds. Starlings are also incredible vocal mimics, able to learn the calls of up to 20 different songbirds. Urban starlings have even been known to learn and mimic human sounds, such as car engines running. 

They're all over dark birds with orange legs and yellow bills. In the fall, they will molt and grow feathers with white tips, giving them an almost starry night-sky appearance. By spring, the white tips will wear off their feathers, and the starlings will be in their iridescent, glossy dark summer colors. 

Fun Fact: While starlings tend to flock together year-round, in fall and winter, they will form enormous flocks of thousands of birds. These flocks will perform intricate, swooping and arching aerial displays called mumurations. It's believed they do this to confuse and evade predators.

You may not expect to see wild ducks in the city, but if there is a park with a pond or a lake nearby, chances are mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are there. 

Mallards are among the most widespread wild ducks in the world, found throughout North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. In most of the Midwest, they're year-round residents, though in some areas they're mostly found in winter.    

Male mallards are easy to identify by their metallic green heads, brown breasts, and grayish-brown bodies. Female mallards are streaky brown all over. Both males and females have white tail feathers. 

While they generally form monogamous bonds, males do not help with nesting or caring for the offspring. 

Fun Fact: Nearly all domesticated duck breeds were bred from wild mallards.

Anywhere you go in the Midwest, you're likely to see mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) perched on telephone wires, trees, fences or bobbing their heads as they forage on the ground for seeds. 

Mourning doves are a medium-sized bird with a small head and a long, slim tail—similar in shape and size to their urban rock pigeon cousins. However, mourning doves lack the bold, variable colors of city pigeons. Instead, their coloration matches their natural country habitat, with both males and females being an overall peachy-brown with dark spots on their brown-gray wings.

These doves get their names from the mournful sound of their coos. They're also sometimes called "love birds," as mated pairs will cuddle, preen and grasp beaks with one another. 

Fun Fact: Mourning doves will gulp down seeds rapidly as they forage, storing them in their crop—an enlarged part of their throat. Once they fill their crop, they'll fly to perch somewhere high to finally swallow and digest their meal.

Is there a more classic city bird than the ubiquitous rock pigeon (Columba livia)? Found in cities all over the globe, pigeons are often considered more of a nuisance than a natural wonder, but they have some of the most amazing abilities of any Midwest animal. 

While the typical pigeon may be a medium-sized blue-gray bird with iridescent throat feathers and dark bars on its wings, rock pigeons can come in a variety of colors and appearances. They're also a little bigger and plumper than their mourning dove cousins. 

Pigeons have lived alongside humans for a very long time. Archaeological finds suggest that humans domesticated rock pigeons at least 5,000 years ago. In fact, we domesticated them so long ago that scientists can't be sure of their original, natural range!

Rock pigeons are extraordinary navigators, able to find their way home from just about anywhere—even if they were blindfolded all the way to the new place. They use Earth's magnetic fields to navigate, though scientists think they may also use sound, smell and the position of the sun to help them find their way. 

Fun Fact: Because they can navigate so easily, rock pigeons were used as wartime message carriers, entrusted with carrying valuable strategic intelligence to the U.S. Army!

The smallest woodpecker in North America, the downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), is one of the most common and widespread woodpeckers in the Midwest. 

Downy woodpeckers are about the size of sparrows, with white undersides, black and white wings, and black-striped faces. Males have a red patch on the back of their heads. 

These acrobatic birds readily come to bird feeders for suet and seeds, so keep an eye out for them if you've put out feeders. 

In the winter, downy woodpeckers will join up with flocks of chickadees, nuthatches and other small birds. They do this for protection and finding food—having lots of eyes watching out for predators and looking for meals helps them better survive the winter. 

Like other woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers drum on trees and other surfaces to communicate with one another. Both males and females will drum to attract mates and mark their territory. Their drumming consists of very rapid, steady knocks, sometimes so fast that the taps blend into a single sound. 

Fun Fact: The downy woodpecker's small size allows it to forage for food where larger woodpeckers can't—like along goldenrod or other tall, stiff plant stems.

Hairy woodpeckers (Leuconotopicus villosus) can be tricky to tell apart from downy woodpeckers, as their ranges overlap and both are small, black and white woodpeckers. But, once you know a couple of easy tricks, they're as easy to tell apart as a blue jay is from a crow! Here are their key differences:

• Hairy woodpeckers are larger, roughly the same size as a robin. 
• Hairy woodpeckers have longer bills, about the same length as their head. Downy woodpeckers' bills are much shorter, only about half the length of their head. 
• While both birds have all white undersides and black-and-white backs and wings, hairy woodpeckers have solid white outer tails. Downy woodpeckers have black spots on their outer tails. 
• Males of both species have a red patch on the back of their heads, but a male hairy woodpecker's patch is often split in the middle, while the downy's is solid. 

Look for hairy woodpeckers moving around on tree trunks, foraging for insects. They will sometimes follow pileated woodpeckers through forests, searching for insects in the holes they make and leave behind. They will also come to bird feeders, particularly for suet.

Both male and female hairy woodpeckers will drum to communicate, find mates and mark their territories. Their drumming "song" is a fast, steady 26(ish) beats that lasts about one second. 

Fun Fact: Hairy woodpeckers will sometimes drink tree sap from holes left by other woodpeckers, like the yellow-bellied sapsucker. 

And the winner for the most seemingly misnamed Midwest bird goes to .... red-bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus). We joke, but it can be hard to see why these zebra-backed, pale birds with bright red caps got a name like "red-bellied."

The name is not a mistake, though. While it may be hard to see unless the bird is positioned just right, these woodpeckers actually do have a small splash of red on their undersides. 

Sized between a robin and a crow, red-bellied woodpeckers are one of the most ubiquitous and often-seen woodpeckers in the Midwest. They readily come to feeders and are well-adapted to living in human environments. 

These birds are masters at catching insects underneath tree bark. Their tongues are long, with a barbed tip, allowing them to search and catch meals from deep holes and crevices in trees. 

Red-bellied woodpeckers also use drumming to communicate with one another. Only males drum, and their pattern is a steady 19 beats per second for about one second at a time. Their drumming also sounds lower and heavier than that of hairy or downy woodpeckers. 

Fun Fact: While both male and female red-bellied woodpeckers have red on the backs of their necks, only the males have a red cap that goes over their head and down to their beak. 

Of the four species we've listed here, Northern flickers (Colaptes auratus) are the largest, being slightly bigger than red-bellied woodpeckers. 

There are two distinct color variations of Northern flickers: yellow-shafted and red-shafted. Here in the Midwest, we only see the yellow-shafted variety; the red-shafted are only found in the western United States. 

Northern flickers have a black bib, a spotted, pale belly and dark back and wing stripes. Underneath their wings and tails are brilliant yellow feathers, which is why they're called "yellow-shafted." Males have red on the back of their necks and black handlebar "mustaches" (called a malar stripe) extending from the corners of their bills. 

Unlike most woodpeckers, Northern flickers often choose to forage on the ground, where they hunt for ants and beetles. They will occasionally come to suet feeders during the winter. 

Despite their preference for foraging on the ground, like other woodpeckers, Northern flickers will drum on trees (and sometimes metal objects) to communicate. Both male and female flickers drum about 25 beats per second, for about a second at a time. The beats are loud, fast and evenly spaced. 

Fun Fact: In spring, males may compete in a "fencing duel," facing each other on a branch or fence, with their bills pointed skyward as they bob their heads and call. Usually, the female they are competing for is there to witness their competition. 

Click the button below for a closer look at Northern flickers from our colleagues at TNC in Rhode Island. The video is about 1:22 long.