Winter Birding in the Midwest

Found year-round only in the most northern parts of the Midwest, the dark-eyed junco is most often spotted in winter around the region as it settles here from Canada for the colder months. While they can have rather variable coloration, in the Midwest they most often look like a gray sparrow with a bright white belly. They often come to bird feeders, looking for sunflower seeds, millet, cracked corn or safflower seeds. Dark-eyed juncos often forage on the ground, finding spilled seeds from feeders.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for dark-eyed juncos.

Spending their breeding season in the northernmost edges of the Midwest and up into Canada, most folks in the Heartland only see white-throated sparrows when they head south to our region in the winter. They will readily come to feeders, especially those that have millet or sunflower seeds. Look for them foraging for spilled seeds under the feeders, as they often feed on the ground.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for white-throated sparrows.

Almost a perfectly spherical brown ball of feathers, winter wrens show up in the Midwest when the temperatures start to dip. You'll find them in forests and woods, often hopping along the ground or singing loudly. In fact, per unit of weight, a winter wren sings louder than a crowing rooster! Planting native plants and having brush piles around your yard may draw this winter visitor to your home.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for winter wrens.

These common Midwest birds may be tiny, but they have an amazing ability. Every autumn, they allow neurons in their brain with old information to die and replace them with new neurons that let them remember food caches, new social rules to follow in large flocks and other skills needed for winter. These birds eat a lot in the winter—20 times more than in the summer. Keep your feeders full of sunflower, safflower, nyjer seeds and suet to help this inquisitive little bird make it through the winter.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for black-capped chickadees.

Spotting a male Northern cardinal's bright red feathers among the muted landscape of winter is a highlight of any chilly day in the Midwest. Often overlooked, the females are no less stunning, with bright orange beaks and red highlights on their heads, tails and wings. Keep your feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds, a favorite of cardinals to bring them to your yard. Both males and females will sing, brightening up winter days.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for Northern cardinals.

Related to chickadees, tufted titmice are a common sight during the winter months. A mated pair will remain together in their territory in the winter, often with one of their young. They’re frequent feeder visitors, preferring sunflower seeds, but also taking peanuts, suet or other seeds. Keep an eye out to see what happens when they get a large seed; they’ll carry it to a tree limb or other perch and crack it with a few whacks of their bill.

Here are the songs and calls to listen for when you're looking for tufted titmice.

Often spotted clinging vertically to trees, white-breasted nuthatches are insect hunters in the warmer months and look for meaty seeds in the winter. You'll see them hopping up and down trunks and branches, turning sideways or upside down as they look for food or store seeds. Offer up large nuts like peanuts and sunflower seeds, and you’re likely to attract them to your feeders.

Here are the songs and calls you want to listen for when you're looking for white-breasted nuthatches.

Winter is a great time for eagle watching. When lakes and rivers freeze over, bald eagles congregate in large trees along shorelines where dams and power plants provide open water where they can fish. In late January and February, they will begin their breeding season, reusing and adding to old nests. Bald eagles have been known to be playful, using sticks or other objects as toys. Sometimes they will pass these items to each other in midair.

Here are the calls to listen for when you're out looking for bald eagles.

Red-tailed hawks are likely the most common hawk in North America and certainly in the Midwest. One of the best ways to see them in the Heartland is to take a long drive—you're likely to see them perched along roadside fenceposts, signs or telephone poles as they scan the area for prey.

Red-tailed hawks are year-round residents in the Midwest, but winter is an especially good time to spot them. They're extremely adaptable birds, living in nearly any type of open habitat, from rural fields and open woodlands to city and suburban parks. They primarily hunt mammals, such as voles, mice, rabbits and squirrels, but will also eat birds if given the opportunity.

One last thing: You know that iconic raptor scream that's often used with bald eagles and hawks in movies and TV? That's actually a red-tailed hawk vocalization!

Here are the calls you want to listen for when you're out looking for red-tailed hawks.

Merlins are small falcons, just slightly larger than American robins. Their small size, however, doesn't diminish their ferocity or hunting prowess, as they use sneak attacks to catch small birds. They will even pair up to hunt large flocks of waxwings, with one merlin startling the flock into flight from below while the other dives in from above.

Merlins are winter visitors to the Midwest, spending the season in open woodlands, grasslands and water bodies like lakes and rivers. Once the weather begins to warm, they migrate north to Canada for their breeding season.

Here are the calls to listen for when you're looking for merlins.

One of the most common owls in the Midwest, the great horned owl has extremely soft feathers that insulate it against the cold and help it fly silently while hunting. Great horned owls typically begin their breeding and nesting season in late January and February, so that they have a long time to raise their young to independence each year.

Learn what calls to listen for when you're looking for great horned owls.

It's easy to listen for barred owls in winter. Their hooting “who cooks, who cooks, who cooks for you all” is distinctive and carries well in the still winter air among the bare trees.

Barred owls can be found throughout the region in mature forests and woodlands with large trees, typically near water. Year-round residents of the Midwest, barred owls are relative homebodies, staying within their territories most of the time. In fact, one study found that out of 158 barred owls, none moved more than six miles away from where they were originally caught and banded.

Unlike some raptors, barred owls are more generalist hunters, eating just about anything they can catch, including small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds. They've even been observed dropping or wading into shallow water to catch fish or crayfish.

Here are the calls to listen for when you're looking for barred owls.

Short-eared owls are one of the most widely distributed owls in the world, found from North America to the easternmost parts of Asia.

These owls are winter visitors to the Midwest, coming to our region from Canada in the colder months. To spot them here, your best bet is to visit open grasslands, fields or any other large open area with low vegetation at dawn or dusk. You might see them flying low or circling as they hunt, but also look at the ground—these owls often sit directly on the ground.

Short-eared owls mostly hunt small mammals such as mice, voles, lemmings and rabbits. They will also hunt songbirds and shorebirds.

In spring, they'll head back to the northernmost parts of the Midwest and up into Canada to mate and raise their offspring.

Here are the calls to listen for if you're looking for short-eared owls.