Purple Finch
Haemorhous purpureus
What it looks like: Purple Finches are chunky, streaky brown and whitish birds. Males have pinkish-red plumage that starts most intensely at the crown and gets more faded down towards the lower and back parts of the body; females are all streaky brown and white.
Brown Creeper
Certhia Americana
What it looks like: A small, slender, unobtrusive brown bird with a long tail, the Brown Creeper can often be seen hitching up the trunk of a tree where it pries tiny insects from cracks in the bark with a long thin bill then dropping to the trunk of another. Creepers are a mottled brown but display a buffy band on the wings when in flight.
Housatonic Community College students are studying painted turtles at Connecticut Audubon Society’s Roy and Margot Larsen Wildlife Sanctuary in Fairfield, with a goal of eventually charting growth rates and estimating population size.
Golden Eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
What it looks like: This large raptor, one of the largest in North America, is often overlooked because of its cursory similarity in appearance to Turkey Vultures and sub-adult Bald Eagles. With a wing span of nearly seven feet, it is a large presence when mixing with our local birds.
Join the Super Stuffers at Birdcraft Museum in Fairfield on November 6 to help us get the word out about Connecticut Audubon Society. We’ll start with a walk through our bird sanctuary and a sneak peek at the museum (currently closed to the public and undergoing renovation), then move inside to eat snacks and put […]
October 23, 2013 — Pine Siskins have been leaving their summer haunts in the boreal forests and have been passing through Connecticut in large numbers recently. Over the past weekend, Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven recorded more than 3,000 siskins migrating past the hawk watching station.
Fairfield, Oct. 22, 2014 - Quick action by two visitors to a Connecticut Audubon Society sanctuary in Fairfield and by Connecticut Audubon staff helped save a Barred Owl that had injured a wing most likely while hunting for food. On Saturday, two people who were hiking at the Larsen Sanctuary, which is adjacent to Connecticut […]
Palm Warbler
Setophaga palmarum
What it looks like: Palm Warbler has a chestnut crown, yellow eyebrow and throat, underparts streaked with chestnut, and yellow undertail coverts. There are two populations of Palm Warblers with the majority of those migrating through Connecticut having more yellow than the western forms. In the fall, adults and immature birds are duller and browner than in spring. Older birds tend to have more yellow on their undersides. Palm Warblers constantly bob their tails, which can be a good first indicator of what it is.
The Connecticut Young Birders Club is organizing a bird walk on Sunday, October 19, for young birders of all abilities. The walk will be led by Tina Green, president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association. Meet at 7 a.m. at Southport Beach and we will carpool from there, starting at Connecticut Audubon Society’s Christmas Tree Farm. […]
Workers from Connecticut Light & Power Company moved an Osprey nest in Westport on Monday, October 6, that was built near a power line and also erected a new nest platform nearby for the Ospreys to use next March when they return to breed. The proximity of the nest to the electrical line resulted in […]
American Kestrel
Falco sparverius
Where to find it: American Kestrels are now migrating south through Connecticut and can be seen in many of the raptor migration hotspots.
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Melospiza lincolnii
Where to find it: Lincoln’s Sparrow is a common migrant in the fall throughout Connecticut and can be found particularly at our Bafflin Sanctuary in Pomfret.
It usually arrives in Connecticut around the third week of September and can be found through mid-October. Check weedy fields, old weedy gardens, hedgerows, and shrubby thickets throughout the state.
The Town of Fairfield will hold a public informational meeting with the commissioner of the state Department of Transportation and the developer concerning the I-95 Service Plaza projects at Exit 22, on Thursday, September 18, at 7:30 p.m. at Sherman Elementary School, 250 Fern Street. Connecticut Audubon Society is among many in the Fairfield community […]
September 10, 2014 – Baird’s Sandpipers breed in alpine tundra and dry coastal areas of the high arctic, and are a long-distance Central Flyway migrant to and from South America that strays east to Connecticut mainly in autumn. During migration, they are generally found on mudflats and grassy estuary, pond, and marsh edges, often in drier areas than those preferred by similar species. Currently, one or two are being seen at the Shell Beach Avenue marshes in Branford, off Route 146, and at the pools off the Moraine Trail at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.
Marbled Godwit
Limosa fedoa
Where to find it: A Marbled Godwit, a relatively rare shorebird for Connecticut, has been feeding at several locations near the mouth of the Housatonic River, including at our Milford Point Coastal Center. A Marbled Godwit had been seen in the same area last weekend as well but then went unreported for several days. Marbled Godwits breed in the center of the continent in the northern prairie wet grasslands and are rare finds in Connecticut.
Kathy Van Der Aue, one of the regular bird banders at our Birdcraft Sanctuary, dropped off a note this morning about an interesting letter the bird banding team received from the federal bird banding laboratory in Patuxent, Maryland: “The Connecticut Audubon Birdcraft Museum banding team has just received a band recovery record of a Herring […]
Common Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor
What it looks like: The Common Nighthawk is about 10 inches in size and can be observed most often while it is flying and only rarely while it is perched. Common Nighthawks have cryptic coloring, grayish with black and white mixed around the body. In flight they have long pointed wings with a white bar across the tips. The males have a white band near the tail tip. Their flight tends to be slow with deliberate wing beats.
American Avocet
Recurvirostra americana
Where to find it: Over the past few weeks, an American Avocet has been seen sporadically in our Milford Point Coastal Center’s Wheeler Salt Marsh, and from the Birdseye Boat Ramp overlooking the Housatonic River in Stratford.
August 15, 2014. Rufous Hummingbird. Measuring in at 3-3/4 inches, this short winged, compact hummingbird could, depending on the plumage, be passed over as our more common Ruby-throated Hummingbird (photo on left is Rufous; photo in center is Ruby-throated).
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Nyctanassa violacea
Where to find it: Yellow-crowned Night Herons are birds of marshes and wet meadows but are not widely distributed across the state. These waders live in or near our coastal wetlands and forage in tidal marshes, tide pools and along the shore of Long Island Sound where they feed on crustaceans, largely fiddler crabs.
