Common Birds at Stowe

By Erin Fisher, Membership Manager

What kind of birds are you likely to spot on an everyday visit to Daniel Stowe Conservancy? If you ask the staff at Stowe, the answers will vary depending on how much time you spend outside. The Horticulture team is likely to answer very differently than staff at The Trailhead Store! So I turned to a trusty “virtual friend”, iNaturalist, to see what others have been observing on the property lately to give me a good starting point.

Anyone who has been to the property in the last few years will recognize that we have many bird houses scattered around – primarily for Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis), so it’s no surprise that they are a common sight here. We also have a team of volunteers dedicated to monitoring and maintaining these nest boxes and recording the data for scientific purposes. Eastern bluebirds are easily identified; as the name implies, they’re blue; the males brightly so, while females are a drabber, steel-blue tone, with reddish breasts and white on their chests. Another common user of the boxes are Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) who are a sort of metallic teal with a white chest and very aerodynamic looking bodies.

Eastern Bluebird

Tree Swallow

Northern Cardinal

We also have a plentiful population of the ever-popular Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Maybe one of the most iconic songbirds of North America, the Northern Cardinal has a much wider range than the name suggests. Males are a brilliant red, while females are an olive-tan color. There have been many interesting mutations observed in this species, including orange, white and intersex examples of individuals displaying plumage that is half red on one side, half olive on the other.

Around our ponds, you’re likely to spot one of our resident Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias). These voracious predatory birds dine on fish, frogs, toads and anything else they can quickly overpower and devour. While their dining habits may leave something to be desired when it comes to our sentimentality and sensibilities, they play a key role in ecosystems. Stowe’s mix of diverse habitat types makes it an ideal home for this iconic species.

If you hear something kicking around the leaves and underbrush, it could be any number of creatures, from an anole or skink lizard to a squirrel, or perhaps the boldly marked, large sparrow we call the Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). These songbirds are common at Stowe, and love to move around leaves under bushes and trees to startle up some insects and other invertebrates, like spiders, to eat.

Lastly, if you’ve strolled the Gardens lately, you’re sure to have seen our numerous hummingbird feeders set up to attract these dainty jewels- primarily Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris), who are seasonal visitors to our area. These quick little birds catch flies to supplement their mostly nectar diet and also collect spider webs to build their nests with. Their almost impossibly tiny eggs are smaller than a jellybean.

There are dozens of species of birds at Stowe, many more than I have time or space to write about, so make sure to come join one of our free, Volunteer-led monthly Birding Walks to see what you can spot. The species vary all the time depending on the season, so there is always someone new to discover!

Special thanks to member Katie Krekeler who provided the images for this blog post from her recent visits to Stowe.