House finches are small songbirds. Males have rosy red heads and chests, while females are brownish. These birds are native ...

It seems like I have written a lot about birds lately, perhaps because even in our coldest weather many are still around and visible. On one of the recent sub-zero days, a group of birds in my ...

This morning, with nearly an inch of snow as far as I could see from my home office, I sat nursing a cup of coffee and watched the birds at our window feeders. The sunflower heart feeder had a pair of ...

The latter part of August 2020 brought an impressive irruption of red-breasted nuthatch to Iowa, with many sightings continuing into early September. It appears other species might be irrupting into ...

A familiar bird arrives at the feeder, a little smaller than a sparrow, lighter and more nimble. It is a discrete maternal color, a streaky mix of pale and brownish-gray, well-suited to sit upon an ...

This is a tale of two finches — actually two different finch species — and the American redbud. There’s a certain time of year when the native redbud is blooming, with its tiny pink flowers in ...

The house finch is one of the most common birds in North America. This is a small finch at 6 inches in length, brownish overall with streaking on the breast and a short, stout beak. The male has a ...

Houstonians might be pleasantly surprised to see a plump, sparrow-size, reddish-headed bird with dense brown streaking at their backyards bird feeder, singing a raspy yet bubbling melody. This is a ...

One rainy morning a week ago, I hear a beautiful bird song that I cannot quite identify. It’s longish, sweet and melodic. From in the bedroom, I glance over at the feeders and there’s the usual ...