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Our backyard gardens, parklands, and golf courses are filled with incredible birds to admire.
If you want to get out and see other birds in their natural habitat, Ontario contains 6 National Parks, 10 National Wildlife Areas, and 9 Migratory Birds sanctuaries.
All you need for bird watching is a quiet spot, a pair of binoculars, and a book that helps you identify the birds you see; also, knowing which plants and shrubs attract different birds can help you attract them to your garden or backyard.
Here are the top 15 birds worth watching that you should add to your list and how to invite them to your backyard.
Sound good? Let’s begin
1. Black-capped Chickadee
The Black-capped Chickadee has a small body and a large round head. These birds of Ontario will happily eat from common backyard birds feeders and inspect everything, including you!
Their beaks and heads are black, their faces are white, and their backs, white wing bar, wings, and tail are grey.
Forests, open woods, and parks are all good places to look for them. Black-capped chickadees eat seeds, berries, insects, spiders, and suet.
Suet, seeds, peanuts, or peanut butter are good ways to attract more Black-capped Chickadees to your yard. .
1.1 Are chickadees friendly?
1.2 Do chickadees like sunflower seeds?
Sunflower seeds in the shell and out-of-shell meats appeal to finches, chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks, Northern cardinal, blue jays, and even some woodpeckers.
2. American Robin
American Robins, which consume earthworms, are a common sight on lawns. Their heads and backs are black, while their breasts are crimson or bright orange. Because they prefer to roost in tree bark and dead trees during the winter, you’re more likely to see them in your backyard starting in the spring.
American Robins can be found in a variety of environments, including woods, forests, and mountains, as well as fields, parks, and lawns. Earthworms, insects, snails, and fruit are among their favorite foods.
Sunflower seeds, suet and peanut hearts, fruit, and mealworms can all be used to attract more American Robins to your yard. Platform feeders or food distributed on the ground are ideal—Plant Juniper, Sumac, Hawthorn, and Dogwood, which are natural plants that produce berries.
2.1 What does it mean when you see an American robin?
The robin represents many things, including our families, communities, present-tense living, letting go of the past, springtime, renewal, new beginnings, joy through song or music, feeling bountiful, and being thankful.
3. American Crow
Crows in the United States are huge blackbirds that produce a harsh cawing sound. They are a common bird type found in various environments, such as in multiple cities.
They eat a wide variety of foods and like to graze on the ground, where they eat earthworms, insects, seeds, and fruit. They also eat fish, young turtles, mussels, clams, eggs, and nestlings from various bird species.
American Crows congregate in enormous flocks of up to two million birds of southern ontario and sleep in communal roosts in the winter.
If you toss peanuts in your backyard, you can attract more American Crows, but they can become a nuisance if you leave garbage or pet food out.
4. Blue Jay
Blue Jays have a blue erect crest, blue and black backs, and white undersides and are common songbirds. They are noisy birds of Ontario that wander in big flocks around the Great Lakes and Atlantic coast, eating acorns when available.
They live in woodlands but like Oak trees because they eat acorns. They can also be found near feeders in backyards. They eat insects, nuts and seeds, grain, and acorns. Try feeding them peanuts, sunflower seeds, or suet in tray or hopper feeders on a post. They’ll also appreciate a birdbath.
4.1 What does it mean when a blue jay bounces up and down?
4.2 What does it mean when a blue jay hangs around your house?
5. American Goldfinch
The males of American Goldfinches have striking yellow and black plumage in the spring. In the winter, females and males are both a dull brown color.
American Goldfinches breed in the far north and Canada before moving to the south, where they spend the entire year.
They forage for sunflower, thistle, and aster plants in weedy fields and overgrown places. They’re also common in parks, backyards, and suburbs.
Plant thistles and milkweed in your yard to attract more American Goldfinches. Most bird feeders will attract them, and they like sunflowers and Nyjer.
5.1 Where does an American goldfinch live?
6. Mourning Dove
Mourning Dsunflowerssmall, grasses birds of Ontario with plump bodies and long tails. The wings have a light pale brown color with black cap markings.
In grasslands, pastures, and backyards, they can be observed perching on telephone wires and foraging for seeds on the ground. Mourning Doves can be found in open regions or along woodland edges.
Mourning Doves are found across the lower 48 United States throughout the year. However, mourning doves travel south after breeding in southern Canada and the north-central United States.
By distributing millet on the ground or using platform feeders, you can attract more Mourning Doves to your yard. They’ll consume black sunflower seeds, Nyjer, cracked corn, and peanut hearts, among other things.
6.1 What is the difference between a dove and a mourning dove?
Physical characteristics and behavior are the main distinctions between a mourning dove and a Eurasian collared dove. In general, Eurasian collared doves are larger. Additionally, they have a thin black feather beneath their eyes, whereas mourning birds have a larger one across their neck.
6.2 Do mourning doves come back to the same place?
7. Black-Throated Gray Warbler
The Black-throated Gray Warbler has a striking monochrome appearance, with only a little yellow spot above and in front of the eye. It gets its name from its black throat and grey back, but its distinctive black-and-white striped face is equally striking.
These are some of the birds of Ontario that can be formed in the mixed pine-oak forests of the Rocky Mountains. It sings a buzzy meet-chee needle-needle meet-chee song.
7.1 What sound does the GREY Warbler make?
A distinctive song with lengthy trills. Given the bird’s size, the song is louder than one might anticipate. Only males can sing, though females occasionally make brief chirp calls, usually to make contact with a male. The begging call of nestlings and fledglings is loud and high-pitched.
7.2 What time of day is warblers most active?
However, they need to refuel with a breakfast of bugs because they’ve been flying all night and are hungry. Early in the morning, after sunrise, when the sun has started to warm the trees and all the bugs hiding there, you’ll have the best chance to see them in large numbers.
8. Red-winged Blackbird
The all-black plumage of red-winged blackbirds, save for the vivid red and yellow shoulder patches, makes them simple to distinguish. Compared to the streaky brown coloring of the males, the females are quite drab.
Red-winged Blackbirds of Ontario are found across the United States. However, they may migrate after reproducing in the extreme north.
They are frequently seen sitting on telephone wires, and during the breeding season, the males will fiercely protect their territory, even attacking individuals who come too close to nests. During the winter, they roost in enormous flocks, numbering in the millions.
Spread mixed grain and seeds on the ground to attract more Red-winged blackbirds to your yard. They’ll eat enormous tube feeders or platform feeders as well.
8.1 What does it mean if you see a Red-winged Blackbird?
Red-winged blackbirds represent luck, safety, wealth, and the presence of angelic guardians.
9. Song Sparrow
They are brown-streaked Ontario birds commonly perched on a low shrub, singing in open, shrubby, and damp settings. They’re frequently seen at backyard feeders.
Beetles, caterpillars, midges, spiders, and earthworms are among the insects and plants that Song Sparrows eat. Other favorites include buckwheat, sunflower, raspberries, wild cherries, blackberries, wheat, and rice.
10. Common Grackle
The Common Grackle is a blackbird with a glossy iridescent body that is taller and longer-tailed than other blackbirds.
They eat a variety of crops, but primarily maize, and congregate in noisy groups high in the trees. They will also devour trash, making them a nuisance. Open forests, marshes, parks, and fields are among their many habitats. In the winter, they may congregate in the millions to forage and roost alongside other blackbird species.
The Common Grackle spends the entire year in much of the east and all of the southeast but migrates south after mating in the far north and west of its range.
Most mixed grain and seed, strewn on the ground or platform feeders, can attract more Common Gracklesto your garden.
11. European Starling
European starlings are not native to the United States yet have become one of the most common songbirds. They’re stocky black birds with purple, green, and blue iridescent tones.
Some consider these birds of Ontario to be pests because of their aggressive demeanor. They can be found perched in groups on the tops of trees or flying over fields in flocks.
Beetles, flies, caterpillars, earthworms, and spiders are among the insects that starlings eat. Fruit such as cherries, holly berries, mulberries, Virginia Creeper, sumac, and blackberries, as well as grains and seeds, are consumed by them.
11.1 Are European starlings rare?
Shakespeare enthusiasts first introduced about 100 starlings in Central Park, New York, in 1890. Today, with a population of about 200 million, they are one of the most common birds in North America. They can be found all over the country, destroying crops and threatening other native species.
12. Chipping Sparrow
Chipping Sparrows are slender, long-tailed birds with a rust-brown crown and black eye line, as well as a greyish belly and black and brown streaks on the back. The colors are more subdued in the winter.
They breed across much of North America and Canada before flying to Mexico and Florida or further south, where they spend the entire year.
They can be seen in small flocks on open terrain, and they will visit backyards in search of various types of bird seed.
12.1 What is the rarest type of sparrow?
In a suburb of Melbourne, a pure white sparrow—the rarest variation of one of the most common birds in the world—was spotted.
13. Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwings are graceful sociable birds with a light brown head, chest, and crest that fades to grey on the back, wings, and tail. The outer tail feathers are bright yellow, and their belly is pastel yellow. Their eyes are hidden under a tight black mask, and their wingtips are blazing red.
They can be found in berry bushes, forests, and near streams and have a high-pitched call. They breed in Canada before migrating south for the winter. They spend the entire year in the northern states of the United States.
Plant natural trees and shrubs with small fruits, such as serviceberry, dogwood, juniper, winterberry, and hawthorn, to attract Cedar Waxwings to your yard. Fruit can also be used in platform feeders.
14. Common Yellowthroat
Yellowthroats are little songbirds with long tails that are brownish on the back and a bright yellow patch beneath. The intensity of the yellow varies by location, and some areas beneath the surface may appear more olive. The males wear a black mask that covers their entire faces.
They breed in much of North America, except Alaska and northern Canada, as well as brushy fields, in thick, tangled vegetation in the spring and summer.
They eat large insects and can be found in vast, densely vegetated backyards.
15. Yellow-throated Warbler
Yellow Warblers are little brilliant yellow birds with a bright yellow-green back and chestnut stripes on the breast that can be seen in the summer.
They migrate enormous distances to breed and migrate over most of Canada, Alaska, and the northern and central United States before wintering in Central and northern South America. During migration in the southern United States, they can be seen.
Yellow-throated Warbler can be seen foraging for insects such as caterpillars, midges, beetles, bugs, and wasps along streams and wetlands in thickets and along the borders of fields.
Because warblers are secretive and eat mostly insects, they are difficult to entice to your yard. Suet, bright orange, and peanut butter can attract Yellow Warblers, as well as berries and native plants that attract insects, so no pesticides or excessive tidying! Birdbaths with fountains, as well as hidden thickets for safety.
15.1 What time of day is best to see warblers?
However, they need to recharge with a breakfast of bugs because they’ve been flying all night and are hungry. After sunrise, when the sun has started warming the trees and all the bugs hiding there, you’ll have the best chance to see them in large numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is the Best Way to Identify Birds of Ontario?
Are you able to figure out what they’re eating? Are they on the ground or far up in the trees? Are they in groups, or are they solitary?
The easiest thing to notice about a bird is its size. In guidebooks, birds of Ontario are frequently measured in inches or millimeters. It’s advisable to make a mental note of the bird’s size, whether small, medium, or huge, so that you can find its later shape – Make a mental no so that the only birds silhouette and jot it down or draw it out. Examine the tail length, the bill’s form, the wings’ shape, and the overall body shape.
2. What common habitats do you need to know for birdwatching hobbies?
Woodlands, parks, shrubs, grasslands or meadows, beaches, or marshes are all examples of habitats. You can use a birds in Ontario identification app like eBird or Audubon.
3. How to identify the bird species?
Color pattern — Write down the primary color of the head, back, belly, wings, and tail and any secondary colors or patterns. Any pa anding, spots, or highlights should also be noted.
All this data can help you identify any bird’s unique species or kind.
Last Updated on by Priyanshi Sharma
