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Biology 250
Common Raven
Corvus corax
Mountain Bluebird
Sialia currucoides
Description
Male Mountain Bluebirds are sky-blue, a bit darker on wings and tail and a bit paler below, with white under the tail. Females are mostly gray-brown with tinges of pale blue in the wings and tail. They occasionally show a suffusion of orange-brown on the chest. Mountain Bluebirds’ bills are entirely black. Juveniles have fewer spots than the young of other bluebirds.
Behavior
Unlike other bluebird species, Mountain Bluebirds often hover while foraging; they also pounce on their insect prey from an elevated perch. In winter, the species often occurs in large flocks wandering the landscape feasting on berries, particularly those of junipers.
Habitat
Mountain Bluebirds are common in the West’s wide-open spaces, particularly at middle and higher elevations. They breed in native habitats such as prairie, sagebrush steppe, and even alpine tundra.
Diet
Mountain Bluebirds eat mostly insects, small fruits, berries, and the seeds of sumac, mistletoe, and hackberry. Spiders are also an important part of the adult diet.
Description
Not just large but massive, with a thick neck, shaggy throat feathers, and a Bowie knife of a beak. In flight, ravens have long, wedge-shaped tails. They're more slender than crows, with longer, narrower wings, and longer, thinner “fingers” at the wingtips. Common Ravens are entirely black, right down to the legs, eyes, and beak.
Behavior
Common Ravens aren’t as social as crows; you tend to see them alone or in pairs except at food sources like landfills. Ravens are confident, inquisitive birds that strut around or occasionally bound forward with light, two-footed hops. In flight they are buoyant and graceful, interspersing soaring, gliding, and slow flaps.
Habitat
Common Ravens live in open and forest habitats across western and northern North America. This includes deciduous and evergreen forests up to tree line, as well as high desert, sea coast, sagebrush, tundra, and grasslands.
Diet
Common Ravens will eat almost anything they can get hold of. They eat carrion; small animals from the size of mice and baby tortoises up to adult Rock Pigeons.
Description
The Ring-billed is a medium-sized gull with a fairly short, slim bill. When the gull perches, its long, slender wings extend well past its square-tipped tail. In flight, the birds move lightly on easy flaps of their fairly slender wings.
Behavior
The Ring-billed is a medium-sized gull with a fairly short, slim bill. When the gull perches, its long, slender wings extend well past its square-tipped tail. In flight, the birds move lightly on easy flaps of their fairly slender wings.
Habitat
Ring billed gull lives near ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and occasional near the ocean.
Diet
Ring-billed Gulls eat mostly fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, and grain.
Description
A huge water bird with very broad wings, a long neck, and a massive bill that gives the head a unique, long shape. They have thick bodies, short legs, and short, square tails. During the breeding season, adults grow an unusual projection or horn on the upper mandible near the tip of the bill.
Behavior
American White Pelicans feed from the water’s surface, dipping their beaks into the water to catch fish and other aquatic organisms. They often upend, like a very large dabbling duck, in this process. They do not plunge-dive the way Brown Pelicans do. They are superb soarers and often travel long distances in large flocks by soaring. When flapping, their wingbeats are slow and methodical.
Habitat
American White Pelicans typically breed on islands in shallow wetlands in the interior of the continent.
Diet
American White Pelicans eat mostly small fish that occur in shallow wetlands, such as minnows, carp, and suckers.
Ring Billed Gull
Larus delawarensis
American White Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
The Birds of Yellowstone Park
From the grasslands to the alpine tundra Yellowstone has multiple terrains all of which have a vast amount of colorful birds