Photo Essay
The Diversity of Midland's Urban Forest: Birds
The 2008 class of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists and other volunteers took thousands of pictures of wildlife in the urban landscape of Midland. We have selected the 250 best photos. Among the photographers are R.L. Orth, Sharon Long, Nina McCart, Chris Cherry, Randall Rogers, Leslie Harman, Taffy Armstrong, J.D. Drissel.
Related: Essay | Insects | Mammals | Plants | Reptiles
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A young mockingbird investigated a fruit tree. When a baby bird leaves the nest they often have fat reserves to help keep them alive as they learn where they can get a meal, and what dangers they may encounter. It is a difficult time, and over half of the birds that leave the nest are dead within a month.
Cardinals come to bird seed placed on the ground. They are especially fond of cracked corn, and after a while will become so acclimated to people that they will feed within a few feet of a motionless observer.
Many baby birds, including mockingbirds, leave the nest before they can fly. They stand on the edge of the nest, exercising their wings, and whoops! They tumble off, and then spend two or three days having to run away from any threat.
A female great-tailed grackle examined a Chinese Pistache with nuts. Grackles are omnivores and eat almost anything.
A male Great tailed grackle paraded on a rooftop, strutting his stuff for any watching female, raising his beak to the sky and squawking about how cool he is.
Roadrunners skulk around in town. Their droppings are seen more often than they are. They eat English Sparrows, lizards, dog food, rotten fruit, vegetables in the garden and more.
Whitewinged Doves moved to Midland in 1980. They are now the most common dove in town. In one block, a careful observer can often find 50 or more, especially in neighborhoods with large trees. At times they fall victim to a disease that makes their eyes puffy and swell shut.
Curved-bill thrashers are not common in town, but several neighborhoods now have them. They are bossy birds, usually chasing away other birds at food and water. They are also sentinel birds, hollering if they see a predator, so every bird knows something dangerous has entered the neighborhood.
Killdeer nest on bare ground and usually feed on bare ground near water, but they are often found in town pecking in mowed grass.
Killdeer will even investigate pavement to see what tiny tidbits can be found - especially insects killed by cars.
Sometimes a homeowner will find a pile of feathers. Did a house cat make a kill? Or was it a hawk? This is probably a housecat kill, for hawks pluck the feathers.
English Sparrows came to America because someone wanted all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to live in America. Billions now live here in our urban areas - they have not adapted to country life.
A mourning dove tried to bluff a pigeon into moving, but the pigeon paid no attention.
Whitewinged doves will feed unconcernedly, even in the median of a busy street.
Barn swallows love to nest under the eaves of houses. Some people are repulsed by the idea and want the nests gone (which can be done, before any eggs are laid.) If eggs are babies are in the nest, it is illegal to destroy the nest. Other folks love to have the birds nearby, and cheerfully clean up their droppings in exchange for the many hours of observing their peaceful behavior.
Mississippi Kites come to town and nest every year. They defend their nests and sometimes strike people on the head so hard that stitches have to be administered. They eat cicadas, and since cicadas have diminished in numbers since the cicada wasps arrived in 1980, the numbers of Mississippi Kites have diminished as well.
On a hot summer afternoon, grackles and doves find shade and hang out together without too much squabbling.
Doves nest by the hundreds in town. All the species build flimsy nests which fall apart during thunderstorms. In one hailstorm, over 700 doves were found dead in one neighborhood, but within months, the neighborhood was full of doves again.
An Inca Dove figured out that a drip system was a great place to get a drink. Their numbers have been decreasing as the Eurasian Collared Doves keep spreading. The Collared Doves only arrived in Midland about 2004.
A Canyon Towhee found a compost heap a wonderful place to "ant." He allowed ants to crawl onto him so they would eat the tiny mites that were in his feathers.
In the winter Clay Colored Sparrows spend a while in the fields around town, and sometimes they venture into the grasses of city parks.
Swainson's Hawks spend the summer in West Texas, but rarely come to town.
Swainson's Hawks are jumpy and fly as soon as they see people.
Bullock's orioles will feed on sugar water like hummingbirds. Several companies now make oriole feeders. Normally they live high in the trees of town, and people do not notice them, but with a feeder - Wow!
Doves will nest even on a shelf in a garage, if the garage is left open.
A fledgling cardinal demanded food from its father. In a day or two, the father will quit feeding the youngster, and force the young one to survive on its own.
House finches live in Midland year around. They love to eat seeds, especially sunflower and thistle seeds.
Whitewinged doves call out "who cooks for you" or "Que lastima" depending on who you are. They will nest every month of the year from February to November, having two babies each time.
Western Kingbirds nest in town during the summer. They are loud and raucous, but they are great insect catchers, so they should be "put up with" even if their noise is aggravating.
Blue Jays moved to town in the 1970s and became year around residents in the neighborhoods with oak trees.
A few robins live in Midland year around, but in some winters thousands will come to town.
A young grackle demanded food from its mother.
Whitewinged doves will almost stand on each other when a good food source is found.
Coots swim in water in city parks, but they often walk around feeding on insects.
Female and male house finches usually travel in flocks (except in breeding season.)
At least a dozen pairs of barn owls nest in town. They eat mice and pocket mice. Sometimes they will make an eerie sound that makes people belief a child is being hurt.
A cat investigated a hawk-kill, looking for the gizzard that the hawk always leaves behind.
Kestrels sometimes nest on the ledges of the tall buildings in town. They often visit the tall buildings, looking for English Sparrows.
This one only squawked when it saw someone inside looking at him.
A curved-bill thrasher found an earthworm at daybreak to take to its nest.
This ugly little dude is a baby house finch in its nest in a hanging basket on the porch of the photographer's house.
After a big thunderstorm, baby doves huddled on the ground, their nest destroyed.
Eurasian collared doves are larger than whitewinged doves, and are pale gray with a partial necklace on their neck. After they escaped from captivity in Key West about fifteen years ago, they have spread over at least half of the United States.
Wadley Barron Park always has some Mallards. They may be descendants of once tame ducks.
When a home builder clears a lot and some rain falls, a killdeer always appears to check out what bugs might be in the water.
Blacknecked stilts will sometimes hangout at the local golf courses during the summer.
These male house finches began fighting after this picture was taking. They flew against each other, flapping higher and higher. The females left with the winner.
Curved-bill thrashers scampered across an unwatered area at Midland College, and fought over what the first one found.
Burrowing owls nest in the old prairie dog holes at Midland College. When a person arrives, they duck down into the hole.
After a few minutes they will slowly emerge if an observer is patient.
Dark eyed Juncos spend the winter in Midland, feeding on seeds on the ground. White feathers on the sides of their tails make it easy to identify them when they fly away. They spend the summer high in the Rocky Mountains.
Doves or pigeons? Whitewinged doves perched on a tree that had been pollarded - a rather improper way of making trees not quite so tall, but still done despite years of education by the local extension horticulturalist.
Another female Mallard hangs out at the Wadley Barron Park pond, showing off its hot orange legs and blue speculum.
Most of the pigeons in town live downtown on the high buildings, and feed in the parks.
A black crowned nightheron found a perfect perch to hunt for fish in an Odessa park.
Baby mockingbirds often leave the nest before they fly, but the parents continue to feed them.
Had this baby mocker already learned an adult's trick of flashing its wings to scare insects into moving so they can be caught?
A sharpshinned hawk perched in a tree during the winter, looking for another English Sparrow to catch for lunch.