William H. Wiley
402-875-1809
bill@wmwiley.com
1221 Rockhurst Dr.
Lincoln, NE 68510
The Common Loon is the Minnesota state bird. It has a black bill, red eyes and a spotty black and white body with a black/iridescent green head. The common loon has four calls. The tremolo, which sounds like maniacal laughter, is an aggressive call. The wail is a long, drawn-out sound that people mistake for a wolf. The hoot, a shorter call, is used to communicate among parents and young. Male loons make a yodel sound when guarding their territory. Loons can dive as deep as 250 feet to search for food.
Photographed in Wilderness Park near Lincoln, Nebraska, the male House Finch is known for its bright red head and cheerful song. Its historic range is the western United States to southern Mexico, but it was introduced to the northeastern United States about 1940. Its habitat now includes cities, suburbs and farms.
The Great White Heron builds tree nests in colonies called rookeries. Always close to water, heron nests are typically built a few feet above the high tide mark and are made of heavy twigs and small branches. The Great White Heron’s diet consists primarily consists of fish, amphibians and crustaceans and they catch their prey by stalking and silently waiting before swiftly striking with their long beaks. Their spectacular plumage nearly caused their extinction in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when hat makers used their pure white feathers in fashionable ladies’ hats.
