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Birds of Iowa
As the weather gets warmers, Iowa's birds are ready to come out to play. Here are four birds that you can find in our state and some very cool facts about each of them. All the facts come from National Geographic, University of Michigan and the National Fish and Wildlife Service.
Cerulean Warblers are hard to find. Their populations have been declining as humans take over their habitats on the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys. This bird is tiny and weighs less than one ounce, which is less than a pencil. Cerulean Warblers eat flies, beetles, weevils and caterpillars.
The Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States. Bald Eagles are believed to mate for life, what that means is once they pick each other they stick together forever. The pair builds an enormous stick nest—one of the bird world's biggest—high above the ground and takes care of a pair of eggs each.
Look for Red-winged Blackbirds where there is standing water and vegetation. The happy songs of these birds mean spring is here. The oldest recorded red-winged blackbird in the wild lived for 15 years and 9 months.
The oldest known Wild Killdeer lived at least 10 years and 11 months. They eat insects, crustaceans and berries. There are around 1 million Killdeers in the world. Male and female Killdeers look about the same, unlike a lot of other types of birds.
