bird names

Great Blue Herons Aren’t Really Blue – So What’s Up With Their Name?

By Mia McPherson|November 10th, 2020|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Great Blue Herons, Utah|Tags: Ardea herodias, bird identification, bird names, flight, flying, frozen, Great Blue Heron, habitat, heron, herons, ice, marsh, marsh habitat, mountains, resting, sky, snow, wading birds, water, wetlands, winter|

The name "Great Blue Heron" has always seemed off to me because these large herons are much more gray than they are blue.

West Desert Juniper Titmouse Feeding On Juniper Berry Seeds

By Mia McPherson|November 27th, 2019|Categories: Birds, Juniper Titmouses, Simpson Springs, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: Baeolophus ridgwayi, berry, bill, bird names, cone, desert, drab, eating, feeding behavior, gray, juniper, Juniper Titmouse, junipers, Juniperus osteosperma, nemesis, perched, plain, plural, seed, singular, titmice, titmouse, titmouses, Utah Juniper|

Because I have spent so much time out in the West Desert lately I have seen and heard quite a few Juniper Titmice moving through the junipers that dot the slopes of the mountains and foothills.