Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Association - WWRA

09/05/2026

A bird showed up at the refuge this week that caused a lot of excitement. A Roseate Spoonbill was spotted wading in the pool at the Observation Building and is our Wildlife of the Week.

The Roseate Spoonbill is a large, flamboyant wading bird that looks like it stepped out of a storybook. Adults feature brilliant pink body feathers accented by deep carmine-red shoulders and a crisp white neck and upper back. Their iconic feature is a 6-to-7-inch long, flattened, spoon-shaped (spatulate) bill. Breeding adults have a featherless, pale greenish-gray head with striking red eyes. Juveniles look paler and have fully feathered white heads. They stand roughly 2.5 to 3 feet tall with a wingspan exceeding 4 feet.

They wade slowly through shallow wetlands, keeping their bodies horizontal while sweeping their semi-opened bills from side to side. Using sensitive nerve endings in their bills, they detect and snap up small fish, shrimp, crabs, crayfish, and aquatic insects. Their signature pink coloration comes directly from natural pigments found in the crustacean-heavy diet they consume.

Spoonbills are serially monogamous, meaning they choose a new partner each breeding season rather than mating for life. Courtship includes ceremonial stick-passing and bill-clasping. They nest in dense colonies alongside other waders like herons and egrets. The female builds a bulky platform of sticks in trees or mangroves using materials brought by the male.

Females lay 2 to 5 white eggs speckled with brown. Both parents share incubation duties (around 22–24 days) and take turns feeding the hatchlings.

Wheeler is far outside the bird's normal territory. Roseate spoonbills are primarily coastal specialists, native to coastal marshes, mudflats, and mangroves along the Gulf Coast (such as Texas, Louisiana, and southern Florida), the Caribbean, and Central/South America. While young birds occasionally disperse inland during late summer post-breeding wanderings, northern Alabama is too far north and inland for regular visits, making a sighting at Wheeler a rare and exciting event.

Roseate Spoonbill photos by Tom Ress.

09/02/2026

Roseate Spoonbill at the Observation Building 9/1/26. (Video by George Lee)

08/30/2026

Our friends at the International Crane Foundation are hiring!

We are hiring! We are reopening our search for a talented individual to join our flock as the Outreach Program Assistant in Alabama (housing provided). This limited-term employment position is an exciting opportunity to make a meaningful impact for crane conservation.

👉🏽 Learn more and apply at savingcranes.org/careers

📸 George Lee

08/30/2026

Starting Monday, August 31, an 8-inch pump hose will be laid across Eagle Nest Island Road as part of ongoing improvements to Bibb ditch. Bicycle users should be alert for this obstacle and be prepared to dismount and carry your bicycle over the pipe.

Dump trucks will be traveling Arrowhead Landing Road and Eagle Nest Island Road delivering rock. Please use extreme caution if hiking or bicycling these roads.

08/28/2026

08/27/2026

The Black-bellied Whistling Duck is our Wildlife of the Week. It is a strikingly unique duck with a vivid coral-pink bill, bright pink legs, a chestnut-brown breast and back, a grey face, and a rich black belly. In flight, broad white wing patches contrast sharply against its dark body, accompanied by a high-pitched, musical whistle that gives the species its name.

Unlike many waterfowl that dive or filter feed exclusively in deep water, the Black-bellied Whistling Duck is primarily a terrestrial forager. Its diet consists largely of seeds from agricultural crops (especially corn, wheat, and rice) and wild plants including smartweed, grasses, and aquatic plants. They also consume insects, snails, and small mollusks, gleaned while grazing in shallow flooded fields or marsh edges

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks form strong, multi-year pair bonds, staying together throughout the year. They are cavity nesters, often choosing hollow tree cavities (frequently in oak, willow, or bald cypress trees) or artificial nest boxes, though they will occasionally nest on the ground if tree cavities are scarce. Both parents share parental duties equally—incubating the clutch of 12 to 16 white eggs and caring for the precocial ducklings after they leap from the nest cavity.

Historically, the Black-bellied Whistling Duck is a neotropical species whose core U.S. range was strictly limited to coastal Texas, Louisiana, and Florida but they have undergone a rapid, northward range expansion over recent decades, and seeing them at Wheeler NWR remains noteworthy. The refuge sits on the edge of their newly expanding northern range limit.

Unlike the massive wintering flocks of dabblers and diving ducks that carpet the refuge's impoundments from late fall to early spring, Whistling Ducks are primarily warm-weather visitors arriving in late spring or summer.

They compete with Wood Ducks for nest boxes on the refuge, and they are generally more aggressive when defending cavity sites. Because both species are cavity-nesters with near-identical size requirements for entrance holes and cavity volume, they will take over artificial nest boxes installed for Wood Ducks on the refuge.

Wood Ducks typically begin nesting earlier in the spring (February–April), while Whistling Ducks nest later (May–August). While this offset reduces some direct competition early in the year, late-nesting Wood Ducks or double-brooding pairs face intense competition as Whistling Ducks start to nest.

Whistling Ducks frequently deposit their own eggs into active Wood Duck nests. Wood Ducks will incubate these mixed clutches, sometimes resulting in a Wood Duck hen raising a mixed brood of Wood Duck ducklings and Whistling Duck ducklings.

Fun Fact: Nestlings take at ten to thirty foot leap of faith from their nest just one to two days after hatching. Because they are so light and covered in dense down, they bounce off leaf litter or splash into water completely unharmed, immediately lining up behind their parents to head off for their very first meal.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck photos taken in White Springs (Photos by Tom Ress)

08/12/2026

The Barred Owl is our Wildlife of the Week. This is a large, stocky woodland owl named for the horizontal brown and white striping ("barring") across its chest and vertical streaks along its belly. Unlike most eastern North American owls, which have yellow eyes, the Barred Owl is easily distinguished by its large, deep brown eyes.

Barred Owls prefer dense, mature forests near water, including bottomland hardwoods, swamps, and forested wetlands. They rely on large, old trees with thick canopies for roosting and natural hollows for nesting.

Highly opportunistic hunters, their diet consists primarily of small mammals (voles, mice, squirrels, and rabbits), as well as frogs, snakes, crayfish, fish, and smaller birds. They often perch quietly on low branches before swooping down on prey.

They form monogamous pairs that often mate for life and maintain the same territory year after year. Nesting typically begins in late winter (February through April). Because they do not build their own nests, they rely on existing tree cavities—often hollows carved out by Pileated Woodpeckers—or re-use abandoned hawk, crow, or squirrel nests. Females typically lay 2 to 3 eggs and incubate them for about 30 days while the male supplies food.

Barred Owls are year-round residents on the refuge. The refuge's 35,000 acres along the Tennessee River—specifically its extensive bottomland hardwood forests, swampy sloughs, and tributaries like Flint Creek—provide ideal hunting and nesting habitat.

One of the best places to spot or hear them on Wheeler is in Dancy Bottoms or near Blackwell Swamp, where mature hardwoods meet water features. Because they are semi-diurnal, visitors frequently spot them perched silently during early morning or late afternoon hikes. If you're lucky enough to spot an owl in daylight, odds are it is a Barred Owl.

Fun Fact: The Barred Owl's signature call sounds remarkably like a rhythmic human sentence: "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?" During pair bonding or territorial disputes, they can also break into loud "duets" consisting of squawks, cackles, and hooting that sound like maniacal laughter.

The Barred Owl in the photos was spotted near Arrowhead Landing (Photos by Tom Ress)

08/10/2026

It’s time for this year’s Alabama Bird Search - Youth Challenge. This is a fun game you can share with friends, families, guests to your organization, teachers, and anyone who might be interested or have kids interested in birding. Check out the information below and a QR code to scan to reach Alabama Audubon's website for the competition.

08/04/2026

Owl Awareness Day at the refuge was a huge success! A crowd of almost 200 excited and happy young people and parents enjoyed an owl talk and got to make a paper owl to take home.