Midwest Avian Foundation

05/19/2026

I can see this being a problem here in Kansas!

05/06/2026

Just showing a little progress with Susie, a.k.a. Miss Majestic as she eats her chicken legs today if you don’t follow us, please do and soar high everybody🪶

04/05/2026

From Susie, a.k.a. Miss Majestic and all of us at Midwest Avian wishing you all a very happy Easter 🐰🐇🪶

03/12/2026

Why do hummingbirds hum? Because they don’t know the words!

March 12 is National Plant a Flower Day – and there is no other bird species more commonly associated with flowers than hummingbirds.

There are over 350 different species of hummingbird, of which about 20 are considered endangered, and close to 200 others are declining in population. They can be found as far north as Alaska, but most are found in Central and South America.

The smallest hummingbird, the bee hummingbird, is also the smallest bird species in the world, only about 2.5 inches in length and weighing less than one-tenth of an ounce – that’s lighter than a single U.S. penny!

If you want to attract hummingbirds to your yard, plant flowers with long, tube-shaped blossoms, like honeysuckle or trumpet vine, and opt for red, orange, or bright pink. There are also commercial hummingbird feeders available – if you go for one of these, be sure to avoid red dyed nectar mixtures. You can purchase pre-made nectar, or you can make your own: the recipe is four parts boiling water to one part plain white sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then cool completely before filling the feeder. During the summer, the nectar must be replaced – and your feeder rinsed out – every 2-3 days, to prevent the formation of mold.

03/07/2026

Today is National Cooper Day! A “cooper” is someone who crafts the wooden barrels for aging liquors. But it’s also the name of a bird of prey: the Cooper’s hawk!

Cooper’s hawks were named in honor of famed ornithologist William Cooper. They are a medium-sized hawk and are found across the North American continent, from southern Canada all the way down to Mexico.

Though they are classified as a hawk, their hunting techniques look more like falcons: they “course” or chase their prey on the wing, maneuvering around obstacles like miniature fighter jets. Birds make up the bulk of their diet, though they will also hunt lizards and small mammals.

Adults are either blue- or brown-gray over most of their bodies, a cap of darker feathers. Their undersides are a pale cream with speckles of reddish-brown. The tails are gray and black banded, with white tips. Juveniles tend to be more brownish overall and can be mistaken at first glance for a red tailed hawk.

Their wings can appear much shorter than other hawks’, but it is this that enables them to perform their acrobatic maneuvers in the hunt.

Cooper’s hawks are not often seen by the casual observer, as they prefer to perch high in trees rather than out in the open. But if you have a bird feeder, you have probably seen one of these nimble birds stopping by to pick up a snack – and I don’t mean the suet or seeds. These birds like to snack on the songbirds that are at your feeder.

While I’m sure it’s jarring to watch a hawk swoop down and sn**ch up an unsuspecting songbird, this is simply part of the circle of life. If you find a Cooper’s hawk treating your backyard feeder as a local Golden Corral, removing the feeder for a week or two will convince the Cooper’s to move on; then you can put the feeder back out.

03/03/2026

Today is International Ear Care Day, and we’re going to look at one of the things that make owls so special: their ears.

Owls ears are not those feather tufts that stick up from the tops of their heads: those are just feathers. Their ears – like the ears of all birds – are merely holes in the sides of their heads. But owl ears are asymmetrical; one ear sits higher than the other.

This, combined with another feature, gives owls the ability to hunt exclusively by sound. That other feature? Their eyes.

Or, rather, the feathers around their eyes. These feathers form large circles around each eye, and they perform the same job as our ear-lobes do: to funnel the sound to the ears.

Here’s how it works: a mouse moving through the grass makes a rustling sound, and those sound waves spread out until they meet the owl’s face. The feathers around the eyes (“facial disks”) bounce those sound waves toward the ear on the same side of the face.

But since the ears are off-set, depending on the direction from which the sound came, the sound waves will reach one of the two ears more quickly (as in micro-seconds) than the other. If the owl turns its head from side to side, the timing of when the sound waves reach each ear will change – this allows the owl to fix the position of the origin of the sound.

Barn owls are exceptionally good at this and laboratory experiments have proven that they can successfully locate and catch their prey with no light at all!

Hooray! Let’s “ear” it for owls!

03/02/2026

It doesn't seem like a dollar goes as far as it used to. 🤷‍♀️

If a person donated $1 to us, we could probably buy a single mouse for our birds. 🐀

But what would happen if a lot of people donated $1? 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♀️

The first Monday in every month is One$-Day Monday: donate one dollar to Midwest Avian Foundation and challenge your friends and family to also donate one dollar! How far can this dollar-donation go? How many dollars can we raise?

Donations will go towards food and care for our non-releasable educational birds.

Click here to donate: https://givebutter.com/ETwOLw

OR

Venmo
Cash App $MidwestAvian
Text MONDAY to 53-555

By Midwest Avian Foundation

02/27/2026

We’re at the end of National Invasive Species Awareness Week, and today we’re going to look at a species you probably see every day: the European starling.

These birds were intentionally released in a number of places throughout North America, but one of the most common stories is that the president of the American Acclimatization Society, Eugene Schieffelin, introduced 60 starlings into New York’s Central Park in 1890. It is rumored that he intended to introduce all bird species mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare to North America, but we don’t really know for certain.

What we do know is that, since then, the number of European starlings in North America has grown to an estimated 150 million. They can be found from Alaska and southern Canada all the way down to Central America, and from the east coast to the west. They’re everywhere.

These noisy birds can be found in all areas: wilderness, agricultural, suburban, and urban environments. The build rough nests of sticks or stems in any sort of hole: large business signs, cracks in walls, under eaves, on cliff faces. They are omnivorous, eating anything, including garbage; they often contaminate more than they consume. When they gather in large numbers, their droppings can accumulate.

They tend to be territorial during breeding seasons, but in the winter they will congregate into massive flocks that may number up to a million birds. These large flocks of birds sometimes form what’s called a murmuration – an aerial display in which the birds engage in complex and synchronized patterns. The flock appears to move as a single unit, expanding and contracting, flowing back and forth. It may serve to deter predators or even as sharing information on roosting sites.

There isn’t a lot anyone can do about invasive starlings. They are too numerous and too well-established. At most, you can prevent them from nesting on your property or destroy their nests if they do – just be sure it is really a starling nest and not one belonging to a native species.

Thank you for joining us this week for a look at some of the invasive species found in Kansas! We hope you found our posts informative and educational.

For more information on invasive species, visit the North American Invasive Species Management Association (NAISMA) at https://naisma.org/

02/26/2026

Bird mating is pretty straight-forward.

Right now, great-horned owls and barred owls have already finished that step, and have eggs laid, perhaps even already hatched.

But as spring approaches and the weather warms, birds across Kansas will start preparing for their own babies.

Birds hatch out from their eggs naked, eyes closed, completely helpless. They rely completely on their parents (or parent) for food, warmth, and protection, until they grow up enough to take flight.

But this is how it starts. Just a few seconds of contact leads to the next generation.

02/26/2026

Today’s invasive species is the Chinese bush clover. It’s a flowering plant in the legume family native to Asia. It is a perennial plant – meaning it regrows every year from the same root.

Chinese bush clover was intentionally introduced in North America in an attempt to control erosion and generate food for livestock. But this plant is suspected of being allelopathic, which means it produces biochemicals that can impair the growth of other plant species. When the plant species in an environment become less diverse – perhaps because this plant is crowding out other species – the area becomes less desirable for native wildlife.

Economically, this can increase the costs of managing the affected land. While cattle are not particular fond of the fresh plant, sheep and goats will readily chow down. However, since cows will consume other plants rather than this when grazing, using this method in an attempt to halt the spread will actually achieve the opposite.

While this isn’t a plant you are likely to find in your front garden, it can appear in native hay fields. When present, hay should be harvested before the plant begins to bud in mid-July; as it dries, the chemicals that make it unpalatable for cattle decay and it can result in high-quality hay. About six weeks after harvest, an approved herbicide can be applied.