Natural Notes: Migratory Birds of the Taylor Street Farms

The next time you visit the Taylor Street Farms, and urban organic community garden in Chicago's Little Italy area of the University Village neighborhood , I want you to do something.  On a nice sunny spring day, I want you to sit somewhere in the middle of the garden, anywhere you'd like, and close your eyes.  As you close your eyes, imagine that you are sitting in this same spot 200 years ago.  You look around and for miles you see nothing but tall grass prairie gradually descending into a marsh fed by the blue waters of Lake Michigan.  Try to tune out the sounds of trucks and honking cars and imagine those sounds being replaced with the trill calls of  thousands of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead as a gentle breeze brushes your ear.  You hear the warm, sweet song of a bright orange Baltimore Oriole singing from the tops of a 500 year-old Bur Oak tree which is surrounded by blooming yellow-lady-slipper orchids.  You are in pre-colonial Chicago. 

Now open your eyes.  You can see much has changed.  That big and burly oak tree with the singing oriole is long gone, as are the orchids surrounded by tall prairie grasses.  Your view of the lake is now obstructed by tall skyscrapers and elevated highways with trucks clinging and clanging by.  But not all as been lost since the development of the City of Chicago.  Birds, still abundant in terms of  their color and diversity, continue to fly over Chicago as they have done for thousands of years.  The landscape that they fly over has changed dramatically, but their flight path is still much the same.  And on a nice spring day, if you sit quietly in the garden, you might witness a small piece of the ancient and glorious phenomenon of the Chicago region's spring migration of birds.  

Figure 1:  Mallard ducks from left to right:  female and male
Image obtained from Wikimedia Commons
Birds, like most animals, need at least four things in order to live:  food, shelter, water, and space.  A place that provides these essential living requirements is referred to as an animal's habitat.  Different animals, including different birds, need different kinds of habitats.  For example, a duck, such as the ever-so-common mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)that you might have seen in local parks around Chicago (see figure 1), needs a pond with a bit of vegetation, as well as a clear bank in which to nest and lay eggs.  In contrast, the English House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), shown in figure 2, needs only some rafters or a small crack in the outer-wall of your apartment building in which to construct a nest and raise young.  
Figure 2:  A male House Sparrow in Germany.
Photo credits:  Adamo

Before Chicago was developed, there were many different types of habitats in the region that hosted many different species of birds and other animals.  The landscape of our city today, however, does not provide all of the essential ingredients for most animal habitats, but during spring migration birds still follow (more-or-less) the same flight path today as they did hundreds of years ago.  However, when they stop for a rest, the availability of adequate food and shelter is very limited, and as such small plots of naturalized land such as the Taylor Street Farms often serve as critical "stop-over" habitat for migrating birds.  The next time you are out in the garden in late April through early June, look for some of these migratory birds that are stopping by:

Figure 3:  Yellow-rumped warbler.  Photo credits:  John Brunelle
Yellow-rumped Warbler 
(Setophaga coronata)
This sparrow-sized songbird congregates in loose-flocks in shrubs and small trees in the garden, and is easily recognizable by its bright yellow "butt" or rump.  As such, bird enthusiasts often nickname this bird "butter-but."  Yellow-rumped warblers overwinter in Central and South America and breed during the summer in Canada.  They prefer open fields and woodland edges, and the Taylor Street Farms provides sufficient stop-over habitat for these brightly colored birds.  

Figure 4:  Palm warbler in breeding plumage.
Photo credits:  D. Gordon E. Robertson
Palm Warbler
(S. palmarum)
During the breeding season in the Spring, this small songbird has a streaky yellow-belly and a reddish-brown head.  An easy way to recognize this bird is by its almost continuous "tail pumping" as it moves up and down tree branches (see Video 1).  Palm warblers are sometimes found mixed in with flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  

     Video 1:  Palm warbler performing "tail-pumping" movements

Figure 5:  White-throated sparrow.  Photo credits:  John Brunelle
White-throated Sparrow
(Zonotrichia albicollis)
What looks like an ordinary brown sparrow (or what birders like to call "little-brown jobs") to the unobservant will look much more spectacular to those that pay attention. This bird has a bright white "throat" with a yellow and white crowned head.  They are actually beautiful, and so is there song which you are likely to hear in the garden on a nice warm spring day:  

Figure 6:  Dark-eyed Juncos (male and female). 
Photo credits:  SriMesh
Dark-eyed Junco
(Junco hyemalis)
Which would you prefer to do in the winter: sun bathe on a beach in the Caribbean or sunbath out in the garden?  If you ask a junco, he or she would probably choose the latter.  Juncos actually migrate down from Canada to overwinter in Chicago.  Look for a flash of white from the underside of their tale that can be seen when they take flight.  Juncos are mostly found in the winter foraging on the ground in the grass or below some small trees or shrubs.  

Figure 7:  American Goldfinches in their
spring and summer plumage  (male and female)
American Goldfinch
(Spinus tristis)
Goldfinches are actually year-round residents in Chicago, but only have their bright yellow coloration during the spring and summer.  They are often found in loose flocks eating the seeds of various weeds such as thistles and teasels (see figure 8), but they will also readily feed on sunflower seeds from any of the Taylor Street Farms garden plots.  




Figure 8:  A female goldfinch feeding on the seeds
of thistle, a commonly found weed.  

So the next time you are out in the garden in middle to late spring, be sure to not only stop to smell the roses but also to admire some of the birds that take temporary refuge in the beautiful urban gardens of the Taylor Street Farms.  

More information about birds and bird watching can be found at:  










Location: 1346 W Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60607, USA

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