I’ve always been fascinated by the birds of Oklahoma. From my chair on the patio I see lots of birds, as the neighbors have feeders for them.
Around here you might see the Blue Jay with his pretty blue plumage. The Northern Cardinal with his bright red feathers.
But there are so many more. These are the birds you will see in the area of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Tufted Titmouse
- Carolina Chickadee
- Carolina Wren
- Blue Jay
- Northern Cardinal
- Mourning Dove
- House Finch
- House Sparrow
- Common Grackle
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Tufted Titmouse
- Carolina Chickadee
- Carolina Wren
- Mockingbird
- American Robin
- Red-winged Blackbird
These birds most often populate the bird feeders.
Here in this neighborhood I mostly see: Mockingbirds, Red-winged Blackbird, the American Robin, Mourning Doves, Cardinals, House Sparrows, Woodpeckers, and Blue Jays.
I sit on my patio and take photos of them when I can get a zoomed in shot.
I’ve read that in the summer you might see the Painted Bunting or Indigo Bunting. But I have never been so fortunate.
There will sometimes be a rabbit, a squirrel, and a bird feeding on the ground within a small space.
When I lived in East Texas there was the Eastern Bluebird. Oh, how I loved photographing those birds!
I had a bird house up high on the fence for them and every spring the Eastern Bluebirds built their nest there for their young.
They were so colorful it almost hurt your eyes. A brilliant blue and orange.
Bird Behavior:
The birds best known for their aggressive behavior toward other birds are Blue Jay, Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, American Robin, Common Starling, and Gray Catbird.
Then there are the hawks. There are 9 species of hawks you will find here in Oklahoma.
- Red-tailed Hawks
- Red-shoulders Hawks
- Cooper’s Hawks
- Swainson’s Hawks
- Sharp-shinned Hawks
- Broad-winged Hawks
- Ferruginous Hawks
The hawks you will most often see in Oklahoma are Red-tailed Hawks.
Below are the birds I most often see here from my patio.
Blue Jay:
The Blue Jay is known for its aggressive behavior. At times they will raid nests. They’ve been known (Lord, I hope I never see it) to have decapitated other birds.
They are common in urban and residential areas, especially those with mature trees.
Blue Jays build an open cup nest in the branches of trees.
Northern Cardinal:
There is the Northern Cardinal and its mate. He will persistently defend his territory during the breeding season and chase other birds away. The Northern Cardinal couples live here year-round.
Northern cardinals are found statewide except for the western half of the Panhandle.
The cardinal has been known to attack his own reflection in windows and other reflective surfaces. The female is aggressive as well.
Mourning Doves:
Mourning Doves can reach speeds of 55 miles per hour. While in flight the Mourning Dove can escape most predators.
This may seem a little hard to believe, since they tend to move slowly about the yard.
These birds are mostly found in open country where there are scattered trees. They eat approximately 12 to 20 percent of their body weight in seeds every day.
During mating season they split off into breeding pairs. When they build a nest, the male will gather the materials and bring them to the female to build the nest.
American Robin:
Robins can be found statewide, year-round. They are often considered the harbinger of spring. If someone sees a robin they say that spring is almost here.
Robins will nest in trees, house gutters, and even on top of outdoor light fixtures.
Three to five eggs are incubated for about two weeks. Their chicks will leave the nest about two weeks after hatching.
These birds feed mostly on insects, earthworms, and fruit.
Mockingbird:
Mockingbirds are very territorial. The primary nesting and egg laying season is between April and July.
Mockingbirds are omnivores. The northern mockingbirds eat insects such as grasshoppers, caterpillars and beetles in summer. But in winter they rely on berries.
Northern Mockingbirds are usually seen alone or in pairs, but never in flocks.
These birds are common in urban areas and residential neighborhoods.
It can be difficult to attract mockingbirds to backyard feeders, but they are easily attracted if you provide water.
Carolina Wren:
Carolina Wrens are slightly smaller than a sparrow.
These birds can be found throughout the year in the eastern two-thirds of the state. They are fairly common in residential neighborhoods with mature trees and shrubs.
Red-bellied Woodpecker:
You will see these birds in both urban and residential areas where there are lots of mature trees.
This species does not normally migrate.
Red-bellied woodpeckers are seen alone or in pairs. At bird feeders they are attracted to suet, raisins, and black-oil sunflower seeds. They also eat insects and fruit.
Common Grackles:
Grackles can be a friend in your yard. They control insect populations, and a lot of those insects are harmful to plants.
Grackles are social birds, but do sometimes attack other grackles and species of birds.
They breed once yearly between March and July. Common Grackles typically build a nest high in a coniferous tree between two vertical limbs or on a horizontal branch.
House Finch:
House finches breed between March and August. The female builds the nests, which are shallow cups constructed of grasses, hair, or other fibers.
They are social birds and can be found in noisy groups.
House finches like to eat black-oil sunflowers, thistle, and millet.
House Sparrow:
House sparrows can be an invasive species. There 33 types of sparrows found in Oklahoma.
House Sparrows nest in bird houses, tree holes and in outdoor parts of buildings. They are aggressive and will take over another nesting birds site.
The main nesting season is from April to August.
Both parents feed the nestlings. They leave the nest about 2 weeks after hatching. There are typically 2-3 broods per year.
Cedar Waxwing:
In Oklahoma we will see the Cedar Waxwing mostly in winter. They will sometimes be mistaken for the female Cardinal.
Cedar Waxwings almost always travel in flocks, as they do most everything as a group. Several times I have seen the enormity of the group of Cedar Waxwings swoop in all at once.
They eat ripe berries and then all at once they fly away. It is quite something to see.
I rarely see hummingbirds, though I plant all kinds of flowers that attract them.
Hopefully with all the plants and flowers I’ve planted this year, I might get an opportunity to photograph a hummingbird.
But that has only occurred once that I can recall.
There must be hummers in the area if your neighbors have feeders out. If you want to see one, wear a red shirt when you are out sitting or gardening. Be prepared to be startled because their wings hum very loudly when in close proximity. I always “jump” when I’m not paying attention and one get close to or tries to land on me when I’m out digging in the dirt. Another fun bird to hear in the garden is a catbird. I always forget about them and think a lost cat is nearby and then I see the grey bird lol.
I love watching the birds. This year I planted a meadow in our circle driveway and the birds, bees and other pollinators love it. It’s fun to see them hop around, and splash in the birdbath.
I hope that you have a wonderful weekend Brenda.
We have 2 male cardinals who are constantly pecking our windows – and they’re not even clean. We don’t clean our windows, because we live out in the country, and birds fly into them and die.
I love watching birds . This year a pair of geese had babies by the pond behind me . The pond is nothing great it’s a retention pond . Then on one side of me on my neighbors outdoor light there’s a robins nest . And on the other side on top of the rain gutter there was a morning dove nest . My neighbors 2 door down feed the birds so I often see cardinals , blue jays and other small birds .
It’s funny how a cardinal will attack its own reflection. I saw that happen on a walk in the neighborhood. A cardinal was attacking itself in someone’s car side mirror. It made me laugh, and of course, I had to take a video and some pictures of it, lol.
Love to see the different birds around the country! Growing up near the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach County FL we were also only about 12 miles east of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, the northernmost remnant of the FL Everglades (Everglades National Park spans over 1.5 million acres in total).We would visit at various times of the year and it was very special to visit when the migrating birds alighted en masse , taking a break from their journeys in the protected wetlands:-) It was truly a wondrous sight! But I loved visiting at any time of the year as well.Thanks for sharing the beautiful birds of OK with us!
Birds are amazing…we lived in a very heavy crow area a few years ago. Rarely saw other birds tho…cause those beasts do not appreciate other birds either. But they are interesting…and excessively smart. Everyone warned us not to do anything against them that the crows could figure out. They were sitting on our bedside window area and aiming their poops at our car…and YEP, excellent aim too. No reason to do that as we had not done anything to chase them off. So hubby got online and found some fake crows…one hanging upside down wings spread out like dead. SO he hung that as close to our car as the porch roof reached…ha…no more poops, crows stayed away from that area entirely. However the so-called shrinks under us complained it bothered their patients to have that hanging there…no mind that come Halloween that office was decked inside and out, to the hilt…I guess that was different. So we had to remove that crow…life is stranger than fiction!!
Yes, people are strange for sure.
Brenda, I enjoy all your posts and doubly so when they are about creatures of all sorts. I live in a rural area in north central Oklahoma and see several of the species you wrote about as well as the scissor tail flycatcher. I did not the mourning dove had the capacity for such speed! We are visited by hummingbirds all day long. We have two feeders for them, so having a feeder available does draw them in more closely to your windows. We have actually seen six or seven drink simultaneously together at one feeder! There aerodynamics are such fun and they at times aggressively assert their territory, which is also a fun social phenomenon to observe.
My neighbors all around me have hummingbird feeders, but I still haven’t seen them.