• Migratory waterfowl permits are not required to hunt Crow, Woodcock, Common Snipe, Sora & Virginia Rails, or Gallinules. A pheasant permit is required to hunt pheasant in York and Cumberland counties. SUNDAY HUNTING IS ILLEGAL IN MAINE LEGAL HUNTING HOURS FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS.
• Maine does not only boast beautiful scenery, but also incredible wildlife. Some of the most popular Maine activities include looking for the different birds of Maine. From ducks and geese to chickadees and finches, this state has an abundance of birds that will delight even the most novice bird watchers. 5 Famous Birds of Maine.

Yellow Birds In Maine

Winter arrived with a vengeance here. Suddenly we had lots of snow on the ground and temperatures that stayed below freezing during the day and hovered around zero at night. The bird feeders were full of mixed seed, thistle seed, black oil sunflower seeds and big chunks of beautiful white suet. We had the snow, the cold temperatures and the feeders all ready to go… what we didn’t have were the birds.

Gorgeously illustrated with watercolors by Lars Jonsson and scores of line drawings by Barry Van Dusen, Birds of Maine is a remarkable guide that birders will rely on for decades to come. Identifying birds is at the very heart of bird watching. Each bird encountered is like a little puzzle or mystery to solve, because, while birds of a single species all share a certain set of physical traits, no two individual birds, like no two individual humans, are exactly alike. We’ll look at some pictures and learn some fun facts for the next time you see or hear one of these amazing birds! You may rarely get a different wandering migrant species, but the 7 most common species of woodpeckers in Maine are the Downy, Hairy, Northern Flicker, Pileated, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Three-toed, and the Black-backed Woodpecker.

Instead of dozens and dozens of chickadees flying in and out of the feeders, we now saw only three. There were five or six woodpeckers, four bluejays and eleven mourning doves… and yes, mourning doves will eat from an elevated feeder. Despite a heavy snowfall over two days, there were no other birds around.

The Audubon Society and several other local bird information sources insisted that nothing was wrong… that because of the warmer than usual fall weather and the unusually abundant sources of natural food… the birds were still finding plenty to eat in the wild. Another explanation they gave was that bird populations naturally fluctuate from year to year and that a feeder that is really “busy” one year may have few birds the next.

This is all true, but we have been feeding birds here for many, many years and it was obvious that there was something very different happening (or not happening). We had had the normal number of birds the previous winter and into spring and early summer. I think it was in July when we first noticed that there weren’t as many birds around as usual. We keep one feeder filled all summer, and we usually have baby birds perched on or around it with the parent birds feeding their babies from the feeder. I love watching them, and their screeching is hard to overlook, so I know for sure that there were no baby birds being fed at this feeder. We also didn’t see the usual number of baby robins.

I wonder… was it just too cold and wet for the summer’s baby birds to survive? Did the organized spraying campaigns kill the birds as well as the massive caterpillar population? Or did the birds just go somewhere else looking for better weather?

Birds In Maine Identification

Want To Keep Reading?

Migratory birds are one of the “trust resources” that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is charged by Congress to protect and conserve for the benefit of all American people. The migratory birds protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service include many species, from those familiar to Mainer’s, like the American robin and Northern cardinal, to the rare Bicknell’s thrush and sedge wren. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is one of the laws that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses to protect birds. The MBTA was born in an era when women adorned their hats with the feathers of many species of birds and people used pelican-quill pens to sign their letters. At the same time, uncontrolled market hunting of certain bird species had contributed to declining populations. Today, 1007 species of birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

Maine boasts a wide variety of migratory birds including passerines (songbirds), waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors, wading birds, and waterbirds. Some of these birds live in Maine year-round, while others are only here during the nesting season. Some species come to Maine for the winter and others only stop here briefly on their long migrations between nesting and wintering grounds elsewhere. But whatever their reason for being here in Maine, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with many partners to conserve all migratory birds and the many different habitats they depend on.

Wood Duck. Photo Credit: USFWS digital library
Wood ducks nest in tree cavities in wooded swamps and other types of forests but are never far from water in Maine. Their favorite food is acorns.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program strives to protect, restore, and manage migratory bird populations to :
● ensure long-term ecological sustainability of all migratory bird populations,
● increase socioeconomic benefits,
● improve hunting, bird watching, and other outdoor bird-related experiences,
● increase awareness of the value of migratory birds and their habitats for their intrinsic, ecological, recreational and economic significance.

Red-tailed hawk. Photo Credit: USFWS digital library
The red-tailed hawk is a common raptor throughout Maine. Their tell-tale red-brown tail feathers and raspy cry provide easy identification when this bird of prey is here during the summer months. Red-tailed hawks can spot a mouse from 100 feet in the air!

The Migratory Bird Program is responsible for maintaining healthy migratory bird populations for the benefit of the American people through:
● population monitoring, assessment, and management
● habitat conservation (e.g., National Wildlife Refuges in Maine, Refuge Locator Map Tool).
● permits and regulations
● consultation
● communication and outreach
● recreation

To learn more about migratory birds in Maine and throughout the United States, please explore the annual report on the State of the Birds. This report is prepared by the Fish and Wildlife Service and other Federal agencies and partners in bird conservation.

The Maine Field Office focuses much effort on the protection and conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. Our Conservation Planning Assistance program works with wetland permit applicants to minimize the impacts of developments on birds that live in Maine’s wetlands. We also work with hydro-electric power generators to protect common loons from the potentially adverse effects of fluctuating lake levels during the nesting season. Our Partners for Fish and Wildlife program works with private landowners to voluntarily restore and enhance habitat for migratory birds, such as salt marsh projects in coastal Maine. Our Environmental Contaminants program does important investigations with different species of birds, including bald eagles, seabirds, piping plovers, and others.

For more information about ways to minimize impacts to migratory birds see Hazards to Migratory birds

Did you know that each year, house cats and feral cats kill millions of birds and small mammals? To learn more about how cats affect our birds in Maine, check out these fact sheets:

Cats and Dogs and Birds on the Beach A Deadly Combination
Migratory Bird Mortality Many Human Caused Threats Afflict our Bird Populations
Also, see the position statement of the Maine Chapter of The Wildlife Society regarding free-ranging domestic and feral cats. The Wildlife Society is a scientific organization for wildlife professionals in the United States and around the world.

If you are unwilling to eliminate free-roaming cats by keeping your pets inside, do not attract birds to your yard by putting out feeders, nest boxes and baths. Eliminating free-roaming cats is the best way you can protect your backyard birds from cat predation.

Junior Duck Stamp Program

In another effort to promote migratory birds, the USFWS sponsors an annual Junior Duck Stamp competition among four groups encompassing grades K through 12. The Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program is a dynamic, art and science program designed to teach wetlands habitat and waterfowl conservation to students in kindergarten through high school and help reconnect youth with the outdoors. The program guides students, using scientific and wildlife observation principles, to communicate visually what they have learned through an entry into the Junior Duck Stamp art contest. This non-traditional pairing of subjects brings new interest to both the sciences and the arts. It crosses cultural, ethnic, social and geographic boundaries to teach greater awareness of our nation's natural resources.

Hooded merganser. Photo Credit USFWS digital image library
The hooded merganser is one of 13 species of “diving ducks” that occur in Maine, either during the nesting season or during the winter. Hood mergansers nest in tree cavities and propel themselves underwater with powerful strokes of their feet to feed on fish and crustaceans.