There is nothing like the outdoors of Franklin County!

These birds are all-black, including bill and legs. They are social, intelligent, and are known to chase away larger birds. When flying, they rarely glide, instead continually flapping their wings.

This large, assertive songbird is the largest member of the thrush family in North America. Under bellies are orange and wings are grey-brown. Females have paler heads. A patch of white can be seen on the lower belly and tail.

(female pictured)  It has a large head with a ragged crest and is powder blue with a white chest. Males have a blue band across the chest. Females have a blue and brown band across the chest. These birds are found near water.

A tiny bird with a short neck, it has an oversized, round head and tiny body. They have a black cap and ragged-edge black bib with white cheeks, gray and white wings, and a light beige, somewhat orange underbelly. They usually fly alone and have a “bouncy” flight.

Another large songbird, bigger than a robin, has a bright blue crest, back and wings with a white face, black beak, and black markings. This bird has a loud, distinctive call and is fond of acorns.

A tiny, brown and beige bird with a white or gray underbelly is seen on tree trunks, searching for insects in the bark with their slender, down-curved bill. They have a high, warbling song..

A big water bird with a long, black neck and white markings is often seen in flocks. It has dark brown wings and back. Its calls often signal the change of season in spring and fall.

Males are a bright red and females are brown with a bright red crest and red markings on their bodies. Both have red bills. These songbirds do not migrate and do not molt, so they are easily spotted in winter.

Easily confused with its northern relative–the black capped chickadee, this chickadee has more gray and less of a brownish-orange tinge. It has the black cap and bib, but the bib is framed by pale gray. Sings a very quick chickadee-dee-dee.

These little songbirds feed on seeds at ground-level, hide in the underbrush, and sing from the treetops. A distinctive, rust-color crest marks this predominantly gray throat and chest with a contrasting brown and black striped wings. The beak is tinged with pink, and there is a black stripe through the eye.

This sooty, black all-over bird is large with a thick neck, a long, double-edged beak and shaggy feathers around the neck. It travels alone or in pairs and has a gurgling croak. In flight, the raven is more slender than a crow.

Found in woodlands, this bird preys on smaller birds. It is a steel-blue or gray with a reddish, rust-colored bar on the underbelly. Immature Cooper’s Hawks are brown. It has a flap, flap, and glide flight pattern. When hunting, it may fly close to the ground and up over any obstacle before dropping quickly to strike its prey.

In the sparrow family, this bird is dark gray, slate, or brown with a white belly and a pink bill. These birds are often seen hopping around the base of trees or shrubs foraging for seeds.

Named for the phoebe sound it makes, this bird is a small flycatcher with a dark head and a pale gray back and wings. It also makes a peep sound and as it sits wags its tail up and down.

Looking much like the American Crow, this bird can be distinguished by its nasal calls. As they call, they puff out their neck and body feathers. These birds also raid the nests of other birds, eating eggs.

This large owl with tufts of feathers on each side of the head, yellow-orange eyes, and a deep series of four or five hoots is also known as a hoot owl or a tiger owl. These birds are dappled gray and brown with ruddy brown faces and a white patch on the throat or chest. The female is larger than the male.

A medium brown with a reddish tail, a white chest speckled with brown spots, and a chunky body forages on forest floors for insects and leaf matter. It has a sad-sounding song, which is similar to “oh, holy, holy, ah, purity, purity, eeh, sweetly, sweetly.

These birds have a chunky body and proportionally large, round head. Males have a black bill, throat, and bib plus reddish wings with black streaks and a white stripe. Females are gray on the underside and brown on the top-side with dark streaks on the back and wings.

A tiny, compact bird with a long, pointed bill, it is blue-gray with a black cap and black stripe through the eye, contrasted by surrounding white around the eyes and throat. Its flight is short and bouncy, and its calls sound like “yank-yank.”

This seed-eater gravitates to pine trees and can be identified by the yellowish color and white bars on gray wings. Females can be gray-brown. Both have a notch in the tail.

These birds flit through dense vegetation in short flights. A downward pumping of the tail is a noticeable feature. It is colored brown and gray with a white chest. Thick, brown streaks across the entire body are a distinctive features.

A tiny, chubby bird with much energy can be identified by its constant wing-flicking. It is smaller than a warbler or chickadee, an olive color across the body, and bright yellow-green markings on the wings. The male has a bright red crest, which it exposes when upset.

A very familiar duck, males of the species have an iridescent green head and a bright yellow bill. Females are speckled brown with orange bills.

This plump bodied, small-headed bird is light brown or tan with black spots on the wings and black tips on the tail feathers. Its flight is fast and straight. Their song and calls are coos, soft and sad.

In flight, the wings are short and point and look like a small, four-pointed star; hence the name starling. In summer, these birds are an iridescent purple-green. In winter, these birds are brown with bright, white spots. Starlings are noisy and travel in groups.

These stocky birds with long, pointed wings are elegant fliers and fluid singers. The males are blue-green on the topside and wings, white on the underbelly, and have a thin black mask around the eyes. Females have a duller brown on the top of the body.

The throat and breast of the male is deep orange with yellow around the eyes, a black crown, black wings and tail feathers, and thick white bars on the wings. Females are similar but not as vibrant. Both are most vibrant in breeding season. It is known for high-pitched song, which sounds like zip,zip, zip,zip, titititi, tseeee.

These little songbirds are boldly striped black and white. The stripes of males are the boldest; the females are paler and may have tan around the flanks. It is an insect-eater, crawling up and down on trees; it nests on the ground.

These sparrows are brown on the topside and gray on the underside along with a black-and-white striped head, a white throat, and yellow between the eyes and bill. Its song sounds like “Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada” or “Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody.”

The smallest North American woodpecker appears to be black-and-white checked with a striped head. The male has a small red patch. It has a chisel-like bill and block head.

A medium-sized woodpecker is larger than a Downy Woodpecker. It has a larger bill, nearly the same size as the head, black wings checkered with white, and a large white patch down the center of its black back.

A large-sized woodpecker is the size of a crow. It is black with a white strip from the neck to a very red crest. Males have a red stripe on the cheek. In flight, the white under-wings are visible. The main food of this woodpecker is the carpenter ant.

This is a small-to-medium woodpecker with black and white patterned faces, a yellow or white underside, and black and white stripes curved toward the chest. Both genders have red foreheads. Males also have red throats. These birds feed on tree sap and insects. The noise of its drumming is slower and more irregular than other woodpeckers.

On each of its sides, the eastern chipmunk has a white stripe banded with a black stripe and a black strip in the middle of the back. It eats seeds, nuts, fruits, plants, mushrooms, insects, and worms. It stores food and transports it to its burrow using the pouches in its cheeks.

The body of a coyote is more dog-like and larger than a fox. It runs up to 43 mph. Like the fox, it is omnivorous, eating a variety of foods but is a pack-hunter. At night, coyotes communicate in yips, barks, and howls.

It is the most abundant and visible large mammal in Pennsylvania. The species is brown in summer, getting a grayer shade in winter but always with a white under-tail. Predominantly an herbivore, whitetails eat plants, leaves, bulbs, grasses, fruit and acorns as well as corn and other farm crops. It is attracted to this area by the nearby apple orchard and corn fields.

A groundhog is a large, hibernating rodent. It is actually the largest member of the squirrel family, although it lives on ground and hibernates underground. It is primarily a grass and berry-eater but does eat insects occasionally.

These rodents can be gray, brown or reddish and are white on the underside with large ears and long tail. It is an omnivore, eating seeds, berries, nuts, insects, and fungi and has been known to eat up to 30% of its body weight.

The small rodent has a yellow-orange hue to its fur, a tail more than 50% of its body size with a distinctive white tip, and over-sized back legs to support jumps in excess of 5 feet.

This medium mammal is covered with gray fur and sports a distinctive black mask and black bands on its tail. An omnivore, the northern raccoon has a diverse diet, eating easy-to-catch vertebrates, invertebrates and plant life. It likes the safety a quick run up a tree affords

This shrew likes grassy areas and areas with wet leaf matter. It eats fungi, seeds, mice, snails, and earthworms—making the habitat around the vernal pools quite desirable.

About the size of a cat, the striped skunk has a black body with two white stripes, joining together near the nape of the neck. It is an omnivore, eating insects, nuts, bird eggs, mice, and voles. It is best known for its distinctive odor.

Look for the ruddy band along the back and a short tail to identify this small rodent. Voles are chubbier than mice and have rounder heads. It eats nuts, seeds, fungi, plants, insects, and snails and will store bulbs and roots to eat later. Its predators are hawks and owls.