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List of birds of Mississippi facts for kids

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This list of birds of Mississippi helps us learn about all the different bird species that have been seen and officially recorded in the state of Mississippi. The Mississippi Ornithological Society Bird Records Committee (MBRC) keeps this list up to date.

As of March 2018, there were 426 different bird species on the official list. Some birds are seen regularly, while others are more rare visitors. Here's what some of the special tags mean:

  • Casual (Ca) - These birds are seen sometimes, usually in 4 to 8 years out of every 10 years.
  • Accidental (A) - These birds are very rare visitors, seen in 3 or fewer years out of every 10 years.
  • Introduced (I) - These birds were brought to North America by people, either on purpose or by accident.
  • Extirpated (E) - These birds used to live in Mississippi but are not found here anymore, even though they still live in other places.
  • Extinct (Ext) - These birds no longer exist anywhere in the world.

This list follows the scientific order from the Check-list of North and Middle American Birds, which is put together by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). The names of the bird families come from the Clements taxonomy.

Unless we say otherwise, all the birds listed below are usually found in Mississippi. They might live here all year, visit in summer or winter, or just pass through during migration.

Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl

Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae

This family includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are amazing swimmers! They have webbed feet, flat bills, and special oily feathers that keep them dry in the water.

New World Quail

Order: Galliformes Family: Odontophoridae

New World quails are small, plump birds that live on the ground. They look a bit like Old World quails but are not closely related.

Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies

Order: Galliformes Family: Phasianidae

This family includes pheasants and their relatives. They are ground-dwelling birds, usually plump with short, wide wings. Many of them are hunted for sport or raised for food.

Flamingoes

Order: Phoenicopteriformes Family: Phoenicopteridae

Flamingoes are tall, wading birds, usually about 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) tall. They live in groups and filter tiny shellfish and algae from the water. Their unique beaks are used upside-down to separate food from mud!

Grebes

Order: Podicipediformes Family: Podicipedidae

Grebes are small to medium-sized diving birds that live in freshwater. They have special lobed toes that make them excellent swimmers and divers. However, their feet are set far back on their bodies, so they are clumsy on land.

Pigeons and Doves

Order: Columbiformes Family: Columbidae

Pigeons and doves are birds with sturdy bodies, short necks, and slender bills. They have a soft, fleshy area at the base of their bill called a cere.

Cuckoos

Order: Cuculiformes Family: Cuculidae

The cuckoo family includes cuckoos, roadrunners, and anis. These birds vary in size and have slender bodies, long tails, and strong legs.

Nightjars and Allies

Order: Caprimulgiformes Family: Caprimulgidae

Nightjars are medium-sized birds that are active at night. They usually nest on the ground. They have long wings, short legs, and very short bills. Their soft feathers are colored to help them blend in with bark or leaves.

Swifts

Order: Apodiformes Family: Apodidae

Swifts are small birds that spend most of their lives flying. They have very short legs and almost never land on the ground. Instead, they perch on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long, swept-back wings that look like a crescent moon.

Hummingbirds

Order: Apodiformes Family: Trochilidae

Hummingbirds are tiny birds famous for hovering in mid-air. They can do this by flapping their wings incredibly fast. They are also the only birds that can fly backward!

Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Order: Gruiformes Family: Rallidae

This is a large family of small to medium-sized birds like rails, crakes, coots, and gallinules. They usually live in thick plants near lakes, swamps, or rivers. They are often shy and hard to spot. Most have strong legs with long toes and short, rounded wings.

Cranes

Order: Gruiformes Family: Gruidae

Cranes are large, tall birds with long legs and long necks. Unlike herons, which look similar, cranes fly with their necks stretched out. They are known for their fancy and noisy courtship dances.

Stilts and Avocets

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Recurvirostridae

This family includes avocets and stilts, which are large wading birds. Avocets have long legs and long, upward-curving bills. Stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin, straight bills.

Plovers and Lapwings

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Charadriidae

This family includes plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short thick necks, and long, pointed wings. They usually live in open areas, especially near water.

Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Scolopacidae

This is a large and varied family of shorebirds, including sandpipers, curlews, and snipes. Most of them eat small insects and other tiny creatures they find in mud or sand. Different bill and leg lengths allow many species to feed in the same places without competing for food.

Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Order: Charadriiformes Family: Laridae

This family includes gulls, terns, and skimmers. They are typically gray or white, often with black markings on their heads or wings. They have strong, longish bills and webbed feet.

Loons

Order: Gaviiformes Family: Gaviidae

Loons are aquatic birds, about the size of a large duck, but they are not related to ducks. They are mostly gray or black with spear-shaped bills. Loons are excellent swimmers but clumsy on land because their legs are at the back of their bodies.

Storks

Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ciconiidae

Storks are large, heavy, wading birds with long legs, long necks, and strong bills. They have wide wingspans. Unlike other wading birds, storks don't have special "powder down" to clean off fish slime. They also don't have a voice box, so they are mostly silent.

Frigatebirds

Order: Suliformes Family: Fregatidae

Frigatebirds are large seabirds found over tropical oceans. They are mostly black, with long wings and deeply forked tails. Males have colorful throat pouches that they can inflate. They are amazing fliers and can stay in the air for more than a week!

Boobies and Gannets

Adult Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) (8372971390)
Brown booby

Order: Suliformes Family: Sulidae

This family includes boobies and gannets. Both are medium-large coastal seabirds that dive headfirst into the water to catch fish.

  • Brown booby, Sula leucogaster (A)
  • Northern gannet, Morus bassanus

Anhingas

Order: Suliformes Family: Anhingidae

Anhingas, also called darters or snakebirds, are water birds that look like cormorants. They have long necks and long, straight beaks. They eat fish and can dive for a long time. They often swim with only their neck above the water, looking like a water snake.

Cormorants and Shags

Order: Suliformes Family: Phalacrocoracidae

Cormorants are medium to large aquatic birds, usually with dark feathers and colorful skin around their faces. Their bills are long, thin, and hooked. They have four webbed toes.

Pelicans

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Pelecanidae

Pelicans are very large water birds with a unique pouch under their beak. Like other birds in their group, they have four webbed toes.

Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Ardeidae

This family includes herons, egrets, and bitterns. Herons and egrets are wading birds with long necks and legs. Herons are generally larger, and egrets are smaller. Bitterns tend to have shorter necks and are more secretive. Unlike storks, these birds fly with their necks pulled back in a curve.

Ibises and Spoonbills

Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Threskiornithidae

This family includes ibises and spoonbills. They have long, wide wings and long bodies, necks, and legs. Ibises have long, downward-curved bills, while spoonbills have straight bills that are flattened at the end.

New World Vultures

Order: Cathartiformes Family: Cathartidae

New World vultures are not closely related to Old World vultures, but they look similar because they evolved to do the same job: scavenging. Like Old World vultures, they eat dead animals. But unlike them, New World vultures have a great sense of smell to find carcasses.

Ospreys

Order: Accipitriformes Family: Pandionidae

Ospreys are birds of prey that eat fish. They have a very large, strong, hooked beak for tearing meat, strong legs, powerful claws, and excellent eyesight. There is only one species in this family.

Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Order: Accipitriformes Family: Accipitridae

This family includes hawks, eagles, kites, and harriers. They are birds of prey with very large, hooked beaks for tearing meat, strong legs, powerful claws, and keen eyesight.

Barn-Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Tytonidae

Barn-owls are medium to large owls with big heads and a special heart-shaped face. They have long, strong legs with powerful claws.

Owls

Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae

Typical owls are solitary birds of prey that are active at night. They have large eyes that face forward, good hearing, a hawk-like beak, and a circle of feathers around each eye called a facial disk.

Kingfishers

Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedinidae

Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails.

Woodpeckers

Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae

Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks, short legs, stiff tails, and long tongues for catching insects. Many woodpeckers tap loudly on tree trunks with their beaks.

Falcons and Caracaras

Order: Falconiformes Family: Falconidae

This family includes falcons and caracaras. They are different from hawks and eagles because they kill their prey with their beaks instead of their claws.

New World and African Parrots

Order: Psittaciformes Family: Psittacidae

Parrots have strong, curved bills, an upright posture, strong legs, and clawed feet that can grasp things. Many parrots are brightly colored.

Tyrant Flycatchers

Tropical kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)
Tropical kingbird

Order: Passeriformes Family: Tyrannidae

Tyrant flycatchers are songbirds found across North and South America. They look a bit like Old World flycatchers but are stronger and have sturdier bills. Most of them eat insects.

Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis

Order: Passeriformes Family: Vireonidae

Vireos are small to medium-sized songbirds. They are usually greenish and look like wood warblers, but they have heavier bills.

Shrikes

Order: Passeriformes Family: Laniidae

Shrikes are songbirds known for catching other birds and small animals. They sometimes impale their uneaten prey on thorns, like a butcher. A shrike's beak is hooked, similar to a bird of prey.

Crows, Jays, and Magpies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae

This family includes crows, ravens, and jays. Corvids are larger than average songbirds, and some of the bigger species are very intelligent.

Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

Order: Passeriformes Family: Paridae

This family includes small, stocky woodland birds with short, strong bills. Some have crests on their heads. They are adaptable birds that eat a mix of seeds and insects.

Larks

Order: Passeriformes Family: Alaudidae

Larks are small ground birds known for their often beautiful songs and display flights. Most larks have dull colors. They eat insects and seeds.

Swallows

Order: Passeriformes Family: Hirundinidae

This family of birds is built for flying and catching food in the air. They have slender, streamlined bodies, long, pointed wings, and short bills with wide mouths. Their feet are better for perching than walking.

Kinglets

Order: Passeriformes Family: Regulidae

Kinglets are a small family of tiny, insect-eating birds. Adult kinglets have colorful crowns on their heads, which is how they got their name.

Waxwings

Order: Passeriformes Family: Bombycillidae

Waxwings are birds with soft, silky feathers and unique red tips on some of their wing feathers. These tips look like sealing wax, giving the birds their name. They live in northern forests and eat insects in summer and berries in winter.

Nuthatches

Order: Passeriformes Family: Sittidae

Nuthatches are small woodland birds. They have a special ability to climb down trees headfirst, which most other birds cannot do. Nuthatches have big heads, short tails, and strong bills and feet.

Treecreepers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Certhiidae

Treecreepers are small woodland birds, brown on top and white underneath. They have thin, pointed, downward-curved bills that they use to pull insects out of tree bark. They have stiff tail feathers, like woodpeckers, which help them support themselves on vertical trees.

Gnatcatchers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Polioptilidae

The Polioptilidae family includes small, insect-eating songbirds called gnatcatchers and gnatwrens.

Wrens

Rock wren (9471734327)
Rock wren

Order: Passeriformes Family: Troglodytidae

Wrens are small and often hard to see, but they have very loud songs! They have short wings and thin, downward-curved bills. Many species hold their tails straight up. All wrens eat insects.

Mockingbirds and Thrashers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Mimidae

This family includes thrashers, mockingbirds, and catbirds. They are famous for their amazing singing abilities, especially their skill at copying the sounds of other birds and outdoor noises. These birds usually have dull gray and brown feathers.

Starlings

Order: Passeriformes Family: Sturnidae

Starlings are small to medium-sized songbirds with strong feet. They fly strongly and directly and often gather in large groups. They prefer open areas and eat insects and fruit. Their feathers are usually dark with a metallic shine.

Thrushes and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Turdidae

Thrushes are a group of songbirds that are plump and have soft feathers. They are small to medium-sized and eat insects or sometimes everything. They often feed on the ground. Many thrushes have beautiful songs.

Old World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes Family: Passeridae

Old World sparrows are small songbirds. Generally, sparrows are small, plump, brownish or grayish birds with short tails and strong, short beaks. They eat seeds but also small insects.

Wagtails and Pipits

Order: Passeriformes Family: Motacillidae

This family includes wagtails, longclaws, and pipits. They are slender, insect-eating songbirds that feed on the ground in open areas. They often have medium to long tails.

Finches, Euphonias, and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Fringillidae

Finches are songbirds that eat seeds. They are small to medium-sized and have strong, often cone-shaped bills. They have a bouncy flight pattern, flapping and then gliding with closed wings. Most finches sing well.

New World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes Family: Passerellidae

These birds are called sparrows, but they are not closely related to the Old World sparrows. Many of them have unique patterns on their heads.

Yellow-breasted Chat

Order: Passeriformes Family: Icteriidae

This bird used to be grouped with the wood-warblers, but scientists decided it was unique enough to have its own family in 2017.

Troupials and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Icteridae

This group includes grackles, New World blackbirds, and New World orioles. They are small to medium-sized, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most have black as their main feather color, often brightened with yellow, orange, or red.

New World Warblers

Order: Passeriformes Family: Parulidae

Wood warblers are a group of small, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most live in trees, but some live on the ground. Most members of this family eat insects.

Cardinals and Allies

Order: Passeriformes Family: Cardinalidae

Cardinals are a family of strong, seed-eating birds with powerful bills. They usually live in open woodlands. Males and females often have different feather colors.

See also

  • List of North American birds
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List of birds of Mississippi Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.