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List of birds of Saskatchewan facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Sharp-Tailed Grouse (26089894256) (cropped)
The sharp-tailed grouse is the official provincial bird of Saskatchewan.

This is a list of all the different kinds of birds found in Saskatchewan, a province in Canada. This list was put together by Nature Saskatchewan. As of September 2017, there were 436 different bird species on their list!

Some of the birds on this list are special:

  • Straggler (S): These birds don't usually live in Saskatchewan. They have been seen there 30 times or less.
  • Hypothetical (H): We think these birds might be in Saskatchewan, but there's no clear proof like a photo or sound recording. They are also considered stragglers.
  • Introduced (I): These birds were brought to Saskatchewan (or North America) by people, not by nature.

Sadly, one bird species on this list is completely extinct, meaning it's gone forever. Two others are extirpated, which means they are gone from Saskatchewan, but still live in other places. One more bird might also be extinct.

This list follows a special order, like a family tree for birds, from the American Ornithological Society.

Contents

Amazing Water Birds: Ducks, Geese, and Swans

Order: Anseriformes   Family: Anatidae

This family includes ducks, geese, and swans. These birds are built for life in the water! They have webbed feet for swimming, flat bills, and feathers that stay dry thanks to special oils.

Game Birds: Pheasants, Grouse, and Turkeys

Order: Galliformes   Family: Phasianidae

This family includes pheasants, partridges, grouse, and turkeys. These birds mostly live on the ground. They are usually plump with wide, short wings. Many of them are hunted for sport or raised for food.

Diving Birds: Grebes

Order: Podicipediformes   Family: Podicipedidae

Grebes are small to medium-sized birds that dive 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.

Gentle Flyers: Pigeons and Doves

Order: Columbiformes   Family: Columbidae

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

Hidden Birds: Cuckoos

Order: Cuculiformes   Family: Cuculidae

This family includes cuckoos, roadrunners, and anis. These birds come in different sizes, but they all have slender bodies, long tails, and strong legs.

Night Flyers: Nightjars and Allies

Order: Caprimulgiformes   Family: Caprimulgidae

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

Speedy Birds: 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. They perch only on vertical surfaces. Many swifts have long, swept-back wings that look like a crescent moon.

Tiny Wonders: Hummingbirds

Order: Apodiformes   Family: Trochilidae

Hummingbirds are tiny birds that can hover in the air by flapping their wings super fast. They are the only birds that can fly backward!

Secretive Birds: Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Order: Gruiformes   Family: Rallidae

This large family includes rails, crakes, gallinules, and coots. These birds usually live in thick plants near lakes, swamps, or rivers. They are often shy and hard to spot. Most have strong legs and long toes, perfect for walking on soft ground. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are not strong fliers.

Tall Birds: Cranes

Order: Gruiformes   Family: Gruidae

Cranes are large birds with long legs and long necks. When they fly, their necks are stretched out, unlike herons, which pull their necks back. Many cranes have special, noisy dances they do to find a mate.

Wading Birds: Stilts and Avocets

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Recurvirostridae

This family includes avocets and stilts. They are large wading birds. Avocets have long legs and bills that curve upwards. Stilts have extremely long legs and long, thin, straight bills.

Shoreline Birds: 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. You can find them in open areas all over the world, often near water.

Diverse Shorebirds: Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Scolopacidae

This is a large family of small to medium-sized shorebirds. It includes sandpipers, curlews, godwits, shanks, tattlers, woodcocks, snipes, dowitchers, and phalaropes. Most of these birds eat small bugs they find in mud or soil. Their different leg and bill lengths allow many species to feed in the same places without competing for food.

Ocean Hunters: Skuas and Jaegers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Stercorariidae

These are large birds, usually grey or brown, often with white on their wings. They have longish bills with hooked tips and webbed feet with sharp claws. They look like large, dark gulls but have a fleshy area above their upper bill. They are strong, skilled fliers.

Sea Birds: Auks, Murres, and Puffins

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Alcidae

Alcids look a bit like penguins because of their black and white colors and how they stand upright. However, they are not closely related and can fly! Auks live on the open sea and only come to land to nest.

Coastal Birds: Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers

Order: Charadriiformes   Family: Laridae

This family includes gulls, terns, kittiwakes, and skimmers. They are medium to large seabirds. They are usually grey or white, often with black on their heads or wings. They have strong, longish bills and webbed feet.

Diving Ducks: Loons

Order: Gaviiformes   Family: Gaviidae

Loons (also called divers in Europe) are aquatic birds about the size of a large duck, but they are not related to ducks. They are mostly grey or black and have bills shaped like spears. Loons are great swimmers and can fly well, but they are almost helpless on land because their legs are at the very back of their bodies.

Ocean Gliders: Frigatebirds

Order: Suliformes   Family: Fregatidae

Frigatebirds are large seabirds usually found over warm, tropical oceans. They are big, black, or black and white, with long wings and deeply forked tails. Male frigatebirds have colorful throat pouches that they can inflate. They don't swim or walk and can't take off from a flat surface. They have the largest wingspan for their body weight of any bird, allowing them to stay in the air for more than a week!

Dark Divers: Cormorants and Shags

Order: Suliformes   Family: Phalacrocoracidae

Cormorants are medium to large water birds, usually with mostly dark feathers and colored skin on their faces. Their bills are long, thin, and sharply hooked. They have four webbed toes on each foot.

Pouch-billed Birds: Pelicans

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Pelecanidae

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

Wading Hunters: Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Ardeidae

This family includes bitterns, herons, and egrets. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns usually have shorter necks and are more cautious. Unlike other long-necked birds, these birds fly with their necks pulled back.

Curved Bills: Ibises and Spoonbills

Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Threskiornithidae

This family includes ibises and spoonbills. They are large birds that live on land and in water. They have long, wide wings and are strong fliers. Even though they are big, they are very good at soaring in the sky.

Nature's Clean-Up Crew: New World Vultures

Order: Cathartiformes   Family: Cathartidae

New World vultures are not closely related to vultures from other parts of the world, but they look similar because they do the same job: they eat dead animals. Unlike other vultures that find food by seeing it, New World vultures have a great sense of smell to find carcasses.

Fish Hunters: Osprey

Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Pandionidae

This family has only one type of bird: the Osprey. Ospreys are birds of prey that eat fish. They have a very large, strong, hooked beak for tearing meat, powerful legs, strong talons (claws), and excellent eyesight.

Birds of Prey: Hawks, Eagles, and Kites

Order: Accipitriformes   Family: Accipitridae

This family includes hawks, eagles, kites, harriers, and Old World vultures. These birds of prey mostly have strong, hooked beaks for tearing meat from their food. They also have powerful legs, sharp talons, and amazing eyesight.

Night Hunters: Barn-Owls

Order: Strigiformes   Family: Tytonidae

Barn-owls are medium to large owls with big heads and unique heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons.

More Night Hunters: Owls

Order: Strigiformes   Family: Strigidae

The typical owls are small to large birds of prey that hunt alone at night. They have big eyes that face forward and excellent hearing. They have a beak like a hawk and a clear circle of feathers around each eye, called a facial disk.

Fishing Birds: Kingfishers

Order: Coraciiformes   Family: Alcedinidae

Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. They are known for diving into water to catch fish.

Tree Climbers: Woodpeckers

Order: Piciformes   Family: Picidae

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

Fast Fliers: Falcons and Caracaras

Order: Falconiformes   Family: Falconidae

This family includes falcons and caracaras. They are birds of prey that hunt during the day. They are different from hawks and eagles because they kill their prey with their beaks, not their talons.

Insect Eaters: Tyrant Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Tyrannidae

Tyrant flycatchers are songbirds found across North and South America. They look a bit like flycatchers from other parts of the world, but they are stronger and have tougher bills. Most of them eat insects.

Small Songbirds: Vireos and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Vireonidae

The vireos are a group of small to medium-sized songbirds. They are usually greenish and look a bit like wood-warblers, but they have stronger bills.

Hook-billed Hunters: Shrikes

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Laniidae

Shrikes are songbirds known for catching other birds and small animals. They sometimes stick the parts they don't eat onto thorns, like a butcher. A shrike's beak is hooked, similar to a bird of prey.

Smart Birds: Crows, Jays, and Magpies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Corvidae

This family includes crows, ravens, jays, choughs, magpies, and nutcrackers. Corvids are larger than average songbirds, and some of the bigger ones are very smart.

Small Woodland Birds: Tits, Chickadees, and Titmice

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Paridae

Chickadees and titmice are mostly small, plump woodland birds with short, strong bills. Some have crests on their heads. They can adapt to different places and eat both seeds and insects.

Ground Singers: Larks

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Alaudidae

Larks are small birds that live on the ground. They often have amazing songs and special flights they do to show off. Most larks don't have very bright colors. They eat insects and seeds.

Aerial Acrobats: Swallows

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Hirundinidae

This family of songbirds is known for how well they fly and catch food in the air. They have slender bodies, long pointed wings, and short bills with wide mouths. Their feet are made for perching, not walking.

Tiny Crowned Birds: Kinglets

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Regulidae

Kinglets are a small family of birds that look a bit like titmice. They are very tiny birds that eat insects. The adult birds have colorful crowns on their heads, which is how they got their name.

Forest Gems: Waxwings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Bombycillidae

Waxwings are a group of birds with soft, silky feathers. They have unique red tips on some of their wing feathers. These tips look like sealing wax, which gave them their name. These birds live in the northern forests.

Tree Climbers: Nuthatches

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Sittidae

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

Bark Explorers: Treecreepers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Certhiidae

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

Small Insectivores: Gnatcatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Polioptilidae

Gnatcatchers are a group of small songbirds that eat insects. Most of them don't have very bright colors, but many have special songs.

Tiny but Loud: Wrens

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Troglodytidae

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

Mimic Masters: Mockingbirds and Thrashers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Mimidae

This family includes thrashers, mockingbirds, and New World catbirds. These birds are famous for their amazing ability to copy the songs of many other birds and other sounds they hear outside. They usually have dull grey and brown feathers.

Common Visitors: Starlings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Sturnidae

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

Water Walkers: Dippers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Cinclidae

Dippers are a group of perching birds that live near water in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. They are named for their bobbing or dipping movements. These birds have special features that let them go underwater and walk on the bottom to find insect larvae to eat.

Sweet Singers: Thrushes and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Turdidae

The thrushes are a group of songbirds mostly found in the Old World. They are plump, soft-feathered, and small to medium-sized. They eat insects or sometimes everything, often finding food on the ground. Many thrushes have beautiful songs.

Old World Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Muscicapidae

The Old World flycatchers are a large family of small songbirds. These are mainly small birds that live in trees and eat insects, often catching them while flying.

Silky-Feathered Birds: Silky-Flycatchers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Ptiliogonatidae

The silky-flycatchers are a small family of songbirds found mostly in Central America. They are related to waxwings, and most species have small crests on their heads.

Common Birds: 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. Sparrows mostly eat seeds, but they also eat small insects.

Ground Foragers: Wagtails and Pipits

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Motacillidae

This family includes wagtails, longclaws, and pipits. They are small songbirds with medium to long tails. They are slender birds that eat insects on the ground in open areas.

Seed Eaters: Finches and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Fringillidae

Finches are small to medium-sized songbirds that eat seeds. They have strong beaks, usually shaped like cones, and some have very large beaks. Finches fly with a bouncy motion, flapping their wings then gliding with them closed. Most of them sing well.

Open Field Birds: Longspurs and Snow Buntings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Calcariidae

These songbirds were once grouped with New World sparrows, but they are different in many ways. They are usually found in open, grassy areas.

Old World Buntings

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Emberizidae

This family of songbirds has only one type of bird. Until 2017, the New World sparrows were also part of this family.

  • Rustic bunting, Emberiza rustica (S)

New World Sparrows

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Passerellidae

Until 2017, these birds were part of the Emberizidae family. Most of them are called sparrows, but they are not closely related to the Old World sparrows. Many of these birds have unique patterns on their heads.

Unique Songbird: Yellow-breasted Chat

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Icteriidae

This bird was once thought to be a wood-warbler, but experts weren't sure. In 2017, it was given its own family because it's so unique.

Colorful Songbirds: Troupials and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Icteridae

The icterids are a group of small to medium-sized songbirds found only in the New World. They are often colorful and include blackbirds, meadowlarks, cowbirds, grackles, and New World orioles. Most species have black as their main feather color, often with bright yellow, orange, or red.

Small and Bright: New World Warblers

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Parulidae

The wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful songbirds found only in the New World. Most live in trees, but some spend more time on the ground. Most birds in this family eat insects.

Strong-billed Birds: Cardinals and Allies

Order: Passeriformes   Family: Cardinalidae

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

See also

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List of birds of Saskatchewan Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.