Field GUIDE

Hundreds of bird species migrate through Jekyll Island each year. Here are some of our favorites.

Painted Bunting

Passerina ciris

With its vivid mix of blue, green, yellow, and red, the flashiest bird on Jekyll nests here in abundance and is iconic to the coastal maritime forest. Even the bright green female is an unforgettable sight.

SCARLET TANAGER Piranga olivacea

A stocky little songbird, the male is among the brightest, most eye-catching of the passerines. His female counterpart is equally lovely, though her buttery yellow plumage belies her name.

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO Coccyzus americanus

Fairly common but hard to observe, its croaking call is often heard on hot, humid afternoons. People sometimes call this bird the “rain crow,” imagining it’s calling for rain.

WOOD THRUSH Hylocichla mustelina

An Audubon Society “priority bird,” its numbers have plummeted in recent decades. Among other threats, cowbirds keep laying eggs in their nests. Sadly, thrushes often raise cowbirds instead of thrushes.

RED KNOT Calidris canutus

Deemed “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, these long-distance travelers nest in the high Arctic, some flying more than 9,000 miles to their wintering grounds in South America. Some 23,000 red knots—more than half the species’ total population in the Western Hemisphere—pass through coastal Georgia over a period of a few weeks.

PIPING PLOVER Charadrius melodus

Piping plovers are very sensitive to disturbance, so they’re an “indicator species” for the barrier beaches. Jekyll’s southern beaches are considered a “critical habitat” for this bird according to the Endangered Species Act.

SWALLOW-TAILED KITE

Elanoides forficatus

This gorgeous bird is a delight to watch. It hangs on the air, swoops and glides, rolls upside down, then zooms high. It’s skilled at catching flying insects such as dragonflies and eating them mid-flight.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE

Icterus galbula

This brilliantly colored songbird was named for Lord Baltimore, whose seventeenth-century coat of arms was the same blazing orange and black. While it only migrates through Jekyll, its bag-shaped hanging nest is a familiar sight farther inland.

TREE SWALLOW

Tachycineta bicolor

Unlike other swallows, tree swallows eat berries, allowing them to muddle through cold periods when other insect-eaters might starve. These feisty little survivors can be seen in huge migratory flocks on Jekyll in the fall, fattening up on wax myrtle berries.

PEREGRINE FALCON

Falco peregrinus

One of the world’s most spectacular birds of prey is also one of its fastest. When power-diving from great heights to strike, the peregrine may reach 200 miles per hour.

CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW

Antrostomus carolinensis

You’re more likely to hear this bird than see it. On summer nights the chuckwill’s-widow chants its name through the woods. By day, its leafy pattern serves as camouflage, especially important since it nests on the ground.

Swallow-tailed kite

For more information on JIBS, visit them on Facebook at JIBS - Jekyll Island Banding Station.

Tree swallow

Peregrine falcon

Chuck-will’swidow