“Take Flight” with our Interactive Mural
Click on a bird in the mural to learn more
Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
The Northern Cardinal is the #1 state bird in the United States. In Illinois, the Eastern Bluebird came in a close second, but school children voted the Northern Cardinal to be their state bird. The others states are Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Mill Pond Press
Quaker State
Learn More
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- Peterson Field Guide Plate
- All About Birds
- eBird
Where to see Northern Cardinals in CHQ
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- Peterson Preserve at RTPI
- Audubon Community Nature Center
- Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy Preserves
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Osprey
Along with Rachel Carson and many others, Roger advocated for the ban of DDT, which had decimated populations of Ospreys, Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Brown Pelicans and many other species of birds. Their efforts met with a lot of resistance, but in 1972 President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the bill that banned DDT in the United States. Since then, populations of Ospreys and many other birds have steadily and significantly rebounded.
In 2021, RTPI honored Roger’s role in the banning of DDT by curating an exhibition entitled, The Art of the Osprey. The exhibition featured photos of Ospreys taken by Roger when the future of Ospreys looked bleak. Roger’s photos were juxtaposed with photos taken by Jeanne Wiebenga of an Osprey pair successfully raising a chick a mere 20 minutes from the Roger Tory Peterson Institute – a hopeful sign of the continuing recovery of Osprey populations throughout Western New York.
Learn More
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- All About Birds
- eBird
- Art of the Osprey slide deck?
Northern Flicker
The Northern Flicker is Roger’s spark bird. What’s a spark bird? It’s when you have an experience of a bird that sparks a lifelong love of birds. Roger was 11 when he had an unexpectedly intimate encounter with a Northern Flicker. He was outside exploring, as usual, this particular time on Swede Hill, in his hometown of Jamestown, NY. He spied some bird on the side of a tree but something wasn’t right – the bird wasn’t moving. Roger creeped forward, reached out his finger and actually touched the bird. Startled the bird flew away in a burst of golden wingbeats. From that moment on, Roger was hooked.
At RTPI, we honor Roger’s spark bird experience in many ways, including a mural entitled, “Flicker Moment.” Created by local artist Erin Ruffino in 2022, the central motif of the mural is a huge, stylized depiction of Roger’s Spark Bird. But there is a lot more to the mural. CLICK HERE to take a deep dive into the themes and the artistic process for creating the mural.
We honor Roger’s spark bird legacy, as well, as a founding sponsor for The Spark Bird Project. Led by RTPI Scholars-in-Residence, Dr. Jenn Lodi-Smith and Janet McNally, the Project is a first-of-its-kind social science research initiative to capture, understand and share the spark bird experience, a phenomenon that is common to many of the nation’s 100 million birders.
Learn More
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- Peterson Field Guide plate
- All About Birds
- eBird
Eastern Bluebird
The last state in the nation to name an official state bird, New York made a bold choice: the Eastern Bluebird. The year was 1970 and by that time the population of eastern bluebirds had declined nationwide by 90 percent. Among the leading causes was loss of habitat.
On the heels of the founding of the North American Bluebird Society in 1978, the New York State Bluebird Society got its start in 1982 – with a mission “to increase Eastern Bluebird and other native cavity nesting bird populations in New York state through education, research, environmental advocacy, and a statewide nest box program.
In 1995, New York unveiled a custom, “Protect Open Space” license plate featuring an eastern bluebird painted by native son, Roger Tory Peterson. Proceeds from the sale of the special plates go to the state’s Environmental Trust Fund, earmarked for open space protection. Most recently, RTPI established a Bluebird Trail, which includes several next boxes that are regularly monitored by volunteers. Each year, we report our next box data, along with more than a hundred individuals and organizations throughout the state.
Thanks to the collective effort of individuals, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, recovery of the Eastern Bluebirds has been a huge success. Today, the species is officially listed as a species of “Least Concern.”
LINKS:
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- Peterson Field Guide page for Eastern Bluebird
- All About Birds
- eBird