Endangered Birds of Kentucky

The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

• The red-cockaded woodpecker, Picoides borealis, is a medium-sized bird with striking plumage featuring white cheeks, as well as black and white back stripes. These birds take their name from a small red tuft of feathers behind their eyes. Red-cockaded woodpeckers eat insects found under tree bark and live in an extended family; they nest inside trees like the Virginia, pitch and shortleaf pine. They make "pitch wells" that bleed resin to discourage nest-raiding by snakes.

  Fire prevention measures that encourage hardwood growth at the expense of pines, reduced areas of mature forests and timber harvesting all contribute to the loss of this bird's habitat in Kentucky. This woodpecker makes its home in Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest. Colonies formally living in the southeastern part of the state were relocated there by the U.S. Forest Service to encourage an increase in numbers of this endangered bird.

The Interior Least Tern

• The Interior Least Tern, Sterna antillarum athalassos, is the smallest bird in the tern family. Plumage features include a black head and white forehead, gray-black wings and a yellow bill, tipped with black. Interior least terns visit Kentucky in the summer to nest on sand and gravel bars in the Mississippi River and the Ohio River. These terns arrive between April and June, fish in shallow waters, conduct elaborate courtship rituals and leave to migrate to warmer climates, after spending four to five months in Kentucky. Threats to this endangered bird include loss of sandbars to dam construction, recreational use of remaining gravel or sand bars and the human disturbance of nests, leading to birds abandoning their eggs and chicks.

The Bald Eagle

• The bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, is classified as a "threatened" bird in the state of Kentucky. This means it's threat of becoming extinct is less urgent than an endangered bird. Bald eagles are not named for a lack of feathers on their heads, but because of the old English word, "blade," which means, "white." Plumage is dark brown; eyes, beaks and bills are bright yellow. Adult birds have a wingspan of between 6 and 7.5 feet.

  Bald eagles are sighted in western Kentucky in the summer, but they more commonly visit during the winter months, when populations rise to between 150 to 350. Bald eagles hunt for waterfowl and fish in rivers and reservoirs. They make seven to eight feet wide nests in small trees, returning to reuse them each year in the areas where they hatched. These eagles live for 20 to 30 years and fly at speeds of up to 35 miles an hour. Pesticide residues in their foods and illegal hunting threaten bald eagles survival.

The Piping Plover

• The piping plover, Charadrius melodus, is an endangered species of shore bird in Kentucky. It's plumage is sandy-colored with a black neck ring and a tip to the beak.

  Unlike gulls, piping plovers did not like to share their beaches with humans. Piping plovers are threatened by development of their coastal beach habitats; they're also threatened by the intrusion of humans and animals during nesting.