Highlands Plateau Audubon Society

This large songbird is similar to the Wood Thrush with a longer tail and lower streaks instead of spots. It is usually seen in the underbrush foraging on the ground […]

Drawn to both seed and suit feeders, this acrobatic climber is often seen upside down on limbs and tree trunks. Their insistent nasal “yammering” makes their sleek black, gray and […]

The Wood Thrush’s loud, flute-clear ee-oh-lay song rings through the Plateau’s forests in summer. This reclusive bird’s cinnamon brown upperparts are good camouflage as it scrabbles for leaf-litter invertebrates deep in […]

The Golden-winged Warbler is a North Carolina Priority Species (nc.audubon.org/golden-winged-warbler) and  topic of WCU graduate student Jamie Harrelson’s masters thesis, to which the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society and Highlands Biological […]

Carpenter bees are large, black and yellow bees frequently seen in spring hovering around the eaves of a house or the underside of a deck or porch rail. They are […]

(Lophodytes cucullatus) This distinctive winter resident can be found on wooded ponds where it feeds on fish, crustaceans and insects. The hammerhead crest is mostly white in males and brown […]

This local summer resident is a tree-top dweller that feeds on insects and larvae in mature deciduous forests.  Its song is a rapid series of notes similar to the American […]

This large songbird is common on the plateau in the summer and can be seen using its long bill to toss leaves while feeding undercover on insects. It is rufous […]

(Parkesia motacilla) This surprising warbler frequents forest streams during the spring and summer in Appalachia. It sports a white eyebrow, “buffy flanks, and sparse brownish streaking on white underparts.”  Its […]