You sang their praises. Find favorite bird results.

    A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song—Maya Angelou

    Thank you for telling us what your favorite birds are, and why you love them. There were 21 species highlighted in all. The favorite of the group was the Cardinal with 8 entries. Six other birds tied for second with two entries each—Baltimore Oriole, Carolina Wren, Hermit Thrush, Hummingbird, Mockingbird, and Osprey. Find the favorite birds below and enjoy why staff members are singing their praises.

    Name Department Favorite Bird
    Amaar Al-Hayder South Asian Studies Council, MacMillan Center I love the Cardinals; they are very beautiful.
    Brenda Naegel Internal Communications Carolina Wren! This little bird is often the solo entertainer in the evening, which is my favorite time to garden so I often feel that I’m getting a personal concert and encouraged along as I work away. It’s remarkable that such a small creature has such a wide range of beautiful songs and little competition compared to the morning orchestra with a range of aviary vocal talent.
    Greg Mackinnon Information Security Office The Catbird. The Catbird eschews flashy colors in favor of classy gray-scale elegance. One such fellow has been camping out on my back patio this Spring, singing a variety of cover songs along with his original signature cat-call. Keep on rocking, Catbird!
    Kat Ayers Genetics Osprey! When I was young they were rare to see here, but now they nest every year at the end of my street. Sometimes the pair glides overhead, “chatting” softly with each other.
    David Garinger Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Whip-Poor-Will (Summer Bird). Our family had a cabin in the woods in Central PA as I grew up. My grandfather built a beautiful fireplace that we would all hang out at as night fell. At 9:00 p.m. promptly, the Whip-Poor-Will’s would start singing. It was such a wonderful sound. My grand-father learned how to mimic them to a tee and would sit there around the fire having a ‘conversation’ with them. They would fly right into the trees around us as he ‘communicated’ with them. Such wonderful memories. The last time I was out in this area, I heard no whip-poor-wills anymore. At 9:00 p.m., the forest was silent…Very sad.
    Judith Ahearn Anesthesiology The Hummingbird. They are so delicate and beautiful. I see one often outside my home office window and it makes me smile.
    Beth Kingsley Office of Sponsored Projects I love the Black-Capped Chickadee. It has a very distinctive sound and is fiercely protective of its tiny nest. The chickadee’s bravery when facing down any perceived threat, no matter its size.
    Karla Neugebauer Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Hermit Thrush. It is such a humble bird and hard to find in the forest, but it’s song is the most beautiful. It sounds like millions of tiny bells.
    Vote Shamba Yale Hospitality Kasuku bird (parrot). I love it because it can repeat exactly what you just said
    Vanessa Macary Internal Communications I like the Cedar Waxwing. It has a unique look, and is most frequently identified by the black mask over its eyes. It’s a very pretty bird— the ventral (front) side of it’s body is an ombre of brown to yellow and the dorsal (back) side goes from brown to grey to black with a splash of bright yellow on the tail. The tip of its wings often sports bright red. It has a pretty song with trills and whistles, and is a frequent visitor to my garden. I like this bird because they are big enough to spot without needing binoculars or hiding out in the forest to hope to catch a glimpse of them. They eat the berries from juniper plants in the spring. In summer, look for them on cherries and blueberry bushes, and in the fall, one of the places you can view them near campus is at the Eli Whitney Museum near the waterfall (the birds love the berries from dogwood trees)—you can sit in your car in the parking lot and watch them. The other reason I like them is because they are fun to watch as they are collecting their berries, passing them down a chain of many birds flocking in a single area at once, sometimes acting silly as the result of feasting on naturally fermented berries.
    Peter Cohen Yale University Art Gallery My favorite is probably the Mockingbird. Even the name is a reminder, although it’s often considered pejorative. Instead of being a nasty sort of mocker, I see it as appreciating the songs of many other birds. Each spring one shows up on the side of my house and seems to be singing just to catch my wife’s attention. Perhaps the Mockingbird is our personal DEIA motivator?
    Pamela Sheppard Yale School of Environment,  Business Office I like the Cardinal. I love that they come in pairs to my backyard all year long and are so beautiful.
    Anne Prodoti Internal Medicine, Nephrology My favorite songbird is the American Robin. Usually the first heard in the morning at sunrise and the last one in the evening. They have a very distinctive song. Also love the Mourning Dove…love seeing them in pairs and even though their song sounds sad, it is sort of comforting.
    Brian Kiss Front Line Services, Bass & Sterling Memorial Libraries The Hermit Thrush. It is the Vermont state bird. I love it because just after my wife & I were married in 2019, we went for a kayak ride on a small lake in Vermont called Glen Lake. If one were to paddle across the lake, especially in the morning, they would experience the kind of silence and stillness so rarely found in our modern world. My wife & I did this one early morning around 6 a.m. and we pulled the paddles and just floated as the sun rose. The bird calls were amazing and very clear as there was no other sound to drown them out. And then we heard it! A bird call like no other we had ever heard. I had my digital camera and I began filming. We never spotted the Hermit Thrush, but we listened for about 20 minutes to its beautiful and haunting calls. Once we got back to our house, we went online to begin comparing the sound I had recorded to Vermont birds in the area around Glen lake. After a little bit of searching, my wife found the call on a bird database! We were so excited to know what bird it was and that it was the Vermont state bird as well! Now we both use the Merlin bird-identifying app created by Cornell and we have both become adept at identifying local bird calls. It was an amazing August morning and that one single experience on the lake turned us both into birders. Every time we go out hiking, we are try to identify every bird we hear. It has been such a bonding experience for us both.
    Sarah Jane Compton Office of Sustainability I love the return of the Eastern Bluebirds each spring because of their magnificent blue.
    Kathy Swanson Information Technology Services My favorite bird is the Hummingbird. They are a beautiful species to watch as they quickly visit my flowering plants. They enjoy my hanging fushia plants that I hang on my front porch which enables me to watch my tiny visitors.
    Carolyn Marks Office of the General Counsel The Wood Thrush, which arrives in our area in May each year, for its unique, haunting song in minor notes. It draws me into the woods for long, slow walks with my dog.
    Susan Gehrmann Neurology This week my favorite bird is a Pileated Woodpecker because I saw one fly through my yard and its been 20+ years since I’ve seen one!
    Sharon Paulin Provost Office Mockingbird because it mimics the songs of other birds!
    Yvonne Rafferty Office of Sponsored Projects Carolina Wren. They are so animated, their personalities are a hoot and I love how they bob and their tail sticks up in the air. They put me in a wren zen.
    Sharleen Sanchez Yale College Business Office I love Cardinals. Our backyard gets cardinals all year long and we love to observe these birds. What I love about them is how the male and the female are together as partners. We notice that they take turns eating from our bird feeder and any time the female isn’t able to get to the feeder, the male will bring some and feed it to her. It seems like they look out for each other. I love how loving they are towards each other.
    Marybeth Bean Marx Science and Social Science Library It is so hard to pick one! If I must choose, it would be the Cardinal. His red color is a splash of hope (or a dare to a predator), he has a sweet song, and I like the mythology that his appearance means a loved one who has passed away is with you. I think of my dad, who loved cardinals, when I see them.
    Elisa Caciopoli Facilities My favorite type of bird is the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, which frequents our yard and loves to perch and sing.
    Alexandra DeStefano Genetics My favorite bird is the Osprey. You will see this raptor building a big nest around marshes. Ospreys have a high pitched whistling chirp. They will call out midflight or as an alarm. Birds of prey brighten my day!
    John Mayes II Administration Cardinals—Vibrant red colors and distinctive song.
    Tom Keegan Sociology House Wren. These are very tiny birds, but they have a strong, clear song. They are late arrivals in the spring, so I always know it’s ‘really spring’ when I hear these guys singing their hearts out.
    Sarah Coe Library Technical Services Spring bird: Bobolink —the best song ever. Summer bird: Scarlet Tanager—they are so intensely red that they seem to emit light.
    Krishna Gopal Internal Medicine The Cardinal. I love the color of the Cardinal, especially when it snows and you see the pop of red!!
    Ann Rumberger Office of Development Baltimore Oriole, it’s actually my husband’s favorite as he grew up in Baltimore. We love putting out the oriole feeder with jelly and oranges to bring them to our deck each May, which coincides with his birthday. They come out just for him.
    Donna Cropley Development Male cardinal—in winter, love seeing them on the bare branches especially if there is a little snow - love their call.
    Julienne Hadley Internal Communications I love the female Cardinal for its understated beauty and recognizable chirp, the Red-Bellied Woodpecker for it’s beautiful color and spots, and (of course!) the Wrens. In fact, we gave my eldest daughter the middle name “Wren.”
    Amanda Liss Human Research Protection Program I love the Baltimore Orioles and put orange halves out every year for them. Their bright color stands out and they are so pretty to look at, but only come around in spring and summer so I always look forward to my first sighting.