Favorite Backyard Garden Birds?

[digitS']

I hadn't realized that they had such a wide territory!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id

That's year round, folks . That Downy has got the "adapt to local conditions" skills down pat!

Steve

[LIcenter]

I hadn't realized that they had such a wide territory!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id

That's year round, folks . That Downy has got the "adapt to local conditions" skills down pat!

Steve

We've had an explosion of Downy's this year. Normally once a week I'll hang out at my local bird feed store to chew the fat for an hour or two. Just about everyone has commented on seeing an unusual abundance of this little cutey. That and Goldfinches.

[tommyr]

Hummingbirds and Cardinals.

[ButterflyLady29]

I had a House Wren family living in a birdhouse in my front yard last year. The male kept fighting and singing with his reflection in my living room window. We had to keep the curtain closed so he would spend time raising his family. There were 2 broods that fledged from that little house. I was able to video record the last day the parents spent feeding their last brood of the year. It was a constant back and forth that day with both parents feeding babies.

[digitS']

. . . we could do with a lesser number of grackles ... Meadowlarks are beginning to show up in the field, and we are eagerly awaiting the Kingbirds. ...]

I have not seen a meadowlark here for years and years! It's probably been well over 10 and maybe closer to 20 years since they were here keeping the killdeer, cows and cowboys entertained.

I could be wrong but I blame the meadowlark's distant cousin, the starling. The first starlings I saw was when I was about 12 or 15, in southern Oregon. We said that they migrated north out of California.

Starlings were here when I migrated north nearly 50 years ago so if they put pressure on the more solitary meadowlark, it began about then. It is probably true that this was the northern part of the meadowlarks' range and they decided showing up to build nests wasn't worth coming here. Disappointing ...

If meadowlarks can live with grackles, count your blessings .

Steve

[tomf]

I like most of them, crows not so much. A short list of some of the cooler birds that come by are; Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Pileated Woodpeckers, Grouse, Quail, Hawks, Owls, and Sapsuckers. We are feeding the birds so every day there are tons of small birds out our windows.

[tomf]

Morning doves make the nices sounds.

[DavidCampbell]

I believe I saw a robin today. It showed up in a walnut tree across the road.

The robin was there about the first of December . For all I know, it's the same bird. Sitting down here at home, the 3 most common places to find me all have a view of that tree. The chairs and 3 windows all line up right.

I could claim that a robin has sat in that tree once every 6 weeks since October. Ha! Might be true. I think that there are very few over-wintering and I've seen them no where else. It is a blue-sky, snow-covered landscape day! Yesterday, overcast, and even without snow or rain that day, the streetlights were still on at 10:15 AM! ... If I had wings ... !

Ah well, the robins will all be back by spring.

Steve

I like magpies but having seen this video I want my own robin https://www.instagram.com/p/BAz_xFBg7CJ/

[digitS']

David, someone else will have to verify that as a Robin of the British Isles!

Holland Park is in London, just past Kensington gardens and Paddington station.

The British have their larks! And, other critters, as well.

Steve

[applestar]

Today's favorite is Titmouse. I heard a rustling, then rapid tapping right outside a FR window and there was a cute beady eyed and nervous titmouse cracking open some seed on the grapevine.

[Taiji]

The talk of meadowlarks reminded me of the Scott's oriole, which also has such a distinctive melodic song that sounds so much like a meadowlark. We have the meadowlarks around this area out on the prairies. I live at a little higher elevation in the foothills and sometimes Scott's orioles pass through. They don't come very often, but when I hear their beautiful song I rush outside to see. They usually perch on the tops of the pinion pines.

[Taiji]

Speaking of titmice, I love to watch them work the birdfeeders! I have seed that has some sunflower seeds in there, and they scoop out seeds by the dozens, til they get to a sunflower seed, then fly off to a high branch and somehow pick at it til they get to the seed inside. They are such an industrious bird, they just work constantly, minding their own business! I often think if we humans were like that we'd be a lot better off!

I don't mind the seeds they discard to the ground since the juncos and jays scoop them up.

[A Happy Seedling]

Today's favorite is Titmouse. I heard a rustling, then rapid tapping right outside a FR window and there was a cute beady eyed and nervous titmouse cracking open some seed on the grapevine.

Lol, I can't get rid of mine! I like them, though. They are regular feeder lovers, and I'm glad they prevent the ravenous juncos from eating everything in my feeder (and if they got hungry enough, the feeder too ). They restrict the juncos to eating the seed on the ground that is discarded by the picky wrens, alongside the squirrels, doves, sometimes cardinals, and sparrows that scavenge the ground for seed.

Our birds are messed up .
White-Breasted Nuthatches are clinging birds, and lately they have been PERCHING on the feeder (before, they just clung to the mesh upside down) and WALKING on the GROUND to eat the discarded seeds. I didn't even know they could do that.
Clinging woodpeckers have been doing the same.
Chickadees are clinging...
And doves are attempting to walk up trees because they saw the Pileated Woodpeckers do it.
Doves are so stupid
I wish I had my camera when they were falling flat on their backs.

[webmaster]

I wish I had my camera when they were falling flat on their backs.

That made me LOL.

[A Happy Seedling]

LOL
The stupid things just kept trying...
It was a sight