Birds in your backyard

[cath]

I thought it might be fun to list the birds we see/hear in our yards. No fair going on an expidition. Just whatever comes to your neighborhood. I don't have any pix of them And some I just hear and never see -
Chuck will's Widow and Whipoorwill and Bob white.

Aside from the ever-present robins, pigoens, doves, sparrows, finches, blue jays, cardinals, and mockingbirds, I've seen

rufous-sided towhee, downy woodpecker
grey catbird, northern flicker,
indigo bunting , ruby-throated humming bird,
dark-eyed junco (I saw an albino too), flock of yellow warblers or maybe
they were American goldfinches,
Eastern phoebe , pine siskin,
tufted titmouse, wood thrush,
red-breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadee,
Canada geese

[Junkzoo]

Prob have a lot of the same one's as you Cath,,,
not a big birder here,,,unless you count the squawkers in the house,,,,
some of the larger one's i've had visit the "grounds":
Turkey Vultures
many varieties of Hawks
Sand Hill Cranes( one of the largest stopping ground in the country , is about 5 miles east of me,,,
Blue Heron
Geese(all kinds)
Ducks(ditto, all kinds)
a lot of Hummingbirds
Woodpeckers
Doves
Robins
Cardinals
Barn Swallows
Blue Birds
Blue Jays
forgot the name of my favorite ones, longer tail, two white stripes on tail, when not mimicing all the other birds,has a cool song of it's own,,
Quail
Wild Turkey
and a whole bunch more,,,,

[FishDaddy]

My knowledge of birds fall into color and size categories; Black; Brown; Red; Blue; Speckled; Big; and Little!

I've always enjoyed birds but never was interested in being a 'birder'. Since I took up photography a couple of years ago, I've tried to learn more about the feathered critters.

Jeff, you and Cath have quite a variety!!

Here's my pair of resident House Wrens at the birdbath. ( I didn't know what they were called until about a month ago!)



Dick

[kwjones]

I've actually started keeping track since I got a few field guides. These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head...

Blue Jays
Cardinals
House Finches
American Gold Finch (Very shy, still trying to get a picture)
Brown Headed Cowbirds
Mocking Birds
Mourning Doves
Common Grackles
Starlings
Bluebirds
Barn Swallows
Nuthatch
Red Billed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Sparrows
N. Carolina Chickadees
Juncos (in the winter)
Robins
Turkeys
Tufted Titmouse
Hummingbirds - they don't look like any in the books, so I don't know what kind they are yet.

I'm not sure yet, but I think I saw some type of Warbler or Viero a few days ago.

[Doug1]

Hey Jeff, are you thinking of "Heckle and Jeckle" (magpies)
some ot the loacals here are pretty typical
robins
sparrows(eng and another)
blackbirds,crows and ravens
swallow( 3 or 4 )
woodpeckers (acorn and pilated)
goldfinches
meadowlarks,quail(mt and valley types)
mourning doves
killdeer
grouse
bluejays
owls( at least 3 variety)
turkey vultures
various hawks, opsprey, occasional eagle
ducks and geese
wild turkeys
and others

[Junkzoo]

Doug , i could be a Mockingbird,,,or a Thrush,,,i thought i ID'ed it b4, but can't find a pic to match it up, longer than normal tail , will flick it up while sitting wherever it is, very vocal, and sounds like it mimic other birds,,,,back to my search,,,,

[kwjones]

Mockingbird.

[cath]

Jeff- you need to count the number of repititions for each song in the bird call i. e. cat bird does sings it once (I think), flicker (2), mockingbird three.... or something like that.

Check out a tape or CD from your local library called Birding by Ear. Very helpful in the ID since many times you don't actually see the bird.

[Alice]

Good idea, Cath! I heard one singing like crazy yesterday but couldn't see if for the trees.

[kwjones]

Mockingbirds can sing up to 25 other spieces songs.

http://www.lsjunction.com/bird.htm

[Junkzoo]

KW, your pic looks very much like the bird in question, the ones here have a white stripe on each wing , running from front to back.They started with a few at first , now there is a new brood of them every spring
They also seem to use that long tail to balance /brake as they light on their chosen spot.

[Junkzoo]

I'll try to get bird pics,the hard part is shrinkin' down the res to fit here,,,,

[kwjones]

Try croping the picture of the bird at high resolution and then re-sized the croped picture down. I noticed if I resized the picture first and then cropped I lost some detail.


If you have time to get over to a Walden's or Barnes & Noble Book store, scan through the Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. That's my main reference book. I also like the National Geographic Field Guide To The Birds Of North America (All of North America). They give a side by side comparison to a Shrike, which can be easily confused with the Mocking Bird.

The field guides are good. I just do a quick scan for color first, then I try to match the beak shape/size, body shape/size and then narrow it down from there.

[JennM]

For a couple of weeks we had some sort of woodpecker (flicker perhaps?) Drilling on our chimney EVERY morning at 8:00 AM! He scared the heck out of me the first few times, then I went outside and saw him drilling on other houses' chimneys! Guess he was showing off for all the ladies!

I've seen a Pelliated (sp?!) woodpecker around here... looks like a Pterydactyl! (sp?!). Other than that, you've all listed the ones that I know which I've seen. We've had some pretty bluebirds, we used to put up the hummingbird feeders to watch them. Stopped putting seeds in the feeders, the darned SQUIRRELS used to raid them anyway! (Phooey Jerel!).

Jenn