List Five Yard Birds That You Saw Today

This could prove quite interesting as the site becomes more well-known.

Cactus wren
Costa's hummingbird
Curve-billed thrasher
Verdin
White-winged dove

Green Heron
Swallows (too high in the sky to identify)
American Robin
Mourning Dove
Various little Sparrows

Also, I use geobirds.com to track my sightings.

Since I don't generally see anything on workdays I'll cheat and post some from last Saturday:

Acorn Woodpecker
Cooper's Hawk
Bewick's Wren
Anna's Hummingbird
Red-crowned Parrot (feral, but a well-established population).

tropics, I just moved out here last year (you can probably figure out where "here" is from the list) and I miss Arizona so much! Cactus Wrens are one of my favorite birds.

The Yard Birds! Weren't they a 60s band?

Tufted Titmouse
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Black-Capped Chickadee
House Finch
White-Breasted Nuthatch

Cardinal
Robin
Crow
Red-tailed hawk
Pigeon

The plebian birds are mixed in with the aristocrats. I also have mourning doves nesting in my window boxes, but didn't peek at them today.

Edited because I can't spell today.

#2 various sparrows - lucky you.

House sparrow
House sparrow
house sparrow
house sparrow
collared dove.

I have such an exciting garden. I do occasionally get hedge sparrows betterly known as Dunnocks.

#6 - I am laughing. Thanks for that.

We actually have a House Sparrow population problem here in the Northeastern US. They aren't indigenous, and they have flourished... at the expense of many other birds, or so I have been told. :o/

According to some reports the sparrow population in the UK has crashed, particularly in London where they used to be very common. I've seen up to 20 at once around our feeder, so maybe its just a local issue - or they've all gone to the US where the streets are paved with birdseed?

It is fun seeing that many altogether, but I'd rather have more variety. I'd love to be in a clime that accomodates hummingbirds.

Rock Pigeon
Starling
Cardinal
Blue Jay
some kind of Parking Lot Gull

#8 - I have hummingbirds coming all day. I hung my feeder on the front porch where I can see it from my desk. They are such a pleasure to feed and observe. The funny thing is that they dive bomb and try to intimidate each other. My nectar feeder would accomodate four birds at once, but they refuse to eat together.

Hadeda Ibis
Olive Thrush
Grey Lourie
House Sparrow
Indian Myna

House Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Blue Grey Gnat Catcher
Cardinal
Red-tailed Hawk

#12 - No fair. That's six. ;o)

How do you guys identify all these different sparrows? They all look like bouncing brown and white fluff-balls to me.

#14 - Binocs and a good birding book, fleela.

*whine* That sounds like work!

I do need to identify these critters for real so I know who's pooping on my patio table. ;)

Gray Catbird
Mourning Dove
American Robin
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal

Ho hum...But I did have an Eastern Screech Owl "whinnying"-away last night!

Claimary,
I can't believe I did that. Probably due to me trying to put in a quick post at work. Anyway, I do feel foolish ;(

Fleela,
Sparrows, AKA Little Brown Jobs, are very difficult. Honestly, vocalizations work better for me in this group. I still have a lot to learn discerning many of them visually. You should give them a try. They are some of the better birds to watch for behavior, and some of them have very pretty song. Also, I'm lucky in that I live within the very small North American range of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, another good one for practicing your ID skills.

Gambel's quail
Gilded flicker
Lesser goldfinch
Rufous-winged sparrow
Say's phoebe

fleela - thanks for the Geobirds link.

Great site.

I spied a Harris Hawk cruising the edge of the desert this afternoon - first one I've seen in a few months. Always a welcome site.

Another day, another five...

Eastern Wild Turkey
American Goldfinch
Eastern Pheobe
American Robin
Song Sparrow

titmouse
mourning dove
purple finch
wrentit
scrub jay

re: Geobirds.com - my username there is Gewurztraminer for anyone who wants to have a look at my sightings

Great Blue Heron*
American Goldfinch
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Common Grackle
American Coot*

*I live on a lake, so these are almost yard birds :)

House Sparrow
Cape White-Eye
Rock Pigeon
Blackcollared Barbet
Cape Turtle Dove

American Crow
Lesser Goldfinch
Western Scrub-Jay
California Towhee
Canada Goose (!) -- a flock of a dozen flying over

Let's see...

Blue Jay
Finch (Couldn't tell which one, it flitted away too fast)
Starling
Sparrow
cardinal

I'd include common gray squirrel, but that is only because it was eating from my blasted bird feeder!!!

Chihuahuan raven
Gila woodpecker
Greater roadrunner
Hooded oriole
Northern cardinal

Crested barbet
Purple crested turaco
Black collared barbet
Black capped (black eyed) bulbul
Southern masked weaver

Well I have seen the occasional tit as well as sparrows but I've missed the most exciting bird ever to have flown through my garden - I Just had a very excited email from my OtherHalf who's seen a juvenile sparrowhawk perched on the neighbour's shed.

If it wants to come back while I'm watching it can have as many sparrows as it can catch.

Brewer's sparrow
Cactus wren
Canyon towhee
Costa's hummingbird
Gambel's quail

Anna’s Hummingbird
Oregon Junco
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-shafted Northern Flicker
Steller’s Jay

Ok, I'm in the middle of a light steady snowstorm in Connecticut, so nothing surprising with my birds about the feeders:

Blue Jay
Northern (slate colored Junco)
Northern Cardinal
Downy Woodpecker
White-throated Sparrow

I've also got an Eastern Screech Owl, complete with a soft, mournful tremolo, in the backyard cedars (eastern red cedar, ie juniper). It's been out there virtually every night since October.

rainy day:

carrion crow
grey wagtail (attacking my window)
brown-eared bulbul
tree sparrow
dusky thrush

Cactus wren
Gambel's quail
Gila woodpecker
Gilded flicker
Verdin

Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Baltimore Oriole
Eastern Bluebird

Rose-breasted Grosbeak
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Goldfinch
Red-winged Blackbird
Chipping Sparrow

White cockatoo
Currawong
Magpie
Indian Myna
Rosella

#38 Bookmark123 -

I am green with envy! What does your yard sound like at dawn?

Australian Magpie
Noisy Miner
Masked Lapwing
Eastern Rosella
New Holland Honeyeater

#40 Digifish - Quite a sensational yard you have there!

We have been hopping with woodpeckers.
Pileated woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Flicker
Red-bellied woodpecker
and still that annoying cowbird in love with our window.

>41 tropics: tropics ~ yes, we are very fortunate to have lots of bird varieties in our suburb, which is close to a reservoir and has many gum trees (Eucalyptus).

We feed the Magpies and Miners in our front garden and the Rosellas enjoy the blossom from our plum trees at the back of the house.

In summer we also have pink and grey Galahs and the occasional noisy Black Cocaktoos passing by, as well as Kookaburras, Budgerigars, Ravens, native Pidgeons, Willy Wagtails, etc! Of course there are also plenty of non-Aussie birds too, like Sparrows and Starlings.

American robin
American goldfinch
house finch
mockingbird
mourning dove

there is also a phoebe I see regularly which is not in my yard, but hunts from the fence around the school down the street

I still want to switch yards with tropics and digifish! I'll contribute again, but I'll try mention some different ones for my Connecticut Yankee yard:

Eastern Bluebird
Red-shouldered Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Scarlet Tanager
Chipping Sparrow

Since I haven't got the books yet to identify the local Afghani birds, so I'll list the last five I saw before I left:

Mockingbird
Red Tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Red Winged Blackbird
European Starling

Cactus Wren
Gambel's Quail
Curve-billed Thrasher
Anna's Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm
Abert's Towhee

Tropics, your bird list says you must be in AZ. Where? Phx here

Bluejw - I'm south of Tucson, with easy access to Madera Canyon, Patagonia, Kino Springs, etc. On Thursday evening, I observed a pair of elf owls mating up in the canyon. Quite the event!

I haven't seen too many different birds lately but I may have discovered why this morning. I have a pair of Mockingbirds nesting in a tree in my backyard. I saw one of them chasing/fighting with another Mockingbird the other day. Then I saw one chasing a squirrel along my fence a couple of days ago and again this morning. I spotted the nest this morning so they must be protecting it quite fiercely.

#49

That would do it -- mockingbirds will attack just about anything (crows, Red-tailed Hawks, dogs, humans....) that gets too close to their nest.

Not quite as mismatched as a hummingbird chasing away a Cooper's Hawk, in my opinion, but fun to watch nonetheless.

Tropics, you're making me miss Tucson again. :(

This is cool; it's surprisingly easy to tell where people are from.

This morning:

Anna's hummingbird (m&f)
Bewick's wren
oak titmouse
chestnut-backed chickadee
California towhee
and bonus lesser goldfinches eating holes in the sunflower leaves

>38 bookmark123:
I envy your currawongs. :)

Downy woodpecker
Whitebreasted nuthatch
Blackcapped chickadee
American robin
Carolina Wren

From our covered patio (vacationing in San Blas, Mexico)

Magnificent frigatebird (frequent flyovers)
Golden-cheeked woodpecker
Sinaloa crow
Great kiskadee
Great-tailed Grackle

Well I don't get home until after dark, but Sunday I saw

red bellied woodpecker
mockingbird
huge flock of starlings
chickadees -probably hybrids of black capped and Carolina
Tufted titmouse

And from New England, today I saw...

Mourning Dove
Black-capped Chickadee
American Woodcock (!-very late for this one)
Red-tailed Hawk
Turkey Vulture

I'm currently in eastern PA (vs home on the desert in AZ). So in my daughter's yard today at the feeders:

Northern Cardinals
a White-chinned Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse (or mice since there were 3)
Mourning Doves
and for special enjoyment for a desert deweller
several Dark-eyed Juncos

Digifish books, what part of Aussi are you from?

I feed
1) 4 magpies (2 parents and their 2 teenage kids)
2) some noisy miners
3) wattle birds
4) sometimes I see some rainbow lorikeets
They are really very vivid and have beautifull colours
5) we also get some galahs,sulphur crested
cockatoos and even some rosellas. But not often.

And I only live in the suburbs (not even outer) of Melbourne.

Still vacationing down here in San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico.

On the attractive grounds of Casa Roxanna I see:

Yellow-winged caciques
Orchard orioles
Streak-backed orioles
Rufous-backed robins
White-collared seedeaters

In the UK -

Magpie
Siskin
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Blue Tit

in Pennsylvania

Goldfinch
Pine siskin
Mourning dove
downy woodpecker
dark-eyed junco

Newark, NY

White throated sparrow
Hairy woodpecker
American goldfinch
American tree sparrow
dark-eyed junco

In New Hampshire

Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Robin
Tufted Titmouse

What's the fun of specifing locations? It's way more fun to try to figure them out from the lists provided.

Costa's hummingbird
Gila woodpecker
Green-tailed towhee
Northern cardinal
Northern mockingbird

Common Raven
House Sparrow
Bohemian Waxwing
Gray Jay
Black-capped Chickadee

out of a very limited winter population

I'd rather ask how many species on your Christmas Bird Count...

Dear Group, I apologize, I only saw ONE bird of NOTE today, Not that I didn't see and love my introduced pests (the sparrow or blackbird or Indian Mynahs ) and my native beloved Aussi Magpies and miners and...

Today I saw or rather heard of the cachophony of the arrival of a Kookaburra. 20 or so species of birds told of their "...displeasure..."

It was a juvenile, I could see it's blue flashings on the wings. Quite magnificent. What though was it doing in the suburbs of Melbourne?

3 times 43 degrees C and a 45 stressed our "...life...?"

Guido47: I'm green with envy and eagerly await additional postings from your yard bird list:

You may already be aware of this Australian bird site which provides distribution maps:

http://www.birdata.com.au/maps.vm

Apparently, blue-winged kookaburras are reared at The Royal Melbourne Zoo.

Magpie
Redpoll
Boreal Chickadee
Pine Grosbeak (another yard)
Evening Grosbeak (another yard)

is the other half of yardbirds here. So where might I be?

Mike: You are way, WAY up there, on Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada:

http://www.hayriver.com/home.htm

Thanks for checking in. Have you ever seen a northern hawk owl?

There were 157 species reported on our local (southern Arizona) Christmas bird count for 2007-2008 (don't have numbers for the last one).

For days and days, all I've seen are Northern Cardinals and American Crows.

Hi Carol
Thx for the welcome aboard.

You can add another 'way' to 'up there' as I am in the process of packing and moving to a community north of the treeline where expections of 'yardbirds' might be:

ravens (x4) and rock ptarmigan.

Few birders here and with none of us 'owlers', makes owls in winter seemingly in short supply, but they are about. A good winter for snowy owls, though. Northern hawk and great grey are most often seen rareties as they 'daylight' and not shy about perching out in the open. Yet NOHOs have not made the count in 20+ years of Hay River's CBC... 19 species this Xmas with the highlight being a robin at temperatures of minus 30, poor thing.

Hope you are enjoying southern AZ to the fullest!

Mike: Since you'll be moving even further north, what about gyrfalcons?

There was a stunning documentary on PBS last year entitled White Falcon, White Wolf, filmed on Ellesmere Island:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/white-falcon-white-wolf/introduction/332...

York, U.K.

Blackbird
Robin
Long-tailed tit
Blue tit
Wood Pidgeon

I am glad that I found this link so that I can hear about birds from foreign climes.

It's 50F this morning, compared to the 2F it was at the same time yesterday. I think the birds have gone into shock! I hear American Crows but I don't see any others at all.

We have a Northern Hawk Owl wintering "down south" in New Hampshire this year. I haven't seen it yet, but I did see the one that was in the northern part of the state during the winter of 2000-01. A magnificent bird it was, too.

Since I wrote the first paragraph a group of birds has suddenly shown up at the feeders - Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker - added to the crows, there's my five! Maybe a hawk had just gone over and put them all into hiding.

Edited to add one more bird because I don't seem to be able to add to five this morning.

Idling today in a store parking lot in North Conway, New Hampshire, I saw my first ever Pine Grosbeak (female). What a surprise!

Pileated woodpecker
Barred owl
Eastern bluebird
Brown creeper
Fox sparrow

> Five best birds of 31 species. I spent the day outside today cleaning up the garden and picking up litter off the road in the unusually warm temps here in Illinois.

Downy Woodpecker
BC Chickadee
No Cardinal
Pine Siskin
Am Goldfinch

'Had 34 Pine Siskin today at my Connecticut Feeders. The invasion has been phenomenal. Throughout November, 2008 at the Lighthouse Park (coastal New Haven) we counted over 23,000. Then there was a lull, then by January every feeder with Nyger was covered with 'em.

I just read a Massachusetts post that, when Siskins irrupt to the south, there are nesting records in extreme southern portions of their range. We may still have some in NW Connecticut this Spring.

I've still got Siskins in So. central PA- didn't count today, but have had upwards of 20 at times. They do like the Nyger- and oil sunflower.
Saw bluebirds near my office a week ago- none noted yet at home, but I'm not here as much in daylight.

Northern Cardinals Mockingbird
House Sparrows House Finches
Red-Bellied Woodpecker Black Vulture
European Starling Mourning Doves
American Robin House Wren

Hagerstown, Maryland

Blackbird
European Robin
Goldfinches
Goldcrest (technically I saw this little dude 2 days ago but it was nice to see him in the urban jungle)
Pigeons (by the bucket load)

Central London, UK

Dear Group,
Lately I have been seeing MANY, many, heaps and heaps of Rainbow Lorikeet's
(trichoglossus haematodus) I just had to post this message 'cos of the Latin name.
Haematodus - that does really describe their breast and under wing colour!
And are they beautiful and noisy and messey
and TOUGH. I thought my Magpies were tough,
HUH.
Guido

Since moving to the tundra, I've been keeping an eye on a neighbour's feeder with its

deluge of snow buntings
some redpolls
rare juncos

oh yes, an annual yellow-rumped warbler going who-knows-where (trees, bird, where da' trees?)

Still can't squeak out 5 feeder species. What a slow spring in the north this year...

Jealous of many of the sightings noted above.

We are currently visiting northern Utah.

Swainson's hawk. A pair is nesting in a nearby tall deciduous tree. Amazing migrants, these birds, having flown all the way from Argentina - and possibly Uruguay and Brazil. I wish them well.

White-winged crossbills. Not often seen in Utah, but this is an irruptive year for them. Found a small flock feeding on the ground in a blossoming apple orchard.

Black-billed magpies (puttering about on front lawns).

Ring-necked pheasants (tooting as they forage in nearby fields).

Mallard (two sets of females in a nearby irrigation canal, each with nine ducklings)

Despite the cold, rainy weather this morning at least five ruby-throated hummingbird males are staking out territories on my two feeders, wood thrushes are calling, a phoebe is bathing in the pond, hungry titmice are carrying off the woodpecker feed probably to a nest I haven't found, and catbird nestlings are peeking over the edge of the black raspberry thicket at the edge of my drive.

Ok, this is way off topic but I just ran a 5K along a beautiful riparian and urban greenway. I had Black Vulture, Black-crowned Night Heron, Mallard, No. Rough-winged Swallow, and Warbling Vireo.

In mountains of NW NC on a pretty Saturday:

Barn swallow
Red-winged blackbird
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Doves
Cardinal

We've been away for three long months, so the yard birds dispersed in our absence. Fortunately, they're drifting back. Yesterday I noticed a male hooded oriole spinning on a hummingbird feeder while a Costa's hummer awaited its turn. Lovely to once again hear the clucking of the Gambel's quail, the piercing call of the curve-billed thrasher, and the chatter of the cactus wren. Yesterday a roadrunner trotted across the back patio with a white egg in its mouth.

Despite being on the 'gravel-pad' end of town, tundra birds are on every puddle and corner

Semipalmated sandpiper
Semipalmated plover
Snow bunting
Lapland longspur
Red-necked phalarope (doing the 'whirlybird')

Hi, I'm Jim, new to LT & this group. My wife & I love to watch the birds & have a bunch of feeders up. We've also tried to build the landscape to their advantage.

We have tons of sparrows, mostly House Sparrows, I think.
Gold Finch
Purple Finch
Mockingbird
Red Headed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker

are the most common to see now. We also still have a lot of hummingbirds coming through. Ruby Throats. Last year we had a couple of dozen that stayed for the summer, but this year we only had a pair & then they started migrating through about a month ago.

Hmm.

American Goldfinch
Northern Flicker (female)
House Finch
Spotted Towee (!) A first for my feeder :D .
Chipping Sparrow

Three different species of tit yesterday which was quite special for my suburban feeder:

pair of coal tits
3 blue tits
1 great tit
also
a shy wren
and a dunnock.

Considering I normally only see sparrows I was glued to the window for a quite a while. The blue tits kept harassing the coal tits (which are tiny) but all the rest got along ok.

It is spring/early summer now in South Australia:

We still have Australian Magpies (along with their latest young and very noisy arrival)

Galahs (pink & grey) moving back in (they are early this year)

Kookaburras (can't see them but can hear them in the local neighborhood)

Rainbow Lorikeets (we put seed out for the Rosellas but the Lorikeets have muscled their way in :(

The Noisy Miners are still around. One of their small chicks must have jumped out of the nests too early last week. He was too small to fly properly, so he lived in our rear yard for a few days hiding in the hedge and only jumping up about a metre off the ground! We crept outside in the dark one night and found him asleep in the hedge. Next day we made sure his parents were feeding him. But this week he grew tail feathers and has now rejoined his family in the gum tree in the property behind ours. Only downside is his incessant peeping outside our bedroom window at 4.30am every morning)

We still have the Eastern Rosellas and occasional Crimson Rosella (and hybridisations of the two).

And, some non-bird visitors - Koalas, Blue-tongue Lizards and a Brown Snake.

Dear digifish_books et al.

I have 6 to 8 magpies (and their very loud young) fighting over my feeding dish at the moment. Hmm will have to find some cheaper minced meat. They are eating (and boy can they eat) the same stuff I do. Do you think they are having 2 lots of offspring a season lately?

Compared with the 8 or so species I had last year, only the noisy miners and the rainbows (infrequently for now) have returned.
I did though see a pink Galah in the street and some Rosellas further out.
And some crested pigeons. The second toughest bird after the Lorikeets.

dear digifish_books
I very much enjoyed your surrogate familyship of a baby miner. Now must look up all those birds of yours.
cheers

>94 guido47: The drought does seem to affect breeding habits of the magpies. We didn't see any 'pie chicks in the summers of 2006 and 2007. Adelaide got average rain in winter this year so there are plenty of them around now. You are kind to buy them minced meat, we just throw them meat scraps/off-cuts and grated cheese.

>95 subarcticmike: Thank you, Mike. Glad you enjoyed it :)

Bluejay, raven, black-capped chickadee, pine grosbeak, common redpoll, hairy woodpecker, all at the feeders or in the yard. Only the tough ones stick it out for the winter here.

Cardinal, chickadee, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, white breasted nuthatch, mourning doves, in the remaining snow - busy feeders.

Merry Christmas All- and happy birding.

Season's Greetings all, near and far. from sunny southern Arizona.

Looking out, I see that territorial issues rage on between several male Costa's at the hummingbird feeders. The covey of Gambel's quail has moved on after enjoying early morning treats and won't be back for more until late afternoon. That leaves the curve-billed thrashers, cactus wrens, verdins, white-crowned and rufous-winged sparrows, mourning doves, house finches, and the occasional canyon towhee and northern cardinal to putter about in the yard.

Not sure what's going on in my street lately but we had the largest group of kookaburras I've ever seen turn up on Monday afternoon. They were flying backwards and forwards between two or three large Eucalyptus trees. All up we counted about 8 to 10 birds. Some sort of territorial war no doubt, with plenty of raucous 'laughing'. Up til now we have only heard one or two in the distance and only early in the morning.

Just bought (my Christmas Present to myself...)

field guide to australian birds by michael morcombe

Very detailed but I still prefer a book with paintings of selected Aussi birds
from 1980. It says Rainbow Lorikeets are rare in the Eastern coast.
Well whats 30 or so years.

The touchstones bought up the wrong book (same title different author)

http://www.librarything.com/work/109791/book/54546337

Is the book I got.

guido,
the rainbow lorikeets around my place clearly haven't read that book, last summer season we had nearly 30 at a time in and around the birdbath.

Today we had a lovely pair of King Parrots around for a little while until the bloody noisy miners chased them off.

Our Noisy Miners seem to tolerate the local parrots (Rosellas, Lorikeets) quite well. And I'm glad to have the Miners around as they keep the neighbourhood cats away from our yard. I do occasionally get sick of having to refill the bird bath though, they like to wash as a group and the bowl can be empty five minutes after being refilled :)

The most objectionable bird at present here is the juvenile Pink & Grey Galahs. Their screeching is hideous! ;)

On Saturday:
Masked Lapwing
Splendid Fairy-wren
Eastern Rosella
Welcome Swallow
Australian Magpie

among no shortage of starlings, sparrows and a blackbird.

Northesk: that sounds like my old house. My last five were

Belted Kingfisher
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Dark-eyed Junco
Stellar's Jay
Brown Creeper

Recently returned from San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, where the yard of our rental was daily visited by:

Violet-crowned hummingbird
Broad-billed hummingbird
Inca dove
Hooded oriole
Lark sparrow

Dear Group,

I currently have a "wounded" Aussie Magpie, a young one, it is breeding season and I am also feeding 4 "squawkers".
I was lucky insofar as there is a "local" group that "looks after" damaged "native" wild life.

After phoning, a volunteer came within an hour or so, took "it" to a volunteer Vet. and returned the bird to me ( NO broken wing - but unsure: it might fly or not?)

Well (hoppie?) has been running around my yard for the past week. I hope he/she makes it.

Your old softie,

Guido.

So far today:
Red bellied Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal
Downy woodpecker
chickadee (Black capped or Carolina, we are in hybridization zone, so never sure which one)
Blue Jay
White breasted nuthatch
starling
house finch
goldfinch
house sparrow
Junco

Oh, to be in Australia!

Good luck with "Hoppie", Guido47.

A leucistic (all-white but not authentically albino) curve-billed thrasher has taken up residence in our yard.

I recently moved to Tasmania (Australia) so I have a new list:

Masked Lapwing
Australian Magpie
Seagull
Brown Falcon
Blue Wren

and (like Northesk), plenty of Starlings, Sparrows and Blackbirds

What part of Tassie?

Strangely enough, I only have (here in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne) 1 lonely "blackbird". The only NON native.

I do though "like" sparrows, and before you "burn the witch... what is a MALE Witch called anyway?) suspect the "sparrow" is NOT as intrusive as some of our other "introduced" species? I do NOT like Starlings and the Indian Mynhas! But do like Sparrows and their personality!

Yes, I do remember Chairman Mao's purge on sparrows!
And perhaps like them more because they survived THAT trial.

Guido.

Guido, we are a little north-east of Hobart.

I don't mind any introduced species, as long as they are quiet! :) We did have a Blackbird living in a tree outside our bedroom in Adelaide and he liked to let everyone know when the sun came up (actually well before the sun came up!). The constant screeching and bickering among groups of Rainbow Lorikeets also annoyed us in Adelaide. Those things really plague up! Fortunately, the Lorikeets haven't made across Bass Strait en masse yet, although I did read somewhere that one or two were seen in Ulverstone.... Noooooo...!!!! ;P

Oh my dear, digifish_books,

What else are "boids" good for except to remind US, we are alive, in the morning?
At one stage I had 12 to 14 Rainbows (they never stood still long enough that I could count them ALL...) fighting and squalking in my feeding bowl. 3 Families I suspect.

MY "blackbird" is very quiet. But my 4 "squarker" maggie babies never stop, well squarking. It's funny, watching when "MUM" flies away. they can feed themselves very well, and are quiet, but when Mummy reappears, they revert to babyhood. ie. they MUST be fed and make much noise.

I guess this is part of the JOY of watching birds.

Yours, Guido.

PS. I did some temporary work in Hobart when "the bridge went down" and I had to travel thru. Richmond on the way from the Airport to Hobart. I'm guessing that is near your place? Oh dear you did say NE. richmond is NW. Please ignore my previous observations :-) But in a previous life I did spend some time in Hobart!

The hard weather here (southern England) has brought a couple of oddities to my village garden - a covey of red-legged partridge, and a snipe, which pecked around on the lawn with the blackbirds. The little egret pays his daily visit to the little stream, pausing in his creaky walk to tremble his foot on the muddy bottom to stir up some food. A sparrowhawk sat on the fence and threw the flock of tits and finches round the bird table into a mighty panic. Last winter I was surprised to see a water rail join the resident moorhens foraging at the stream edge in this kind of weather, but no such luck so far this year.

Your garden sounds wonderful. I have only seen egrets when I have been in Egypt (I promise not to do my terrible egret joke), although I do know that they can be found in various parts of the country. I do like the way that you write, do keep a log of what you see?
On our last visit to Askham Bog Nature Reserve, we saw Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh (?) Tits and of course the ever present (but always welcome) Robin.

The hard weather also brought some visitors to my suburban manchester garden - a flock of long-tailed tits. Balls of fluff on a stick as the book so helpfully identifies them. Thought we might have seen the Fieldfare from January once, and a couple of mistle thrushs. A family of blackbirds as well which is unusually because they normally squabble.

For the first time ever, I had a baby "Currawong". Much like a baby maggie,
larger, call more "croaky" but same nature, ie. awkward and stupid.
It does seem that the "smarter birds" need more time to "grow up" :-)

I tried to do my own Christmas day bird count, but we were in the middle of a winter storm so most of them were laying low though there were a few unidentifiable peeps. I did see a rambunctious red-headed woodpecker and a mourning dove.

A good point #114 onwards,

HOW do the European/etc. birds handle extreme snow?

> 117 Hahaha! It reminds me of a rather gormless adolescent magpie we had on our front lawn in Adelaide. We would put food out for him but he'd end up completely bamboozled by a group of Noisy Miners ducking and weaving overhead. They always knew to swoop the younger 'pie rather than the adults ;)

>115 Bowerbirds-Library:
The garden is small - but a small group of houses sits alongside two little streams running either side of a largish lawn which we all share, and it's the streams which provide the main bird interest, particularly as we are not far from open country and the main river valley. The moorhens have adapted to human presence, and raise young each year - the little birds are fun to watch. The streams are carriers for a great kingfisher river, and another annual highlight comes in autumn as the kingfishers head downstream to winter by the coast. Egrets reached us about five years ago - I think they're spreading northeastwards from the South West, where they have been established for twenty or thirty years: I think I read that there are now 3000 birds (pairs, even?). The egrets are not the only conspicuous birds with changing distributions - buzzards have spread in the same direction, and I often see them from my office window, soaring on the upcurrents at the valley edge. And red kites, spreading south from the Chilterns to the Hampshire Downs and now beyond, are ceasing to be a rarity. I don't keep a log, I'm afraid - I like to watch our regular birds, and don't (yet!) have too much difficulty remembering the unusual birds which pay us an occasional visit.

>119 guido47:
Cold even more than snow is a major hazard, and great or prolonged cold can cause great mortality - some bird populations can crash by 90% in a severe winter. Many people put food out on bird tables, and that is said to make a very significant difference to garden birds - the cold weather comes when the days are short, and birds don't have much time for feeding even when the ground is unfrozen and invertebrates are active. Other birds have to seek out feeding grounds - hence the unusual visitors I mentioned in 114 - and exploit areas where snow may lie less thickly, such as the edges of woodland or the lee of walls and hedges.
Happily, crashed populations usually recover in time, although it may take some years.

>115 Bowerbirds-Library: Indigo-silk, I'll bite, what's your terrible egret joke?

>122 affle:
The hawks and owls are having a hell of a time as well.

My 5+ today, are from the yard:

Fox Sparrow
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Mourning Dove
Northern (Slate Colored or, Dark-eyed) Junco
No. Cardinal
White-breasted Nuthatch
Tufted Titmouse
Black-capped Chicadee

I haven't seen my "half-hardy" Carolina Wren lately. Maybe the weather go to the little guy and only the 'full-hardies" remain.

The first five species I saw today were
Northern Cardinal
Slate Colored Junco
House Finch
Mourning Dove
Goldfinch

It is a feederwatch count day, so I started at dawn - easier to do in January than in June.

Northern Cardinal
Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Goldfinch
Housefinch

Hope they all hang around until tomorrow for feederwatch day. High about 65. Lovely weather.

"Oregon" Dark eyed Junco
Northwestern Crow
Trumpeter Swan
Stellars Jay
Evening Grosbeak

common redpoll (lots of them!)
pine grosbeak
black-capped chickadee
downy woodpecker
common raven

these are typical winter birds, also often see blue jays, hairy woodpeckers and sometimes evening grosbeaks, but I won't see things like juncos and finches until spring

Northern Star,

I have the juncos (snowbirds) now. Will send them to you in about 6 weeks. I have to be very lucky to see evening grosbeaks for a few days in April as they stop be my feeder to tank up on their journey further south. Finches are eating me out of house and home now but will also stay for the summer.

Thanks June - but better hold the juncos until April, unless spring comes early. Last year I saw the first ones on April 9.

A family of Superb Fairy-Wrens has arrived. They are too cute! :)

I had to google those - they do look cute!

129>

I have the juncos (snowbirds) now.

I'm glad someone does! I haven't seen any all winter.

Where are you that you are able to see these exotic birds?

Here in southern Arizona, nest building for some species begins in January. Birds involved in ongoing nesting in and around our yard include curve-billed thrashers, canyon wrens, house finches, mourning doves, and Costa's hummingbirds.

As an aside, here's a description of a prickly situation in which I involved myself a couple of days ago:

A friend called with concerns about a curve-billed thrasher nestling. Its wing appeared to be caught on the spines of the cholla cactus in which the mother had nested. I volunteered to help free it and showed up in short order with heavy gloves, long-handled pruning shears, and tweezers. The nest was well hidden within the cactus's horrendously prickly limbs, so it took quite a bit of delicate hacking to reach it. With my friend's husband pitching in as well, the three of us ended up hopping up and down in pain and cursing as we took turns extracting the spines from our fingers, elbows, and knees. Once we got a good look at the bird it became obvious that it was anchored to the nest by a long piece of thread that had wound itself around one foot. It appeared to be of an age where it was large enough to leave the nest. After much more manouvering we finally got our hands on the bird and disentangled it (its mouth open, begging for food all the while). The worried mother, meanwhile, sat in a nearby tree, calling. The nest was by now entirely devoid of soft cushioning, so I gathered up some duff and cosied it up a bit before we returned our patient to its former abode. This morning I bicycled down to check on the situation just as the mother and what was presumably the rescued nestling both flew into a nearby tree. Later, my friend reported that she had observed it flying back to the nest from time to time, but that it seemed to be avoiding full use of the affected foot that it had no doubt been struggling for days to free. With luck it will be O.K.

tropics, I spent enough time in southern Arizona to truly sympathize with you for digging into a cholla to rescue a nestling! Good for you, and I hope it does all right.

Might as well post my list, since I haven't posted one since moving cross-country:

Fish Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Cardinal
Northern Mockingbird
Carolina Chickadee

Saw a Brown Thrasher the other day, but not in the yard; I didn't realize they wintered this far north.

Paying my visit of the year to the house in France. It's not just being 600 miles further south that makes a difference to the birds: the 'yards' themselves could not be more different. In England we have a well-kept pocket handkerchief of a garden in a valley-bottom village, here - 1200 feet up at the head of a valley - we have a few acres of meadow and mature trees in a thoroughly rural setting.

It's spring: today I heard my first cuckoo of the year, close enough by to be a yard bird. I've been looking out for my favourite early spring arrival, the hoopoe, but no sight or sound yet. In a month or two there will be nightingales and golden orioles.

It's wild enough to have several big raptors visit, notably black and red kites, and hen harriers, but the buzzards are resident in the woods at the bottom of the meadow. Last year's young are still with the adults - I suppose they'll get chased off when the breeding season is further under way.

In a good year we have five different woodpeckers (some of the trees are mature to the point of being rotten): green, grey-headed, and greater-, middle-, and lesser-spotted. Only the green and greater-spotted are common; both were drumming today, and the green was yaffling very noisily.

The common little bird round the buildings isn't the sparrow, but the black redstart, constantly flicking its red tail and making its spitting call. It's the Spanish race - not supposed to be this far north of the Pyrenees, according to the bird book, but it is.

And fifth place today goes to the humble blackbird, which has been waking us at first light. It has built a nest in a hedge close to the back of the house, and as it flies to and fro it catches sight of its own reflection in our windows, it swoops to the attack and pecks away at the glass. We've hung tea towels over the windows to stop it beating itself senseless. Our French neighbours are confirmed in their view that les anglais are fous.

Wood Duck
Eastern Phoebe
Dark-eyed Junco
American Robin
Blue Jay

In southwestern Michigan.

Chimney Swift
Barn Swallow
House Sparrow
Great-tailed Grackle
White-winged Dove

NW Indiana
Eastern Bluebird (a first for me)
American Robin
Blue Jay
Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird

Midcoast Maine

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Nashville Warbler
Wild Turkey
American Goldfinch

Where are you, NorthernStar?

lorax,
fyi: Brown Thrasher winters as far north as New England, though they are few and far between in Maine, and less uncommon in Massachusetts. They are one of my favorite birds, but truth be told, the bird I'm thinking about or seeing is one of my favs, so not sure that's a fair testimonial for the thrasher.

I'm in northern British Columbia (latitude about 58.5). Saw the first juncos this weekend, a white-crowned sparrow, Canada Geese and some swans flying over (probably trumpeter, but could have been tundra). Also saw a boreal chickadee, less common than the black-capped. Still lots of redpolls around. Spring is definitely here - snow is going fast.

edited to add - also saw a dipper on a rock in an open spot in a creek in the mountains this weekend.

Black-and-white Warbler (another first!)
Mourning Dove
Common Grackle
Canada Geese
Great Blue Heron

Hi Group,

Perhaps NOT in the letter of this thread, BUT I hope the spirit.

It is the end of May, almost Winter (and getting cool) here in Australia, and I still have a "baby" Magpie.

It still squarks to be fed. I throw "mince" to it and it waits for "mummy" to pick it up and place it in it mouth.
Now usually Maggies grow up in about 3 months.

This KID must have been hatched in February.
A second clutch? or do I have a "retarded magpie".
It does get beaten up by the Adults a fair bit.

Guido.

NY Chelsea Morning

Carolina Wren
Northern Cardinal
Downy Woodpecker
American Goldfinch
Eastern Sparrow

California, central coast (not near the beach)

Western Scrub Jay
California Quail
Turkey Vulture
Lesser Goldfinch
Western Bluebird

Denver, CO

male house finch
male & female downy woodpeckers (taking turns at the suet cake)
crow
assorted sparrows
red-shafted flicker

and more - a typical summer morning

Purlear, NC

Red tailed hawk
mourning doves
crows (very loud ones)
whippoorwill (heard not seen)
Carolina wren

Abert's Towhee
Gila Woodpecker
White-winged Dove
Rosy-faced Lovebird
Cactus Wren

Hi Group,

Really the wrong time of year here in Aussi, But...
I recently saw my first "pair" of Butcher Birds in about a Year. Their head really is "Kingfisher/Kooka" like.

A pair of rainbow lorikeets have taken over the food bowl
and now fight it out with a Pair of Maggies.
I was quit surprised to note that the lorikeets EAT MEAT.

The crested pigeons ignore them all.

All my other usual cast is missing though.

But the real reason I wrote was to mention a very strange magpie. Hey it's August but he still acts like a fledgling.
He peeps, he squats to avoid the beatings from the Adult Maggies. Even upsidedown. If I throw him a bit of mince he appears to be unable to find/eat it, incessantly demanding to be fed (until the other M's have left)

I either have a retarded Magpie or a very smart one.
I suspect he is a 2nd clutch (fairly rare for Maggies) and
was probably born in Feb/March.
Several years ago I had a family of Maggies who had the habit of standing on one leg. Haven't seen them for some time. THIS guy stands on one leg.
I wonder if they are related?

Guido.

#153 Guido: Are you still being visited by magpies who prefer standing on one leg?

Here in late January in southern Arizona the Mourning Doves have begun cooing at dawn, signaling their renewed interest in mating and reminding me that in the ensuing months many of us will surely be awakened earlier than we would like. Once the White-Winged Doves arrive from Mexico in March (with their even more persistent cooing), sleep deprivation becomes even more problematic.

Other current visitors to the yard include Gambel's Quail, Cactus Wrens, Curve-Billed Thrashers, Canyon Towhees, Northern Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxias, Lesser Goldfinch, House Finches, Costa's Hummingbirds, Verdins, Black-Throated Sparrows, and Rufous-Winged Sparrows. A Cooper's Hawk stopped by briefly yesterday.

I would have been appalled to see many birds today, as it's twenty below (F) at 8PM EST in upper New England, over a foot of crusted snow. The poor Blue-Jays were puffed-up like Quail, to get extra loft/insulation against the cold. We saw 13 or 14 Wild Turkeys who'd come out of the shelter of the woods: they are desperate. Of course, the Chickadees are brave and imperishable: "Phearless Phoebes" as a friend calls them, with pardonable departure from strict taxonomy!

#155 Harry: As someone who grew up in northern Ontario, I can fully appreciate how difficult it must be for man, beast, and fowl to cope with the current extremely frigid weather "back East".

Here in northern BC, in the depths of winter, I am getting black-capped chickadees, common redpolls, pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, once in a while a blue jay, and always somewhere around there are ravens. All except the ravens are coming to the feeders and/or suet I put out.

Hi #154 (tropics)

Yep, at least 3 generations so far.

Guido: I checked Flickr (of which I am a member (user name "Troupial") and found another photo of a magpie standing on one leg:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/planettrekker/5099404756/

Sorry you Northern Hemisphers. This will be my last Maggie pic. (for a while)

This was a baby of a whole family which stood on one leg and started me noticing :-)



The Cactus now lives in the garden after some 20 years indoors.

very attractive magpies, whether 1 or 2 legged.

couldn't scare up 5 species on the Christmas Bird Count in Arviat, southernmost Nunavut and 150 km north of the treeline. 4 species and 32 feathered souls in the clear and cold at -30cee...
ravens, ptarmigan, house sparrows (shiver) and 2 very late (but healthy) common redpolls migrating through.
I wonder if these wee birds hung tough in a patch of willows or grass, they nest right up into the High Arctic.

#161 Mike: Tough species, indeed, including the Christmas Bird Count participant.

The Web has become fantastically encyclopedic in terms of information amassed about our fine feathered friends. As just one example, the Internet Bird Collection http://ibc.lynxeds.com/content/statistics-ibc has thus far collected:

Photos of 8,795 species
Videos of 7,637 species
Sound recordings of 5,093 species.

I've contributed with the username "manakin".

Tropics
are you still visiting this list?

bluejw

Bluejw: Yes, still here. I've been out and about, locally, tallying another "year" list, which now stands at a modest 53 species.

Five yard birds seen today include:

Gambel's quail
Cactus wren
Black-throated sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Rufous-winged sparrow

Happy New Year!

Today:
Cardinal
Mockingbird
Carolina Chickadee
Bluejay
House Finch

Ah tropics sounds like you are still in the SW. I am currently in the east (PA) and just leaving to return to the valley of the sun.
My list for today

Blue Jay (My favorite bird)
N. Cardinal
Carolina Wren
Dark eyed Junco
Canada Goose
Amr Crow
Tufted Titmouse
House Sparrow
Carolina Chickadee

You must be in the east also fuzzi/

I usually don't keep a year list but maybe I'll try it. I am planning a few bird trips during the year.

Happy New Year and good birding.
Bluejw

Yes, bluejw, I live in eastern North Carolina.

I don't keep a year list, but I do use the "life list" that's in the front of my Peterson's guide.

Bluejw: An interesting list of sightings. A change of venue is always a pleasure.

Strangely, I've had no luck finding a Canyon Towhee in the new year despite the fact that this is a common species here. A Roadrunner stopped by briefly yesterday.

Ahhh...
it is great to be back in the sun (Scottsdale) and seeing Gambel's Quail, Cactus Wrens, etc as well as still seeing Northern Cardinals.

We added several good birds to the Year List during the drive back.
We stopped at the Mississippi Sand Hill Crane NWR in Mississippi and got
the Mississippi non-migratory subspecies of the Sand Hill Crane. They are
darker then the subspecies populating New Mexico and Wilcox, AZ.

I will be on a bird walk tomorrow morning and will collect most of the
common urban desert species. I don't expect any Canyon Towhee but
we for sure will see Abert's Towhees.

Do you visit the Eastern N.Carolina NWR's fuzzi? They are enjoyable
birding areas. We stopped at Alligator River NWR this trip.

bluejw

Also Picked up a copy of the Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges by Laura and William Riley at the Coastal NWR Visitor Center in Manteo NC

Today:
Brown Headed Nuthatch
White Breasted Nuthatch
Brown Thrasher
Cardinal
Carolina Wren

Today :
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Cardinal
Junco (plural)
Downy woodpecker

What is the plural of Junco? Juncos, juncoes, juncii...?

Juncos, I think.

I didn't see them, but heard at the cabin over the weekend the summer birds are coming back. A nice sound to wake up to. Wears along the east coast migratory route so have put out the food and water to help them on their way.

Seen during the past week either in my garden, in mum & dad's garden or on my walk...

Wedge-tailed eagle (pair)
New Holland Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Common Bronzewing
Superb Fairywren (family)

#176 Spectacular sightings, Bernsad.

The annual international Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up next week:

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/

Tropics
Did you do the GBBC?

I submitted 2 reports

bluejw

Happy New Year! and all the best for 2015

all of that fine warm weather birding takes my shivers away

common raven
rock ptarmigan
willow ptarmigan
snow bunting (pair of late migrants)
and, r-r-r-r-oll of drums, please
snowy owl (immature)

I think our hamlet's decade or so of overwintering house sparrows may have got shut out of their house-sitting, none seen on the Christmas Bird Count :(

Ruffed grouse
Black-capped chickadee
Common redpoll
Blue jay
Canada jay

and

Pine grosbeak
Evening grosbeak
Pine siskin
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker

And I know that's 5x2, but they were all visiting my feeders this weekend. I've joined project feederwatch, so I'm keeping track. Also had one or more red squirrels and three deer. I think the grouse have moved into my fir tree, they've been hanging around for over a week. There are lots of ravens around here, too, but they didn't stop in the yard. Also had 2 juncos earlier in the week, which is unusual for this time of year - they are usually summer birds here.

I've enjoyed Project Feederwatch for years, so glad you have picked it up. I'm off schedule with Chirstmas holidays - need to get back to it this weekend.

>180 NorthernStar: here in NC the locals refer to Juncos as "snow birds", as they tend to show up when it gets cold, or snowy.

Which kind of Junco do you see? We get the Slate-colored variety.

>182 fuzzi: - We get the slate-coloured varient too. Funny - they usually leave here when it gets cold and snowy; to me they are a sign of spring!

Juncos were late to arrive here- none until early December and still not many at a time. Some years I have had flocks of 20 or more. So far this year only 3 or 4 at a time.

My Juncos stayed year round this time, which is very unusual.

Mike: Happy New Year to you! A privilege to have seen the species you observed. Here in southern Arizona the domain of Common and Chihuahuan Ravens inter-lap somewhat, creating consternation for those among us who would like to be able to discern the difference, but often fail utterly.

Yesterday, having determined that the "regulars" were present and accounted for in my yard (Gambel's Quail, Black-Throated Sparrow, Rufous-Winged Sparrow, Curve-Billed Thrasher, and Cactus Wren), I located the rare-bird-alert-reported Pacific Loon on a golf course pond which fortunately can be accessed by the general public. It was in the company of dozens of American Wigeons, a few Ruddy Ducks, a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, and A Belted Kingfisher. Elsewhere, on another public-access golf course pond, I found two Green Herons, four Hooded Mergansers (male and female), a Vermilion Flycatcher, a Say's Phoebe, and a Black Phoebe.

>187 tropics: woo! Lucky you...

Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Cardinal
Tufted Titmouse
House Finch

from N.C. piedmont

Red-bellied Woodpecker (female)
Carolina Wren
White-throated Sparrow
House Finch (both genders)
Carolina Chickadee

Also Cardinals (both genders), male Downy Woodpecker, AND gulls, the latter which I have not yet identified!

(seen in eastern NC)

Addendum: tentatively have ID'd them as Ring-billed Gulls...

Northern Cardinal, Woodpecker, House Finch, Carolina Wren, White-throated Sparrow, Cooper's Hawk, Mockingbird, a whole flock of Starlings (about 200 birds), Mourning Dove, Inca Dove, Blue Jay

Locally, and rather strangely, two Pacific Loons are presently wintering here in southern Arizona, one of them having joined dozens of wintering ducks on a golf course pond which is stocked with fish, the other on a sewage treatment pond, which presumably is bereft of fish.

Maybe the sewage pond is full of crap carp.

Bernsad: Yes, that would be useful, but unlikely. I wonder if the loons flew south together and then became separated?

Tufted Titmouse
Robin (American)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Turkey Vulture (soaring above the yard)

Here in southeasternmost mainland Nunavut, I see Pacific, Red-throated and Common Loons. But I can only whistle aka Common, the other two species ignore me. Overlapping ravens? by recorded songs, Chihuahuan and Common are different, but then again most of my CDs are northern bias'd. Good to hear about your wintering species. Widgeons, White-Crowned Sparrows are on the tundra. Hamlet summer-feeder rarities include one-off northern flicker, cowbird, bluebird and several robins and turkey vultures.

Plural is juncos and juncoes according to Merriam Webster. Would be funny if the plural was junci or juncii--LOL

:-)

PS: But birdies aren't junky (sic) so of course the plural is juncos and juncoes. LOL They are the "pretty birds" not the "dirty birds" as a little 5-year old boy I know would remind me.

Yellow vented bulbul
Olive thrush
Black kite
Hadeda ibis
African pied wagtail

I went to Minnesota, and only saw a Bluejay and a Robin. :(

I came home to NC, and saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Kingbird, neither of which I have seen since I moved from CT to the Carolinas, back in 1988!

So, here are 5 birds for today:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Eastern Kingbird
Goldfinch
Catbird
Myrtle warbler

Gambel's Quail (parents followed by 10 or more light-on-their-feet walnut-sized chicks)
Northern Cardinal (male at the bird bath)
Hooded Oriole (perched female)
Canyon Towhee (parent feeding a fledgling)
Cactus Wren (at the window feeder)

Spring/summer birds are here!

White-crowned sparrow - just arrived from the south today
Fox sparrow - showed up a few days ago
American robin - arrived several days ago
Dark-eyed junco (slate-coloured variety) - showed up about a week ago
Purple finch - arrived with the juncos

And geese, swans, and cranes have been going over. Spotted gulls and a couple of merlins by the reservoir.

>201 NorthernStar: so that's where my Purple finches and Juncos went! :)

>202 fuzzi: happy to have them here for now, will send them back in the fall!

>203 NorthernStar: thanks! They usually show up when we get our first (and sometimes only) snowfall. :)

cardinal
mourning dove
tufted titmouse
purple finch
chickadee

Bald eagle! I just saw a bald eagle fly out with a squirrel in its talons! Next door to me!

Blue jays, red headed woodpecker, Carolina wrens, house sparrows

>206 Solo-Star: oooh! Oooh! An eagle!!!!

Fuzz: :-) I still can't believe it!

>206 Solo-Star: - Nice!

Today I saw a lovely grackle, a red-winged blackbird, blue jay, hordes of white-crowned sparrows, and several evening grosbeaks, among others.

Evening Grosbeaks...ahh...we would get a flock of them on January 1st every year. They'd stay for a few hours, emptying the feeders, then move on. My mom loved seeing them, too.

Does an Osprey count as a yard bird? :)

Mourning Doves, Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Starlings, House Sparrows...

>211 gilroy: was it in your yard? :D

>212 fuzzi:
Flew across it hauling a fish.

>213 gilroy: how nice. I'd love that to happen to me, but we're about 60 miles from the coast.

>214 fuzzi:
It's unusual for me, since I am 20 miles from the coast myself. But lots of water means lots of water birds.

silvery cheeked hornbill
red cheeked cordonbleu
olive sunbird
yellow billed kite
yellow vented bulbul or dark capped bulbul

My two different bird books disagree on the naming of the latter. The older one (1980) calls the yellow vented bulbul pyconotus barbatus, whereas the newer one (2003) calls pyconotus barbatus the common bulbul but says it doesn't have a yellow vent; it names the one with yellow as the dark capped bulbul, pyconotus tricolor.

Similarly there is a difference over the kite. The older book refers only to the black kite, milvus migrans, but the newer one says the yellow billed kite, milvus aegyptius, is now recognised as different.

A fascinating list, John. I admired their images online.

>217 tropics: Thanks. One of the great pleasures and privileges of living in Africa is the plethora of beautiful birds.

Hagerstown, MD

This is for the past few days because I want to include

Common Yellowthroat! (only the 2nd time in 23 years I've seen one in our yard)
Downy Woodpecker
Cooper Hawk (flew over the yard)
Northern Catbird
American Robin

(and of course, the usual suspects)
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch

>219 pmackey: ooh! A Common Yellowthroat! :)

I've been seeing Catbirds more, just in the last couple years. I've not seen any since my childhood, 45 years ago, so I'm still excited about viewing them. :)

robin
cardinal
purple finch
tufted titmouse
chickadee

Piedmont North Carolina

Catbird
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Chickadee
Bluejay
Cardinal

and Brown-headed Nuthatch and Grackle

>222 fuzzi: I'd never heard of a catbird, and I always thought chickadee was a childish made-up cartoon word! You live and learn. I've looked them both up now and enjoyed the pictures.

>220 fuzzi: I also grew up with catbirds and have continued to see them in summer in New England. I do not recall seeing any here in Pennsylvania until the last few years. We have a couple hanging about the place now. They can get quite tame- my grandfather used to hand feed raisins to one. I was not around enough to know how long it took him to get this to happen.

Catbirds are normal spring/summer/early autumn residents where I've lived in Maryland... Baltimore and Hagerstown. I hated them as a kid because they'd tease my cat (or so it seemed). Love them now!

"Well aren't you a catbird's kitten," was a childhood phrase I heard many times.

Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Blue jay
Black-capped chickadee
Red-winged blackbird
Gray jay

And walking in the forest I saw northern (yellow-shafted) flickers and their nest hole in a tree, a pair of mallard ducks and a pair of blue-winged teal, and last week saw this hawk owl. It's feathers are a little fluffed up as some gray jays were harassing it.

Thank you NorthernStar for posting this pic. He/She is just darlin'! Aaaaawwwe.

nuthatches
mourning doves
purple finches
cardinals
chickadees
tufted titmouse

and robins and downy woodpeckers.

and a chipmonk wandered up on my deck for a drink of water!

>223 John5918: glad you looked them up. The Chickadees are my favorite songbird: they are brave, bold, daring, and can be taught to eat from your hand. They will scold if you're close to THEIR feeders, but if you are patient, even though you're near, they'll swoop in, grab a seed, give you "the eye", and zoom off.

>224 Helenoel: I think the Catbirds of my childhood were killed by pesticides. I still recall seeing one die on our lawn, probably from eating fruit that had been sprayed. My mother was organic from the early 60's, and we never used pesticides, so he must have been at a neighbor's garden.

I have pictures of birds in my gardening thread, here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/189208#5101434

NorthernStar: Such a privilege to see the Hawk Owl. I grew up in Northern Ontario, but was oblivious to its probable presence there.

Yesterday, in Wells, Maine: Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Northern Parula, Willet, Common Tern

Pine Grosbeak (male and female)
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Bald Eagle
Hairy Woodpecker
Boreal Chickadee

(Homer, AK)

>233 TomeBoy: by those birds, I sort of knew you weren't in the lower 48 states.

White-breasted Nuthatch
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Chickadee
House Finch
Bluejay

Back in my other home now, in Juba, South Sudan:

Black breasted barbet
Grey backed fiscal
Red cheeked cordon bleu
Yellow vented bulbul

And a sunbird which was probably a Beautiful sunbird but could have been a Scarlet chested sunbird - I didn't get a good enough look at it to be sure.

And a kite circling high overhead - yellow billed kite or black kite, both very similar but it was too far away to differentiate.

Cordon Bleu? Thought that was just an entree!

From a more mundane Pennsylvania site,

American Robin
downy woodpecker
catbird
starlings
cardinal
house finch

and a too-short look at a mystery juvenile which might be a red bellied woodpecker- size and bill are about right and it is too big for much else- maybe a very fuzzy mourning dove. light gray breast with a white spot on the throat.

>236 fuzzi: Yes, I was surprised when I found out what it was called! A beautiful little bird, and I've seen them in both Juba and Nairobi.

northern oriole
red wing black bird
mallard
house finch
viero

>239 Urquhart: an Oriole...oh, I wish. I even have an Oriole feeder, in which I have been offering fruit or jelly...no takers. :(

Today I saw a Summer Tanager (sigh).

This is yet another rare sighting for me, recently. In 2015 I have seen the following unusual (for me) birds:

5/26/15 Summer Tanager (male)
4/28/15 Eastern Kingbird
4/28/15 Rose-breasted Grosbeak (male & female)
3/15/15 Pine Warbler
2/21/15 Pileated Woodpecker
2/18/15 American Woodcock (first time ever!)
2/15/15 Purple Finch (male & female)
2/15/15 Yellow-shafted Flicker (male)
2/15/15 Pine Siskin
2/14/15 Phoebe (first time ever!)
2/14/15 Meadowlark

Many of these I've not seen in 40+ years not since I was growing up in Connecticut. I think our cooler-than-usual spring/summer might have some of these birds sticking around, delaying their migration to the north.

Not five, but one very special fellow was at the feeder this morning, a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird!

I've had a female visit my flowers and feeder every summer for the past several years, but never saw the male, until today. No picture available, as he was fast and I was slow...what do you expect at 6:00am???

I spotted a red male house finch today, a treat for me because I rarely see them.

>243 Solo-Star: they are as common as dandelions here, but I still love watching them.

I did get three pictures of the male Ruby-throated Hummingbird finally, but they weren't terribly clear, it was dusk. Here's one decent picture I posted in my gallery:

Robin
Catbird
Cardinal
Mourning dove
Chickadee
Mute swan pair with 6 cygnets
Canada goose pair with 9 goslings
Osprey
Downy woodpecker
Red winged blackbird
Blue jay
Oriole
Grackle
House sparrow
Why yes we are on Cape Cod at the cabin on a pond.

>245 Helenoel: on vacation? :)

I'd love to see an Osprey, fairly close-up.

>246 fuzzi:
Saw an osprey nest with chicks up close today! The nest is outside Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe in Nag's Head. It's been there for years.

also
skimmers
boat tail grackle
brown pelicans
purple martins
laughing gulls

I'm at the beach this week.

>247 nrmay: we're planning our vacation for the shoreline this year, in September. I know the nest won't have chicks at that time, but I'm thinking of checking out Nag's Head anyway. We've not done that particular area, yet.

I've been hearing a pileated woodpecker drumming (very loudly) all morning, and a wood thrush singing as well.

Except for the mourning doves, all of the species frequenting my yard eagerly compete for a turn at the orange and grapefruit halves that I provide.

>246 fuzzi: yes fuzzi - sort of. Vacation from paid work. Lots of work opening my cabin for summer. And we won't be back 'til September. Aew rentals help pay the bills.

Not five, but I was very excited to see African openbill stork this morning. I have only ever seen single birds once or twice deep in the swamps, but this morning I saw three in our back yard.

Butcher Bird
Magpie
Green parrot
Ibis
Mynah

>252 John5918: nice!

I saw a Catbird outside the window at work. I love Catbirds.


(not my photo)

"Who do you think you are? a Catbird's kitten?" was always one of my dad's favorite expressions.

>255 varielle: cute! That's one I'd not heard before.

Pygmy Nuthatch
Pileated Woodpecker
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Cooper's Hawk
Chipping Sparrow

I love catbirds, too. They are shy and curious and snazzy looking.

>258 TomeBoy: I like all the thrushes, especially Catbirds, Mockingbirds, and Brown Thrashers.

Today I saw Cardinals, Grackles, Cardinals...I could probably name more, but I laid down when I got home, and didn't go outside until almost dark.

hadeda ibis
speckled mousebird
olive thrush
yellow-billed kite
baglafecht weaver

I'm particularly chuffed that I managed to identify the weaver. There are so many similar-looking ones where all you can say is, "It's a weaver of some sort or other!" but today I got a really good look at this one and managed to work out what it was.

>260 John5918: I know that's exciting! I love it when I can positively ID a bird, or butterfly, or....

Today:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (male)
Catbird
House Finches
Mourning Doves
Cardinals

red-tailed hawk
red-bellied woodpecker
blue jays
rufous-sided towhee
goldfinch

mourning doves
wrens
house finches
chickadees
tufted titmouse

Not my own backyard, but someone else's, and more than five - does that all count? I'm doing some work this week in a peace village in a very remote part of South Sudan, close to the Ethiopian and Kenyan borders, two days from Juba by land (on a good day) or 90 minutes in a small plane (which is how we came). I'm staying in the bishop's compound, and yesterday I had a bit of time to look at and try to identify birds in and around the place.

Sacred ibis
Cattle egret
Superb starling
Ruppell's starling
Ringed plover
Abyssinian roller
Fork-tailed drongo
Ring-necked dove
African mourning dove
Olive thrush
White stork
Ground hornbill
Red-billed hornbill
Common bulbul
Red-billed firefinch
Red-cheeked cordonbleu

Oh yes, and chickens too!

Plus plenty more that I couldn't identify.

>264 John5918: thanks for the 5+ list.

I love it when I go someplace and see new-to-me wildlife!

Thanks, fuzzi. This place is a veritable bird paradise! Very early this morning I stepped out of the front gate and within minutes I had seen:

Grey-headed kingfisher
Speckled mousebird
Black-headed gonolek
Woolly-necked stork
Sacred ibis
Ground hornbill
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
Common bulbul
Fork-tailed drongo
Weavers (couldn't identify which type, probably more than one)

Plus many others I couldn't identify. Still waiting to see a fish eagle, which I have seen here on previous visits.

The kingfishers were stunning in the early morning sun.

>266 John5918: I am happy for you.

Yesterday I got stared at by a hummingbird, about a foot from my face! She hovered, looking me over, then nonchalantly flew away.

brown thrasher
towhee
downy woodpecker
blue bird!
robin

I love thrashers and towhees! :)

Ruppell's starling
Yellow-vented bulbul
Common bulbul
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
Grey-backed fiscal

>270 John5918: That Red-cheeked cordonbleu is beautiful and the Grey-backed fiscal is quite handsome too.

>271 bernsad: Yes, I think "handsome" is a good word for it. At first glance they look a bit nondescript, but the more I watch them the more they grow on me!

>272 John5918: I think the Google Images do them justice. The head and cape is a nice subtle shade, the black eye band leading down into the wing is striking and the white underparts make a good contrast.

Killdeer (4)
Cardinals

I didn't spend time looking at my feeders before it got dark...

the usual suspects -

cardinals
nuthatch
red-bellied woodpecker
titmouse
chickadees

Female Cardinals
A teeny bird I have yet to identify and never seen before
Carolina Wrens
Sparrows
Blue Jays

>276 Solo-Star: what did the teeny bird look like?

I think its a white breasted nuthatch:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-breasted_Nuthatch/sounds

>278 Solo-Star: White breasted nuthatches are considerably larger than the red-breasted ones. Red might qualify as teeny- white not so much. They both run up and down trees, sometimes head down.

>278 Solo-Star: I love Nuthatches. >279 Helenoel: you're correct, and I believe they are the only bird to descend a tree head first.

White-breasted are the largest, Red-breasted and Brown-headed are much smaller.

Viewed over the last 3 days:

1-Barred Owl
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barred_Owl/id

2-Cormorant

3-Red Tail hawk

4-Cardinal

5-Hummingbird

not a list of birds, but I observed a new behavior. Hummingbirds sometimes perch on the clothesline outside my kitchen window near the nectar feeder. yesterday I saw a female ruby-throated hummer perched and she used one foot to scratch the side of her neck. All I could think of was a dog scratching behind its ear with a hind foot. Very fast motion, but repeated several times so I'm sure what I saw.

>282 Helenoel: I love moments like that!

Not my own yard, but that of a friend who lives on a ranch 30 km from Nairobi. Also more than five; we couldn't believe how many birds we saw, some of which none of us had seen before.

White-breasted cormorant
Maribou stork
Egyptian goose
White-browed sparrow weaver
Superb starling
Scarlet-chested sunbird
Crowned lapwing/plover
Blacksmith plover
Secretary bird
Ostrich
Guinea fowl
Northern white-bellied bustard
Kori bustard
Roller (probably lilac-breasted)
Vultures (but we couldn't identify the species)

I know this is not an animal group, but we also saw loads of wildebeest, Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, zebra, giraffe, vervet monkey, baboon, mongoose, warthog, eland, impala, common duiker, jackal, Coke's hartebeest, a sand snake, and more pepper ticks than we would have chosen to pick off ourselves. All of this in a very narrow range around his house.

I'm back in the peace village in South Sudan. A short stroll before breakfast yielded:

Fish eagle
Great white egret
Sacred ibis
Common bulbul
Grey-headed kingfisher
Malachite kingfisher
Red-billed firefinch
African grey hornbill
Fork-tailed drongo
Fan-tailed raven
Eastern grey plantain eater
Ruppell's starling

>285 John5918: any chance you could share a picture? :)

>286 fuzzi: Thanks, fuzzi, but unfortunately I'm not much of a photographer and I don't even have a camera with me. One of my colleagues is a keen photographer and I'll see if I can get any decent pictures off him eventually.

Today I went for a stroll after breakfast, slightly later than yesterday, as the crocodiles only tend to come out a little later as the day warms up. I was amply rewarded, seeing several crocodiles swimming and basking in the sun on the lake shore.

To my bird list I added:

Black-billed wood dove
Speckled mousebird
Eastern/northern yellow-billed hornbill
African open-bill stork
Black-headed heron

I was also able to watch a pair of fish eagles soaring spectacularly high in the sky.

A snake was killed outside my room last night, probably a cobra, but I didn't see it and I don't know the names of snakes in the local language, so I'm not sure.

I could look them up online, but a photo from you/your friend would be more personal.

How do you ID these birds? A guide? Experience? :)

>288 fuzzi: I'll try to get some photos from my friend.

I've got a very good field guide, and I'm lucky to have had people around me to help me get started to identify certain types of bird, including a brother-in-law, a nephew and several colleagues, including some who've worked in wildlife conservation. As I learned more, I found that the geographical range of the birds shown in the field guide has helped me tremendously; there are minor differences, for example, between a northern and southern ground hornbill, but even if I can't get a good enough look to confirm them, it's almost certain that any ground hornbill I see here will be northern. And a good pair of binoculars helps. I used to have a tiny cheap pair (a fee gift with something else that I bought, actually!), but since I invested in a good pair it has made a huge difference. I also just feel incredibly privileged to live in a continent where such a variety of beautiful and interesting birds are always all around me.

Thanks for the reply. My mother got me started on bird watching almost 50 years ago, and bought me my Peterson's guide. I can ID birds without taking a photo, but have used my camera and zoom lens as my binoculars at times.

>290 fuzzi: Thanks, fuzzi. I should add that every day I see loads of birds which I can't identify. I'm very poor on birds of prey, except a few obvious ones like the fish eagle; the smaller ones all look the same to me. Then there are things like weavers and sunbirds which I see regularly, but there are just too many different types and I can rarely identify the exact type. Then there are all the "little brown jobbies" which all look the same, and I find the same problem with a lot of smallish black or brown and white birds. Very frustrating. I'm also very poor on recognising bird calls, apart from a handful of very distinct ones such as the fish eagle, ibis and gonalek.

Yesterday my friend took some photos of a bird which we are pretty sure was some form of small heron such as a squacco, green or night heron, but despite poring over the book and his photos we still don't know which one.

It's just that that I see such an abundance of birds every day that I can't fail to identify some of the more obvious ones!

Another five:

Red-throated bee eater
Black-headed gonalek
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
Abyssinian roller
Red-and-yellow barbet

The latter is a beautiful bird with a song that reminded me a little of the old Space Invaders tune.

A few that we saw but couldn't identify properly:

A coucal which was probably a White-browed coucal but if not it must have been a Senegal coucal.

A small, squat, shy heron which was a Squacco heron, a Green-backed heron or perhaps a juvenile Black-crowned night heron; we just couldn't see it in a good enough light to be sure.

A nondescript little wader which stayed on the far bank of the lake.

Loads of swallows and weavers.

Francolins.

Vultures circling high overhead.

Little brown jobbies.

Different brown and white or black and white striped birds.

For fuzzi! Photos by my friend and colleague Ferdinand von Habsburg-Lothringen, posted with his consent.



African fish eagle



Sacred ibis



African openbill



Great white eagret

Red-and-yellow barbet



Speckled mousebird

>294 John5918:, >295 John5918: Wow! Gorgeous birds. I've mostly been seeing crows, ravens, blue jays, gray jays, and robins. Not very inspiring compared to what you have!

On a more interesting note, I did see several large flocks of sandhill cranes flying over today. I love the sound they make. Sad to see them heading south, though.

Winter is coming.

>296 NorthernStar: I love robins. One of those birds you first notice as a young child and never forget!

Maple leaf (rolling down road)
Poplar leaf (falling past window)
Huddled mourning doves (pair on clothes line)
Hickory leaf (fluttering against side of shed)
Oak leaf (bouncing off car windshield)

(Okay, I'm being silly, since the only birds in that list are the doves, but with a big storm around, I'm not seeing many birds...)

>294 John5918: >295 John5918: lovely!

I don't recall if I mentioned it here before, but my mother started me on birdwatching while I was young, about seven years old. I received my first Peterson's guide a couple years later, so I've had plenty of time to identify birds. I started watching butterflies and dragonflies a couple years ago, and can only identify a few...so remember it does take TIME to know what it is you are watching. Hmm, does that make sense? ;)

Bronze mannikin
Bruce's green pigeon
Ruppell's starling
Yellow-billed kite
Mourning Collared-Dove

It's dark when I leave for work, and dark when I come home, so I can't report any sightings since the weekend (Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Turkey Vulture, Crow).

Blue jay, ruffed grouse, black-capped chickadee, evening grosbeak, pine grosbeak, bohemian waxwing, common raven - OK that's seven, and it was over the past few days, not just today.

Oh, and there was a hairy woodpecker too.

Just a few minutes ago:

Yellow-billed kite
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
Ruppell's starling
Grey-backed fiscal
Dark-capped (yellow-vented) bulbul

Standing in my back door this morning for a few minutes I saw:

Yellow-billed kite
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
African mourning dove
Grey-backed fiscal
Dark-capped (yellow-vented) bulbul
Common bulbul

But the real excitement today was when I was sitting by the Nile this afternoon having tea with an old friend and a Purple heron landed in the reeds right in front of us and stood there, stock still, for ages. We also saw a couple of Nile monitor lizards while we were watching the heron.

>304 John5918: any pictures of the heron?

>305 fuzzi: No, sorry, I don't carry a camera with me and I have no idea how to use the camera on my phone!

I was in the same place this morning and this time a Black-headed heron landed on the bank and stood there for ages, even closer to us.

Too bad. I try to keep a small digital camera with me all the time. It has paid off in not missing opportunities.

First snow of the season today in northeastern US with lots of activity at the feeders - Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker.

As I write this at 11:00 p.m., awaiting the 2016 midnight hour, am hearing a Great Horned Owl calling periodically. Earlier today, we felt compelled to throw stones at a Roadrunner, stealthily planning to capture and eat unsuspecting sparrows arriving at our bird bath. White-Crowned Sparrows, Gambel's Quail, Pyrrhuloxia, and Cactus Wrens have been active at our feeders.

Happy New Year!

I did not know road runners preyed on other birds.

A Carolina Chickadee landed less than 2 feet from my face as I was filling the bird feeders with seed this morning. Up close, you realize just how incredibly tiny they are!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Carolina_Chickadee/lifehistory

Varielle: Roadrunners are especially fond of quail chicks.

Blue jay, black-capped chickadee, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak, downy woodpecker, common redpoll, and a raven flying by. Standard winter birds here.

I've never seen a roadrunner, or a Carolina chickadee.

>313 NorthernStar: the Carolina Chickadee is very similar to her northern cousin, so close they sometimes interbreed.

>314 fuzzi: - we have mostly black-capped here, but sometimes we see boreal or mountain chickadees.

I would love to see one of those, someday. The Chickadee is my favorite bird.

Three hadada ibis quietly grazing in the back garden of our Nairobi residence yesterday evening and again this morning.

Just back from a trip to Cape Town over Christmas where we saw plenty of birds; the red-winged starling was perhaps the most beautiful. Then yesterday we were in the bush outside Nairobi and amongst the birds we saw was a male Kori bustard with his neck and tail feathers all puffed up. First time I've ever seen that display - very impressive. Also two different and equally beautiful birds of prey which I was able to watch for some time but just can't identify.

Today is the annual Christmas Bird Count, and I am participating by recording birds seen at my feeders. Full list later...

>314 fuzzi: I live in the zone where they overlap- surprisingly narrow, but Project FeederWatch just has us list Chickadees as Carolina/Northern, because it can be hard to tell, and they do hybridize.

Feeder watch results:

9 Cardinals (5 male, 4 female)
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker (male)
4 Carolina Chickadees
2 Carolina Wrens
1 Song Sparrow (or perhaps a female Purple Finch?)
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Purple Finch (male)
1 Purple Finch (female)
3 House Finches (2 male, 1 female)
2 Bluejays
2 Mourning Doves
5 Juncos
2 Titmice
1 Mockingbird
1 Pileated Woodpecker (by call)

>319 Helenoel: I'm fairly certain ours are Carolina, but either way, they're cute!

Addendum
From today's bird count:


Tufted Titmouse


Red-bellied Woodpecker


Male Purple Finch


Carolina Chickadee

Johnthefireman: It's been eleven years since we visited South Africa. My first bird "sighting" upon arriving there (as we were changing planes in Johannesburg en route to Cape Town) was that of several hadada ibis puttering about adjacent to the runway. I was thrilled.

>322 John5918: We regularly have three hadada ibis grazing in our back garden in Nairobi. The big dogs don't bother them any more as they have learned that they fly away too quickly to be caught and eaten, but the puppies still tend to chase them away.

#320 Fuzzi: Yours is definitely an enviable feeder-watch situation. I heard a clatter this morning and looked out to see that one of the roving Collared Peccaries had overturned an empty bucket in our back yard. I redirected it while wielding a broom. The birds present at the window feeders included Cactus Wren, Gambel's Quail, Rufous-Winged Sparrows, Curve-Billed Thrashers, and White-Crowned Sparrows. Costa's Hummingbirds were their usual antagonistic selves.

>323 tropics: pigs in the yard? :)

The only hummers we get here are Ruby-throated, although I've been told that some Rufous have been spotted this far east.

#324 fuzzi: Yes, the peccaries wander by on a regular basis, in herds of 10 or more, but usually 4-5. On occasion we find "snout" smudges on our sliding glass door.

Not my own yard, but I went for brunch at some friends' house in Juba today and saw in their garden:

Yellow-billed kite
African mourning dove
Senegal coucal
Verraux's (giant) eagle owl
Yellow-vented (dark-capped) bulbul
Bronze mannikin
Rueppell's starling
Red-cheeked cordonbleu

The owl was magnificent, and the two coucals were pretty impressive too. Someone has promised me a photo of the owl; I'll post it if he sends it to me.

Edited to add: No sooner had I finished typing that than the photos appeared in my e-mail inbox! Photos by Adrian Garside.

>326 John5918: nice!

While talking birds on another thread, I recommended Peterson's A Field Guide to Western Birds. LibraryThing subsequently recommended Advanced Birding by Peterson and Kaufmann...

...guess what's now being shipped to me? :)

Oh, current birds in my yard:

Tufted Titmice
American Goldfinch
Mockingbird
House Finch
White-throated Sparrows
Carolina Chickadees
Downy Woodpeckers
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Cardinals (about ten at a time)

The feeders are extremely active right now, as we've a cold front coming through: it's almost down to freezing, with drizzle and rain showers all day. Brr.

I had busy feeders this weekend too. Both a downy and a hairy woodpecker, lots of black-capped and one boreal chickadee, redpolls, pine grosbeaks, and bluejays. Haven't seen the boreal chickadee often, and the hairy woodpecker showed up for the first time this season.

Several trees in the neighbours' yards were taken out last year, and I think I've had fewer species this year as a result. Fewer squirrels, too, though.

Birds observed in my southern Arizona backyard today:

Gambel's quail
White-winged dove
Mourning dove
Costa's hummingbird
Gila woodpecker
Verdin
Cactus wren
Curve-billed thrasher
Canyon towhee
Rufous-winged sparrow
Brewer's sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Black-throated sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
House finch

>329 tropics: wow, that's a bunch! Most of them don't live in my area.

>329tropics Yes, only four of those here in New Hampshire - Mourning dove, White-crowned sparrow, Northern cardinal and House finch. Would be fun to be seeing all the others!

Muddy21: I would be thrilled to view New Hampshire's sensational Spring warbler migration!

The annual Great Back Yard Bird Count begins tomorrow (Friday) and continues through Monday.

http://gbbc.birdcount.org/get-started/

>333 tropics: thanks!

I saw this book online today, and was wondering if any of you have read it:

Good Birders Don't Wear White

Fuzzi: I haven't read it. Some reviewers describe it as "light" and humorous; others have found fault with a few of the described techniques. Since it's available at our local library, I will probably eventually check it out.

>335 tropics: thanks. Our library does not have it, but I'm hoping interlibrary loan can find a copy for me.

>332tropics Yes, the warblers are pretty spectacular in the spring but we have a little way to go yet for that. The woodcock (or, as they're known locally, the timber doodles) and the red-winged blackbirds should be arriving before too long, though. I'll be delighted to hear both the peeent of the woodcock and the drainpipe gurgling of the blackbird flocks! Both such cheering sounds after the winter quiet.

Great American Bird Count today! And it's snowing...

In a fifteen minute time period I saw the following birds at my feeders:

Cardinal (male) - five at one time
Cardinal (female) - eight at one time
Carolina Chickadee - too many to count, had three at one time
Tufted Titmouse - same as the previous, except had two at one time
Yellow-rumped Warbler - one
Slate-colored Junco - four at one time
White-throated Sparrow - four at one time
Brown Thrasher - one
House Finch (male) - one
House Finch (female) - one
Goldfinch (indeterminate) - one
Purple Finch (male) - one
Blue Jay - one
Downy Woodpecker (male) - one
Downy Woodpecker (female) - one
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male) - one
Carolina Wren - one
Mockingbird - one

EDIT: Oops, Great BACKYARD Bird Count....

I'm sitting in my office looking out the window at about 17 ravens coming and going. Added them to the GBBC.

338 Fuzzi: A fascinating list. I once saw a Brown Thrasher in summer in my parents' yard in northern Ontario. Have yet to encounter a Carolina Chickadee or a Carolina Wren.

My yard list today is quite similar to what I posted in late January. Plan to search for more species in our local mountains tomorrow.

339 NorthernStar: Here in southern Arizona raven identification is complicated by the fact that both Chihuahuan and Common occur here.

Great Backyard Bird Count in progress here too.
Yesterday and so far today:

4 Mourning doves
1 red-bellied woodpecker
1 downy woodpecker
1 each male and female cardinal
1 blue jay
1 tufted titmouse
1 white breasted nuthatch
8 starlings
12 dark-eyed juncos
2 white throated sparrows
1 white crowned sparrow
1 song sparrow
6 house finches
5 goldfinches
4 house sparrows

so far the chickadees, and carolina wren are missing when I watch-

Checking the Great Backyard Bird Count, I see that as of Saturday evening (PST), 3,954 species of birds have been recorded worldwide.

>340 tropics: I love my yellow-eyed Thrasher! Today, after eating some peanut butter mix, it flew into the blueberry bushes' part of the yard and started tossing leaves all over.

>342 Helenoel: what's strange is I usually see at least White-breasted Nuthatches in the winter, but have not seen any this year. Some years I see Red-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches too.

>344 fuzzi: I've had winters like that - I don't think I saw a single tufted titmouse last winter - but they are back this year. red-breasted nuthatches show up here some years- when they do they are pretty consistent.

Pyrrhuloxia, male and female, at the window feeder
Gambel's Quail, male and female, with 10 newly-hatched chicks
Gila Woodpecker, male
Northern Cardinal, male and female
Cactus wren

Blue Jays
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmice
Carolina Chickadee

and I got excited at seeing what I thought was a female Common Yellowthroat warbler, but it turned out to be a

Female Goldfinch

whose wings were not dark, and whose wingbars were muted.

I have such a boring, common list:

Common Grackle (Flock overran my bird feeder)
Brown Thrashers
Northern Blue Jay
Nuthatch
Female Cardinal

(Edited: Found it was Thrashers not Thrushes in my yard. And a pair of them at that.)

I added a new bird to my Yard List (I don't do a Life List, I do a Yard List)--and was very proud of myself for making a successful WAG (wild-assed guess) about its identity, based solely on its call (didn't actually see it, but heard it in the nearby woods)-- a veery. It's calling again as I sit here.

I saw a piapiac today. Not particularly striking in appearance, but very noisy. First one I've ever seen in Juba, although I've seen plenty further north.

>349 Marissa_Doyle: I've never even heard a Veery.

Usual birds today:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird
House Finches (male and female)
Brown Thrasher
Bluejays
Carolina Chickadees
Tufted Titmice
Cardinals (both)
Common Grackle
Downy Woodpecker (male)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (female)
Mockingbird

Tree Swallow
Red Winged Blackbird
Starling
Cinnamon Teal
Mallard

Yesterday, Bald Eagle!!
Last night, heard American Bittern.

Okay, so I've declared the grackle/starling flock my bird mafia. They seem to command what happens in my yard. The nuthatches are forced to knock food from the feeder so the flock can feed on the ground. The cardinals are only allowed to flit from tree to tree while the flock is occupying the yard. Blue jays frequently create challenge flights through the flock's territory. The mourning doves sit on the clothes line and watch, not wanting to get involved...

And the squirrels are in cahoots. They throw nuts from the tree at humans to keep them away from the flock, in exchange for ground feeding rights...

>353 gilroy: lol.

Grackles don't eat safflower seeds: switch to those for a while, and the Grackles will leave.

>352 Cheryl-L-B: woo! An eagle, how close was it?

>353 gilroy: In my yard, the squirrels and mourning doves have chipped in together to bribe the smaller birds to knock as much seed as possible out of the feeders.

Colorful day today--an eastern bluebird stopped by to nibble from a suet feeder--along with the usual cast of characters (goldfinches, cardinals, a red-bellied woodpecker, and oodles of sparrows that I've yet to identify. And the hummingbirds, of course.)

>356 Marissa_Doyle: sparrows, like warblers, can be tough to identify.

>357 fuzzi: Yes--we refer to sparrows collectively as "LBJs"--little brown jobs. :) I should really make more of an effort to remember which are which.

Hello! It was quite close, they are in fact, somewhat commonly seen above the large pond across the road from my house. I believe there is a nest nearby, as I have seen a Momma eagle teaching her eaglet how to catch fish several times over the years. I have never seen an Osprey get mugged for his dinner, although that is what a lot of Eagles are known to do.

Gambel's Quail
Northern Cardinal
Curve-Billed Thrasher
White-Crowned Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch

Eurasian Jay
Great Tit
Western Jackdaw
Eurasian Blue Tit
Common Wood Pigeon

(Nice thread! Birds seen in The Netherlands, in a city, these are all very common)

Boring for here

Red bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpcker
Northern cardinal
White breasted nuthatch
Slate colored junco

Here in Toronto, my daily visitors are:

Northern Cardinal (Mr. and Mrs.)
red-breasted nuthatch
goldfinch
house sparrow
mourning dove

I did have a junco earlier this week and I expect more as we get further into winter

Good to know. My sister lives in Toronto, but isn't a birder.

Mourning Dove
White-Winged Dove
Costa's Hummingbird
Verdin
White-Crowned Sparrow

Two male Costa's continue their adversarial interactions at the feeders.

At my office window feeder today:
Chickadee (possible hybrid or Carolina - we are in teh zone of overlap between black-capped and carolina)
Tufted titmouse
Red Bellied woodpecker
Northern cardinal
White breasted nuthatch.

My regular feeder birds lately in northern BC, Canada:
black-capped chickadee
boreal chickadee
red-breasted nuthatch
bluejay
raven

Edited to add: >363 jessibud2: juncos are summer birds here. They usually show up in April or May, and are gone by the end of October.

Common chaffinch
Common blackbird
Wren
European robin
Eurasian magpie

Together with >361 EMS_24: and herring gulls in the sky, the most common birds here in winter.

Middle Tennessee

3 Eastern Bluebirds
2 Mourning Doves
1 House Finch
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Cardinal

Last weekend, I saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes and 1 Whooping Crane in North Alabama.

>367 NorthernStar: - And I believe they are exclusively winter visitors here. This has been an odd winter here in the city (Toronto); we have almost no snow at all. Outside the city, there is snow, but I think I have only even worn boots 2 or 3 times. I suspect that the juncos will show up once we get more snow, apparently, this weekend. Other years, in winter I see them daily, in bunches. So far this year, I have only seen that one, mentioned in >363 jessibud2:

Augur buzzard
White-bellied bustard
Ring-necked dove
White-browed robin chat
Superb starling

>370 jessibud2: Interesting, I am also missing my (normally) most common winter visitor, the common redpoll. I haven't even seen one, and other years have flocks of 50 or more. Also the number of Pine and Evening Grosbeaks is way down from most years.

>369 perennialreader: We get Sandhill Cranes flying over in spring and fall, and a few nest around here, but I've never seen a Whooping Crane, and would love to.

Middle Tennessee

Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch with an orange face
European starling (errrrrgg!)
Tufted Titmouse
American Robin

I had a Copper's Hawk perched on my tree net to my feeder last week. I don't think he got any songbirds but it was pretty quiet for some time after he moved on! Thankfully, I don't see hawks around here often

Snowing here today- so far at my office window feeder:
Red-bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Northern Cardinals
White-breasted nuthatch
chickadee
tufted titmouse
White-throated sparrow
goldfinch

A pair of Gila woodpeckers continues to visit one of the hummingbird feeders. Recently, a Canyon Towhee began appearing at the window feeder - a sporadic visitor. Mostly-male Costa's hummingbirds are regulars, as are a male Northern Cardinal and male and female Pyrrhuloxias. Aggressive Curve-Billed Thrashers predominate. White-Crowned Sparrows are winter visitors. Male and female Gambel's Quail tend to visit the feeders late afternoon. A few House Finches stop by, as do Lesser Goldfinches. A lone Rufous-Winged Warbler continues.

Not 5, but just got back from vacation in Barbados where the Zanaida doves were numerous and very friendly.

Had a good day yesterday, so here are more than 5:
boreal and black-capped chickadees
red-breasted nuthatch
common redpolls (they finally showed up!)
blue jays
common ravens
house sparrows
hairy woodpecker
and a northern shrike, which scared everything else away

A fascinating list, NorthernStar. Having grown up in northern Ontario, I must have seen Boreal Chickadees along with very common Black-Capped, but, I was oblivious, if so.

>379 tropics: The boreals tend to be very shy compared to the black-capped chickadees. I used to see them very rarely, but they have been coming more and more often to my feeders over the years. This year for the first time I am seeing 3 of them fairly often.

Most of your birds sound very exotic to me, although I get white-crowned sparrows coming through in spring and fall.

Northern Mockingbird
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Red-Bellied Woodpecker

and a bonus: Nanday Parakeet (an escape)

NorthernStar: Have you seen Northern Hawk Owls?

Yes, several times. There was one hanging out near the river in early December that I got a few pictures of, but they weren't great shots.

The annual 4-day international Great Backyard Bird Count https://earthsky.org/earth/register-participate-great-backyard-bird-count begins tomorrow, February 15. The count isn't limited to backyards.

>384 tropics: I wish I'd known about it before; maybe I'll do it next year.

I've been posting bird pictures on the Garden group and was told about this group - so here I am to check it out!

Birds in my yard today; well, my view is out through my balcony so I can't see my garden but
- I did get some Asian glossy starlings yelling at me and
- a couple (male and female, anyway) of olive backed sunbirds which like living near people came to investigate the plants on my balcony.

I did see a bird that's been intriguing me for a while on the TV antennae on the houses opposite (otherwise redundant, I'm sure) but I haven't been able to identify it yet.

Welcome, humouress.

As yet, I haven't been able to find the stats of the final tally for this year's international Great Backyard Bird Count. Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica led with numbers seen initially.

No birds today, too many workers in the back yard.
Hope they come back. With the cold weather coming, I need something to watch out my window.

Can we continue this on a new thread, this one is getting cumbersome with over 300 posts?

Perennialreader:

I'm fine with you beginning a new thread.