Monday, February 15, 2010

Birds


It has been so nice to watch the birds passing through our yard this week. Though they were timid at first, the birds devoured one of the orange bird feeder snacks I hung in the tree. I found it on the ground completely empty. They ate all the peanut butter, raisins, and bird seed in there. It was much easier for tiny birds like the chickadees to eat from the orange feeder but I did see some bigger ones trying to balance on there and eat, too. I couldn't get a pic, and I couldn't find a pic to match in my bird book, but one bird that kept coming back was very pretty. It was greyish with a lighter colored belly and long tail feathers. It seemed to have a dark stripe across its eye and did have a white stripe on its wings. It reminded me of the pic of the Northern Shrike in my book, but my mom thinks it was a mockingbird. She was probably right....(ok, I just googled it, and my bird looked very much like the picture here. This is a Northern Mockingbird. Good job, Mom! Do you get these at your house?)


Over the course of the week, I saw a whole group of pregnant robins, lots of cardinal pairs, chickadess, bluebirds, junkos, a tufted titmouse, and what looked like a house finch. It had brownish colorings that reminded me of a female cardinal but its beak and crest were different and it had a reddish belly.


I was really happy to see as many birds as I did considering I am out of bird food now and I didn't know if they would like the orange feeder. I know my mom and dad get tons more birds at their house, including hummingbirds, but I just have one little feeder right now and am glad to see whoever decides to stop by.

3 comments:

Motherkitty said...

Good job, Allison. Yes, this is indeed a mockingbird. We get lots of them at our feeders and they can be very persnickety -- chasing other birds away from the feeders and dive-bombing the cats. Noisy also.

We have been inundated by multitudes of birds. Since we have at least four feeders out, not counting the ton of bird food that has been spilled on the deck, there is plenty of feed for everyone. This morning we had a downy woodpecker, many tufted titmice (plural of tufted titmouse), cardinal pairs, juncos, starlings, even larger blackbirds trying to feed. Our favorite is the red-headed woodpecker -- so beautiful.

Jellyhead said...

That's a lovely photo.

I love bird feeders, but rats steal the food from ours, so we've given up filling it. Good to hear you are having success with yours :-)

Alipurr said...

oh jelly, that's not my photo...I couldn't get one that good...just happened to find that online and it looks a lot like the bird visiting us :)