Daily Photos Volume 279

Male House Sparrow

Northern Mockingbird

Pine Warbler

This is my Christmas gift from my youngest son's girlfriend and her dad. They built it themselves.

It is a BIG cedar bird feeder. I divided the inside into 5 areas so I can put in an assortment of seeds.

Hack

Thanks Claude!


Cool feeder Hack...I want one!! lol

I am gonna steal that Brown-beaded Nuthatch......



Hey I had a American Tree Sparrow today!! I was beginning to think there were none this year!

Need work on photographing with snow.....

Golly, I love your birds.
The Downy Woodpecker must be one of my favourites.
This Sulpher Crested Cockatoo visited me yesterday, I think he wanted to visit our 2,
Charley & Cocko. Will post there pic's some day.

Gosh, I don't know how I "lost" this forum from my favorites! Arrgh ... I know it was something I did when I was playing around with settings, etc. I really shouldn't do that, I miss out on so much!
I've got a lot of catching up to do on former threads and I know I will enjoy seeing all the great photo's!

MrsEd. Love the Downy Woodpeckers. We had a pair nest in our backyard last year, fun to watch. Since they vacated the nest hole some other animal has carved a huge cavity just under the little Downy entrance. I will have to post a photo sometime and maybe someone can tell me what they think. My husband said he wondered what bird did it but I'm thinking it may be raccoons ... to be closer to the feeders.

Love your Mourning Doves too ... one of my favorite backyard birds but ours are more gray in color than yours. Lovely birds!

Burd: I too love how you did the double photo's! Some folks are just so crafty, or is that computer savvy, LOL. It's all I can do to type correctly on these machines!

I especially love seeing birds that I don't see in my area. Like the little nuthatch, so cute!

I just can't compliment y'all enough on all these great photo's! My husband gave me a new camera for Christmas, Canon PowerShot SX20 IS ... I'm learning but I know it will be just like with my old one, take 50 pictures and all but a couple will be blurry and out of focus. I still have fun though and am pleased when a picture comes out decent.

We've had Painted Buntings at the feeders the past couple of weeks. I took this picture late this afternoon, the little guy sitting in the shrubbery, watching and waiting to flit over to the nearest feeder:

A Blue Jay, common year around in my area ... perched in a Crape Myrtle tree this afternoon.

Mourning Dove perched in a Sugarberry Tree:

We've had large flocks of American Robins around the past couple of weeks. They don't stay long but I love watching and listening to them while they are here.

This one was looking for worms in the lawn

This isn't the clearest photo ... a young Northern Cardinal

When I was at the grocery store I picked up a bag of bird seed, not paying too much attention. I got home and realized it says Super Premium Parrot Blend! It is a mix of sunflowers, nuts, fruits. I put it out in a couple of feeders anyway figuring if the backyard birds didn't want it, the squirrels sure would! Well ... this Blue Jay kept coming back for more.

And, of course the Grackles like it!

pelletory identified this one for me yesterday, Thank You pelle.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-bellied Woodpecker, another year round visitor:

Great shots Hack, Hel and PL!!

Nanny, Glad you saw the American Tree Sparrow!

Hack, Yes thats an American Goldfinch and female House Finch.

hel - that Sulpher Crested Cockatoo is neat. I enjoy seeing your pics of "rare" birds - "rare" as far as I'm concerned.

plantladylin - hey, nanny has a new camera to, a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS, also. WOW, you really gave your new camera a real work-out! All your pics look great.

pelle, thanks for confirming the ID on the Goldfinch and female HOFIN. I haven't seen a Goldfinch in a long, long time. Reckon I need to put out some more thisltle.

Hack

Really nice shots Nanny, Hack, Hel and plantladylin!! I have few shots from yesterday.


Start of with a shot of a Common Crow, it was snowing pretty good early on, then the sun took over.

Black-Cap

Dark-eyed Junco

Next few shots I doubled up. Male Downy

Brown-headed Cowbird's

White-breasted Nuthatch

Starlings, they cleaned the tray feeder out twice.

A Red-breasted Nuthatch

Lastly a (Yellow Variant) Male House Finch

Plantlady...those are really nice shots.... Keep it up!

Burd...I really like the Red-breasted Nuthatch! I don't seem to have any again this year.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Robin

Great Blue Heron

Mute Swans

Great pics duckmother!!!

I love seeing the Great Blue Heron!

I'm still looking back at lots of these pic's and loving them all. I've always loved birds and this forum has given me the opportunity to see photo's of so many different birds, some I've never seen before. It's so wonderful that we have this forum to be able to share the pretty flying critters from where we live!

Burd: I never paid much attention to Robins in the past, just notice them this time of year when they seem to spend a few weeks in our area before heading north. I love that beautiful photo of the robin you posted yesterday. I really like the little Black-capped Chickadee's too, cute little birds. I've never seen Starlings, are they one of the ones folks talk about as being bullies?

Nanny: How are you liking your new camera? I got the same one for Christmas and I like it okay, but it's heavier than what I'm used to. I know I will probably keep it set on Auto because I can never remember all the different settings and I screw it all up if I change stuff. A couple of weeks ago I hit some button on the side and it was all out of whack, had to get my husband to figure out what I did. He printed out a user manual for me but I forget something five minutes after I've read it ... it's just trial and error with me. I do like that I can zoom in closer with this camera than with the other little Canon I had. I still take 50 or so pictures and most are blurry but I am happy when I get a few clear ones! that little sparrow is so cute! I don't know anything about sparrows and had someone on the Bird ID forum identify some we have around here this winter as the Chipping Sparrow. They are all over this year and I really like the cute little things.

claudcat: Love the little house finches and that dark eyed junco. I don't see those birds down here in Florida.

dirt_in_ozone7b: Great shot of the Owl and wow, those Flamingo's at the zoo are awesome!

Hackster: Great bird pic's ... all! I really love the one of the pretty Pine Warbler, another new one to me. Wow! Your son's girlfriend and her dad did a great job on that feeder, that is really nice!

ducbuclyn: That Quail photo is really great .. a gorgeous little guy! I learn so much from DG. I didn't even realize it until recently that the Northern Mockingbird is found all around the U.S. I love the colors on that Spotted Towee, that's a bird I'm not familiar with ... and the photo of the Bewicks Wren is wonderful, a cute little bird!

hel: That Sulphur Crested Cockatoo is a beauty! I love getting to see birds from around the globe. Australia has some amazing birds, as I've seen from pic's on Margaret's Osprey threads! One little fellow you all have that I had never heard of before is the little Bee-eater, a beautiful bird. Please share more photo's of the birds from your area!

duckmother: What a cute pic of that White-breasted Nuthatch on the tree! That's another little bird we don't see down here. Nice shot of the Great Blue Heron! I love watching the Herons looking for fish! The Mute Swans are really beautiful!

The only bird I was able to get a shot of this morning is the Northern Mockingbird.

The beak on this one looks a little odd to me, like the top is shorter than the bottom. Maybe this is normal?

Well gee ... I think that's the same photo, let me try again. I think this is a closer view.

This is a lousy picture but I think this is a Red-winged Blackbird?

gardenpom: It looks like you have the same exact birds at your place ... of course you are just south of me. We have the Mourning Doves and Red-bellied Woodpeckers year round but I've been seeing a lot of Grackles lately and a few of those Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Another Male Painted Bunting

Lin... Hi! Good to see you over here!
Your new camera seems to be working great for you!
Love the painted buntings! They are so colorful!
I wish we had them!

Hi ya Karen! I've only seen the Painted Buntings twice before in the 43 years I've been here in Florida. This year is the most I've ever noticed at the feeders. I read in my Florida Bird book that it breeds in a couple of counties along the Atlantic coast here, and it says that although numerous Painted Buntings over-winter in central and south Florida, most leave the state by late October and the spring migrants begin their return in mid-April. I'm really happy to see them around. A couple of weeks ago I saw a few female's but this week it's been only males I'm noticing in the shrubbery or at the feeders.