Daily Bird Pics. Vol. #404

Pretty guy....also a finch

I know this is a Quail of some sort! lol

Wow, those finches must be from far away land! They're so colorful. The some sort of quail is mighty cute, Nan. Duc, nice capture of the Mallard pair. Pretty Hooded Orioles. The Eastern Towhees down here seem to enjoy their bath too. Nan, have a nice time with family. We shall be here when they give the pc back to you. lol

Lovely photos, everyone.

nanny, I think your first bird is a Long-tailed Finch. They are native to the north os Western Australia, the Northern Territory and north-west Queensland.

The second is a Gouldian Finch. Native to the same areas. Critically endangered in the wild.

Thanks Margaret for the I.D. I found a few juvies Housefinches. One with nature's error. She appeared to have a third wing. Which is non-functional of course. She seems to get around just as well as her sibling, hope things works out for the little one.

Sorry pic wasn't the best of quality.

At first I thought it was a lump, but as she flies, I can see that was a puff of extra feather.

That does look like a rogue wing there, Lily_love. It sure doesn't seem to be hampering it.

From this morning. An adult Little Corella - very close.

And a dirty youngster pleading for food from an adult, which may or may not be its parent.

I'm getting in a little late on this thread. Lots of great pics. I went out to Lake Thunderbird this a.m. and was lucky enough to find 3 bird nests: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Orchard Oriole and Eastern Kingbird.

A pic of the Eastern Kingbird with a moth. There were babies in the nest and also juvies hanging around begging.

One of the Yellow-billed Cuckoos. I've seen more of these this year than my whole life. Don't think we are having an irruption, just think I'm finally learning their habitat.

The female Orchard Oriole. Her babies were really noisy, that is how I found their nest. They were constantly begging for food.

So many wonderful shots!

Love the Hooded Oriole duc!

Nan, Beautiful Finch!

Cute little House Finch Lily!

Margaret, love the Corella!

Red, Wonderful shots! The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is such a gorgeous bird!

Agreed with Pelle, the Yb Cockoo is one gorgeous bird. 'tis the season of babies. They'are all so adorable! Margaret, rogue wing?

Fantastic pics, everyone!! I'm jealous...

I wish I could get some decent pictures of our steady stream of Orioles to the feeder. The feeder is right outside the kitchen window & though they'll let you watch them through the window, they get skittish & fly away if you pick up the camera. It's possible it reflects through the window.

These next three pics are not the greatest, but still fun

By-the-way, I saw the first baby Orioles this morning!! No luck at all trying to get pictures, though.

And another:

This one should really be in the "Dreadful Bird Pics", but I really liked the poses.

Last one for now:

Thanks Donna, I see the Chickadees all the time, here. You'd think, they would at least, use one of the three birdhouses I have, to raise their youngs. But no takers. They come and check it out, and everytime, I'm hoping this year will be the year. Do you guys put wood shavings in the bottom of your Bhouse?

Chipping Sparrow.

Mourning Dove.

We have had orioles feeding on the tulip tree in other years, but sadly not this year & we have lots of blossoms. One branch with flowers blew down, but had not seen them earlier either.

Burn, wood shaving? No I don't put any in my bird houses. I tried to put a stick of straw in the 'door' to entice them. But keep them clean otherwise. n.a.n. Nice catch of the Orioles.

A nice catch of these geese this evening.

I keep trying to attract orioles, but this year was a bust. With the bluebirds and mockingbirds nesting in the back yard, they kept them run off. Good shots, burn. Lily, I always envy you living on that lake.

Some more birds from yesterday's trip to Lake Thunderbird.

A Killdeer.

A Snowy Egret. Note the yellow feet, a key to id'ing these birds in flight.

Nature's clean-up crew. Turkey Vultures.

Nuts, Nice shots of the beautiful Orioles!

Lily, Nice pic of the geese!

Burn, Good one of the Purple Finch! I do not put shavings in my bird houses but I do put out nesting material in different locations around the yard.

Good ones red!

nutsaboutnature, That male looks like he's scolding his Mrs for some reason.
Most of my pics are pretty poor, but I enjoy remembering the moments.

Burn, I love the chipping. My all time favourite sparrow. I saw a parent feeding a young one today.

Reddirtretiree, We enjoy turkey vultures but don't seem them often at our place except when they soar beautifully overhead. We do see them eating road kill. Yup, they will eat the stink right out of a skunk. And your Cuckoo is beautiful. The only good look we had at one was a non-living one outside our house. There was no sign of distress, so not sure what happened. We did hear another in the tree later that year.

We went down the shore for a few days. I didn't do much bird watching but we did stop in at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. I was surprised to see 8 Glossy Ibis there!!

I wasn't able to get all 8 in one photo.

Besides the Glossy Ibis we also saw Red-winged Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Purple Martin, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Willet and of course Osprey on their nests.

Like that shot of the flying ibis! They are handsome birds. I don't see them around here much. They only pass through on migration.

A couple of Scissor-tail Flycatchers. I see lots of these guys. This one really has a long tail.

This one was really hot and panting.

They are a beautiful bird!

Great photos everyone! I've gotten behind with my spring cleaning.

While out on my front deck I noticed a deer closeby under our tree. The exciting part was there was a juvenile Scrub Jay walking all over the deer and picking ticks out of the fur. This is the third time I've gotten to witness this wonderful act of nature and I still get so excited that I can barely hold the camera.

The jay would walk to the back of the deer and then jump to the deer's ear and try to grab the tick. I wasn't able to get a clear shot of that, but here's one more. Unfortunately the deer was a little blurred when she started to turn her head.

Triplets-the third one was nearby! Unfortunately they'll be more House Sparrows here next year. I swear they barely get one brood fledged when they begin all over again to start another-groan. I just can't get the nerve to take the houses down because my tree sparrows are still nesting too.

This message was edited Jun 18, 2011 12:20 AM

This Bewick's Wren sure was busy gathering food for its family.

Duc, Those pics of the Scrub Jay and deer are so sweet!

Red, those scissors tailed flycatchers are awesome! Duc, what a wonderful nature shots in the raw. How lucky to witness such act. Driving home this evening, I saw cattle egrets with a herd of cows. I wished I had the camera on hands.