Daily Bird Pictures, Volume 459

Here's the start of the new Daily Bird Pictures. It is Volume 459.

The old one, Vol 458 is here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1366128/

Hack

1. I have Goldfinches eating Sunflower seed.

2. Saw this Cardinal with the black head - molting? Infestation of some sort?

3. Saw a hummer today.

Need to get our seed for the winter.

I've got a good supply of a variety of suets, a large trash full of Black Oil Sunflower seed and a large trash can full of regular ole' bird seed.

I'll probably soon be taking in my hummingbird feeder. When do you all take yours down? I still have at least one hummer, saw her today (Ruby-throated)

Hack

I don't have a humming bird feeder. We don't have a late blooming garden to attract them, although one showed up at our bee balm in Aug. DH has not been able to get our seed supply because of an eye operation, he forgot about it beforehand.

I take mine down around Thanksgiving. It's way late for Ruby-throats, but not for a stray Rufous coming though. Ruby-throats usually are gone here by the first week in August. I'd keep yours up for a while more for sure.

Hack - Most info says to keep Hummer feeders up for at least 2 weeks after you see the last hummer. I tend to keep mine up much longer - sometimes even until we have a freeze - just in case we have any stragglers.

Usually I take down all, but one feeder. I leave the feeder that's just outside our kitchen window so If a hummer shows up, I might see them.

The Cardinal with the black head is fairly common in Cardinals and generally not permanent. I see Cardinals like that once a year or so.

Here is a link to some info from Cornell's Project Feeder Watch. SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE. They talk about "bald" birds.

http://feederwatch.org/learn/unusual-birds/

Time for the Goldfinch show to start. We love watching them demolish the Coneflower seed heads!

Hack, I meant to thank you for the great new start to the thread!

Cute pics, Sallie! Our Goldfinches never wait for the Coneflowers to dry out. They're over there eating the seeds even while they're still blooming.

Yes, I don't know why they do that! There aren't any seeds?!?

Thanks for the Bald-headed bird link, nuts. I'm glad it appears to be a temporary thing.

Thanks, Mrs_Ed. I plan to keep mine up throughout November. When Dec rolls around, I'll be seeing if any Hummers are still around. I don't want my feeders to make them delay their exit to warmer places.

I need to check out those coneflowers for around here in Ga.

Hack

Hack - It's not the "availability of" or "lack of" food that causes hummers to migrate, it's a natural urge to migrate caused by things other than hunger. In the link below (a page from Hummingbirds.net) scroll down to the part where it says "When to Take Down the Feeder".

It even talks about how some people in the Southeast will leave them up in winter to attract some of the Western hummers that might pass through.

Here's the link:

http://www.hummingbirds.net/feeders.html

Thanks nuts.

Good to know I can't mess up their migration. I also found it interesting about painting over the yellow plastic flowers with red paint in order to not attract bees and wasps. Didn't think about them being drawn to the color yellow,

Hack

This message was edited Sep 23, 2014 3:32 AM

You're welcome! Glad it helped.

Wow- yellow attracts bees & wasps?!? I didn't know that. Why do they make the "bee & wasp guards" yellow? I might be better off taking them off. I'll take a pic tomorrow showing what they look like around noon... so covered with bees the hummers don't have a chance. I read that bees hate peppermint oil, so I'm going to find that and try it too. Don't bother with the cooking "extract". It's 95% alcohol and evaporates before they can even smell it.

Sallie, be sure to let us know how the peppermint oil works out.

Hack

I leave mine up at least until late October usually. I have gone into November before.

Our seed feeder & suet pack went up today. I expect the chickadees will find it by tomorrow morning.

I don't think ANYTHING works at this time of year. I bought the peppermint oil, saturated a cotton ball and hung it a few inches from one feeder. That's as close as I could get. This is the result... ACK!

And nutsaboutnature, before I forget, thanks for the link to the hummingbirds.net site. Very useful! I found 2 feeders similar to the HummZinger they mentioned on sale. Next year I'll replace all my upright style with the basin type.

Wow, Sallie, that hummer feeder is covered up. I've never seen one of mine with that many bees. Don't know what the solution might be. I'm gonna do some research on the issue.

Hack

Hey Sallie, take a look at: http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/uninvitedbees.php

Hack

Thanks, Hackster... that's similar to the hummingbirds.net site, with some extra tips. I didn't have a problem with bees until just the last week or so. They know winter's coming, too!

American Kestrel - the first one I have seen this year.
It was part of what seemed to be a family, but I couldn't get them together for a group photo

Nice shot, pollengarden!

Hack

The gang is here on the new bird feeder installment. Saw a downy woodpecker this morning. tufted titmouse & chickadees this afternoon.

Nice IrisMA! I've only seen chickadees lately plus an occasional downy. A few days ago a WB nuthatch, and many brown sparrow-like birds which I've yet to be able to tell apart. I refilled all my feeders today and hope to see some newcomers during this migration season.

This is a horrible shot. Very blurred. Just could not get focused before the bird was gone but am sure it was a juvie Baltimore Oriole. I think this is the lastest I have ever seen one. Taken on 9/24/14. So I guess it is actually a gold finch.....my bad.

Also have our last brood of Eastern Blue Birds starting to get their grown up colors. They alwasy show up to enjoy the birdbath more this time year for some reason. They are here almost every evening just before dusk and sometimes right around sunrise in the mornings. again 9/24/14.


Lots and lots of Robins moving thru.

This message was edited Sep 27, 2014 7:32 PM

A very young turkey walked through the garden this afternoon. I sort of hollered at it as our plants get messed up by their dust baths. It did hustle along so all is well with both of us.

Nanny & Resin - The little "blurry" bird definitely looks like a Goldfinch to me. We have tons of them year 'round and a feeder right outside our kitchen window. Right now they're molting for winter and many of them look like "patchwork quilts" as they change into their drab colors.

Besides the color, though, it's also the shape. I saw your post earlier this afternoon and my first thought was "Goldfinch", but I was about to leave and didn't have time to post. You can also just barely make out the black on the wings and the light-colored bill, legs and feet. The uneven coloring, even though the pic is blurry, is very typical of the way they look as they molt.

If it helps, here's a link to Cornell Labs "All About Birds" page on Goldfinches. they have bunches of pictures you can click through.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Goldfinch/id

I saw a cute bird tonight that I didn't recognize... I'm a newbie at bird ID! I couldn't get a good photo because it was too busy taking a bath in the "shallow end" of my pond. You can't tell from the pics, but the bird was the same size and shape as a House Wren, but the color was more like a female Goldfinch. Can someone help me ID it?

Sallie - Very cute little bird!
It looks like maybe a Warbler of some kind. Possibly a Palm Warbler migrating through? But I'm not sure. Definitely NOT a Goldfinch. Look at the light-colored eye stripe. Resin should know even if nobody else does.

Yes, definitely not a Goldfinch. Much smaller- though, in the photo all wet, he/she looks much larger. I'll look up the Warbler. I think I need to get involved in the "Feeder Watch" site, also. I've heard of it, but never had time to participate.

http://feederwatch.org/

I'm pretty sure it's a Palm Warbler, probably a female. They're only in our area during migration.
Also, there are apparently two different races - Western & Eastern. It's easy to find tons of pics online. Google Images has a lot of pics and Flickr's are even better.

Here's the link for DG BirdFiles. If you do get a definite confirmation you might want to post your zip code and upload one or two of your pics. That last one of yours is really very cute.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/birdfiles/showimage/6156/

Cornell Lab's "All About Birds" is very informative. It's one of my favorite bird info sites.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Palm_Warbler/id

Thanks, that looks like the one! The last pic was the only usable one, the other 2 were snapshots from a short video of it bathing (even cuter!). I'll try to get it uploaded to YouTube tomorrow.

It's interesting that Audubon lists it as Dendroica palmarum, rather than Setophaga palmarum. Confusing.... I love discovering a new visitor to my garden!

Palm Warbler is possible, but to me it looks more like a female or juvenile Tennessee Warbler or Orange-crowned Warbler - that sharply pointed, awl-shaped bill is a good pointer. Any pics showing the underside of the tail, by any chance?

Yeah, it definitely looks much more like a Tennessee Warbler. The Orange crown on many of the Palm Warbler pics bothered me, but I guess I was too lazy to look at my bird ID field guides and never came across the Tennessee Warbler in my web search.

Thanks Resin! What would we do without you?

My camera has been gathering dust. I just haven't had the opportunity to get out to photograph birds. Here are some that have been languishing in the camera for several weeks.

1. Glossy Ibis
2. Great Egret
3. Australian Reed-warbler
4. Nankeen Night Heron
5. Blue-billed Duck (male)

6. Red Wattlebird
7-9. Little Corellas
10. Pink-eared Ducks