The things birds do

Hi everyone,

I was just outside bird watching and had to share. There have been some juvie cardinals around for a few days. One was trying to get a drink of water from our "water feature" (i.e. big bowl of water in the ground), but a flock of sparrows or finches kept picking on him and keeping him from it. Then daddy cardinal flew down and started chasing all the bullies away from the water, haha! That made me think of the funny (and sometimes not so funny) things birds do - that we rarely get to capture on film. I'm sure many of you have seen a bird do something when you didn't have your camera. So, I thought I'd make a thread where we could tell about those times. Just because we didn't "get the shot" doesn't mean we can't tell the story. I'll share another, to get the ball rolling. I used to like Blue Jays, but thought they were big bullies. Then one day, I saw one knock a wasp's nest off our garage (after several tries) and gorge himself on the wasps. Stuck his beak in all the holes and ate them up like they were candy. Since then, I like the Blue Jays even more... and sort of turn a blind eye to their bullying ways, lol. Anyone else have any anecdotes about funny or strange bird behavior?

~Kristy... story-teller at heart

Great idea, Iris.
I have a ruby throated hummingbird that frequents my feeders and I have one feeder that's on a suction hook on my patio deck door.
The other day, I had taken all my feeders down for a cleaning and refill and had left the deck door open while I was doing this.
I looked up from my kitchen sink and saw the hummer, flying over to where the feeder should have been, then he'd fly over to the open door and squeak, then go back a couple feet to where the feeder was, etc.
This continued until I got his feeder back where he thought it ought to be.
He was so cute and kept eyeing me and the patio door and the feeder-lacking suction cup, squeaking, as if to say, "hurry it up in there, lady."

LOL! That's great, Judy! Yeah, he was either saying, "Hey, where is it?" or "Hurry up and bring it back!" Haha, I can just picture that.

~Kris

Have you ever sat and watched a dove drink? I find it very interesting that they drink water as if their beak was a straw. I really love doves and watch them as often as I can.

My contribution is about Robins. Once they are through nesting for the summer, they quit singing at dawn, but I have noticed that even into the fall, they do some quiet practice singing. It is a much lower volume, and not the whole song, but pieces of it. I've always wondered if it is just so they don't forget the song, or juvenile males tuning up.

The second observation, also about Robins, is one that I saw this summer. Three juveniles were hanging out together in my yard, and clearly eating on their own. One of the parents landed nearby with some food, looking to feed one of the juveniles, who at the same moment flew off, not knowing a free meal was arriving. A second juvenile saw the parent with the food, and for some reason, hid under a bush. The parent flew off with the food, and the juvenile reemerged from the bush to resume his hunt for food. I don't know what that meant, other than a streak of independence.

Susan in Minneapolis

Susan that is interesting. I do wonder some time what birds are thinking.

Just a few notes of unusual birds I've seen (but not photographed) in the past few days. Yesterday, my parents and I were bird watching and saw a white and very light blue parakeet. The finches and sparrows were picking on him. He tried to eat from the feeder, but they wouldn't let him and then started chasing him. I felt bad for him, so I put some parakeet food out for him in a shallow cup (I have pet birds). The parakeet didn't come for the food, so I brought my lovebird outside, in her cage. The parakeet still didn't go for the food, but it chirped back and forth with my lovebird. Later I noticed a cardinal eating the parakeet seed, lol.

This morning, a saw a Great Blue Heron fly over our back porch - only about 15 feet above me! Wow, was that cool! And BIG! So regret not having my camera with me. My dad put a piece of bread on the fence and the finches and sparrows started eating it. But a cardinal came and ate from it, too. I find it unusual that a cardinal would eat parakeet seed (because they have big beaks and the seeds are small) and bread. There is a juvie cardinal that hangs out with the sparrows and finches. He's like a part of their group and goes where they go, does what they do. We think he might be confused and think he's a sparrow, lol. Is it possible he was orphaned and they raised him?? If so, maybe he's the one eating the parakeet food and bread - cause those seem more like finch and sparrow foods, to me. Of course, maybe cardinals just eat a wider variety of foods than I thought, who knows?

Makshi - no, I never noticed that the doves use their beaks like a straw. They come to our water bowl, so I'll have to watch for that. We have a Eurasian Collared Dove that showed up a few months ago. At first I thought it was a big, albino Mourning Dove and then I thought it was some kind of pigeon. Resin told me what it really is. It's funny - for awhile, it tried to hang out with the Mourning Doves, but they were afraid of him. Then he got mad at them (I guess) and started being a bully. Now it seems like they've accepted him more and they all get along better. He still stays a little separated from the group, though. I don't know where he came from. I've never seen one before and he's the only one around. I wonder if he could be someone's escaped pet, like the parakeet?

Smkennedy - That's pretty cool about the robins. I remember thinking they had left, one year, but realized they hadn't when I saw a few on the ground. I guess I thought they'd gone cause I didn't hear them, but I didn't realize it at the time. We had some baby robins on our porch, this year, and I saw them do the same thing (running away when a parent brought food), too. They had just fledged that day or the day before. I guess they just want to do it for themselves, once they're out of the nest, huh? I did see one of the babies take food from a parent, later that day, though.

~Kristy

Poor little parakeet. It must be thinking I have fallen into the twilight zone. I hope maybe you can catch him or her.

This year in the marsh out front of the house, we have lots of seagulls and terns. We usually have a couple dozen, but yesterday I counted 95 and later 175. They just sit there in a clump all day and do nothing. They start coming in at sunrise and leave at sunset...one at a time.
When an eagle comes through, they fly around and squawk and then land back and sit.
They do not seem to be eating, or bathing or grooming. I don't know what they are doing.
The blue heron just walks through the middle of them fishing and they just sit there. It is odd.

That is strange.

I didn't know if it was or not. I usually do not watch these as they are so common. The only times you see them is in freshly tilled fields going after the worms and grubs after the tractor, or in the fast food parking lot, begging for french fries.
DH wants to know where they go at night. Must be quite the party as they seem to just sleep all day. (or squawk, which I can hear them doing now) The poor geese, ducks etc, just are swimming and eating around them.

Hello. =)

A few years ago. my mother and I were driving down a country road when we saw this hawk sprawled right in the middle of it. We thought it was dead and drove by, then mom looked in her rearview mirror and said " Oh, no, it's still alive!" So we turned around, got out, and sure enough, it was just looking up at us. It must have been stunned, because it didn't struggle at all when we threw a hood over it's head and picked it up. That's probably a good thing... those talons and beak could have done some real damage!

It was one of the most fiercely beautiful creatures I've ever seen. Definitely a juvenile, since it still had little fluff feathers. We made a few phone calls until we got the directions to a local wildlife rehab specialist. She said it was a young Cooper's Hawk. =)

To this day, we don't know how it got hurt. Maybe it got hit by a car, or maybe it dove at the road for food and just missed. We checked up it a few days later.. it had a broken wing. =( It healed up, but I don't think it was ever released back into the wild.

NCG

Thats ashame but thats great that you were able to get ahold of him (without getting yourselves hurt) and then take him to a rehabber. Great job!

Yesterday, after years of wanting to see a hummer bathing, and rigging up all sorts of misters and things to entice them, without success......... I got to see a hummer bathing. It was so cool.

He flew in and out of a stream of water and even into the bath a few times. Last week I had the tubing just dripping, last year it had a mister going, but no hummer ever showed any interest. Withing minutes of re-securing the tubing and letting the water just flow out of the tube he was using it.

I've always read that they like the misters but my hummers don't seems to.

gg=alice

We have hummers up here, but they don't come into the more populated areas too often, I don't think. I've only seen a few in my life. That's so cool that you caught one taking a dip. =)

Pelletory... even though the hawk was stunned, it had this look in its eyes that told me in no uncertain terms that it wasn't happy. Having such a fierce, free wild thing in my hands was almost a spiritual experience. If that makes any sense. =)

OH Yes, that makes sense!