What birds do you have at your place?

[turbo]

This is our first spring in our log house out in the country. We have put out 3 hummingbird feeders and 2 seed feeders in sheltered areas under the eaves (the eaves overhang about 3 feet) and we have more birds than you can shake a stick at, and a lot of them appear to be nesting on our property, or at least staking claims, judging from the amount of singing going on. Of course, there are the red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches, titmouse, chickadees, and the downy, hairy, and pileated woodpeckers - they over-winter here. Since spring arrived, though, we have had (and still have) robins, phoebes, white-throated sparrows (good singers), house sparrows, chipping sparrows, bluejays, goldfinches, purple finches (both of these types of finches are great singers) and pine siskins. We have plenty of ruby-throated hummingbirds - lots of dogfights! Lately, we have had a pair of broad-winged hawks, a couple of pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks (excellent singers!), and today a wave of Baltimore orioles came in, and the orioles have been raiding the hummingbird feeders and checking out the seed feeders. They seem to like our apple trees pretty well, and we're going to put out oranges for them tomorrow.

Do others get this variety of birds at your feeders? We never got this type of diversity at our feeders at our last house (in a development on the edge of a mature forest near a major river). There, we mostly got chickadees, cardinals, jays, doves, and phoebes. In the space of less than a minute this afternoon, I saw goldfinches, purple finches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, hummingbirds, and chickadees - all less than 5' away, and of course the robins and mourning doves are fixtures on the front lawn. Many of the birds are skittish, but if I stand near the seed feeder with a handful of sunflower seeds, many of the chickadees will come eat from my hand and a few of the red-breasted nuthatches will, too. I'm getting spoiled.

 

[brewnog]

Wow hummingbirds, I was impressed that we get woodpeckers!

Commonly seen in our garden (and I'm no ornothologist) are woodpeckers, blue tits, sparrows, barn owls, jays, bullfinches, robins, yellow tits, chaffinches, herons, a pheasant, and bats!

 

[Math Is Hard]

sparrows, blue jays, crows, mockingbirds, and doves, mostly. the little sparrows are very annoyed with me right now because they are trying to build a nest in my neighbors' light fixture. I have to walk past it everytime I go downstairs and they get all in a tizzy because I am too close for their comfort.

 

[turbo]

I HOPE we get mockingbirds - they are excellent singers, and they string all the songs they know into a "best of" compilation. It's neat when they go to a tree-top in the evening and cut loose.

 

[Moonbear]

I put out "gourmet" birdfood, and I think every bird in town has shown up; the birdfeeder needs refilling every other day now! I think they're going to get cut back to cheaper food soon since the rate their eating it will make it far too expensive to give them the gourmet stuff (it lasted a long time at first, because I started putting it out in winter to attract whatever birds were around in winter to my feeder, and to make sure there was some high energy food in there for them, like peanuts and cracked corn, in addition to the sunflower seeds and other more typical seeds).

I have so far seen cardinals, doves (they eat the seed that falls on the ground), lots of little sparrows, some sort of finch...I just dug out my bird book, and they're either purple finches or red finches, but of course I haven't seen one since getting out the book to check how much of them is red. I think they're likely purple finches though. Cute little things. A bluejay just started coming around. I've seen a few tufted titmice, and two days ago, a nuthatch appeared. There's a bird I didn't recognize, but might have been a purple martin (black, but smaller than a blackbird, with a blue tinge all over, especially on its back). Saw a pretty red-winged blackbird in flight the other day too.

The birds don't seem to mind if I sit outside while they're at the feeder (I didn't think they'd be happy about that), so when the weather gets warmer again, I'll have to sit out with my bird book and identify the few that are new to me. I just love watching the finches...they are so silly and playful looking.

 

[Moonbear]

Wow hummingbirds, I was impressed that we get woodpeckers!

Commonly seen in our garden (and I'm no ornothologist) ... and bats!

I guess you're not. Bats aren't birds, you know?

 

[turbo]

brewnog, do your barn owls show up regularly? They are specialized rodent eaters and I don't think I have ever seen one in central Maine.

 

[turbo]

I guess you're not. Bats aren't birds, you know?

How about flying squirrels? (We have them in Maine, and they are as cute as can be!)

 

[brewnog]

I've only seen the barn owl a few times at home, but we hear them quite a lot, and they leave unmistakable evidence. There's quite a lot of open countryside around, we see kestrels and sparrowhawks from the house too but not in the garden.

 

[Geographer]

I don't get much in my garden in terms of wild birds, but I do keep and breed birds. At the moment I've got 2 greenfinch hens on chicks, and another greenfinch hen that has reared chicks that are just over 1 month old now and eating by themselves. It'll soon be time to remove them and give her a little rest before putting the cock in again. I've also got a zebra finch hen with a few chicks too.

I've also had a Siberian bullfinch hen that was sitting eggs. Unfortunately, they were clear (infertile), but hopefully she'll go down again soon as I'd really love a few bullie chicks. Also got mealy redpolls, but they are too busy painting their nails and haven't yet realized that it's the breeding season!

 

[Moonbear]

some sort of finch...I just dug out my bird book, and they're either purple finches or red finches, but of course I haven't seen one since getting out the book to check how much of them is red.

Correction...one just checked in at the feeder, and it's not a red finch or purple finch. It's a common redpoll! Neato! I didn't suspect them, because my bird book shows a breeding range for them way up in northern Canada, but doesn't specify any other summer range (there's a dashed line across the southern US and a note they winter that far south, and occassionally are found further south).

Okay, the birds are fighting over crumbs. Time to refill the feeder. Greedy little things!

 

[brewnog]

Bats aren't birds, you know?

Pah, shows what you know! Call yourself a biologist? They've got wings!

 

[Rach3]

Pah, shows what you know! Call yourself a biologist? They've got wings!

They're completely different. Bats come out at night; birds come out in the day. Bats are like the anti-bird. If they ever flew into each other I suspect they'd annihilate and emit gamma rays.

I haven't been outside in a while, and it shows.

 

[Chi Meson]

Fun recent sightings:
red-wing hawk, red-shouldered hawk, cooper's hawk, brewer's blackbird, boat-tail grackel, phoebe, great crested flycatcher, barred owl, brown thrasher, veery. Oh, and lots of freakin chickadees.

 

[scorpa]

At the farm we have lots of robins, hawks, pigeons, sparrows, blackbirds, finches, praire chickens, seagulls, Canadian geese and the odd woodpecker, bluejay and owl. We have tons of magpies which we use for target practice lol. There are probably others but I don't know what they are called.

 

[turbo]

Correction...one just checked in at the feeder, and it's not a red finch or purple finch. It's a common redpoll! Neato! I didn't suspect them, because my bird book shows a breeding range for them way up in northern Canada, but doesn't specify any other summer range (there's a dashed line across the southern US and a note they winter that far south, and occassionally are found further south).

Okay, the birds are fighting over crumbs. Time to refill the feeder. Greedy little things!

Ah, redpolls. They don't seem to breed here in central Maine. They came through about a month ago, hung out for a few days to "tank up" and moved on. I'm very happy with the little guys that are sticking around, though. Peterson's describes the songs of rose-breasted grosbeaks as if they were robins who had take singing lessons. That's too tame by far! A rose-breast male in good form is a joy to hear - pure, on-key, and musical.

 

[Chi Meson]

We are over-run with wild turkeys here. The state fish and wildlife department re-introduced them a number of years ago, and they have been so successful that it is not uncommon to see 20-30 or more of them on somebody's front lawn or in their garden. They are voracious feeders and should be harvested pretty aggresively, but the state has authorized only a limited split season, and if you shoot one of a flock that's ripping up your garden, you lose your hunting license, pay a fine AND a $500 "turkey replacement fee". Hell! They're replacing themselves for free at a much faster rate than we can accommodate them!

BTW, turkey hunters would refer to this bird as a "Jake" - a young male. In future years, his beard may grow so long that it is dragging on the ground and he will be treading on it, and his fleshy head-dress will grow quite a bit. When you watch a Tom in display, the changes in size, shape, and color of the fleshy parts can be pretty impressive.

I take it you've seen a turkey before, then.

Our 3-year-old son spotted this one outside the window and started to yell "pidgeon! Pidgeon!"

 

[turbo]

I take it you've seen a turkey before, then.

Yes, certainly! I ride a Softail on these country roads, and although many people will take pains to warn you about riding carefully to avoid deer, few realize that hitting a 20# bird will give you fits at 40-50 mph! I watch the turkeys pretty closely - in the spring a hen crossing the road may hav a very long train of flightless, but somewhat massive babies in her train.

 

[Moonbear]

Ah, redpolls. They don't seem to breed here in central Maine. They came through about a month ago, hung out for a few days to "tank up" and moved on.

Well, upon further watching the feeder today, it turned out that my difficulty in deciding is that I get both! Purple finches and redpolls (mostly purple finches, but there was definitely a redpoll out earlier). I went out tonight and stocked up on some more bird food. This time, I've created my own mix for them...hope they like my "cooking." Got the cheap, wild bird seed then supplemented it with some additional sunflower seeds and peanuts. I contemplated if I really wanted to add the peanuts or not, but decided I better keep the food in the birdfeeder more tempting than the seeds I just planted in my garden. I'll cut out the peanuts next time I need to buy birdseed, but will keep enriching it with more sunflower seeds...I just adore cardinals, and that's their favorite.

 

[Moonbear]

We are over-run with wild turkeys here. The state fish and wildlife department re-introduced them a number of years ago, and they have been so successful that it is not uncommon to see 20-30 or more of them on somebody's front lawn or in their garden. They are voracious feeders and should be harvested pretty aggresively, but the state has authorized only a limited split season, and if you shoot one of a flock that's ripping up your garden, you lose your hunting license, pay a fine AND a $500 "turkey replacement fee". Hell! They're replacing themselves for free at a much faster rate than we can accommodate them!

Want some coyotes? Apparently, PA started releasing coyotes, and they've made it down here to WV and find the sheep are tasty (though, they seem to prefer the organic sheep...they've been raiding the organic farm...I just heard today that they got another one or two yesterday). I guess our sheep are a lot easier to catch than the deer we'd like them to catch.

 

[turbo]

Want some coyotes? Apparently, PA started releasing coyotes, and they've made it down here to WV and find the sheep are tasty (though, they seem to prefer the organic sheep...they've been raiding the organic farm...I just heard today that they got another one or two yesterday). I guess our sheep are a lot easier to catch than the deer we'd like them to catch.

We have plenty of coyotes, and they seem to have come to some sort of equilibrium with the small animals, ground nesting birds, etc. I would love to see a viable population of wolves here, and a better population of bobcats (they are still trapped for their beautiful fur!) to get the wildlife in this state in better balance.

 

[BobG]

We get lots of sparrows and magpies. We get a few finches and once in a while we've gotten a couple of hummingbirds. The magpies are incredibly annoying, but kind of funny. Even at nearly full size, the young want the parents to feed them. Teenagers - they're all the same.

My work is right on the edge of the prairie. We have hawks looking for rodents or baby rabbits. We also have a couple of killdeer that are a lot fun. They feign injury to lure people away from their nest. One of them is an incredibly good actor, while the other seems a bit apathetic. One of the big debates is which is the male and which is the female.

 

[Moonbear]

We get lots of sparrows and magpies. We get a few finches and once in a while we've gotten a couple of hummingbirds. The magpies are incredibly annoying, but kind of funny. Even at nearly full size, the young want the parents to feed them. Teenagers - they're all the same.

Yes, they are hilarious when young! I've never seen such clumsy birds as they are when young. Years ago, a pair brought their youngster to our yard for food, and we named the baby "Stupid." It would just trip while walking, or fall out of a tree while trying to get its parents attention for more food.

 

[turbo]

We've got to play catch-up with the bird food. Yesterday goldfinches raided the seed feeder for extensive periods and they are very wasteful birds. They may throw away 5-10 sunflower seeds before eating one, so our feeder is empty this morning, and the ground is littered with unopened seeds. That's OK for the ground-feeders, but there are quite a few birds that prefer to perch, and they are out of luck until my wife comes home this afternoon with more seeds (and some fruit for the orioles).

 

[Moonbear]

We've got to play catch-up with the bird food. Yesterday goldfinches raided the seed feeder for extensive periods and they are very wasteful birds. They may throw away 5-10 sunflower seeds before eating one, so our feeder is empty this morning, and the ground is littered with unopened seeds. That's OK for the ground-feeders, but there are quite a few birds that prefer to perch, and they are out of luck until my wife comes home this afternoon with more seeds (and some fruit for the orioles).

Are all finches picky like that? I noticed that yesterday when I refilled the feeder, there were quite a lot of unopened sunflower seeds on the ground. But, the doves will enjoy that.

I was just remembering, in my last house, I had a tin roof over part of my deck. This time of year, the racket would drive me nuts! The blue jays, especially, would get ahold of acorns, or anything else they found, perch up on the roof, and "hammer" it open with their beak. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

I need to get a bird bath next. When the weather turns warmer and dryer (right now, there's no problem for birds to find water), I want to have an easy water source nearby so they don't attack the tomatoes for it when those start growing and ripening.

 

[turbo]

Are all finches picky like that? I noticed that yesterday when I refilled the feeder, there were quite a lot of unopened sunflower seeds on the ground. But, the doves will enjoy that.

No, the purple finches are not wasteful like that. Then again, they have heavier bills than the goldfinches - maybe the goldfinches are "pinching" each seed until they find one with a little free play in the shell, so they can open it more easily. Yeah, the mourning doves will benefit from the mess, but that's not a good thing. I don't want to encourage them to stick around, only to have them strip the garden when the peas and beans start sprouting - they are really destructive that way.

 

[turbo]

Yesterday was rainy, but the birds were active as always, so I shot a few pictures through the window while sitting at the computer. Here are a pair of purple finches and a goldfinch and a picture of an oriole trying to eat from the hunmmingbird feeder.

https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/6946

https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/6947

 

[turbo]

And here is the older of the male rose-breasted grosbeaks. There is another male in the area and he waits until this one leaves the feeder before coming in.https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/6948

 

[Astronuc]

Yesterday was rainy, but the birds were active as always, so I shot a few pictures through the window while sitting at the computer. Here are a pair of purple finches and a goldfinch and a picture of an oriole trying to eat from the hunmmingbird feeder.

That top picture has the same birds we see out of our kitchen window.

We actually have quite a few chickadees and titmice, but the popluation of goldfinches and purple finches has increased. We occasionally see a redpoll and once in while a grossbeak.

Orioles are rare.

We had an Eastern bluebird in the yard last Sunday. A couple used to hand out around here.

 

[Astronuc]

Bald Eagle!

http://www.gardenbuddies.com/forum/read.php?file=/64189/1183899.jpg&type=image/jpeg

This one was taken in Alaska, but we do have some in our area along the river.

 

[turbo]

The variety of birds here is amazing. We have moved into a rural setting about 15 miles north of our last house (which was on the edge of a mature forest preserve near a major river), and the improvement in diversity is incredible. It makes me believe the claims of the enviromental scientists that say as man expands his spread on the Earth, biodiversity decreases. There is another lot (again about 9-10 acres) next to ours that is undeveloped and I want to buy it and keep it productive (cut our firewood, improve the woodlot, etc), but leave it mainly for wildlife habitat.

It feels so nice to sit on the back deck with a cold one after working up a few trees or tilling the garden, and hearing rose-breasted grosbeaks, white-throated sparrows, goldfinches, purple finches, etc singing their hearts out. It is 8:30 and dark now, but we still have singers - the tree-frogs known as "spring peepers". I'd love to send you all a CD of these performers!

 

[Moonbear]

I'm just so excited that the nuthatches have come to stay. I just love watching them try to eat upside-down!

 

[turbo]

I'm just so excited that the nuthatches have come to stay. I just love watching them try to eat upside-down!

That's their strength! The woodpeckers and other insect-eating birds will make their way up tree trunks and branches looking upward, and they miss most of the insects that hide in the top sides of crevices. The nuthatches fly of the top of a tree or branch, and work their way down, looking for bugs. You need both woodpeckers, creepers, etc, AND nuthatches to scour your trees for bugs!

 

[Les Sleeth]

Here 15 miles from the Pacific and 60 miles North of San Francisco I've personally observerd over a 10 year period. . .

Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Green-backed Heron, Killdeer, Sandpiper, Common Tern, California Gull,Herring Gull, Laughing Gull, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Canada Goose, Double-crested Cormorant, Common Loon, Wood Duck, American Coot, Mallard, Red-breasted Merganser, Great Horned Owl, Great Gray Owl,Common Barn Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl (sleeping in our tree on his way somewhere), Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Wild Turkeys (in herds of up to 80 or more), Red-shouldered Hawk, American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk, Black Vulture, Black-shouldered Kite, Osprey, Band-tailed Pidgeon, Mourning Dove, Rock Dove, Ringnecked Pheasant, Greater Roadrunner (though on the way to Yosemite), California Quail, Barn Swallow, Violet-green Swallow, Pilated Woodpecker (flying overhead), Common Flicker, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Acorn Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Downey Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Anna's Hummingbird, Allen's Hummingbird, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Common Raven American Crow, Belted Kingfisher, Scrub Jay, Steller Jay, Blue Jay, Western Meadowlark, American Robin, Mockingbird, Varied Thrush, Brewer's Blackbird,Black-headed, Grosbeak, Northern Oriole (Bullock's race), European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Brown Towhee, Redwinged Blackbird, Rufous-sided Towhee, Hermit Thrush, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Swainson's Thrush, California Thrasher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Golden Crowned Sparrow,Western Bluebird, White Crowned Sparrow, Black Phoebe, Song Sparrow, Oregon Junco, Western Flycatcher, House Sparrow, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Wilson's Warbler, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Plain Titmouse, Fox Sparrow, Harris' Sparrow (here out of his territory with a bunch finches), Lesser Goldfinch, Townsend's Warbler, Purple Finch, Lazuli Bunting, Chipping Sparrow, Warbling Vireo,, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Bushtits, House Wren, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Bewick's Wren . . . and still looking.

 

[turbo]

Wow! What a flyway you must be in. That is an impressive list!