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!

 

[Math Is Hard]

We've got babies! They are living in my neighbors' light fixture. I don't know what they are but they are tiny little brown birds, sparrow-sized. Two have brown chests and two have red chests, so we figure we've got two boys and two girls. One flew out yesterday and landed right in front of my cat, cheeped at her, and then took off. You should have seen the look on her face. She is too old and slow to pounce, but was she ever surprised!

 

[dav2008]

I've seen this bird on several occasions now, but I'm not sure of the name.

It's completely black except for two golden/orange patches on the sides of the belly/breast.

Does anyone know the name?

 

[turbo]

How big is the bird, and about where are you located? I might try digging through some bird guides, but every black and orange bird that I have seen has at least some white, too.

 

[Astronuc]

She is too old and slow to pounce,

Yeah, I know the feeling.

but was she ever surprised!

Probably thinking - now birds start dropping in.

 

[Astronuc]

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, . . .

That is an impressive list as turbo-1 mentioned.

If I go to nearby ponds or streams, I'll see ducks (mallards mostly) and Canadian geese (when they are passing through), perhaps a wookduck or merganser. We see herons now and then.

The only time I've seen owls is at night, so I couldn't identify them. Red -tailed, broad-winged and gray hawks are common. A couple we know had a nest of red-tailed hawk in one of their trees - what a mess that was with the hawk poop on the front lawn.

We once had a pair of house wrens nest in a hanging basket. The sphagnum moss made for a good nest. We watch the babies grow and were present for their first flight - to the ground. I stayed around until the babies got off the ground and into the nearby tree (30+ ft spruce). Same tree from which I had to retrieve one of our cats - twice.

 

[Les Sleeth]

I've seen this bird on several occasions now, but I'm not sure of the name.

It's completely black except for two golden/orange patches on the sides of the belly/breast.

Does anyone know the name?

Sometimes it is hard to see all the features of a bird without binoculars, so it might have other markings you are missing. As turbo-1 said, most birds with orange have another color besides black. Also, sometimes immature males are different colors than mature males, like the Hooded Oriole seen here:

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i5050id.html

The other orange oriole is the Balimore:

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i5070id.html

(BTW, did you know blackbirds and orioles belong to the same subfamily? A lot of people think blackbirds and crows are related. But the beautiful "liquid" songs of blackbirds give away how far they are from crows.)

The blackheaded grosbeak has orange on the body . . .

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i5960id.html

. . . as does the brambling . . .

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=04-12-2006&ID=2005109191&var_Year=2006&var_Month=04&var_Day=12

. . . and the rufous-sided towhee:

http://www.nhptv.org/Natureworks/rufoustowhee.htm One of my favorite ways to identify birds is to listen to the song and call (in case you haven't guessed it, a number of birds are named for their call or song, like the phoebe, chickadee, towhee, flicker, etc). That's many times the fastest way to identify since one can often hear before seeing a bird, and it also quickly let's you know an unfamiliar bird is around (right now I know without looking an enthusiastic Western flycatcher, a purple finch, California quail, an Oregon junco, a red-shouldered hawk, wild turkey and a black phoebe are outside . . . plus way off in the distance a Swainson's thrush -- I don't know why but I've never heard one close -- let's loose his beautiful poignant call every few minutes).

 

[Les Sleeth]

That is an impressive list as turbo-1 mentioned.

Well, it's funny because before I started watching them, if you'd asked me how many different birds were around I might have said 20 or so. Once I started paying attention I couldn't believe how much I was missing. There are some avid birders around here. Once I made the mistake of telling a grocery clerk who I knew took trips to Central America to watch birds that for several days in a row I'd seen a Harris' sparrow hanging out with some finches who came to eat sunflower seeds we threw out each morning (Harris's are not native to this area). He freaked and scolded me for not calling the local birder ass. so they could all have camped out at my house and watched.

 

[Astronuc]

Once I made the mistake of telling a grocery clerk who I knew took trips to Central America to watch birds that for several days in a row I'd seen a Harris' sparrow hanging out with some finches who came to eat sunflower seeds we threw out each morning (Harris's are not native to this area). He freaked and scolded me for not calling the local birder ass. so they could all have camped out at my house and watched.

Yeah, I know people like that.

We have a peregrine falcon visit us occasionally, and one time it brought down a dove in our back yard. I was standing in the yard, when all of a sudden I hear a screech. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a bird dropping to the ground with the falcon coming down right behind it. Feathers were floating/dropping through the air. The Falcon landed right at the dove and just stood there. I ran and grabbed my camera, and I was able to get a few shots before the Falcon took off. It was an amazing thing to see. Somewhere I've got those photos.

At the time that happened, peregrines were just starting to make a comeback in our area.

 

[dav2008]

How big is the bird, and about where are you located? I might try digging through some bird guides, but every black and orange bird that I have seen has at least some white, too.

Nah don't worry about it. I just thought someone might know off the top of their head.

As far as I could see it's completely black with the two orange patches on either side of the breast. I'm located in Northern Illinois.

All of the pictures Les posted had birds with orange patches but none of them completely black otherwise. (I've seen this bird on two occasions so I know it's not some weird mutant I came across)

Thanks for the website though. I'll browse through it.

 

[Astronuc]

Nah don't worry about it. I just thought someone might know off the top of their head.

As far as I could see it's completely black with the two orange patches on either side of the breast. I'm located in Northern Illinois.

If the orange patches are on the wings close to the body then its probably an immature red-winged blackbird - http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/photo_htm/Images/h4980p4.jpg When the wings are folded close to the body, it could look like oranges patches either side of the breast.

The adults males have red patches, with a yellow border. We see them quite often in our area in tall grass near marshy or swampy areas (aka wetlands).

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/photo_htm/Images/h4980pi.jpg

 

[Math Is Hard]

For the last two or three weeks, Mr. and Mrs. Crow, who live in a tree in my backyard have been, an absolute pain in the patoot -- yelling all day long and attacking squirrels. I figured they had babies somewhere nearby. Well, I finally got to see what all the fuss was about this morning. One of their fledgelings had fallen from the nest. He looks just like this:
http://www.birdsofwestwood.com/images/birdpics/crow-nestling.jpg

 

[turbo]

Neat! Some of the larger birds will accept help in caring from unfledged babies. A number of years ago, a friend of mine (the chief of the Maine Warden Service at the time) and I stopped to help a broad-winged hawk chick on a camp road. I stayed with the chick while he went for some gloves, and when he came back, I put on the gloves and trapped the little guy's wings against his body (with him trying to bite me all the time) and we took him into the woods where his parents were calling. We enlisted a retired relative in the area to take chicken, turkey, etc to the rock wall so the parents could guard the chick without having to hunt for fresh food. They took the food readily for at least a week (during which time the little guy probably should have been fledged well enough to fly), and we like to think that the chick made it, with his parents' constant presence. There is no way of knowing for sure...

 

[Chi Meson]

Just saw a new bird today during a fire drill. An American redstart. It's a black warbler with orange patches on breast wing and tail. I'm thinking maybe its the bird Dave2008 is tryng to i.d?

 

[Math Is Hard]

They took the food readily for at least a week (during which time the little guy probably should have been fledged well enough to fly), and we like to think that the chick made it, with his parents' constant presence. There is no way of knowing for sure...

I bet he did just fine.

A few years ago, I had a catnip plant in a hanging basket and some doves made a nest in it. Only one baby hatched and I named him Catnip. Poor little thing fell out of the nest and hurt his wing and was hopping around driving the neighborhood cats insane. Can you imagine a worse situation than a baby bird with a broken wing who smells like catnip in a neighborhood full of puddy-tats? I ended up taking him to a wildlife sanctuary. They made me make a donation of $80 to take him in!

 

[turbo]

I ended up taking him to a wildlife sanctuary. They made me make a donation of $80 to take him in!

Ouch! That's pretty steep. It was nice of you to do that. I love animals, but I would have found it difficult to justify paying them $80 to take a dove. I probably would have done it for a raptor, though - they are higher-maintenance and more expensive to feed, too. BTW, I think the broad-winged hawks like doves. We have a pair of broad-wings nesting nearby, and several days ago, I found mourning dove feathers under our bird feeder. If they will keep the doves out of our garden until all the seeds are sprouted and the plants are well-developed, I will be very grateful to them. A flock of doves can pull up a row of sprouted beans or peas in no time flat.