The Streak-backed Oriole is a large oriole with mostly bright orange body except for black streaks on back. It has a deep orange-red head and breast which contrast with black face and chin. It's black wings have two bold, white bars and the black tail, white corners.
This photo shows a bird in the hand; where usually we see chickadees eating from our hands, this time it's a Red-brested Nuthatch. Hand feeding is mentioned in the Times article...I just wanted you to see birds really do do this!Happy Thanksgiving everybody...
Photos from Wikipedia. Special thanks to Bill Schmoker for telling us about the NYT article.
15 comments:
Sweet! Thanks for the link.
You can get all sorts of birds to eat from your hands with a little deception. Make a dummy from a large shirt and pants and a hat and gloves. Sit it in a chair in a sheltered spot and put birdseed in the gloves and on the hat.
Within a week or so, you can go sit quietly in the same chair, put on the hat and gloves, and have birds all over you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Such duplicity. I'm shocked!!!
.
.
.
Thanks for sharing! :)
Wasn't it in those Gray Jay videos you linked to where they were feeding from the hand? That was cool.
:D Yup!
If anybody missed them, you can see them here.
Thanks for noticing! By the by...did you see I in fact DID end up at I and the Bird? I'm so tickled...
Wonderful piece, and one I'd missed in reading more gloomy news. And, what a great photo of the Red-breasted Nuthatch feeding.
Happy Thankgiving! It was quiet in the woods around here this morning -- just a little bit of activity and calls, mallards and other ducks, geese, and a great blue heron on the lake.
It is quiet here too, and about thirty degrees; and it’s been snowing lightly for about an hour. I’ve been cooking, researching, listening to cooking shows, and watching birds; mostly siskins, Am. Goldfinch, House Finches (and a few dratted House Sparrows), with a Downy or Hairy woodpecker or two thrown in, and a chickadee or two, a nuthatch here and there and ten or twelve Eurasian Doves. Occasionally everybody scatters when the Blue Jay arrives with his ‘hawk-like’ announcement. He prefers a clear table.
And I think I have a sick Brewer’s Blackbird or perhaps female Common Grackle…the bird is rather disheveled looking with white stains under its tail. It comes alone and feeds.
If I wasn't taking advantage of a holiday off by cooking up a storm, doing some research and watching my feeders...I would have headed up to Lathrop State Park; my friend located a Pacific Loon! Nice, huh?
Oh...and I just saw them again; a couple or three Magpies that get by my dog. He thinks they're worse than squirrels! I like to watch them at the suet feeders though...they are really stunning.
Congrats on the article. Sounds like you're getting the kind of birds I have seen over the past few months minus the magpies. My pine siskins came out yesterday and I hadn't seen them in a while.
I think I could feed the pygmy huthatches and chickadees from my hand. They don't mind coming around when I'm shoveling the snow off the deck or adding food to their feeders.
Have fun watching. I could spend all day doing it.
I’m assuming you mean my Grey Jay article that made it into 10,000 Birds’ recent I and the Bird carnival. Just to be clear, I didn’t write the article that appeared in the NYT.
I think it’s so cool you get pygmy nuthatches…I saw them up by Rye and Colorado City, but not here. I’m thinking this little town is just too much ‘city’ for them! LOL (La Veta is home to less than 1000 people!)
I could spend all day watching birds, too. Oh wait…I’ve done that! (and more than once) Do you get Downies coming around? They will come to a feeder while I’m nearby, too.
I also see House Finches, of course…but not too many Juncos yet. I’m hoping they and the Cassins as well as the White-crowned Sparrows return soon. Last year I also had Purple Finches and my favs, the Rosies.
This morning has been marvelous. Had several pine grosbeaks and the rosies come by my feeder. I hadn't seen either of them before. Photos posted at Colorado Birder.
Yep, I meant the Jay article.
I get the hairy woodpecker visiting a lot, but I'm not sure if I've seen a downy or not. It's so hard to gauge the size.
Dang Debbie…that IS a marvelous morning. While I have several grosbeaks here…I’ve never seen either a pine nor a blue version. I’m still hoping!
I have a hard time with size too, especially at a distance. For me, it is easier to use the bill as a fieldmarker: Downy’s is about ¼ inch and the Hairy’s is much longer…an inch or more. Hard to confuse a petite thing with a long schnisel (schnoz + chisel)
About those Rosys…they’re one of my favs, as I said. Seems the case for many birders, in fact. They’re famous in Sandia, NM
Are you able to determine which you have; there are three:
Gray-crowned Rosy-finch: Adults are brown on the back and breast and mainly pink on the rest of the underparts and the wings. The forehead and throat are black; the back of the head is grey. They have short black legs and a long forked tail. There is some variability in the amount of grey on the head.
Brown-capped Rosy-finch: Adults are brown on the head, back, and breast with pink on the belly, rump, and wings. The forehead is black. They have short black legs and a long forked tail.
Black Rosy-finch: Adults are black on the head, back and breast with pink on the belly, rump and wings. There is a patch of grey at the back of the head. They have short black legs and a long forked tail.
Right now, I’m working on a woodpecker series; I may just do the Rosys after that.You can see some who have visited here, here.
Brown capped rosy finches I think. My heart was beating so fast when I realized what I was looking at. I've been looking for them. And seeing the pine grosbeaks gave me a feel for size. They were about 9", much bigger than I imagined them to be. Your link didn't work to look at the Rosies, btw. :-(
Dammit…I tried to get that right and totally messed it up! Try this (but you'll have to copy and paste the addresses):
Rosies at Sandia: www.rosyfinch.com/
Rosies on my blog: www.ruralchatter.blogspot.com/search?q=rosy-finch
They are good sized...first time I saw them I was looking UP at them on a finch-feeder. Now you know why I call 'em Pink Butts!
Beverly, is that your hand with the red-breasted nuthatch on it? I would be totally delighted to experience something like that--they are the cutest little birdies!
Hiya Ruthie…nope, not my hand. If I don’t take the photo, I always say who did. I often use Wikipedia…as I mention at the end of the post. There are some really neat things available there.
I wish though, I agree; it would be awesome to experience such a thing!
Thanks for visiting,
Beverly
Post a Comment