Three Little Red Birds

I feel like The Bad Seed; I need to be careful what I wish for! Sure, the Blue Jay was a somewhat unwelcome visitor the other day, but I just hoped it wouldn’t nest in my yard…that’s all! I went off to work yesterday and found the driveway littered with blue feathers and pieces of wing. I am so sorry, fella. Raptors gotta eat too though, huh?

I believe I’ve figured it out; I have House Finch and Purple Finch regularly visiting my feeders. Sherrie tells me House Finches "are EXTREMELY variable", so perhaps that is why some are redder and some International Orange, like this guy.

These photos are not mine, and appear on each bird's profile page on the links I've provided..but are wonderful illustratons of the three (?) birds I see here.

They really do seem, to me, to be quite similar…but the Purples have an all-over pinkish tint to them and are nowhere near as stripy.

It might be possible I have Cassin’s Finchs here as well…there are a few who seem to have an especially bright red, and quite ‘spiky looking’ topknot.

While the female Purples look like little winged ground-squirrels with their brown and white markings, the females that could be Cassin’s puff up their topknots just like the males, like this female Cassin's is doing here.

Here is a fascinating discussion on the three birds and how to Distingush the Differences. Lovely birds, all.

Snow is Eminent (...they say)

Snow is eminent, I heard on the radio today…and so you’d think by the way the birds went through the feed. Even the woodies seemed to be stocking up, they were here a lot. I need to win the lottery. I suppose first, I should discover what it is, really, that I need to improve my photography. Is the problem my window or is a PowerShot G3 just not good enough? I’ve read to use a Digiscope one must have at least a 4.0 mega-pixel camera. Mine is just that. Perhaps it is the ‘telephoto lens’ I got for it…all excited that I was to even find a digital camera with an interchangeable lens…seven years ago, mind you. Gads, I have so much to learn…but first I have to fix the window! I have links regarding the scopes on the right side of the page.

I’ll show off a really bad shot I got of the raptor that hangs around; was the first time I saw it’s front side. Perhaps there is a clue there about what kind it might be. If ya can see it! Ha

I did get some good opportunities to show I really do see two types of Chickadee here, and more on the paler-pinky colored birds. You can see how pale their ‘red’ is compared to the other ‘red’ ones. Perhaps they’re female-types, I dunno. Do you? Still, they are quite different from the little stripped brown birds I bet are females. [Addendum: The stripy ones are House Finches and the pale-bellied ones with the very red heads are Cassin's Finch]









One Chickadee type has a dark strip through its eye…but there is white above it, as if it has white eyebrows. I believe it’s the Mountain Chickadee. The other Chickadee type has a beautiful full-black cap…and surely must be the Black-capped Chickadee. See, I learn quick! LOL

I can see, I'm going to have to clean up my clothes line, too...these clothspins and stuff are making this much to busyh! LOL


The wind was blowing too, so it was hard to get the camera focused, but I did get a couple more little shots of the Nuthatch who visits, as well as one of the woodpecker types. I believe I have two; both a Hairy and a Downy…as there is a big difference in size, but I think both have red on them. I’d imagine females do not.I miss being up at the cabin…I remember once hearing cranes fly overhead; I thought I was hearing chickens! They fly so much higher than do geese it took awhile to find them, chattering on their way to the dunes, I suppose. I used to watch wild turkey chicks with their mothers right outside my window; it seemed nothing was afraid…I guess they didn’t see that many people up there. It was so lovely to wander around and look at stuff. I once saw a bear with a blond strip down it’s back…it looked like a punk-bear the way the blond looked in dappled sunlight. I found out later that our black bears are not just black or cinnamon…but sometimes have patches of blond; stripes down their backs or bibs under their chins.

My friend Tony says I can go back up and hike around his place. He and his family bought a place mile or so past my old cabin. I’d love to arrange some birding trips up there, when the snow melts.

I was asked to post a couple more of the pictures I took of the bear that spent a day in a tree in my front yard. They are fairly tolerant here, as long as you ignore them; but they drive my dog, nuts. He’s a Livestock Guardian Dog, an Akbash Dog, that I got when I thought I was going to spend the rest of my days in Paradise. I watched him keep a double-tagged bear (bright yellow tag in each ear means it was becoming a problem) out of our meadow all by himself. LGDs don’t hunt or harass bears, wolves, or lions…but they do run them off when they come around. Such a good doggie mine is!

Here are the pictures I took of the bear who was hanging around ...and you thought birds were messy! These guys come to town to gorge on apples, and the piles they leave are humongous!

More on Little Red Birds

Okay, I understand I have to learn how to use my camera…but I do have issues, too! While it’s not a bad little camera (seven year old Canon PowerShot G3 for which I have a telephoto lens), I am shooting through that blasted window that I’ve draped with netting. Perhaps things will get better when the film from ColideEscape arrives. I can learn to control my own camera (!!!), to focus on the bird and not the window. I can, I can.

I’m still struggling with identifying the little
red birds, as I call them. I cannot determine if the more stripy ones are the same breed the buff-breasted ones. If anybody can tell me if they are the same and what, really they are, I’d appreciate it. (Really, I’ll get my books out of storage as soon as I get my floors repaired and book-cases made).

I cannot believe I have no even mediocre shots of the chickadees
who visit my feeders. I believe I’ve seen two kinds, Mountain and Black-capped; the little buggers are fast! A Mountain Chickadee was the last fatality at my window…when I finally put up the netting.

I did get a couple bad shots of another little nut-eater… I swear, I am going to learn to take pictures; I'm sorry these are so bad, but if you can help me identify the little red ones, I'd sure appreciate it.

I've found a sweet little website, BirdNature.com, that offers at least five pages I found lots of fun:

• Homemade Bird Food
  


• Natural Foods
  


• Migration Flyways
  


• What’s in a Name and interesting tidbits called
  


• Did You Know

Also there are links to Indices from Birds of Nature magazine, a hundred years worth!!! Wow, thanks, folks.

A First - unusual for an old broad!

Today I saw a bird I’ve never seen before: a Tricolored Blackbird (Agelaius tricolor). Oh sure, I’ve seen common blackbirds and red-winged blackbirds and yellow-headed blackbirds…but I’d never even heard of a Tricolored Blackbird! At first I thought it was a starling because of faint markings on it's upper back, but it had white edges to it’s wing and as it landed or took off, it flashed a bit of red, as well. It’s a beautiful bird…and an auspicious beginning to both my blogging and my bird-watching. LOL [Addendum: The bird turned out to be a Red-winged Blackbird. Who knew they 'hid' the red when they wanted to get along?]

And, I have a confession to make. All my books are still packed in boxes while I remodel my home; including my bird-books…and I’m in a quandary.

There are, I believe, four red-ish birds who visit my feeders:

• A small, smooth bird with red head, face, bib and upper base of tail with strongly stripped bellies, wings and backs in brown and buff.
  


• Another similar to the first, but in Industrial Orange, rather than red, at least one of which blends to yellow low on it's throat.
  
  
• One which has a spiky crimson top-knot like a punk-rocker boy overlaid with brown facial markings, with the red continuing down the bib but with a pale breast and belly.



• And finally, another small bird in pale pink along its entire underside with slightly darker face and bib. This bird has pale tan markings much like the others, but less stripy.

I want to learn which bird is which breed and which females belong to whom. I want to learn how to identify wild birds. I mean it, too!

Here's a shot of some kinda raptor who frequents my feeders, too. S/he's been coming around regularly.

If anybody can answer any of my questions please just leave a comment; I'd appreciate it!

[Addendum: Based on further experience, this is likely to be a young Cooper's Hawk...as evidenced by the white edges at the end of the tail-feathers and the lack of a 'hooded' or dark coloring to the head; plus the light nape and 'line of color' where the darker back coloring begins.]