So, what is he?

I was so excited when this guy showed up at the backyard water pan. I had scrubbed it out the night before because it had grown slimy with black algae. So when I saw him the next morning, I was very thankful I had cleaned it up because he stuck around for a while, giving me a chance to get the camera. He might have been drawn to the shiny new clean water tray. The brag of the neighborhood...maybe not.
So what is he, though? Unfortunately, I took nine pictures and only three turned out even remotely well. But those pictures are still a little fuzzy, so it is hard to see some important details- like his beak.
He could be a Summer Tanager or a Purple Finch. (I know. Its red. I didn't name it.)

Having taken a moment to look at it again, I am going to call it a Summer Tanager. Judging by the size of this bird's eye, compared to the Purple Finch; and taking a closer look at the beak, it seems to fit the Tanager's phenotypical traits. There are a few other details, like a whitish ring around its eye and a more streamlined head that give me clues.

What a find! I'm just a simple backyard birder, so 'exotic' birds like this thrill me for days! For that matter, I still love to sit and watch Mourning Doves and Robins hop around my bread cubes.

I'll tell my grandkids about the day the Summer Tanager came to our house.

I want to see him!

There is a bird on the project feederwatch site that is baffling the scientists. And rightfully so! Have you ever seen a bluejay like this? I want to see it.
I guess it would be easy to say that it is a hybrid, but I bet it is just a variation in the feather patterns. Some kind of an error in the genes. Very pretty. I wonder if it is challenged by these different feathers.
Have you ever seen one?

Wow, How long has it been since I posted last?
I have been in New Jersey for eight weeks. I left my bird ID book at home, and what do you think? I saw a bunch of birds I couldn't ID.
There were many many coastal birds, little black birds that look like our mocking birds, and I even saw and osprey.
I have been home now for two weeks and I have gotten to see my cardinal family feeding its young.
We also have plenty of humming birds right now.
It is exceptionally hot outside- in the 100's- and the birds are lying low. One of the humming birds came to the feeder and he was so hot he sat there with his mouth open paning. When is the last time you saw a humming bird open its mouth? I got a picture of that. He hung out there for a while and I almost got a video, but there were many things going on with the family and I had no time.
I did get several videos of the osprey. We hung around for about a half hour watching the nestling and parents.

Giggles

This picture tugs at my heart strings.
He is so sweet sitting up there. Perhaps the fact that he is my favorite species of bird has something to do with it as well.
I really enjoy watching our Wrens. Their movements are so snappy and nervous. They remind me of a child drummed up on an energy drink.
As they hop around their tail feathers act like a rudder to keep balance. Usually the tail will stand strait up and flip around as they dart from spot to spot.
Recently, I watched a Wren eating a seed. He grabbed one from our feeder and took it to the ground. Then he reared back his head and beat on it several times to crack it. Sounds mundane, but he had me laughing the way he moved so comically.
This picture is typical of our Wrens' behavior. Our stuff is theirs, and quite frankly, we should have left it out there for him to explore longer if he had any say in it. Nothing is off limits.

Mr. and Mrs Towhee

We have a Rufous Sided Towhee pair that have been in our backyard for a few months. I think they have a nest now, because where as before we would see them as a pair, we only ever see one at a time now. They tend to swap out and come directly for food. They are also much more bold. The male will continue feeding as we walk around close to ten feet from him as though to say, "Don't bother me with your trifling threats, I am busy eating here."
We like to call them Mr. and Mrs. Towhee.

Huh?

This is one of two downy woodpeckers in our back yard. The other is a female.
If I am standing by the window when any bird lands it will watch me for a bit to see what I will do. If they land on the far side of the feeder they lean far over and look around like this guy. I love when they do that because they look so comical.
I don't know much about these guys, but they and the Northern Yellowhammers and Redbellied Woodpeckers make alot of holes in our pine trees.

Song Sparrow

This is a Song Sparrow.
Sparrows are a ubiquitous bird. If you are walking past a bush and hear the leaves rustling it is probably one of these little guys or a cousin.
We have large groups of Song Sparrows in our back yard, but when I go to school I usually find Chipping Sparrows there. Not sure why the difference. Perhaps they like the city life. :0)

House Finch

There are quite a few finches in our backyard. The males are brown with red highlights. They are hard to distinguish from the purple finch. The purple finch also has red highlights- but they are a little more pronounced.
I am often confounded by the slight variations between species. We are studying telescope shiners- a species of minnow- which looks like almost every other shiner I have seen. The professor I am working with says there are two species he can delineate between. It probably is a difference in the DNA.
The problem we have right now is that these finches are coming down with Mycoplasmal Conjunctivitis. It is a swelling in the eye area that blocks off the blood flow to that area causing the feathers to fall out. The bird usually loses sight in that eye and becomes susceptible to predators.
I am puzzled by the patterns I am recording. The ones infected are all male and it is always the right eye. This isn't the same bird because I have been observing the progression of the illness in these individuals.
The finches come in groups. I have seen one group of two males and two females that came to our feeders for about three weeks. One male had the infection and the others seemed to protect him from the danger he couldn't see. I could get within two feet of him on his blind side but if the others saw they would fly into him and move him away. One day they came back without him. And then they moved on.

Doves are ground feeders.

It is true too. We have alot of Mourning Doves in our area also, so I try to make sure there is stuff on the ground for them. Of course, the other birds take care of them too. When they come to the feeder, our chickadee's in particular will pull out the safflower seeds and drop them because they don't like them. Then the doves will get under the feeder and eat them. Perfect harmony.

Well, only this year we have had a free spirit trying his luck at the feeder. It is so funny to see this battle ship body balancing on our small, swinging feeder, grasping that dainty perch and hanging on with all his might. He has gotten pretty good at it, too.

This is called learned behavior. He's learning.