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.

Carolina Wren

This is our favorite frequenter of Cafe Kitchen Window. We call him Giggles. This little Carolina Wren has been in our house four times. Each time he went farther and farther in. The first time I noticed a crinkling sound coming from the trash can and found him sitting on it looking about. I shooed him out and he took off and landed on a pole in the backyard and warbbled his heart out. He sounds like he is laughing out loud. Next he went to the backroom and landed on the piano. I opened the back door and evicted him. Same thing- loud laughter. Next he tried to check out the TV and then the piano again and out the door. Laugh it up, buddy.
I was cleaning my next door neighbor's house and left the garage half opened. When I was ready to leave I went through the garage and imagine who I met. He brought a friend too! They both flew out and, yes, I could tell exactly where they had flown to.
They are like class clowns bragging about their latest act of mischief.
Giggles disappeared a few weeks ago. He came back to say hi yesterday and I was so happy!

Hi!
This is my blog dedicated (but not limited to) all my backyard bird friends. We have a feeder in front of our kitchen window where I can get pictures of the birds and share them with you. Keep checking back for new posts!
Here's a picture of my own bird, Jocquese. he spends alot of time outside in the summer. I would love to build an aviary for him, but I don't want mites. Maybe someday.