Birds!

[Orca]

I thought it might be interesting to start a dedicated thread to birdwatching, where folks can report/discuss the birds outside your window. I've enjoyed feeding/observing birds ever since I was a kid, and continue to do so with my kids (our feeders in the back are collectively referred to as the "bird restaurant").

The most common small songbirds that visit my backyard:
Chickadees - mountain, black-capped
Finches - gold, house
Oregon juncos
Rufous-sided towhee
Nuthatches
Sparrows
Wrens

You know Spring is on the way when the American Robins start hunting for worms in the lawn in March or so. I love jays; we mainly have California Jays and occasional Stellar's Jays. Stellar's Jays are among the most beautiful of all North American songbirds; in my opinion the deep blues and dark crests are as pretty as a cardinal (though perhaps I am just a bit jealous that we don't have cardinals on the Western half of the continent).

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[Chris Peterson]

I thought it might be interesting to start a dedicated thread to birdwatching, where folks can report/discuss the birds outside your window. I've enjoyed feeding/observing birds ever since I was a kid, and continue to do so with my kids (our feeders in the back are collectively referred to as the "bird restaurant").

The most common small songbirds that visit my backyard:
Chickadees - mountain, black-capped
Finches - gold, house
Oregon juncos
Rufous-sided towhee
Nuthatches
Sparrows
Wrens

You know Spring is on the way when the American Robins start hunting for worms in the lawn in March or so.

Or June. Somebody doesn't live in the high Rockies!

(Our year-round residents include those same chickadees, juncos, pygmy and white-breasted nuthatches. All our corvids hang around, too. Crows, ravens, magpies, Stellar jays, piñon jays, Clarks jays. Flickers never leave, either.)

Up where we're building our new house, higher and more remote, I've been seeing a lot of dusky grouse. Got to look hard to see them!
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[Orca]

I thought it might be interesting to start a dedicated thread to birdwatching, where folks can report/discuss the birds outside your window. I've enjoyed feeding/observing birds ever since I was a kid, and continue to do so with my kids (our feeders in the back are collectively referred to as the "bird restaurant").

The most common small songbirds that visit my backyard:
Chickadees - mountain, black-capped
Finches - gold, house
Oregon juncos
Rufous-sided towhee
Nuthatches
Sparrows
Wrens

You know Spring is on the way when the American Robins start hunting for worms in the lawn in March or so.

Or June. Somebody doesn't live in the high Rockies!

(Our year-round residents include those same chickadees, juncos, pygmy and white-breasted nuthatches. All our corvids hang around, too. Crows, ravens, magpies, Stellar jays, piñon jays, Clarks jays. Flickers never leave, either.)

Up where we're building our new house, higher and more remote, I've been seeing a lot of dusky grouse. Got to look hard to see them!
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I had to look up piñon and Clarks jays! Apparently the Clarks get mixed up with Grey I've seen those in my travels around the state but I never see them locally. Magpies are neat too, but are more common a few hours east.

We have Flickers as well - they have a very distinct sound. I've caught them trying to knock seeds or suet down from the feeders. I think I will put out a plain peanut table for the Corvids and other larger birds as well as Squirrel Nutkin. I actually have no problems feeding squirrels; they're fun to watch as well. The ones we have around here seem to be content with the seed dropped by our messy song birds, so they never try to "break into" the feeders.

We saw a couple of mourning doves recently, which do see on occasion. They sound like "sad owls."

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Jake the Junco:

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My kid saw that picture and said, "He's cute but his claws look vicious!"

[owlice]

I do some bird watching, but usually by walking around somewhere rather than looking out a window. Took a walk around a nearby lake a few days ago, and saw...


White-throated Sparrows

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A Great Egret

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Great Blue Heron

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This pretty female Hooded Merganser (along with a large flotilla of mergansers, with a few other ducks and even a Ring-billed Gull in the mix)

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along with others... Brown Creepers and Carolina Wrens, Northern Cardinals and Redheads, and so on.

Robins are year-round birds here and Juncos (Dark-eyed) and White-throated Sparrows (O Sweet Canada Canada Canada!) are winter birds.