Wild Side Ornithology Club

[freedombecki]

Oh, here we see miniature wrens in the springtime. They're such feisty characters which makes them one of my favorites. I just love 'em. That tail goes up like Groucho's eyebrows when he's chary about some noise or notice.

Bewick's Wren

And where Bewick's Wrens hang out in the CBC:

 

[freedombecki]

For the second day, the weather was decent enough to sit out on the front porch and crochet on a rug I started 2 years ago, before all the 150 charity quilts were made.

We have this cutest little bird, that I thought was a creeper, but he has a black top and seems to be black and white (?) anyway, he scooches around the tree trunk and goes ballistic walking upside down and around on the larger tree limbs. Then, he zips over to the portal above the front porch bird feeder and swings back and forth from a vine that grew up last year, but which I cut below to get rid of last week, only it didn't get torn down and is well attached at 1" intervals the way the ivy attaches itself. He just rocks back and forth, propelling himself on the last rock to the feeder, where he goes bananas again, which drives the bigger birds away with all those upside down and swing antics. What a card. He's cute and funny.

Yesterday, I quit counting red male cardinals that are DNC 321 red (very, very red) after about two dozen pairs showed up at the feeder to share with other aggressive but much smaller birds. Then a pair of blue jays showed up, titmice, and I'm not 100% certain, but I think there were a pair of rosy finches and several Blackburnian Warblers. There was a small spotted gold, brown dots, and whitish bird with dark brown etchings on his covert wings. Also, when he split, it was instantaneously. We're talking outta here, gone! I have yet to spot one single solitary hummingbird, and the migration should have started by now. It has been awfully cold until 2 days ago. Well, there was the most beautiful woodpecker yesterday, and two others like him. One had a really, really long beak, one was about average, and the other had fewer tatters about the beak. That's all I remember to differentiate three birds with the same markings. If you make mental notes of the little stuff, you'll know when you are looking at a different bird. Also, there was a 4th I forgot about. I will just call him the swinger, because he did everything connected with eating from the bottom of the feeder, swinging as he went, from side to side. With him, it was the feeder that rocked.

I saw lots of birds, but one of the titmice was almost blue instead of the gray and buffy gold on the light-colored chests type titmice. Sometimes you see such things that make you wonder if you're just seeing things. That blue-toned titmouse was one of those.

 

[freedombecki]

I found a bird very similar to the one in my front yard, which seems a little smaller:

[ame=http://youtu.be/oMFGg2N3Mso]White-Breasted Nuthatch - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

My little dasher may have been a Pygmy nuthatch! No wonder that other bird looked a little bigger and moved slower by comparison to this little power-house:

I got a world champion acrobat pygmy nuthatch out there in my front yard, I think.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, again, I don't know. My little bird had a solid black cap, and I haven't seen anything presented with quite his zeal and zip. *sigh* Here are some bigger pygmies than the one in my yard, but they're lighter, almost blue in color. Nothing was blue about my pygmy. And he moved in milliseconds. What a ring-tailed tooter my black-capped guy was.

[ame="http://youtu.be/5FXstkLCgQY"]Pygmy Nuthatches 091012 - YouTube[/ame]

Well, he is consistent with sitta carolinsis. I looked at enough pictures to know it. I just consider that the bird I saw was more gray than blue, that's all. Maybe it's just my dark front porch, or a regional variation that is both smaller and darker. The back feathers were unmistakable, though. I don't know why my little guy was so small, though, and totally the acrobat.

And the woodpecker was not red-naped. He's called a red-bellied woodpecker. No other bird looks like him, although mine had more red than almost every one I saw a picture of except this one:

The barred black-and-white feathers are the dead giveaway on the red-bellied woodpecker.

I must get the suets hung tomorrow. Both woodpecker and sitta carolinses love them.

 

[freedombecki]

Really good thing to do for nut and fruit loving songbirds:

[ame=http://youtu.be/gijcPUeem9M]Homemade Bird Seed Ornaments - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

I want one

It looks like a bluebird feeder.

[ame=http://youtu.be/dxnUk81VVck]HOW TO MAKE BIRD HOUSE - FEEDER . Ako Vyrobit Vtaciu Budku - Krmitko - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm pretty good at imitating bird calls by whistling. I like to mess with their itty-bitty heads.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm pretty good at imitating bird calls by whistling. I like to mess with their itty-bitty heads.

[MENTION=20545]Mr. H.[/MENTION] I just noticed that at Patuxent Bird Identification Center, they have songs available for a lot of them. There didn't happen to be one for the Sulfur-bellied flycatcher Myiodynastes luteiventris, though.
You'd think with "lute" in his name, he'd be well-represented in sound. *sigh*

​

I keep looking for a pretty little bird with a similar colored midsection, except it's dotted, not striped looking. It isn't afraid to come and sit at the feeder when I'm just sitting there. Guess I'll run into its identy sooner or later. Also, it could be in its winter coloration, too.​

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I think it's great to hear a bird and know what you're hearing.​

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I keep hearing one that has a loud "glia" sound, like when you hear bagpipes played right, they start off in full blast. So does my "glia" whatever its name is that never gets an answer. That I know of...​

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Sorry I squandered my rep for 24 hours... it will prolly be tomorrow, because I just can't stay up late every night, er, morning, was it?​

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm not good at bird-watching, but I do like to bird-listen.

I wish there were an app for capturing a bird call in the wild, then identifying it with that software.

I researched it, attempts are being made, but it is a difficult and arduous process.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm not good at bird-watching, but I do like to bird-listen.

I wish there were an app for capturing a bird call in the wild, then identifying it with that software.

I researched it, attempts are being made, but it is a difficult and arduous process.

I found some bird books about 3 years ago that had audio sounds with bird pictures, you just punched in the number of the bird or something, and it gave you the bird's call, plus it described them. Oh, I forgot all about it. The reason was that after 2 years of being sandwiched in between my growing collection of bird books, it quit making sounds. There's another somewhere, but I'm not sure where I put it, and the third book, well, I never bought it because the one went bad, and I figured I didn't want to pay an extra $15 for a book the sound doesn't work the first time you really want to know what bird you heard.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm not good at bird-watching, but I do like to bird-listen.

I wish there were an app for capturing a bird call in the wild, then identifying it with that software.

I researched it, attempts are being made, but it is a difficult and arduous process.

You know, Cornell Lab is good about posting sounds with their bird pictures/identification pages, and there used to be one other several years ago. Oh, who was it? *sigh* It's possible it's one of the bird links I posted at or near the beginning of this thread.

 

[freedombecki]

Mr. H., here's a list of good birding links, and several have bird songs as part of their description bird pages:

<dialog omitted>

Some links that may help acquaint you with a wild bird you've seen that you cannot quite name yet and other resources for understanding our feathered friends:

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Macauly Library

Patuxent Bird Identification Center

What Bird - Novel Way to Identify the Bird you just heard or saw
​

Smithsonian Institution, National Bird Collection

British Trust for Ornithology

Birds of North America - Life Histories of breeding birds

Birds of Mexico Checklist

Birds of Canada Checklist

Birds of the USA

Nature Worldwide Birds

 

[Mr. H.]

Thanks, Ms. b.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm not good at bird-watching, but I do like to bird-listen.

I wish there were an app for capturing a bird call in the wild, then identifying it with that software.

I researched it, attempts are being made, but it is a difficult and arduous process.

OH, I get it. Yes, that would be nice.

However, the MacAuley library has a listing of over 700 Essential American birds and their calls here for a nominal fee: ML: Audio: Essential Set for North America

A(nd a boatload of money for the USB port bird call one. )

 

[Connery]

Such polite birds waiting their turns...

 

[tinydancer]

Oh these are the most wonderful pictures.

Thank you.

 

[freedombecki]

Such polite birds waiting their turns...

Beautiful!

Connery, I have to spread before repping you again, but I actually bought something called "bluebird food: meal worms" dried in a package. I'm not sure the blue birds out front are actually Eastern bluebirds (bills too large) or if the shadows around the porch make gray appear blue, so I'm not nervy enough to put the stuff out there yet. Maybe that's what they're thinking should be there, but I didn't find the bluebird feeder I was hoping to find at the store either. They look so European. I've been so busy on my few days of being offline.

 

[freedombecki]

Today, Bing had a picture of a feisty African fellow, the Secretary Bird. I think I wouldn't want to run into one, though. They're mean, as in terrorist bird mean... according to some.

Here are some other images, sorry the beautiful image that Bing used is probably gone by now. *sigh*

 

[Pogo]

I'm not good at bird-watching, but I do like to bird-listen.

I wish there were an app for capturing a bird call in the wild, then identifying it with that software.

I researched it, attempts are being made, but it is a difficult and arduous process.

I found some bird books about 3 years ago that had audio sounds with bird pictures, you just punched in the number of the bird or something, and it gave you the bird's call, plus it described them. Oh, I forgot all about it. The reason was that after 2 years of being sandwiched in between my growing collection of bird books, it quit making sounds. There's another somewhere, but I'm not sure where I put it, and the third book, well, I never bought it because the one went bad, and I figured I didn't want to pay an extra $15 for a book the sound doesn't work the first time you really want to know what bird you heard.

I've got that book. Not sure how old it is, it was given to me but it still works.

Also have one of these:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCl3g5F1TGY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCl3g5F1TGY[/ame]