The feeder

Some quick shots from the feeder.

There have been a lot of woodpeckers in the last few days and many few finches.

This Red-Bellied Woodpecker triumphantly comes up with a peanut.

Brown Thrasher.  What a very different eye they have from most of the other birds who visit.

They use their beaks to shove the food around until they find what they like.

This Hairy Woodpecker has driven off an Oriole.

Too bad I didn’t have my camera handy as I saw this develop.

Mr. & Mrs. Purple Finch are on a date.  They are doing a little courting.

I saw them clacking their beaks together as the Missus flapped one wing only.

This must be some courting behavior. 

I only got this one shot in before a big woodpecker came in and they took off.

And they eat… and eat… and eat…

Red-Winged Blackbird proclaims his ownership of my lawn.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. little gal says:

    “Brown Thrasher. What a very different eye they have from most of the other birds who visit.”

    I’ve seen the same “eye” post Lasik surgery on humans!

  2. mrsmontoya says:

    Those red-wings, or some very like them, come through our area in spring and fall in huge flocks on their migration.

    Lovely!

  3. Gloria says:

    There are many rice paddies around Sacramento. From the air, flying over, they look like many lakes in even squares. Reeds and pussy willows abound around them and myriad red-wing blackbirds inhabit the area, along with snowy egrets, wading in the paddies. They’re quite a sight. We don’t have them here in the foothills, usually. They hang out in the valley.

    We had an unusual visitor recently. Walking along the streets in our senior village, I noticed that the redwood bark the Association spreads on the patio home properties was torn up and scattered along the sidewalks in several places. It was a mystery until I looked across the street from my house one day and saw a really big brown bird with spots, digging with his beak in the bark. I got a close-up look and found him in my bird book. It was a Northern Flicker, of the woodpecker family, who apparently is fond of ants and digs them up, making a mess as he goes!

    The acorn woodpeckers are reaming out round holes in the oak trees for nests. I watch one with my binoculars. He has been working for two weeks. At first it was a dent, then it was big enough to get his head through. Today he was up to his shoulders inside the hole. Fascinating! There are three pairs gobbling up the hulled peanuts in the feeder hanging from the deck outside my window.

  4. MargaretMN says:

    The brown thrasher’s eye looks like my parrot’s eye. He doesn’t have that dark tinting that a lot of birds have who live in open (He is a rainforest bird). I wonder if the thrasher is supposed to be arboreal rather than grassland dwelling.

  5. I also love to watch birds. We have a backyard pond, and the birds come to bathe themselves in the water every day. I only recognize the obvious ones, though – I am not as educated about the different species as you are. Sometimes a blue heron will land looking for a meal, and there is another small bird with a very long beak that also tries to catch his dinner. We lost two of our larger fish to birds recently.

  6. Ohio Annie says:

    Margaret, Yes, the brown thrasher is found in the forest, usually walking up the sides of big trees. They are nicely cryptically colored for their environment. They have an odd way of stalking up the trees, fun to watch if you can see them at all.

  7. irishgirl says:

    The brown thrasher is a ‘trash bird’-it throws out all the seeds till it finds something!

    Just made it up….

  8. Therese Z says:

    What’s extra wonderful is if you can find a nuthatch on the same tree as the flicker. The flicker works it way UP the tree and the nuthatch works its way DOWN. They spiral around and around in apparent comfort with each other, no sparring and no bumping into each other.

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