The Feeder Feed: feathers

Some shots from the feeder.Twitter

I have taken to calling this one Moses.

This is not a molting thing. 

This bird has been coming for a long time and has always had these little tufts.

Hummingbirds are also interested in the grape jelly set out for the Orioles.

A molting Blue Jay.

One of the last Grosbeaks.

A molting Cardinal.

And just because this is such a cheerful shot.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. poohbear says:

    ‘Moses’ is just too cute! He would make a great poster, or coffee mug, or shirt, or….

  2. Random Friar says:

    Interesting… do you have hummer feeders? I’ve never seen hummers go for the jellies.

  3. I love humming birds. I miss them…the damned bees took over here and we have no more H.B.

  4. roamincatholic says:

    hahaha, “a molting cardinal”…

    Dare I ask what you have been calling it? Mahoney? Law?

  5. susanna says:

    Moses, I’d follow you anywhere.

  6. Supertradmum says:

    I do not know why most of the birds have left us so early this year. Does that mean a very bad winter for the Midwest? I use many of your bird photos for my screen saver. I hope you do not mind.

    Just emptied the garbage and saw eight eagles in the sky, on the thermals. They come in every year and look for rodents when the harvesting starts. Last year, we saw eleven about this time.

  7. wanda says:

    Great pictures, Fr. Z. I have never, ever seen anything like ‘Moses’! Truly strange and cute all at the same time. The Hummingbird pictures are really good, I like how you’ve managed to ‘freeze’ them so well, ordinarily I just see a blur for their little wings. I didn’t know they like jelly. Man, that cardinal sure looks be-draggled. I hope he will soon have a proper new wardrobe growing in.

    Thank you for sharing your great photos, I always get a lift when I see the birdz here.

  8. Konichiwa says:

    Nice shot of the hummingbird in flight.

  9. I love that last shot!!!

  10. GirlCanChant says:

    Moses is definitely my new background.

  11. A couple of you have expressed a measure of pleasure in that last shot of “Moses”.

    I am sending out a larger version of that photo to a couple of you who have given donations since I posted this to feed the birds. The large version will be a much better desktop background.

  12. Miriam says:

    I never knew birds could smile. What a cutie!

  13. shadowlands says:

    The birds look very nice. I get an occasional Robin, but two pigeons are my regular garden habitants. They appear to be a couple, and are very pleasant, I must say. They often just sit on the fence, watching me…and I watch them back ofcourse.

  14. M.D.R. says:

    I love these bird photos, especially the last one….priceless!

    I’ve just recently become interested in birdwatching myself, and have hung four kinds of bird-feeders in the yard. The ants got to the hummingbird feeder (I’ll need to move it), and there have been no takers for the thistle and black sunflower seeds. However, a small black and white bird has been going to the feeder filled with mostly millet. I think the crows have been going for the peanut butter lard chunk. It’s a learning experience, and fun also.

    I’m enjoying reading the other posters’ comments, too.

  15. wanda says:

    Hi M.D.R., Fellow bird-watcher and feeder here. After several years of trying to have a hummingbird nectar feeder and having it over-run by ants, I finally found success this season by using a ‘moat’. It’s a little plastic cup device (with a hook in the center) that hangs above the feeder. You fill the little moat/cup with water and the ants will not cross past or over it to get at the nectar feeder. Incredible, but true. Try looking in the garden center in the bird feeder area or try on line.

    I bet your millet eater is a chickadee. Give the birds time to find you and especially put your feeders out again in the spring. Although I have my feeders up year round. (Not the nectar.) Happy bird-watching and bird-feeding!

  16. irishgirl says:

    Oh, I love that cute little ‘Moses’ birdie-especially the last photo! I didn’t know birds could smile, either! Sweet little thing!

    I also love the hummingbird ones, too. ‘Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer’, as the old song goes.

    I saw a hummingbird a few weeks ago outside the window of the library. They’re so funny with their whirring wings! And then it sat for a moment on the branch of a flower-such tiny things!

    The ‘molting cardinal’ looks bedraggled-he does need a ‘new wardrobe’ ‘Mahoney (sic) or Law’, said roamincatholic….haha! Very funny!

  17. M.D.R. says:

    Wanda, thanks for your good advice. I’ll look for the plastic cup device for the hummingbird feeder at a garden center. Good to know that the millet-eater is probably a chickadee – I know so little about birds, as yet. I hope to learn more here.

    God bless!

  18. AnAmericanMother says:

    M.D.R., Wanda –

    Another vote for the plastic cup thingy. It’s called an “Ant Moat”, and if you put a carabiner or spring clip on the top loop, you can slide it onto a shepherd’s hook feeder stand or clip it into a ring without spilling all the soapy water. Just a drop or two of dish detergent in the ant moat breaks the surface tension and drowns the ants if they try to cross.

    We have three female Rubythroats who frequent our feeder (have no idea where the boys are). Yesterday afternoon we were out replenishing the feeder (I bring it in and sterilize it with boiling water each time we refill) and the ladies were dive bombing us insisting that we hurry up with the dinner “I shall complain to the management”. They sound far too much like giant bees for comfort.

  19. wanda says:

    I was really tickled this season to finally be able to keep the ants out of the nectar feeder.
    We have it hanging as you describe on a shepherd’s hook, using an old shower curtain hook. the old metal ones that clip closed. Success.

    I’ve been seeing two female hummingbirds, I don’t know where the boys are either! Maybe they’re watching baseball or pre-season football games.

    Happy bird-watching and bird-feeding.

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