Bird Watching Club

I'm so excited that you started this thread!  You can tell me more about the birds I see!  I just nailed down recently that red-bellied woodpeckers have made a home in my garden!  It took me so long to figure that out!  I also have cardinals and robins and hummingbirds, of course, and who knows what!  I'm in!

Natalie-this could be fun.I do some birding. Where i live in California, we get lots of migratory birds as well as many that stay year round. The only rail I've seen is a Virgina Rail, it was a fun find. About a year ago we had a Lewis Woodpecker frequenting a park where I run, another cool bird. We also had a Redhead duck. Since I live on the edge of civilization, we get the large birds of prey; hawks, owls, p falcons. The only wren I've ever seen is a Canyon Wren. I often take pictures of birds & enlarge them on the computer to help me identify them. I'll post some but first I have to figure out how.........

Snowy Owls!!!!!!! I'm so jealous......

DH and I are crazy birders! Can't even walk the dog without the binoculars.  We live northern near coastal NJ which is in an amazing migratory corridor.  I transformed my entire backyard (well, it's only 50x50 feet) into a native NJ forest understory with easter red cedar, mulberry, black cherry, native honeysuckle, bee balm, coneflowers, cardinal flowers, on and on and on....so I get a lot of birds in for fruit and nectar but also bugs -some of the most interesting bugs I've ever seen (the ones that are supposed to be in this habitat). But we go out to all the various forests, grasslands, and wetlands too.  This past weekend we had a "first" - we were watching yellow-crownded kinglets flit about in a thicket at a local swamp and just sitting in there was a saw-whet owl!!  Fantastic!

OK - I'll sign up. I live in the country NW of Ft. Worth but must confess I don't know much about the birds that visit. I have Harris sparrows, some kind of wren, English sparrows (isn't that the usual variety?), cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, titmice (or it is titmouses?), goldfinches, doves, crows, blackbirds by the 100s on some days that come in the yard. Have great horned owls, red tailed hawks, buzzards, woodpeckers, flickers, meadowlarks I think, roadrunners, scissor tailed flycatchers that visit. Great blue herons are around visiting stock tanks. Sure there are more I'm forgetting. Love to learn about them. There is a bird walk at a local state park and a good nature preserve close by. Need to sign up for something. Hi Nancy.

Hi luv, nice to "see" you here.



Our winter birds are primarily titmice, bluejays, cardinals, juncos, goldfincHes, the occasional pine siskin, house finches, purple finches, 5 woodpecker varieties, bluebirds, Carolina wrens and the usual nuisance birds such as house sparrows and starlings (non native). They have seriously impacted our bluebird population.



These are just what I see at our feeders. We have a variety of hawks and raptors that we see regularly often in the yard. In fact one day a peregrine falcon snatched a house sparrow on our deck and crashed into the glass door right in front of us. The sparrow was toast, but the falcon was unhurt. We also get a number of native sparrows in the winter (white throated and song e.g.), 2 kinds of nuthatches and chickadees.



Geez, that's a lot. No wonder our birdseed bill is outrageous.

coraleliz, good choice on resizing! If you keep it at no more than 500 pixels wide, the pictures will fit nicely in how most members view the boards.

• The Mods

Natalie, I'm surprised you haven't attracted any. Around here it seems wherever there's a chickadee, you'll see a titmouse.

Luv, we have bats that roost in our patio umbrella when it's down. My DDIL nearly wet her pants one afternoon when one flew out while we were raising the umbrella lol! She's a city girl ;-)

Luv, I know what you mean about the bluebird houses. We used to get three bluebird nestings a season in our 4 boxes. Now we're lucky if we get one because of the house sparrows. I did some research and tried various methods to discourage them but apparently the only real solution is to kill the male because it "bonds" with the house and will just keep coming back. I hate them, but can't bring myself to do that so I've given up on them too. We still have bluebirds, but not in any of our boxes.

Yeah, Nancy, my DH did in a few male sparrows till he said he was not doing that anymore. If I wanted bluebirds that badly I could bash the males and squeamish me is NOT doing that. I see a sparrow every now and then in it. I guess I should clean it out so something can live in it. I see bluebirds along the fence and on the power line and know they nest somewhere. Like I said trees are not in short supply around here.  Water not much of a problem as everyone nearly has stock tanks.

Still can't think of that bird. May have to get my Petersons bird book down.

We have a pair of catbirds right now. They don't come to a feeder but do like our water baths. And they eat the purple berries off of the Indian hawthorn bushes.



Our big problem right now is with robins. They descend in huge flocks and eat the berries off of the palm trees. Then deposit purple droppings all over the patios, furniture, even the walls of the house! I made the mistake of hosing everything off yesterday and that just attracted more robins to the water puddles. Love to see the solitary robin when we are up north but these flocks make a mess!

I saw two Sandhills cranes on my way home from the mall today. No babies yet



Catbirds are a dusky dark grey-black with a red patch on their rump which is hard to see. They are about the size of a small mockingbird. Usually you hear them more than see them and they sound just like a cat mewing. They seem to me to be non-aggressive and will share the birdbath with a Carolina wren.

Just found this thread. Love watching birds. As you may see, the little Chickadee is a fave.



We've been in really bad drought conditions for three years now and the bird variety has really dropped. Right now my feeders attract sparrows, doves, a cardinal pair,and of course my chickadees. The Titmice have been sparse this year but they do seem to be around when the chickadees are



I have a favorite website for identifying birds. It's called Whatbird.com. There is a forum for posting pics and getting help with identifying the birds.

Hi, all. Also an avid bird watcher (thanks to my dad) and love this thread. Am spending a lot of time learning to garden for birds as I need to limit feeding to suet (except for my hummingbird and oriole feeders in spring and summer) due to the pigeon problem in the area. I get a nice variety of birds throughout the year, especially during migration. My favorite staples are a family of curve billed thrashers who have made my yard their year-round guest home for several years. They love peanuts in the shell (which I can find at Costco, unsalted, for a lot cheaper than at a bird store). Spring and summer are my favorite as my orioles, hummingbirds, and robins also move in and spend a lot of time for several months. I also have a Coopers hawk that visits every three months or so. Have managed to get some awesome pictures of him that I'll try to post later.



Spent Christmas in Seattle with my sister and her family and envied her bird/squirrel haven but have to keep in mind the vastly different climates we live in.

Am really enjoying your encounters and looking forward to hearing more about your birding!

Hi YSA, as much as I hate house sparrows and starlings, I would REALLY hate pigeons. We have thrashers too, and along with the mockingbirds and catbirds, I love listening to them mimicking other birds songs.



There is a flyway and bird sanctuary near the Mississippi river where my dad lives and my husband and I recently saw large flocks of trumpeter swans. That was very cool.