Post what birds are outside your window today! I have a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cowbirds, Cardinals, Chickadee's, Tufted titmouse's, a Red headed woodpecker, chipping sparrows and an eastern towhee so far today...
Nothing RIGHT now (it's raining outside), but our usual suspects right now are (not my pics): Blue Jays: Northern Cardinal: American Crow: And the malcontent of the bunch, Common Grackles: Nothing terribly exotic. We usually have more English Sparrows (ugh), American Goldfinches and the occasional Purple Finch but we've not been refilling the feeders lately. Though one day I was very surprised to see one of these perched on our deck. Yup, was only 15 feet from a Peregrine Falcon. I SO wish I got to my camera in time to take that pic. THAT is a graceful flyer.
That's cool about the hawk! I've had one land in the yard and stare me down before... I wish I had that pic too.. The best bird I had this year on my checklist is a Pileated Woodpecker.. It landed in a large oak and decided it would peck around for some food... it stayed about a week and then moved on..
There are always 4 species that can ALWAYS be counted on to be in the tree outside my window - willy wagtails, mudlarks, white-plumed honeyeaters and laughing turtledoves. Australian ravens, galahs, singing honeyeaters, magpies, Australian swifts, black-faced cuckoo shrikes, nankeen kestrels, crested pidgeons, sacred kingfishers, currowongs and even black-winged kites also may occasionally be seen at or around my place. It's quite out of the ordinary to see any of these birds (besides swifts, ravens, currowongs, galahs and cuckoo-shrikes), but they have indeed been around here in the past. Here's a few that I've photographed - Willie-wagtail. Mudlark Laughing turtledoves Currowong Galahs And finally... one that I just uploaded to tinypic, which for whatever reason only let's me post ridiculously gigantic images. So here's a link instead - it's a white-plumed honey-eater drinking (eating?) out of a gruevillia flower http://oi53.tinypic.com/mvln9d.jpg My favourite bird, hands down.
Awesome Photo's! The turtledoves look like the pigeons I get around here but with skinnier beaks. I wish I had mudlarks around here. The picture makes it seem like a very bold and determined bird. I bet it has a loud brash call.
Nice pictures everybody. Around my house I usually see (not my pictures) Zebra doves: these are everywhere Mynah Shama thrush: really nice songs Majiro Kolea: usually only during winter Chinese robin Get a lot more birds like bulbuls, egrets, amakihi, red-crested cardinals, ae'o, common waxbills, java finches, java sparrows...birds are everywhere around here.
You'd be absolutely correct in that bet! It's a sort of metallic scream, a little bit like that stereotypical 'eagle scream'. They're incredibly resourceful birds, they seem to be able to find food anywhere... and here's something really cool, that's only started happening within the past few years apparently. Mudlarks have started building their nests (made of mud, hence the name!) on top of lamp-posts... the heat from the light keeps the nest warm, and the light attracts insects. I thought this was incredibly clever when I first saw one of these nests, gave me much respect for these birds. Another thing they're very clever about is ALWAYS showing up in abundance on the lawn after the sprinkler has been on - the water draws out the insects, which the mudlarks leisurely pick through. Their very strong sense of territory leads them to stupidity occasionally though - the best example would be the fairly common sight of a mudlark flying into a window repeatedly, trying to deter the 'invader' (its' reflection) from the territory. I've seen some spectacular chases though, where the defending mudlark and invading mudlark race through the sky in high-speed chase... They're also very playful. My dog loves to try and catch them, and they often play along. He'll charge at one, and like a matador with a bull the mudlark will fly up in the air at the last second... and usually land just out of reach but near to the dog, on the clothesline for example. Then, as soon as the dog is looking elsewhere, the mudlark'll fly quietely back to the ground. They're very bold, with humans also - I was lying on the lawn reading a book once, and a mudlark came within 10 cm or so of me, casually strolling by without a worry in the world. I even fed one a piece of cheese once when one approached me while eating a sandwich... Not to derail the thread further, but because I see them so often I'm forever taking pictures of them... here are some of the best - http://oi53.tinypic.com/qpqdc7.jpg This is a father and child. The male is the one with the pure black breast and white 'eyebrows', while his youngster (as if it weren't obvious by it shrieking for food!) is the one with the white 'bib' under the chin AND white eyebrows. A female has a white bib with no eyebrows, a male has no bib with eyebrows, and the babies have both... in addition to the eye of an adult being white/blue and the babies eyes being brown/black http://oi53.tinypic.com/2n6vn91.jpg As you can see, a female with her two babies, right about to feed a catepillar to one of them. This is the normal amount of offspring, so far as I can see... both parents share duties in building the nest and raising the young, and I'm fairly sure that they mate for life - or, more to the point, are tied to their territories and mate according to who is in the territory, which is more-often-than-not their mate from last year etc. On the topic of breeding, they breed whenever they can with no real 'breeding season', which means that the little bastards are practically everywhere! http://oi55.tinypic.com/2cwlzz4.jpg Baby at the bird-bath, captured while in some strange position... And that's mudlarks, hope you found them as cool as I do
Oh, what have I seen today... Lots of crows Lots of turkey cultures a couple of blue jays rock doves (pigeons) and more types of finches than you can shake a stick at
Thought I'd share some photos of the Rainbow Bee Eater, a splendid looking bird that I flew into my backyard today! This is a bird that migrates here once every Spring for a day or two, then continues down south. They can eat 300 bees a day apparently, and fly in a manner I've never seen before - a combination of wheeling in big semi-circles, tumbling and 'flitting' like a butterfly, it looks quite bizaare when they fly. http://oi54.tinypic.com/14k9us2.jpg Note the plume thing on the tail, that I actually didn't note myself until looking at the picture http://oi52.tinypic.com/9j0vt2.jpg I'm not entirely sure why the big, curved beak is useful for. Or the plume, or the colours... my one idea about the colours was that they might make the birds chest look a bit 'flowery' to a bee, bees being attracted to colourful flowers and such. This would draw the bees closer to it, as might the ridiculous way it flies... http://oi55.tinypic.com/28as2zd.jpg Two of them toghether. They flocked in a group of 20 or more, but were spread out across the span of a few houses. http://oi54.tinypic.com/dzfm7c.jpg A laughing turtledove and two of the Rainbow Bee Eaters. I like this photo