Anybody Seen My Focus?: Bird

Showing posts with label Bird. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2015

White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis): Back Again!

January 12th, 2015. The White-Breasted Nuthatches were latecomers to the log feeder last winter; we didn’t see them until February. Last weekend, I spotted two of them on the trunk of a tree some distance from the feeders. And then one of them came directly to the tree near the log feeder and then to the feeder itself. It stayed for only a minute or so and then was gone. However, at least one of them has returned several times. They are similar to Carolina Chickadees but their colors are ‘sharper’ and they make their way down the trunks of trees head-first.

These are photos that I took last winter. I had to sit for hours for them to come to the feeder and then hope they would pose.

- At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)

October 12th, 2014. Adult male and female Evening Grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus) arrived at our bird feeders at the end of April.

The male was shy and would land in the branches of a tree near the platform feeder. He came to the platform feeder a few times and then disappeared.

The female wasn’t as shy and came to the sunflower tube feeder several times a day for almost two weeks.

We are a little south of their breeding range so they were migrating north at the time.

Then, on October 12^th, we saw two young males, one at the sunflower feeder and…

another at the platform feeder.

They stayed around for a couple of days and then were gone, migrating south to the Caribbean or Central/South America. It’s a little sad that they aren’t resident here but it was nice to see them on their way through.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

At The Feeders: Daylight Robbery

The Victim:

I really felt for this little warbler – a breeding male Yellow-rumped “Myrtle” Warbler that was feeding at one of our log feeders. It’s not too cold – about 53F – but windy; it was blowing at about 24 mph. He’s a chunky little fellow and it’s not easy for him to hold onto the feeder log. But he had grabbed a mouthful of peanut butter/vegetable fat/seed mix…

The Scene of the Crime:

and had just returned to a nearbly branch. He deposited the chunck of food on the branch and was about to eat it when the Hermit Thrush grabbed it and gobbled it down.

The Accused:

Who, me?

Yes, you – I saw you. The warbler wasn’t pressing charges;…

he had already flown back to the log feeder.

The thrush, a little later, back to get food honestly. In defense of the thrush, it has great difficulty holding onto the log to feed. It usually has to hover at the log and grab food ‘on the fly,’ literally. The opportunity to grab some food off a branch was just too tempting.

Identification resource:

All About Birds: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

National Geographic: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)

Sunday, March 23, 2014

At The Feeders: Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla)

March 23rd, 2014. We installed a tube feeders (one with mixed seed and one with sunflower seed), a platform feeder and two log feeders in mid-December, 2013.

We saw the first Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusalla) on January 22nd this year and feeds only at the tube feeder filled only with sunflower seeds. It may have been coming earlier but usually doesn’t spend much time at the feeder unless there are few birds at that feeder. I’ve read reports of these nuthatches staying at a feeder unless they have to leave but ‘ours’ are quite shy and leave at the slightest disturbance.

It’s a small bird (3.9 to4.3 inches), small compared with the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) which is 5.1 to 5.5 inches long.

Perched at the feeder.

Fetching a seed.

Seed in beak, deciding whether to eat in or leave.

Perched on a nearby branch – a rare sight. I only saw a nuthatch perched on a branch near the feeders on one occasion. They usually grab a sunflower seed ‘to go’ but will ‘eat in’ if it’s quiet. A favorite spot to hull their seed is in the crook of a branch on a nearby pine tree.

We saw at least two Brown-headed Nuthatches this year. They are resident in this area and their distribution is limited to the Southeastern U.S.

Identification resource:

All About Birds: Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla)

- At The Feeders: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus/Carpodacus purpureus*)

- At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

- At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*)

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)

- At The Feeder: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

- Birds In An Ice Storm

- American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds

Friday, March 21, 2014

At The Feeders: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus/Carpodacus purpureus*)

March 21st, 2014. We installed a tube feeders (one with mixed seed and one with sunflower seed), a platform feeder and two log feeders in mid-December, 2013.

We saw the first Purple Finches on January 4^th this year. We usually see Purple Finches during the Winter. They feed only at the tube feeder filled only with sunflower seeds…

where they routinely fed with the American Goldfinches.

They ‘eat in,’ sitting at the feeder and discarding the seed hulls.

The Purple Finch is one of two species of finch with red coloring that occur in this area; the other is the House Finch (Haemorhous/Carpodacus mexicanus). The House Finch is resident year-round; the Purple Finch winters in this area and flies north to breed. These species may be confused; a reference web page for differentiating between the two species may be found here.

We saw at least two Purple finches this year based on seeing them on the feeder at the same time. In previous years, we’ve often seen more than two. The last date we sighted a Purple Finch at the feeder was on March 4^th; they must have started moving north for the Summer. Interestingly, we have never seen a House Finch at our feeders.

Identification resource:

All About Birds: Purple Finch (Haemorhous purpureus)

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS): Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)

- At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

- At The Feeders: Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus/Dendroica pinus*)

- At The Feeders: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)

- At The Feeders: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

- At The Feeders: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

- At The Feeders: Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata/Dendroica coronata*)

- At The Feeders: Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)

- At The Feeders: Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

- At The Feeders: Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

- Birds In An Ice Storm

- American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

- Snow Day And Hungry Birds

Thursday, March 20, 2014

At The Feeders: White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

March 20th, 2014. We installed a couple of log feeders in mid-December, 2013. Our inspiration came from a log feeder at the Ontario FeederWatch Cam sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that was visited regularly by a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).

Within a day or so of installation, Downy Woodpeckers (Picoides pubescens) began to feed at these logs and, within a few days, other birds began to investigate the logs. The White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) was the last of the ‘exotic’ birds - birds we don't see often - that I spotted at the feeders this year - on February 11^th.

I spotted it first on the trunk of a tree immediately behind the log feeders, darted onto a log feeder upside-down, grabbed a mouthful of food ‘to go’ and disappeared. I’ve seen two birds at the same time – on a tree further into the woods but only one has visited the log feeder at any one time. It has only fed at the log feeders, never at the suet feeder attached to the platform feeder or at the tube seed feeders. It’s appeared at irregular intervals since and is one of the hardest birds to photograph because its appearance is so unpredictable. But it’s a very striking bird and worth the effort to photograph.

A closer view.

If spotted, they can be identified at a distance in their characteristic upside-down pose.

At a glance, the White-breasted Nuthatch looks like a…

Carolina Chickadee but there are several differences. The chicadee has a black ‘bib’ that is lacking in the nuthatch. The nuthatch is also larger – 5 to 5.5 inches long – compared with the chicadee that is 3.9–4.7 inches long.

The nuthatch tends to creep down or perch on tree trunks upside-down whereas the chickadee flies in, and perches on branches but doesn't creep up or down tree trunks.