Well, we are still at it and today I have pictures of some of the different kinds of birds we've had this fall and winter.
First is a picture of a Downy Woodpecker. He is the one on the suet feeder. You can't see it in this picture, but he has a little bit of red on the back of his head.
Next, a picture of some Gold Finches. They usually travel in large flocks. In the spring, the males turn a bright yellow and are just gorgeous with those contrasting black and white feathers on their wings.
A supply of water is also much needed in the winter. In the following picture a couple of Bluebirds are enjoying a bath on a mild day. Bluebirds prefer insects and do not frequent our seed feeders. They do, however, enjoy fruits of various wild plants when insects are scarce in the winter months. Some preferred winter food sources include wild grape, dogwood, hawthorn, sumac, and hackberry seeds. They will also eat the fruits of Virginia creeper, honeysuckle, eastern red cedar and pokeberries. In fact, the availability of a winter food source will often determine whether or not Bluebires migrate.
We also have crows and doves that come to eat the corn Tom puts out for the deer. Below are some of the crows, they are very large birds and very smart.
One time we had a large flock of black birds come visit us. The tell-tale long tails indicate most of these are common Grackles. We've had a few Red-winged Blackbirds, too, but I don't have pictures of those.
Finally, during the fall we had a flock of Painted Waxwings visit us for a few days. I was delighted to have them because they are some of my favorite birds. They travel in flocks and announce their presence with high-pitched sort of "hissy" whistles. These whistles are what first called my attention to this flock high in one of our trees.
Some of them visited our birdbath. The following picture shows a couple of waxwings along with a gold finch. The waxwings are the ones with the black stripe above their eyes. It looks like they are wearing mascara! The term "waxwing" comes from the fact that they have bright red tips on the ends of their wing feathers that look like they have been dipped in wax. The red wing tips on these birds are hidden by the lip of the birdbath.
The following site is great for identifying birds. It also has recordings to show you what the birds sound like. Here's the information for Cedar Waxwings found on the site.
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