While the nighttime snow wasn't much, the thick coating made for a pretty bright morning in the sunshine. The birds came late today, but I don't blame them with the windy cold! First up, the Dark-eyed Juncos. While they are aplenty and perhaps not as showy as many other birds, their contented and calm disposition give a nice overall flavor to the feeding area.
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| A female Dark-eyed Junco saying "hello" to the sunny morning |
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| Ahh! |
This fellow is resourceful with just a few drops of melting ice!
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| Pretty House Finch in the snow |
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| Well-fed birds at this feeder! |
A first at the feeder since I've been watching was a House Finch. While
quite a beautiful little bird, they are sometimes considered pests as
they are susceptible to chronic infections, possibly affecting other
birds at the feeder
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| What a face! |
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| Reaching for a bit of water. Thank the sun for helping the birds with this! |
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| Snacking on a sunflower seed, this little sparrow looks happy! |
The White-throated Sparrow was busy this morning, and while they
frequented the deck last weekend, this is the first that I was able to
get some nice shots them. The pretty markings, especially the yellow
around the beak (called yellow lores), make it an enjoyable bird to watch.
From the Cornell Ornithology website: "Although they look nothing alike and aren’t particularly closely
related, the White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco occasionally
mate and produce hybrids. The resulting offspring look like grayish,
dully marked White-throated Sparrows with white outer tail feathers." I wonder if I'll see any hybrids of these two wonderful birds!
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Today the female Downy Woodpecker visited
the suet feeder. She was back for seconds a bit
later. Love the black/white pattern on her plumage!
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| Perhaps her first time here? She sure seems to be checking things out! |
An interesting fact from the Cornell Ornithology website: "In winter, Downy Woodpeckers are frequent members of mixed species
flocks. Advantages of flocking include having to spend less time
watching out for predators and better luck finding food from having
other birds around."
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| Nothing like a suet breakfast for a hungry Woodpecker! |
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The elusive Black-capped Carolina Chickadee finally gave in to my getting some decent shots. This particular bird, as noted in my description, can be a tricky bird to identify. Both the Carolina and Black-capped varieties have distinct ranges in this Eastern zone, of which my backyard is pretty much on the line! I still am not confident in my identification, even with online sites having much information on this conundrum of differentiating the two lookalike birds!
And to complicate matters further, the species have been known to hybridize in the overlap zone!
Nonetheless, both birds are truly cuties. I hope to get the chance to see more of these feathered friends at my feeder!
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| Carolina? Black-capped? Both equally cute as a cucumber. |
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| I wish this pretty Chickadee had been just a bit more in focus! |
