Any birdwatchers on DL?

It's a way of getting my mind off my troubles by paying close attention to nature. Getting out into the woods and stalking the wildlife takes tremendous concentration on the natural world, which resets something in the brain and mitigates the effect of my high-stress job.

Also, it's a way to go on small quests! Taking a long weekend to go to Big Sur too look for California Condors is more fun than just going to Big Sur to hang out.

Great insights, r1 ; thanks!

Any suggestions for a novice birder?

I'm a novice birdwatcher as well. I guess what fascinates me is that there are so many kinds, some more beautiful than others, some more rare than others. Each kind with a specific behaviour. I also like butterflys and dragonflys.

As R1 said it provides a good reason for going out into nature, but it's also soothing just to watch birds from the living room window.

[quote]Any suggestions for a novice birder?

Try to find a purple Martin early in the morning. It’s divine.

My suggestions for a novice birder, R2? My primary suggestion is just get outside and look around! Go to your local hiking trails and hike, take your binoculars and camera along and see what you see, and maybe try to puzzle out things you saw and didn't understand when you get home.

The worst that can happen is that you get some exercise.

Thanks R5

Then I find this ...

Me. I love my hummingbirds. They make me so utterly happy. Yes, I know...MARY!

In a world in which 90% of the population is glued to their electronic devices, birdwatching holds a certain appeal.

The hermit thrush, like most members of the thrush family, has a hauntingly beautiful song.

Thanks for that, r9! I’ve heard that song but have never been able to identify it.

No problem, r10! It's almost ethereal.

One of my favourite songs is that of the Western Meadowlark. I used to hear this when I first woke in the morning. I took it for granted at the time. The prairie land near our house was later "developed".

The White-throated sparrow is a sweet little bird.

Check out this guy's YouTube channel - great bird and nature videos!

Beautiful r12/r13

[quote] If so, can you explain what drew you to the hobby and what about it appeals to you

No. I can’t.

I still have white throated sparrows. They stick around til the end of May. Last week I had tons of juncos, but it wasn’t because it was going to snow. They were tanking up for the migration back up north and into mountains to the west. They’re usually gone by the end of Tax Week.

I like the song and plumage of birds, but mostly I like the fact that they are dinosaurs.

I never liked barn owls, but this video is rather haunting

Starlings are trying to get into my house via the roof. I hear the:in the morning but when I go outside to see where they are, they disappear. They’re abominable birds when it comes to getting into houses. They’re very good at it

Incoming!

I REALLY dislike starlings, r19, mainly because they're invasive and compete with native species for food/nesting sites.

OP, do you live in an urban area in the East? If you do, one of the best places for birding is in an old, large, garden cemetery. In NYC, you should try Green-Wood in Brooklyn. It’s still an active cemetery, so you have to be respectful, but it is essentially an arboretum in the middle of New York, with much fewer people than, say, Central Park, so more wildlife.

At the link is Mt. Auburn near Boston. It was the first “Garden Cemetery” in the US. It’s very quiet and peaceful. Today, they actually have a wedding coordinator at the cemetery because of the interest. This is from Wikipedia:

[quote] The cemetery is nondenominational and continues to make space available for new plots. The area is well known for its beautiful environs and is a favorite location for bird-watchers; over 220 species of birds have been observed at the cemetery since 1958. Guided tours of the cemetery's historic, artistic, and horticultural points of interest are available...Mount Auburn's collection of over 5,500 trees includes nearly 700 species and varieties.

The male pheasant who spent the winter in my yard eating my birdseed is gone. I hope he went back to the fields to mate. He came here to get away from the hunters. Interesting bird. More friendly than my guinea fowl, and smarter, of course. Doesn’t take much to be smarter than a guinea fowl. But guineas are endearing with their clowny faces.

Last spring I heard a bird singing on a rooftop at a nearby apartment not a high rise . . He was singing a full hour . So beautiful . It was a blackbird .

Drink your tea is here! Every year in spring and fall I get an Eastern towhee (formerly called the rufous side towhee) for a few weeks. I always forget their name and call them “drink your tea” or “dweet,” which are the sounds they make

This one shows the first bird singing “drink your tea” in the beginning and the second bird does the “dweet” call (or “doo weet.”)

Yep, been a birdwatcher longer than I care to admit. I like the connection to nature that it gives me. Also, when I’m traveling I get to look for birds that don’t live in my area. When I was a kid I had corvids- magpies and crows as pets. Those birds thought they were little humans with wings. Their intelligence really gave me an appreciation for all animals, but birds are still my favorite.

R19 When I get up to perform my ablutions in my bathroom I can hear the starlings - they've infiltrated the area around the exhaust. The Wikipedia article reports that they migrate south for the winter but I know that they around all year no matter how cold it gets. I curse the guy that introduced them to North America. He had the stupid idea to introduce every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare. Their numbers are declining in Britain so maybe there is hope for North America.

After I stoped feeding my Blue Jays, (neighbor complained), they came around squawking outside. When that didn’t work, one of the tapped quite diligently on the window.

Can’t find the video right now.

We call them ‘twitchers’ where I’m from.

r29 I used to dislike blue jays, but now I find them fascinating. One of my favorite species.

Is that an indigo bunting, op?

Blue jays make a lot of sounds. They’re good at imitating hawk screeches. All the other birds at the feeder hear the sound of the “hawk” and take off, leaving all the seeds to the blue jays. In late summer and early fall, you can hear juvenile blue jays experimenting with their voices. They somet8 s sound like theyre talking to themselves.

Yes r32 -- one of my favorites, although I haven't seen one since youth

I live in an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles and from my balcony I can see hawks, mourning doves, blackbirds, seagulls, different kinds of wrens. I have my hummingbirds of course - two small feeders - And dragonflies.

I’m not sure if they are Cooper’s Hawk’s or California red tail hawks but they come right down into the courtyard after pigeons and toddlers and such.

I don’t even have to leave my balcony! Just now there are two rather upset (and enormous) blackbirds divebombing one another and I don’t know what their deal is.

Remarkable marvels of nature

Ive told this story before. It was the night before Halloween a few years ago and I put orange icicle lights on my porch. I walked into the yard so I could see how the porch looked and I saw a little orange ball in my front yard tree. I walked to the tree and realized it was a little eastern screech Owl. The orange lights were being reflected from its white belly feathers. I wondered how many times that little owl had been sitting in the tree and I just walked right past, never seeing it before. It sat for a while and I tried to take its picture but it was just too dark - I couldn’t see out the viewfinder. He flew off after being annoyed by my flash. It was just a lil juvenile, so cute.

Another time I heard a weird sound in my neighborhood at night in early fall. Like a kitten that was hurt. I walked around and found it - a little short eared Owl. I read up on them and apparently the parents teach them how to catch food, then fly off and leave them alone. The birds sometimes cry for their parents. That’s what this one was doing, just sitting up in a tree crying.

I get great horned owls a lot in my housing development. We’re surrounded by fields, so the owls like to hang out in the neighborhood trees at night. They do sound spooky. I’m not fond of them because they eat birds, rabbits and small pets. I have guinea fowl who sleep in my trees, so I chase them off my property.

Eastern screech owls can sound like a screaming woman. They can also sound like horses neighing and can make a whirring sound. Unfortunately a heavy snowfall took down the lower branches of my front yard tree, so I’ve never been able to see the little screech owl in the teee again. But I heard it this past Halloween as I was putting lights on my privet hedge.

Here’s a screech owl. It makes the scream sound, then the whir, then the whinny

Thanks for the Blue Bunting.

They’re cute, sing well and you can collect them like Pokémon. I’m always thrilled to spot a lifer.

Painted Bunting

I live in Texas at the northwestern tip of the Gulf under a busy Flyway. My backyard is large, 2/3 filled with trees and the 1/3 cleared. Since I bought the house 6 years ago and began feeding birds year 'round, some are using it as a resting/meeting place after traversing the Gulf. They usually stay a couple of weeks, then head north to final destinations.

In March there was a hummingbird pair. Now, the Indigo Buntings have been arriving a few at a time, and as of yesterday, 12 males and some accompanying females were feeding on my deck. They are early. Last year's group of 30 didn't arrive until April 20. I also get a few Painted Buntings, Grosbeaks and others.

Typical of those that stay the year are the Northern Cardinals, Bluejays, Doves, Mockingbirds, Robins, Sparrows and Finches. 12 of the Doves homestead here and the group swells to 60 in the summer. Also around the neighborhood are two species of Woodpeckers and Owls. One Great-Horned Owl was pushed from its nest as a baby. I found it injured, brought it back to health and he called my deck home for 2 years until he died from a virus.

When I was younger, I used to breed finches indoors. Besides many of the Australian species, I also bred several wild-caught African finches.

Here’s a plain Robin. He happened by earlier this week.

I meant “common”, not “plain”, at R42. He came by again to show off, once he heard he was on DataLounge.

I know these Robins are common, but he’s right in front of my camera! I don’t seem to get any exotic birds. I’ll have to settle for common birds, acting-up.

I love robins.

I rarely see them on the radio, but here they are.

Please explain, R45. Ty.

Don't birds fly in through your open windows, land on your radio, and tweet along to the music playing?

OP, do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near? That happens to me all the time.

Fascinating

The veery thrush has a haunting song as well.

Brown headed cowbirds are reared by other birds, since they’re nest parasites, but when they reach adulthood, they join other groups of cowbirds. They don’t grow up to think they’re adult finches.

I like hearing the song I’d white throated sparrows on warm winter days. They’ll be leaving soon. They stay here til about mid May.

I hear a black-winged blackbird every morning.

^^^ red-winged blackbird

Haha, thanks r54

The jays like peanuts -- best roasted or raw?

R18 The barn owl in that video really does remind me of a ghost. Never noticed that before.

I'm planning a trip to Churchill, Canada, to watch. I'm hoping for sightings of Gyrfalcons, tundra swans, Snowy owls and Harlequin ducks.

I would love to see a snowy owl, r58

I've seen one before, but I didn't have a good view of it. Fingers crossed that I'll come across one in the north.

I just watched an episode of grackle “love” take place in my backyard.

I’ve already got grackle fledglings in my yard. They return in late Feb/first week of March and start nesting immediately.

I love these little owlets

Officers, life doesn't have to be ugly. See, look at the birds out there. Listen to their call.

R56, I give mine plain unsalted peanuts in the shell. They don’t always recognize unshelled peanuts.

I'm going to the Texas gulf coast next week, to relieve job-related stress by birdwatching. I plan to see roseate spoonbills and purple gallinues, among others!

There have been reports of Whooping Cranes in the area where I'll be. Any advice or cautions re seeing them?

Varied thrush - the Twin Peaks bird.

This sounds fascinating. I have always wanted to get close and personal with nature. This cutie is next on my list.

Chickadee ♥️

Bald eagle nest.

Puffins!

I’m so jealous of the people who have seen and recorded these beautiful birds!

I once awoke to this bizarre screeching outside my window. It was a hawk in a tree. Just feet away. I took some poor pictures before it flew off. Now, even the tree is gone. But that’s about it. I live in the city so must make due with mostly common birds.

[quote] R67: There have been reports of Whooping Cranes in the area where I'll be. Any advice or cautions re seeing them?

Make sure you get vaccinated first!

I love loons.

These little guys have been visiting my feeders recently. Spring is really here!

Chauncey the Cardinal pays a visit.

[quote] These little guys have been visiting my feeders recently. Spring is really here

Some of them were probably at your feeder all winter. They were just a different color

Better pic

omg, Downy Woodpecker in distress!

Wtf is r80

That’s a very lucky kookaburra @ R80.

It won't play for me

Ich bin gut zu vögeln.

How a play on words, R84? My vague high school German translants that as "I am good to birds".

I think vögeln means "fuck" colloquially r85

Vögel = birds, you've got that one right, R85.

'good to birds' = 'gut zu Vögeln'.

However, write 'Vögeln' without the initial capital letter and the word turns into a verb, meaning 'to fuck'

"I am good to fucks"?

I am nice / good to birds

vs

I am a great fuck

I saw a Northern Mockingbird this evening

Our neighborhood mockingbird imitates car alarms and squirrels. At 3 in the morning, but I don't mind.

I know they're common, but I just love chickadees.

I have mockingbirds, catbirds (handsome birds and make almost as many sounds as mockingbirds), blue jays, cardinals, grackles, RWBB, juncos, white throated sparrows, robins, Carolina wrens and song sparrows in my yard. I’m hearing RWBBs give an alarm call right now, which means there’s a hawk somewhere. The grackles and jays will join in the melee to chase the hawk away.

I heard a veery this morning!

Downy Woodpecker pays a visit with his pal who’s having trouble sliding down that staff.

I’ve been birding for over 20 years. It is a great way to get outside and hike with a purpose.

I learned to bird with a multi-pronged approach. I studied field guides and listened to bird call recordings. I joined field trips sponsored by my local Audubon chapter. I found others to bird in small groups. Most importantly I go out and bird by myself and figure out what I see. I also keep lists of what I see and where. We are hooked up on Internet so I can find out what others are seeing and go chase rare birds. Many states have similar web sites or list servers. Google it.

My first parakeet, on my deck today.

R97, I didn't know they had budgerigars in New England! Maybe you can coax him indoors before winter arrives. I don't think (I don't know, honestly), if they can survive a Northern winter. My uncle used to keep them, and always taught them to perch on his shoulder when he fed them.

That’s an escapee pet, R97. Try putting seed and water inside a bird cage and see if it goes in there to sleep, close the door of the cage. It will die when weather gets cold.

The only wild parakeets that far north are the monk parakeets.

Pretty bird must be an escapee.

I have a loud canary winged parakeet as a pet. She has the run of the house when I’m home. One of the neighborhood mockingbirds now imitates her so I think she’s escaped and flown up into our tulip polar. I talk to all the birds because I’m so used to talking to my parrot. The crows caw back and forth with me.

Whenever I travel I learn about the local birds and go out to find them.

Lady has instructions to catch budgie.

Prop a cardboard box on a stick with a long string tied to it. Put food under the box (close to the part that touches the ground) and wait for birdie to come and eat it. Pull string. Box falls. Slip newspaper or something stiff under box and take birdie inside to get hold of him. This has worked for me heaps of times, especially with pigeons and budgies.

Put out a spare cage with food and water in a high, visible spot. Wait for birdie to come and eat, then shut the cage door.

This is one time when those horrendous tiny cockatoo cages are very useful. If you place the cage on its side so that the door can be propped open in the upward position and fall downward, you've got the best chance of success. Tie a bit of string to the door so that you can pull on it from a distance to shut the cage. Of course, you need to ensure the subject isn't small enough to get out between the cage bars. I have such a cage covered in chicken wire for exactly this purpose.

A butterfly net is a most useful tool to have when you're in the business of birds! Mine is homemade from a fishing net and some terylene curtain material I got cheap from somewhere. Yes, it was originally to catch insects for my entomology course, but it's been used as a dipnet and an animal-catcher ever since. I've caught over a dozen birds in that net and it's worth its weight in gold!

If you can open a door or window, play budgie sounds he might fly in

R101, Crows recognize individual humans. Always be kind and gentle with them, and never do anything to upset or anger them: they will remember. If you ever start feeding them, you will need to continue feeding them forever (so don't start).

[R103] yes I like crows a lot. They are very smart and sassy. I’m not a tattoo person, but if I ever got a tattoo it would be a crow. I know my crow knows me and is always at the same spot when I go in and out.

Inactive, 19th century burial grounds are good for birding and seeing other wildlife. It’s like a city park, with dead people. The homeless sometimes frequent them as well, since they’ll usually be left alone.

I was feeding a Blue Jay whole peanuts putting out a few every morning. One Saturday I slept in and was quite late putting out his peanuts. When I went into the kitchen to make breakfast, there was the Jay sitting on the feeder, looking at the door that I came out to fill the feeder calling "Jay, Jay, Jay" over and over. I think he knew what door I came out of. So I put out his peanuts and hid. He came to get his peanuts in less than a minute. He was watching.

Jays are related to crows and are also quite smart. They are both in the family Corvidae.

I can hear the blue jays calling me, when their peanuts run out. One year, I stopped feeding them, and one blue Jay came to my window and started tapping on it.

OP, I love birds. I have two American kestrels that visit my black Walnut tree. Lots of scrub jays. Red-tailed hawks frequently circle around my neighborhood until they get chased away by the local crows.

Sometimes you'll see egrets in the marshy parts of our rivers.

My grackles are back. My guess is that the migrate, because I didn’t see any in the Winter.

r107 - I'm not surprised. They know!

r109 - grackles are migratory

R110, re: Bluejays.

But they don’t write, they don’t call, nothing.

R111, But they tap on your window and squawk! Like some relatives.

I love watching mockingbirds and crows mix it up.

Also love hearing a mourning dove.

My favorites to watch are crows and orioles.

No one wants to comment on my parakeet? I thought that one was a sinner for sure!

^Winner, I meant.

[R115] I like your ‘keet, he is a handsome little guy. ❤️❤️

R116, 💕

Try a birdbath, if you have a yard-- instead of feeding in the summer months. Great show! They all come and bathe, each with their own style. The timid ones fret on the rim. The brave ones splash and dip. Even the hawks! The crows don't bathe. They soak pizza crusts and leave the entrails of their prey. This is why I watch birds: it's never boring.

My birds are not dirty birds.

One of the things that blends right in to watching birds is watching butterflies. I work from home, and this afternoon, I watched a Zebra Swallowtail lay its eggs on the pawpaw trees in my back yard.

That sounds kinda creepy, R120!

Well, it's late July and most of my robins are gone. Happens every year.

April, May & June are when my backyard is full of robins pecking at my lawn and in my gardens. In the evening, it's a cacophony of robins warning each other to stay out of their roosting territory. Little by little, you hear fewer robins until you notice there's only one.

The majority of grackles have finished nesting because there is no mobbing of crows and hawks anymore. I'll only hear one r g blackbird, or a blue jay giving an alarm call. During nesting season an alarm call brings a whole swarm of grackles cursing and shouting until whatever nearby predator is routed out. I just saw a cat cruising along my driveway with nary a peep from the birds.

In fall I'll see blackbirds and grackles from farther north come to my feeder on their way south. I also get a couple of nutcrackers and towhees for a few weeks. Then one day I'll see a junco....then a white throated sparrow...and I'll know it's winter bird season.

Another birder here! I got into them as I was learning photography and now they're my favorite subject. We have a nice riparian reserve nearby that I try to visit every week or two, although it's too hot right now. I fell in love with the snowy egrets. So gorgeous, with so much personality. There are also herons, stilts, woodpeckers, grackles, cormorants, Canadian geese and quite a few other species depending on the time of year.

We have rosy-faced lovebirds that live in the wild as well. I've only come across a flock once and didn't have my camera on me...now I'm on a quest to track them down again.

That’s a pretty bird, OP.

A Blue Jay came by for his peanuts.

All of my robins and nearly all of my grackles and r g blackbirds are gone. Just a few weeks ago there was a cacophony of robins calling at dusk and the grackles & RWBBs were teaching fledglings how to look for food and making a racket whenever a cat, dog, hawk or other predator was nearby. It's dusk and all I hear is the chopping of a few cardinals. It makes me a little sad. It sounds so exuberant in late spring and early summer when all the birds are calling. Now it's too quiet.

When you take note of the birds in your environment you realize there aren't just four seasons. There are at least six.

I'm not overly a birdwatcher but my gardens are full of them and I have sonic cat repellers positioned so that they can feed and use the bird baths safely.

Not much that I can do about the odd magpie ( vicious horrible birds ), but I'm always happy when the local Falcons swoop in and kill one.

We have resident Canada geese and migrants. The migrants started coming back 2 weeks ago here on the northeast coast of the US.

Next month the juncos and white throated sparrows will be here. They are our winter birds. The blue jays, cardinals, house sparrows and Song sparrows are year rounders.

I dread winter. I just hate it. From thanksgiving to Valetines Day we're in deep winter. In mid February the grackles and r g blackbirds come back. We still get snow and wind and hash temperatures but at least when the birds come back I know we're on the turn and spring is inevitable.

I’m a people watcher, OP. I had to cut back after my neighbors complained.

"When you take note of the birds in your environment you realize there aren't just four seasons. There are at least six. "

Really? Around here the birds think there are four seasons - winter, spring migration, summer, fall migration.

I just closed on a house and moved in today. As I was in my backyard observing the neighbor's bird feeder, I saw, in the course of only a few minutes, a bluejay, a cardinal, 4 goldfinches, and a woodpecker. I'm in fucking heaven. And, there was the cutest chipmunk hanging out on my back steps (I'm wondering if the previous owner used to feed it).

I think all this wildlife is there partially because of the huge tree in my backyard whose immense branches arch over my house and the neighbor's. Unfortunately, I'm thinking of getting rid of it, because I'm worried about it ruining my foundation or toppling over some day, and it also blocks a lot of the sunlight in my house. I really don't want the birds and stuff to abandon the place however.

r131, you make me wish I owned (or at least rented) a home!

I recently returned from a trip to Northern Ontario.

I saw a brown thrasher, a northern flicker, a Baltimore oriole, and a tree swallow!

Barn swallows and tree swallows are herding dragonflies in my backyard. They encircle the dragonflies and get closer and closer each time they fly by until one of the grabs a dragonfly.

R131 - If you can, live in your house a year before you remove the tree. I was going to remove a tall tree in our backyard (I wanted more sun.), and now I love it. I can't believe I ever dreamed of cutting it down. It has berries which bring birds. The sound of the wind in it lulls me to sleep. Just a thought. You could always cut it back, and then it would put its energy into regrowing not more roots.

R127 Sonic cat repellers?? Tell me more. Please don't hate the magpies. They can't help that they're smarter than the others. They mate for life, live in communities, and mine (crows actually) come to the birdbath to wash or soak their food.

The Magpies tend to feed on Blackbird chicks (which nest everywhere in the garden), usually leaving unconsumed corpses all over the place. Don't seem to have a problem with crows or ravens doing the same thing.

Got a few owls hanging around at the minute so the field mice population must be up. But we do also live very close to a 100 acre public park.

The nearest that I cat find to the Sonic Cat repellers I buy in the UK are below (much cheaper on Amazon) Depending on your outside space you need more than one though (I have 6).

https://predatorguard.com/products/pestaway-ultrasonic-animal-repeller

Not a birdwatcher, per se, but I enjoy the ones we have around. I live in a high rise in Manhattan near Central Park, and love to see the hawks wheeling around when I’m on the top floor deck. We have a very vocal blue jay who hangs around the rooftops of the lower buildings (I’m on the 8th floor) and screams every morning. I love spotting him. And the cardinals and sparrows and one day a purple finch came to my balcony. That blue jay makes my day, though.

I have so many birds, I started making a list. I’m in the suburbs, but we have a lot of wildlife. Turtles, rabbits, groundhogs, deer, foxes, chipmunks, raccoons, snakes. For birds, we have mainly songbirds and some hawks, but last winter I saw a bald eagle. It was one of the greatest creatures I’ve seen in the wild—it’s wing span must’ve been about six feet. He flew right across our road and sat in a tree. My heart was pumping and I felt dizzy watching him! He was truly majestic.

R139, I had seen a couple of bald eagle nests, in nearby counties, but the sight of a Bald Eagle in sight is absolutely thrilling. I saw one several years ago on the road to one of my ancestral homes (Cedar Grove, Indiana), as it flew over the car in the Whitewater River valley. My poor, late Mom managed to see it, and it lifted her heart so much. She had spent weekends visiting her granny there, and she never imagined she'd witness an eagle there (or anywhere).. She showed me where they used to wade into the river shallows to harvest watercress. Once, when I took my parents out for lunch, we had extra french fries (since I didn't eat carbs) and we drove to the local lake, to feed the gulls (which seem a bit exotic in my part of Ohio). As we were standing on the beach, watching the gulls call and fight each other, I noticed the calls of cranes, and there was a formation of sandhill cranes soaring across the sky above us, calling with their trumpeting calls the whole time. Their calls carry for many miles. Cranes are considered rather primitive birds, I think,so I guess they're closer to their other dinosaur relatives. There's something unmistakably primeval about their calls. Just like spring peepers. Anyway, my poor Mom went into a hush, and couldn't speak for a while. She had never seen cranes before. I had seen them in zoos, but in the wild, you end up feeling very small (which can be good).

Our local Herons used to feast at my Koi pond ( I live near a large lake ), I caught one once and broke its neck.

I figured out it would be easier to get rid of the Koi pond in the end.

I saw a brown pelican floating on the ocean last year. I didn't kill it.

They come on my window sill to watch me.....and cast disdain.

For the past two weeks, I've been seeing a Steller's jay in the company of a scrub jay. I can't be 100% sure, but I am under the impression that they are a couple. They are always just a few yards apart, and seem to canvas my backyard as a team. They arrive and leave together. I think they are a cute interspecies couple.

I can hear my winter birds but can't see them yet. No doubt in a month most if the birds at my feeder will be white throated sparrows and juncos.

PS - the brighter the yellow spot a white thirsted make has, the more tail they get

Oops

r4, my husband Martin gets purple in just the right place EVERY night.

Not exactly a birdwatcher, but. I like to be able to identify things. Plants, birds, trees.

I live in the middle of Manhattan, but I notice the birds I can see from my balcony and my windows. There are some crazy blue jays that scream and call. When I hear or see him, I’ll say “I can hear you, Jay, you don’t have to shout” which is stupid because he’s a bird. There was a small while when I didn’t see or hear him, but he’s back.

I also love the red-tailed hawks. I live close to the park, and also where Pale Male lived, and can often see them from my apartment or the top floor of my building (which is 30-odd stories). They’re majestic. The other day I saw a hawk messing with a flock of pigeons in midair.

Ok, now I've seen them. The white throats and the juncos at my feeder. Winter is here.

R148 Are you sure it was a hawk? May have been a falcon or kestrel. I believe hawks grab sitting prey.