I saw birds with bright red heads in my backyard – are they young cardinals? No, Michelle taught me, they are finches! This one is a male house finch. A female is brown and has stripes.
Here are two finches sitting in my backyard tree. Is the one on the top right a female?
Here is a finch eating sunflower seeds from our bird feeder.
Whoa! I caught him in flight as he leaves the bird feeder.
Another treat, this one just after dawn last week, was I heard a huge amount of bird noise outside. I rushed out with my camera and captured a bit of the party. Many black, noisy starlings were visiting our block.
A friend wrote: “Around 5:30 pm, I saw enormous numbers here on the south side of town. It took about 10 minutes for them all to pass by. I am not exaggerating. It was only a really thick, dense black cloud of them for the first few minutes, but they kept coming for a while after that. And, I agree, they were very noisy. I could still hear them for a while after they were out of sight.”
You can see the starlings from 2010 on this post and few more starlings in a tree.
For more Nature Notes:
Look at all those starlings – so cool! (As long as you don’t have any laundry hanging out…)
Why? Would they poop all over the laundry? I suppose “regular” birds do that anyway, right? 😉
Birds just poop when they have to…no way to hold it…lol
Yes Leora..that is the female and the male may take a seed and ‘feed’ her with it as part of pair bonding and breeding..they are very sweet.. I will add you to NN when I get the post done..or started..LOL…Michelle
I posted this to Nature Notes…
Thank you!
Nice to see the house finches at your feeders, They seem to be missing in my yard this year. Wow, can you imagine if all those starling found your feeders at the same time. They are piggies. Glad to see they all moved on. Great post and photos.
Yup, they give a bad name to the birds! A bit too raucous. But they weren’t in our area long (thankfully).
I can’t believe I’m getting this many birds. But Michelle is a good teacher on how to feed the birds. I’m thinking about getting one more feeder for next winter.
looks like Jersey is on the wing… you may enjoy this post: http://wolfsrosebud.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/taking-flight/
Great shots of the finches and the bird party. It is mind blowing how large flock can arrive in a tree like the one you shot without knocking each other over.
I love seeing the House Finches. Their musical song sounds so cheerful.
Pat, the next time I see them, I must listen more carefully! My daughter and I heard a beautiful bird call, over and over one day, but neither of us had any clue what kind of bird it was.
Good news that the birds are migrating back! 🙂
What beautiful captures of nature and flight, and feeding moments.
Hi Leora,
I was happy to see one house finch last summer. I hope more come but one is a treat to see.
I was talking to my daughter yesterday and about the birds singing and she mentioned birds in a tree that woke her up. I suggested starlings and she said she just wanted them to be quiet. 🙂
I didn’t know what they were when we saw them (the finches). I hope they visit again! There were quite a few, and they were mingling with “my” cardinals (who hang around a lot in the winter months).
We used to have house finches at our feeders when we lived in Oregon and I love them. Every time we put out suet we got flocks of starlings (which we didn’t want) so we had to stop using suet cakes. Enjoyed the pictures of them though!
such pretty little finches!