MAY 2ND ADULT BIRDS

The weather was quite pleasant on May 2nd, so I opened the windows to the "bird room".  This way I could photograph birds at the feeders without the distortion of the windows' glass.  

CAROLINA WREN

One early visitor came right on inside the room for mealworms from the uncovered plastic mealworm storage container on the table.  It was a small, but big voiced Carolina Wren.  The powerful "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle, tea!" of the Carolina Wren makes it sound much larger.  Here is one of the wrens checking over the hundreds of mealworms available.

A little closer look is in order.

OK, the perfect mealworm is selected.  Or is that two?

Now it's time to check out and head for the nest that the wrens must have nearby.  I have yet to locate it.

EASTERN BLUEBIRD

Of course one of my favorite birds to watch is the Eastern Bluebird.  With two bluebird nests in the yard, each male is busy trying to keep the other bluebird pair away from the mealworms.  But eventually both pairs get their share.  It is interesting to watch these beautiful blue males allow wrens and titmice to feed on mealworms at will, but object when either of the bluebirds from the other pair approach.

Wow, what a magnificent and stately bird.  Watch out, there go those sneaky mealworms heading over the edge of the flower pot saucer!




Here is the female Eastern Bluebird.  Right down the center of her tummy, you can make out a vertical slot where her brood patch is located.  This is a bare area of skin on her abdomen that she uses to keep her eggs warm during incubation and to keep her developing young snug during the first several days after hatching.

I refilled the suet feeder last week to supplement the adult insect-eating birds while they are hunting live insects for their babies.  The bluebirds are taking advantage of this additional supply of energy food.

Male bluebirds are very attractive birds and their behaviors are enjoyable to watch.   

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

This handsome Red-bellied Woodpecker visits the suet feeder occasionally.  He also spends plenty of time checking out the overlapping bark on trees in the area looking for insects and spiders.

Now this is a mouthful of suet!

DOWNY WOODPECKER

This female Downy Woodpecker also visits the suet feeder. She is about the same size as the bluebirds.

Woodpeckers have a toe arrangement that is different than most of the songbirds which have three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward.  The Downy has two toes pointed forward and two pointed to the back which helps them in maneuvering around on the bark of trees.

GRAY CATBIRD

The Gray Catbird migrates south in winter while its kin, the Northern Mockingbird and the Brown Thrasher, remain here year round.  These three species are "mimids" that mimic the songs of other birds.  Typically mockingbirds repeat other birds' songs in at least a triplet, while brown thrashers sing doublets of each call before moving on to the next.  Catbirds usually repeat each call just once which gives their song a very rambling nature.  They also have a "mew" call that sounds much like a kitten's.  Gray Catbirds are a uniform slate gray with a black skull cap.

It is nice to see the shy catbirds return in the spring.  There have been a pair visiting the suet feeder and also picking up morsels from under the feeders.  I suspect they may have a nest in some thicket nearby, but I have yet to locate it.  The Gray Catbird has a rusty patch beneath its tail that you can see here.  

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH

The acrobatic White-breasted Nuthatch is a common visitor to seed and suet feeders year round.   They have an impressive beak made for probing under the bark of trees searching for insects, but can also hammer the dickens out of sunflower seed that they often stash in nooks and crannies of trees for later retrieval.

This is a typical pose of the White-breasted Nuthatch, with its head pointed down.  I love to hear their lively "yank, yank, yank, yank" nasally call.

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER

This dazzling male Yellow-rumped Warbler has been coming to the suet feeder recently.  He has transformed quite a bit since the winter when there were ten or more at one time frequenting the feeders.

This member of the wood warbler tribe has a large patch of black feathers on his cheek and another surrounding his bright yellow shoulder splotch. There is a streak of yellow on his crown as well as the definitive yellow rump patch that gives these birds their common name.

Wood warblers are primarily insect eaters.  Their sharp thin beaks are well adapted to catching these food items.  In the east, this species was formerly named Myrtle Warbler because of the large numbers of wax-myrtle berries (also called bayberry) they consume.  Most other warblers are not able to digest these waxy berries.  The Yellow-Rumped Warbler's ability to strip off the waxy coat during digestion actually aids in the germination of the wax-myrtle seeds later.

The male Yellow-Rumped Warbler has a bright white throat and belly in his summer plumage.

MARCH 2015 BIRDS

After wearing out my wife's little Lumix DMC-FS15 camera over the past two and a half years, I took the plunge and bought a little larger camera with zoom capability. It arrived two days ago.  Here are some of the first birds that I photographed at our feeders.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

As we watched the feeders this winter, we did not see our first Yellow-rumped Warbler until the first week of December. From then until the end of January we still only counted one each weekend.  In early February a second one appeared. It seemed like they spent more time chasing each other than feeding.  But since then there has been a crowd of up to 11 of these small, sleek birds zooming about.  They are very hard to count as they are so active and don't sit still very long.  This picture shows a hint of this bird's yellow rump peeking between its wings. Some birding folk refer to this little bird as a Butter Butt.  Yellow-rumped Warblers usually have "blurry" vertical black streaks on their brownish backs.

These are quizzical little birds as you can see from this photo.  Both male and female warblers have yellow shoulder patches and also some dark streaking on the breast and sides.

Warblers are typically insect and berry eaters in the summer when they are breeding in Canada.  But we've watched these energetic Yellow-rumped Warblers eat a wide array of foods. The bird in the first picture is cleaving off pieces of whole peanuts.  They visit the suet stations, sometimes perching on the feeder, but often fluttering at the feeder and taking small bits while hovering for a few seconds. We've also seen them consume sunflower seed, finch seed, currants, and grape jelly. These warblers also harvest the bluish berries from the Wax Myrtle bushes (Bayberry) in the yard. Their former name, Myrtle Warbler, comes from the fact that this species has a unique digestive tract that is particularly adapted to digesting these little wax covered fruits.  But we know for sure that they love oranges that we put out for the oriole!

We've watched them pull out the juice vesicles one at a time until the orange section is completely emptied out.

(link to a diagram of an orange's parts)

Another identification characteristic of Yellow-rumped Warblers is their two prominent white wing bars.

This is a fun little bird to watch.  Like all warblers it has a thin straight beak typical of most birds that are insectivores.  This species also has a "broken" white eye ring and a slightly notched tail.

(link to sdakotabirds.com range map)

Baltimore Oriole 
(Northern Oriole)

About ten days ago this female Baltimore Oriole showed up at our feeding station. This photo is from the first set I took using the new camera.  She is really fluffed up to protect against the cold temperatures.  We have had orioles maybe five times over the past 25-30 years, but they usually show up in late fall (October and November) for a few weeks before disappearing further south.  This beautiful bird showed up at the end of February and has been to the feeders every day since. 

I hope to get more pictures of her in the next few days.  Her obvious markings are the yellow orange breast and belly, her black wings with two prominent white wing bars, a fairly orange tail, and that fantastic beak!  The beak is thick at the base and comes to a very sharp point.  I read that it can take up to 10,000 "stitches" of grasses and thin vines to produce its nest which is shaped like a long hanging basket.  We have seen her eating pieces of whole peanuts and oranges as well as grape jelly and meal-worms.

(link to Oriole facts) 

Eastern Bluebirds

We've loved Eastern Bluebirds from the first time we saw them back.  In the mid 1970s we put up our first nesting box and over the years we've been treated to numerous broods of these lovely birds.  These two females were up early, waiting to grab some freeze dried meal-worms I'd put out before going off to work.  They always seem so inquisitive.

It was quite a cold morning with 24 degree temperature and a windchill of about 13 degrees.  All the birds were puffed up to hold in their body heat.  This fellow seemed to be warming his feet, too.  Looking at his eyes, I get a sense of how a caterpillar or a grasshopper might feel when a Bluebird is barreling down on it!

One characteristic of Bluebirds is their distinct eye-ring which is fuller toward the back of the eye.

One day last week we had seven Bluebirds at the feeders at the same time.  They are always on alert for someone putting meal-worms in the feeder.

The next afternoon was sunnier and the temperatures were up into the low 60s. This male Bluebird's colors looked much brighter than the day before.