Wild Birds

Blue Jay in the Snow

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:49:43 GMT

Blue Jay in the Snow

Here's a shot of a Blue Jay that I took through a screened window. It's a bit fuzzy because of the screen, but I like the picture anyway. It's as if this little guy posed for the picture on this beautiful, sunny New Years Day amid the snowy branches.

Chickadee and two House Finches at the Feeder

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:49:46 GMT

Chickadee and two House Finches at the Feeder

Here's a shot of a Chickadee and a couple of House Finches captured on New Year's day after 7 inches of snowfall and what seemed like a few inches of rain the previous day and night.

House Finches at the Feeder

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:49:52 GMT

House Finches at the Feeder

Here's another shot of the feeder with a male and another unidentified House Finch at the feeder.

Another Male House Finch

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:49:55 GMT

Another Male House Finch

Here's another hungry little guy at the feeder.

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:50:01 GMT

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow

This gorgeous bird is a female Pileated Woodpecker grabbing some nutrition on New Years Day. I just happend to look out the window at the precise moment this beautiful bird was there, so I grabbed the camera and started shooting.

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow - #2

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:50:06 GMT

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow - #2

Here's another shot of the Pileated. After she was done at the feeder, she hung around for a while in search of whatever she could find on the trees out back.

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow - #3

cheeseflavor — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:50:11 GMT

Pileated Woodpecker in the snow - #3

Here's one more of this gorgeous bird.

Did you know:

The Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is a very large North American woodpecker. Adults (40-49 cm long, 250-350 g weight) are mainly black with a red crest and a white line down the sides of the throat. Adult males have a red line from the bill to the throat and red on the front of the crown. In adult females, these are black. They show white on the wings in flight. The only North American birds of similar plumage and size are the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the Southeastern United States and Cuba, and the related Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico. Both of those species are extremely rare, if not extinct.

Their breeding habitat is forested areas with large trees across Canada, the eastern United States and parts of the Pacific coast. They usually excavate large nests in the cavities of dead trees, and often excavates a new home each year, creating habitat for other large cavity nesters.

This bird is usually a permanent resident of the area in which it is spotted.

These birds mainly eat insects (especially beetle larvae and carpenter ants) as well as fruits, berries and nuts. They often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects.

The call is a wild laugh, similar to the Northern Flicker. Its drumming can be very loud, often sounding like someone striking a tree with a hammer. This bird favors mature forests, but has adapted to use second-growth stands and heavily wooded parks as well.

Cool facts about the Pileated:

The Pileated Woodpecker was the model for the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker.
The pileated woodpecker is also commonly known in the south as an "Indian Hen"
The roost of a Pileated Woodpecker usually has multiple entrance holes.
The sound that a Pileated Woodpecker makes when boring a hole in a tree is so loud that it can be heard over long distances.
Pileated Woodpeckers make such large holes in dead trees that sometimes the holes can cause a small tree to break in half.
Pileated Woodpeckers have been observed to move their eggs which have fallen off the nest to another site. This is a rare habit in other birds.

Source: Wikipedia

Pair of House Finches at the Feeder

cheeseflavor — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:30:27 GMT

Pair of House Finches at the Feeder

Here's a pair of House Finches at our feeder. The male is the one on the right, and I can't tell if the one on the left is a female or a juvenile. We get these guys year around. They have a delightful song and will sing for hours on end. They are relatively tolerent of people and are wonderful little birds to have around!

Adults have a long brown tail and are a brown or dull-brown color across the back with some shading into deep grey on the wing feathers. *** and belly feathers may be streaked. In most cases, adult males have a reddish color to their heads, necks and shoulders. This color sometimes extends to the stomach and down the back, between the wings. The male coloration varies in intensity with the seasons and is derived from the berries and fruits in its diet. As a result, the colors range from pale, straw yellow, to bright orange, to deep, intense red. Adult females have brown upperparts and streaked underparts.

These birds are mainly permanent residents; some eastern birds migrate south. Their breeding habitat is urban and semi-open areas from southern Canada to Mexico.

House Finches forage on the ground or in vegetation. They primarily eat grains, seeds and berries, being voracious consumers of weed seeds such as nettle and dandelion; included are incidental small insects, such as aphids and plant lice. They are frequent visitors to feeders throughout the year, particularly if stocked with sunflower seeds or Nyjer/thistle seed, and will congregate at hanging Nyjer sock feeders. They are considered a pest in fruit orchards.

Nests are made in cavities, including openings in buildings, and also on various kinds of vegetation, sometimes nests abandoned by other birds will be used. Nests may be re-used for subsequent broods or in following years. The nest is built by the female, sometimes in as little as two days. It is well made of twigs and debris, forming a cup shape, usually 1.5m to 2m above the ground.

Eggs are laid from February through August, two or more broods per year with 2 to 6 eggs per brood. The eggs are a pale, bluish-green with few black spots and a smooth, somewhat glossy surface. The female incubates the eggs for 12 to 14 days and the young leave the nest about 11 to 19 days after hatching. Dandelion seeds are among the preferred seeds fed to the young.

During courtship, the male may present the female with choice bits of food and, if she imitates the posture of a hungry chick, he may actually feed her. The male may also feed the female during the breeding and incubation period.

House Finches are one of the few birds that are aggressive enough to keep House Sparrows out of their birdhouse and evict them.

Originally only a resident of Mexico and the southwestern United States, they were introcuded to eastern North America in the 1940s. The birds were being sold illegally in New York while marketed as the "Hollywood Finch." Many vendors and owners released the birds into the wild in order to avoid prosecution. The released birds spread rapidly and, in some unforested areas, have displaced the native Purple Finch. In 1870, they were introduced into Hawaii.

Their song is a rapid, cheery warble or a variety of chirps. A sample of their song can be heard at the USGS site here.

Pair of House Finches at the Feeder Again

cheeseflavor — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:30:33 GMT

Pair of House Finches at the Feeder Again

Here's another shot of the pair. Females and immature male House Finches are faintly streaked brown from forehead to rump. Wings and tail are brown. The chin, throat, and *** are uniformly streaked brown on white. Compared to the Purple and Cassin's females, the House Finch's streaking is less defined, and the face is unpatterned.

Bald Eagle!

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:01 GMT

Bald Eagle!

These pictures of a Bald Eagle were taken on Independence Rd on the west side of Lake Independence. This is our most common route that we take. We were very suprised to see him perched up in the trees ahead, so we stopped to snap a few pics.

Getting a bit closer

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:05 GMT

Getting a bit closer

Shhhhh.... be very, very quiet :)

Closer, closer...

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:08 GMT

Closer, closer...

Being very careful to not let the sounds of our bikes, or clipping and unclipping from our pedals disturb him.

Getting a bit closer yet

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:14 GMT

Getting a bit closer yet

Almost directly underneath him now. I wish I had our good camera! This one is ok, but has only a 3x zoom and no image stabilization, so I'm just greatful the pics turned out as well as they did!

Still sitting patiently

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:19 GMT

Still sitting patiently

Still snapping pics as he sits patiently.

He's getting nervous now

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:23 GMT

He's getting nervous now

He's starting to look around for a direction to flee at this point.

And there he goes!

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:48:26 GMT

And there he goes!

Drat! Oh well, it was nice to see him while we could. Even though Eagles are getting more common in Minnesota, it's still rare to get this close to these magnificent birds, and we've never seen one at this spot.

Red-tailed Hawk

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:52:43 GMT

Red-tailed Hawk

We came upon this guy (girl) on one of our usual routes. It was just sitting on top of this utility pole and sat patiently by while we snapped a few pics. This was on Chippewa Road in Loretto, MN.

Red-tailed Hawk again

cheeseflavor — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:52:47 GMT

Red-tailed Hawk again

Here's another shot of the same Red-tailed Hawk. We've seen him in this same spot since these were taken.

Blue Jay and Squirrel

cheeseflavor — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:07:04 GMT

Blue Jay and Squirrel

A Blue Jay and Gray Squirrel enjoying some whole corn under one of our feeders.

One more of Hooded Merganzer drake

cheeseflavor — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:07:02 GMT

One more of Hooded Merganzer drake