I've really missed this forum and didn't even realize it; my laptop went all wacky awhile back and I somehow totally lost this one. So .... even though it's already mid-January I thought I'd get a thread going for the month with a few of my backyard visitors! Please share any and all photos of the birdies that visit your area!

Woodpeckers are year round birds here and frequently visit the feeders for suet or raisins and peanuts. This is a pretty male Red-bellied WP that was heading to one of the feeders yesterday afternoon. He was real curious every time my camera beeped and would cock his head and look in my direction. I was surprised he hung around because the dog was out in the yard with me although the feeder is hanging in the Cypress tree just outside the fence.

From yesterday, Red-bellied WP, male:


From earlier in the week, Red-bellied WP, female and male:


Earlier in the week, a female Downy Woodpecker and a Grackle:


We have lots of Mourning Doves around, one pair nesting in a tree out front and lots of Mockingbirds too, with one nest that I know of in a backyard tree.

Mourning Dove:


Northern Mockingbirds:


Palm Warblers have been abundant this year too with a few other small Warblers that visit from the north. I have trouble telling many of the Warblers apart but the little Palm Warbler constantly flicks it's tail.


Last, but not least ... Blue Jays which are common backyard birds in my area. This guy/gal was filling it's crop with peanuts from a feeder:

Thanks Lin for starting the new thread!

Great pics, as always!

Beautiful birds Lin ! I love woodpeckers.
Thanks for sharing !

Yes thanks Lin. I can do up all my recent Stone-curlew photos.

As promised: Bush Stone-curlews. This is these parents second brood for the season (January 2014). The young are precocious and it is difficult getting close to them until the parents decide they are a handful and bring them down to be fed. They are large birds with a wonderful, murderous, screaming call. This scares the heck out of visitors staying over. They are a nocturnal, terrestrial wader that are rare on the mainland but common on small offshore islands. Sometimes called thick-knees because of the habit of resting on them. I have about 11 that come to my garden

Great pics Lin and Glen.

Thanks everyone!

Glen: Those are wonderful photo's of the Bush Stone-curlews ... the babies are adorable! I googled to hear their call; it is a bit eerie sounding, but I kinda like it!

Laughing Kookaburra - once called Giant Brown Kingfisher would you believe?
Quite a confiding bird. But they can be terrors if fed in parks. They swoop down and take the sausages and steaks off the barbie.


PS I should add this is severely entertaining to watch if it is happening to someone else.

Oh my, that Kookaburra must be considered a nuisance bird if it steals sausages and steaks off the barbie!! It reminds me a somewhat of the Belted Kingfisher that we have here, although I think the Kingfisher only eats fish!

I took these pictures of Belted Kingfisher's last year. The one perched on the power line is a female (rusty brown and blue streak across the breast; the second one perched on a neighbor's deck is a male with only the blue band across the breast):

I love kingfishers. Lin is that Callistemon viminalis your avatar?

Gleni, yes it is Weeping Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis)

I took this photo on December 20th and it should have lots of blooms in the next month:

Wonderful photos both Lin & Glen! Love those baby curlews.

Glen, that is certainly a Callistemon in Lin's avatar but I'm not sure it's viminalis.

I stand corrected. It is viminalis.

I love my Weeping Bottlebrush and I look forward to the Ruby-throated hummingbirds that visit the blooms:

It is a stunning tree. They grow thick along creeks on the banks and in the beds. The honeyeaters just love them. I can see why the hummers would. They are wondrous birds.

I love that Bottlebrush tree! If I had the space for it, I'd grow one as a house plant.

At last I have a pic of a small bird. This chickadee flew into the window and stunned itself, and then sat on the windowsill for several minutes to recover. Stumpy the cat was quite entranced by it, too.

The birdseed spread out on my driveway today is very popular. The poor birds with all the snow must really need something to eat. The usual flocks of white throats and song sparrow, Juncos and Mourning Doves.

I'm so glad that you feed our feathered friends during the cold winter months when there's sometimes little for the birds to eat. I was able to get a couple of photo's earlier today when I was out in the yard.

Blue Jay:


We've had lots of cute little Palm Warbler's around this year:

Cute little Warbler.

I feel I get more out of feeding the birds than they do. I love to see them around. So if I make life somewhat easier for them on cold snowy days then that is all good.

Newyorkrita said: I feel I get more out of feeding the birds than they do. I love to see them around. So if I make life somewhat easier for them on cold snowy days then that is all good.

Although we don't have snow we do get cold at times (tonight our low is supposed to be 30º!) and I know the birds appreciate the available food provided in the feeders.