Oh Eric, we've got to see that photo of the Egret at the BK drive up window! I bet he's a frequent customer because he's been fed ... just hope he doesn't end up being hit by a car.

I wish we had an app for bird sounds. I'd love to hear what some of your birds sound like. I've got the kookaburra's going crazy right now as well as a lot of other songs, chirps tweets and whistles. Kookaburras only call here when there's rain coming within 3 days. 100% accurate (better than the weather man).

Love seeing all the bird photos!

Here Patti:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

I just linked it on a Carolina Wren but you can fill in the search for any bird you want. And if you go down to the gray tab that says SOUND you can listen to all the different sounds that bird makes.

Thank you!

Cornell also has bird sounds. I'll look for those photos again after I do a shut down and start up. For some reason my Corel keeps locking up. I may need to install Win 7 to get this old PC to work right again. I just hate having to back everything up to do it.

A few from this cloudy Sunday afternoon. Thoughts the Whoopers were gone but they landed about 1/2 hour ago. They are no more than 100 feet from my front porch.





Pine Siskins



Brown-Headed Nuthatch

I did the Backyard Bird Count last Saturday (Valentine's Day). I decided to video-tape again since I actually had quite a few different birds at the feeder. And I also got a close-up of Squeak fluffing up his hummingbird wings. I have another immature male and an adult male here that were not in my yard prior or banded. I have not seen the other two banded and marked birds, The Boss or My Buddy, lately. Being males, I suppose they are possibly starting to move northward to their breeding grounds. I am seeing a lot of adult male Painted Buntings, too. Spring is on it's way! Which is sad for me because all these beautiful and delightful birds will be moving north out of my area very soon!

The Valentine's Day 2015 Backyard Bird Count video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Are they eating safflower? I just threw a bag away because I coulnt get anything to eat it

Dave: You are so fortunate to have those beautiful Whoopers visiting your property. Are those cute little Pine Siskins and Nuthatches year round residents or do they just visit during the winter months?

Becky: What a wonderful video! I'm going to send the link to my sister ... she and her husband recently relocated to Sebastian from the Fort Lauderdale area. The house they purchased is on a 1/2 acre lot with only one palm tree in the front yard and a very small, unhappy looking orange tree in the backyard so they are getting ready to do some landscaping and will hopefully plant for the birds, bees and butterflies! I know she will be thrilled if she can attract painted buntings and indigo buntings to her yard!

@plantladylin I have only seen the Pine Siskins in the winter months but I occasionally see the Brown headed nuthatches throughout the year.

Pam - I wasn't sure if you were directing your question to me or someone else. If to me, I feed the birds Wild Finch seed mix. Which is mainly white millet with some thistle mixed in. They love it!

Lin - Thank you!

Yes! Your sister should definitely plant for the wildlife. We get a lot of beautiful and interesting critters year round. I love Winter though because of the Painted Buntings and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. It is definitely the plants that attract them and the feeders help keep them hanging around.

The Painted Bunting Banding team came yesterday. They banded 10 more Painted Buntings and captured one returnee (from Feb. 2014). They also banded 2 Cardinals, 1 Pine Warbler, and 4 Indigo Buntings. The Pine Warbler that they banded last year in Feb. has been back most of the Winter in my yard. It's so cool that some birds have such precise site fidelity.

Here are just a few of the more interesting photos from the banding. The birds are always handled with the most gentlest of care. They examine, weigh, measure, and band them each very quickly so as not to stress the birds.:

Pine Warbler:


Painted Bunting returnee from 2014. You can see the band combo. He was measured and weighed and then released right away.:


Several different Indigo Buntings showing the molting and new feathers coming in. They always look so ugly changing from brown winter feathers to their beautiful blue feathers. They use a lot of energy molting, so they are constantly at my feeders eating. After molting is finished, they quickly put on the fat weight to start their journey north in Spring.:

Bird #1:


Bird #2 in full molt:


Bird #3. I believe this was a young Indigo Bunting showing very little molting at this time:

Oh Becky, those are wonderful photos! Is it folks from the Audubon Society that come to do the banding? We used to have neighbors who moved to Fl. from upstate N.Y. where she worked with Cornell Ornithology Lab helping to band birds and it was so interesting listening to hear her stories. I love the painted buntings and I wish we could see them year round. For a few years they'd visit my feeders from January through April and one year (I think it was 2010) there were a few that stopped by in August, October and November, probably on their migration south.

Hooray for you Dave!!!! What a treat seeing them so close to your porch!

Becky, great video! I guess i had better put out my hummie feeders if they're starting to move out of your area. I was just thinking about that this afternoon.

Lin - No, not Audubon Society. It is actually certified and state/federal licensed banders from Stuart (south of Sebastian). The main bander has only been banding Painted Buntings for a little over a year. She has been banding other birds for years, but she volunteered to help with the eastern PB research project. One of the universities in NC is doing research on why the PB numbers have declined. The numbers have drastically dropped. Probably habitat loss from development. It would be very sad to no longer see PBs here in Florida. Hopefully, these birds will stabilize their numbers and not become a rarity. They are shy birds (though you wouldn't know it in my yard) and don't adapt well to the loss of their hidden habitats. I say hidden, because they don't typically like being around humans. I sure hope they adapt and survive.

There is more info on the PBOT website:
http://paintedbuntings.org/blo...

We've had a huge grouping of Yellow Rumped Warblers here this year. The Cedar Waxwings showed up just in time for the last day of the Backyard Bird Count so that was great. I had a large group of 60-70 Sandhills fly over too so they got to be counted. AND I saw our Great Crested Flycatcher which is causing some conversation with the Back Yard Bird Count People b/c they aren't supposed to be here until the end of March but I have done hours upon hours of research on this ID precisely b/c they shouldn't be here at this time of year and yet they are or at least one is. And of course I don't have a photo of it on that day. So I will keep a sharp eye out & try & get a photo. The BYBC people also say they leave by the second half of September & I KNOW it has been here after that time. Actually the bird seems to be here year round so I guess I'll just have to prove it with photos.

Ann - I hope you get a photo of your Great Crested Flycatcher! You'll have to share a photo here. I've never seen one of those birds in my yard. That's pretty neat if it's habits are different than what the birding experts believe. There is so much we DON'T know about the life of various species of birds. You never know when a bird in your yard proves to be unique or it disproves a theory or believed fact. Maybe your bird is a year round resident. You need to get it banded so you will know for sure that it is the same bird. (You might get surprised and discover that it is not the same bird!)

Ann, I never believe everything the "experts" tell me. Some of my butterfly books have things in them that I have seen disproved with my own eyes. I think our work as citizen scientists helps a lot as we can contribute way more manpower hours and information than the scientists can do on their own. So get out there and prove them wrong!

I dropped by MOSI yesterday for just a short time since I wasn't feeling well. I was picking passion vine to feed the critters when I saw two birds that were sitting on some of our garden art. They got a little skittish as I approached and hopped up into the tree, but I managed to get a decent pic. I haven't consulted my book yet, so if anyone wants to just clue me in as to what this one is, feel free!



I also had a Mourning Dove in the bird feeder but it saw me coming and flew up to perch on the edge of the building. But I was like, "Forget you, Mourning Dove!" They're super common, anyway. They kind of freak me out because there used to be a pack of them at the museum that would follow me around through the garden. I think someone must have been feeding them.

Melanie, the bird in your two photos is the Northern Mockingbird ... a Florida resident and one of my favorites! http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g...

Ann, I have only spotted the Great Crested Flycatcher a couple of times, once in January and once in August. The Cornell site map: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g... shows them throughout most of the state during the summer and year-round in the far southern part of the state. This photo is from August 2010:

Those are Mockingbirds Melanie.

My biggest problem with getting photos of the Great Crested Flycatcher are two fold. One, my camera only has a 5X zoom which is really not much. Two, they don't eat seed --- so it doesn't come to the feeders. I mostly see it when it comes to the bird bath to drink or bathe or when it's in the garden out back looking for bugs. It's never in one place long at all. So it's hard to get a photo. I've only gotten 1 photo of it in the 2 years we've been here. Pretty darn sure that photo was not in the season they "aren't" supposed to be here but have to get time to look for it if I still have it. It wasn't a great photo in the first place.