Thank you Lin, I know a lot of people complain abut the House Sparrow but they are always so cheerful sounding and so far I have had no problems with them, even the one year when they raised a family in one of the nest boxes.

Margaret, I love those doves shots! I have a male flicker who comes almost every day. I would love to see a female show up!

House Sparrows are bad news here.

Well - I love all birds including Sparrows.

I like Sparrows more than Starlings.

jmorth said:I like Sparrows more than Starlings.

I lump grackles in with the starlings.

We have an over population of sparrows here and they dominate the bird feeders so much so that other birds can't get the seed. The doves get the droppings under the feeder. One day I counted 12 doves in my yard. Once in a while a chickadee is fast enough to sneak a seed.

I love all of our native sparrows, just not the non-native English House Sparrows. They kill numerous native birds including Blue Birds. I have seen the results.

English House Sparrows is one of those things like Kudzu - seemed like a good idea at the time.

A lot of folks seem to detest the Common Starling/European Starling which is now found all over the U.S.A. but I still think it's a pretty bird. I don't usually see many of them down here but a few are sometimes seen in large flocks of Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

It's not that I detest them, I just like sparrows more.
The ones w/ white spots all over are pretty neatly colored.

I do not like the starlings because of the large numbers, they are nice looking birds with their iridescent feathers, but they are real gluttons, can eat a suet cake in 10 minutes..

Love that flicker photo(s)! Never seen that species of bird here.

I only have 1 photo for today. Of course it includes Painted Buntings, but if you look to the right, you'll see the Indigo Bunting! My first sighting of an Indigo. My neighbor told me that she has been seeing 2 Indigos for about a week now. At least one finally found my feeder! Yay!



And this is my crazy seed feeder set-up. The back along the fence looks like a jungle, but that is exactly what the painted buntings like. All of those plants are nectar plants for butterflies and hummingbirds. You can see that many are blooming. I specifically plant winter blooming salvia and other plants just for the over-wintering hummingbirds! Plus put out several feeders! Do you know I have 1 squirrel that is able to jump up over the 2 squirrel guards! Ha!

Becky, on the Indigo Bunting visiting the feeder!! I've never seen an Indigo and they are so pretty; double lucky to have both the Painted and Indigo in your garden! I wonder if it's a juvenile male!? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...

The only thing I know about Starlings is that my Grandpa used to shoot them because they'd eat his corn.

Becky, jungles are the best. As much as I can appreciate a well-manicured garden, I prefer the wildness of nature. And I think all the critters do, too.

Lin - The Indigo Buntings are brown in Winter. But before they leave to head north in the Spring, most have their gorgeous blue feathers and I get to see them before they leave.

Melanie - I agree .... Wildlife likes a natural looking yard, not a manicured yard. (Though mine does have areas that are manicured. Mainly the front yard .... but I'm working to fix that! )

Yeah, I've been pretty amazed at the Winter birds I get in my yard. I am thrilled to get hummers, but the Painted Buntings and Indigo Buntings were a total surprise several years ago when I started gardening for wildlife. Icing on the winter cake!

Becky that is a really cool setup...... love it!!

mellielong said:
Becky, jungles are the best. As much as I can appreciate a well-manicured garden, I prefer the wildness of nature. And I think all the critters do, too.

Then you would love my place. And my basement. Now that place IS a freaking jungle.

beckygardener said:

How do the birds get in? That looks like a parakeet cage.

Claudia - Thank you.

David - You need to share a photo of your basement and yard! Not a parakeet cage at all!
It's actually a small bird feeder. The smaller birds fit through the wire sections just fine, but the bigger birds and squirrels can't fit through. So it protects the birds and their food from competition at the feeders. The Buntings and Cardinals and also the Warblers like that particular cage feeder. But I agree .... it does look like a bird cage. I modified it and took the tube feeder out of the center and replaced it with the small cup at the bottom. We get a lot of rain here and the tube feeder kept getting clogged with sprouting seeds! So I modified it! Much easier to clean now.

Now I understand

Some of my basement.

http://garden.org/thread/go/44...

Worked on it all weekend getting ready for seed starting. I added metallized reflective film on 2 walls and the ceiling and repainted the shelving semi-gloss white. ** 7 or 8 fluorescents in addition to the metal halide lights. With 2 trays per shelf under the fluor. lights, I can start > 1,000 plants. On some shelves I place 4 trays side by side. That way I can start more seeds! Two years ago I started ~ 1,500.

** I opened the basement door to help with vapors and could listen to birds chirping - On topic, eh?