Love seeing the birdie pictures!

Thanks Ann and Christine!!! I know one of the finches, purple or House, has more color than the other one but I can't recall which one.

@Hemlady Cindy, Thanks for sharing pic's of your backyard birds! We all have to take photos through doors and windows at times ... if I lived up north, it's the only way I'd be able to do it because I can't imagine going out and standing in the cold and snow to take pictures of birds. It was 45º here this morning, so it looks like winter is finally arriving in Florida but it has warmed up to 51 and the sun is shining so that's good!! I see that you have some of the same birds in your area that we get here! I wish I could see Goldfinches more often but they are rare in these parts and I don't ever see sparrows. I used to see large flocks of tiny Chipping Sparrows in the winter but it's been a few years since I've spotted any of them. This is the first year in the 49 years I've been in Florida that I've seen house finches visiting the feeders in my yard and I love those pretty birds! Your pretty finch has a lot more color than the ones I've been seeing around here lately so I wonder if it could be the Purple Finch? I'm going out to water a few plants shortly and will take my camera in hopes of getting some bird pictures.

We have the Eastern Gray Squirrel here:

Hemlady said:Thanks Ann and Christine!!! I know one of the finches, purple or House, has more color than the other one but I can't recall which one.

The purple has the more color. Every one I saw online had purple (or I call it red) in the back. Your photo shows some color going down the back of the head & between the shoulder blades, then no red until you see it peeking form under the the wings there just at the base of the tail. Like this:
https://www.audubon.org/sites/...
And see the photos here:
http://animals.nationalgeograp...
And here:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...

The purple finch has much more red on it. See:
https://www.audubon.org/field-...

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/...

AND here are 3 sites comparing the 2.
http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/p...

http://birding.about.com/od/id...

http://sdakotabirds.com/diffid...

Lin, I have the house finches here.

Anyone recognize this cutie? I haven't had a chance to look through my multitude of photos or my bird book yet. I spotted it perched at the very top of a Cypress tree about an hour ago.


The one that I think is an Orchard Oriole was back ... eating the peanut suet


Northern Cardinal


House Finches, male & female ............. Snowy Egret ..... Heron/Snowy Egret/Pied-billed Grebe's

Cindy's finch is a House Finch. When I fed seed I used to have lots of House finch but rarely have them in my yard anymore. Now and then to get water. I have never seen a black squirrel in real life but would like too!

Not much variety here! Some of these taken on Sunday are not so good. I had the camera on a completely wrong setting!

Crows


A Downy on the pole and a Hairy on the suet.....size comparison.


Hairy Woodpecker


Red_bellied Woodpecker


A barely there Junco and a Titmouse


Female Pileated


Male Pileated

Great pictures, everyone! And squirrels come in black? I learned something new today. Here's a funny comic I saw on Facebook today. Embiggen for maximum humor.

Claudia, great shots!! I've been seeing huge flocks of Crows lately and boy are they loud! I don't ever see a crow visit the feeders though ... I think they find too many nests to raid for eggs and baby birds. Cool shots of the Downy and Hairy, good comparison of the size difference!

Melanie, cute comic. Black Squirrels are so pretty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Ok ... my contribution from this afternoon:

Northern Mockingbird


Red-bellied Woodpecker, female and still no ID on the one from this morning

A couple more...

Grackles congregating on the power lines .......... Pied-billed Grebe's

About 60 or 70 miles southeast of me there's a town named Olney, it is the home of the White Squirrel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Pictures of the whites -
https://images.search.yahoo.co...

Saw some there years ago. Haven't really been back since.

I think there's an enclave of black squirrels in Van der Veer Botanical Gardens in Davenport, Iowa. I took a picture some year's past, but it didn't turn out, subsequently discarded. I may inquire if they've 'a black squirrel population on site. If I do, I'll let you know.

We've squirrels in my neighborhood here in central Illinois, they usually have a reddish cast (but sometimes more brown or grey).. We hear them on the roof frequently. They like to steal sunflower heads in the fall. Surprisingly, they've never raided the bulbs in the garden (and there's a lot of bulbs, a whole lot...).

J ... those squirrels are so cool! It seems y'all have 7 different types of Squirrels in Illinois: http://animals.mom.me/types-sq... The only one I've ever seen here is the Gray Squirrel.

Oh, I found out what my mystery bird is ... I went back through a bunch of old photos and I'm pretty sure it's an Eastern Phoebe:

I was just coming on to suggest it was some type of Flycatcher!! :

A few more from earlier today...

White Ibises - these are pretty common, so it's easy to get a good shot of them


Yellow breasted finch


Mourning Dove

Gosh! Some terrific photos everyone! Seriously .... it's so fun to look through this thread each day to see all the birdie photos!

Claudia - I love, love, love the various woodpeckers you get at your feeders. I would love to see a Hairy, Downy, and a Pileated woodpecker. We have them here, but I only hear them on occasion, but never see them. The 2-3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers are regulars at my feeders.

Cindy - Love your black squirrel! How cool is that?!!! I only get the grey squirrels here. I have between 1 - 2 dozen squirrels that hang around my yard especially near the bird seed. I do feed the squirrels too, but they always want more ....

Lin - Wonderful photos as always! We can always count on you for some daily bird photos!

plantladylin said:J ... those squirrels are so cool! It seems y'all have 7 different types of Squirrels in Illinois: http://animals.mom.me/types-sq... The only one I've ever seen here is the Gray Squirrel.

Oh, I found out what my mystery bird is ... I went back through a bunch of old photos and I'm pretty sure it's an Eastern Phoebe:

Hummm... not so sure Lin. Could be a Great Crested Flycatcher or Eastern Wood Pee-wee
What bothers me with it being an Eastern Phoebe is the wing markings on it. The Eastern Phoebe doesn't seem to have as bright, pronounced wing bars as the bird in your photo.
See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

It sure can get so hard to ID these flycatchers. In certain lights they look much more olive or greenish & then again they can look more brownish. Wish we could see the chest & underparts in your photo.

Thanks for the squirrel link Ann. Interesting,

J, I think you meant Lin.

Ibis, great shots! I've been seeing a lot of White Ibises around lately, they are so much fun to watch. I think your little Yellow breasted Finch is actually the Palm Warbler; watch to see if it constantly flicks it's tail ... the Palm Warblers' tails are always twitching/flicking. Love the Mourning Dove!

Ann, you are correct. I was going through my old photos and that mystery bird is definitely not the Eastern Phoebe. I've been looking through my bird books and googling and I'm leaning towards the Eastern Wood-Pewee. This bird was smaller and the tail much shorter than the Great Crested Flycatcher which I've only seen during the summer months. I'm hoping the mystery bird will be around again tomorrow so that I can get shots at different angles and hopefully better lighting! If it is the Eastern Wood-Pewee, it's a first sighting for me.

Thanks for all the pics folks!! I love to relax and look at them - particularly all of them we do not have.

I have never seen nor heard of a Phoebe - but I am a Naturalist, not a Birder.

Love the Black squirrels in Michigan where I have seen a lot of them - lived there for 7 years. Never heard of a White squirrel either.

And I often see both a Downy & Hairy woodpeckers on my suet feeder. The Downy comes nearly every day.

Belatedly, thanks Lin (link).