But that one is a street or feral pigeon (I have to say, I too think he's handsome), the 'flying rat'...

Here's a wood pigeon:


and a stock pigeon:


Perhaps they all look a bit similar...

So after I hopped on this forum, I never saw a bird for a week. But today, finally, I got a not very good picture of a bird in my backyard under the feeder. I don't know what he/she is...some sort of sparrow? These guys are more recent visitors. Juncos and towhees seem to be the most common visitors.



He's on the rock.

Sorry for the cellphone pic. I need to dig out my camera. You all have beautiful, crisp pictures.

Interesting little bird, Laurel! To me he looks like a sparrow with a black hat on, or even a sparrow after a head transplant... I'm sure one of the experts will be able to identify him. Meantime, I would love to see pics of juncos and/or towhees; we don't get either here!

PS If you want to see 'uncrisp' photos, Laurel, look at my bat photos at the start of this month's thread!

GrammaChar, lovely White-winged Doves! We have lots of Mourning Doves here and I've heard that they are many dove hunters although I've thankfully never seen anything take a dove except a hawk.

Mika, those Pigeons sure have pretty coloration, I especially like that wood pigeon!

Laurel, That little cutie looks like a sparrow to me too. It reminds me of the Chipping Sparrow we see in winter here but California has a few types of sparrows. Could also be a Song Sparrow.

I can't remember if I welcomed Laurel, so I'm the friendly moderator around these parts. Okay, this forum.

I got a new camera and you guys know I've been wanting to really put it to the test. It's in a class called a superzoom camera because it can zoom really far. But it also takes good macro shots for when I'm taking photos of my caterpillars. Well, I missed taking a photo of the Cardinal today, although I confirmed he's the bird making the "pew, pew, pew" video game sounds. I had been thinking about how I'd seen all these crows in the yard recently and wondering why the Red-Shouldered Hawks hadn't been around to chase them off. But today, I saw the Hawk! Now, it landed on a lamppost about two houses down the street from me so I took these from very, very far away. But that's good so I don't scare them off, right? I think they turned out pretty well.



I saw a black bird on the power line and was trying not to scare it. Might be a crow? My camera warned me that the picture was backlit but I didn't feel like arguing with it. So not the best pics, but you get the idea.

Wow, this thread grows quickly!! Charlotte, your doves are beautiful!
I looked up 'gopher plant' and it is indeed my euphorbia. Here's an English robin, puffed up because it's been cold today, sitting in the gopher plant:




And all the baby birds!

Melanie, love the hawk - impressive photos of an impressive bird

Wow - and I do mean Wow! Now I want a wood pigeon and a red-shouldered hawk and beautiful koi garden sculptures and a puffed-up English robin....and all that's just on this page!!! Fantastic posts!
Melanie, that is one mean telephoto lens you got there! Curious about the rating on it...two houses away??? Gracious!

Melanie, on those shots of the Red-shouldered Hawk!! I've been hearing and seeing hawks around here lately but haven't had my camera handy to get any pictures yet. My husband told me this morning that he found a pile of feathers in the yard so apparently one of the hawks got either a dove or a mockingbird .. I went out and looked and the feathers were all gray with a bit of white. That second bird does appear to be a crow at least with that thick bill, it looks like a crow to me. What kind of camera did you get; I'd love to have one with more zoom possibility!

Mika, that Robin is beautiful!

Great Hawk shots Melanie!

I saw my Chipping Sparrow for the summer this week along with the first Brown Headed Cowbirds. Love the sparrows, not so much the cowbirds! Also saw a Gold Finch out on the feeder the other day but missed getting a photo. It was a male who was just beginning to get his bright yellow breeding color.

I put the humming bird feeders out Thursday evening. Last week we had freeze warnings. Today we got up to 80 and turned the AC on.

Melanie!!!!

Love the puffy robin Mika.

Thanks, everyone! After much research, I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50. It has a 30x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom. The lens comes out way farther than my old camera! There's actually a newer model, the ZS60, but people who had owned both seemed to prefer the 50 model. I just checked Amazon and the price has come down, but I ordered a bundle sold by Ritz Camera through Amazon that had lots of goodies in it and was cheaper than the camera alone (at the time). So I've got spare batteries, a charger, an SD card, two tripods, a lens cleaner kit, screen protectors, a flash attachment, etc. Lots of fun things I'll have to learn to use. And a word of warning - I plan on rocking the photo contest this year!

Melanie!! It sounds like you got a great deal with all those extras! I know you will have fun with the new camera and all of it's capabilities!

I am so technically challenged ... well, really it's that I'm "older" and I'm set in my ways ... or to be truthful, it's that I'm lazy. My husband has been telling me for the past ten or more years that I should take the time to study my camera and it's capabilities but I still haven't done it. Did I mention that I'm LaZy and as my mom used to say "Old habits are hard to break!"

I'm technically challenged too. Lin, I can probably top you, not that I'm proud of it. I got a new computer two years ago but I've been using my old one because I couldn't figure out how to get my photo program to work (or the word program to read my documents). Two days ago my old computer took a nose dive... I woke up to find it had crashed! Soooo, now I'm sitting here on my new computer; the picture is really nice and it types like a dream but I can't upload pictures! among the many other things I'm trying to figure out! I'm going to have dh take a look at it today... maybe I need a new camera; a Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS50.

I went out to check on the baby cardinals this morning and found an empty nest. I researched online and learned that cardinals will leave the nest between 9-11 days after hatching which is about right. I have an area that I put out feed for the birds and continued to see the mother and father bird feeding but they were flying to my neighbors yard. I suspect that the young ones are there. It's a better place, lots of area for birds to learn to fly and hopefully no predators. It has been fun while it lasted. I don't know what to do with the nest-- I guess I'll take it out and display it. Thanks to everyone for the comments!!!!

Anole

I bet they are in the neighbor's yard John. Time for them to fledge & grow up to fly & be big birds. Fly babies, fly!

anole said:I went out to check on the baby cardinals this morning and found an empty nest. I researched online and learned that cardinals will leave the nest between 9-11 days after hatching which is about right. I have an area that I put out feed for the birds and continued to see the mother and father bird feeding but they were flying to my neighbors yard. I suspect that the young ones are there. It's a better place, lots of area for birds to learn to fly and hopefully no predators. It has been fun while it lasted. I don't know what to do with the nest-- I guess I'll take it out and display it. Thanks to everyone for the comments!!!!

Anole

9-11 days is really fast! The nests here get reused, sometimes by the same birds and sometimes by completely different ones, so you might consider letting them recycle it?
This one (admittedly not very beautiful compared to yours!) is under a thatched porch outside one of our back doors It's been used for three years now - built by collared doves, then used by blackbirds, then again by collared doves:



We also have one in our wood-shed and one on top of our fire alarm bell (hope it never goes off or the poor birds will be deaf for life!)- both used more than once.

Thank you so much for sharing your photos - it's been really exciting to watch their rapid development!

Wow that seems so young. Yesterday we saw the cute little Carolina Wren's leaving the nest, flying from the ground into the trees.

John, sorry you missed the fledging of those cute little Cardinal babies but sometimes we humans are just not quick enough! I bet those babies are hanging out in trees and shrubbery nearby with the adult still feeding them on occasion.