Char, your titmice are adorable - so cute.

It really is awesome to come over here and look at all of the different bird photos!

I had a busy bird-day yesterday. They were making quite the racket until someone showed up...

Mississippi Kite



It stayed really quiet until the kite moved on. The kites are around often and there's one that actually follows my dh when he's on his riding mower. He calls it his mowing buddy.

When the birds started to move back in, I noticed this Giant Flycatcher diving down into one of the veggie gardens.

Sitting on the fence ~

Totally adorable!

Nice photos, Christine. That Kite is really handsome - although I can see that 'normal' birds would find him very scary! And your Giant Flycatcher is very cute - is there a non-giant variety of flycatcher?

According to Birds of Southern California, we have 8 different Flycatchers here. And just for fun 2 Gnatcatchers.

Does that mean you have lots of flies? Gnatcatchers being smaller than flycatchers?

No more flys than anywhere else in the country. Not a giant among the flycatchers, and yes, the gnatcatchers are very small.

I wish we had some here - around our stream and ponds we get lots of midges...

Yes, we have several flycatchers. Usually you can recognize them by their poofy hairdo. They're my favorites because they eat lots of bug pests from the gardens.

Here's one of the smaller flycatchers, I think. It was high in the tree.


Phoebes are flycatchers, probably my favorite because they nest here every year. Viewing from the kitchen window.


**Here's a link for the small flycatcher I think is in my second photo. http://www.audubon.org/field-g...

That's an interesting link, Christine, thanks. Why don't the flycatchers get stung by the wasps and bees that they catch?

Beautiful shots there, I do love the kite. He's very elegant. And scary looking.

I seem to have another family of cardinals coming to the feeders the last few days. Here's their baby, looking very bratty and making a lot of cheecheepcheep sounds whilst fluttering his wings for dad to feed him.



The bluejay family are still around and arrive en masse, usually one adult and all three of the juveniles. The young ones wait politely for the parent to eat first, I noticed today. Here they are having spotted me, I think. "Hey, someone's watching us!" "What!!??" Plus a pretty shot of the back of one that shows the colors nicely.



Oh, and I caught the squirrel in the act of raiding the cage feeder - she hasn't figured out how to use her hands to scoop out seeds like the other one.

Great photos, Elaine. And Christine, I LOVE the Kite!!!!!

These are all superb photos, Elaine, like little film strips telling stories. Love the bratty baby cardinal, so cute! That bluejay in the third photo is certainly giving you the eye, and the fourth bluejay is brilliant for its detail of the wonderful patterning. And I have a real soft spot for squirrels, so I love the antics of yours (it looks quite small - is it a juvenile?) Wonderful post!

for the Kite Christine!!! We have them here but I've yet to get a photo of one. Love them!


Elaine you sure described that baby cardinal spot on! I think I would have to turn that spoiled, demanding brat over my knee & give it a whipping.

Love, love, love the blue jays. I think they are one of the most handsome birds.

Ann. I've never seen the bratty cardinal babes but how cute!

All wonderful pictures, dyzzy! As I already mentioned, those cardinal pics are really cute! Funny squirrel too.


Oh, and sorry all about my fuzzy pics, I think it's because it's humid outside and when I bring the camera out, the lens fogs up. But, you know how it is, have to take the opportunity to get a picture every chance I get.

Okay, maybe it's just because I saw "The Conjuring 2" at the movies today, but that Mississippi Kite has some ghostly looking eyes!

Speaking of Kites, I have my own to share! I was getting in the car to leave for the movies when I saw the Swallowtail Kite flying around! Dad said he had seen it while he was playing in the garage the other day. I pointed my camera skyward and did the best I could.



I came home this afternoon and was wandering around and freeing the hostages (moth and a butterfly) when I saw the Swallowtail Kite again! After I took some pics, I just stood there staring up at it. And that's when I saw another Swallowtail Kite flying just above the tree line! So there are definitely two of them in the neighborhood. My book says they will share territory so I guess it's not necessarily a male and female pair.



Did someone say they liked Blue Jays? I was actually tracking a woodpecker in my neighbor's tree when I saw this Blue Jay. Since I didn't get its picture yesterday, I decided to make up for it.



Female Cardinal under the bird feeder. I was surprisingly close, but I was standing very still.

You done GOOD with the kite Melanie! It's HARD to get photos of birds on the wing.
another blue jay!
Such a sweet looking little cardinal.

Nice pics, Melanie! Speaking of swallows, there are at least a hundred of Barn Swallows nesting at the overpass on the freeway, saw them today on the way to town. It was quite a sight to see nest after nest lined up along the bridge and I couldn't even begin to count how many nests in the tree growing off the side of the freeway! Swallows are very interesting birds, apparently they will live in colonies. I don't know if you all recall my story about the barn swallows that nested under our porch one year. They are very social little birds.

I'm pretty sure everything with "swallow" in their name is named after the swallow birds who all have the forked tail.

Red Shouldered Hawk




Okay, here's another flicker movie for you. Click fast & it lifts it's leg & ends up standing on only one.

Neat, Ann. But warning, if you click too many times, the hawk turns into a Downy Woodpecker!