Took these two a few minutes ago.

Northern Cardinal perched in a Crape Myrtle Tree and a Northern Mockingbird perched in a Palm Tree, singing his heart out:

Nice.

Sweet.

Thanks y'all ... I just love my backyard birds!

My Saturday bird photo's to share.

Anhinga perched in a shrub across the water from my deck and a Great Egret in my backyard:


I got a couple of blurry pic's of a pair of Roseate Spoonbill's that were feeding along the waters edge and then one in flight:


And the regular back-yard birds. A Common Grackle, and Blue Jay:

Long shot down the street; I didn't realize the J's were there till downloaded pics...
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Couple dozen birds.

Cool ... I love doves and Jays and ... all of them! The little ones look like chipping sparrows and the single dark colored bird in the group looks like a grackle maybe?

I suspect the black one is a starling.

Good bird photos Lin.

J, I believe the black bird is a Brewer's Blackbird, it has a light colored eye and is all black, no speckles, also House Sparrows in the group, good shot.

A few from my yard this afternoon.

Red-bellied Woodpecker:

Downy Woodpecker ................ and Red-winged Blackbird:

Lin, beautiful birds and I love your new avatar, such a pretty rose.

Thanks Margaret! The name of the rose in my avatar picture is 'Paradise' and it's one of my favorites. We moved almost a year ago and are renting out the other house; our tenants are young and I don't know if they are into gardening or not so I'm not even sure if that rose bush is still alive.

We are having some extremely windy weather here on the east coast due to Hurricane Sandy. The rains haven't hit yet but it's certainly looking like we will be getting doused here shortly. The wind gusts have been wreaking havoc with the container plants on my back porch and deck today ... so many blown over with stems and branches broken but I'm not going to do any clean up until the storm passes.

Anyway ... I was out in the yard about an hour ago and spotted this bird in the cypress tree along with a few Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles and Brown-headed Cowbirds. It kept watching the other birds fly down to the feeder and it would try to land on the feeder but it seemed to be intimidated by the other birds and would flutter about one of the feeders and then fly right back up to a tree branch. I never did see it get any food. I first thought it was an Oriole of some sort but I'm really not sure which bird it is. Tthe beak looks more like the Brown-headed Cowbird but it's larger than a Cowbird. The only Orioles in my Florida Bird book are the Baltimore Oriole (which has a black head), the Orchard Oriole (which also has a black head) and the Spot-breasted Oriole which is also wrong. Those Orioles all have long pointed beaks which this one has a beak more like the Cowbird and those Orioles aren't found in this part of Florida. Anyone have any guesses?

Lin, your bird is a male Yellow-headed Blackbird, we get lots of them here in the spring and summertime and usually they are not that timid, maybe it is a young one.

Took me awhile but I finally found the female Yellow-headed Blackbirds photo with a group of Brown-headed Cowbirds and a female Red-winged Blackbird.
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Margaret: That's it!! I saw pictures of that one at the website of the Cornell Lab of Ornothology (a great site that I use a lot!): http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g... but I didn't consider the Yellow-headed Blackbird because nothing I read when googling showed it here in Florida. I just checked my Florida bird book and it says "This western species usually appears somewhere in Florida each winter; often a single bird, in a block of Red-winged Blackbirds or Common Grackles." Apparently this bird is here in Florida from September through April. It's apparently a male because of the white wing patches (females don't have the white wing patches) and I'm thinking too that it must be a juvenile. My bird book says the immature males are brownish with a pale yellow head and although this one is brownish orange and doesn't have a pale yellow head, he may just be growing into his colors ... a teenager perhaps?

Your photo's are great! It's such a beautiful and colorful bird ... I hope to see it again after this storm passes! Thanks so much for the correct ID!

Thanks Lin, and your welcome for the id. I use that web site also for bird id, one of the best.

mcash70 said: I use that web site also for bird id, one of the best.

A couple of pictures from this morning.

Red-bellied WP & Brown-headed Cowbirds & Mourning Dove & Yellow-headed Blackbird, all in the cypress tree:


A little Northern Cardinal eating seed on the ground beneath a feeder:

A few pictures from this afternoon.

Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird & a Common Grackle: