January 27, 2016
These cold winter days all it takes is some tempting seed hanging outside your window and the entertainment begins. This bird house covered in various seeds was a Christmas gift from my daughter to both me and my backyard birds. It gets picked clean pretty fast but can easily be reseeded by covering with peanut butter and then dipping into a bucket full of seed.
It’s not easy to tell the difference between the Black Capped Chickadee and the Carolina Chickadee. Interestingly, I live right on the dividing line of where the 2 Chickadees reside – Black Capped generally live to the north of the line and the Carolina generally lives to the south of the line – thus, we get both! My best guess, without getting too technical, is this bird is a Carolina Chickadee. These little rascals are also very quick so to get 3 decent photos in one day is amazing luck!
This Tufted Tit Mouse has a unique feature that she bows her head to say grace before meals.
The sunlight really highlighted this female Cardinal’s beauty. The dainty Carolina Wren has rarely come to my feeder this winter, so it’s a special treat when I see her.
The Purple Finch is a colorful addition to my backyard and they are plentiful all year round. It can be difficult to tell the Purple Finch from the House Finch as they are both pinkish in color. The easiest way to differentiate is the Purple Finch’s beak is cone shaped and the House Finch’s beak curves downward a bit.
The Pine Siskin is another bird I don’t see often so I was doubly
delighted to see 2 !
This unique looking bird is leucistic . That’s when there is a partial loss of pigmentation , causing white patchy feathers. In my 10 years of birding, this is a first!
Lastly, these Mourning Doves found a comfy place to relax on my patio chair. Normally I see them ground feeding or drinking from my bird bath, but I guess today they decided “to sit and rest a spell”.
Hope you enjoyed this peek into my backyard birding and thanks for reading!