I love the blue birds. Especially when they scope out our birdhouse like they are at an open house tour. Credit this picture to Mary Prochnow, my neighbor.

Activity 3:  I think my favorite neighborhood bird may be the nuthatch.  I see them going up and down trees in my yard.  Better yet, someone a few blocks away has a feeder next to the sidewalk that they frequent.  When I go for a walk I can stand on the sidewalk a short distance away and watch them take a seed, wedge it between the ridges on the bark of the tree that supports the feeder, and crack it open.  After I observed this behavior it dawned on me that that's how they got their name.

Lately I've welcomed goldfinches to my feeders! I've also had a lot of dark eyed juncos (slate) and mourning doves and have been lucky enough to have some downy woodpeckers and nuthatches (mostly red breasted but did see one white breasted the other day!). The juncos are one of my favourites, I love how they hop/shuffle to uncover seeds buried under the snow.

We were on a driving trip this past August in southern Manitoba, Canada. We rounded a curve on a quiet secondary road and there in front of us, on a large lake was a flock of white Pelicans, about 20 in all. They were swimming around actively, fishing, accompanied by about 15-20 black cormorants. Before this, we had only ever seen grey pelicans, only in Mexico, and assumed their habitat did not include Canada. I read on the Wall of Birds, that they like to congregate on interior lakes in southern Canada, in the summer breeding season. This lake was aptly called Pelican Lake, not far from Baldur, Manitoba.

On the wall of birds, I was intrigued by the Montezuma Oropendola, a bird I'd never heard of before and whose call was unique. In my backyard in Northern California I've most recently seen dark-eyed juncos, California Towhees, Anna's hummingbirds, and crows that love the redwoods behind the house. My favorite backyard bird is the Oak Titmouse, a little grey songbird that has really interesting behaviors and family structures. I couldn't get a picture of him, but he is small and light grey with a short sharp beak and a fun triangular tuft on the top of his head.

Activity 1: My favourite birds were the crested satinbird and great tinamou due to their uniqueness and unexpected shapes. Activity 2: I see songbirds such as robins, wrens and crows extremely often, and I love feeding water birds like mallards, canada geese, greylag geese and the occasional mandarin duck in my local park. Most people I know have seen woodpeckers in the area, and I know that the great spotted, lesser spotted and green can all be found nearby, but sadly my only sighting has been one green woodpecker from a distance. Activity 3: I would say that my favourite bird in my neighbourhood is the european robin. They visit my garden all the time and I recently set up a nest box for them. I love how cute and round they look and how fearless and inquisitive they are. 

Activity 1: my favorite bird from the bird wall was the toco toucan. Activity 2: I have mostly black- capped chickadees and tufted titmice for the songbirds. I have Downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers in the woodpecker family, and I commonly see red tailed hawks.  Activity 3: My favorite birds to watch on my window feeders are Eastern Bluebirds. I had been trying to attract them, and now they are there every day.

Activity 1: My favorites birds were 1) Kakapo, 2) Long-tailed Manakin and 3) the Common Loon   Activity 2: We have a pretty active birdfeeder outside of our kitchen window. We regularly see the regular array of upstate NY songbirds (Black-capped Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Juncos, Tufted Titmice (Titmouses?), lots of woodpeckers (Downy, Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, even a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers in the summer). There is a Grouse that lives in our woods. I've never seen him, but we can hear him "thump" when we walk through.   Activity 3: My favorite birds are Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They come around in the summer and fall in group and this past year I saw their close relative the Evening Grosbeak for the first time!

I'm just learning to attract a variety of species to my yard, and was lucky enough to catch this little Nuthatch stopping by for a drink.  It's cold here in Michigan as well, and the heated water is irresistible to them.  It's amazing to me how they will share the birdbath with many other birds, without being frightened away. I'm anxious to learn more about these amazing little creatures!

It's pretty cold here in Boston.  I suspect the most fruitful use of my time will have to wait until I install the bird feeder that I gave myself for Christmas.  :-). More later.

Activity 1: Great Blue Heron - Carolina Wren - Prothonotary Warbler Activity 2: Red-tailed Hawk - Rosette Spoonbill - Northern Cardinal Activity 3: Black and White Warbler. These are so fun to watch!

Activity #1.  I hiked around a local lake that has an eagle's nest in which both were perched on the nest.  The female, which is about 25% larger spread her wings and both made distinct calls. This nest was about four wide by three feet and eagles continually build on to their nests adding one to two feet each year.

I've been lucky lately with raptor sightings. I think the pic above is a red-shouldered hawk seen at a local college campus. It was lightly raining at the time and the bird was surprisingly bold, sitting on the lawn and gracefully swooping into a tree and then to a lamppost. Such beautiful color and form! I also got lucky with a bald-eagle sighting this week!

Activity 1: The sunbittern is my favorite bird of the ones I explored on the wall of birds. Activity 2: I went to a state park yesterday and observed 1) Songbird: A tufted titmouse (songbird). Also present and easily spotted were numerous northern cardinals, yellow rumped warblers, ruby crowned kinglets and blue gray gnatcatchers. 2) Waterbirds: Cormorants: An Anhinga perched quite close to the walking trail and not very concerned with the people passing close by. This is the closest I have ever been to one of these magneficent birds. Picture attached.  Several migratory ducks were present and attached is a picture that has Ring necked ducks (one male and two female) and a lesser scaup(male). The duck and scaup males look quite similar at first glance. 3) Raptors: It was a good day for raptors, as I approached the gate in my car, I observed an Osprey carrying a fish and flying alongside the road presumably looking for a suitable perch. Turkey vultures are common occurrence in this park but yesterday there were several hundred vultures soaring. A white tailed hawk was also seen soaring. Activity 3: Of the song birds in my neighborhood, I absolutely love the scarlet tanagers. These are temporary visitors arriving in spring briefly when the mulberry tree in the backyard is full of ripe berries. I was able to photograph some this year. One of the pictures is attached.

I just did activity 2 - took my dog on a walk to the dog park and kept my eyes peeled for different birds. I think I saw a dark eyed junco from the sparrow grouping, and I am also pretty sure that I saw a downy woodpecker from the woodpecker grouping. Lastly I saw some crows - I saw that they are under song birds, but I am not sure what the subgrouping would be! Are they in the "other" category? I know they are corvids, but I am not sure if that is one of these sub categories - I also wonder if a raven would be considered a song bird as well.

Not a great shot, but was thrilled to see this female Pileated Woodpecker last week when I met my friend in a city park. I always enjoy seeing these in this park and in the river valley of Edmonton. The female has a red top but starts further back from the bill. They have a grey line coming from the mouth whereas the male has a red line.

I enjoy the high-pitched sounds of a Nuthatch, described as "a toy horn." I took this image through the window at a friend's when I was doing a bird count. I had one land in my hand once, SO light. It was following the example of fellow Black-capped Chickadees, used to being fed by people.

Happy Holidays from the Midwest! One of my favorite fall/winter birds is the White-Breasted Nuthatch. I love to watch them hop up and down the trees feeding on suet. This winter I also saw a group/convoy (I don't actually know what a group of songbirds official name is) of male and female Eastern Bluebirds sticking their heads in and out of a birdhouse. It was very interesting, and at the same time entertaining. (Random Fun Fact: a group of owls is called a parliament.) I will try to snap a picture of some kind of bird soon. Happy Bird-Watching!

Activity 3: I live in Northeast Iowa. A frequent favorite bird I enjoy to watch is the Black-capped chickadee. I love seeing them grab 1 seed from the feeder at a time. A favorite bird I only see in the winter-time is the red-breasted nuthatch. I have one that has come back each winter for 2 years now. It is so tiny and unique-looking!

Activity 1: I was drawn to the I'iwi bird of Hawaii. I used to live there, long before I became a birder. After listening to the song, I recognized it! I can't wait to go back to Hawaii, this time looking at and enjoying the birds!

Activity 3: I live in a wooded suburb of Richmond, Virginia. I fell in love with the flute-like song of the wood thrush and it took me a while before even finding out what kind of bird I was hearing. I got binoculars to try and find it. For months I tried in vain. Finally, I saw it hopping on the ground. Maybe one day I will see it when it is singing on a branch, but it is in my area only from about March to September. I learned that it will raise young from eggs left in its nest by parasitic birds such as the brown headed cowbird. Therefore it wastes time it could be producing its own broods. Anyway, the wood thrush was a spring board for me to get interested in birding in general. -Linda

Greetings from Illinois.  My favorite bird is the Northern Cardinal.  The male is red and the female is fawn with grayish-brown tones with reddish tints.  The Northern Cardinal is a year-round visitor to our backyard feeder.  This photo was taken from my window on a snowy day.

Este hermoso carpintero estaba alimentándose en el árbol que esta enfrente de la casa, cuando este hermoso árbol se llena de frutos, tenemos la fortuna de poder observar muchas especies, pájaros carpinteros cheje, charas yucatecas, luis bienteveo, centzontle tropical, una tarde llegamos a contar ¡cinco carpinteros cheje! Las Aves son increíbles. La pared de las aves es maravillosa, en una de nuestras visitas al laboratorio tuvimos la fortuna de coincidir con la artista, que estaba pintando un hermoso momoto. Fue increíble poder observarla trabajando con tanto talento, paciencia y pasión. Es una gran herramienta para aprender y compartir.

Activity 1: I loved the Wall of Birds!! I especially liked that there were pictures and descriptions listed. The extinct birds gave a window to the past as well as variations of birds we see today!   Activity 2: I have seen mostly songbirds, but saw a heron the other day and regularly see red-tailed hawks!   My favorite bird is a Cardinal!

Greetings from Florida!  I had a rare visit from a Roseate Spoonbill and attempted to catch a quick photo.  The Great Egret is a regular visitor, but a joy to watch just the same.