Joy of Birdwatching

Our feeders and our neighbor's feeders bring in lots of birds. One of my favorites is a pair of Carolina Wrens. They actually nested in one of our deck side flower boxes last year. Before that, I had never even heard of them, let alone seen one. I am hoping they do the same this year. (Songbirds) Another favorite is Downy Woodpeckers. We have a male and a female that visit both our tube and suet feeders daily. I also had not heard of or seen a Downy Woodpecker before I started watching the feeders. (Woodpeckers) And lastly, I have always enjoyed Mourning Doves. We have between one and four that visit each day, picking up seed from beneath the tube feeder. They look elegant and make a wonderful cooing sound. (Pigeons and Doves)   Carolina Wren almost ready to fledge last spring.

I have found birds mostly in my yard.  The first is a songbird. I have a LOT of sparrows in my yard that I have come to learn are white-crowned sparrows. Another bird I saw while on a bike ride was a wild turkey-from the chicken-like group.  There was even a big Tom Turkey showing off his feathers.  My favorite part was his blue head. Another bird I saw in my yard was from the Hummingbird group.  It was an Anna's Hummingbird.  I was surprised to see it here in the late winter, but learned they hang around my area year-round.

I enjoyed exploring the Wall of Birds and spent time reading about many of the birds families represented on it.  I hope to have the opportunity to see it in-person one day.

Last year I monitored Bluebird Boxes for our county parks. I found tree swallows instead of bluebirds. I enjoyed observing and learning about their habits.  They were full of energy. This activity prompted me to take this course to learn more about other birds.

My name is Nori. I am 10 years old.  My favorite bird from the Wall of Birds is the American White Pelican.  Pelicans eat fish. The white pelican scoops fish out of the water. My mom helped me with this.

Hi I'm Henry. I live in Merriam KS. I am 8 years old and I recently looked at the wall of birds and my favorite was the osprey

I live in Berkeley, CA and have been enjoying identifying many new birds, but my favorite is the Bushtit. Though not very distinctive in color, they are adorable and rich in personality, tiny butterballs of pure energy. I love how they blow through the yard in berserk little flocks, peeping away and flitting about from shrub to tree for a minute or two before cruising on to new destinations. I don't have a good pic of my own, so I borrowed this one from the web.

Activity 3: Ever since I was a little child I have always celebrated the arrival of spring. My mother says she doesn’t know how I developed my fascination with the first day of spring! Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s not even that big of a transition out of winter! But now I have lived in Wisconsin for almost 40 years. The end of winter is a huge thing for me!! So every March I begin my American Robin watch. I make note in my calendar the first time I see a robin in my city, and again when I see one in my yard. It’s my own little victory celebration for surviving another winter.

Activity 2: my husband and I are brand new to birding. We are loving the Merlin app! Of course we have always been able to identify familiar birds in our neighborhood: songbirds such as robins, swimmers such as mallard ducks and Canadian geese, and woodpeckers. But we were excited to identify a common grackle, a blackbird, in our visit to a nearby state park yesterday. This is going to be a fun post-retirement hobby!

My favorite bird changes from day to day.   Actually, I have two favorites, very similar.  They are the Red-breasted Nuthatch and the White-breasted Nuthatch.   The first is the color.  Not many local birds have a lot of blue, so it makes them easy to identify.  I love the intensity of the blue in both varieties.  I like it that they are not shy.   I can get relatively close and watch for more than a few seconds before they fly away.  But most of all I like their climbing behavior.   They are as comfortable upside-down as upside-up.   While most backyard birds are active and persistent, the nuthatches seem so curious and thorough, looking at every crack from every possible angle.

My favorite bird this year has been a mating pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers that have been regular daily feeders in my front yard.

Curious to find out about the "beautifully colored bird" that my daughter spied while in Mexico, I research it and we both agreed that it probably was a turquoise browed motmot.  Finding it on the Wall of Birds, I learned that it has a really long forked tail that it swings back and forth like a pendulum while perching in trees watching for food.  Fascinating!

as a new homeowner in southern Maryland ( grew up in Massachusetts). i have been seeing a lot of the same birds from childhood me and my mother loved identifying. I've focused a lot of time and energy to see what feeders work for who and during the colder months been making sure my juncos are well fed but i must say i love my wrens! something funny about a little brown golf ball flying through the wind . A lot of new birds have caught my eye and the most distinct are my pine siskins! for the longest time i had no idea who they were and of course had to make a phone call to ole mom who apparently knows all. I've utilized a lot of my deck space, hangers, garden space in the front yard and many of dollars spent at wild birds unlimited but I cant get enough. the kids get excited to see a bird now and we all watch and identify and do our best to get pictures! happy hunting!

Activity 2 and 3: We saw surf scoters today! Along with Brandt’s Cormorants, and the ubiquitous (and my favorites) Buffleheads. Buffleheads-my favorite because of their up-then-down diving behavior- they are so cute! Greater and lesser scaups, redheads, and mersangers, bluebirds, Savannah and Song sparrows, ravens, red tailed hawks, white tailed kites, Anna’s hummingbirds. It was a lovely day for birding.

I'm very new to birding, and my current favourite bird is the ruby-crowned kinglet (zoom into the middle of the photo; my partner managed to get this with her phone). I also love the golden-crowned kinglet, but I love the cartoony eyes on the ruby-crowned. They are tiny and adorable and constantly moving, so incredibly hard to photograph, but I can usually count on seeing them at a park not too far from my house.

Activity 2.  I have been a long time bird lover, but very poorly educated, particularly with US birds, so the pandemic has given me time and opportunity to learn more about the birds I see.  I have been keeping a track of the birds that I see on my feeders and on my property and there is a much greater variety than I expected. In fact I have seen 18 different species since I started taking note and I can confirm that the Merlin app is very good!  Most exciting to me was three different species of sparrow, House Sparrow, Song Sparrow and White Throated Sparrow.  In the UK we only had one type.

Activity 1. I picked three birds, the White Throated Dipper, who was a favorite of mine as a child growing up in the UK, he was very polite and curtseyed to us as we walked by.  The other two are the Vulture Guineafowl and the King Vulture.  I love vultures, I think they're fascinating and they provide such a very necessary service to our environment, I learned a couple of years ago that some of them can even safely ingest Anthrax, so powerful are their digestive juices.

Activities 2 and 3: I have bird feeders for the first time and we have been really enjoying seeing all of the birds. So far we have titmice, white-breasted nuthatch, house finches, house sparrows, blue jays, black-capped chickadees, Carolina wrens, mourning doves, red-bellied woodpeckers, and I think a Hairy woodpecker.  I also feed crows sometimes that hang out in the neighborhood. So, multiple categories. Picking a favorite is really hard. Either the red-bellied woodpecker just because of its sheer beauty or the black-capped chickadees for their spunk and flight pattern.

Activity two. I recently signed up for a local birdwatching class and we have traveled to some state parks and beaches in the area of Sarasota, Florida. For me the waders are fairly easy to identify. The spoonbill is one of my favorite. The raptors are plentiful here, and I have been able to observe ospreys a bald eagles. The group that I have the most difficulty with observing is the song birds. Yes Cardinals and Blue Jays are easy to spot, but I am finding it very difficult to identify the different types of warblers. Even with binoculars they are tough to identify. I’m hoping this course will help me look for ways to identify them. Activity three. I am very fortunate to live on a small pond in Sarasota, FL  There are some beautiful birds right in my backyard, which is one of the reasons why I became interested in birdwatching. The Woodstork  is one of my favorites  They are extremely friendly and fun to watch.  

Activity one.  I thoroughly enjoyed the interactive bird wall. After exploring it for awhile, I found three birds that I would really like to see in the wild. The first one is the Shoebill, located in Africa. The second bird I would love to see is the Atlantic puffin. And the third bird I would love to see in the wild is the flamingo. Living in Florida for several years, I have only seen them in zoos and jungle gardens.  Recently retired, once pandemic is over, I would like to travel and do some extreme birdwatching!

I completed all 3 activities.

• Activity 1: The Wall of Birds is really cool! I definitely want to go see it in person. It was interesting to see the size of some of the extinct birds - I can't imagine seeing something with a 20-foot wingspan overhead - but my favorite was the splendid fairywren for these reasons:
  • I love the whimsical name.
  • I love its color (bright blue).
  • My nickname is Wren, so I feel a personal connection. :-)
• Activity 2: Knowing that most birds you see are songbirds really helps narrow down the groups. I used the opportunity to learn more about a bird I've heard several people mention lately - the junco. I looked it up in the Merlin app and immediately realized that I have been seeing them in my own backyard without ever realizing what they were.
• Activity 3: I am not sure it's my  bird, but seeing a cardinal in the snow is a treat.

I live on the salt marsh along the coast of South Carolina. From my backyard, I can observe birds from most of the bird families (except chicken-like birds and parrots). This past week I’ve seen a pair of Hooded Mergansers, White Egrets, Ibis, Great Blue Herons, Bluebirds, Robins, Sparrows (not sure what type), Downy Woodpeckers and Red-Winged Blackbirds. My favorite bird is the Bluebird.  I have a Bluebird box and most years I watch the babies hatch and fledge. It’s so much fun observing them.  At times it can be scary because a Hawk will come into the yard and go after them.

This pictures is of the first Varied Thrush I've seen and it happened on my back deck during the Backyard Count.