Activity 3 - My favorite bird is the Hummingbird. At my feeder in North Central Texas, I observe only the Black-chinned Hummingbird. I am amazed at the way they can fly in so many directions - and hover!

I’m in Northern Maryland, and there are so many birds I love! Our neighborhood has a secret trail in a forest that birds love. I’ve seen warblers, a kinglet, and an oriole in this spot. In my backyard, there is the occasional bluebird, a regular pair of Carolina chickadees, catbirds, goldfinches, and more. I recently caught a picture of this molting goldfinch On my feeder, and it was one of my favorites of the year

I’m in west central New Jersey, believe it or not NJ has lots of farmland and woods and that’s where I live. Bird group representatives I’ve seen this week include the pileated woodpecker - gorgeous! - of the woodpecker group, the black headed vulture and bald eagle of the raptor group , and robins and Eastern bluebirds of the songbird group. I’m not good at recognizing more than a handful of birdsongs, I’m hoping to get better at that. My dad was a birder and I have many fond memories of watching birds with him. This seems like a good time to build on that childhood foundation of birding! PS I love reading where everyone is from!

I am hunkered down in Anchorage, AK.  I have a bald eagle nest very near my condo.   I watched them build the nest and now sitting the nest.   I'm waiting for the American Robins so arrive and start singing.

This is a bluebird that is nesting on my porch- a full nest of babies. I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a rural community. I am surrounded by farmland, forest and marsh and birds love it here. We see bluebirds on this neck often, but I have never had them nesting in my yard. I am very excited about this because if all goes well they will come back next year too. I will also be looking for the Carolina Wren that I read about on the wall of birds. I believe these are common here. and now that I can connect the song to the bird I will be looking. We also have turkeys and Blue Heron. There is a Blue Heron rookery just down river from us. I will be visiting their this afternoon to take some pictures. My bluebird family is part of the songbird group. The blue heron is part of the wading birds group and the turkeys are part of the chicken-like group. I look forward to getting more details about the birds I see here.

Some of my favorite birds are the wandering ibis for its unique build and beautiful colors also the great blue heron for its colors and it majesty while in flight. They are also a lot of fun the watch while hunting. I am quarantined in Georgetown Tx and have been taking this opportunity to dive in to ornithology. It has been a long time passion of mine to watch birds(all wildlife for that matter)  I have just recently tho become addicted to birding and everything birds. My hope is that sometime in the next few years I can turn it into a career.

I am quarantined in Southern California and the birds on my street have beautiful songs each morning. I wanted to identify them now that I am home constantly. I am also surrounded by hummingbirds! Just bringing out the binoculars I have seen western bluebirds, hooded orioles, and black phoebes. I have identified song sparrows and mockingbirds by their songs. I love the diversity of birds in my area that I haven’t noticed before. I am working on identifying more by their songs but it is slow going without visuals.

Activity 3: Live in the Pacific Northwest and there is a Bald Eagle nest in my neighborhood.  I love seeing these birds because they are so huge and majestic.  Inspiring even.  I am a beginning birder and am looking forward to learning more about bird identification this course.  Thank you.

I am quarantined in southern Indiana in an area that has so many trees with bright green leaves that I can hear many different birds but am seeing none, not even the cardinals who are singing to me every day. There are so many different birds singing when we take our morning walk, and I can't identify any of them! We do have several small lakes nearby and I'm enjoying seeing the Canada Geese with their babies. I learned from one of the previous posts that they are called goslings. Thanks!

This is so much fun! Now I'm starting to learn who's talking to us in our neighborhood and all kinds of fun facts about birds with which to astonish my family and friends! My family's joining in by spotting them with me on walks, too! I heard a songbird on our green ash tree outside our front window one morning, looked up to see it perched high on the very top branch and, with the help of binoculars and the bird app, figured out that it's probably a house finch with its beautiful red coloring. We've also spotted other songbirds (love the song of the robin, the whistle of the black-capped chickadee, and the striking red dash and whistle-like call of the red-winged black bird!), waterfowl (mallard ducks on a creek bank probably looking for nesting locations), mourning doves calling to us in the morning, and raptors (hawks--not sure which kind--flying above us, plus a bald eagle's nest we're following on the nature center's bird cam by the lake next to our neighborhood)! We also hear the woodpeckers (maybe a downy woodpecker around here?), blue jays, and white-breasted nuthatches (though we have yet to see one climbing down the tree trunk over here!) Checking in on the birds each day makes us feel as if we're checking in on beloved pets in our little neighborhood! (P.S. My father got the Merlin app, too, and, when he played the robin's song time after time, the robin that he had seen aways off answered time after time and moved closer and closer to him!)

Activity 2: Northern California here. Over the past few weeks we have had a pair of red-shouldered hawks patrolling the neighborhood, zillions of dark-eyed juncos, and a couple of California scrub jays. I think that covers three groups!  We've also got lots of oak titmice, as well as California towhees that seem to enjoy picking apart our doormats for nest-building material. I have tried to photograph the hawks, but they stay too far away! Since our local birds don't seem interested in posing, I'm sharing a photo of a sleepy speckled owl that I was lucky enough to see in Costa Rica in February.

Favorite Bird: I am blessed to be able to live in Gloucester Massachusetts (near the Atlantic coast) and Estero (Southwest) Florida (near the Gulf Coast) and have a wide diversity of birds without any bird feeders. My favorite birds are the wading birds.  It could be my love of fishing that attracts me.  The Great White Egret is around both locations and is my favorite.  The following is a group of 3 of them on left with 4 wood storks on right and a great blue heron in the back.  They all gathered at a pond waiting for a hatch of tree frogs (I think) on the golf course.

Looking for Birds was a happy adventure.  This bald eagle landed in a tree about 200 ft from my lanai (FL for patio). I also saw a bird I had not seen before.  It is a great crested flycatcher and he/she was here to eat the bumper crop of large white moths that had come out the last week or so.

I am new to the world of birding and these chipping sparrows are my favorite to watch this spring at my feeder. I am really excited to learn more in this course- especially more about bird songs/calls. I want to be an official Birder!!!  

First sighting of a rose-breasted grosbeak today - love these

The osprey are back!!! It is so beautiful to watch them glide over the creek and they land so gracefully on their next. Their chirp is very distinctive. It is so wonderful watching them on the live cam!

I live in New Zealand and so voted for the kakapo - a large, green, flightless, nocturnal parrot (how weird is that?). The good news is that they had a very good breeding season this year and so the total number has now increased to 211.

Hi all. Enjoying this course and learning alot from these discussions; seeing a wide range of birds that we don't have here on our little island. Thanks everyone for sharing. I'm uploading a picture of our resident Wren. Beautiful, bold trilling song for a wee bird. They're probably the bird I see the most, of late, while out walking around our local reservoir in the woodlands and bushes. I notice them frequently enough, because the path is cushioned with bushes, and they cross from one side to the other (short distance) quite quickly and in a dead straight line.

family of White Winged Dove eating under my feeder.

This is a baby House Finch. I have a number of the House Finches that visit my feeders daily. They are in the Song Bird group. I also have a Red Bellied Woodpecker that visits (Woodpecker group), White-Winged Doves (Dove and Pigeon group), House Sparrows (Songbird group) Northern Cardinal, Blue Jays, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds (Hummingbird group) and other birds that enjoy my feeders.

dMy favourite birds around my neighbourhood in suburban Ottawa are the pair of cardinals but this spring this pair of doves  showed up on my patio rail.

I live in Portland, Maine, in a condo, so have no yard or feeder 🙁.  But I have a vacant lot with trees out my window which the city birds seem to like and have seen resident flocks of European starlings, along with mourning doves, a pair of northern cardinals, and a couple of blue jays.  I also look out over water so see quite a few gulls - the ones that come close enough for me to id seem to be herring gulls (can’t really spot the beaks, so there may be some ring billed in amongst them).  But the big thrill of my locked down life this week was getting to a small Audubon sanctuary 5 minutes up the road and spotting the first Eastern phoebe of the year!

I'm enjoying the course so far with so much more to learn. I've been a casual birdwatcher for years now with my children. Slowly I've been able to add to my knowledge and identification abilities (key word: slowly). The Wall of Birds was great for exploring bird types. I voted for the Red-breasted Nuthatch which is one of my favourite backyard birds. We have several who love to hang from my peanut feeder. I also love the White-breasted Nuthatch who seems a little more elusive around here in Central Ontario, Canada. I was out walking today and am almost 99% positive that I finally IDed a Cooper's Hawk soaring above my neighbourhood. Yay! I'm new to photographing birds. A few recent photos: White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Cedar Waxwing.

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful photos and comments! I enjoyed exploring the Wall of Birds and plan to keep going back for more learning. I live in the suburbs of Washington DC and was amazed and delighted on a recent mid-day walk to see a pileated woodpecker--close to a major highway. I've also seen and heard a pair of blue jays, several mockingbirds (both of these more visible this year than last), and my ever-favorite cardinals.