Activity 2 at the feeder: as I have been practicing my photography/identification sitting still at my still sparsely visited feeder, I have been observing the different feeding behaviors. The goldfinches will perch for a good while on the thistle feeder eating (allowing many pics, thank you!). black capped chicadee and song sparrow and chipping sparrow are definitely pretty quick grab and go at the sunflower feeder. I can watch the chickadee as it approaches from nearby tree branches, and then swiftly returns (but not as swiftly as the sparrows). The sparrows, on the other hand, more particularly the song sparrow, will also drop down to the ground to continue feeding on any spillage or other things. Fun to watch the white breasted nut hatch hop down and up vertically. The downy woodpecker at my suet feeder is quite shy to movement or noise ... he/she (I have had both) seem in no hurry to fly off, unless they catch a movement from me or a noise. There is a male cardinal that seems (my imagination?) in charge of letting the rest of the bird world know what is happenning in my yard. He and the she as well, do't seem to frequent the feeders much, but he is often perched on the outside shower or somewhere else int he yard, and seems to call out after I have added seed, etc.  Activity 3: songs - I love the songs, I have become more awake to the different songs and calls (albeit realizing that sometimes quite different melodies may be from the same bird-song) but I have realized that song memory is very difficult for me. OH - but, as I love to watch the hunting birds, some time ago I learned to be alert for mobbing and watch the skies - for the emergencence of a hawk being mobbed etc

Activity 1 - I have been going back regularly to one particular harbor quite near me, just to watch the geese and couple of ducks, and on occasion certain shore birds that drop by. The behaviors of the Canada Geese feeding and seemingly resting in this area have come to interest me - especially all the different and gorgeous neck movements of the geese ... for example as they were accompanying this gosling v. as they are elegantly or cozily feeding on grasses. I was also curious last night about a group of 5 adults in one spot, and a single goose about 30 yard away who did not move into "their" spot until they had departed.   

Activity 3: I listened to bird songs outside by our bird feeder for 5 minutes, and thought I picked out 5 different songs/calls.  It was definitely a chorus out there-there was constant sound from the birds and confusing to listen and pick out individual songs, and then keep track of what I had already heard or what was distinct or new.  I recognized the red winged blackbird song, and common grackle had a chipping sound as it was close at the feeder.  My other guesses from checking in with Merlin ID are black capped chickadee, because I've seen them around lately, and various warblers and finches based on songs or chirps I was hearing but can't identify specifically.  This activity goes to show my ears can use a lot of practice listening to and picking out bird song.  It was fun, though!

Activity 1 - Have been watching red-tailed hawk in my back yard. He swoops through occasionally with a flock of vigilant grackles or crows mobbing him. Other times he sits perched in a tree scanning the area, presumably for prey. The other day he was perched on a large limb of an oak with grackles mobbing him, making quite a din. He did not budge. Observing him, I noticed he had prey between his claws and was eating it. At one point, he dropped some. My neighbor joined me and pointed out that he was raiding a nest. The portion dropped was a nestling. He finished all the contents of the nest, then swooped down to retrieve the dropped bird and flew off, grackles in noisy pursuit. Activity 2 - I have an oriole feeder outside filled with grape jelly and oranges. The orioles love it and are now on their third jar of jelly. They seem to drink the jelly, dipping their beaks in then raising them. The also hang from the feeder to peck out the pulp of the oranges. They make quite a racket of chittering calls when they feel threatened. A kind of warning, I suppose. Catbirds also frequent the feeder. They perch on it and voraciously bury their beaks in the jelly. They feed at the oranges too, but more often from the perch. The orioles feed from dawn to dusk, most frequently certain times of day. Cardinals also visit the feeder, but less frequently. The orioles are the most aggressive, often chasing the catbirds away. Activity 3 - It's mid-day and the birds are less vocal. They are flying back and forth across the driveway. I can hear finches singing. Grackles mobbing a hawk. Occasionally a nestling calls to its parents for food. A Great Crested Flycatcher and Baltimore Orioles occasionally call from the treetops.

Activity 1 : I often see White-cheeked Starlings these days while walking around my neighbour. I have not noticed them before but once recognized, they became one of my regulars. They usually walk on glass fields carelessly, looking for foods. I do not know what they eat.

S Sorry, I had trouble posting these pictures-Pileated Woodpecker and I thought this was a Yellow Warbler at my bird feeder.

1. I was walking thru a state park in NY and came upon  a Pileated Woodpecker on a huge dead tree log. I just read that these woodpecker make rectangular holes to find carpenter ants. He (she?) was so busy feeding that I was able  to watch for awhile. 2. The Mouring Doves at the bird feeder always remain on the ground. I just read that they peck and push ground  cover around, never scratch at it. I thought I had a yellow warbler at bird feeder but I just read they don’t come to feeders because they eat mostly insects. 3. On a walk in my neighborhood, I heard an unusual call and looked up and saw a Baltimore Oriole. On a another walk, I heard a Rose-breasted Grosbeak before I found it. The Gray Catbird is very distinctive and they seem to give long, complex songs.  

I watched a robin, it was standing on the ground in the yard singing but did not seem to be foraging for food. There are also sparrows in the yard and several other bird calls beside the robin

After about 10 minutes listening different I could identify a blue Jay, chipping sparrow, house wren, and also a morning dove. It was interesting who many different sounds these birds can make.

2.  At our feeder in winter, the chickadees land at the feeder, pick one sunflower seed, then fly over to the hawthorn tree, hold the seed with their toes, and peck until they get the seed open.  The redpolls mostly land on the deck as a group, and hop around, sifting through the sunflower seeds that have been scattered.  They eat the seeds while standing on the deck.  The hairy woodpecker lands on the feeder and digs thrugh the seeds, scattering sunflowers all over the deck.  He finally selects one, then flies back to the aspen trees on the edge of the yard. 3. Today out my window, i here lots of robins and white throated sparrows, and an occasional raven.  I hear several other bird calls, but I haven't got them figured out yet.  Maybe a chipping sparrow and a yellow rumped warbler?

Activity 1 - Today I saw a Hutton's Vireo bathing in the fountain in our backyard. We just learned about cleaning, so the timing was great. The bird started at the top tier of the fountain, which is a very small area, about 10 inches across, with moving water coming into it. He would jump in, shake his feathers, then hop to a nearby branch on a shrub to clean his beak. Now that I know that rubbing the beak on a branch is a form of cleaning, I could see that he was doing a cleaning routine - fountain to branch, then repeat. It took him a while. I read about them on All About Birds, it says they appear in twos which does seem to be the case, because I have seen the other one.

Hello everyone. We've enjoyed watching all the birds this Memorial Day weekend. Many different behaviors observed now that I know what to look for. Many different feeding habits for different birds. The Baltimore Orioles love the thick slices of oranges we are providing them. Almost more than the liquid feeder. Amazing how quickly they can extract the juices from the pulp of the oranges with their pointed beaks. Two female turkeys have also become regulars underneath the bird feeders in the last two weeks. They scratch the earth to make sure they get every last seed that falls. We also see a male Cardinal who prefers to show up just at dusk on many evenings. We see him during the day, but much more often in the early evening. The Eastern Bluebirds are my favorites right now. They are busy picking at the ground for bugs. We also started putting out some meal worms and they seem to love them. I have one female bluebird who perches on a shepherds hook by my window and preens herself early each morning. She fluffs and seems to be drying her feathers. This is also one time I can actually get a closer look at the pretty blue feathers under her wings. Northeast Wisconsin.

Activity One - We just put up a feeder here on Long Island, NY, but birds are taking awhile to visit it. There are a couple of "regulars" already though- one a Downy Woodpecker and another that looks like a Finch. The Sparrows seem to prefer to peck at the seed that falls below the feeder. I have had trouble observing bird behavior for any length of time because they birds in our backyard fly away quickly. Activity Two - I enjoy watching the Cornell Bird Cam. I have observed that the Mourning Doves try to be as inconspicuous as possible when they are at the feeder, particularly when the Grackles show up. The Cardinals are similar and stay on nearby branches awhile until it looks like it's safe to be on the feeder. The Woodpeckers however do not seem as cautious, and once on the feeder, they seem pretty comfortable. Activity Three - I can now identify the Blue Jay's call as well as the Robin's song and that of the Black-Capped Chickadee. I often hear the birds singing before sunrise.

House Sparrows enjoy dust bathing in the dry, sandy patches of my backyard. I wondered if they might prefer a water bathing area, so I bought a 20" plastic birdbath (the hanging type) but placed it in a raised planter bed instead of suspending it. So far, I have observed only one sparrow using it! So dust bathing must be very effective as a means for cleaning feathers.

Activity 3 Noticing behaviors, Listening to birds,  I had two song listening experience yesterday.  I went to take a daily picture at a pond where Ibis with friends like to gather.  As I arrived a flock of 30+ Ibis took off and flew away before I had my camera out of the car.  They started to dribble back one at a time, but only 30 feet from me a redwing blackbird landed on some long reeds.  He picked a particular reed and shimmied down the reed to someplace near the water and out of my view. I theorized he was either eating or more likely there was a nest down there.  His "red wing" had faded so I think it was after the beginning of the breeding season.  He chirped a few times to another blackbird without a red wing patch who remained about 15 feet down the shoreline on another reed.  They chirped back and forth.  Then the unmarked (female?) burst into song.  Recently I read that northern birds both males and females sing but southern birds exclusively males sing.  As I see the red winged blackbird  in MA as well, along with cardinals and blue jays quite regularly, I guess the rule is not hard and fast or maybe applies to only the species that don't change or span large ranges of latitudes. The male and female are shown below.Later in the day I was listening on my lanai and I head a sound like the end of the northern cardinal (who seems to live year rounding southwest Florida).  The song was moving slowly from my right to my left.  I finally caught sight of the cardinal quite low in the trees and shrubs.  It was definitely a male cardinal.  I didn't get his photo but have included one of my favorites from last year pretty close to the same place and time in 2019. I guess this guy just likes the last half of his song.  He didn't do the first two long notes, just started in the middle doing the staccato notes.  I had thought the ever so noisy mockingbirds were the ones doing partials on the cardinal song but by paying attention for the course I found I was wrong.

Went on a nature walk and saw several birds and heard several birds. Birds we saw were: Yellow-rumped warbler, Blue-headed vireo, Dark-eyed Junco, Chipping Sparrows, Mallards, and geese. Birds we heard were: Wood Thrush, Robins, Yellow Warblers, Pileated Woodpecker, Morning Doves, Cardinals, Black-throated Green Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jays, Wood Duck, and a Black-capped Chickadee. It was pretty awesome to see so many birds and hearing all the different birds was amazing also.

Several ruby throated hummingbirds have been active at my feeders however despite the multitude of flowers I have provided, all of which are hummingbirds' favorites, they seem to prefer the feeders. Having researched this behavior it seems that it should be the opposite as flowers should be the preferred food. So I am not sure why this seems to be the case.

I tuned in to the Cornell Lab Feeder Cam and dropped into a bird party! Common Grackles, one Blue Jay, one Red-Winged Blackbird, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, male and female Northern Cardinal, a couple European Starlings, a Mourning Dove, and a little guy I couldn't ID. It was interesting to see how the woodpecker seemed to prefer of hanging under the feeder, and how it seemed to prefer some feeders over the others. The woodpecker also showed some aggressive postures toward birds that came too close. The others were chill about sharing space. Oh, now everyone is gone and a squirrel is just sitting in the feeder lol

It's amazing what you can hear and see in just 5 minutes. A total of 14 species, including red-winged black birds, northern cardinals, and red-tailed hawks.

I just set up some feeders and added one for orioles. After 3 days a male Hooded Oriole found it. It has come back the last few days and lands on the top of the pole and calls, then flies down to feed. Today after he did this he was joined by a female.

I've been seeing a fair amount of Anna's Hummingbirds in our neighborhood.  This morning I was able to observe one perched on a branch from some english ivy.  She was cleaning her beak on the branch!  She then flew off out of sight and came back a couple of minute later to shake her feathers and clean her beak some more.  It looks like we both had some pretty satisfying showers this morning.

Activities Observing Behavior. Activity 1 and 2 were spent looking at the Sapsucker woods bird cam.   Most of the birds seemed to be on pretty good behavior.  Some like the blue jays seemed to be one at a time visitors. Others like the boat tailed grackles seemed to come in bunches.  The Baltimore Orioles, and Cardinals and Doves were often in pairs.  The only birds eating fruit were the Baltimore Orioles and the Robin.  There were mostly middle sized birds there, no Crows or bigger birds and I saw only one smaller Tufted Titmouse and one Nuthatch. Most of the birds seemed to be focused on feeding.  The grackles seemed to have a tendency to look up quite often.  They were in the largest numbers today and seemed to be looking up a lot.  Most other birds seemed to be looking more at the seeds. The Downey and Red Bellied Woodpeckers all fed on vertical feeders. Just as they are mostly observed hunting and digging on the side of trees , Activity 3 sounds in the background: The honking of Canada Geese and several other background trill calls were there in the background. I am not familiar with   Birds on the feeder were very quiet..

[1] The only behaviour that I found to be unusual -- and unnoticed until this course -- is the backwards scratching at the ground of certain sparrows. I still find this fascinating to watch. No other of my birds seems to do this. [2] I have noticed that my black-capped chickadees, much like a great many small birds, take one seed at a time. Sometimes they fly away with the seed, smack it open, eat it, and then return for another. Other times, they sit right at the feeder and eat the seed. Even when there is nyjer on the ground, they seem to prefer to cling to a tube-feeder and eat directly from it. The dark-eyed juncos, on the other hand, seem to eat exclusively on the ground. [3] I have been working on learning to identify bird songs since taking that course in January. I am getting much better at it but still have a long way to go. The song that I lost recently learned is that of the House Wren, which sounds rather like being scolded. I have been trying to learn to distinguish the different chips of various woodpeckers. This will take me some time but I seem to have a great deal of time on my hands these days.

1. Watching an American Robin in my backyard (Westchester County, NY). I feel that they have a distinct stride or hop and spend so much more time on the ground then other "backyard birds". I understand that part of the reason may be the type of food they search out. Watching a green heron today (which is not all that common in my area at this time of year) he was sitting pretty high up in a tree. He was preening himself for quite some time. I noticed that he also dips his head, almost completely underneath himself- perhaps this is telltale of a heron. I have seen the night heron make this move as well. Earlier today I also saw two adult Canada geese and their 3 goslings. The parents are very attune, understandably, to where the babies are at all times. One seems to be look-out while the other keeps eye on the kids. The goslings were so sweet and followed what mom and dad were doing- dunking in the water-looking for things to eat. Birds really do have unique ways of eating, what they eat and how they approach food. The red-bellied woodpecker in my yard tends to come in for one piece of food and then fly a short distance to the nearest tree. He will repeat this numerous times. On occasion he will stay for a second bite- it usually depends on if it is seed or suet. I have also seen him take nuts and find hiding places for them. The woody and hairy woodpeckers seem to be more comfortable spending more time at the feeder. Working to get more a meal or multiple bites in one visit. I love watching the doves feed. They will come to me deck when I sprinkle seed and spend some time in one area while they feed as long as they are not disturbed. They also seem willing to have others (birds) around when they are eating. The starlings seem to drive lots of other birds away because they are very dramatic (chaotic). They flap their wings a great deal and "yell" at one another. They seem to give each other a hard time at the feeders and rarely let another near. 3. I am slowly starting to be able to recognize a few different birds by their songs or calls. I am amazed at how many different sounds some of them have. I imagine they mean different things to those who know them. I heard a gray catbird up close for the first time and it really did sound like a meow. However, later in the day I heard a different one and it sounded very different. I have a long way to go.

1. Watching an American Crow: He waddles and searches my yard looking for nuts that were buried by squirrels. When he finds one, he chips at it till he gets it. Sometimes, he'll fly to the birdbath and put the food in the water, waits a few seconds and scoops it up to swallow it. He is definitely less afraid of people and will  allow me to get much closer to him that other birds. He "caws" a LOT and sticks his neck out each time. He probably broods in a huge evergreen tree across the street. They fight and fly around incessantly. 2. The House Sparrow stays put at the feeder for much longer than any other birds that visit. He seems pretty unafraid. He also chases off other birds. Right now, I have a nest right next to the right side bird feeder. This feeder is generally the most popular, due to a lavender bush situated next to it. It always empties first. Now however, it is nearly still full after 3 weeks due to the fact that the mama sparrow chases off the other birds. They have to attempt to use the left feeder if she lets them. The chickadee comes and goes quite quickly; flies to a branch and eats there. But the redbreasted nuthatch comes and goes the quickest. A speedy entrance and a quick grab - away it goes. It never eats at the feeder nor does it eat in a nearby bush or tree. 3. If I'm in the woods, the bird that I usually hear the most is the Swainson's Thrush- my favorite song of all. I've never spotted it however. I also hear the Robin and the woodpecker, sparrows and chickadees. I LOVE the Chickadee's two-noted song during mating season. It's a minor interval and totally fascinating to me. Also, I can sometimes hear the nuthatch's little horn like, monotone song, which even though it's not very exciting, I still find very fun to listen to.