Leigh

Activity 3: Birds looking for food 1) I saw two birds flying back and forth from high tree tops to lower trees. They  stayed together as they moved between locations.  By using binoculars, and being able to discern some hints of  pale yellow brown on their bellies I guessed they were cedar wax wings, which Merlin confirmed. Further reading helped to positively identify  based on their size and color and how they were perching in trees. 2) I heard and saw a woodpecker in a heavily wooded mountain setting in the Adirondacks of NY. She was small, with black and white coloring, no red on the head. There was a black eye stripe, white belly, distinct black bars on the wings.  She was pecking on the trunk of the tree, moving around and up and down the trunk, constantly in motion.  I had a hard time determining if it was a downy or hairy woodpecker. I didn't have my binoculars. Upon careful examination of photos of the beak, which seemed fairly small I'm going to guess it was a downy woodpecker. Merlin confirmed this, suggesting downy woodpecker as the most likely species. 3) We are seeing lots of grey cat birds enjoying the berries in our honey suckle bushes in the back yard.  We can hear their distinct call. They like to perch briefly on the top of the fence as they approach the branches which are filled with berries! My other  Cornell app, BirdNET,  helped me to originally identify cat birds by their distinctive song.