Karen
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#1: I love watching and listening to birds, especially during nesting season. I hadn't thought about how important birds are to the ecosystem though. I loved hearing about birds planting trees! #3: I have noticed bird declines in some areas near me. Especially due to construction. Open fields are turning into housing developments and business complexes. One field used to have lots of red winged blackbirds, another field used to have lots of meadowlarks. One construction area near my home used to be a field with lots of barn swallows catching insects. I wonder if these birds are just moving to more remote areas where people don't see them, or if they really are declining in population.
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activity 1: yesterday afternoon, I was watching a pair of mourning doves in my yard. They were sitting next to each other on the ground preening themselves. When one walked a little bit away, the other would follow. Then they started preening each other, by poking the other on the neck. I read in "all about birds" that this is a pair bonding ritual. activity 2: I have 2 feeders with black oil sunflower seeds. I mostly get house finches at them. They will stay for several minutes on the feeders, or fly away briefly and come back. Occasionally, a lesser or American goldfinch will come, but not stay very long. Sometimes a jay will swoop in and hang on the feeder to get seeds, then fly away to crack them. The mourning doves and white crowned sparrows feed on the ground under the feeders. The doves will stay longer, the sparrows move around more and don't stay long. It seems like they all eat one seed at a time, but it's hard to tell. activity 3: I have a hard time distinguishing most birds by sound. I often hear more birds than I see, but am not sure what they are. I can tell house finches and white crowned sparrows by sound. I have a hard time telling lesser and American goldfinches apart by sound, but I can tell it's one of the two. Crows, jays and mockingbirds are easy to tell.
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activity 2: I live in the central valley of California (a great place for birding!). Three species we have year-round are: anna's hummingbird, black phoebe, and tree swallow. Sometimes swallows are hard to tell apart, but if I see one in the winter, I know it's a tree swallow. The others don't come until Spring. I find it interesting that some birds are only in my area in the winter such as ruby-crowned kinglets and snow geese. We have relatively mild winters (no snow or ice). Other birds are only in my area in the summer such as western kingbirds. They come here only for breeding. It is very hot and dry here in the summer (over 100 degrees). It seems like some birds like our mild winters, but not our hot summers, and other birds like our hot summers, but not our cool winters. I guess it has to do with what they eat. There are also birds we get only during Spring and Fall migration such as Wilson's warblers. I have seen all of these before. I look forward to seasonal bird changes! There are some migrants that apparently come through our area, but I've never seen, so I keep looking!
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Activity 2: I've used Merlin photo id before, but never tried "most likely". Very helpful! Great to have in list form with photos, bar charts and sounds!
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Activity 4: I don't know if it's my favorite bird, but the bushtit is one bird I had a hard time identifying just by color/pattern. They are very plain and gray. It took several sightings in different places before I realized what they were. Now I can recognize them mostly by sound, size, and behavior. They make a high pitched almost constant chirping sound. They are very small and kind of round. They flit about very quickly from tree to tree or bush to bush. They often hang upside down from branches. They usually travel in groups and move from one side of the yard or park to the other, following each other. I live near Sacramento, CA.
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