Daniel

Activity 1: Looking at the bird feeder in my backyard, I saw: White-Breasted Nuthatch Blue Jay Red-Bellied Woodpecker Mourning Dove The lighting wasn't great at the time I did this so I saw some silhouettes but couldn't tell what they were.   Additionally, I heard: Black-Capped Chickadee and several other calls I didn't recognize.

Activity 1: Two species I commonly get on my feeder are Black-Capped Chickadees and White-Breasted Nuthatches. They have similar colorings, but you can tell them apart because the Nuthatches are larger and more slender, and also behave differently. Chickadees tend to perch, while Nuthatches will climb up and down the side of trees or our suet feeder. Activity 2: Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, and Pileated Woodpeckers all have Black, White, and Red, but they can easily be told apart. First because of the size (Downy is smaller then Red-Bellied is smaller than Pileated), and the Pileated has a crest while the others do not. However, the color patterns are also different. Downys have only a small patch of red, white on the stomach and on spots on the wings and a white stripe on the back, and the rest is black. Red-Bellieds have red across the entire head and a ladder-like pattern of black and white on the back, also white on the stomach. Finally, Pileated have a red crest and are mostly black otherwise save for white patches on the neck and head. Activity 3: A Downy Woodpecker visited my suit feeder. Woodpeckers in general seem to really like the suet, whereas I rarely see them on the seeds. A Tufted Titmouse is now visiting my sunflower seed feeder, and they rarely visit the suet. However, we also get White-Breasted Nuthatches, which like both the seeds and the suet. Other birds, particularly Chipping Sparrows and Mourning Doves like the seeds, but tend to pick seeds from the ground that were dropped by other birds. As for birds that are looking for food on their own, we get American Robins and recently a recurring singular Wild Turkey that forage through the grass looking for worms and other insects. Activity 4: I can't pick a favorite bird, I love them all. But one bird I've been seeing alot lately is a House Wren, which has made a nest in our next box and spends alot of time on a tree outside my window. House Wrens are small bundles of energy, mostly buff colored but with some white on the stomach. They have short, upright tails and short beaks. This particular one likes to sing and is often close enough that I can see its mouth open and its throat moving.

For activity 1, there were so many amazing birds that I can't even begin to list them.   I'd been seeing a Pine Warbler on my feeder for awhile, though not for the past week, I think it has flown on. There is a House Wren building a nest in our bird box. Just yesterday I saw an unsual light brown bird, it may have been a juvenile Brown-Headed Cowbird but I'm not sure   I also can't pick a favorite bird in my neighborhood, but I have been taking some pictures, like this one of a White-Breasted Nuthatch