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NON-FINCH REPORT!
Tons of finches, of course, but some not-finches are appearing on and around the feeder. Doves, cardinals, and something sparrowlike I'm calling a LIttle Brown Job for now.
With bonus brood parasite!
Doves! A pair of these hang around the feeder, mournfully eyeing it as they can't fit in. They also like sitting and pooping on the railing around the deck.
Mom was calling them mourning doves, but I did some poking about, and they look a hell of a lot more like white-wing doves than mourning doves.
And here's the little brown job! About the same size or slightly smaller than the finches.
Mama cardinal!
And Papa Cardinal, followed around by a darling little brood parasite begging for food, which CANNOT be a baby cardinal because the coloring and beak shape are totally different. I'm going with brown-headed cowbird until I learn otherwise because that's the most common brood parasite in the US.
For those who don't know, brood parasites like cuckoos and cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds' nests. Either the mama parasite knocks the existing eggs out of the nest or the chick hatches a wee bit sooner and grows a wee bit faster and outcompetes the existing chicks, sometimes knocking them out of the nest.
And a better look at our little cowbird.
With bonus brood parasite!
Doves! A pair of these hang around the feeder, mournfully eyeing it as they can't fit in. They also like sitting and pooping on the railing around the deck.
Mom was calling them mourning doves, but I did some poking about, and they look a hell of a lot more like white-wing doves than mourning doves.
And here's the little brown job! About the same size or slightly smaller than the finches.
Mama cardinal!
And Papa Cardinal, followed around by a darling little brood parasite begging for food, which CANNOT be a baby cardinal because the coloring and beak shape are totally different. I'm going with brown-headed cowbird until I learn otherwise because that's the most common brood parasite in the US.
For those who don't know, brood parasites like cuckoos and cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds' nests. Either the mama parasite knocks the existing eggs out of the nest or the chick hatches a wee bit sooner and grows a wee bit faster and outcompetes the existing chicks, sometimes knocking them out of the nest.
And a better look at our little cowbird.
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And Little Brown Job is an English sparrow.
---L.
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I don't actually like birds (I'm a little freaked out by them) but it's strictly for the cat's enjoyment.
I also have a thieving squirrel who comes to visit Hem and eat all the sunflower seeds. That's known as Hemi's little Squirrelfriend.
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We don't seem to have squirrels around here. I guess it's only recently been bald prairie and there haven't been enough trees in the area for long enough for them to move in. Growing up, we had a house-shaped birdfeeder and the squirrels would anchor their hind feet on the roofline and hang upside down to eat the sunflower seeds.
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I like birds just fine with a window or a screen between me and the bird. This is because my evil Italian Grandmother had an EVIL Mynah bird who would scream at me and finally attacked me when I was very, very small. I was later attacked (pecked until bleeding) by chickens when I was in kindergarten and was chased by a swan when I was twenty.
Possibly birds just don't like me. Maybe because I smell of cat.
I've gingerly petted parrots and cockatoos and I'm rather smitten with owls, but I don't really want to be all up close and personal with them.
I almost lost my shit during film class when we watched Hitchcock's The Birds - it was scarier than JAWS.
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