What are your local song birds

[wintermom]

While I've been walking in my neighbourhood or sitting by an open window, I've been enjoying my local song birds - especially those returning from the south. The most common in my suburban neighbourhood are cardinals and chickadees over the winter, and now the robins are back. The Canada geese are back, too, and they're noisy! 😉

What are your local favourites?

[wintermom]

4 minutes ago, StellaM said:

Great idea for a thread, wintermom!

Not my favourites by a long stretch, but I often hear ibis honking in a pine tree across the road. Every single time I think it's ducks!

Best birdsong treat is a magpie or a kookaburra. Maggies are pretty frequent, the kookaburras less so.  

Daily it's the common myna and New Holland Honey Eater ( I think).

Most frequent sound is the squawking of white cockatoos 🙂

 

Wow! Your birds are so exotic! Are magpies indigenous to Australia, or were they brought over from Europe? We have them in parts of Canada. 

[wintermom]

Our magpies look a little different and I'm pretty sure they sound more squawky than yours. The Australian magpies sound lovely.

[wintermom]

5 minutes ago, StellaM said:

Birds are really the best people.

I have to say that the birds have really helped enhance my mood while walking these past weeks. They are always cheerful and social. 

[wintermom]

1 minute ago, StellaM said:

 

They just have their own world, and they go about existing in it, and they are a great comfort.

Can you hold a 'conversation' with any of your birds? I love whistling to the cardinals and chickadees here. The cardinals will usually whistle back to me, and their call is easy to imitate. The robin call is far to complex for me, but I try. 😉

[Wheres Toto]

We've had sparrows and cardinals all winter.  Now the robins, mourning doves, and chickadees are coming back.  In another month we'll have a ton more.  We live on a river and have a very wooded lot.   I love the sound of the mourning doves, reminds me of waking up at my grandparents house.

I put together the attached guide for our local birds years ago when we talked about the Great Backyard Bird County in my 4-H club.   All of these can be seen in my backyard (among others), a lot of the pictures I took in my yard. 

 

[ScoutTN]

Robins, chickadees, house finches, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, mourning doves, tufted titmouse- these are here year round. The dark eyed juncos have been gone for about a month. 

We usually have Carolina wrens, but I haven't seen them yet. Nor have I seen any nuthatches yet.

We have bluebirds nesting in our birdhouses! 

[Lady Florida.]

Year round - cardinal, mockingbird, carolina wren, mourning dove, tufted titmouse.

Robins come twice a year and only stay for about 2 weeks - October on their way farther south and February on their way back north. They practically cover our backyard. I love it when they arrive. 

Winter songbirds include the gray catbird, yellow rumped warbler, and red winged blackbird.

4 hours ago, StellaM said:

 

Not my favourites by a long stretch, but I often hear ibis honking in a pine tree across the road. Every single time I think it's ducks!

 

 

We always have white ibis around and you can hear them honking every evening. I sometimes hear sand hill cranes honking but they aren't as plentiful. They're quite common where we're moving to, which is only about 45 miles south, so I expect we'll hear them a lot at our new house. 

Other non-songbirds that I often hear - red-bellied woodpecker, various blackbirds and grackles, red shouldered hawks, and blue jays. All of them either squawk or scream. Sometimes at night I hear a barred owl or a whippoorwill. It's really cool to hear the owls.

[Tanaqui]

17 hours ago, wintermom said:

Wow! Your birds are so exotic! Are magpies indigenous to Australia, or were they brought over from Europe? We have them in parts of Canada. 

 

That's a matter of perspective. A friend of mine once had a houseguest from Germany, and he could not get over cardinals. To him, they were like some mysterious zoo escapees!

For that matter, I once met up with an Australian woman who just could not believe squirrels. Squirrels!

To answer the songbird question - and perhaps stretching the definition of "songbird" a bit - we have

Pigeons (nonnative)

Starlings (also nonnative)

Mockingbirds (these are recent, thank climate change)

Parrots (!!!!!! not here, in Brooklyn, a thriving community descended from escapees, but I felt I'd mention them)

Cardinals

American robins (note for Europeans - our robins are harbingers of spring. The cheery bird that hangs around all winter is the cardinal)

Bluejays (a bit rare)

Chickadees (common as dirt)

Mourning doves

Hummingbirds (mostly only if you feed them)

Woodpeckers

Various crows or ravens

And also wild turkeys. Even I know those aren't "songbirds", but they're around.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Tanaqui

[almondbutterandjelly]

We have tons of grackles (it's a regular soap opera in the spring!  with the occasional murder.  Grackles be crazy.), and several sea gulls.  Not too many other kinds in my little yard, although yesterday my dd saw a blue finch, which we've never seen before! 

The grackles are funny and have a lot of personality.  When I hear the sea gulls, all I can think of is Finding Nemo and "mine!  Mine!" when they make their squawks.

[Tanaqui]

1 hour ago, OKBud said:

 

Are the Quakers/Monks? I assume so... They are illegal to keep as pets in several states because when they get loose (or are let go) they do such a good job of surviving. 

 

I think so, but I'm not looking it up now.

[wintermom]

7 hours ago, Margaret in CO said:

The Meadowlarks are back! The Red-winged Blackbirds arrived right before lockdown, so three weeks for us. The Finches have been back for ages--they were early this year, as were the  And of course, the Sparrows, Magpies, and Starlings never leave. We're seeing more Mountain Chickadees--more Black-capped in the winter. I often watch the Marsh Hawks (Northern Harriers) circling. I'm glad the Golden Eagles were NOT around during lambing this year! We have another few weeks for the Mountain and Western Bluebirds to show up, but the Brown-headed Cowbirds should be here any day now. The Yellow Warblers won't be here for awhile, and it will be at least a month for the Violet-green Swallows. The Sandhill Cranes were here a week ago. They don't stay; just go through. I've heard geese, but none have landed on the ranch. The Ravens and Crows winter here, as do the Bald Eagles. The Gunnison Sagegrouse is currently drumming, so the hills are closed. We don't get Blue Jays and Stellar Jays here--not enough cover. We have Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers all winter long. The Herons will arrive soon, and I saw my first Flicker yesterday. Hoping for a Yellow-headed Blackbird up the lane this year--they sound just like a rusty hinge! The Turkey Vultures are here all year. Lots of Nuthatches this year, not as many Juncos this year. 

I'm so glad you chimed in! I was hoping to learn what kinds of birds were in CO as I'm moving there soon. Is there a big difference between birds in the mountain region and those in the cities to the east of the mountain ranges?

Is the photo a turkey vulture?  Is 'drumming' of the Gunnison Sagegrouse their mating activity, and why would this close the hills? Are they protected and need their privacy during mating?

[wintermom]

1 hour ago, Margaret in CO said:

This is a Gunnison Sage Grouse. Only found in our little valley and it's a protected species. And why we got the big bucks for putting the ranch into a conservation easement. I should say we got the big bucks, but we also made a donation of $1.4 million. They meet on "leks" to do their displays--quite cool. We used to actually hunt them, back when we had over 100 on the ranch. Haven't seen here in years, though the neighbors have. They don't do well with any disturbance during mating. 

 

COMPLETE difference from plains birds and mountain birds--CO really is three states: plains, mountains, desert, with three big valleys (North Park, South Park, San Luis Valley) with yet another different habitat. Where in CO might you move?

 

eta: we have our own prairie dog too! It carries plague... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnison's_prairie_dog  We have a distinct sub-species only found here. 

Fascinating. The male sage grouse look pretty scary, actually. Perhaps inspired some of the costumes from Mad Max?  It will be fun to see prairie dogs again. I grew up in Alberta and miss seeing them.

We're moving to Colorado Springs. I hope to be doing some skiing in Gunnison next winter! 

[Mbelle]

We have a lot of brave birds come to eat our cats food on the back porch railing.  We have bluebirds, bluejays, cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrashers regularly.  I do not know the names of the other birds.  Our cat has gotten lazy, but occasionaly he gets one.  

[wintermom]

33 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

I love our happy little wrens, especially when they start singing their hearts out for mates. 

Right now, however, I am doing my best to discourage a flock of grackles from setting up camp. Might have to ask my neighbor to pull in her feeders for a couple of days to get them moving along. I’ve had mine down a while and I’d like to get them up again, but not for a troupe of pirate raiders. 

Here, the biggest bird feeder thieves are definitely squirrels. And they even sound a little like birds when they shriek and complain that you are 'invading' their woods. 😃

[Wheres Toto]

We can no longer put out seed feeders because of the bears.    We do have a ton of squirrels too.  We have an old stone outdoor fireplace in our yard and we usually just scatter seed on top of that.  

[73349]

I think about 80% of the 5 AM songfest these days is one noisyface male cardinal. They're such handsome things, but dude, keep it down until after sunrise!

[Guest]

Lots of sparrows, Jays, crows, and our resident woodpecker. We also see the occasional hawk. 

 

I really loved having breakfast with the birds in Sydney in December. I suspect that I was taking pictures of the equivalent of pigeons and robins :).

[wintermom]

On 4/5/2020 at 1:21 PM, Margaret in CO said:

This is a Gunnison Sage Grouse. Only found in our little valley and it's a protected species. And why we got the big bucks for putting the ranch into a conservation easement. I should say we got the big bucks, but we also made a donation of $1.4 million. They meet on "leks" to do their displays--quite cool. We used to actually hunt them, back when we had over 100 on the ranch. Haven't seen here in years, though the neighbors have. They don't do well with any disturbance during mating. 

 

COMPLETE difference from plains birds and mountain birds--CO really is three states: plains, mountains, desert, with three big valleys (North Park, South Park, San Luis Valley) with yet another different habitat. Where in CO might you move?

 

eta: we have our own prairie dog too! It carries plague... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnison's_prairie_dog  We have a distinct sub-species only found here. 

 

I heard some strange fowl sounds in my local woods this morning. Sounded a little like this Gunnison guy, with some two-toned 'drum' sounds. He was a shy guy, and I couldn't see him at all. I'll have to do some research to find out what kind of grouse-like birds we have around here. 

[IfIOnly]

2 new varieties showed up at the feeder today. A house sparrow, which we had in abundance in the city, finally showed up here. Also, a Eurasian collared-dove pair came by. Got pics. Male house Finch pic too but these were one of the first birds to show up, and there is a female usually with him not pictured.

edited: Picture quality is terrible and was taken by my cell  phone and magnified. I keep meaning to get the Nikon charged and ready.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by IfIOnly

[wintermom]

@IfIOnly  Thanks for sharing the photos!!

[Rachel]

On 4/3/2020 at 11:25 PM, ScoutTN said:

Robins, chickadees, house finches, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, mourning doves, tufted titmouse- these are here year round. The dark eyed juncos have been gone for about a month. 

We usually have Carolina wrens, but I haven't seen them yet. Nor have I seen any nuthatches yet.

We have bluebirds nesting in our birdhouses! 

This list sounds a lot like my backyard. The Carolina wrens were around all winter but this morning two visited the feeder at the same time, that was a first. Two tufted tit mouses (mice?) visited the feeder together too, then later a saw two mourning doves in the tree, it was like all the birds decided to pair up now that spring is here. 

I’m jealous of the bluebirds, we have them in this area but not our yard. 

These aren’t song birds but we have a pond behind our house that’s gotten mallards this year, first time in 8 years. Every night about an hour after dark they get really noisy. 

[wintermom]

I went for a very early morning walk to the woods to try and see the bird/fowl I heard yesterday. Thought I heard it, and found a spot to sit and wait and see him, but no luck. I heard a ton of other birds, though. 

[ScoutTN]

I think I am going to get some of the recordings from the Cornell Ornithology site that will help me identify bird calls.

I saw a blue heron flying over the creek near my house. I need to take a walk over there. There are swallows in the mown fields and red-winged blackbirds too.