Usually I bring in the seed feeders once the gold finches go away and put up the hummingbird feeders. This year I seemed to have birds looking for seeds right into the spring and some turkeys wander up to the feeders, too, so I kept putting out sunflower seeds. Two weeks ago, there was a dark blue bird at the feeder whose identity I wasn’t sure of, so I looked it up. I determined that it was probably an indigo bunting but I wasn’t sure. It kept coming back and soon it brought friends, one of them a painted bunting. This morning I counted eight indigo buntings and three painted buntings. I had always thought buntings were more solitary birds but I seem to be wrong. They must be the most beautiful birds in the whole swamp.
Hummingbirds are starting to show up, too, and owls raise hell all night long. Hey, this is MPSIMS, I’m happy!!!
My parents have several bird feeders around their beautifully-landscaped back yard in Miami. They used to get indigo and painted buntings every spring and summer, but they haven’t been back in years, not regularly since South Florida got lashed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. They are so colorful and cute, and we always loved having them. Now they get mostly blue jays and cardinals, who eat peanuts out of my mother’s outstretched hand.
Not knowing what it is to which you require a citation, I’ll have to admit that I know of no authoritative source that can verify that I have interesting birds at the feeders in my yard.
But I concur with conurepete’s opinion.
And I guess Rysdad could prove that his vet has a painted bunting in a cage, if he cared.
Or maybe Big Bad Voodoo Lou could prove that his mother feeds blue jays and/or cardinals by hand.
But any of that would be mundane and pointless to the extreme…but maybe I’m wrong or I missed something somewhere. :rolleyes:
I’ve started seeing a lot of gold finches who are turning veritably chartreuse. And we also have several Barred owls who frequent our area…I’ve been hearing the screech owls at night as well.
I may be wrong but I think LunaV was hoping you’d post pictures of your buntings.
I wish we had more colorful birds this close to the city. Mainly, we make do with Steller’s jays and northern (red-shafted) flickers and Anna’s hummingbirds (when the light hits just right.) I did get to see a flock of western tanagers in a holly tree on Queen Anne Hill once. The males had gorgeous markings!
On the owl front, I’ve heard two of them on my walks this week. One was in a tree right over my head but the branches were too thick for me to see it. Man, I’d love to see a real live owl in the wild!
Oooh, I wish we got buntings. But we don’t. We get cardinals, bluejays, doves (3 different kinds that I’ve counted), blackbirds–both regular and red-wing, mockingbirds (which don’t come to the feeders, of course), finches…
And there are several kinds of birds in the woods behind the house that we hear more than see, such as owls, woodpeckers, osprey, hawks, quail and whipporwills.
Can I post pics directly on the SDMB? I’ve never tried. I’m sure I could get some pics. The birds have all been coming regularly and today the gobbler turkey was grazing under the feeder.
There are a pair of great horned owls nesting in the thicket adjacent to the east end of my house, I’ve seen one of them regualrly. If I go down to the bluff I can sometimes glimpse a screech owl, but they are small and fast and hard to spot. The best time to get a visual on owls is right when the sun comes up. In the early evening they are really skiddish. There is one type of owl that sounds a lot like a dog barking, I hear them in the early evening and they are always in the swamp. I haven’t seen one of them yet, I’d have to get my feet wet.
You cannot (to my knowlege) post pictures straight to the Dope (the IMG tags are disabled), but you can very easily get an account at www.photobucket.com and upload them there, and then post links on this board.
The type of owl that you hear “barking” is probably a Barred Owl. I’ll see if I can dig up sound clips. If I don’t get the right one, check out www.owlpages.com
On the other hand, you might have the Barking Owl, which is evidently found mostly in Canada which sounds like this Owl Calls and Sounds - The Owl Pages
I don’t get owls much (although I wish I did), but they are usually Barred or Great Horned. I never see them, but I can hear them.
I’ve always wanted to see a painted bunting! They don’t come around where I live too often (if at all).
However, behind my apartment there are some scrubby trees and bushes where a male and female Northern Cardinal have decided to call home. The male is so beautiful and sometimes I can get within 5 feet of him if he is in the bush and doesn’t see me sneak out the door to watch him :).
I don’t know where the Sunflower State is (geography wasn’t my strong suit), but Cardinals are cool to have around. They’re pretty common around here, so I see/hear them quite often (in fact, I can hear one right now).
One of the birds that I’m hearing a lot lately (but almost never see) is a White-Throated Sparrow. It’s call is distinctive, so I know it’s out there, but I have only seen one in the wild: about a dozen years ago, one came up to my feeding station. I had no idea what it was, but due to its call and my field guides, I was able to identify it.
I hear one a lot, now, but I haven’t seen it. At least I know it’s out there.
Red-Winged Blackbirds are interesting, too; because they seem to be fairly rare to most of the world. Where I live, they’re all over the place. They used to be my nemesis as a child. I lived out on a farm, and would go bicycle riding around the gravel roads, and the Red-Winged Blackbirds would divebomb me because they thought I was a threat to their nests.
Man, they were a pain in the ass! They’d peck me right on the head just to chase me away.
Which, needless to say, wasn’t really necessary…but how do you explain that to a bird?
I am SO going to annoy people with double posts pretty soon. Sorry, really.
As for the buntings: I’ve seen neither the Indigo nor the Rainbow Buntings in real life. Pictures, sure, but not the actual birds. I would love to.
One of the migratory birds that I have seen in real life is a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. This was also about a dozen years ago at my feeding station. I had never before seen one, and I have never since; but I knew it when I saw it. Pictures do not do this bird justice.
It was spectacularly beautiful. The “rose breast” was practically neon.
I also (when I was about eleven years old) saw a scarlet tanager (which is colorwise a sort of red version of an indigo bunting…sort of) in a mulberry tree. I’ve never seen another one of those, either.
::jealous I’ve seen a few goldfinches and then others the Dopers IDed as starlings and grackles. Also mourning doves. No indigo or other buntings, but my friend up the hill gets those fucshia red breasted guys.
My landlord wants me to stop feeding them so they will eat mosquitos instead, so I am putting out everything I’ve got to use it up. The birds are still interested; maybe the ground is still too cool for nice warm grubs to be available!
Finches and doves aren’t going to be working on your mosquito population as they are seed eaters. There are some omnivorous birds, but most birds that frequent seed feeders don’t eat insects.
The starlings don’t run everything off? They are hateful birds.
When I was growing up in Minnesota, we saw Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks frequently enough at our feeder to kind of lose their cool factor. Only kind of though.
And then, we moved. To a place where, if the Grosbeaks come by, it’s only in passing. And we kind of missed them, but vaguely. And then one day, we saw one at the feeder. We were shocked, and thrilled, and quickly looked them up in a bird book, proving that yes, they are a lot more common in Minnesota than where my parents live now.
On the other hand, there are other birds which my parents get now that they didn’t used to. Mom’s absolute favorite is the hummingbird–she buys plants for the back porch based on whether she thinks they will attract hummingbirds. Less fuss that dedicated hummingbird feeders, more fun to look at when the hummingbirds are there, and sometimes, if you sit really still and quiet, they come up while you are sitting on the porch, so they are only a few feet away.
I am in north Florida and saw an indigo bunting last year and another one this year.
Just the one, both times.
Seeing them is one of those catch-your-breath moments.
Never seen a painted bunting, but did once see a scarlet tanager in Colorado.
Only seen a goldfinch the one time.
Have been seeing bluebirds and cardinals; the males are gorgeous.
Springtime can really be excellent for watching birds, migratory and otherwise.
The egrets here are in full showing-off breeding plumage.
I’ve seen a few goldfinches and then others the Dopers IDed as starlings and grackles. Also mourning doves. No indigo or other buntings, but my friend up the hill gets those fucshia red breasted guys.