What birds can you see now?

There is a male and female cardinal, and a couple ground doves. I see a chickadee and a little black bird with white chest. A new woodpecker has shown up at the feeder. I suppose in two months the tv antenna pecking woodpecker will be at it. It uses it at mating time, because the sound carriers so well.

Saw a monster red-tailed hawk drinking from a puddle in my backyard this morning. Squirrels beware!

I saw a hawk yesterday–in a tree as I drove into my apartment complex. So I got my camera and went back and took pictures.

Said camera is not digital, so I can’t share them–and given the angle, the height of the tree, the time of day (and therefore the lighting)–they probably aren’t worth sharing-- but it was fun to walk around the tree and look up at the hawk and not have it be frightened off.

Right now? I’m in a windowless office, so all I see is a buncha turkeys. :smiley:

At home, we’ve cardinals, doves (at least 3 varieties), osprey, black birds, bluejays, mockingbirds, moorhens, egrets, herons, sandhill cranes and whistling ducks.

The little black bird with the white chest is probably a junco – I saw one yesterday too. They’re so cute, and they stand out nicely against the snow. Haven’t seen any cardinals but I’ve been hearing them.

I’m seeing sparrows and hawks too, but that’s about it. I really should fill the feeders in winter, but my yard has been ice-covered since December. Except for Sunday, when it was a lake.

Oh, yeah, I forgot, we’ve got a couple of kinds of hawks, too.

Turkey buzzards. Sometimes they even roost right outside my window.

Someone just brought in a chicken. It was in a bucket labeled KFC.

I’ve seen a hen pheasant the last couple months, that comes to the bird feeder. It’s tail feathers are roughed up. The local hawk has taken out 4 ground dove in the last couple months, and maybe a blue jay. I think the blue jay may have hit the window, because there was a load thud and later I saw the feathers. A week later I see a outline on the window that could have matched the blue jay. Before I posted there was a rabbit at the bird feeder base eating seed.

Pigeons, hovering over the vents that lead to basements and metros!

I’m pretty sure no birds have come back to Montreal yet, and if they have, they are making plans to leave again, as winter is clearly not over.

And they anticipate another snow storm for this weekend. sigh

Three absolutely adorable parakeets: Oliver (the purple and white one), Clara (the mostly white one with a dusting of yellow and green, and crimson eyes), and Alias Alibi Erickson-Pop (he’s mostly a sort of dusty sky blue with the cutest little yellow face you ever saw).

A kookaburra.

If I’d seen this earlier, I’d have said flock upon flock of godwits across the sky. Not much to see now 'cause it’s night-time. Even the birdies need their shut-eye.

I saw something brown. And a black and white thing. And a tweety one.

I don’t know birds.

A gray parrot. On my chest. Watching and helping me type.

My yard is apparently a natural haven for birds. The other day I turned on the sprinkler, and I swear I had my own little mini-Ark event - pairs of birds started playing in the water (probably because it hadn’t rained for weeks at that point). The other day I had a congregation even without the water - six or seven of the irridescent green birds were prowling around the lawn, while three or four other varieties were hopping around the wall.

I wouldn’t know a booby from a titmouse, so I’m no help at identifying most of them. The ones I see on a daily basis:

Hadeda - Big birds with long, slightly curved, pointy beaks that are apparently good for digging up worms. They also have a raucous cry that scares the crap out of my animals.

Loerie - (Also known as the Kwevoel) which is a very prim-and-proper looking bird that loves to yell “Kwaaaa” at the top of its lungs whenever I walk under its tree, thereby startling the shit out of me.

Woodpecker of unknown variety - it’s cool looking. It reminds me of a London cab, has a black and white spotted/checked head, bright yellow plumage in some places, loves to walk along the wall with its missus.

Bird of completely unknown variety - It’s black, but its wings have a deep green irridescence, and white stripes under the wings. May be a type of raven or crow.

Another unknown bird - Black with copper tipped wings. It literally looks like the edges of its wings have been dipped in molten copper. Very pretty bird. Vaguely crowish.

Some sort of finches - They build the most awesome nests out of grass, hanging from the branches of the trees. Watching them do so is fascinating. I have a couple of not-so-great pictures of the construction process. The males weave these globes of grass, until a female comes along and ruins it. Hilarity ensues when a male goes off for more building materials, and comes back to find all his hard work scattered on the ground by some bitchy female finch. If you didn’t think a bird could get pissed off, you’ve never seen a frustrated finch.

One of these days I’ll get a chance to take pictures of the strange meetings they seem to hold. When I had the sprinkler running, I was so fascinated that I didn’t dare move for fear of scaring them off. It was truly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. They splashed in puddles, flew through the spray, dipped and waded and drank. A truly serene moment. I love living away from the city :slight_smile:

A kit of pigeons, which I suspect might actually belong to someone. Seems strange they’d be out in a suburban neighborhood.

Robins.

Two different types of woodpecker. One is small and black & white, the other is larger, sorta sandy colored with spots.

Occasionally geese fly over.

Crows.

A flock of small birds. No idea what they are. Some sort of finch? They travel in large groups and will suddenly converge on a tree and make lots of noise then take off again.

Morning doves.

Occasionally seagulls.

Of course, I can’t see anything right now. It’s the middle of the night, and I’ve got insomnia.

There wasw a chilly eastern Bluebird attempting to drink from the goldfish pond this morning. A wren popped by to demonstrate.

Hawks. Everywhere. There’s one in the courtyard where I smoke at work - they’re all over the lights along Route 53 - we love 'em. We always represent when we see one (we give them the “claw”).

A pigeon on the roof of a house. A blackbird on a chimney.

The man across the road has a pair of tits in his apple tree. At least I assume they’re a pair - they might be two odd ones.