Backyard Bird Feeders and Watchers

[Friends just call me Ross]

My hubby and I feed the birds that visit our yard.  We love

to watch them.  

 

 

I was just wondering if there are any other bird feeders/watchers

on this list, and, if there are, what kinds of birds do you have

coming into your feeders?

 

I keep a sort a' 'guest registry' of all our feathered visitors.

Here are the birds that we have seen at our feeding stations

and on our farm, over the years:

 

blue jays

mourning doves

common grackles

baltimore orioles

goldfinches

purple finches

white-throated sparrows

white-crowned sparrows

rose-breasted grosbeaks

brown-headed cowbirds

red-wing blackbirds

chipping sparrows

northern juncos

european starlings

red-breasted nuthatches

white-breasted nuthatches

downy woodpeckers

black-capped chickadees

american crows

northern ravens

bald eagles

northern shrikesk

cedar waxwings

evening grosbeaks

pine grosbeaks

scarlet tanagers

indigo buntings

northern cardinals

eastern bluebirds

pine siskens

redpolls

common flickers

pileated woodpeckers

hairy woodpeckers

wild turkeys

gulls

canada geese

sandhill cranes

ruffed grouse

ring-necked pheasants

barred owls

saw-whet owls

snowy owls

turkey vultures

barn swallows

red-headed woodpeckers

american robins

ruby-throated humming birds

red-tail hawks

house wrens

bob-o-links

brown thrashers

yellow-headed blackbirds

eastern phoebes 

violet green swallow (state record for Michigan)

house sparrows

trumpeter swans

sandpipers

song sparrows

great blue herons

plovers

killdeer

american woodcock

spruce grouse

northern goshawks

american kestrels

eastern kingbird

american redstart

eastern meadowlarks

snow buntings

and golden-crowned sparrows

 

The annual southern migration is going on right now and

we are getting some interesting birds passing through.

 

In 1996, we lost our barn in a bad fire.

I took the old concrete and built a waterfalls.

I named it Phoenix Falls, because it rose up out of the ashes.  

 

 

A water feature like this helps to attract all kinds of birds.

It's a riot watching them bathe in the falls.

 

[dilip kumar]

Blue jays

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[dilip kumar]

Got it from internet. Well try to get more .

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[dilip kumar]

Violet green swallow

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[Friends just call me Ross]

The violet-green swallow that came to our farm died in our driveway.

The experts at one of the local universities thought it must have been

swept here in a storm, because they are a west coast bird.

 

It is now stuffed and sitting on a shelf in the University of Michigan's

Ornithology department.  My name is on the exhibit, as the 'finder'. 

 

Such is my one big claim to fame: a stuffed bird. 

[Qapla]

Let's see .....

 

Wild Turkeys

Quail

 

 

................ hmmmmmmmmmmmmm know any good recipes?

[bohemian]

Judging by the waterfall, what you have there is what we call in England a farm! A backyard in England is very, very small, usually concrete with no grass! If you have grass, here it is a garden.

We have a small garden - just a few square yards of grass and a small area for growing our few veggies and herbs.

We do have a birdfeeder and a birdbath, however, and we get:

A charm of goldfinches (about a dozen at a time)

Bluetits

Great tits

Magpies

Robins

Green finches

Jays

Green woodpecker

Spotted woodpecker

Sparrowhawk

Blackbirds

Woodpigeons

As we are in an urban setting of west London close to Heathrow airport, I think we are very blessed to see so many wild birds.

[RaymondG]

My 'backyard' is about an acres...

I have two bird feeders hanging in the branches of a tree near the kitchen window, my friends there are the King Parrots.

But others come along. A Satin bowerbird will eat a bundle of seed, galahs will consume the lot, often times them apostle birds (I don't know their proper name, but they come in groups of 12 or so and are always squabbling among themselves) will get a share and also pick among the scraps that have fallen on the ground.

Rarely the Redwing Parrot will come. It's a real red where it's red and a brighter green than the King Parrot, but a lot more nervous and harder to photograph. The King Parrod (a male) is in my avatar at the moment.

Crimson Rosellas, which are principally red and blue, hang around occasionally while the Eastern Rosella doesn't generally get close to the house but finds things on the fence line.

A Striated Pardolote will occasionally make a nest in the gaps between the corrugated roofing and the timber and there are a couple of other little things around I don't know.

[CHecker]

We have so many bears we aren't allowed to hang feeders, it's called 'feeding the bears' which is illegal. So we have a bag of seed and spread a small cup full on a stack of old barn wood, for now. That barn wood is to be used for the back wall of my pagoda soon. We also have a stump off the back patio that we put seed, apples, tomato, bread crumbs etc on. The chipmunk and squirrel like it too.

 

We have blue wing woodpecker, seagulls (man, get them in the backyard and you'll be impressed at how HUGE they really are), raven's (which I've trained a family to come to me when I call 'Bird') finches, swallows, robins who help me in the garden with snails and slugs, and others I don't know the name of. Not an impressive lot but but they're fun. If we're late feeding them they show up outside my sliding door and pace!  

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

How incredibly cool!!!   Ravens are really REALLY smart birds!  

A dear sister and my closest friend, who is now is Jehovah's memory,

used to feed the ravens and she could never sleep in because they would

peck on her patio door and caw and caw until she would come out and

give them their daily bread.  

 

The raven s and I really miss her.  

Love your backyard, by the way!!!    

[dilip kumar]

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[Peanuts]

Wow you have some amazing birds come! I'm in the UK, so nothing too exotic, but the birdsong is still beautiful to hear. We get:

House sparrows

Collared doves

Wood pigeon

Starlings

Magpies

Blackbirds

thrush

Robin

blue tits

Chaffinch

I'm only about 30 miles from London but in a more rural location, so think the birds can find things naturally and don't need to rely on garden feeders so much...that said I still spend a fortune feeding them!

[Friends just call me Ross]

Running water really is a bird magnet:   Especially on a hot summer day.