A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Bird pictures 2

I dont have any sort of zoom feature on my digital camera. Good thing I can get as close as I did or this barn swallow would have looked like a dot. :)They nest in three spots on the building my store is in. This one is perched on my front window.

Nice male Downy Woodpecker, Melcon!

It's kind of hard to see, but here's an oriole in our yard.

not hard to see. Good picture. The females have been in my cold mulch row and my yet unplanted veggie garden getting nesting materials. I'm not sure what they're taking from the soil...maybe a bug snack.

Most spectacular site out my front window this evening. A mommy or daddy bird brought 3 babies to be fed at my suet feeder. My camera was not working so I took a video. These are a couple of the stills I captured from it. They are blurry cuz it was off video but really neat. I have no idea what kind of birds they are.

I also want to post the link to the video so that you can see if you like. It is loaded at Photobucket and I am just not too sure how fast it will go on slower computers. But here it is.

Baby birds being fed

Triss, your birds are European Starlings or just Starlings here in the U.S. They are an exotic, invasive species, brought to Central Park In New York City about a century ago, from England, by an eccentric Park Avenue Millionaire who loved birds and Shakespeare. He decided to bring to America breeding populations of EVERY bird that Shakespeare EVER wrote about to get them established in America also. Most didn't survive, but the three species that did, European Starlings, House Sparrows, and Pigeons, not only survived but THRIVED and have almost eradicated many Native North American songbird species. One of the worst damaged species is the Eastern bluebird that nearly became extinct due to nest site competition with Starlings and House Sparrows. Many Bird researchers, including myself have worked to design bluebird nesting boxes that CAN be used by bluebirds but NOT by Starlings or House Sparrows. We have been successful with several designs that are now commonly used and the bluebird populations has dramatically increased in the last 30 Years. The three above species including Starlings have now spread from coast to coast and from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in the New World. Incidentally, someone also imported European Starlings to Australia and other countries where they had never existed before.
I have about 30 Starlings that visit and strip my 8 feeders clean EVERY day.
Triss, Do a Google Image Search On European Starlings.

Yep, that is them Thorny. I have had the same block of suet in the feeder for a couple of weeks now and so far they have not cleaned it out. The are too big to get to the hanging feeder that is under that space so the smaller birds still get fed as well. They are noisy lil things when the family of 4 comes to eat cuz the babies just cannot get fed fast enough.

Use an upside down suet feeder. Starlings cant hang upside down on it to eat but woodpeckers nuthatches etc can
Thorny which houses do you deem most successful in keeping out starlings and house sparrows? The slit opening? Screen top? Are there some I never heard of?

The best is the Kentucky bluebird House developed at the University of Kentucky in 1988. Rather than a round or oval hole in front, it has a rectangular slot in the front big enough for bluebirds but too small for Starlings or House Finches AND you don't need a drill to make one. You do have to get the size of the slot EXACTLY or it won't be able to keep out the Starlings and House Finches. The slot needs to be EXACTLY 1 1/8 inches high and 3 1/2 to 4 inches long to be the right size and should be at the top of the front of the box. Here is a picture of a slighty modified Kentucky bluebird House. The 1 X 1 inch piece of wood on the front is NOT necessary and the top does not have to be slanted; it can be flat and the router work is not necessary either, unless you want beauty as well as function.

MODIFIED KENTUCKY bluebird HOUSE

Yay!
I was hoping, and am glad you say they're good. Thanks

A pair of Goldfinch at my feeder



These guys are not the slightest bit frightful. The feeder is in the diningroom window and they ate breakfast and dinner with the kids eating today. Zack even stood up and got a close look and was less than a foot away from the window.

I love Goldfinches so much!!! How neat for the kids to be able to watch them so close.

Here is a few I took yesterday....I ran totally out of birdseed, which is VERY rare for me. And wouldn't you know, I've never had a dove actually in my windowfeeder until it was empty! :p



Don't mind the birdpoop on the feeder....I clean it down everyday with a scrubber brush and by the following day it's full of poop again :rolleyes:

Doves often come to feeders at this time of year. I have a pair that come to mine daily.

I have a lot of them that ground feed under my hanging feeder, but that was the first one I've noticed in my window feeder since we put it in back in April.

I've never had a dove at a feeder either. I thought they were ground feeders.

Thorny, thank you for this post. I was fascinated reading it, to know that other bird populations are on the rise.

Back in 1971 I had to do a research project for my biology class on the importation of European Starlings and their vast destruction, and it is something I've never forgotten.

Thanks again.

Merme

I loved the dove pictures Loz,,, they are sooo cute, and the cooing noise they make, is so peaceful sounding compared to other birds.

I like them a lot too Penny, they seem so peaceful---and their cooing is very nice!

They usually are ground feeders, I was surprised to see it up there.

Well i'm glad you all get pretty birds..i get the ugly crows and crap..nothing cute..nothing pretty..just black ugly birds..and i keep feeding these nasty things..why i'm keep doing so and attracting these ugly critters is beyond me..

Here is a pics of how I spent mothers day. We went to a lake and went on a boat ride. I got some of the best pictures.... and now that I have finally figured out how to post pics, I wanted to share them with you all!

Osprey nest
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/karrieatodd1/ospreynest.jpg

osprey fleeing the nest
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/karrieatodd1/ospreyfleeingnest.jpg

its kinda hard to see him, he is there though in the far corner.

Egret
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/karrieatodd1/c80a34f4.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j127/karrieatodd1/egretbyshore2.jpg

I am gonna post this picture and see if my resizeing works.

ok that din work I will keep working on it.

Great pics Karrie!

Just take out your lil img on both sides plus their brackets and it should work fine.

great pics karrie, and you just had erased part of the link when you were putting in the image tags. i fixed that for you. hope you don't mind!