I have a few pics of hummers that I took last night down at my feeders....You would've laughed at me crawling across the grass getting closer and closer to them...I almost got hit in the face by them once....Anyway, I thought it would be nice to have a place where we could just look at bird pictures...so here's my hummers! We had 5 flying around last night! Usually we just have 2...


Having a drink!


Taking a break on the clothesline!

I took this a few minutes ago while I was outside cleaning the feeders.
While I was refilling them, I put the hose in the rhododendron on the "mist" setting so the hummers would play in it instead of landing on me. They get a little ticked off when I take the feeders down to refill them, and can't wait for me to get them back up so they can start fighting again. :rolleyes:
...strange little birds!

This one was waiting on the feeder hanger, preening after it's shower...

Cindy, that's a great picture.....I wish I had better optical zoom...my next camera will be at least 10x optical....I just love watching them, we sit outside every night to watch them feed.....

Here's a few pics of my hummingbird invasion...
I've lowered the file size down so they will load easy....so the picture quality won't be as good. :rolleyes:

Here's the main trouble-maker...

He has been guarding that feeder for almost a week. When I took it down yesterday to clean and refill it, he got MAD! He tried to follow me into the house, so I cleaned it out in the yard, with him trying to land on it the whole time. It was so funny! When I got it filled and was heading back to the hanger, he landed on it and would NOT get off! I had to hang it with him sitting on it.

Here he is taunting my cat through the window...


Poor kitty sits four inches away from the feeder with GLASS between them! Sometimes she loses control and jumps up on the glass, like she forgets it's there!




Cindy

I love that last photo with the 2 birds at the feeder. They are soooo cute!

Love the pics Cindy.....your poor cat is being tormented--LOL!!!! Hummingbirds are so tiny that you just can't believe it sometimes....We have a male bully at ours too--he chases every single other hummer off like he owns the feeder...

Love all of the bird pics. It rally makes me want to put up a feeder. I know we have hummers here but nothing I am growing is attracting them this year.

I made a feeder in hopes of attracting hummers. It is nothing fancy but here are the pics of it. Hopefully bird pics will follow.

Great job Triss--inventive...I wouldn't have been able to think up a homemade feeder....So where exactly does the liquid come out of???? Can't wait to see if you get some hummers...keeping my fingers crossed!

The "red" was a good idea to attract them.
I always put out red ribbons in the spring to get their attention to the feeders...
(...like I need more hummingbirds!) :rolleyes:

I hadn't taken the red ribbons off the feeder pole and the other day there were so many out here, some of them were trying to get a drink out of the ribbons! So, I went out and cut the ribbons off.

I hope you get some soon!

Cindy

There are holes on either side of each container. They are the size of a skewer and about an inch from the bottoms. I am hoping that will be big enough. If not, I will make them bigger, that or go buy one. The kids thought this was fun so it was a great project for us all.

Great pics, kudos to everyone . I still need to figure out how to post pics in an album of my own. Any help would be appreciated. Please send a PM if you can help .
Its a little different cup, but is about 15 feet away and they fly right past it and drain the old one .
Any ideas why?

I got my FIRST Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year, yesterday.

BF, open an account on the web for storing photos like, Photobucket.com. That is the site I use. Upload pictures from your computer to your site. Then click on the link that begins with "[img" to highlight it. Right-click on the highlighted bar and click on "Copy". Then write your e-mail and where you want the picture to appear, right-clickand choose "Paste". That's all there is.

Here is My Ruby-throat.

cool picture thornius

I love hummers! They are the coolest birds around

Great pics,ya'll...thanks for sharing!

G-Mom

I am jealous of your photos of the hummers! what lens and kind of camera do you have. Also how do I upload a photo to the message?

I used a Fuji FinePix S5100 with a 10X zoom lense.

One of the members here posted a topic up in "Member Benefits" on how to post photos.

Posting Pics Using Photobucket

Nice to meet you!

Cindy

How nice to see so many people in one place who appreciate our little hummers. I put up my first ever hummingbird feeder this year and now have about four or five showing up (as far as I can tell.) What a treat! Here's a picture I took the other day. It was in a shady spot, later in the day, so the it came out a little more artsy than detailed. Just thought I'd share.



I'm fairly new to posting here and want to say how much I enjoy reading the stories here. What a nice peaceful place this is. Hope you don't mind a newcomer popping in from time to time.

~Suzy~

Suzy... Love that pic. It is more sureal and that makes it great.

Hope to see you pop in more often!

I really like that pic a lot Suzy...thanks for sharing it with us!!!! I just love hummers....

And you guys, don't forget to post pics of any other birdies that you want to share! Love seeing them all!

Thank you for the nice welcome and compliments! I love this Forum and all the threads I've browsed. It seems like such a nice place to visit.

I realize now that I sent the url thumbnail of my Hummer rather than the full picture. lol. Oh well, I'm a newbie. So I thought I'd post once more in regular size. Hope you don't mind.



I also have little chickadees all over and managed to get a picture of one of those as well. They are just sooo cute with their little black caps!!



This guy shares that little old birdhouse with the chickadees. lol. He waits for leftovers and I top them up for him. We've named him Merle. (I couldn't find the squirrel thread so I snuck him in here )



Now if I could only snap a shot of one of the beautiful bright yellow American Finches I have around here. I just can't seem to get close enough though. Oh well, maybe someday.

Hope everybody has a great weekend.

~Suzy~

Suzy,

Awesome pics! Thanks for sharing!

WOW!!!!!!

GREAT PICS!!!!

G-Mom

Cindy, your pictures are Awesome! The ones on the first page too. Your poor cat. lol. Those pix are funny! That little hummer is pretty brazen sitting on the feeder while you're carrying it. This is my first year of feeding and watching them so mine are pretty timid. I can stand near them but if I make a sudden movement, they'll bolt. Do they get more comfortable as time goes by?

~Suzy~

Love those Cindy. I am so looking forward to getting some. Someone here told me we are just getting into hummer season. I don't know how true that is, but we shall see.

Oh, YEAH!

They land on me now...and the Head Hummingbird fights off the others that land on me.

I love them!

Cindy

It's funny how if you watch them long enough, you can see personality traits. At first I had one female, then two, then three. They were there all the time for awhile, but I guess one of them told a male and now that little bugger sits in the tree and waits for the girls to show up. Then he chases them off. lol. I think they're working together now though. One of the girls lures him away while the other two sneak in.

I don't know their breed, but the girls all have green backs and the male does too, but he has a brilliant red throat. It almost looks like he has a bright red satin ribbon there. I do enjoy them and their shananigans.

I also have a lot of sparrows around. I know they're not people's favourite bird but I don't mind them. When I took that picture of the chickadee, I was holding the camera up and staying very still and suddenly a sparrow flew over and just perched on my arm! I guess they're pretty comfortable here too.

Unfortunately for one the next day, he flew into my window and knocked himself silly. I saw him sitting dazed on my deck so I picked him up and sat him on my counter by an open door. I was worried about a cat coming along while he was loopy and also wanted to make sure nothing was broken and he wasn't suffering. He ended up staying for about 1/2 an hour and then when the headache subsided a bit, he flew out. But not until I took a picture.



~Suzy~

SuzyQ. you are describing a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I didn't know they got that far west but according to Sibley's bird guide, they do.

Aww Suzy....I'm glad you helped the little sparrow...you know I really don't mind them at all even though some people think they are nuisances.....I like watching them.

Cool pics Cindy. I bought another feeder, so now I have 3 hanging up in the yard too...My neighbor probably thinks I'm nuts, but I love watching them feeding at all of them and fighting over them.....

Well I just did some research and it looks like I got my feeder out right when I was supposed to for fall migration of hummers in my area. Here is what I found, we are considered the panhandle.

Four species of hummingbirds are found in Nebraska, one in the east and three in the west. Ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate through eastern Nebraska in spring and fall, and some nest here, mostly along the Missouri river valley. Typically, ruby-throat migration in Nebraska peaks about May 5-17 and September 2-18, but northward migration may occur from April to June and southward flights from August to early October. Broad-tailed and rufous hummingbirds are seen in the Nebraska panhandle during fall migration from late July to early September with most sightings in early to mid-August. Calliope hummingbirds are seen rarely in the panhandle area. These four hummingbird species spend winter in Mexico and Central America

Thanks Thornius! Ruby Throated Hummingbird. Who'd o' thunk it? lol

Triss, from what you said regarding migration, this must be one of the places they migrate to. I don't know why they'd want to come this far north, but sure am glad they do! I'll let you know when they leave so you can put your porch light on for them.

I finally got some really clear pictures this morning! YAY! This is the male showing off his fancy red sash. It shows the brightest when you see them head on.



But when they turn slightly, it seems to fade.



The downside of these photos is it shows how badly in need of paint my windows are! lol

~Suzy~

Awesome photos ya'll! I love all the pics.. even that squirrel was soooo cute!

Meg

I wonder if anybody knows what kind of bird this fella is. It's definitely some kind Woodpecker or Sapsucker, but I haven't been able to find a picture on the net with the real name. I thought at first it was one of my little chickadees because the colouring is similar, but then realized he was larger (and not quite as cute. lol). The rat-a-tat-tat on this dead treetrunk also gave him away.

Unfortunately I think these little buggers are responsible for the death of five of my birch trees over the last seven years, so I'm not feeling really close to them right now.

SuzyQ,
You have a White-Breasted Nuthatch there! They are fairly common in dense, old-growth forest and aften occur in pairs. Thay have a distinctive, "Yank! Yank!" call. Check out the pictures of them on Google Image Search, or their picture, information, and an audio recording of their call, on eNature.com.

And by the way, SuzyQ, they are NOT responsible for the death of your trees. Some other factor is responsible. They are NOT Woodpeckers or Sapsuckers , but like them are VERY beneficial for keeping your trees FREE of pests. A very nice and adorable bird to have around your house.

P.S. That's a male White-breasted Nuthatch. They have a black patch that runs from the back of their neck over their head to the start of the bill. The females have a gray cap on top of their head.

OH Thanks, Thornius! Okay, I like them now. lol. I smiled when I read the description where it said they're "usually seen creeping on tree trunks, head downward." Because that's how my picture was taken but I rotated it. lol. And it said "they often join mixed flocks of chickadees, woodpeckers..." Just before I snapped that one, a chickadee came over and the Nuthatch chased him off. AND not only that! There WERE two of them. You do know your stuff, Thorny! Thanks again.

You also solved another mystery for us. The sound they make. I have about an acre of bush and I hear that sound all the time in there, especially in the morning. I've always wondered who was making it.

There is something pecking at my trees though. They leave a real organized pattern in the trunks and I think the trees bleed out. They also wake me up pecking on my house outside the bedroom window every now and then too. It's cedar siding. Sounds like a noisy little construction crew. lol

Maybe I'll get a picture of one of those some day. I'm still trying to get close enough to my bright yellow American Finches before they leave but haven't had any success. Not yet anyway. They are really beautiful.

The bird that leaves the organized pattern in yout trees is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It drills a series of evenly spaced holes completely around a tree trunk, leaving parallel rings of holes in the trunks. It appears to do no damage to the tree. after a few days it returns to drink the sap and eat the insects that collect in the holes. Here in the Southeast U.S. we only get this bird in the Winter. Here is a picture of the bird AND the holes it makes in two different trees in my front yard. I took these pictures about a year ago.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker


The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker strikes again

I found it! It's a Ladder-Backed Woodpecker. Still couldn't get close enough with my camera, but I found one online and I know this is it.



It's been raining here for almost two weeks and has finally stopped, so there must be quite a smorgasbord out there for all my feathered friends. While sipping my coffee this morning on the deck, these Woodpeckers were all over my backyard trees, along with the Nuthatches and Chickadees. And big old Red Breasted Robins scooping up the worms on the ground.

What a cool world this is. I wish I'd appreciated them all sooner. Unfortunately for now, I think my little hummers have skipped town. Haven't seen them for a few days. Oh well, something to look forward to next year.

I've never considered their migration habits before, so now I realize I'm lucky so many come here to nest.

Here's the very first bird picture I ever took. (Early this summer.) I thought they were Barn Swallows but when I looked them up, I see they're actually Cliff Swallows. They come every year and build their little mud condos under the eaves of my house just above my deck. It's a bit dark, but to get close I was hanging out an upstairs window shooting up into the air. lol. These were the first guys to tweak my interest.



Haven't seen them around for awhile either lately. Now I'm already looking forward to next summer.

~Suzy~

Suzy,

Have not seen many woodpeckers this year. I think they come later for us.

Hoping your hummers come my way to say hello. I still have just seen the one.

We have tons of barn swallows. They chase the dragonflies all over the place. Really cool to watch.

You are right, that is a Cliff Swallow, Good Job! Your Woodpecker may be a Downy Woodpecker, or a Hairy Woodpecker. They are identical in appearance, except, the Hairy Woodpecker is about 50% larger than the Downy Woodpecker and the bill on the Hairy Woodpecker is almost the length of the head, whereas the bill on the Downy Woodpecker is only about 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the head. Otherwise they are IDENTICAL in both appearance and behavior. They do NOT interbreed.

Suzy Q if you are really interested in birds, like I have been for 20 years, may I suggest you get a good set of binoculars. preferrably something with a 7 or 8 power of magnification. Most birders really on a 7X35 pair of binoculars. Buy the best you can afford. Prices run from $20 - $2000 U.S. I have several pairs that I use in the $20 to $100 price range. I have tried some $2000 pairs in the fieldand if I had the money I would buy a pair in an instant!!! Also get a good field guide. The best currently available is The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Oh Geez! Looks like more homework for me. lol. Now I'll really have to try to get a shot of one and find out if it's Hairy, Downy or Ladder-Backed. Good, clean fun though, isn't it.

Hope you get a bunch of Hummers Triss. Your kids will just love them!

Looks like we were posting at the same time, Thornius. That's good advice! We also have deer and moose wandering around here and binoculars would be great to have. (Something else for my letter to Santa.)

I also see many hawks around here, but never close up. I'm amazed at how the other birds protect their young ones though. We have these black birds (picture to follow next summer) and they zip around the hawks, poking at their backs and just irritating them in general, I suppose to keep them away from their nests. Well that's what I think they're doing anyway.

I'll probably end up with permanent rings around my eyes and a stiff neck if I get some binoculars. lol

here are some bird forums I am a member of:

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=start&webtag=ab-birding

http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/community/forum/

The first forum is GREAT, much like this forum. the second one is slightly more academic but he people there are very kind and REALLY like to help beginners! They have GREAT bird photographers on the second site.

Thanks for the links Thorny.

I think you're right, Thorny. I think it's a 'Downy Woodpecker' I have. They were back this morning and I tried to memorize as much detail as I could but they didn't stay long when I opened the door. I noticed the bill was shorter and the bird was a bit larger than the Nuthatches. Now that I've seen this picture, I don't think it's a ladder-back anymore. I just didn't realize there were a bunch of similarly marked woodpeckers.

This morning I had these big old cranky Blue Jays hanging around too. They're pretty constant here, but what a racket they make!! lol. They come to steal the peanuts I leave for Merle the Squirrel. The other birds usually take off when the Blue Jays show up too. I guess they're just not quite in with the 'in-crowd' around here.

And while I'm on birds, I think a neighbour nearby got a Rooster! Luckily they're not right next door. lol

I LOVE Roosters! And by-the-by the proper name for chickens is, "Southeast Asian Jungle Fowl". NO FOOLIN'! Chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia and spread through trade to the rest of the world. As a matter of fact domesticated chickens reached South America SOMEHOW long before Columbus or the Vikings!

Earlier this month afgreyparrot posted 3 pictures of hummingbirds. The one in the middle looks like one that I have seen on my Butterfly bush this week. The one here has an upside down yellow triangle on it's throat. There is another one that seems to be dark green all over with no markings. My bird book has pages of hummers but I don't see them in it. It says Ruby throats are the only common one in my area but these don't have ruby throats. Any ideas?

Hi MrsMessy. (I should have thought of that name for ME! lol)

My Ruby Throated Hummers have a lot of green, but the females don't have a red throat at all. Maybe that's what you have. The females showed up here first, then the males followed. You'll know them when you see them for sure, because the males throats really are a brilliant shade of Ruby. Don't know anything about the yellow triangles though.

My aunt has that kind of humming bird feeder. Humming birds came and I still don't get how you get the nectar or what ever is in that thing.

I found this and thought you might be interested,MrsMessy. It explains how some hummingbirds CAN have yellow throats.

hummers with yellow throats

Hope this helps!

G-Mom

Garden Wisher, You make your own nectar by dissolving one part sugar in four parts water. Warm or heat the water so the sugar will dissolve completely and then allow it to cool before you put it in the feeder. Replace the nectar every three to four days and it is not necessary to add red food coloring to the nectar. The feeders are designed to attract Hummingbirds.

Mrsmessy and gardenmom, I think hummingbirds and other birds are probably more colorful than we can know. I read somewhere that birds can see 5 basic colors whereas humans can only see 3.

I love these pictures. Thanks for sharing.

http://community-2.webtv.net/hotmail.com/verle33/HummingBirdNest/

The above link is photographs of a hummingbird nest with babies....This is an incredible site.

Hope you all enjoy it

Here are today's bird pictures. The first is of a female House Sparrow landing at one of my feeders. The second is of a Blue Jay taking off from another of my feeders.

Flight 87, you are clear for landing.


Flight 139, you are clear for takeoff.

Looks like it was a beautiful day in Nashville today.

Beautiful, but COOOLLLD!

I caught this adorable little fellow doing a little mechanical, robot-like dance on the handle of my trash can in the back yard today, about 30 minutes ago. It is a Carolina Wren. Notice the bright light colored line above the eye? That is the main field mark of the Carolina Wren.

Carolina Wren

Thornius: do you have a telephoto lens or are you actually that close to the Wren?? It looks kind of puffy, is it puffy because you are close or are they naturally puffy looking??

I put Canned peaches and canned corn out in my yard recently just to see what would happen. It attracted a lot of birds..Do you think it is ok to feed birds canned peaches or corn??

No, I do not use a telephoto lense that is just the 3X optical zoom on my Olympus D-580 Zoom camera and then I crop and enlarge it in Adobe Photoshop 7. I was about 15 feet from the Wren shooting through the backdoor window. The puffiness is due to the fact that it was quite cold that day and it had its feather fluffed and puffed out to make itself warmer.
Peaches, or any fruits are quite popular with many species of birds, especially Orioles, Mockingbirds, or Starlings. Corn is a main ingredient of many bird feeds AND most suet that you buy commercially. I feed my quasi-pet Northern Mockingbird, Mr. Mocky apple slices coated with peanut butter. I started putting out raw peanuts in the shell on my platform feeder and the Blue Jays eat them faster than I can put them out. I put out three cups about 8:00 O'clock last night and at 11:00 O'clock this morning every single one of them was gone!!!

T_d_guy: Nope not all of us are ladies. SOOOO guy do you think that gardening and birds, butterflies are woman's work???

Thanks dodge.....

I LOVE all these photos thanks to all for aharing.

Check out my new signature...Catlover should like this... <<smle>>

Those are great picks! sadly hummers dont usually come to my area oh well thats ok. We do however get SOOO many sparrows and finches that nest in the oak and the shrubs!

A friend said I could share this pic w/you guys. She lives in San Diego, and took this at the zoo yesterday:

That is a nice picture!

I miss my hummingbirds so bad!

I miss mine too! And I have a cool new feeder for them....I have 4 now I think.

Can't wait to see those little guys come back! They're so fascinating to watch zipping around.

Here is a rather unusual shot showing three of the more common "feeder" birds in one shot. I took this about noon today.

Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, and Carolina Chickadee



Here is my friend Mr. Mocky (Northern Mockingbird)framed by the railings of my porch.

MR. MOCKY



Here is a Carolina Wren that wanted to come and play with my grandson's toys.

CAROLINA WREN

those are great pictures, i loved the one of kitty's back looking out the window, no doubt licking his chops (lol).
great job.
penny

Not sure if i am doing this right i am new here i have picture of hummer bettyboop1948

That is great I love the screen mesh effect! They want you to keep your picture to the size 640 X 480 Pixels though. Welcome to the forum. I am the wild bird man here. I am near you in Nashville Tn. and we should be getting the hummers back in about 2 - 4 weeks. I have two new hummer feeders ready to go. And you do not need to add red food coloring to the nectar as long as their is red on your feeder. Just mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and warm the water slightly to dissolve the sugar. You can store the excess nectar in the fridge. Clean the feeders and change the nectar every 3 - 5 days.

here is another shot of one bettyboop1948

Hey bettyboop. What do you have in the bird cage? My daughter has a parakeet.But it has to stay in her room. My siamese cat won't leave it alone.
Diane

Here is the latest picture of my friend and porch companion Northern Mockingbird, Mr. Mocky.

RUN, MOCKY, RUN!!!

I am having a fair amount of success teaching my porch-pal, Northern Mockingbird, Mr. Mocky, to sing the opening line from Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Now, If I can only teach him some table manners after eating at my suet feeders !

WIPE YOUR BILL!!!

Went to the lake today with my grandson to feed the ducks and this Canada Goose was NOT too impressed with what was on the menu.

YOUR STALE BREADCRUMBS ARE MAKING ME SICK!!!

I usually don't care much for black and white bird photographs, but I sorta liked this one when i took it.

BLACK AND WHITE

hey thornius
hope you didnt get any damage from that bad weather i just read about.
looks like the system that was supposed to hit us shifted south!

It destroyed EVERYTHING 6 miles north of my house. We got 10 minutes of heavy rain and marble sized hail, but NOTHING more than that. So far 24 people are dead within 30 miles of my house. We didn't even lose electricity here. So I will Still be giving my bird reports.

Hi Thornius! I was SO relieved to see your post and find out you were okay. I was worried when I heard that tornados hit the suburbs of Nashville.

Take care,
patches

So glad that you are ok Thorny. We have been worried about you.

I took some pictures today of some of our visitors.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2107551253

We still dont have a field guide yet , so would anyone like to help me identify them??

Thanks!

That looks like a goldfinch to me, but I could be wrong.

I was thinking the first one was probably a Finch. But wasn't to sure of some of the others. Especially the last one. The last one was a card LOL! HE posed for me to get a shot of him from all angles before flying off LOL~!

I can't wait until I get a field guide! I think I'll order the Sibleys one from Amazon tonight.

I guess I did not look far enough. I just saw the goldfinch the first time through. I dunno what the others are at all though!

OK all you hummingbird freaks - I live in NW Florida and when the weather is this nice the hummers usually keep right on going and we don't have too many. However, here are my buddies - they now have 4 babies in the nest and are coming to the deck to feed all day long - I've never posted pics before but I'll try - Lin







Hope it works

Yeah!! It worked, but do you think those pics are too big?? Aren't they cute?

Starla, you have goldfinches, bluebirds, the brown one is a thrasher and there is a robin (the last one). Very Nice!! Lin

ooooh thank you! I bought a field guide this week (stokes... that was all they had) so I have been looking some up.

So far I have id'd the gold finches, Brown Thrasher, Blue birds, and Towhee's oooh and I havent gotten a picture yet but we also have Mocking Birds YAY!


LOVE yours pic's btw!


ETA: I meant to tell you that I am originally from FL too. I grew up in Bartow Florida.

Beautiful pics Lin!!!

Lin - those are terrific pictures of a beautiful bird!
Love the colors!

Lynne

thank you, thank you, thank you, can you tell what my hobby is - I am so lucky to be able to stay home and garden, bird and take pictures--

Very lucky indeed! What kind of bird is that?

Lin, looks like I have competition. You know your birds!

Not competition, just a fellow birder. Wish I could get out more but do most of my birding from home. I have a great yard for birds though, on a lake so I get lots of neat stuff. Is this heaven? Wow, just think someday it will be even better. Lin

Triss, it's a male bluebird. He will bring the fledglings to the nest in about 15 days. When the babys get here, I'll put a pic of one of them on here.

That is very exciting! Cannot wait to see those!

Hey everyone, I have so many pictures and have never shared them with anyone so I am sort of excited. I am going to try and copy the link for my albums to this site. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do ...

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/

Started a new thread

Bird pictures 2