Backyard Birds

Dark Eyed Junco Junco hyemalis

I put a couple new bird feeders in the back yard last weekend and the birds hadn't visited them yet. One of the bird books said that birds will come investigate shiny things, so I put a chocolate wrapper near the feeder. Success.

These little juncos are very fast and frenetic. Always twitching and hopping. They mostly eat seeds off the ground and they like to hang out in the pear tree.

Female junco here.

House Finch - Carpodacus mexicanus

and

Black-Capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapilla

The chickadees are supposed to be some of the most tame birds, but that didn't seem to be the case yesterday. This one was the only one that came near the feeders and the french doors in the kitchen (where I was sitting taking pictures.)

Western Scrub Jay - Aphelocoma californica

Every 15 minutes or so, the Jay would swoop in and disturb all the little birds at the feeder. I think he was just doing it to assert his dominance or something because he never bothered to take any seeds.

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos

Like the Jay, the Crow was curious to see why all the little birds were so excited.

An Anna's Hummingbird flew by also, but unfortunately I didn't have my hummingbird feeder out anymore. But I hurriedly made some more sugar water and it's ready now.

Lesser Goldfinches - Carduelis psaltria

Finches love the niger seeds and there's often a bit of a scuffle at the feeder. Here you can see the house finch flying in from the right and scaring away the goldfinches.

A couple more goldfinch action photos here and here.