some friends of ours

So far we've recorded 18 different types of birds at our feeder or backyard. And Anderson knows most of their names:

Mallard, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Hairy Woodpecker, American Crow, Black-Capped Chickadee, Common Redpoll, Red-Breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Red-Winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, European Starling, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Dark-Eyed Junco, Brown-Headed Cowbird, House Finch

I try to get snapshots of each bird so that we can figure out what they are in our bird book, especially if we are trying to figure out exactly what type of sparrow. We've learned many things watching them.

The crows drove away the blue jays, but then the red-winged blackbird showed up and claimed our yard as his territory, so the crows keep their distance now. The juncos like to eat the seeds off the ground. The chickadees only take one seed at a time and fly away. The tree sparrow lifts his head feathers like a mohawk to flirt with the ladies. The female goldfinches are yellow and green. The male house finch is so red that the first one we saw, we thought it was an injured and bleeding bird. The brewer's blackbird seems like just a plain old blackbird, but in the sunshine it has a lovely purple shiny head, a green shimmer to its body and sharp, round yellow eyes. The nuthatches stand backwards on the trees. The woodpecker (which we are pretty sure is a Hairy not a Downy) does the funniest head bobbing at the suet and has really funny splayed feet when standing on the deck railing, they truly are a quirky bird.

It has been good entertainment watching them from our kitchen, especially through rainy days, and sick days. I'm sure we'll meet many more as the seasons change. Who's at your feeder these days?