backyard birds

Hi-
I've enjoyed everyone's pictures and now have a few of my own to share. I am new at bird watching, so I'm taking my best guess at identifying these. Enjoy!
I think this first one is a carolina wren.

Here is a chickadee...

I'm really not sure about this one. I am guessing a junco finch?

Here's a great male cardinal picture!

And Mrs. Cardinal...

Is this a finch of some kind?

Mockingbirds are so great, so bold, so ready to pose!

This is my favorite bird, but so hard to get a picture of. I think this is a female yellow-bellied sapsucker woodpecker.
(added the sapsucker part, thanks magpye)

This message was edited Jan 29, 2006 12:38 AM

Is this a tufted titmouse?

Ok, last one, and this one is blurry. It is a cedar waxwing, I think. It arrived in a flock, but way up in the tree.

Welllll, wouldja jes look at you .. taking and posting all those wonderful pitters of your feathered pals there in Texas!! .. Yay!! More (and 'fresh') birdie pics!! You've done yourself (and 'us') proud .. Thanks for sharing them with us!!

Don't recall seeing your 'user' name pop up anywhere near by, before .. so, I'd like to offer a big ol 'hearty' welcome to DG, to ya!!

'Way to go' ambercoakley! And some mitey fine shots, indeedy!! Ya seem to have most all of the 'common' names pretty much down-pat to boot!

I believe your {finch of some kind} is the female Purple Finch .. and your {this is a female yellow-bellied woodpecker] .. is more akin to the male 'Yeller-bellied' Sapsucker! (No kiddin' - they're for real) .. heehee ..

I'm gonna leave them 'fancy' name assignments .. for the more 'authoritative' others, to step up to help you there! .. lol ..

I gotta tell ya, tho' .. that your Tufted Titmouse is sure nuff pushing some limits, for his beaker- with that hu-mongus seed that he looks to have 'wedged' in there!! That, is 'gargantuan'! .. LOL ..

- Magpye

Hey thanks, Magpye. I've been a DG member for a few months, but have not posted very much yet. I am sure having fun with all the birds! The titmouse has a peanut. He takes it to a branch, holds the peanut with his feet, and pecks at it. That's the ONLY he could eat it, I guess ;-)

Your pictures are very good. I can't ever get close enough to get pictures like that. Are you doing them through a window?

Thanks! No, it is a combination of a decent camera and lense and setting up close (on my tripod) and being very patient. Works better when my dogs aren't circling me ;-)

Oh, and then there's all that birdseed! I have 3 trough feeders, 3 hanging feeders, and a corn-cobb holder.

I just got back in from "scooting" the possum along. It's after midnight and my dogs were having a fit at the possum trying to get some dinner.

I have a lot of feeders, too, year 'round. I guess what I need to do is just take my breakfast and my camera outside to my bench and wait. We are having a lot of birds already (besides our regular winter residents) and it's still only January.

Wow! Nice pictures! Love the Sapsucker. I've only had the pleasure of seeing one once and that was in a south Florida swamp. Welcome to DG and the Wildlife forum!

You did great, Amber! Bird number six is, I believe, a female house finch. Anyone else concur?

You certainly get a great variety of birds at your feeder.

Great photos! You are correct on the Carolina Wren, and the third one is a Dark-Eyed Junco. I'm not too good with identifying the finches though so I'll leave that one up to everyone else! (I thought it was a type of sparrow, lol). How lucky you are to have all those birds at your feeders. We get those same species here in Georgia, and I was lucky to see my first junco just today. :-) The American Goldfinches are starting to turn yellow at last - can't wait to see them in full Spring plumage. You sound like me with all the feeders in your yard. When the feeders get low I swear I hear the birds in the trees scolding me!!

Well, thanks everybody! I wasn't sure if the variety of birds that visit my backyard is "normal." I haven't ventured beyond my yard even, but am looking forward to doing that too. There is a winter bird outing at my local arboretum weekend after next. That will be my first time to be around other people who love birds too. I'm tickled that it seems like I've got most these right or pretty close. I know that there are male house finches around - they have red heads I believe. There was a dove today, a blue jay and a big black crow. Did I get pictures? No. But there is always tomorrow!

Really really great pictures Amber!! You have such a nice variety too. I can't wait to see what you get at the arboretum. When I first got my camera one of the first laces I went was an arboretum in N. Car. I took lots of pictures including this one of a Cedar Waxwing.

It wasn't until months later that I figured out that I could crop my pictures and blow them up so that picture became this lol! I was SO thrilled. What a revelation to a techno dinosaur. Your's are great and I looking forward to seeing lots more!

Isn't cropping fun?

Oh it's so not fair!! You want to see my "normal" birds?? Ah, easier to just tell you. I've got a "new to me" yard that needs major help. So, lucky me gets sparrows and blackbirds and did I mention sparrows?? :o)

OT- how are you cropping and enlarging? Is that how everyone gets such great pictures?

Terry

I do it with my photo program. I have an HP printer and an HP scanner and my photo software came with them. I love it. I tried PhotoShop 6, but it was far too complicated for what I wanted to do. Using that program could become a second career.

thanks 1gardengram! I've got all but the HP scanner (camera is an HP also), but my computer is a Compaq and I didn't have to install any of the software that came with my camera or printer. Just hooked it up and it was there. I did have PhotoShop when I downloaded the software on my old computer, I'm going to have to look into it more. See if it's here and I just never noticed...wouldn't be the first time ;o)

I'm sure you can do wonderful things with the Photoshop program if you have it. It will just take a lot of practice. But hang in there and keep playing with it.

One of my daughters and her daughters use Shutterfly and said they can do all kinds of things with it and make up albums or send things out by email.

You're doing mighty good for a beginner aberc. Will be looking for more from you . . . Joan

Ambercoakley- what great bird pictures. I particularly like the little juncos. We call them 'snow birds' up north because they are ground feeders and hop/pop around in the snow. We have had an open winter so far.

Juncos are clown birds, they do not walk or hop they 'pop'. I love to see them in the snow.

Terry, I have a very easy to use picture manipulation program called Paint Shop Photo Album 5. I pop my digital cartridge into a reader and then download the pictures into the photo album. Then I can crop them and change them to a smaller size for posting or sending. Its pretty easy with this program.

seeds, I LOVE Juncos. We used to see them all the time when I lived on Long Island. I just see them occasionally here in Tn. But we do get lots of other neat birds here that I love watching too. But I do miss those little juncos. I don't see catbirds here very often either and I miss those too.

Here is a downy woodpecker that flew into the window a few weeks ago and was stunned for about 20 minutes. I zipped outside and took a few pictures of it while it was getting itself together.

and another one about 10 minutes later...

and now we are juuust about ready to leave....

Poor little WP...I'm glad it was okay. Great pictures!

I use Paint Shop Photo Album 5 by Corel for cropping my pictures too. I love that you can adjust the size so easily. Then I use MS Power Tools (?) picture resizer since it's a right click tool and could hardly be easier.

Are juncos dark gray on their tops (head, back, tail) and pure white underneath?

Hi All-

I use Photoshop Elements 4.0 to crop and print my pictures. Elements is PLENTY for me, and not quite so intimidating (or expensive) as the full-on Photoshop. Sometimes I use the "quick fix" button, but most of the time the way they are straight from the camera is great. I use an HP printer too, a couple years old now, and the pics look great printed out.

I have a couple new ones to share, I'll post those next.

Terry, I noticed a "different" kind of sparrow the other day. I'll post a picture - I think it might be a Harris sparrow. And I get the occasional black bird, but don't have a good picture yet.

Lilyfantn, I enjoyed getting a look at te cedar waxwing pic you posted. Those are really attractive birds, I think. I'm glad the woodpecker was OK. They are my favorite, and I will post a new pic of a hairy woodpecker, I think.

se_eds and gardengram - I noticed that the juncos like to feed on the seed on the ground. There's plenty of that, and it's starting to grow. I guess I'll have tons of little black oil sunflower seed plants at the base of my fence! I got some pretty good new junco pics, coming up.

Amber

Here's a hairy woodpecker, I think. Longer bill, right?

Here are 2 junco pictures. They look different, but I think they are both juncos. Maybe one older/younger, or maybe 2 different kinds?

...and here's the 2nd junco

I just figured out that the "End" button on my computer takes me straight to the bottom of the thread. Boy, that's handy.

Here is an attractive picture of a male house finch. I took many pics of these little guys, but this one is the most flattering ;-)

Here is a hawk of some kind. I'm not sure which kind, but it was not that big. I was surprised that it flew in, and it didn't stay long. Guess I was lucky to be ready to snap a picture, even if he's half hidden by tree limbs.

Rhiannon, here's an American Goldfinch. Just add "I think" to everything. I literally flip through my field guide to figure out what these birds are. I'm starting to get the hang of it, and becoming more familiar though.