Birds in North Florida

In North Florida we seem to be the recycling area for all types of birds depending on the time of year.

We have turned our yard into a Bird, Bee, Butterfly & Squirrel Sanctuary. All of our plants seem to attract them. Even the neighbors come over to watch. We live in a subdivision, but it is all the way in the back, against the woods and next to a retention pond. It is very tranquil and the birds seem to want to stay.

During the summer we have about 15 Cardinals (the babies seemed to stay), Hummingbirds (they have flown south to Central America now), 2 couples of Mr & Mrs Blue Jay, Mr & Mrs Tit Mouse, Mr & Mrs Oriole, Families of Mocking Birds, Several different types of wrens (haven't been able to identify them all), Morning Doves (they are so funny to watch), Mr & Mrs Thrush, Owls, Herons, Golden Osprey (they love the squirrels & snakes, also we don't have a rodent problem because of them).

We mainly use Song Bird food which contains Seed, Fruit & Nut. They seem to like this the best. We also have squirrel feeders that contain corn & sunflower seeds that the Cardinals and Blue Jays love. We have the Bird Feeder under our open air canopy so the feed stays dry and our squirrel feeders (we have 10 squirrels, so we have 2 feeders) are on the fence next to the woods.

We had a Hummingbird feeder, but the hummingbirds snubbed their becks at it. We have so many plants that the Hummingbird loved, we didn't need the feeder. Their favorite plant is the Black & Blue Salvia, but they also love Porterweed Salvia, Bog Sage, Angelonia, Penta, Honeysuckle, Wisteria, Mexican Petunias, Ipomopsis, Balsaam, Mona Lavender and Night Blooming Jasmine.

For the fruit loving birds we planted 3 Loquat Trees. It flowers in the fall, and the fruit arrives in January. They love this little plum. It is kind of a sweet/sour taste. We like them too.

The Butterflys & Bees favorite flowers are: Butterfly Bush, Passion Flower, Milkweed, Rose of Sharons, Hybiscus, Plumbago, Garlic Plant, Bulbane & Crepe Myrtle.

I guess the best part is seeing all these wonderful birds and butterflys everyday and all we have to do is step outside or just sit in our livingroom .

Best wishes to everyone.

Hi irishsoul! Wow your so lucky to live in that area of your subdivision! That must be a real treat w/ all the birds etc. I'm sure they would not want to leave with all the great plants and trees you have there.

Thanks for posting and Welcome to the Bird Watching forum!

I'll see if I can help with the your wrens in just a little bit. :-) Pelle

Carolina Wren could be one, their in FLA year round;heres a link


http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Carolina_Wren.html

Some winter time wrens, LOL; no wonder your having problems with ID's.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/House_Wren.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Winter_Wren.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Sedge_Wren.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Marsh_Wren.html

If you get a pic of one some of us might be able to help! :-)

Pelle

We appear to have the Carolina Wren, the House Wren and the Winter Wren.
Thank you so much for the links. I have looked through Bird Books, but the pictures weren't as clear as these.

Oh very good; I'm glad they helped! :-)

Hi irshsoul, Have you noticed any other migrators such as Painted Buntings, Warblers etc.?

As a matter of fact, I saw a warbler yesterday. I wasn't sure what it was, so I had to look it up. Also saw a woodpecker, red headed today. Haven't seen them since last winter.

Beautiful Lilys and Hibiscus!!

Glad to hear you saw a warbler!

A Red-headed WP? Thats great! I've never seen one of those!

We have a thread running here"Show us your feeders"; if you'd like to post pics of yours please go ahead and do so. :-)

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/771508/

We should a lot more woodpeckers in the next month or so. The woods behind us has quite a few Pine Trees and the Woodpeckers love the bugs they get from them. I will put our feeders in.

This is the Ipomopsis. The Hummingbirds love these little guys.

Wow I can definitely see why w/ those beautiful tubular flowers!

Do they have another name besides the one you've mentioned? :-)



This message was edited Sep 22, 2007 10:53 AM

This is the only name I have found for them. If anyone has another name I would love to hear about it. They are an annual that come from seeds that I obtained from Burpee. The are the only seeds I bought that actually grew. Plants are the only way to go in my book.

Here is another Hummingbird favorite. Mona Lavender with the Golden Dew Drop in the back.

Here is another Hummingbird, Butterfly & Bee favorite. Mexican Petunia. As you can see, the Butterfly is just landing.

The Red Headed WP nest here in the summer and we did have one stop by for a bite to eat but never saw it again. Maybe next year....