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  1. #221
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Started feeding the birds a bit early this year. On the first really cold snap (zero), the Black-Capped Chickadees started showing up on the back patio, as if to say, "Feed me."

    List to date:
    B-C Chickadee
    White-breasted Nuthatch
    American Goldfinch
    Evening Grosbeak
    Cassin's Finch
    Pine Grosbeak
    Steller's Jay
    Black-billed Magpie
    Dark-eyed Junco
    Others in the neighbor hood

    Great listing of waterfowl, etc. at lake not too far away
    Last edited by sagegrouse; 11-03-2020 at 06:32 PM. Reason: Added stuff
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  2. #222
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    Yeah, it was late afternoon. We were trout fishing and as I climbed the bank I looked and there he was.
    My best sighting was a pine grosbeak in December 1994. Very rare for NC.

  3. #223
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    Started feeding the birds a bit early this year. On the first really cold snap (zero), the Black-Capped Chickadees started showing up on the back patio, as if to say, "Feed me."

    List to date:
    B-C Chickadee
    White-breasted Nuthatch
    American Goldfinch
    Evening Grosbeak
    Cassin's Finch
    Pine Grosbeak
    Steller's Jay
    Black-billed Magpie
    Dark-eyed Junco
    Others in the neighbor hood

    Great listing of waterfowl, etc. at lake not too far away
    Do you get pine grosbeaks often? Very rare here.

    My list so far:
    house finch
    purple finch
    American goldfinch
    cardinal
    pine siskin
    tufted titmouse
    Carolina chickadee
    white breasted nuthatch

    brown headed nuthatch

    pine warbler
    mourning dove

    Eurasian collared dove
    downy woodpecker
    hairy woodpecker
    red bellied woodpecker
    Blue jay
    mockingbird

  4. #224
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    I have tons of Pine Grosbeaks in the winter. Beautiful and rose-colored. Cassin's Finch (very like Purple) much less common.

  5. #225
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    My sighting of a single bird in 1994 was just the fifth sighting in NC.
    I know Cassin's finch they look similar to the house finch too..House finches are are a western import here.

  6. #226
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by Devilwin View Post
    My sighting of a single bird in 1994 was just the fifth sighting in NC.
    I know Cassin's finch they look similar to the house finch too..House finches are are a western import here.
    The legend of the House Finch is worth telling, assuming that the stories I heard years ago are true. It is a Western finch for the drier parts of the country, but it turns out that it really likes to nest on houses and other structures. Part one is that it succeeded living among humans, and its range began to expand in all directions, but mostly eastward.

    Part two is that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 prohibits the "killing, capturing, selling, trading, and transport" of protected bird species -- basically all species except game birds and alien species like starlings and house sparrows that came from elsewhere. As it turns out, it was a common practice to sell the colorful House Finch in pet stores. Shortly after World War II the Audubon types in New York went around to the pet stores and informed the owners of the law and their almost certain violation of it. The pet store owners did the only reasonable thing (from their point of view) -- they released the birds from their cages. Thus, it turns out, the House Finch became a released bird in the wild in the NYC area. And it thrived! Moreover, it spread rapidly over the years. And -- I understand -- that the eastward moving wild bird species from the American West has now met up with the westward spread of the NYC released birds.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  7. #227
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    The legend of the House Finch is worth telling, assuming that the stories I heard years ago are true. It is a Western finch for the drier parts of the country, but it turns out that it really likes to nest on houses and other structures. Part one is that it succeeded living among humans, and its range began to expand in all directions, but mostly eastward.

    Part two is that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 prohibits the "killing, capturing, selling, trading, and transport" of protected bird species -- basically all species except game birds and alien species like starlings and house sparrows that came from elsewhere. As it turns out, it was a common practice to sell the colorful House Finch in pet stores. Shortly after World War II the Audubon types in New York went around to the pet stores and informed the owners of the law and their almost certain violation of it. The pet store owners did the only reasonable thing (from their point of view) -- they released the birds from their cages. Thus, it turns out, the House Finch became a released bird in the wild in the NYC area. And it thrived! Moreover, it spread rapidly over the years. And -- I understand -- that the eastward moving wild bird species from the American West has now met up with the westward spread of the NYC released birds.
    They were being sold as ' Hollywood Finches". They reached NC in the mid 70's. Have Eurasian collared doves made it there?

  8. #228
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by Devilwin View Post
    They were being sold as ' Hollywood Finches". They reached NC in the mid 70's. Have Eurasian collared doves made it there?
    You bet. In Steamboat Springs and out to my neighborhood closer to the mountain range -- there are zero, zip, nada Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons (park pigeons). Not many places in N. America can say that. But we have a lot of Eurasian Collared Doves.

    There are also Band-Tailed Pigeons in the region, but they prefer very mountainous habitat -- and I don't know where they go when it's 20 below.

    There are Mourning Doves in the drier areas west of town , about where the Steller's Jays become rally scarce and Scrub Jays appear.

    Thing about the American West is you go about or down 1,500 feet in elevation and the bird and plant species change, often dramatically. Also true in South America in the Andes.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  9. #229
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    You bet. In Steamboat Springs and out to my neighborhood closer to the mountain range -- there are zero, zip, nada Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons (park pigeons). Not many places in N. America can say that. But we have a lot of Eurasian Collared Doves.

    There are also Band-Tailed Pigeons in the region, but they prefer very mountainous habitat -- and I don't know where they go when it's 20 below.

    There are Mourning Doves in the drier areas west of town , about where the Steller's Jays become rally scarce and Scrub Jays appear.

    Thing about the American West is you go about or down 1,500 feet in elevation and the bird and plant species change, often dramatically. Also true in South America in the Andes.
    Same here in our mountains. Black capped chickadees replace the Carolina chickadees at around 4500 feet, and many species are more typical of boreal zone forests in the north. Crossbills, brown creepers and saw whet owls in particular.
    Last edited by pfrduke; 11-04-2020 at 09:38 PM.

  10. #230
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly
    Learned a new bird word today. Irruptive migrant. Learned it because I have some red breasted nut hatches at my feeder and apparently they can be irruptive migrants.


    And some fun bird news about a little owl that has been a topic of discussion on this thread.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/us/rockefeller-christmas-tree-owl-trnd/index.html

  11. #231
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    New feeder bird -- a Juniper Titmouse -- has been coming to my feeder, eliciting some jealous among fellow birders here in the Rockies. It is not a rare bird in Colorado but tends to stick to dry open woodlands that are a mix of junipers and pinyon pines. We are in much wetter habitat consisting of Gambel oaks, aspens and lodgepole pines.

    Very furtive little guy quickly grabbing seeds off the ground and flying away, rather than going to the feeder, unlike its bolder Eastern counterpart, the Tufted Titmouse.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  12. #232
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    New feeder bird -- a Juniper Titmouse -- has been coming to my feeder, eliciting some jealous among fellow birders here in the Rockies. It is not a rare bird in Colorado but tends to stick to dry open woodlands that are a mix of junipers and pinyon pines. We are in much wetter habitat consisting of Gambel oaks, aspens and lodgepole pines.

    Very furtive little guy quickly grabbing seeds off the ground and flying away, rather than going to the feeder, unlike its bolder Eastern counterpart, the Tufted Titmouse.
    we love our tufted titmous family, but compared to our other regulars they pretty much do a grab and go...everyone behaving nicely so far today...

  13. #233
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Learned a new bird word today. Irruptive migrant. Learned it because I have some red breasted nut hatches at my feeder and apparently they can be irruptive migrants.


    And some fun bird news about a little owl that has been a topic of discussion on this thread.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/us/ro...rnd/index.html
    Red breasted nuthatches are year round residents of your area. In NC they are year round only in the mountains. Statewide in winter. Some winters more common than others.

  14. #234
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by Devilwin View Post
    Red breasted nuthatches are year round residents of your area. In NC they are year round only in the mountains. Statewide in winter. Some winters more common than others.
    When our house was completely surrounded by pine trees (until 2017) all we had were the red breasted guys; since half of our lot opened up (500 trees gone) the whites have moved in as well...nice addition..

  15. #235
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Northwest NC
    The birds were active around the house yesterday. Some of these were seen at the feeders and others I observed walking my property but here's what I was able to see just yesterday:

    Cardinal
    Tufted Titmouse
    Carolina Chickadee
    Dove
    Goldfinch
    House Finch
    Purple Finch
    Field Sparrow
    Downey Woodpecker
    Red bellied woodpecker
    North Flicker (pair of them)
    Blue Jay
    Golden crowned Kinglet
    Red shouldered hawk
    White Throated sparrow
    Carolina Wren
    Northern Mockingbird

    Loved seeing the pair of Flickers. Beautiful birds.

    On another note, I'm going to have to take out a loan for bird seed it seems. The finches are cleaning me out!
    "The future ain't what it used to be."

  16. #236
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    I'm pretty new to this so need some assistance. What would you say these two birds are. Sorry about the one pic of the reddish colored bird. He didn't hang around long enough to get a better one.

    Bird2.jpgBird1cropped.jpg
    "That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."

  17. #237
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by Nrrrrvous View Post
    I'm pretty new to this so need some assistance. What would you say these two birds are. Sorry about the one pic of the reddish colored bird. He didn't hang around long enough to get a better one.

    Bird2.jpgBird1cropped.jpg
    I would say the one on the right is a basic plumage Baltimore Oriole (female or immature), assuming you live in VA.

    Not sure about the one on the left -- I thought there was more blue (Indigo Bunting?), but it seems to be confined to the bill.
    Last edited by sagegrouse; 11-23-2020 at 11:07 AM.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  18. #238
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Northwest NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Nrrrrvous View Post
    I'm pretty new to this so need some assistance. What would you say these two birds are. Sorry about the one pic of the reddish colored bird. He didn't hang around long enough to get a better one.

    Bird2.jpgBird1cropped.jpg
    Looks like a House Finch on the left and a Goldfinch on the right. I would encourage you to pick up a Peterson's guide or similar bird identification book. Makes it fun to know what you are looking at.
    "The future ain't what it used to be."

  19. #239
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    Quote Originally Posted by DUKIECB View Post
    Looks like a House Finch on the left and a Goldfinch on the right. I would encourage you to pick up a Peterson's guide or similar bird identification book. Makes it fun to know what you are looking at.
    Thanks!

    I have a copy of Peterson's Field Guide. Got it at a yard sale. It's from 1985, I wonder if I should get a more recent copy? I was leaning toward the House Finch on the first one but I somehow missed the Yellow Finch page when looking for the second. Definitely looks like a Goldfinch now that I compare pics.
    "That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."

  20. #240
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thomasville, NC
    The bird on the right is an American goldfinch in winter plumage. On the left is I believe a male purple finch..

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