Birds

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Gary Oak
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Birds

Post: # 52489Unread post Gary Oak »

I am becoming a bit of a bird watcher. Birds are very intelligent


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Hummingbirds: hovering on the brink of extinction

Post: # 52490Unread post Gary Oak »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... ction.html

Hummingbirds are beautiful. I hope they can survive
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Re: Birds

Post: # 52493Unread post Blue Frost »

I have little green ones a bit like the picture there but short tail feathers. :)
I would hate for them to go away forever.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 115837Unread post Gary Oak »

That's the kind of pet I like. It's free and only comes by because it likes you. This reminds me of my seagull

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-ne ... 20517.html
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Re: Birds

Post: # 115849Unread post Blue Frost »

Cute animal thread has the video about it :)
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128606Unread post Gary Oak »

This Secretary Bird is beautiful.


This bird has one mean, deadly kick and scientists are fascinated by it


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technolo ... 0/?ref=yfp
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128607Unread post Gary Oak »

i have only seen one mountain bluebird. Though I saw it at a distance with the sun glinting of it's shiny bright blue feathers and the light green of the the probably mostly conifer trees it looked so amazing. It is my favourite Canadian bird since.


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Re: Birds

Post: # 128618Unread post Blue Frost »

i love those birds, had a few nesting here a few years back. They are timid bird so I tried not to bother them much, and one time was being dive bombed while cutting grass near their nest.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128621Unread post Gary Oak »

If I had them around my place I would set up bird feeders for them and maybe bird nests for them too.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128622Unread post Blue Frost »

They like live food, and worms, they are pretty much timid blue robins.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128633Unread post Gary Oak »

The eastern bluebird isn't as blue as the male mountian bluebird but it is still a very beautiful bird. The woodpecker is cool too. Is that a bluejay I saw in there briefly a few times ? Maybe you wuld like to try a bird feeder like this ? You can buy those grubs at most pet stores.

14 Eastern Bluebirds visit feeder at once!

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Re: Immigration

Post: # 128634Unread post Gary Oak »

WOW ! Look at the beautiful birds you have back east. The cardinals and bluejays are amazingly gorgeous ! Apparently you don't even need a bird feeder.


Birds eating on snowy ground 2/16/2015

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Re: Immigration

Post: # 128637Unread post Blue Frost »

We don't have many Jays anymore, a few years back they just vanished. I see a few here, and there now, but what happened to them. :(
We have cardinals, they are around our finches a lot. i love to see them.
Occasionally i see a golden finch, talking pretty.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128638Unread post Blue Frost »

Gary Oak wrote:The eastern bluebird isn't as blue as the male mountian bluebird but it is still a very beautiful bird. The woodpecker is cool too. Is that a bluejay I saw in there briefly a few times ? Maybe you wuld like to try a bird feeder like this ? You can buy those grubs at most pet stores.

14 Eastern Bluebirds visit feeder at once!

Eating those Mill worms up, I bet they appreciate that on a winters day.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 128640Unread post Gary Oak »

Here's some ideas Blue in case you would like some more bluebirds around you place.

Bird Man Mel - Attracting Bluebirds

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Re: Birds

Post: # 128642Unread post Blue Frost »

Thanks Gary, I have four houses like that one on my fence, had a few bluebirds take up in them.
They don't seem to come back though, maybe it's all the fences I have around, but likely me in the yard since I'm out there a lot.
Frenches don't mind me, they actually like me around sometimes since I keep the starlings away.

I wonder where i can get mill worms around here, and how much they cost :think:
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Re: Birds

Post: # 133264Unread post Gary Oak »

My girlfriend and I just came back from the zoo and we both are bird watchers and animal lovers of course.

Flycatchers: The Gardener’s Friend

https://showmeoz.wordpress.com/2016/04/ ... rs-friend/

People sometimes laugh when I tell them that I always know when spring is about to dawn on our Ozark homestead – even if it’s freezing outside. It’s not the weather, or the slight budding of plants that clue me in. And it’s not the warmth of the sun or my local weatherman, either. No, the way I know that spring is on it’s way is when I hear the first shrill song of the Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe). This slim, mousy-grey flycatcher with a creamy-colored belly and a big voice has a penchant for perching on low, leafless branches and compulsively wagging its long tail up and down. And it’s one bird that every gardener should hope for.



We often hear the phoebes long before we see them. Their distinctive call can be heard for great distances. Often the male will be the first to arrive in early spring and call to his mate, repeating her name, first as a high question and then as a direct scolding, over and over until she answers him, “Fee-bee? Feee-Be! Fee-bee? Feee-Be!” He will try every perch in the yard from which to project his lovely voice; first the front, then the back, then on the peak of the roof, out to the mailbox and so on, all day long. He will call her shamelessly until she finally answers him. Listen to the phoebe’s call here.

Once his mate arrives, the pair will call loudly back and forth as they search for an acceptable location to build their sturdy mud and moss or grass nest. It is important to the phoebe that their nest be covered by some type of roof and the pair will often select a location beneath a rock outcrop or bridge, or under the eaves of roofs. During breeding they will repeatedly call to one another in tones of gentle reassurance.

Pheobe Nest by Jill Henderson showmeoz.wordpress.com

It is easy to tell when something exciting has happened in the phoebe’s lives because the calls become numerous and repetitively shrill with urgency. When very excited, phoebes use a very high-pitched trill that sounds similar to a referee’s whistle rolling up and down the scale. More often, it is the female that uses this call. We usually hear it just after she has laid her eggs and again when her chicks hatch. In between these events, both parents remain silent.

I have read that pairs of eastern phoebes spend little time together after their eggs are laid, but we have not found this to be true at all. The pair we have hosted for many years now obviously work together to build the mud and moss nest and once the female begins incubation, the male waits nearby. He is never very far away from his mate and takes his job of chasing away potential invaders very seriously.

Phoebe chicks on nesting platform. By Jill Henderson showmeoz.wordpress.com

Once the chicks hatch, the male helps to feed and care for them. And when the time comes them to fledge, both parents flutter excitedly around the nest, urging the young ones to take the leap for the first time. Over the next few days, the baby birds remain in low shrubs and trees as they learn to fly and both parents feed them and keep track of their whereabouts. To say that the male is absent during breeding is, in my many years of close observation, absolutely false.

Indeed, one year Dean and I witnessed the sweetest thing. The first egg had hatched and the mamma phoebe was beyond excited. She trilled loudly until the male arrived at the nest, whereupon they stood together on the lip of the nest peering in at the new little fledgling. The daddy bird could hardly keep from looking at the newborn, even after the mamma flew off in search of food. He cocked his head from side to side and gingerly moved around the edge of the nest to get a better look. After a few minutes, he gently reached into the nest and, with his beak, grasped the spent shell from which the chick had just emerged and flew off with it some distance before dropping it to the ground. This action helps prevent predators from locating the nest by scent.

Since our first encounter with phoebes, we have moved several times – always managing to attract a pair of flycatcher who don’t mind our almost constant presence. By the nature of our human lives, we inadvertently provide shelter for phoebes to nest in, whether that be a tool shed, barn, porch light or other man-made structure that provides some bit of perch onto which they can affix their nests and a bit of an overhang to shelter it from the rain.

Female phoebe on nest by Jill Henderson showmeoz.wordpress.com

Of course, the biggest problem people have with flycatcher’s is that their nests are messy – both during construction, when mud is flung about and bits of moss and grass fall to the ground and again when the chicks gain some size and begin to defecate off the side of the nest. You can deter flycatchers by covering the area you do not want them to nest in with plastic or other contrivances, but the easiest way to lure them away from those areas is by providing them with a more alluring alternative. I developed an easy-to-make nesting platform that the phoebes often prefer over places like porch lights. You can read more about that in my article, Sweet Nesting Solution for Flycatchers.

The wonder of having a nesting pair of flycatchers around to observe and enjoy is made even greater by the fact that they consume an immeasurable number of insects every single day – a true friend to the gardener and orchardist. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Flying insects make up the majority of the Eastern Phoebe’s diet. Common prey include wasps, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies and moths, flies, midges, and cicadas; they also eat spiders, ticks, and millipedes, as well as occasional small fruits or seeds.”

So, when you hear the first call of the Eastern Phoebe at the end of winter you will know that spring is on your heels. And if you’re sharp, you’ll have time to provide or ready an area where they can nest, raise their young, eat a plethora of annoying insects, and entertain you all at the same time.

© 2016 Jill Henderson Feel free to share with a link back to the original article.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 133270Unread post Blue Frost »

We don't have those here, or I never seen any. We have a lot of finches though that do a good job, a job all over my drive.
I have like 30 houses up for them, but they are a mess with all the babies being born right now.
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Re: Birds

Post: # 137019Unread post Gary Oak »

I am an owl fan as well as a bird watcher. Maybe these wise olod owls are very intelligent. Last year at night I saw one sitting on a leaning tree trunk. It's eyes shone and I could barely make out it's body in the dim light.

This Adorable Owl Can’t Stop Hugging The Man Who Rescued Her

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/adorable-owl- ... 38157.html
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Re: Birds

Post: # 137040Unread post Blue Frost »

Awww, sweet owl.

I had to go out today, and save a baby finch, the bumble bees where invading it's house, and ran it out.
I ended up knocking the bees house down, and fought them off, and returned the baby to the house.
It took me an hour just to get them away long enough to get some spray to be rid of them. :(
The birds was mean to the baby on the ground, they tried to kill it so I put it in a box till I could return it.
"Being alone isn't what hurts. It's when the people around you make you feel alone" ~ Naruto Uzumaki, an Anime Character
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