Whatbird.com

I had never seen a Merlin until this one came to our backyard. This bird is sometimes known as a Pigeon Hawk. It is actually a member of the Falcon family (Falconidae). Other members of that family are the American Kestrel (a.k.a. Sparrow Hawk), which is a bit smaller, and the Peregrine Falcon, which is larger -- there are several other species as ...

I think that I've seen these birds before, but I thought they were American Goldfinches. In fact, they are Pine Siskins -- a close relative of the goldfinches. About 10 of them visited our backyard feeders three days ago. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, but they haven't been back. Happily, I tried to take a few shots when they were flying. ...

A male flicker visits our backyard quite frequently. Mostly, he is after either the peanuts or the suet that we have hanging from a tree. Occasionally, he tries to orient himself so that he can obtain some of the sunflower seeds that we have provided for the smaller birds -- I'll post a photo showing this behavior in the future. In today's shot, ...

My wife bought a heated dog's dish that she thought would make a good heated water dish/birdbath when it gets below freezing here. One of the House Finches decided to take a nap in the middle of the dish. He never woke up as a Northern Flicker came to  take a couple of drinks. The photo I've posted shows the flicker pausing before having a ...

We continue to have House Finches at the feeders in our back yard. Occasionally, one of the finches perches on the very top of one of our evergreens. When they do that, there's a window over our fireplace mantle that gives me a view of the finch with sky behind it; this is one of my shots through the mantle window.  

There were two House Finches in one of our trees this morning. The female on the right is a bit shaded, but I thought that they looked quite pretty with the blue sky behind them. When I can, I like to capture both sexes together, so that comparisons are easy to make.

We had never seen a chickadee in our backyard before this morning. He/she didn't stay long; just long enough to check out our trees and feeders.

This young robin hid in a tree in our backyard for most of an afternoon. The mother went off to find grubs, then returned to her youngster with another snack. The young robin is very large and can fly. But, it can't yet feed itself.

Red-winged Blackbirds frequent a feeder that we installed, principally for House Finches. Although the blackbirds are a bit large for the feeder, they like it. The females will eat without much fuss. But, the older males make a high-pitched shriek sometimes when they arrive on the scene -- this photo shows one of those times. The male blackbird is ...

Some Red-winged Blackbirds have decided that our House Finch feeder, with sunflower seeds, is appropriate for them as well. Here's a female standing on our deck railing beside the feeder.