Tag Archives: Brown Headed Nuthatches

Wednesday – 1.17.2018

3:36 AM – We put a kind of jury-rigged bird bath at the far end of the yard, hoping to capture videos of wild creatures at night. That’s a plastic gallon water jug cut down, with rocks to weigh it. Instead of exotic wild animals, our first customer was a standard variety Robin. We’ll see what we get at night.

This is about four minutes of various birds coming and going on the platform feeder. We have these birds coming and going and coming back again:  Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, female Purple Finch,  Purple Finch and a Sparrow.

 

Friday – 1.5.2018

4:27 AM – As mentioned before, peanuts are very popular, particularly in freezing weather. Here are a couple of montage videos of heavy traffic on the platform feeder.

In the first clip (in order of appearance) we have a Bluebird, male Cardinal, Brown-headed Nuthatch, White Breasted Nuthatch, female Cardinal.

Second clip has a Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Sparrows and a Dark-eyed Junco.

Friday – 12.29.2017

3:08 AM – The first bird in this clip is a Brown-headed Nuthatch. That’s not a rare bird, but it is unusual for our backyard. Mostly we have the White-breasted variety. The second bird is, in spite of the drab coloring, a Pine Warbler. The smaller beak and chest stripes distinguish it from the Goldfinch

Here’s another Pine Warbler. Like most of the other birds, they like mealworms.

Very short video of a squirrel trying to feed at the cylinder. He’s not there long, presumably finding out it’s full of pepper seed.

 

Saturday – 12.9.2017

2:52 AM – Special ‘snow storm’ video. In the aftermath snow filled the platform feeder. This is funny – Mrs. Cardinal is baffled, but unexpectedly, a Brown Thrasher comes along and…

Earlier this week we showed a video of hungry birds waiting at the empty mealworm feeder. D filled the feeder, and everything got back to normal. Here’s some of the regulars, one after another.

We’ve got plenty of White Breasted Nuthatches, but the Brown Headed variety – seen here on the Squirrel Buster – is relatively rare in our yard.

 

Thursday – 9.21.2017

1;38 AM – This is a video from a few days ago – a Red-bellied Woodpecker dominating a couple of Blue Jays. Here it is again, with a soundtrack, an original score.

We try to keep the feeders filled up, but sometimes they can stay empty for half day or more. This Blue Jay is clearly not happy about it. I like the part where he snouts (or beaks) the chaff around, demonstrating the lack of the good stuff. At the end, I swear he understands that we’re seeing him on camera, and he’s sending us a clear message: “This is sloppy work, you backyard birders! It’s time for a fill-up!” Then turns his back on us.

There was a lot of traffic on the Squirrel Buster feeder today. We got video of these, in order of appearance: A big, bright Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee with unusual coloring, a Brown-headed Nuthatch, and a female Purple Finch (she’s brown striped, not purple). The Brown-headed Nuthatch is pretty rare in our yard.

Friday – 3.24.2017

8:22 AM – The American Robins showed up on the deck this morning. We’ve seen them on the front lawn recently, but this is their first appearance at the feeders for a while. In this video, two robins approach the platform feeder, but a Mourning Dove is hogging it. In the second video, one of the robins takes a bath.

Below, robin bathing:

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1:05 AM – For about an hour yesterday afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal came and went at the platform feeder. We watched – but the camera didn’t record – Mr. Cardinal feeding Mrs. C. The camera is set to record for 1 minute – the feeding took place at about 1 minute 5 seconds. We did get lots of video of them landing on the feeder, staying 5 or 10 seconds, then flying off, only to return. Here’s Mr. Cardinal waiting for Mrs.

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Just when we thought the Purple Finches were gone, this lone male shows up. Don’t know where all the flocks of them went. Maybe they got a better offer at a backyard feeding station down the block.

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That suet feeder is looking pretty gnawed up. Here’s a Brown Headed Nuthatch doing his part.

Thursday – 3.9.2017

11:25 AM – Bonus video of Bluebird close-up at the mealworm feeder:

5:59 AM – This morning featuring the Brown Headed Nuthatch, cousin to the White Breasted Nuthatch. Per the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “One of the few birds found almost exclusively in the United States, the Brown-headed Nuthatch is restricted to the pine forests of the southeastern states.” Not completely restricted to the forests, as we’ve get regular visits from one (or more) here at the Backyard Foodcourt. The BHN will eat suet, seeds or worms.

Saturday – 2.11.2017

10:58 AM – This Brown Headed Nuthatch isn’t around all the time, but when he is, he likes the pepper feeder.

### Here’s another Bluebird at the meal worm feeder. I think this is the smaller of the two I’ve been seeing. He (she?) has distinctive markings, so we should be able to pick him out of the Bluebird crowd later.

8:08 AM – We got a late start with the birds this morning, and didn’t get the feeders back out on the deck until a few minutes ago. I went inside, and about 10 seconds later the platform feeder looked like this:

— We hadn’t seen the Goldfinches for a few days, but as seen in the video above, they’re back. The Bluejays are still missing, and the Cardinals now come only early in the morning, and just before dark. They used to hang around the feeders all day. I don’t know if the Cowbird invasion discouraged them from coming, or what. Who knows why birds come and go.