Tag Archives: Cardinals

Thursday – 8.3.2017

1:15 AM – Downy Woodpecker going after the suet cylinder with lots of determination and energy.

Carolina Wren discovers that there the mealworm feeder is completely empty, but returns several times for a thorough search, just to be sure. He finally got hungry enough to stop by the suet feeder for dinner, but we recorded several vain attempts to find mealworms throughout the afternoon. These birds really like mealworms, even the dried (as opposed to live) ones.

We’ve had lots of posts about molting, particularly with the Cardinals. They seem to have particularly dramatic time of it, what with the naked black head and general patchy, scruffy look. It seems as if they’ve been molting for a long time. Lately we’ve seen Cardinals that looks so severely afflicted that we’re becoming concerned that it might be some disease, and not the natural process of feather replacement. We did some research, and compared images from the Cornell website and others, and have been reassured. No matter how scrofulous the red birds look, it’s almost certainly normal plumage replacement.

We were going to present videos of pathetic looking Cardinals, but decided to spare everyone. Except for this video, of a sad Card sharing with doves. The doves look kind of sorry for him.

Tuesday – 8.1.2017

2:48 AM – Blue Jay and a Brown Thrasher spar at the platform feeder. Notice that the first Jay flies off when the Thrasher swoops in, and is replaced by another one immediately. The video ends with the Jay in the feeder, and the Thrasher looking on, probably ready for a fight.

As if the Jays didn’t have enough squabbling with the Doves and Thrashers, every now and then they like to mix it up among themselves.

No doubt in my mind that this Cardinal is ready for molting season to end. He looks like a thatched roof.

 

Wednesday – 7.26.2017

5:24 AM – This bluebird collects a beak-full of mealworms to take back to the nest.

Cardinals don’t usually come around the suet feeder, but lately we’ve  seen them a lot. Maybe they developed a taste for the pepper suet while the mealworm feeder was out of commission. Anyway, here’s one sharing the feeder with a Downy Woodpecker.

We don’t often see two Blue Jays on a feeder at the same time. Bluebirds, yes. They run in a pack (or small flock) of two or three. But not the Jays.

Monday – 7.24.2017

3:52 AM – The Mourning Doves are now the most frequent visitor to the open platform feeders, and it looks like they’re feeling possessive. This one sure doesn’t want Blue Jays hanging around.

Since the cylinder suet cage is back in action, we’ve been getting a steady stream of bird customers (and a couple of attempts by squirrels). These were there over the last few days: Downy Woodpecker,White Breasted Nuthatch, Bluebird, Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee and Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Cardinal is new to the suet feeder, probably because the mealworm feeder wasn’t up that day. Same for the bluebird with the attractive pattern of back feathers.

Here’s that squirrel we mentioned. He takes a good sniff and decided to have lunch somewhere else. We really like pepper suet.

Thursday – 7.20.2017

6:33 AM – After the squirrels destroyed the old compressed seed cylinder, we put up a pepper suet cylinder. At first we hung it by itself, with no cage, but only got a few customers (like the Downy Woodpecker shown here) . Today we put it in the cage, making it easier for the birds to cling. We’ll see if they can reach the small cylinder through the  bars.

Cardinal update: Looks like one of the males is about done molting, but another (not shown here) is still pretty bald. One of the females is also molting, though she seems almost finished with it. Note her taking a mealworm away at the end of the video. Presumably she’s got chicks to feed.

Bluebirds are really blue. This adult (or maybe it’s two different birds) really has a vividly blue back. Not less vivid than the Blue Jays, just a different shade.

Tuesday – 7.18.2017

3:10 AM – We’re not sure which Cardinal is which. There seem to be at least three males, at different stages of molting. These videos were made over two days. Can birds re-grow feathers that fast? If not, it looks like three males.This calls for some serious study.

I can’t tell if these Carolina Wrens (or maybe it’s just one bird) are molting or just wet. I think it’s probably just wet. It’s been raining off and on for a couple of days, and I see wet and ruffled feathers, but no bald spots.

 

Monday – 7.17.2017

5:30 AM – This Cardinal is right in the middle of a serious head-molting. My question is, is this the same one we saw with a naked head several days ago, or is it a different cardinal. We saw a cardinal whose head was almost completely recovered, but this bare patches on his back. I know we have at least two males, maybe more, and I can’t really tell them apart. I need to get out the binoculars and really look at them. Maybe capture and tag them. Maybe not.

The camera we had on the seed cylinder has been taken down.  Some critter has kicked the camera off it’s vertical axis, as this video of a squirrel feeding illustrates. And it’s not the first time. When we get the “pepper” cylinder up, we’ll restore the camera

Sunday – 7.16.2017

4:28 AM – It’s another Retro-Sunday.

This is from April 12, 2017. This Blue Jay keeps coming and going, stopping just long enough to grab a seed. The Jays that visit now will stay for at least a minute (that’s how long the camera records before shutting off). They sit right in the feeder, eating. I wonder why the change.

We haven’t had much success with hummingbirds. We got a few, then they’d disappear, and all we had was ants in the feeder. We’re waiting until later in the summer to put the feeders back up. Never give up on hummingbirds, every twitcher knows that.

This video was recorded on April 10, 2017, back when the Cardinals were showing mating and chick-raising behavior every day. We don’t see that now, but I expect we will eventually.

Saturday – 7.15.2017

4:03 PM – There was a lot of action and the newly restored platform feeder and bird bath on the deck. First, we see a Mourning Dove wallowing in the bath. The water got so dirty from all the bathing I had to change it early in the day. That’s a robin trying to run him off.

Here’s that robin with a really roughed-up looking Cardinal. That Cardinal is kind of a mystery. He was around earlier in the day, but didn’t look so bedraggled. Maybe he had a bout of accelerated molting. Maybe he got mobbed by a flock of delinquent bluebirds. He seems to fly away all right.

Finally, the robin by himself aggressively bathing and grooming himself.

 

 

Friday – 7.14.2017

5:38 AM – Now that we have two generations of young bluebirds, plus the adults, we get plenty of videos of bluebirds eating, drinking, squabbling and so on. I don’t know if these three are the same young toughs we saw at the waterhole yesterday. But they could be.

The Cardinal who had molted away his head feathers seems to be making progress in recovering. As can be seen here, he’s got most of his head feathers back, but still has some bare areas around the neck. I think one online source said it takes about 6 weeks to go through the entire process.

This Tufted Titmouse doesn’t have much of a crest, if any at all. I presume it’s also molting, since this seems to  be the season for it.