Tag Archives: House Finches

Monday – 6.19.2017

3:53 AM – We were concerned that we might lose the Cardinals and Blue Jays when we retired the open feeders – that’s their favorite venue. So we bought some ‘squirrel repellent’ seed for the platform feeder. It seems to work pretty well. Here are a Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, House Finch (female) and Titmouse sampling the new menu.

And here’s a  customers that isn’t so happy. The pepper repellent doesn’t always work – we had some pepper powder we sprinkled on the black oil sunflower seeds that the squirrels seemed to find delicious – but these seeds are doing their job.

 

Saturday – 6.17.2017

8:16 AM – Two of our cameras are down, leaving the one at the mealworm feeder. Which explains why todays videos are all of birds eating worms. We’re rearranging feeders and cameras, and should be back to normal in a few days.

The first video is a good one of a bluebird eating worms. Just that, but it’s a good clear video. So there you are.

The next one shows Mr. Cardinal’s unfortunate table manners.

And finally, the  bluebird and cardinal together (briefly) at the mealworm bar. That looks like a female (or juvenile) House Finch trying to butt in.

Thursday – 6.15.2017

2:29 PM – Here’s a bonus clip. We swapped out the open platform feeder for the Squirrel Buster to discourage the squirrels. They were sitting in the feeder for several hours a day, continually eating the birds seed. Watch what happens with this one realized the game has changed.

3:43 AM – A typical day at the mealworm feeder, birds coming and going. In this case, the Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee and Bluebird.

We haven’t see these House Finches at the platform feeder for several weeks, though they do show up at the Squirrel Busters.

And here’s the One-eared Squirrel, still alive and foraging.

Tuesday – 6.13.2017

4:18 AM – The juvenile bluebird trio are still around and hanging out together, as shown here at the mealworm feeder. We’re curious as to how long they’ll be around once they get their full growth.

Red-bellied Woodpecker spends the afternoon taking beaks full of suet off to some other Red-belly, either mate or chick. These are just a few of the times we caught this on camera.

This looks like a juvenile House Finch. The color and pattern is similar to the female, but it’s smaller, and somehow just looks younger.

 

Sunday – 6.11.2017

4:28 AM – It’s Sunday, and that means a retrospective of selected Backyard Foodcourt videos. The theme this week is “Birds That Squabble and Fight”. The first one, from 2/13/17, shows some spirited sparrows squaring off in the platform feeder:

From 3/15/17, this Purple Finch isn’t really fighting, so much as establishing the pecking order.

From 5/20/17, a female House Finch goes for a sparrow. With instant replay:

Another disagreeable female House Finch, at the mealworm feeder. What’s with all the female House Finches? From 5/24/17.

 

Wednesday – 6.7.2017

7:40 AM – There’s not much going on today, just the regulars.For a change of pace, here’s a video experiment. In order, the birds are sparrows, finches and sparrows, Brown Headed Cowbirds and Cedar Waxwings.

Back to normal – just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a bluebird grazing the mealworm feeder. Notice the woodpecker flying off with a big mouthful of worms.

 

Friday – 5.26.2017

12:10 AM – Bruno the neighbor dog came by twice today – this is the second time. We didn’t know about it until we reviewed the ‘tapes’. Bruno really, really wants to come in our house.

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Before we moved the mealworm feeder back in front of the camera, we found that most of the traffic at the Squirrel Buster feeder we recorded were Finches (and some Chickadees). Here’s a close up of a female House Finch cracking a seed and extracting the meat. They’re really adept with their beaks, these birds.

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Now that the camera is back on the mealworms we’re starting to see some of the old, regular customers there, like this Red-bellied Woodpecker, the Bluebird, a Cardinal and a Chickadee. We get a lot more variety with mealworms than with the Squirrel Buster and it’s Black Oil Mixture.

Wednesday – 5.24.2017

2:51 AM – We wanted a little variety in the birds we’re recording, so we changed out the feeders in front of the cameras. The mealworm feeder was replaced with the small Squirrel Buster, and the suet feeder replaced by the Finch thistle sock. One of the first videos we got was of this Punk Red-bellied Woodpecker on the SB (Squirrel Buster) in the rain.

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Here’s some activity at the Finch thistle sock. No finches, though, in spite of the name. We don’t have pure thistle in it, so it doesn’t seem to be appealing to them. Other birds like it though, including (in order) a Carolina Chickadee, a White Breasted Nuthatch, a wet Downy Woodpecker and, of course, a squirrel.

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We finally got footage of the male House Finch. He likes the Squirrel Buster feeder, though he also shows up once on the platform.

Tuesday – 5.23.2017

1:47 AM – This is a video of some random birds that showed up at the Foodcourt yesterday. In order, we have a Blue Jay, female House Finch and small (possibly juvenile) Carolina Wren.

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This is a creepy picture of Mrs. Cardinal soaking wet, eating seeds in the dark and rain. I thought she might be too soaked to fly, but no, she flits off with no trouble.