Tag Archives: House Finches

Monday – 5.22.2017

12:02 AM – A new record for the number of Carolina Chickadees that can fit on a mealworm feeder. These three are wet, too.

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We’re starting to see the recent influx of House Finches at the suet feeder. At least we see the female ones. It’s still a mystery why the males are not showing up on camera, though we can look out the window and see them at the birdbath. And we verified that these are female House Finches. Those stripes on their heads are unmistakable. In this video, we see one trying to cling to the feeder.

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Here’s that one-eared squirrel again (assuming it’s the same animal). The squirrels have been all over the platform feed this week. There’s an entertaining video of D racing out to scare them away, but I promised I wouldn’t post it. Too bad. It’s really funny.

Sunday – 5.21.2017

4:32 AM – Rapid turnover at the suet feeder. First the female Downy Woodpecker, then the White Breasted Nuthatch, then the Carolina Chickadee, then the Nuthatch again – and then the video runs out. It’s set to record for 60 seconds, then shut off.

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Those troublesome female House Finches are getting more plentiful. Here are four of them at once. The puzzling thing is, I see the male House Finches at the bird bath, where there’s no camera, but not at the feeder. And I wonder if these are not just females, but perhaps juveniles (though big ones) or non-breeding males. Sometimes it gets complicated. More research today.

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In this brief clip we see that the Carolina Chickadee, something like the Honey Badger, don’t care. He flaps right up to the feeder in the face of two juvenile bluebirds (not the friendliest of birds). He stays just long enough to grab a mealworm, but he gets points for doing it at all.

Saturday – 5.20.2017

1:45 AM – These quarrelsome birds are female House Finches. They don’t seem to like sharing with each other, and sometimes other bird species. In the first video, a mild and innocent sparrow is ejected from the feeder. In the second it’s a round-robin melee involving the lady finches, and a couple of sparrows taking a few hits along the way. During the slow motion segments you can hear them shrieking at each other. They’re acting like wild animals.

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Sunday – 5.14.2017

2:48 PM – Unexpected visit from our neighbor Bruno. Like all dogs, Bruno is infatuated with D.

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3:43 AM – Typical day at the Suet Feeder: White Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, in that order. I don’t know where the Mockingbird went.

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The immature House Finches are still around. Here’s one at the platform feeder. I like the drab harlequin look. It takes longer for these birds to mature (like the bluebirds), than I thought it would.

Saturday – 5.6.2017

5:23 AM – This is our first sighting of the juvenile House Finch. Of course, this is our first year in business as the Backyard Foodcourt, so we’re seeing a lot for the first time. These little guys are fuzzy and awkward, bumbling around the platform feeder. We like the stripes all over them. In this video, they meet a Cardinal, briefly, and then a Mourning Dove, who breaks up their party.

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The Eastern Towhee is still around.

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What’s this? A raccoo, or a cat? Or maybe a possum? The shape of the head says it’s not a cat, and the skinny tail doesn’t look much like a raccoon tail. Might be a possum, but I haven’t seen one around here, ever. I’m sure they are there, I just haven’t seen one.

Sunday – 2.12.2017

2:32 PM – I guess it’s to be expected. With all the birds around, we’re going to have cats. This is a new one, not the usual black cat.

7:32 AM – The Pine Warbler. He (or she) is at the suet feeder off and on all day.

5:07 AM – I think this is a House Finch, not a Purple Finch. The color is more red than ‘raspberry’, and the pattern of the color is different than the obvious Purples. But I could be wrong.

Compare the above with these pictures from the Cornell Labs website:

The color and pattern seem to be a match.

Thursday – 1.19.2017

10:30 AM – D filled the platform feeder again. Minutes later the place was overrun with hungry birds. Here are female House Finches (the ones with striped breasts) and White Throated Sparrows sharing. I think those sparrows are the White Throated variety, but they don’t exactly look like the pictures on the Cornell Lab bird ID site.

A few minutes later, while the sparrows are still feeding, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker flies in. When he tries to step into the feeder, he slides down to the bottom. The feeder is really a birdbath, and not well suited for feeding, but for now it will have to do.

8:10 AM – D took down the platform feeder (previously bird bath) because the seeds were soaked through from the rain. She’s going to replace it with fresh food, but before she could, the birds discovered that their favorite feeder was gone. Here’s the Carolina Wren scavenging in the upside down feeder, then giving up:

And here’s a bewildered Tufted Titmouse. He tries a peanut, but that’s not good. One last look at the camera, and he’s gone:

5:20 AM – These White Throated Sparrows are always around the feeders, but I don’t post videos of them very often. The ‘color’ birds (Jays and Cards) get all the press. But I like the markings on these little Sparrows. Here’s a couple feeding, before getting run off by Mr. Cardinal (naturally).

Tuesday – 1.10.2017

1:30 PM – The birdbath that was damaged by ice has been converted into a platform feeder. D put it up at about 11:30, by 11:32 there were birds in it. Seems to be very popular with the Tufted Titmouse, so far. This is a video of a couple Purple Finches having a snack.

Speaking of Purple Finches, this video shows what I think is actually a House Finch. The House variety have red head and breast. It’s hard to tell the difference. So far, the research I did only says that the Purple Finches are slightly smaller and ‘neater’ than the House Finch. Whatever that means. So, here is a House Finch, probably. Maybe.

 

Bird Videos – Lots of Them – BUT NOT REALLY

A number of videos we took at the beginning of this project will not display due to the uncertainty of the Word Press storage system. We did some research but couldn’t find a solution, so we are reposting them, one and two at a time, starting in November 2017. They will be the bonus ‘Retro’ videos displayed after the current bird and critter activity.