Tag Archives: Pine Warbler

Saturday – 10.28.2017

2:03 AM – Sometimes I have trouble distinguishing between the  American Goldfinch, the Pine Warbler and the Yellow Warbler. The video below shows a Pine Warbler. The on-line experts give us these identifiers to look for: The bills of the Warblers are longer and thinner than that of the Goldfinch – the latter has a beak that looks more like a Cardinals. The Warbler’s feathers are not brightly colored, usually greenish-yellow . Goldfinches have lots of black on the wings and tail, and the wing bars are white.  The Pine Warbler has bars on the wings. Warblers have streaks (sometimes faint reddish)  on the breast and belly. Goldfinches hang out in flocks, while Warblers are usually solitary. And the YelllowWarblers are migrators, we see them passing through, but the Goldfinches are here for the winter. The Pine Warblers are here all year.

Brown Thrasher getting a drink.

 

Sunday – 9.3.2017

12:23 AM – It’s Sunday. That means videos from the past.

From February 2017, a flock of Brown Headed Cowbirds visited for a few days. Here they are, busy at the platform feeder, with background music (original composition called “Skip Rope”).

The Yellow Warblers are Winter visitors. These video were from January, 2017. They’re pretty birds, frequently confused  (by me) with the Goldfinch. The bird in the second video is in fact a Pine Warbler.

 

Saturday – 3.11.2017

12:02: AM – Where did they go? We haven’t seen the Bluejays for several weeks. We now have the Yellow-rumped Warblers. The dense clusters of sparrows and Goldfinches turned into a few solitary birds feeding, like divorced men in an all-night diner. There have been other species of birds that have come and gone, like the Brown Headed Cowbirds and Red Wing Blackbird, but I knew they were transient. This is our first year as backyard bird watchers, so I guess it could just be a seasonal change, and I’m not recognizing it. Anyway, as a tribute to those missing birds, here are a few videos from the golden age of Bluejays, Yellow Warblers and Goldfinches.

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.

Friday – 2.10.2017

3:27 AM – Bruno, the neighbor dog, jumps the fence again and comes over for a visit.

8:26 AM – Some of the birds I’ve been identifying as Goldfinches are actually Pine Warblers. I wasn’t sure for a while, but this video shows the strips on the chest/belly, and bars on the wings. This bird has the unmarked head, longer, narrower beak and big eye of the Warbler. The color on this one is very greenish, which is characteristic of the female. Other videos show Warblers that are much more yellow, but it’s hard to be sure of color in some of these.

8:07 AM – These are Bluebird videos from the last couple of days. They really like those meal worms.

In this one, we see two different Bluebirds, one after the other.

Thursday – 2.2.2017

7:10 PM – Here’s a good close up video of a male Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder. He’s very enthusiastic, bobbing and weaving and stabbing the suet.

2:25 PM – The mealworm feeder is new to us. We always provided some kind of seed, or suet. The mealworms are supposed to attract Bluebirds – actually, a number of different birds, but we have our eye on increasing the Bluebird population. After we put the feeder up, not much happened. But the next day we had light, but steady, traffic. Here’s a couple of the visitors. Not Bluebirds, but Carolina Wren, and what I thought was a non-breeding Goldfinch (which don’t have the bright colors). However, the beak is wrong – it seems to be too small and thin. That makes it look like some variety of warbler, but I can’t tell which one. Bottom line is, it might be a Goldfinch, might not. (NOTE: It’s a Pine Warbler. We got better images and can see the stripe on the chest/belly.)

Unidentified bird that might be a Goldfinch or warbler of some kind. It turned out to be a Pine Warbler:

12:30 AM – In an effort to discourage the raccoon, we bought hot pepper flavored suet at Wild Birds Unlimited. Birds can’t taste the hot pepper, but mammals (raccoons) can. We put it in the suet feeder yesterday. So far tonight, ‘Rocky’ hasn’t been around, but raccoon rampage prime time (from 1:00 to 5:00 AM) is approaching. With any luck, we’ll get videos of ‘Rocky’ tasting and spitting out the spiced up suet. The birds have sampled it, and seem to like it just fine. Here are videos of a Goldfinch, Brown Headed Nuthatch and male Downy Woodpecker at the feeder.

Tuesday – 1.31.2017

7:25 AM – The suet feeder, with a new block of nut and berry suet, is popular this morning. Here’s a pair of what we thought were Goldfinches, but are actually Pine Warblers:

And a Carolina Wren:

4:20 AM – Another visit from the raccoon, though this one was brief, and the timing unexpected. He hit the platform feeder at 4:05 AM, about fifteen minutes ago. D and the dog were in the living room, while the bandit was just outside eating the scraps of suet left over from his adventures of last night. A bold move by the bushy scavenger. Occasionally he pauses, as if listening to D on the other side of the wall. Not shown in this video is his exit from the porch, with a large piece of suet to-go in his jaws.

Friday – 1.27.2017

2:10 PM – Much more traffic at the Suet Cam than I expected. A variety of Nuthatch I haven’t seen before, the Brown Headed Nuthatch, is a frequent visitor. Two varieties of woodpecker, what we thought was a Goldfinch (actually a Pine Warbler), and the Carolina Wren. Following are some videos of these visitors.

Here’s the female version of the Downy Woodpecker. It’s slightly smaller, and has no red patch on the back of the neck.

The larger Red-Bellied Woodpecker visited several times. He really attacks the suet, don’t know if he’s really hungry, or that’s just his style.

We thought the Goldfinch didn’t come to the platform feeders at first, but later there were plenty there. This one on the suet feeder is actually a Pine Warbler.

I was a little surprised to see the Carolina Wren here, since he’s at the platform feeder so often. I guess he likes a little variety.

9:25 AM – We rearranged the cameras. Here’s the Trail Cam – no action yet, but it will be interesting to see what come up during the night.

And here’s the first video from our Suet Cam – a male Downy Woodpecker.

6:05 AM – No raccoon last night, but we did have a visit from Bruno, the dog from the house behind us. He’s an habitual fence jumper. The neighbors are constructing a Bruno-proof extension of the fence (increasing it’s height in the places he uses to launch himself). Evidently it’s not completed, or, more likely, not capable of stopping the irrepressible hound. In any case, welcome, Bruno! Pee where ever you want, and watch out for the raccoon.