Birds we saw back in May 2021

/ Roadtirementvintage

It’s still pretty cold here in Indiana. Let us reminisce about our backyard birdwatching last spring.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Pair of Grosbeaks

Flicker enjoying suet

Pair of Cowbirds

Chipping Sparrow

The short video is of a female Pileated Woodpecker. We did have a pair show up several times during May and June. This is when they are feeding their young in the nest. We named them “Woody” and “Wilma”.

27 thoughts on “Birds we saw back in May 2021”

  4. The Pileated Woodpecker was enjoying a meal from that block. We have flickers, but I’ve not seen Pileated Woodpeckers out here. Woody Woodpecker is Loquillo in Spanish.

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  9. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/overview
    https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/id

    Compare the field makers of the “flicker at the suet feeder” photo with the Red-bellied Woodpecker photos in the Cornell University link above. As for Northern Flickers, the “moustache” is an easily noted field marks, as are the red or yellow undersides of their tails and wings. Behaviorally, Northern Flickers tend to be more on the ground where they forage for ants (their tongues are amazingly long!), where as Red-bellied woodpeckers are more arboreal.

    The sparrow is a White-crowned sparrow, white is only a migrant through where I live, and it has a lovely song you can listen to in the link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-crowned_Sparrow/overview

    Since American robins stay around all year if food is available, they can easily be the last robin of December 31st of one year and the first robin of the next. For that reason, I tend to think of the first White-crowned sparrow as my harbinger of spring, and I usually hear its song before I finally see on foraging in the lilacs and the past year’s garden space.

    Sorry to be a pedant, but you can enjoy these birds much more correctly identified. Reading up on their behaviors and hearing their vocalizations can only enhance your enjoyment of these amazing little animals! (I am a past Vice President of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, so probably am a bit tedious about these things….)

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    • Wow, thanks for the information Doug. I have looked at and attempted to use the Cornell site to attempt ID of some of the birds. Forgive me if I made errors. I frankly enjoy the birds regardless of my taxonomy skills. I applaud your past association work, however I do agree that you are “a bit tedious” in telling me how best to enjoy wildlife.

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  11. I have a suet feeder in the back yard RIGHT NOW. I get hundreds of birds to the feeder … woodpeckers, bluejays, cardinals, chickadees, all kinds of sparrows, junkets, even crows. Radar & I sit at the back window & watch them for hours. Bobby doesn’t seem to care much about the birds …. he likes to sit in the front window & watch whatever goes by there … mostly rabbits & the neighborhood outdoor cats.

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