Birds of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager (male)


Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager (female)


Puerto Rican Tanager


Mangrove Cuckoo




Puerto Rican Woodpecker



Puerto Rican Flycatcher

Nutmeg and Bronze Mannikins from Puerto Rico

I don't think we've posted a Titmouse photo in a while.

Snowy Day Fun

 

 

Lots of birds around today, but instead of taking pictures we decided to take advantage of the good snowman making snow, nice and sticky. We used a sliced sweet potato for buttons. Chris dropped a piece on the way inside, and later we saw a squirrel eating it. The bottom photo is not a picture of the squirrel who liked the sweet potato. This squirrel is affectionately named by us So Teeny. It is much smaller than all the other squirrels and often comes by alone for a snack. If we keep feeding it, maybe it will catch up to the others.


Here's another photo of So Teeny.

Another Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

We've had a female sapsucker frequenting our yard and today a male came by. He was much more aggressive, chasing away the red-bellied and downy woodpeckers.

When will winter end?

Cardinal


Brown Creeper


Sapsucker

This sapsucker seems to be thriving, but we're getting tired of the cold and snow. Can't wait for the night heron and oriole to return, but we have a few months to go.
If it weren't for scrabble and RumChata, we'd go crazy.

Red tailed hawk: Photo by Frank

 




Recently a red tailed hawk moved into my area. I see it almost daily now. It has already killed a few squirrels in my backyard. Attached are some of the better pics but I have tons. I especially like the one with the squirrel getting close to the hawk. I can't imagine what the hawk was thinking ;-)

Frank
Montvale, NJ

Red Crossbills from Long Branch

Tired of being cooped up in the house in the winter and encouraged by reports of red crossbill sightings in Long Branch, we set out Sunday morning in hopes of adding this bird to our life lists. When we arrived around 9:00am, there were several birders in the parking lot of Seven President's Park . We didn't see or hear anything to indicate any luck on their part, so we went for a walk along the street behind the park that also had trees with many pine cones. Just as we were about to turn around, Mike saw a bird fly in a pine tree and Chris confirmed with the binoculars it was a red crossbill. We also saw another right below it. Another birder drove over and set up a scope.  It's really fun to share a sighting!  It's also fun when we find a bird that we've set out to see, especially ones as cooperative as the crossbills who stayed put in the same spot for roughly half an hour.  It was a  great morning being part of a bunch of birders oblivious to blocking a lane of the road who got some good views of the crossbills.  What isn't fun is being out in the cold until your fingers are numb - so thankfully it was worth it.


The crossbills eat the seeds from pine cones, using their sharp beaks to open it up. We were amazed to see one hanging upside down holding on with one foot to enjoy its treat.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

While out looking for the crossbill, we also saw a few red-breasted nuthatches.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We couldn't decide which of these photos we liked better, so we posted both. Both show the red belly of this woodpecker.

Red-tailed Hawk

This hawk was in a tree in our yard this morning. A titmouse and a cardinal flew around very close to it, seemingly unaware of the hawk's presence, and it didn't seem interested in them.

Birds from Oberly Rd, Alpha, NJ

Horned Lark


White-crowned Sparrow


Savannah Sparrow


We went to Oberly Rd in Alpha in hopes of finding a snow bunting or Lapland Longspur that have been reported. No such luck, but we did see many horned larks and sparrows.

Downy Woodpeckers

Female Downy Woodpecker


Male Downy Woodpecker

Crossbills & Moorhen: photos by Greg

Thought you might like to have these shots for the blog. The first two are the Crossbills that have been in the Long Branch area recently. I was lucky enough to get awesome views (both life birds for me) of the Red & White-winged at the same time, coming as close as 5 feet at one point! The other shot is of the Common Moorhen that has been seen recently at the Kearny Marsh. They are usually pretty shy but this one seems to become quite outgoing when walking on ice. Hope you like them.

Horned Larks

Here's a new bird to us: The horned lark. They prefer very short grass. and when it snows, they congregate on patches that have no snow.

Winter Birds

Song Sparrow

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Brown Creeper

Here are a few of the less common winter birds in our yard.

Yellow-rumped warbler: Veteran's Park in Sylmar, CA

Williamson’s Sapsucker: Veterans Memorial Park, Sylmar, CA

We like when there are clear directions to see a rare bird. We use BirdsEye on the iPad that collects information from ebird. When we were in LA, there was a report of a Williamson's Sapsucker, so with a bit of searching on the internet we found these directions:

The Williamson's Sapsucker was present late this afternoon at Veteran's Memorial Park in Sylmar. It spent a lot of time on the fourth pine tree south/east of lamppost #20.

Now, to be honest, we saw it on the first and fifth pine tree, but it was nice to have such clear directions. It was a really pretty bird to see and shows a bit more detail and color than our yellow-bellied sapsuckers.

Nuttall's woodpeckers

We also saw a Nuttall's woodpecker at Veteran's Memorial Park in Sylmar, CA. The top two are of a male, the bottom is a female. Although it looks a bit like a downy woodpecker, it's a little larger and there is more red on the head.

Out of Focus Birds Obscured by Leaves.

We get occasional compliments from friends on our photos. Here, we illustrate some photos that aren't great. The top is a red-naped sapsucker from Lacy Park in Pasadena. The bottom is a bulbul from Kewen Canyon in Pasadena. Or maybe it's the other way around. Each is the best photo we got of a bird that is a new addition to our life list.