Bird Watching In Our Backyard

We have many birds that show up in our yard and will try to put a picture of each one on and their names.

We always feed black oil sunflower seeds. We put out suet in the winter and we sometimes have thistle seeds for them. Now we can only put out seed in the winter otherwise we get to many bears looking for food.

The old tree (bass wood) did it again. Today we realized there's a pair of wood ducks nesting in the tree. We were a little worried about the babies jumping out of the tree with no water. I guess they can jump 290 ft. without injury. They are nesting about 100 yds. from our deck. The dogs are running around. My husband is working on the side of the house they just watch us but don't seem to be worried about all the activity.

Below is a video of wood ducks in a nesting box. Not ours but interesting how they get out.

Pileated Woodpeckers are in our yard all the time they love the old tree that you see the woodpecker on. Their very large birds and are they ever loud. My sister-in-law wanted to know what that bird was that woke her up in the morning when she stayed here. It was the woodpeckers. They are about 16-19 inches in length. Largest Woodpecker in North America. We always hear them drumming in our woods.

I'm sure they make nest in one of our old trees though we have never seen them in a nest. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't also nest in this same tree you see the wood ducks on. My husband was going to cut down this tree because he's worried it is dead and may fall down but every year it does have green leaves, so we're just leaving the tree because the animals love it.

We have seen the young ones around and the young ones of the smaller woodpeckers.

There were 6 babies in this little tiny garden bird house. This bird house was not meant to be an actual house it was just one of those small decorated houses for a garden. I think I bought it at JoAnns. They could barely fit and when they left the nest we never saw it happen. The Mom and Dad were always close by and never got upset when we looked in at the babies but would go after anyone else. The blue birds come back every year but they have changed bird houses. Their now in a better house a little bigger for all those babies.

We have put up bird houses all over our yard. Sometimes we get chick-a-dees or swallows nesting.

There's a hawk that hangs out in the field across the road from our house. One day he was flying after a bird in our yard. I was just going down the steps from our deck and he was right there coming at me. I reached out to stop him but I couldn't get him. He ran the bird under our deck and got him. What I found was very blue feathers it looked like blue jay feathers but not sure if that was the bird he got. That's the way of nature I guess.

Rose Breasted Grosbeak Just a little information on the Rose breasted Grosbeak.........The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, has bold black, white, and rose, is easily identified. The female is drab and striped. Around here they love the black oily sunflower seeds.

We also get Evening Grosbeaks and Pine Grosbeaks. They bring their big babies here to eat. It's funny watching them feed the babies. The babies are as big as the parents.

The grosbeaks are a bossy bunch always fighting with each other.

My husband took the picture of this young eagle in our tree. He has to be a least two years old because it takes that long to get an all white head but he was very spotting looking in his back feathers.

We see Eagles often around here. I've seen them on the road and they sit in our big trees in the front of the house watching the field across the road. Looking for what they can to eat.

Little nuthatches in our yard stay busy. They found this hole in the maple tree by our kitchen window and they started loading it with all kinds of stuff they would find, building a nest I guess. Then one morning we got up and we could tell something had pulled all their nesting stuff out of the hole. Maybe it was a squirrel. Little red squirrels have nested in that hole before.

These little birds are always looking in bark crevices trying to find food or bugs. They also like the black oily sunflower seeds we put out. They run down the trees upside down as you can see from the video.

We often get turkeys in our yard. So far they have not torn up anything and I have heard they can really mess up a garden.

We also once in a while get Canadaian Geese and Sandhill Cranes. They come in our yard from the field across the road. The Sandhill Cranes nest there. I think I have a picture of them on my other bird hub. They land in he field across the road and will wonder over here. We know Spring is here when the Sandhill Cranes come back.

Check out Stephanie Henkel's hub Great Backyard Bird Count 2012.