Jim’s bird pictures
I got a new camera that has a super zoom lens (it’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70 with a 60x optical zoom and the camera was only $250 - I’ve paid more than that for just a zoom lens) so, naturally I have to get closeups of all the birds in our yard.
“Downy Woodpecker” about 5” long. I saw first one in our yard in 1996. Notice that he actually is “ “downy”.
“Common Flicker”, about 11” long. I can’t understand why “common” is part of his name. He’s beautiful, not common. Here he is pecking nest hole in a very tall power pole.
“Carolina Wren” about 4” long.
“Northern Cardinal” about 7” long, with his mate below.
“Tufted Titmouses” (Titmice?), about 5” long. I’ve seen them in backyard since 1992.
“Carolina Chickadees”
About
4” long.
“White Throated Sparrow” about 5” long.
“Field Sparrow” 5” long
Did you know that ”Mourning Doves” were this beautiful? About 10” long.
Sometimes the chipmunk eats more of the bird’s food than the birds do. He needs to wipe his mouth.
When you see these “Common Grackles” at a distance you think that they are just plain black. They’re not. About 11” long.
Below is a “Red Bellied Woodpecker” at our feeding place. Magnificent bird. 9” long.
California birds from Big Sur
“Dark Eyed Junco”
Oregon Race
5” long
This bird insisted on bashing himself against our room’s window. He looks a bit woozy here.
“Acorn Woodpecker”
6” long
I have to explain about this pic: the bird was over 60 feet away and simply looked like a black silhouette in the viewfinder. When the pic was viewed I could lighten it and mess with the color (in the camera) and get this reasonably good pic at the right.
“Scrub Jay” about 10” long
“Steller’s Jay”
about 11” long
“American Crow”
about 17” long
His pose ought to appeal to my sister Anne who is a sculptor and could make a beautiful bronze crow in this heroic pose.
“Brown Headed Cowbirds”
About 6” long
“Brown Thrasher” about 10” long
“Blue Jay” about 10” long
“American Robin”
8”long
Male “Rufous Sided Towhee”
Eastern Race
7 1/2” long
Female “Rufous Sided Towhee”
Eastern Race
7 1/2” long
Towhees are ground feeders and they make a big production of scratching for their food. When they get into huge, dried Magnolia leaves it gets noisy.
Female Towhee feeding her baby
“House
Sparrow”
4 1/2”
“Baby Towhee? or Baby Cowbird?”
I’m not sure. Dumpy looking little thing.
“Brown Thrasher” (again)
Just a very good looking bird.
(above) Dad brings the kids to a nice restaurant, and...
... what do the kids do?? THEY FIGHT !
“Northern Mockingbird” 9” long, feeding its baby
Feeding the kid and (below) FORCE feeding her.
“House Finch” 5” long
“Juvenile Towhee”
“Juvenile Brown Towhee”
7” long
Crow sculptures at the St. Louis Children’s Museum. These realistic birds were done by my sister Anne Chase Martin who is an in-demand sculptor and the head of the art department at John Burroughs School. Her website is: www.annechasemartin.com.
My sister Anne Martin.
August: The HUMMINGBIRDS came!
This isn’t a 5” long Downy Woodpecker. It’s a larger 7” long bird called a Hairy Woodpecker. (My God! I am becoming an expert!)
Happy baby
mockingbird
This little guy was on the power line that leads into our house and he was so obviously happy about something that I couldn’t imagine leaving him off this page. He is the next generation after the baby that’s being fed in the photo above him.
Below: Showing the neck colors of female and male hummingbirds
Above: White neck color of female.
Left:
A male landing on feeder.
You can see the red color start to appear on his neck. The color appears as red only from certain angles because the color is an illusion that is caused by the refraction of the light.
So, those apparently black-necked “females” in many photos are actually red-throated males whose necks are not giving the red color from refraction.
