Update with new picture:
This little guy has been lurking and eluding me lately. I have been trying to identify him for a while. Every time he shows up I either don’t have my bird book or don’t have my camera. The last two days were different. I did ID him yesterday with my book, but today I was able to capture him with the camera. Forgive the occasional blur and also forgive the tree branch obstruction of him. I took the pictures through the kitchen window, which doesn’t have modern glass. He only hung out for a few seconds in the Japanese maple before he flitted away again. The little tuft of red only appears on the male and only “when excited” according to All The Birds of North America.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula
6 comments:
How cute!! Looks like Hootie pecked him on his head. hahah Don't you love when a strange looking one shows up on your feeder?
Added some new pics from earlier this evening. He hit our laundry room window and then hung out for a bit recovering before he flew off again. Cute little bugger!
He's a cutie...why oh why do the birds hit the windows...they gotta be smarter than that...don't they? I feel so bad for them.
One of our Great Horned Owls hit the patio door one early morning...he was so stunned it took him 5 minutes to get his wits about himself and staggeringly flew (can a bird stagger when they fly?? ;~) to a tree.
Get this! I was out refilling the feeders a little bit ago and this little guy came right up to the feeders and hung out while I was filling each of them. He was less than 2 feet away from me and content as can be. By the time I got my camera out of my pocket his comfort level dropped and he left, but I did get one more shot of him. I hope to get some more of him and the other birds (mostly goldfinches, chickadees and pine siskins) later this afternoon.
That first picture is adorable.
You caught him!: )
As you know, I'm from WA and I have a pretty good grasp of my native birds and plants. OK, an amateur grasp; I couldn't have named your bird. But now I'm in a foreign land, and most of the birds are different. Very methodically I've been trying to learn all of them.
Although there are sparrows and finches and chickadees, no robins at all sing in the Springtime. Their cousins, the blackbirds sing their silly song. In addition to normal crows, there are big black and white magpies, pretty troublemakers, as well as these odd grey and black crows. I've never seen a Stellar Jay here, oh how I miss their fake hawk calls.
I also miss seeing bald eagles, which even hangout on Alki, looking majestic. I keep spotting what I think are eagles here, but they are just hawks (buzzards). The other day I tried to identify them using Wikipedia, but apparently there are a handful of big brown hawks with snowy white breasts. *sigh* I do enjoy trying to get close to them with my horse.
Now that we have our first home, I'm also the proud owner of some trees. This means I will be trying to tempt birds to visit, with food bribes and such. Just last night I had the inspiration to learn to build bird houses. This is new, it must be cuz of the house.: )
Come into my garden, you foreign birds, and teach me your names!
~lytha in far away land
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