Mixed in with the red-wings were a few Common Grackles.They didn’t have the iridescent hues that I’m accustomed to seeing, but that could be a result of the leaden gray sky that has accompanied the snow.
Several Song Sparrows
have also shown up at the feeders. At first they were confused with the female Purple Finches but the missing eye stripe and very obvious black dot on the chest made it clear that there was a new bird in town. The western variety pictured at the eNature web site is considerably darker than those that have shown up here in the north-central mountains of PA.
Song Sparrow
I thought, foolishly, that I might end up having lots of left over thistle and sunflower seed when the weather turned warm early in the week. But if the birds keep coming to feed as they have…I might have to run out and get more!
Male purple finch among the goldfinches.
A very crowded thistle feeder. I filled this thing up about four hours earlier, just so you get an idea of how much the birdies are eating.
3 comments:
We have a bunch of those little Finch birds..different types I reckon because there are several different colors.
You seem to know way more about birds than I do. Do you know if grackles, magpies, and blackbirds all the same bird, or are they three distictive species? Seems like I've heard the names used interchangably.
mornigglory, thanks for the compliment.
Blackbirds is a generic term (like LBJ= Little brown jobs) and is used with many species.
Grackles and Magpies are two very different groups/species. There are several different species in the grackle family.
Black-billed and Yellow-billed Magpies are much different than grackles. Fairly large black and white birds, Black-billed Magpies are found in the western Great Plains to the Pacific coast. They reach as far north as Alaska and as far south as Texas. They may even be found in Eurasia. Black-billed Magpie (The yellow-billed is a smaller version and is only in California.)
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