What birds do you get to see ?

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merry
  
  
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by merry »

This morning I saw two magpies (phew) a coal tit, in fact several tits including a couple of blue tits, lots of dunnocks (hedge sparrows) and the ubiquitous wood pigeons in my garden. The coal tits keep trying to get in my bedroom window, which is closed. (I have had them in the bedroom before so in summer have learned to keep the window open a fraction under bird-body sized.)

We have members now as far distant as Hawaii, Alaska and New Zealand - I'd love to hear about your birds, and indeed everyone's birds!
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eccles
 
 
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by eccles »

I don't get much in the back garden even though I have a pond and the neighbour puts out birdfood. What I am pleased to see is the formerly common as muck house sparrow. They have been RSPB red listed for a number of years so its really good that they have been nesting in shrubbery in an adjacent garden for the last few years and are locally quite common.
This is a mother and fledgling from the summer this year.
sparrows.jpg
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Forsteriaana30
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by Forsteriaana30 »

Very goog topic, merry. :clap Well, Latvia we have different birds, but in summer more often here can see swallows and I love to hear their sounds. It's so summering. :love
Landsvale.jpg
Then here is stork who is most popular bird in Latvia and also them can see only in summers, cuz they're migratory birds and only in springs they returns.
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In others seasons here can see only sparrows, crows and parus, coz they're only winter birds, which stays there all seasons! :up
Passer_domesticus_male_(15).jpg
House_crow_Bangalore_India.jpg
1200px-Parus_major_2_Luc_Viatour.jpg
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TRavine
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by TRavine »

What a wonderful topic, Merry :)

We get a lot of sparrows, great tits and blue tits, blackbirds and greenfinches and chaffinches, sometimes larks (but rarely).

In our garden I also often see great spottet woodpeckers.

Dendrocopos-major-Buntspecht---Z.Tunka-lbv.jpg

and redbreasts

Rotkehlchen_Christoph_Moning_LBV_1_Portraet.jpg

And we've had collared doves every year

tuerkentaube-fotolia_49048442_s_raulbaena.jpg

My favourite ones have always been nuthatches, because they run up and down the tree trunks in a funny way, lol

151208-nabu-kleiber-marco-frank.jpeg

In the nearby meadows we also have wood cocks and peacocks.
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OurCreature
 
 
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by OurCreature »

Many years ago Midge 1 caught a kingfisher and brought it indoors, but he didn't hurt it so it was able to peck him above his left eye and that persuaded him it was best left alone. When I arrived home it was hammering with its beak at the kitchen window, so I opened the window when I got in and out it flew; it swooped low towards the ground and Brother Bumble made a vain attempt to catch it and off it went.

Otherwise it is magpies, starlings, blackbirds, wood pigeons; those are the most common I can think of.

Oscar Wilde wrote the most heart-rending story called The Happy Prince in which the real hero of the story - a swallow - drops dead from the cold having completed its task. When Mum and I were in Switzerland one year we saw literally thousands of swallows all perched on the telegraph wires by the side of the railway (we were in a train waiting at Uznach bahnhof) having a rest before they resumed their northward migration - a wonderful sight. Later on during our holiday when we were on a boat sailing down the Rhine to Schaffhausen we saw more swallows swooping down to the river surface to catch and eat insects.
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ColleenD
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by ColleenD »

In South Central Alaska, on a regular basis we see ravens, magpies, eagles, and occassionally Bohemian waxwings in the winter . In summer we see terns, loons, mallards, Canadian geese, swans, seagulls, finches, ptarmigan, spruce hens, etc. A plethora of birds come here to feed on our lovely mosquitos. We have a bog behind our house. One summer day my daughter, about 7 at the time, came running into the house declaring that there were ostriches in the bog! The birds she saw were actually sandhill cranes.
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merry
  
  
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by merry »

Now this is everything I hope for in a topic. Beautiful photographs and anecdotes from people's own places, thousands of miles apart.

Thank you!! :bighug
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Philipaholt
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by Philipaholt »

Here in the American south I see loads of cardinals, Robins, mockingbirds, sparrows, and starlings. Also a bird called the Red Wing Blackbird, bluejays, and goldfinches. And if you're very lucky you sometimes see a hummingbird
Cardinal
Cardinal
Robin
Robin
Mockingbird
Mockingbird
Redwing Blackbird
Redwing Blackbird
Starling
Starling
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Philipaholt
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by Philipaholt »

Bluejay
Bluejay
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Hummingbird
Hummingbird
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Patience
 
 
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by Patience »

Here in central Scotland we seem to be over run by magpies. They are everywhere round my house!
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DaisyNinjaGirl
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by DaisyNinjaGirl »

Where I am there are a lot of sparrows and blackbirds which were introduced. Fortunately, we're also near a bird sanctuary which gives the natives a boost.

Ones that come over to visit our garden:
Kereru (aka wood pigeon)
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Tui
tui.jpg
Piwakawaka (aka fantail, they can literally turn on a hair)
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Kaka (they don't come to my garden for some reason, but my parents-in-law one suburb over see them often)
Kaka on kowhai Wilton Sep 2013.jpg
They don't live around here (they prefer the mountains in the South Island), but always worth seeing:
Kea
milford-sound-kea-flight.jpg
These are known for being very intelligent and mischievous:
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DaisyNinjaGirl
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by DaisyNinjaGirl »

And finally, the humble kiwi. There are some nearby in the local sanctuary because they're nocturnal, but you can hear them if you go on a night tour. A conservation group recently announced that there's a predator free area in the hills near us that they're starting to release kiwi into, which I'm thoroughly thrilled about.
800px-TeTuatahianui.jpg
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merry
  
  
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by merry »

Wow, Daisy, what incredibly beautiful birds!

I've been feeding daily at present and from the lively rate of take-up I imagine the poor things are really struggling to find natural food supplies in these frozen days. This bird-house sees constant action all day - blue tits, coal tits, robins, sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, wood-pigeons, ringed doves (and the occasional jackdaw :mad the other birds mostly co-exist with only minor squabbles but when a jackdaw turns up it's like a tiger's been let loose in a kindergarten.)

I put water out too as puddles etc are frozen solid.

That's a blackbird you can just about make out in there. I never get a good pic of the birdhouse with birds in it as obviously they all fly off when they see me with my camera :)


birdhouse.jpg
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Panikos
  
  
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What birds do you get to see ?

Post by Panikos »

Wow! So many fantastic images. Thank you all for those.

Living in a UK town I'm pretty much limited to pigeons and sparrows.
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