arm-chair bird watching


Exciting times at the bird-feeders outside our window; we have two outside our big front window- this one here is technically a squirrel feeder. I placed it in the backyard to bribe the squirrels to leave my bird-feeders alone. So far we have mixed results...

Seen here are my favorites, a pair of band-tailed pigeons. Seldom seen in the city, they are larger then regular pigeons and have yellow feet, not pink. A royal class of pigeons.


This bird was very exciting- and hard to catch a photo of... it's a male black-headed Grosbeak.


This one is maybe the female Black-headed Grosbeak... Mrs. Wonderful Neighbor told us what bird it was ( I run to her to show her my pictures in my digital camera because to me the birds always look like 5 other birds in the bird book) but now we are debating if that was what she said, I thought she said it was another type of grosbeak...though good luck remembering which.
We were pretty excited about this one, too- it looked like a sparrow on steriods.

Last but not least....

well, she thinks she's pretty special...

Bird books that are helpful; The Burgess Bird book - a favorite Charlotte Mason resource,
Kaufman Birds of North America,
Stoke's backyard birdfeeders guide