Any Bird Watchers Out There?

[heaterman]

So I get home tonight and see this colorful bird behind the house. Maybe a sign not to be a smart azzz. Anybody know what it is? My uneducated guess is possibly an Oriole. But what would a guy originally from Baltimore know???

That is not a Baltimore Oriole. It has no white bars on its wings and it does have a white belly, which an oriole does not. My guess is an American Redstart.

[Grunt]

To get Hummingbirds you need a humming bird feeder, sugar (1part) and water (4parts). They are very agressive and its fun to watch them dive bomb each other.

To get Bluebirds it helps to have bluebird houses on your trees. They have to be the right size and correct distance from the ground (see info on the internet). Since they are Thrushes (I think) they probbaly eat bugs and worms mostly and not seeds.

Both these are seasonal in CT but probably year round where you are.

We have had a pair of wooducks hanging aorund the trees this spring and our "rarest" (hardest to see but easy to hear) bird is the Pileated Woodpecker - a foot long and he tries from time to time to land on out suet feeders that we put out for the woodpeckers and nuthatches (eat upside down) and such. Chickadees are our most popular winter bird I don't know if they get that far South.

We have found they like the black oil sunflower the best and throw the other millet and stuff on the ground. So we only use that - I don't think we lost and birds because of that.

You will definately get other birds with the seed packet suet cakes (there is a type that will not melt and get all mushy in the summer).

I may start summer feeding as the local bat population seems to have disappeared and hopefully the birds can do some skeeter patrol duty....

BTW, locally In the nonsongbird family....Red Tailed Hawks have gone from almost extinct to commonplace in my lifetime. You now see them along the highways where the Turkey Vultures used to lurk. Our Mairna is a winter hangout for Blad Eagles - and last summer some even stayed for the summer....Our neighbor's goldfish pond attracts Great Blue Herons and other long necked marsh birds