Winter Birds!

We're off to a good start this new year with 30 species recorded. Like many of you, we're on a daily feeder watch. Birds need consistent food sources to make it through cold nights. Our feeding stations attract many species and the Grab-n-Go Bar has had a real mix of birds coming to it. 

1-2-23 Northern Cardinal leucistic

One of the male Northern Cardinals is partially leucistic with pink feathering on its wings. Cardinals easily adapt to eating safflower along with black oil sunflower seed.

1-5-23 Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbirds have been coming in and perching on the feeders as well.

1-13-23 Five Rusty Blackbirds 1-5-23 Rusty Blackbird

Rusty Blackbirds are seen under the feeders, foraging in the leaves for bits of seed and insects.

1-2-23 Northern Flicker

1-12-23 Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flickers and Hairy Woodpeckers are often seen at this bark butter feeder and the suet feeder at the south feeding station. The ground peanut and lard in both of these provides fat in their diets.

1-12-23 American Goldfinches

American Goldfinches go for fine sunflower hearts and thistle or niger seed when they are not eating seeds from the garden.

1-13-23 Mourning Doves

One day, half the Mourning Doves decided to eat the leftovers at the Grab-n-Go bar!

1-4-23 American Robin

Again, this year we have a male American Robin which chows down on the bark butter bits and mealworms. It will often chase the Eastern Bluebirds from the table.

1-14-23 Blue Jays

This pair of Blue Jays seemed to be in sync in their approach to choosing mealworms.

1-14-23 Northern Flicker female

The female Northern Flicker is not shy about coming in and checking out the spread.

  1-14-23 White-throated Sparrow

White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos are ground feeders but they've become very comfortable feeding on the table.

1-14-23 Red-bellied Woodpecker female

The female Red-bellied Woodpecker also has no qualms about grabbing a quick tidbit.

1-14-23 Carolina Wren

Carolina Wrens are often at the table before the sun comes up, and frequently come back through the day.

1-14-23 Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinals take advantage of protein sources since they eat plenty of seeds.

1-14-23 Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebirds made it through last winter by coming in to get food here. They know a consistent food source is a good thing!

1-14-23 Carolina Chickadee leucistic

A few days ago, I noticed this Carolina Chickadee with white feathering on its head, another leucistic bird. It is lacking melanin.

  1-14-23 Carolina Chickadee

And, this Carolina Chickadee has a deformed mandible, the upper is too long and curved. It is managing to get food but has a hard time cracking seeds open.

1-14-23 Carolina Chickadee

This bird looks like a normal Carolina Chickadee to me, with the nice clean edge to the black bib, slight grayish feathering on the nape and normal bill shape. 

1-9-23 Chickadee species

However, this particular bird looks different. The edge of the bib is very ragged looking. Our birdsong detector, the Haikubox has been picking up a Black-capped Chickadee, which will move south in the winter. There's a lot more to this story but that's a tale for another post.

1-14-23 Carolina Chickadee
 

Birdwatching in Missouri is always interesting!

For the birds...