Happy New Year!

It's my first birding new year! :)

We're on cold weather lockdown for the new year here in Chicagoland, but the days leading up to 2008 gave us a temporary thaw:



The cold and snow of 2008 has everybody scrambling for a meal - even 'Coop. There's something bone-chilling about a Cooper's Hawk's stare:



Eyeing a potential meal. He was not successful this time... this time.



I finally got a glimpse of the female cardinal! I've had a male cardinal visiting occasionally for a few weeks now, and this cold snap brought out his mate, AND another male! I love seeing the cardinals at my feeders. They're gorgeous birds and I'm glad to be able to help them get by this winter.

Isn't she gorgeous!


She never sat still for very long, but I did snap this picture of her jumping from the deck rail to the black oil sunflower seed Cedar feeder. It makes me giggle!



The less frequent visitors of the Sparrow Mob have spent a lot more time here the last couple days. Here's my Song Sparrow friend - haven't seen this one in a little while!



And here's the local American Tree Sparrow, who now visits with a friend:



Had to include this shot - see the snow whooshing by?



Here are my two least common sparrows, hanging out in the same feeder!



I had 3 American Goldfinches here today too - up from the usual 1. Hungry Hungry Finches! (You know, instead of Hungry Hungry Hippos)



There's a bunny rabbit nibbling on brush in my yard now. It's funny how the birds will hop right around the rabbit, not even blinking at his presence. They're completely comfortable knowing he's not a threat. I'm glad, because I don't mind watching him, either! :)

I Am Guilty

I am guilty of bird misidentification, and the non-birder claim that "all the little brown birds look the same" has played true in my error.

I was watching the house sparrows at my feeders this morning. (Today and tomorrow are my Project FeederWatch count days). A week or so ago, I found myself wondering if some of the birds in my yard that I've been counting as female house sparrows might in fact be some other kind of sparrow. I read through the various sparrows in my field guides, but couldn't get any good photos of "sparrow variety" in my yard to compare to the guides.

Today, one of the mystery sparrows perched alone at the tip top of my gree, which allowed me to get a good shot of it.

Sure enough, it's not a female house sparrow. It's a Song Sparrow!


The stripes on the head are similar to the pictures of the juvenile white crowned sparrow, and since I have an adult white crowned sparrow visitor, I thought maybe this was a juvenile. Today, though, I noted the streaking on the chest, and the white crowned sparrow does not have the streaking. I don't see any dark spot on this guy's chest (like the books say for song sparrows), but he's also not facing completely forward, so it might be there.

I loved this little tidbit about song sparrows:

Laboratory studies have shown that the female Song Sparrow is attracted not just to the song itself, but to how well it reflects the ability of the male to learn. Males that used more learned components in their songs and that better matched their song tutors (the adult bird they learned their songs from) were preferred.

Smart chicks! :)

Now, I'm left to wonder how many I've mis-counted so far...