A couple bird pix

[Omaha Steve]

Pileated Woodpecker: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id


She is rarely ever spotted on the ground. First time we have seen her on the ground inside our fence. She is partially obscured by our deck in the top photo. A sunflower next to her is a gift of nature from feeding the birds. Marta took the Pileated photos yesterday.

OS



A great look at her face.



Seeing a robin eat jelly is very rare. I took this earlier this week.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

1. So Nice to see the Pileated

I always get all tingly when I hear the Jungle-like call of the Pileated. Sends me into search mode for the timid creatures. I have property in East Texas Forest, and occasionally get a peek.

[Eleanors38]

13. Even when they became "threatened" in Florida, these birds still hung out on our land.

[saidsimplesimon]

2. Thank you Omaha Steve

There are some chat (French) lovers who think the birds are fair game.

[RoccoR5955]

3. Nice ones Steve

I have a pileated woodpecker who wakes me up every morning with his incessant pecking at the dead tree next to the house here. I have seen many here in my neck of the woods.
Last time I counted, in my back yard there were at least 20 species of birds. From mourning doves to red tail hawks have visited.
Then there are the neighbor's ducks, and the wild turkeys who cross the road twice a day for water from the creek.
One day, on the way to work, on a different back road, there was a flock of about 20 turkeys that would not get out of the road for anything. I just let them pass.
And last week, I helped a box turtle cross the road, rather than get hit by some citidiot.

[valerief]

4. Very cool. I was walking through a cemetery a couple weeks ago and saw a big-ass

woodpecker that looked like your Woody. I don't think I'd ever seen one in real life before!

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. I love listening to woodpeckers.

[stage left]

6. Woodpeckers are the best.nt

[Enthusiast]

7. Pileated Woodpeckers are cool, OS!

They are fairly common here in Ohio.

If you are in the deep woods and hear one knocking on a tree at a distance you can coax them into making an appearance by knocking on a tree with a small rock. Sometimes it turns out to be one of the other, but still impressively large, woodpecker varieties.

[a kennedy]

8. We've had robins eating our jelly AND feeding their babies for the past few years......

They even defend the dish.....won't let the oriels even eat it. So nasty robins are.

[Omaha Steve]

10. Really?

The orioles are pretty much done for the year. The robin didn't get near it until they were done.

Thanks for the info.

OS

[HuckleB]

9. Fantastic! Gorgeous bird!

Thanks for sharing!

[niyad]

11. thank you for those lovely pictures, steve.

[summerschild]

12. Thanks for sharing your birds, Steve!

I love reading your posts about them, and I have no doubt I would be entertained for hours just sitting there watching!

I have seen one in my tiny mid-town yard twice this year. I'm all the way down in Memphis, but anyone plugging into my head would have heard me yell with glee!

[Eleanors38]

14. Great pictures, Steve.

[passiveporcupine]

15. She's so cute with that little red pointy hat.

I don't know if I've seen a female out here, but I hear and see the males fairly often. I think they are cool birds. I also love our red-winged flickers. I think the flicker is one of the most beautifully marked birds, and I see them more often than woodpeckers. But still not often enough.

This thread got me doing searches on birds and I came across this blog, and this guy is so funny, I thought I'd post it here in case anyone wants to read more of his stuff.

Wanna guess what tanagers like to eat? I’ll give you some hints: It’s not leaves. It’s also not anything that you’d ever want to put in your mouth, not even on a bet. Two of the Summer Tanagers’ favorite foods are bees and wasps. Yup, those painful creatures that send the rest of the animal kingdom running for their lives, are yummy snacks for tanagers. When a tanager sees a passing bee (or wasp) the bird will fly out and pick it out of the air. It will then fly to a perch and proceed to beat the snot out of it until it’s good and dead. But the tanager doesn’t eat it right away. The bird knows that even dead bees are still dangerous. So the next step is to remove the stinger, which the bird does by wiping it off on a branch. After that, it’s down the hatch. Why do tanagers crave bees so much? To get their daily requirement of vitamin Bee, of course.

http://www.birdwatchersgeneralstore.com/TanagersBees.htm



The rest of this "letter" or blog is really worth reading. Now I have to check out the rest of his site.

I'd never heard of feeding birds jelly before, but now I have to try it, to see if I can get more glimpses of my beautiful Western Tanagers.

[Omaha Steve]

16. Here is a Summer Tanager eating jelly 3 years ago in our back yard

About the Summer Tanager here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Summer_Tanager/id


From our bird cam below.

Does anyone know what the other birds are?

[passiveporcupine]

17. In the first picture you have a black-headed grosbeak

I love my grosbeaks out here. The most beautiful songs.

The second bird will take longer to identify. Non-distinctive and bland coloring will make it hard to google.

[passiveporcupine]

18. OK, on the second one,

cannot see the chest or how long the beak is from that angle.

Could it be a brown thrasher?

Never mind. No stripes on the wings.

Looks a little like a Northern Mocking Bird, but they don't have speckled backs.

The birds that are supposed to be attracted to jelly are Orioles, Tanagers, Northern Mockingbirds, Bluebirds, and Blue Jays.

I'm coming up blank on this one.