February 26: Birding Webinar

Yesterday I attended a webinar hosted by WGBH about Birding by David Sibley. I was very impressed with the set up of the webinar via zoom. They had turned off all video and audio of attendees, so you could only hear and see the host and the guest, and implemented a tab for the Q&A section where you could ask a question, or thumbs up other people's questions to bump them up in the queue. My internet was not working again, so I used my phone on the 4G network, and it worked fairly well. I was not 100% impressed with David Sibley, but you could tell that he really loves birds, and I delighted hearing the delight in his voice. Because my husband has become an avid birder,  I knew quite a bit about what was discussed, but I still learned some interesting facts, especially the fact birds lose 10% of their body weight every night so they wake up famished and spend the first hours of the day just foraging for food. It was interesting to hear David say that "there is no certainty for birds", because it is something I think about quite a bit when it comes to the animal kingdom. With the exception of temporary devastating circumstances, like the pandemic or natural disasters, and parts of our society who live in extreme poverty, most humans have some degree of certainty when it comes food and shelter. Most of us are blessed to be able to just open the fridge when we are hungry, or go to the grocery store when the fridge is empty. Birds do not have that guarantee, unless of course they are blessed to find bird feeding humans, like us. We have identified dozens of different birds in our yard over the past few years after introducing our feeders, and I have been fascinated learning all about them. Let's see how many of them I can remember now:

Ones we've seen a lot of this winter:

Black Capped Chickadee (state bird of MA, very common, they look like they have little black hats, and one of their bird calls sounds like their name "chicka dee-dee-dee-dee-dee")
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch (these guys are my favorite. They ALWAYS hang upside down on the feeder or tree trunk, and one of their calls sounds like sarcastic laughing "heh heh")
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker

Dark-Eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal (they have very clear sexual dimorphism, meaning the male is VERY red and the female is grey, but with a super bright orange beak. We often see mating pairs at our feeders)

Carolina Wren

Ones we've seen during other seasons:
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Blue Jay (these guys are MEAN and their bird call is more like a screeching/yelling)
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Indigo Bunting (the most gorgeous looking bird I've seen in my yard because they are strikingly blue, my favorite color)

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Common Grackle (these guys are kind of creepy, because they are big black birds that travel in HUGE flocks. We often wake up to our yard completely covered in them and it kind of reminds me the horror movie "Birds")

American Goldfinch (these also have sexual dimorphism. Males are super bright yellow and females are grey, and we often see mated pairs)

Grey Catbird

Eastern Phoebe (we had a nest of these on our porch last summer. apparently they are known to build their nests on human constructions. we kept finding the baby birds on the ground, and we kept trying to put them back in the nest. we know at least two survived because we saw them take their first flight)

Brown Headed Cowbird

Purple Finch

I really do delight in these birds, and I am glad they continue to come visit us. I really could write a blog post of delight on each one of these species and my experiences with them. Can't wait for summer to enjoy them even more.

With delight,

♥Jamie