some birds around the backyard feeders

[LCHIEN]

and here is a 16MB AVI (movie) if you have the bandwidth:
http://users2.ev1.net/~lchien/birdpics/blueJay.avi

[Ken Massingale]

Nice shots, Loring. Good video also.
But, even tho I've lost the heart for hunting and killing wildlife in general, Crows and Blue Jays are an exception. Crows pull our corn and beans out of the ground to get to the tender seed sprouts. And those **** Blue Jays have killed or run off every Eastern Bluebird that starts to nest in the Bluebird boxes. They are equally aggresive toward all the smaller birds, but the Cardinals do give it right back to them. I find it kind of amazing that a bird so beautiful can be so destructive and sound so terrible.
ken

[bigsteel15]

Nice shots, Loring. Good video also.
But, even tho I've lost the heart for hunting and killing wildlife in general, Crows and Blue Jays are an exception. Crows pull our corn and beans out of the ground to get to the tender seed sprouts. And those **** Blue Jays have killed or run off every Eastern Bluebird that starts to nest in the Bluebird boxes. They are equally aggresive toward all the smaller birds, but the Cardinals do give it right back to them. I find it kind of amazing that a bird so beautiful can be so destructive and sound so terrible.
ken

Careful, that's our national bird (blue jay, AKA Canadian Jay).
How about magpies? Do you have those in the south? They will actually attack lambs or calves and poke out their eyes.
My acreage friends here all have condos for the purple martins that come up every year. It's really very impressive.
The starlings are the nuisance there. They will invade a home and take over.

There is a RW Blackbird on my way to work that sits on a guardrail every morning and watches the traffic go by.

Nice pics and vid Loring. I love cardinals. We don't see many up here.

[Copper]

We put out a bluebird house this spring and had a pair make a nest in there. They left soon afterwards and I found out why - a neighbor down the street also put up a house AND a worm feeder for them. They STOLE our bluebirds - the nerve! I'll have to try harder to keep them next year. At least they didn't go too far and they visit our yard once in a while.

[WayneJ]

I love watching the birds.I have feeders and bird houses all around my propertyThe jays don't stand a chance with the starlings around, they drive them away. I wish I could get rid of the pidgons All they do is coo and crap all over. They can't get into any of the feeders and are forced to feed of the ground. There is no grass under any of the feeders because of this. I go through about 125 lbs of bird feed a month. II wish we could get humming birds and finches but theres none in my area. I enjoy watching them. Mostly just sparrows and cardinals here.
Wayne

[vaking]

I don't have feeders or bird-houses. I have a pool and my wife has a garden with lots of different berries. As a result I think I have more birds in my back yard than the rest of the town put together. It is a mixed blessing - birds are nice to watch and there are no pigeons, everything is clean. But getting strawberries survive isn't working so far. Last year neigbors cat ate all the flowers. This year there is no cat and we are past flowers but now birds are getting to the fruits.

[Russianwolf]

I love watching the birds.I have feeders and bird houses all around my propertyThe jays don't stand a chance with the starlings around, they drive them away. I wish I could get rid of the pidgons All they do is coo and crap all over. They can't get into any of the feeders and are forced to feed of the ground. There is no grass under any of the feeders because of this. I go through about 125 lbs of bird feed a month. II wish we could get humming birds and finches but theres none in my area. I enjoy watching them. Mostly just sparrows and cardinals here.
Wayne

lightweight.. we are going through about 100lbs per week. at least it's cheap.

We see Cardinals (appearently more states have them as the state bird than any other), Blue Jays, Robins, Crows, Pigeons, Finches and some others that I haven't identified. The ones that I love to see and are pretty uncommon are the hummingbirds (many butterfly bushes in my yard) and a critter called a hummingbird-moth (very cool). And last but far from least and one of my alltime favorites. Red Headed Woodpeckers. I was a big Woody fan.

I need to make some more houses for them. I have one martin house with about 10 units in it. and a small birdhouse I made last winter as a mock-up. Well, they like the mock-up as there is a happy family living in it now.