While I will travel across Central Florida to seek out new birds to photograph, I often forget there are some pretty interesting ones hanging out in my backyard.
Through winter, spring and this brutal summer, there are nine different types of birds who have been regulars in the backyard. They are: Blue Jays, Brown Thrashers, Carolina Wrens, Common Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, Northern Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Tufted Titmouses (or is it Tufted Titmice?).
Anyway, they are at home outside our home, enjoying feasts at our bird feeders (when the squirrels aren’t finding a way to get to the seed first).
So, here are my nine fine backyard regulars:
The Blue Jays who visit my yard want access to the bird feeders. Sometimes they imitate the sound of a Red-shouldered Hawk to get other birds to leave.The Blue Jays love our backyard feeders, especially if the seed mix includes peanuts.This Blue Jay enjoys hanging out in a backyard tree in summer 2023.A Brown Thrasher tries to stare me down in the backyard. The Brown Thrashers are usually seen on the ground in my backyard. A pair nested in one of our bushes, but shortly after the eggs hatched, a predator snatched the babies. The Mourning Dove, behind this one, isn’t a suspect.The Carolina Wren is a really small bird, but in the spring it had a mighty voice as it greeted the sunrise each morning. Here it enjoys some suet in one of our feeders.A Carolina Wren gets its feathers ruffled as I try to take its picture while it sits in a shrub in the backyard.The Common Ground Doves are fairly recent additions to our backyard birds. They mostly stick to the ground (duh!) but will visit the feeders.The Common Ground Doves don’t seem to get along well with their Mourning Dove cousins in our backyard. The Mourning Doves try to chase them off.This little Downy Woodpecker visits the backyard several times a day. We’ve seen male and females ones around a lot.The Downy Woodpeckers are pretty small, but even if you can’t see them, they announce their presence with a distinctive call.The Mourning Doves are in our backyard everyday, hoping squirrels or other birds toss seed down from the feeders.The Mourning Doves are very skittish, and they can be loud when they fly away.This male Northern Cardinal is a frequent visitor to our feeders.Northern Cardinals live in the same area year-round, and we know this male and his family pretty well.This female Northern Cardinal enjoys visiting one of our feeders.We’ve had several broods of Northern Cardinals in our yard, and we think this is a juvenile from one of the recent nests.Red-bellied Woodpeckers are usually in our backyard daily, looking for some suet or pecking away in our trees.There are multiple Tufted Titmouses who live in or near our backyard. We see and hear them all the time.The Tufted Titmouses are cute, but they may not be the brightest birds. If they see their reflection in our windows, they peck at the windows – trying to chase away their imagined rival.Not a bird (obviously), but the Eastern Gray Squirrels in our backyard always seem to find ways to get to our bird feeders no matter what I do to try to thwart them. Just like this one, they lie around and ponder new ways to get to the birdseed.
While the Chiefs and 49ers were getting ready, I was busy photographing four species of raptors at the Wetlands: American Kestrel, Osprey, Bald Eagle and Red-shouldered Hawk.
