Review of Facts and Photos of the Dark Eyed Junco

Snow Bird

I think I must have gotten my love of birds from my Mother.  She loved to watch the birds in her yard and one of her favorites was a small grey bird with a white bottom that she called the "Snow Bird".  I have found this bird to be one of my favorites.  They are called Dark Eyed Junco's and it is particularly interesting to watch them hop around on the ground on a snowy day.

Identifying the Dark Eyed Junco

• Slate Colored mostly grey with white belly
• Medium Sized Sparrow
• Round Head
• Small pale bill
• Prominent white outer tail feathers

There are other Junco's in North America whose coloring varies across the continent but all are a dark grey or brown and have white outer tail feathers the flash open in flight.  In the western US Junco's have a dark hood and a brown back. These are called the "Oregon Junco"

The Dark Eyed Junco that I show in this article are found throughout Canada and in the eastern US.  I live in eastern Missouri and they are plentiful in my backyard.

Feeding Behavior

These birds feed primarily by hopping around the base of trees and shrubs looking for fallen seeds.  In the spring and summer they will eat mainly insects.

In my back yard they usually are found beneath the feeders picking up seeds that have fallen when other birds have been at the feeders.  Here is a photo taken on a snowy morning when two Junco's decided to stop at a feeder.  The ground was covered with snow and there weren't any other birds around to knock food off the feeders so they had to go get their own.  Later in the day when more other types of birds were around they were again on the ground pecking away at fallen seeds.

Breeding Behavior

In order to court the females the males will fan and flicker their tail feather and hop up and down.  The males and females will make a nest together and they defend their territory together.  The male however is a bit fickle and is known to mate with several females.

The females usually have between 3-5 eggs at a time and they are incubated by the female for 12-13 days.  The baby birds are ready to leave their nest in 9-13 days.

Habitat

Junco's are ground nesters and prefer to make their nest on the ground sheltered by either dense shrubs or rocks.  Their nest is an open cup made of fine twigs, rootlets and leaves.

References

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology online
• Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America by Jonathan Alderfer and Paul Hess

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Review of Facts and Photos of the Northern Cardinal

Male Northern Cardinal

The Northern Cardinal is one of my favorite birds.  They frequently visit my backyard feeders and birdbath and I never get tired of photographing them.  I find both the male and female to be very photogenic.

Fun Facts About the Northern Cardinal

• State bird of 7 US states
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Diet consists of seeds, insects and berries
• Also known as redbird
• Featured as the name of numerous athletic teams including my favorite St. Louis Cardinal baseball team.
• Beautiful songbirds who sing year round.  Loud whistling song that has many variations including: cheer,cheer,cheer and purty,purty,purty.
• Male sings to defend nesting territory.
• Cardinals do not migrate and live their entire lives within a few miles.
• Cardinal lifespan can be up to 15 years.

Thanks goes to my granddaughter Kate for sharing some of her Cardinal facts with me.

Differences between Male and Female Cardinals

The male Cardinal is perhaps the mostly widely recognized bird in the USA.  Male is completely red except for small black mask and a black chin.  These birds have heavy bills to deal with their diets.

Although the female is duller in color, I think they are equally beautiful.  They are a tawny brown with a small amount of red on the crest, wings and tail.  I love their bright orange/red beak.

Photos of Cardinals in my Backyard

This little guy is all puffed up against the cold winter winds.

I like the look on this Cardinals face.  He seems to be saying "it's my turn here now...stay away!"

Products with Northern Cardinals

Because they are such a colorful and popular birds you can find numerous products that feature cardinals.  A search on Amazon will show you toys, household decorating items and much more.  Here are a couple that caught my eye.

I love this colorful Cardinal trivet.  What a great way to bring this colorful bird into your home.

If you are looking for some decorations with Cardinals for your deck or patio this beautiful wind chime is just for you.  I love the sound of chimes in the wind and I'm sure you will love this colorful decoration.

Cardinal Magnet from my friend Vicki's Zazzle store

Magnet Cardinals appear when angels are near..
by Vimages4you

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Review of Facts on the Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Distinguishing Features

The Eurasian tree sparrow is similar to the house sparrow but with a few distinguishing features.  The most notable one is the black patch in the middle of a pure white cheek.  You can see that feature in the photo above.  These birds also have a rich chestnut colored crown and nape.  Both sexes are similar and the young birds are just a duller version of the adult birds.  

I had seen these birds in our yard for several years and did not realize they were different from the house sparrows until I took some photographs and started to study their features.  Since they are only in a limited region of the USA I did not find them in my pocket field guide to birds and had to do a bit more searching online to find more information. 

History in USA

Eurasian Tree Sparrows were first introduced in the USA when 20 birds were brought to St. Louis, Missouri from Germany.  It is said that these birds probably would have multiplied and spread except that the House Sparrow was introduced to the US at about the same time.  The House Sparrow is a tougher bird and kept the Eurasian Tree Sparrows from spreading.  Today you mostly find these birds around the St. Louis area, although you may find them in other parts of Missouri, Illinois and southern Iowa.  We live about 40 miles west of St. Louis and have quite a few of the birds in our yard year round.  They seem to stay in some of our low shrubs around our house.  They are frequent visitors at both our finch feeders and our wild bird feeders.  They also like to visit our birdbath.

More Information

If you would like to read more about these interesting birds, I would suggest the following link where I gathered much of my information. Audubon Field guide   At this site you can also listen to the calls of the birds.

Bird Guide

I find this bird guide to be  valuable tool for identifying birds in my backyard.  It did have a small blurb on Eurasian tree sparrow under the heading Old World Sparrows.

                                                               

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Reviewing Tips on Backyard Perch for Bird Photography

Goldfinch on Perch

Backyard bird photography can be a relaxing and rewarding hobby.  There are many books to give you ideas on getting the most of backyard bird photography and they contain tips on everything from feeders, to lighting, to setting up an ideal setting for the birds. 

Setting up a Natural Looking Perch

On this page I would like to concentrate on one aspect of backyard bird photography, setting up a natural looking perch.  I have been photographing birds for a few years now, but I always felt I was fighting the background and surrounding features in my backyard. I would photograph birds on the feeders and sitting on the shepherds hooks but just never quite got that photo I was trying to get. When our photography club announced that our speaker would be talking on backyard bird photography I was really excited to be going and getting some tips.  

When the speaker first started he showed us lots of photographs he had taken of birds on natural looking perches.  I thought they looked great and figured he had to be out in parks or the woods to capture the birds sitting on those perches.  Then he told us his secret.  He creates his own perches in his back yard and trains the birds to come and sit there.  He does this by watching the birds habits when feeding and then setting up a natural perch nearby.  In his example he showed a feeding box he had made that he sat on the ground and then mounted a branch, using an old tripod,  to hang just above the feeding area.

I liked his idea, but I have a small backyard and wanted to keep my backyard attractive and yet still use the natural perch idea.  The next day I was wondering around my backyard thinking about the lecture and I came across a big tree limb that had fallen in the storm the night before.  I took the limb and buried it in an old flower pot and then moved it near the bird feeders.

Perch Limb

I set up the perch and now I had to wait for some birds to come.  I had my camera set up on a tripod just inside our patio doors and I would sit and watch all the birds but they never landed on the perch when I was watching.  

Backyard Bird Books

Moving Perch for Birds Convenience

I next decided to move the perch between my finch feeder and my songbird feeder to give a better landing place for birds waiting to get their turn at the feeders.  In just a few minutes I captured a photo of the first bird landing on the perch.  Since then I have captured many birds sitting on the perch.  I have added some green plants to the container to make it more attractive and I am quite pleased with my first attempt at setting up a perch.

Photos of Birds Landing on Perch

Here are some of the photos I have taken in the last week.  I have my camera set up just inside our glass patio doors and the photos are taken through the glass.  I have the camera on a tripod and I have a remote shutter that I have close by when I am sitting at the table in front of the doors.  This way if a bird catches my eye I can grab the shutter and click away.  The camera is set at aperture priority with a f5.6 setting and is focused at the very top of the perch.  

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Review of Tips to Photograph Florida Birds

Black Skimmer

Discovering Florida Birds

This past year I have really gotten interested in photographing birds, so it is only natural that when we were planning a trip to Florida I also planned on discovering a new variety of birds to photograph.  I started out by purchasing a good bird book on Florida birds and spent some time reading and studying the different types before our trip.  I found that many of the birds common to my area of the mid-west also resided in Florida.  Many birds that I commonly see in my own backyard such as the: Cardinal,  Robin, Goldfinch, Starling, Robin and several different woodpeckers also call Florida home. Florida, however, also has a wide range of birds that I never see in the mid-west and it was this set of birds that I was interested in photographing.  I started my exploration by going to a pier near where the inlet joins the ocean.  On the first day I saw a lot of Rock Pigeons and several Brown Pelicans.  I was just leaving the pier when the colorful bird in the photo above flew in and landed on the beach.  I thought he was very unusual looking with his distinct black and white coloring and the bright orange at the base of his bill and orange legs.  With his distinct colorings he was easy to identify in the bird book.  My book states that he is 18 inches and has up to a 3 1/2 foot winspan.  We were in Florida a month and this was the only time I saw this bird.  I feel fortunate to have been able to get a good photograph.

Bird Book for Florida

Here is the book that I used to identify the birds I photographed in Florida.  It is laid out with sections on birds of various colors.  That made it easy to find a bird from my photo.  It also has a great index in the back to cross reference various birds.

Birds at the Beach

When taking a walk on the beach I was delighted to see a wide variety of birds.  When I had been to Florida in past years I had noticed the gulls and the little birds that ran in and out of the waves, but I had never really realized how many different varieties there were.

When I took the photographs and then went back to our condo to look them up in the bird book, I found there were several different types of gulls and the little birds could be sanderlings, terns, or perhaps even a Ruddy Turnstone.  I learned to pay attention to the size and shape of their bills, the color of their legs, their basic shapes and their colorings.  Even when I had all these characteristics figured out I learned within each specie there were different colorings for summer vs winter birds, breeding vs non breeding and male vs female birds. Identifing these birds was sure more complicated than it first appeared.
Below are two of the different gulls I photographed and identified.

Laughing Gull

Ring-billed Gull

The small little birds that seem to run in and out with the waves are always fascinating.  Here are a few I captured in photos.

Royal Tern

Sanderlings

Ruddy Turnstone

Birds by the Lakes

I also took several walks around nearby lakes and found some very interesting varieties of birds.  Some of these I had to work a bit harder at identifying.

This bird is a Little Blue Heron.  It is 24 inches and is a dark slate blue color.

This next bird is a Double-crested Cormorant.  I had a bit of trouble deciding on this bird, but after Looking at both of these photos I narrowed it down to a Double-crested Cormorant.

Birds of Florida Throw Pillow
by mbgphoto

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Review of Guide for Bird Watchers

Blue Jay in the Snow

Favorite Bird Guide

I have always loved to photograph birds, but only recently have I gotten really interested in identifying the birds in my backyard.  I have looked up birds online to try to find out what species of bird I have captured in my photos, but was never completely satisfied with my searches.  So my next step was to look for a paperback book that would fit my needs.  I found just what I needed in a delightful book by Jonathan Adererfer and Paul Hess National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America.

 

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Bird Identification

This delightful book has a detailed guide to 150 species of birds of North America.  The photo below is one example of a bird I identified from the book.  I knew the bird was some type of sparrow so I first looked up sparrows in the index of the book. This brought me to a series of pages with over ten different types of sparrows. As I looked through the photos  I narrowed it down to several that looked similar.  When I looked closer only one was exactly like my sparrow.  The white throat and small yellow spot above the eye were my biggest clues. Besides looking at the photos I read the identification section and checked the range to make sure this sparrow came to my area.  All of these things agreed so I concluded that this was a White-throated Sparrow.  The page on this sparrow also gave information on the food and nesting habits of the bird.

Here are two more birds I identified using the same general steps that I used above.  The first is a Tufted Tit Mouse, which I learned is native to my area of the country (mid-west).  I also learned it is a very vocal bird and that its' song is a loud peter-peter-peter, repeated over and over.

The next bird is a Carolina Wren. It is common in my area and I found out that it is the only wren that commonly feeds at feeders and suet feeders.  I have seen this bird often at our feeders.  I also learned that it is a year round resident.

Additional Features of the Book

In addition to the bird identification features I found several other sections of the book that were very interesting and helpful.

• Basics of Bird Watching- this section gives you hints on where and when to watch for birds.  It talks about migratory birds and those that are year round residents.
• Feeding Birds- this section gives hints on the types of feeders to use, where to place them and what food to put in the feeders to attract different birds.
• Birdhouses- If you are wanting to place a bird house for your birds this section is a must read.
• Bird-Friendly Yards-This is a great section that gives you hints on planting your yard to attract birds.
• Birding Skills-If you want to increase your skills at watching and identifying birds this is the section for you.
• Citizen Science- This section talks about the birding community and ways that you can help.  It also talks about keeping a birding journal.

Bird Journal

Here is a journal I have created using my photographs.  You can order it on Zazzle by clicking on the link below the photo.

My Bird Journal
by mbgphoto

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The Swans of Kensington Garden~Perfect for Swan Lovers!

Review: The Swans of Kensington Garden

Why am I reviewing my own book? Because many people love to give coffee table books as gifts and I am one of them. Who doesn't love a beautiful book of photographs to look at? They make perfect gifts for people who seem to have everything. Plus they are a perfect accessory for the coffee table and a conversation piece when guests come over. With that idea in mind I recently published a coffee table book of my own: The Swans of Kensington Garden.

It all started with a trip to London, England and a visit to the gardens surrounding Kensington Palace. I just could not get over all the beautiful Swans in the lake there so I went home to grab my camera and started snapping away.  My husband and I love birds a lot and Swans in particular so this was a dream day in London for us. In the end I had more than 300 photos of the beautiful Mute Swans that inhabit the lake. When I got home I decided it would be wonderful to share all my photos and some fun facts about the Swans so the book was born.

 The Swans of Kensington Garden: A Photo Book of Swans

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I used Create Space to publish the book on Amazon. It was actually very easy to do, although there is a learning curve. I think the hardest thing was choosing only 36 photos out of the more than 300 I had taken. Actually maybe the hardest thing was formatting them and the text to fit in the template provided. But I am very happy with how it turned out, and now I have a permanent reminder of that beautiful day in my living room and not only do my guests get to see it, but anyone who purchases the book does too. I might be biased but I think it's a beautiful book and fun to read. I added little tidbits of information about the Mute Swan and several poems so you might even learn a little about Swans that you didn't know.

My friends who have seen my Swan book have all  remarked on the quality of the cover and the photos, so if you ever want to create a permanent memory of a trip and have a wonderful gift to give your friends, I highly recommend using Create Space to create a book very inexpensively. Very soon I will be writing an article explaining how to do that.

Meanwhile, if you love Swans, or know someone who does, my little coffee table book of Swans is sure to please them and would make a wonderful gift.

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Review of Tips on Photographing Backyard Birds

American Goldfinch

My husband and I both enjoy watching the birds in our backyard.  Our kitchen table sits in front of our sliding patio doors and gives us a great view of everything in our backyard.  I also enjoy photographing the birds and in this article I will give you some tips for photographing birds in your backyard.

Attracting Birds to Your Backyard

In order to photograph birds in  your backyard you first want to attract the birds to the area where you want to photograph.  Last week Review This contributor Susan wrote a great article on attracting birds to your backyard in her article Backyard Garden Birds: Springtime Review .  In order to attract birds you need to have things birds will enjoy like feeding stations, birdbaths and perches.

When you are wanting to photograph birds, you need to go a step further and analyze where you have placed the places where birds will land.  For example, you will want to look at what is behind the bird feeder that might also get into your photo.  Do you have an unattractive trash can or some other distracting article in the background that you will want to make sure is not in your photograph?  In my case I had my finch birdfeeder on a shepherds hook that I thought looked great, but when I looked through the viewfinder on my camera I realized the top of the hook went just over our back fence.  What I captured when I zoomed in on a bird perched on top of the hook was an ugly pipe sticking out of my neighbors roof.  With a little rearranging I was able to move the feeder a little closer in and now I have just the white fence as the background.

Fuscia Basket

I have found that adding some colorful floral baskets around the area where the birds perch also makes for some attractive photos.  I have a fuscia plant hanging near my hummingbird feeder and it helps to attract the hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are just starting to come to our area, so I'm anxiously awaiting to find a hummingbird on one of this beautiful flowers. 

Getting Ready to Photograph

In order to get good bird photographs on a regular basis you need to

•  Be Prepared
• Be Patient 

 We have a table near our sliding camera and I make sure I always have my camera sitting there and ready to shoot.  One of the best times to photograph birds is in the early morning hours.  They are most active the first few hours after sunrise, so in the evening I set up my tripod in front of our sliding doors so that I am ready to shoot in the morning.  You can photograph birds with a hand held camera, but if you want to capture those birds in flight or get a great closeup a tripod and a remote shutter release are very helpful.  I had both on when I captured the photo below.

To capture birds in flight, set you camera on a tripod and focus the camera just off the feeder.  This way you will be able to photograph the birds as the fly to the feeder or when they are leaving the feeder. Now comes the second part, you sit quietly and wait for the birds to fly into your focus area.  I often click the shutter several times before I get a bird all the way in the photo.

Look  for Interesting Habits

I have found the bright yellow Finch that come to our feeders to be especially interesting.  Sometimes we have as many as eight on our feeder with several more perched on a nearby hanger or on the fence waiting their turn.  I like the birds in this photo, note how the one on the feeder seems to be warning the approaching bird to stay away.

Backyard Goldfinch

Best Time of Year to Photograph Birds

Although you can photograph birds all year long, I find the springtime and winter to be two of the times when I am able to capture my best bird photos. 

•  In the spring the bright yellow finches are in abundance in our area and are very enjoyable to watch and photograph. 
•  A bit later in the spring and summer the hummingbirds will start to flock to the area.  They always make for some great photos
• In the winter, my favorite birds to photograph are the Cardinals.  I love the way their colors stand out on a drab winters day and when it snows they puff up and look so majestic.

Pair of Cardinals at Icy BirdFeeder Card by mbgphoto
Create unique personalized photo note cards from zazzle.com.

I enjoyed making cards out of my bird photo's.  The one above is of a male and a female Cardinal sitting on an icy birdfeeder.  The card below depicts the American Goldfinch photos.

American Goldfinch Card by mbgphoto
View Goldfinch Cards online at zazzle

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Brown Pelican Photos

Photographing Brown Pelicans is a Fun Challenge 

Pelicans are fascinating birds to watch.When you see them waddle on the ground it is difficult to imagine them soaring gracefully through the skies. However, walk along coast in southern USA and you will dozens of them doing just that in the skies above you.

 I have photographed pelicans sitting on rocks, on piers and on the beach. The other morning as the sun came up I noticed a flock of pelicans gently gliding across the sky in the early morning light. I started snapping photos to get just the right shot of a pelican in front of the rising sun.

Photography and pelicans just seem to go together. I hope you enjoy the selection of photos that I am sharing on this page.  

photos by Mary Beth Granger

Pelican and Lighthouse 

pelicans at fishing harbor 

One of the best places to photograph pelicans is by a fishing harbor. You will always find lots of pelicans sitting around the fishing boats. Since their main source of food is fish, they can have quite a feast when the boats come in from a fishing trip and clean their fish. I took this photo early in the morning at the fishing docks across from the Jupiter Inlet lighthouse.

Source: Mary Beth Granger

Facts about Brown Pelicans - Pelecanus occidentalis

As I was preparing to write this page, I did a bit of reading on brown pelicans to gather some facts. I found them to be a very fascinating subject. I have listed my sources in the link list near the end of this page. Here are some of the facts that I found interesting.

• Heaviest bird capable of flight
• Adults weight as much as 10-17 pounds
• Size 50 inches with a wing spread of 6 1/2 feet.
• Diet is almost entirely fish
• Found on coast of southern USA and south to the northern coasts of Brazil and Chile.
• Live along coasts, salt bays, beaches and ocean. Mostly over shallow waters.
• Known for their huge bill and expandable pouch
• Male pelican selects a nesting site and then tries to attract a female using head motions.
• Several days after nest is completed the female pelican lays 2-3 eggs. Eggs take about 1 month to hatch.
• Both male and female pelicans incubate and care for their young.

Pelicans on the Beach - morning at the beach

About 8:00 one morning I was taking a walk at Jupiter Beach Park when I came across hundreds of pelicans on the beach. I walked up closer and found that thousands of small fish had washed up on shore and the pelicans and other birds were having a feast. I had almost left that morning without a camera, but at the last minute put my small point and shoot camera around my neck. I was sure glad I had the camera because I was able to get many photos of the pelicans. The photo above shows the sight at the beach and the ones below shows some closeups of a couple of pelicans that I cropped from the bigger photos.

Pelicans in Flight - morning at the beach

I could sit for hours and watch pelicans in flight and coming in for a landing. The photo above shows one in flight and the photo below is a pelican come in for a water landing.

Pelicans at Fishing Pier 

It was 7:30 in the morning in Jupiter Florida and the fishing boats were leaving for a day of deep sea fishing. I was taking my sister and brother-in-law to meet their boat when I captured this photo of the pelicans all sitting on the piers. I love the look of them each sitting on a post. They appeared to be waiting for the boats to return and clean their fish.

On the Pier

 

Pelican Poem

Ogden Nash??

When I was young I heard a poem about a pelican that has stuck in my mind. I had always thought it was written by Ogden Nash( and I have found it is often attributed to Nash) but I have discovered it was written by Dixon lanire Merritt around 1910. I find it to be a catchy limerick about the pelican.

A wonderful bird is a pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican.

He can take in his beak

Food enough for a week;

But I’m damned if I see how the helican.

Pelicans at Sunrise

soaring over ocean

I love to sit on our Florida balcony at sunrise and watch the pelicans soar over the ocean. I have spent many mornings trying to capture the birds in the early morning sunrise. Here is one of my efforts.

Pelican on Beach Mouse Pad by mbgphoto
View more Pelican Mousepads at zazzle.com

Here are two of my latest Pelican photos. These Pelicans were resting on the rocks by the pier in Jupiter Florida.

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