Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Wednesday's Warblers and Others

Keeping track of the squirrels, chipmunks and birds is exhausting!

Let's take a look at my recent warblers and some others of note.

My sister planted 6 "Giant Primrose" sunflowers at the edge of a new southwest-facing flowerbed. I had no idea what a bird magnet they would be.

Warblers, chickadees, juncos and American Goldfinches all flock to the plants.  
Here's an American Goldfinch pair.
As you can see the male on the left is pretty tatty looking and she is now rather colorless.

The winter colors make these birds pretty inconspicuous.


I am still seeing Orange-crowned Warblers.


Sometimes the birds come in fairly close...


...but more often I spy them lurking in a blackberry thicket.

There you are!

Posing prettily.

There is a sub-type of this bird, a gray-headed Orange-crowned Warbler and I think this is one.r

What do you think?

And here's my male Wilson's Warbler. Note the dark black patch atop his head.  He's been showing up around 7:00am each morning.

This is a female Wilson's Warbler.
The black atop the head is much more muted and she has a brighter yellow 'eyebrow'.

She was kind enough to hang around...

...flit flit little bird.

Here's a male Yellow Warbler.

From the front it would be hard to name this bird anything else.

Though it does have darker wings...

...and chestnut brown lines on the breast.

The female Yellow Warbler is not as bright, but is still a striking bird.

My final Weekly Warbler is not yellow.
Here's a Black-throated Gray Warbler.

And while not a warbler, certainly this female Western Tanager is a bird worthy of a few photos. 

I've been seeing her in the front of the house, rather than the backyard.

She appears to be speaking her mind!

9 comments:

  1. Look at all those gorgeous yellow birds and non-yellow birds! Spectacular! 🌻🌻🌻

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  2. Wow! they are all gorgeous. All I ever see are Cardinals, Bluejays, sparrows, wrens and starlings. Love looking at your observations!!! ♥ Cathryn

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  3. I enjoy your commentary on all the photos...Your sweet cat is oblivious to all the activity around him/her. The warblers are stunners...

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  4. Those yellow birds are just spectacular, I love the subtle color of the female yellow warbler, the male is almost neon looking- just beautiful!!

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  5. Beautiful birds! If I lived at your house, I'd never get anything done because I'd be watching the birds all the time :)

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  6. Beautiful as always. Love the sunflowers!

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  7. A delightful sun-filled post! Between the yellow feathered friends and the sunflowers, I think I need my sunglasses :)

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  8. Wow--so many warblers! I do not know about a Gray variation of the Orange-crowned warbler... not in my book. Seems to be more of a western bird, lucky you! But they definitely are known to have a gray head. I think the Black-throated Gray Warbler is spectacular! Has some similarities to the Black and White warbler, but I see the differences too! These are all great birds! Congrats on seeing and photographing them all! Hugs!

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Thank you all. I appreciate that you've read my blog and are taking the time to comment.