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!