Yard Birds, or "Birds We've Seen in Our Yard"
Contents
Birds We've Seen
We've seen the following birds in our backyard, if you care to know... The
number after each bird is their number in the Audubon Guide.
- Mallard (#119) - Every summer morning, a pair of mallards (male and
female) make their routine trek through our yard. There's nothing cuter than
two ducks sitting on the peak of a house.
- Killdeer (#258) - The funniest bird there is layed its eggs in an
open spot just behind our yard.
- Great Horned Owl (#305) - It's pretty freaky seeing/hearing one of
these. It perches up on the house behind us occasionally. We've
afraid to let the dogs out in the wee hours now! :)
- Mourning Dove (#345) - Stupid bird. Imagine seeing one of
these guys trying to perch on a peanut dispenser (like a chickadee would
do). Stupid bird. The only bird I've seen that actually sits on its ass.
- Barn Swallow (#351) - I first ran into these while mowing in
1994...I thought they were attacking me but they were eating the bugs I was
stirring up. They built a nest above our laundry room window in 1999. I
tried to remove the nest, but they came back and built another one.
The male of this species is very devoted.
- Chipping Sparrow (#420) - Saw this once.
- Brown-headed Cowbird (#478) - Fat-ass pig bird.
- Common Grackle (#479) - Pure evil.
- American Robin (#385) - ho hum.
- Red-winged Blackbird (#634) - We saw a guy get attacked by one of
these one. He accidentally stepped between it and its babies while
walking on a trail.
- European Starling (#633) - Semi-evil.
- House Finch (#483) - The most common bird we see.
- Black-capped Chickadee (#621) - Cuties. While every other bird sits
on the edge of our feeder, these guys hop right in.
- American Goldfinch (#503) - We've only seen these a few times.
Bird Feeder Hierarchy
From what we've noticed, here's the hierarchy regarding who kicks who out of
the birdfeeder.
- Grackles - Almost every other bird just sits nearby and waits for the
Grackle to finish. Buttheads. It'd be one thing if they were
cute...
- Cowbirds - Don't see these guys as much...they rank right between the
Grackles and Starlings.
- Starlings - They get along with the Grackle just fine. Other birds
aren't as scared of the Starling.
- Mourning Dove - Not very menacing, but scares other birds away with its
sheer fatness and lack of coordination.
- House Finch - These guys will chase Chickadees out, and will sometimes
fight with each other.
- Chickadee - Lovers.
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