What's the most unexpected/surprising bird you've had show up at your feeders?

[NRaleighLiberal]

We live in Raleigh. Most unusual for us was a Snow Bunting...just shocked - had to grab my field guide and clean my glasses!

One that I wish would show up again - a Black and Blue Warbler - just one day, dancing around in one of our deck flower boxes.

[barbtries]

1. i can't identify two of them

one was large and had some yellow on it and i believe some black and white either spotted or striped somewhat. the other was about the size of a cardinal and had a red head but was NOT a cardinal.

and a crow.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Red headed one (are you in the south?) could have been Pyrrhuloxia? First one - a meadowlark?

just a wild guess (on very few vowels and consonants!)

[barbtries]

6. i'm in N Raleigh, NC

not a Pyrrhuloxia - i've mistaken cardinals for those before.
i do think that it's possible the other bird was a meadowlark. not sure.

now that i've moved into a different apt it's a lot harder to see the birds because the only windows i'm around are not near the feeders. i need to find a way to rig a feeder outside my bedroom window...not only could i watch the birds but the squirrels would be frustrated!

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. Hello Raleigh! I just did a google search - birds with red heads, images...

not a very useful search, but some unexpected results!

[elehhhhna]

32. woodpecker?

[barbtries]

33. no, i can identify the woodpeckers.

or possibly it was a variety i'm unfamiliar with. wish i could describe it better.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Larry

Cheers!

[libodem]

4. For a couple of weeks in the summer

I get Western Tanengers. I don't know if I spelled that right. They have red heads and black and yellow bodies. Very beautiful.

[PinkTiger]

5. Orioles in the hummingbird feeder.

It had just not happened before - we live in SW Missouri. And this year we didn't get any of them.

[appleannie1]

19. I occassionally get Orioles in Pennsylvania. They love oranges so put out slices to attract them

[dmr]

8. Not at the feeders, but in the yard.

Eagle

Hawk


Beautiful birds, right? I'd love to have a coat like this gorgeous hawk.


We had a wild turkey & a couple of her youngsters walk through here on their way to the river across the road. I didn't get a picture of them, although I wish I did.

Here is some interesting facts about the wild turkey:
(the highlighting is mine; grammar & spelling errors belong to the website)

http://www.outdoor-michigan.com/History/Turkey.htm

The species we find in Michigan is the eastern wild turkey, which is the most widely abundant turkey subspecies found in the United States. Turkeys can suffer heart attacks and this was demonstrated When the Air Force was conducting tests breaking the sound barrier; fields of turkeys would drop dead. Turkeys are also a fast bird, both on land and in the air; a spooked turkey can run 20 miles per hour and fly 55 mph. Besides being fast, they have excellent sight and are able to spot movement a hundred yards away. There field of vision is 270 degrees and they see in color, which is one reason they don’t see well at night. They also have a loud voice and can be heard a mile away.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. well, I think that the Bald Eagle easily trumped my snow bunting!

probably ate him in one bite, more like!

[cyberswede]

17. We often get hawks

I'm in eastern Iowa, so go figure.

Last winter, I and a few neighbors were taking a short break from shoveling after a blizzard, and a hawk swooped into one of my Yew trees and nabbed a sparrow that was perched therein. We were all standing less than 5 feet away - it was quite a surprise. That guy was fast!

[CrispyQ]

58. fab pics! --nt

[livetohike]

9. A Pine Siskin - they are "irregular" visitors here northeast of Pgh. PA

We've been here four winters and have seen them in two of those years. I'm hoping for a Crossbill this winter . I've never seen one before so I can check it off of my life list if one arrives.

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. We get Pine Siskins pretty regularly here in the winter. Best winter sight for me..Evening Grosbeaks

Treefulls of them - when we lived in New Hampshire. One day hundreds came in and ate us out of house and home in about 10 min then were gone....happened just once here in Raleigh in our 18 years. Haven't seen one since - I guess it all depends upon the weather and food source up north in terms of how far south they come each winter.

Wish I had a digital camera back then!

[livetohike]

12. Treefulls! That would be so cool....I've heard that the Crossbills travel that way too, in

large flocks. Not that I am wishing for a super cold winter, but I hope you see something surprising this winter .

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. fingers crossed for you (bills too...). I've never seen Crossbills or Redpolls.

[CrispyQ]

14. We get an occasional hawk, who I discourage by letting the dog out.

Also, a really cool woodpecker.

We've always had robins in the area, but they've never come to the yard. Two years ago they started visiting. Different seed, maybe?

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. we have woods behind our house - some winter days dozens of robins sit on the ground

and dig for worms with their feet - a little kick step....makes the most interesting sound - you'd think deer were running around out there!

[dmr]

20. You should get the video going. That would be fun to watch.

You could set it to music, too!

[CrispyQ]

59. Yes! I'd like to see it. --nt

[cyberswede]

16. Indigo Bunting

I spied a pair of them a couple years ago - I only saw them twice. I keep looking, hoping they come back.

[Chipper Chat]

51. My grandmother said Indigo Buntings were very common when she was a little girl.

This would be 1899-1915. I remember her saying that there were very few "black" birds then. Over 3/4 of the birds were songbirds - all yellow, red, and blue. How times have changed (thanks starlings, sparrows, and grackels, etc

[Citizen Worker]

18. A single predominantly white Stellar's Blue Jay. Yep, that bird is mostly white with a bit of dusty

blue at the back of the body. And it apparently is a solo bird nothing else like it has visited the feeder although there is a group of four Stellar's that regularly visit. The bird sighting was in Central California in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

[Nay]

21. Not at the feeder, but in a nearby park -- 3 yellow-bellied sapsuckers!

A male, a female, and a juvenile. And I had forgotten to bring my camera...

[Irishonly]

22. We have hummingbird feeders

The most unusual "humming"birds at the feeders were a couple of woodpeckers trying their best to get to the food.

[Magleetis]

23. This is my backyard

We have Bald Eagles, Osprey, Coopers Hawks, White Pelicans, Pied Billed Grebes, Lesser Scaups, Ruddy Ducks, Double Crested Cormorants (not indigenous), Buffleheads (my favorites), several different kinds of Teals and Gulls, also Barn Swallows, Purple Martins, Cedar Waxwings, Yellow Rumped Warblers, several different kinds of Flycatchers. At night I can hear flocks of Snow Geese as they ride the north wind of the cold fronts.

Growing up I never thought I would see many of these birds. Life is good.

[IMG][/IMG]

[NRaleighLiberal]

24. One of our favorite parts of our annual two weeks at Ocracoke on the NC Outer Banks

is bird watching - esp when Kayaking the estuaries. It is hit and miss - Black Crowned Night Herons (an adult and a kiddie) were fun - always Tricolor, Green, Great Blue, Little Blue Herons and Great Egrets - also White Ibis.

Lucky you! And great pic - I feel more relaxed already!

[Magleetis]

25. I didn't even mention the wading birds

I guess I take them for granted. I never knew Great Blue Herons could be so territorial and aggressive until I moved here.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. you can't say that their voice is nearly as nice is their appearance, that's for sure!

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. And no leaves to rake! Cool.

[Magleetis]

37. I wish

Huge water oaks in the front yard. Just getting ready to drop.

[marsh hawk]

27. Monk Parakeets

Here on the Connecticut shore we have several colonies of Monk Parakeets, a mid-sized green, silver, and blue Argentine parrot (one of the few species which can tolerate a year-round temperate climate). They live about thirty years in the wild and build communal nests out of branches, twigs, grasses, and the like. In our town we have at least two such nests about the size of trash cans high in cedars. They mate for life and travel and feed as pairs. We have four pairs which visit our feeder throughout the winter.

[kas125]

50. They live in Washington Park in Chicago, too. They're an amazing sight to see in the city.

[alfredo]

28. Rufous Sided Towhee. It fed on the droppings from the feeder.

[NRaleighLiberal]

41. We are lucky that Towhees are common here - at least 1-2 pairs in the yard

and all around our neighborhood the year round. Love their call -"drink your teaaaaaa"

[alfredo]

56. We used to have some Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, but not for years

[NRaleighLiberal]

57. My wife saw one ONCE - in our 18 years. Wishing they would show up! Orioles are similarly rare.

[alfredo]

64. We've had Orioles, but not many. Brown Thrashers, Slate Colored Juncos, and Fox Sparrows have

paid visits. Flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, and various Warblers visit from time to time.

[fadedrose]

75. You can attract orioles with a hummingbird feeder..

they will try to drink, even tho the spouts are in the wrong place for them. I have an oriole feeder (l/4 cup sugart to 1 cup water), but they lose their interest in the liquid feeder a few weeds after they've come back.

But please, do this, pretty please. Attach a plastic cup to a branch or pole or something - l/3 cup size is good - and put GRAPE jelly in it. Ya, they like oranges, but they adore grape jelly. I buy mine from Aldi's, a cheap store near us....

We go through at least 16 jars over the summer, at least 2 jars a week. They nest here, they carry off gobs to whereever the nests are, and bring the babies to feed on the jelly.

Late in the summer, the bees are a problem, so I scatter gobs of grapes all over the place so the orioles can eat in peace.

[fadedrose]

77. When you think of orioles, think of grape jelly nt

[fadedrose]

76. The grosbeaks like suet and grape jelly, besides seeds.....nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Well, not at the feeders, but around the yard:

A golden Eagle.
HUGE, perched for days in one of our tallest pine trees here in SW Ala. I got a pic of it, our vet was astounded to know there was one around here. That was 2 years ago, have not seen it since.

And a Mississippi Kite, which for some reason insisted on flying quite low thru the neighborhood, over the course of a week, for 2 consecutive summers. We have no body of water for a few miles around us. Twas puzzling. We live in a small rural town, with miles of woods, but this not the area for kites.

[GoCubsGo]

31. Guinea fowl

Not at the feeder, but in my yard. There are a pair of them that have shown up around the neighborhood over the past couple of years. A few summers ago, they showed up in my back yard. They hung out there or in the yard next door for several hours.

As for the actual feeder, that would be a male rose-breasted grosbeak that was head north one spring.

[dog_lovin_dem]

34. We had a

female albino cardinal, we think! Its body was the dull red of the female cardinal while its head was completely white. She was here (East Central Illinois) for one summer.
Did this group exist before DU3? Love it!

[ChazInAz]

35. I live in Tucson.

Had a vulture show up one day.
I'd left the garbage dumpster open.

[Javaman]

36. Big Bird. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

40. Hope it didn't leave any droppings....

[Skittles]

38. a budgie

someone's wayward pet I suppose

[NRaleighLiberal]

39. Probably not for long! when I was young the family budgie escaped....never to be seen again!

If one were loose around here, any number of hawks or owls would consider it a light snack!

[Skittles]

42. yup

I checked to see if he was friendly, you know, if he would hop on my finger for a trip inside but it was a no-go - apparently he was enjoying his freedom......I kept him fed for a couple weeks before he disappeared

[csziggy]

43. Not at the feeder, in the bird bath - a pileated woodpecker

When we had the bird bath set up just outside the old house office window I got great views. One year this pileated showed up regularly. At first he still had some baby fuzz but then he got all shiny and gorgeous.

They are LARGE birds!

One of the red shouldered hawks would sit on the branch above the bird bath, hoping to catch one of the small birds that came for water. I never saw him catch one there but around the corner he stooped on a mourning dove as I walked by the window.

[NRaleighLiberal]

44. Love them....shot this video during a lake kayak this summer....

Got some pics of this one feeding its babies too



We have them in the woods in back of our house, but they've never come to the feeder - and you have to be quick and lucky to get a good look at them.

[csziggy]

45. Oh, that's nice

Somewhere I have a decent shot of one on a stump near the house. I never could get him at the bird bath. It would have been nice - to see the kind of view I had here is the shot I've entered in the next Photography Forum contest:

[NRaleighLiberal]

48. that is a superb pic!

[csziggy]

49. Thanks! I really like this one

Though I have a whole series of those two bluebirds taking a very long and enthusiastic bath. The light was perfect and they had a wonderful time splashing and playing in the water.

This one was great because the cat went out the door around the corner and both birds paused to look that direction.

All I had to do for the whole sequence was sit with my elbows on my desk to steady the camera and take shot after shot!

One of my goals in this new house is to get a bird bath in a good location for bird watching from the desk.

[CrispyQ]

60. Outstanding!

Good shooting considering your location.

[NRaleighLiberal]

62. I used my canon Power Shot with the 35X zoom - a superb point and shoot (the SX30 IS)

Good thing it was pretty calm - not TOO much kayak rocking! Was glad I got the drumming!

[bertman]

46. the hawk that snatched one of the smaller birds eating the seeds on the ground below the feeder. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

47. we've had that happen...yikes! they are so quick...and so quiet in their approach

[FlaGranny]

52. At least a thousand black birds

I put out a bird feeder in my back yard and a couple of days later every blackbird within 10 miles was there. Every power line, every fence, every tree branch, and every roof top in the neighborhood was covered with them. The hair on my neck stood up and I thought I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Instead of soothing bird songs, there was the cacophony of 1000 or more black birds. The feeder came down. The poor little songbirds were left to fend for themselves.

This is a completely true story. My hair still stands on end when I think about it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

53. We have a very occasional Grackle Attack...and even a rare but real Crow attack.

You are right - chickadees and titmice take flight......and return to empty feeders!

[FlaGranny]

66. The ones in my yard were

a mixture of grackles, blackbirds, and crows, mostly grackles.

[nykym]

54. Not a bird

but a black bear once, sitting there eating birdseed!

[NRaleighLiberal]

55. No pics???

Wow...that would be something. Bear are edging closer to us in Raleigh - we've now Coyotes and Foxes......and two nervous cats (indoor, thankfully....)

[FSogol]

61. I once had a pileated-, ruby-, and red headed- wookpecker waiting by my suet feeder

at the same time. Amazing.

We once also had a Whistling Duck from Vietnam. A birder at the park near our house identified it for us and said it must have been pushed off course by hurricanes. It stayed around for a week and then left.

Edit to add: We live in No. VA.

[sybylla]

63. Had a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers at Thanksgiving. Since, Cedar Waxwings have visited

They worked on my crab apple trees over the course of about three days. We don't get Cedar Waxwings very often. I love watching them.

This is also my favorite time of year for the Marsh Hawk (Great Northern Harrier) who hunt over the fields around my house. They have to be one of my top ten all-time favorites.

[alfredo]

65. You can tell the cedar waxwing by its flight characteristics. They loop in and out of their tree.

[XemaSab]

67. I never get good stuff for the feeders

Best bird for the yard was a varied thrush, and best bird heard from the yard was a long-eared owl.

Oh, and if you ever get a snow bunting again, report that action!

[Curmudgeoness]

68. A flicker is a regular visitor, and I never expected one to come to the feeder.

And onc spring Cedar Waxwings showed up. Every year in the spring I have a pair of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks show up for a day or two.

I love my feeder!

[marsh hawk]

69. light morph red tailed hawks

Two weeks ago we had a pair of light morph Red Tailed Hawks perched comfortably on the piers of our neighbor's dock here on the Connecticut shore salt marsh. Their breasts and stomachs were cream with light beige chevrons and their heads were completely dark, except the smaller (the male I suppose) had a narrow cream mustache streaming down from his beak. They were very large for Red Tailed, probably 24" and 22" respectively. The male left after 20 minutes and the female stayed for another ten.Last week I saw one (the female I think) in a tree as I drove into town about 2 miles from our marsh.

[XemaSab]

70. Welcome to DU!

[kestrel91316]

71. The Cooper's Hawk that hung around for years picking off mourning doves.

[MH1]

72. Juncos eating from the feeder instead of the ground.

I guess the other birds aren't messy enough. I thought juncos were normally ground feeders. But this year I put feeders up, after not having them up for at least a year due to the deer eating all the food. Well the deer aren't bothering the feeders (yet) this year, but I'm a little surprised that among the usual suspects, I have lots of juncos who've apparently decided they don't want to eat off the ground anymore! They'll get right on the feeder and pig out.

I also put up a "squirrel-proof" suet feeder (the kind with a big cage around it) and it's a real treat to watch the woodpeckers feasting off it. Also goldfinches.

[Baitball Blogger]

73. I had about two dozen Robins come through

to cool off at the fountain once. They were just flying through. Never saw a Robin around here again.

[fadedrose]

74. A pigeon

Several summers ago, a pigeon showed up on the ground near the feeder. Our first instinct was to chase it, not wanting to attract them because they're hard to get rid of (my husband hates them) and I always feel sorry for them.

Anyhow, the pigeon ignored the seeds. I threw some bread and doughnuts out and it ignored them. This went on for several days and I knew there was something wrong with him. I thought he was blind and couldn't see the food. He was getting weak.

I told a fellow doing some work in the neighborhood about the sick pigeon and that I was worried about it. He crept over to the bird and picked it up.. it was banded and had a good number.

We put the bird in our cat carrier - found out what to feed it on the net and found out who owned it and contacted him. He lived in Seattle and the bird was one that he raised and raced. The bird's sister had just won a race somewhere. He thought the weather might have confused "our" pigeon.

Anyway, he sent a label and a packing case, and we sent the bird to him. It arrived fine. He said they were going to call the bird "Martha" in honor of guess who....

Racing pigeons are trained to never eat anything but some seeds and grain - no potato chips, bread or twinkies....Martha was well-trained and almost starved till we gave her the right stuff - barley was one of the things, forgot the rest....