I had to grab the camera on the way out the door to work, since both of these guys were just hanging out on the fence right outside the kitchen window. Any help? What are they?
Bird #1: We’ve been seeing these ones for years – bigger than a robin, not as big as a stellar/blue jay. (For some reason, I’d been calling them mockingbirds in my head but I looked those up and they’re not even remotely similar. So now I’m at a loss.)
And Bird #2: we’ve been seeing these a lot for the last few weeks – nice color coordination with the neighbor’s deck and grill. About 2/3 the size of a robin.
Otherwise, we have a zillion little chickadee/sparrow/wren type things flitting around too, now that the feeder is up. The squirrels spend a lot of time beneath it combing through the seed shells, but I haven’t seen them manage to disrupt the feeder itself. (Victory? Or too soon to declare?)
#2 is definitely a Varied Thrush, but I’m still at a loss for #1.
This page (second to last row) makes me wonder if it’s a flicker?
Oh, totally a red-shafted flicker — this site is perfect. Apparently, it’s a kind of woodpecker that mostly digs on the ground for ants, etc? That seems to match.
Neat! I had looked at a ton of Flickers, but none of the pictures I saw matched anywhere near as well as these. Nice find! 🙂
The Cornell All about Birds site is great – I love the ID by shape tab!!