Red-wing Blackbird, female

The female red-wing blackbird is camouflaged so she can better hide on the nest with her babies. The male red-wing blackbird is not camouflaged but he doesn't stay around the nest very long. His chevrons on his wings are the only red color on him.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A female filling up on sweet nectar. When they wake up after a night on a perch, they are almost unable to move. They wait for a little warmth to come over them and then fly straight to something sweet. In our case it was flowers and also the feeder above. After that initial fill-up they will have to return about every 5 minutes for another full-up. So you can time your shots if you know when they are coming back.

Blue Jay

The blue jays will eat almost anything in the way of seeds, and will shell a peanut and eat that. They also hide peanuts under leaves. They will crack another bird's skull with one sharp rap with that impressive beak. And the bird would be luck if it ever recovered. Most times the brains are eaten by the bird who does the skull cracking.

Eastern Towhee

  

A very pretty bird: the Eastern Towhee. I see them in bird books all the time and the shots are of such poor quality that I would be ashamed to have my name on the book. These little ones are friendly while they are here. I suppose the photos in the books were taken when the birds were on their migrations and didn't look all that great.

Coopers Hawk

The hawk has made is looking for something to eat. They usually fly in and catch the surprised bird on the wing, but this one seems to be out of luck and is on the ground. An adult with the red eyes.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

About as amazing as hawks get: the sharp shinned hawk is a lot sleeker in appearance and considerably smaller than the coopers hawk. They have thinner legs that remind me of pencils. But they are killers. And they kill to eat.

Eastern Towhee

This is one of my favorite birds and it too, like many others, only shows up while it is on migration in the spring. There are usually more than one here at the same time.

Cardinals

A beautiful male cardinal with a single kernel in his beak. Perhaps for his female friend or for a youngster. A striking photograph. Not uncommon—birds do feed their baby birds and they often feed each other as this photograph clearly shows.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

 The male, red-bellied woodpecker, has a red head and the female's head is gray on top.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker on the ground with cracked corn. Notice the gray head color. This is the female and the male's head is all red.

Blue Jay's Breath

This is one of those amazing shots that I waited on. It took a long time. I was worried that the bird would fly away before I got the shot I wanted. It hung around and I took a lot of pictures and this is the one I saved.

Mourning Dove

A beautiful mourning dove watching me from a patch of brush on the ground. I used a Sigma 100-400mm lens and a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi to take the picture.

Sharped Shinned Hawk

A young male sharp-shinned hawk miss-stepped  so excited, he was, while traveling atop the fence and the birds were in bushes below him in hiding. He didn't get one out of this bush but he did get one out of another bush about ten minutes later.

Red Breasted Nuthatch

The red breasted nuthatch is a lovely bird, not seen as often as the white breasted nuthatch but still we do get them in our backyard. The white breasted is a slightly larger bird but seems to display all the characteristics of the red breasted nuthatch.

House Finch

The female house finch is pretty plain when compared to the male. I think this is true in all species where the female has to tend babies in a hostile environment. Still, she is an attractive bird that has a pretty song and she has an elegance about her that is admired by all the male House Finches.

A male house finch always sports a bright coat of red feathers. The red color is warmer than the cooler red color found on the Purple Finch. I can be confused and often have to wait until I can see the top of the male finch head and if I see a brownish patch on top then I know for sure it is a house finch and not a purple finch.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

This is the male of the species. He can flash those feathers on and off but they are usually on when he is drinking or chasing away other males. They chirp a lot and you can often hear them without ever seeing them.

Brown Thrasher