Bird Feeding Area

I have set up a bird feeding area in the yard this year.  Each day I make sure the birds have two kinds of song bird food, sunflower seeds, meal worms, nyjer, two kinds of suet, cardinal food and liquid nectar for the hummingbirds and the orioles.  I also have a birdbath that I try to keep filled up with clean fresh water - birds are messy creatures so they make the clean part tough.

As a result of spoiling them with all this food - I am being spoiled with lots of lovely visitors.  Its quite a wide variety of birds.  As you have seen from my posts - we have some house finches that have taken up residency on my porch.  I am so enjoying those babies!  I also found a nest of brown thrashers in the side yard.  I don't know if there are eggs or babies in there - its too high to find out - but its a good sized nest. Brown thrashers look like this:

In the trees behind our house we have a variety of residents.  We have a long established family of cardinals who have raised many offspring over the years.  We have an even longer established family of red headed woodpeckers and we have a lovely couple of doves who moved in last year and this year they had a baby dove who is hilarious and fearless!

We have two families of blue jays - not sure where they nest.  Lots of robins, grackles, mockingbirds and wrens.  We have orioles - at least we had them once - I have put the good stuff out for them and I hope they come back.  And - this year we have one of my favorites - golden finches - they are so pretty!!!

Oh - and lets not forget the squirrels - they love the bird feeding area - its like the squirrel equivalent of Golden Corral.  We also have an abundance of bunnies this year which I am enjoying as well.  I will try to capture some pictures of my outdoor aviary friends and post them over the course of the summer.....