Stupid Question. Re: Bird at Feeder

[RednekF350]

Hopefully 46er sees this but I am sure other members will know this too.

I only really have a grasp on birds that land on my plate but my wife loves her feeders and she always asks me what various birds are when they come to the feeder. I usually say a bird.
These birds are slender, medium sized and a muted blackish brown. They come in groups or singles. We have the Smithsonian’s Birds of North America but I ain't getting it. There are a lot of them this year and I don't recall seeing them before but that's not a good gauge of anything.

Sorry about the rotation. It happens when I attach the photo.

 

[Teegate]

 

[RednekF350]

Thanks Guy !

 

[46er]

Hopefully 46er sees this but I am sure other members will know this too.

I only really have a grasp on birds that land on my plate but my wife loves her feeders and she always asks me what various birds are when they come to the feeder. I usually say a bird.
These birds are slender, medium sized and a muted blackish brown. They come in groups or singles. We have the Smithsonian’s Birds of North America but I ain't getting it. There are a lot of them this year and I don't recall seeing them before but that's not a good gauge of anything.

Sorry about the rotation. It happens when I attach the photo.View attachment 11944

Looks like a female Brown Headed Cowbird. You need a longer lens

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/overview

If that is not a match, but close, you can use the right side of this link to cycle thru similar birds, just check the map for their distribution.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/species-compare/67373981

 

[Toothy Critter]

https://qz.com/423649/this-new-google-backed-app-will-identify-a-bird-just-from-a-photo/

 

[RednekF350]

Looks like a female Brown Headed Cowbird. You need a longer lens

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/overview

If that is not a match, but close, you can use the right side of this link to cycle thru similar birds, just check the map for their distribution.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/species-compare/67373981

Thanks 46 or it was a 10 X Cell phone photo from only about 20 feet away but I dumbed it way down to post it.

 

[RednekF350]

The Cornell site is awesome. The birds we are seeing are the definitely the Brown Headed Cowbird. The call is dead-on to what we are hearing.

The habit of depositing of eggs in the nests of other species is simply amazing.

 

[46er]

The habit of depositing of eggs in the nests of other species is simply amazing.

Similar to Great Horned Owls using the nest of raptors instead of building their own. The squatters of the avian world.

Cornell Ornithology; birds are us

At first glance I thought is was a Gray Catbird, but upon taking a closer look, its beak changed my mind.

 

[RednekF350]

I am not one to junk up my phone with apps. I probably have 5 apps that I have added and the ones that came with the phone. However, today I added Merlin, created by Cornell. It’s free too.
As soon as I set it up, I plugged in the information regarding the observations of the brown headed cowbird and it came up with the first hit as the brown headed cowbird!
My wife and I are trying it in the backyard right now and it has worked on two more species they weren’t necessarily the first hit but they certainly were in the list with photographs and all characteristics of each bird. It’s a lot of fun and it’s very educational. If you find the bird in the list that they generate they would like you to acknowledge it to help build their database. Very cool.

 

[46er]

I think I posted this info sometime in the past; if you ever find yourself near Ithaca NY, a visit to the Cornell Lab is worth the time.

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/visit/

 

[RednekF350]

My wife and I rolled into Ithaca two years ago on the Harley but after looping Seneca and half of Cayuga that day, we and another couple decided to just keep rolling. Motorcycle Heaven up there 46er. We spent a week in Seneca and day tripped out if there on the motorcycle.

 

[NJChileHead]

Agree with 46er, female brown-headed cowbird. They do move in flocks in winter, often with red-winged blackbirds and starlings mixed in (sometimes grackles too), then the flocks break up in spring to nest and you'll see the individuals. BTW, they are nest parasites.

 

[46er]

Motorcycle Heaven up there 46er.

If you still ride you NEED to get down south; NC, SC, TN, before you check out and ride some of their named roads. I took the Jag down one fall with a small group and, in between repairs, had a ball; some of the names - Tail of the Dragon, Hellbender, Copperhead, Moonshiner. There were more bikes than a person could count. We stayed at a really nice place called Little Switzerland in NC. Would like to go back, when/if I finish the MG.

 

[Boyd]

My wife and I rolled into Ithaca two years ago on the Harley but after looping Seneca and half of Cayuga that day, we and another couple decided to just keep rolling. Motorcycle Heaven up there 46er. We spent a week in Seneca and day tripped out if there on the motorcycle.

My old stomping grounds! Had a little farmhouse on 56 acres of woods in Sterling, NY for 20 years. Can't say that I miss the winters though, the lake effect snow was pretty amazing up there. They are pretty well-equipped to deal with it though, my daughter almost never had school cancelled.

 

[old jersey girl]

If you still ride you NEED to get down south; NC, SC, TN, before you check out and ride some of their named roads. I took the Jag down one fall with a small group and, in between repairs, had a ball; some of the names - Tail of the Dragon, Hellbender, Copperhead, Moonshiner. There were more bikes than a person could count. We stayed at a really nice place called Little Switzerland in NC. Would like to go back, when/if I finish the MG.

"in between repairs" Oh yeah, takes me back. Can you say Lucas Electric? 'Why no tall buldings in Great Britain?' Lucas makes elevator controls. etc, etc.

 

[46er]

I must have used up 2 bottles of this stuff. Pretty hard to find in NC