New Birds Sighted

Love Them Birdies!

WooHoo...just saw a beautiful new little blue headed, light cinnamon collared, white breasted bird this morning out on our deck. What a lovely surprise to wake up to! Glad to have the internet to see what little birdie it was. It is a Lazuli Bunting, one of the finch family. I almost thought it was a lost parakeet, it's blue was the color of the Caribbean blue bays... so fun.

We sighted our first Black Headed Grosbeak a few weeks ago and not a new bird to our feeders, surely is one of my favorites. My Dad used to tell me about Grosbeaks and Orioles, but never saw them until we started using the fruits and berries type of food.

Last week we saw another, brand new to our deck, colorful and striking pretty bird, it was a Altamira Oriole. They are part of the family of Cow Birds.. They are not supposed to be here in our area. Maybe the wet weather has brought a few more to share our deck with all the other birds we get.

We are really lucky to have the trill of the Red-Winged black birds all the year through. I didn't know that others areas, even as near as Wyoming, these are seasonal birds.

We also get those beautiful 'Chinese Chickens', as Brent calls them, but really they are the Black Beaked Magpie. I love their iridescent color and to watch how smart they are. Magpies are not popular because of their reputation for raiding the nests of other birds, though recent research suggests that they are not as guilty as was once thought. A member of the crow family, it has an attractive iridescent blue-green sheen on the back of its wings. The best part is the way they look when they fly, just beauty.

I always thought we only had some pretty common and neutral kind of birds. I had always seen the common sparrow, starlings, hawks, crows and seagulls. When we would go up in the mountains, sometimes we would see a 'Camp Robber", the blue jay and once in a while a bluebird or canary, little did I know just what a great array of colorful birds we have here as native and those that just pass through.

What a fun hobby, and hummingbirds aren't far away. I love getting buzzed by them.

Birdies are Truly One of God's Blessings