Bird Feeder Evolution

Saeed has been working on the bird feeder arrangement. A couple of years ago his mission was to get rid of the marauder squirrels who were eating all the bird seeds. After heckling from me that squirrels were cute and had a right to eat too (and that they were an amazing North American version of monkey), he began to provide special feeders for them as well. The pictures in this post (taken through the kitchen window screen) from about a month ago are already 'old' because he has changed the feeders again to maximize attraction of various bird species, but show two species that we are seeing more frequently than previous years. I'm sure the feeders have a lot to do with it.

We have American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) GALORE this year. They are primarily seed eaters though will occasionally eat insects. This image is so poor; I need to sit with my camera on our deck like Jim Brandenburg or something. It's so tempting to snatch a beautiful goldfinch image from the internet, but I'll resist.

Yellow - breeding range, Green - year-round, Blue - wintering range

We're lucky to have them all year in the green zone. They are beautiful birds. 

(image definitely snatched from the internet)

This is a red-bellied woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus . What's odd is that I associate woodpecker eating behavior with pulling insects out of the bark of trees, but we see them (almost always sideways like this) cruising our feeders. Huh! After reading up on it they do eat bugs out of trees and even catch them in mid-air, but they are indeed omnivores and eat seeds and fruits too.

Red-bellied woodpecker range.

No wonder they're called M. carolinus!

(image snatched again from the internet)

I enjoy trying to capture the wildlife in our yard. I'll try to get better pics in the future, but it's hard without a fancy camera and telephoto lens. I'd also like to try to snap each of the species we see since there are so many, but you have to be in the right place at the right time. Too bad I have to work:-)