birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in finch on Dec 9th, 2011
I’ve seen a lot of Pine Siskins over the past year. They travel in flocks so I don’t see them often, but when I do see them it’s in a flurry of activity. This picture was taken at my feeder. You can tell that they’re siskins and not female House Finches, by the yellow wing [...]
Posted in finch on Aug 26th, 2011
Female house finches are really good at tricking you into thinking you have a more interesting bird like a Pine Siskin. She really enjoyed those berries. Some people only want to find rare birds and I do get excited by finding new birds, but I can also appreciate an opportunity to take nice photographs. The [...]
Posted in finch on Mar 26th, 2011
One of the first signs of Spring is that the House Finches start to sing for extended periods of time. They are very frequent visitors to the backyard, so I get to hear a lot of songs. They’re not very scared of me. Sometimes they stay on the trellis while I change the seed. I [...]
Posted in finch on Dec 4th, 2010
I’ve been waiting for almost a year to talk about goldfinches. The one on the left is probably a female Lesser Goldfinch. It’s not a perfect identification because female goldfinch species have similar patterns. The one on the right is a non-breeding plumage male Lesser Goldfinch. You can tell the difference between the American and [...]
Salt Lake City has several prime areas for skiing. One of them is Big Cottonwood Canyons, which is a gorgeous area in the mountains. There are several lakes in Big Cottonwood Canyon that you can hike; one is Silver Lake. It’s very pretty! Unfortunately, everyone else knows how pretty it is. Salt Lake City has [...]
Posted in finch on Apr 3rd, 2010
We have a lot of House Finches in the neighborhood.
Posted in finch on Oct 2nd, 2009
The American Goldfinch is a very common bird. You can get them to visit your feeder if you include thistle seeds. Sadly, they don’t eat cockatiel food. I’d love to have them at my feeders. Below is a picture of the male. It’s not the best picture but you can almost make out his black [...]