A Few Recent Bird Images

We thought we would just show a few recent bird images. It might give you a little something to look at and read while resting at home. We borrowed much of the narrative here from various sources on the Internet, we wanted to provide some information along with each image. Stay safe.

Great-tailed Grackle

A big, brash blackbird, the male Great-tailed Grackle shimmers in iridescent black and purple, and trails a tail that will make you look twice. The rich brown females are about half the male’s size. Flocks of these long-legged, social birds strut and hop on suburban lawns, golf courses, fields, and marshes in Texas, the Southwest, and southern Great Plains. In the evening, raucous flocks pack neighborhood trees, filling the sky with their amazing (some might say ear-splitting) voices.

Botteri's Sparrow

This is one of the summer Arizona Sparrows. A rather secretive species of desert grasslands, the Botteri’s Sparrow is subtly plumaged in brown, rust, and tan, which helps it blend with its arid environment. During the breeding season, after the summer rains commence, the bouncing-ball song of this sparrow is usually the first indication of its presence—and a good way to distinguish it from the similar Cassin’s Sparrow, which often nests near it. In Arizona, Botteri’s Sparrows are most common where beautiful sacaton grass grows in abundance.

Male - Hooded Oriole

The Hooded Oriole feeds on a variety of insects. May especially favor caterpillars, also eats beetles, wasps, ants, and many others. Feeds on many wild berries, and sometimes on cultivated fruit. Takes nectar from flowers, and will come to hummingbird feeders to drink sugar-water. They will drink a lot of sugar water.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

The whistling-ducks were formerly known as tree-ducks, but only a few, such as the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck actually perch or nest in trees. This one flew from a marshy pond up and into this tree.

Curve-billed Thrasher

This species often comes to seeds, berries, insects, and water if offered, particularly on platform feeders or on the ground. Curve-billed Thrashers can sometimes dominate smaller birds at feeding stations. Large yards might even host a nesting pair in native vegetation.

Pyrrhuloxia

The pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal is a medium-sized North American song bird found in the American southwest and northern Mexico. This distinctive species with a short, stout yellow bill and red crest and wings, and closely resembles the Northern cardinal which is in the same genus.

Greater Roadrunner

Great roadrunners can eat poisonous snakes and lizards. They will kill dangerous snakes, such as rattlesnake, via cooperative action. One bird distracts snake's attention, while other targets snake's head with its sharp beak.

A roadrunner approaches any snake as though it were venomous, and no roadrunner is immune to the bite of a venomous snake. If bitten, and venom injected, a roadrunner dies. Nonetheless, there is no roadrunner alive that will not attack and kill a small rattlesnake

We hope you enjoyed this brief look at a few birds we have seen.
Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

All the best - Stay Safe - Be Well

George & Deanna