Four species simultaneously

[nanila]

[L to R: Blackbird, blue tit, sparrow (F), sparrow (M), great tit]

Even though the weather here has warmed up, a continuous stream of visitors are at our feeders. I'm a little annoyed that today I spotted the blackbird and the woodpecker on the fat ball feeder simultaneously, along with the smaller birds listed above but when I approached stealthily (or so I thought) with my camera, the skittish woodpecker flew off before I could get a shot. Patience...!

Comments

[shirebound]

This is a wonderful sighting. All of a sudden cardinals have appeared at my feeders, which is a joy.

[nanila]

Cardinals are so beautiful! :)

[soemand]

Nice seeing the blackbird… while there have been sightings in North America according to Wikipedia, I often saw them while I lived in 🇩🇰.

Thanks!

[nanila]

Aw, glad you enjoyed the reminder!

[adafrog]

Great, thanks.

[calzephyr]

I almost didn't see the blackbird!

[nanila]

It's pretty good at lurking in the background. The orange beak gives it away!

[kaishin108]

Wow! What a great photo. :)

[nanila]

Thank you!

[yourlibrarian]

Nice to see such a bunch of visitors enjoying the treats 🙂

[nanila]

It is! That's only about a tenth of our usual (visible) sparrow population as well, our garden is full of them.

[cesy]

Gorgeous!

[nanila]

They're so noisy and colourful, it's great. :)

[sparowe]

Love blackbirds. <3

And woodpeckers can be quite flighty (pardon the pun), I find.

[nanila]

I'm surprised that there seem to be at least three blackbird couples feeding in our garden at the moment. There's usually only one pair!

Yes, the woodpecker is quite wary. I'll need to sit quietly with a cuppa one of these mornings and just wait for it to come, so I don't have to move much to nab a photo.

[cmcmck]

We get much the same bunch of species, you and I.

[nanila]

It's good to hear that, especially since the sparrows and dunnocks are red-listed in the UK.

[cmcmck]

You wouldn't believe it if you lived here!

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Those are pretty birds.

Today I had a large flock of sparrows, a small flock of starlings, at least two pairs of cardinals, at least two downy woodpeckers, and a fox squirrel.

Re: Yay!

[nanila]

Cardinals are so striking! We haven't been descended upon by large groups of starlings yet, but am expecting that will change Jan-Feb. :)

[pensnest]

Well! Your sparrows are smarter than the ones in my back garden, which have not understood the hanging bird feeders at all, and lurk about underneath them waiting for the tits and robins to discard edible stuff.

[nanila]

Interesting! Ours are indiscriminately opportunistic - they're on all the feeders (seed, peanut and fat ball) and on the ground as well.

[turlough]

Such a lovely collection of birds! Interesting to see a blackbird sitting on the fat ball feeder. Here they always just lurk on the ground.

[nanila]

I think the toroidal fat ball feeder has given the blackbirds the confidence to stand on top and feast on the contents. I haven't seen them attempt to use any of the more standard cylindrical feeders, or the round peanut feeder.

[kaberett]

<333 Thank you for sharing!

[nanila]

:D I'm glad you enjoyed the photo.