Feathered Friday - Winter Birds in the Desert
Here are a few birds from the desert of Arizona for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100
Here is a little flycatcher of some kind. I haven't been able to pin down an ID yet as there are quite a few tyrant shaped flycatchers in AZ during the winter.
It seems to have a slightly orange rump perhaps its a Dusky Flycatcher. Though it could also be Hammond's or a Willow flycatcher too or something completely different.
This great tailed grackle was hogging a feeder. They are quite chatty and make strange gurgling noises. They are pretty brutal too. I've seen a group of them hunt then eat a dove before leaving only a surgically cleaned skeleton behind.
Fortunately a daring cardinal spooked the grackle away. Cardinals can have quite an attitude at feeders too.
It only sniped some seeds and took off quickly. Perhaps it didn't want to stick around for the gang of grackles to pick its skeleton clean.
I spotted a tiny little kinglet too. I suspect it might be a ruby crowned kinglet.
Now for a common mockingbird. They are all over the place in the morning squawking out random noises.
It looks like the Northern Shovelers have made it down to Arizona.
I see them arrive in Illinois early spring before the tree buds are starting. They take a vacation in the desert of Arizona during the worst part of winter in the North.
I was sneaking around the thorny mesquite trees to get a clear shot of a white winged dove. Sadly this was the best shot I got. They are quite skittish. Fortunately it lead me to another critter.
Some sheep are roaming around these mesquites. Looks like this one needs a good shave on top.
Later we visited the chickens nearby. I'm not sure what these mini grayish blue chickens are called. Given their size I guess they are probably just hobby chickens that lay tiny eggs and barely have any meat on them.
That's all for now thanks for looking :-)
Nice selection of birds for #featheredfriday 👍 We had to take our feeders down again because I guess its warm enough the bears are active again 🙄 I don't really mind replacing the occasional feeder but bears have good memories and will check back where they have found food. I really don't want to be on its route.
I hear bear meat tastes pretty good so long as its fully cooked, gotta avoid the trichinosis lol. Over here we just have to worry about squirrels raiding the feeders, maybe they have those twirl a squirrel feeders sized for bears too? Probably the lowest tech solution would be to get a mean cat