Cool Bird Behavior/Interaction/Experiences

[Seanbirds]

Anyone ever been pooped on by a Hummingbird before?

[Kevin]

40 minutes ago, Seanbirds said:

Anyone ever been pooped on by a Hummingbird before?

🤚

[Birding Boy]

1 hour ago, Seanbirds said:

Anyone ever been pooped on by a Hummingbird before?

Just a starling 😖

[Bird Brain]

2 hours ago, Seanbirds said:

Anyone ever been pooped on by a Hummingbird before?

✋

[IKLland]

On 6/29/2021 at 2:01 PM, Birding Boy said:

Just a starling 😖

Something a bit better, Just a black phoebe! They're my second favorite bird and they're really common here.

[Avery]

This happened a month or two ago, but it was just too cool not to share here. 

 

I was at one of my favorite little hotspots, not far from my house, when I heard a big racket coming from a area of planted evergreen forest, which is basically like an acre-sized patch boreal forest. There was a group of GCKI squabbling! I saw two males and a female. They were hidden in the canap ou for a few minutes, before the two males came into view. They faced off beak to beak on a branch, then flared the crowns out farther than I’ve ever seen. Kinglet crowns never get old. They then started drifting down through the branches, calling and fighting, until they ran out of branches about 15 feet above the forest floor. Now this was in a little opening, of which I was standing at the opposite edge from them. They then LOCKED FEET, and SPIRALED down to the ground, like a maple seed. It was like they thought they were eagles!!! Just before they would have landed softly on the ground, they broke apart, and then perched Creeper-like on the trunks of the trees. One of the birds flew off into the forest, and the other moved back up the trees, letting its crown finally smooth out. It then met up with a female, and they talked for a couple seconds. Then, the male flew and SAT NEXT TO A MALE PARULA that had appeared out of nowhere, and they seemed to have a deep conversation for a few minutes. Then, they just went in with their bird business back in the treetops. 

Meanwhile I was standing dumbstruck, not daring to blink or switch from bins to camera, with my mouth hanging open. 
 

wish I could’ve gotten a video. Possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen birds do. 

[Quiscalus quiscula]

3 hours ago, Avery said:

This happened a month or two ago, but it was just too cool not to share here. 

 

I was at one of my favorite little hotspots, not far from my house, when I heard a big racket coming from a area of planted evergreen forest, which is basically like an acre-sized patch boreal forest. There was a group of GCKI squabbling! I saw two males and a female. They were hidden in the canap ou for a few minutes, before the two males came into view. They faced off beak to beak on a branch, then flared the crowns out farther than I’ve ever seen. Kinglet crowns never get old. They then started drifting down through the branches, calling and fighting, until they ran out of branches about 15 feet above the forest floor. Now this was in a little opening, of which I was standing at the opposite edge from them. They then LOCKED FEET, and SPIRALED down to the ground, like a maple seed. It was like they thought they were eagles!!! Just before they would have landed softly on the ground, they broke apart, and then perched Creeper-like on the trunks of the trees. One of the birds flew off into the forest, and the other moved back up the trees, letting its crown finally smooth out. It then met up with a female, and they talked for a couple seconds. Then, the male flew and SAT NEXT TO A MALE PARULA that had appeared out of nowhere, and they seemed to have a deep conversation for a few minutes. Then, they just went in with their bird business back in the treetops. 

Meanwhile I was standing dumbstruck, not daring to blink or switch from bins to camera, with my mouth hanging open. 
 

wish I could’ve gotten a video. Possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen birds do. 

Golden-crowned Kinglets evade me, though I have Ruby-crowned for my yard list. Very cool bird behavior!

[BirdNrd]

I love when Reddish Egrets do their canopy feeding technique

[Avery]

I had a tree full of warblers just now, and I didn’t even need my bins to ID them. Ahhhh, fall. Same crew, same tree as yesterday too! Man, are Cape May’s bullies or what?

[Avery]

Has anyone ever been to the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis? It’s literally inside a  HUGE pyramid. Plus, they’ve got 7 foot sturgeon and catfish swimming around, and a few LIVE DUCKS. I literally stood out in winds strong enough to blow my scope over in negative 20 degree weather on a frozen lake, shivering as I finally get my first one, and there’s just one you get to sit down next to. They have a Redhead, Wood Ducks, and a few Northern Pintail. 😫😧

 

obviously I didn’t report them to eBird, but it was still really cool to see them

Edited October 10, 2021 by Avery

[Birding Boy]

56 minutes ago, Avery said:

Has anyone ever been to the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis? It’s literally inside a  HUGE pyramid. Plus, they’ve got 7 foot sturgeon and catfish swimming around, and a few LIVE DUCKS. I literally stood out in winds strong enough to blow my scope over in negative 20 degree weather on a frozen lake, shivering as I finally get my first one, and there’s just one you get to sit down next to. They have a Redhead, Wood Ducks, and a few Northern Pintail. 😫😧

 

obviously I didn’t report them to eBird, but it was still really cool to see them

That’s awesome! There’s a smaller Bass Pro shops here that had Mandarin Ducks a couple years ago, but I didn’t see them the last time I went. 

[Seanbirds]

Had a fun morning!

 I was out birding near some tall grass along a creek that runs by our yard. I was looking for sparrows, mostly, but grassland wrens too. To my surprise I found a lot of Swamp Sparrows (photo lifer and yarder!). I kept flushing Melospiza for a while and then a different-looking sparrow flushed with a couple of Swamp Sparrows. I was only able to take two bad photos before it disappeared into the grass. Upon coming back inside this was what I was saying to myself:

“Now where is that weird-looking sparrow photo? Ah, here it is. *zooms in* Hey, that almost looks like… but could it be?? *looks closer still* oh it’s a goodie, OH IT’S A GOODIE!! But which one??”

I made a mad dash outside to refind the sparrow and get better (identifiable) photos. After a good bit of searching I finally found it and to my surprise and elation it was a LeConte’s Sparrow!!  Yarder and photo lifer!
 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Seanbirds

[Kevin]

On 10/10/2021 at 10:22 AM, Avery said:

Has anyone ever been to the Bass Pro Shops in Memphis? It’s literally inside a  HUGE pyramid. Plus, they’ve got 7 foot sturgeon and catfish swimming around, and a few LIVE DUCKS. I literally stood out in winds strong enough to blow my scope over in negative 20 degree weather on a frozen lake, shivering as I finally get my first one, and there’s just one you get to sit down next to. They have a Redhead, Wood Ducks, and a few Northern Pintail. 😫😧

 

obviously I didn’t report them to eBird, but it was still really cool to see them

I have been to the one at Rockwall, it had a lot of stuff too, but only Mallards.

[Birding Boy]

 

2 hours ago, Seanbirds said:

Had a fun morning!

 I was out birding near some tall grass along a creek that runs by our yard. I was looking for sparrows, mostly, but grassland wrens too. To my surprise I found a lot of Swamp Sparrows (photo lifer and yarder!). I kept flushing Melospiza for a while and then a different-looking sparrow flushed with a couple of Swamp Sparrows. I was only able to take two bad photos before it disappeared into the grass. Upon coming back inside this was what I was saying to myself:

“Now where is that weird-looking sparrow photo? Ah, here it is. *zooms in* Hey, that almost looks like… but could it be?? *looks closer still* oh it’s a goodie, OH IT’S A GOODIE!! But which one??”

I made a mad dash outside to refind the sparrow and get better (identifiable) photos. After a good bit of searching I finally found it and to my surprise and elation it was a LeConte’s Sparrow!!  Yarder and photo lifer!
 

 

 

No wayyy!! So awesome, congrats! What a heck of a yardbird. 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Birding Boy

[BirdNrd]

Never seen a Great Blue Heron swim before.

[Seanbirds]

On 10/17/2021 at 2:06 PM, BirdNrd said:

Never seen a Great Blue Heron swim before.

Yeah herons swimming look pretty funny and so do shorebirds (except for Phalaropes, of course). Anybody ever see a Killdeer swim?

[Avery]

Had a Red-tail today that was chasing Mockingbirds! It wasn’t anywhere close to successful. I’m guessing the mockers sounded like squirrels and it got confused.