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boxofrox_2007

Bird I.D.

boxofrox
14 years ago

I have a resident bird that I'm having trouble identifying, I simply refer to him as my buddy. It's actually a mating pair that frequent my feeder and pond area. My SIL is painting one of those old style milk cans for me and wants to include him but I can't get a good pic of him. I thought maybe if I could describe, someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

He/she is black and orange with a white belly, almost oriole like. I know that's pretty vague but.......? It's almost like a cross between an oriole and a red winged blackbird kinda thangy :-)

Comments (9)

  • annzgw
    14 years ago

    Is it this guy?

    Here is a link that might be useful: towhee

  • boxofrox
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    annz,

    You are my newest hero :-) This guy just tickles me the way he flits around and chirps at me and he's gorgeous. I'll forward this on to my sister in law. The milk can she is painting is really old, it was a gift to me from my late grandmother. It's actually going to be incorporated into my barbeque area which I'm remodeling.

    Speaking of rufous....I was out by my pond today surveying what all I needed to do to remedy the lousy winter's damage when a little rufous hummer buzzed me and hovered about 3' from my face. He then proceded to lay right in the slowly trickling side of my waterfall and take a shower, in fact I almost thought perhaps I should have offered him a bar of soap :-) He then came back and hovered in front of me as if to ask what I thought I was looking at.

  • cascadians
    14 years ago

    The towhees are beautiful. They make loud clicking sounds. They do often come in pairs. They are among the last feeders at dusk. They like to scratch about and find a variety of seeds. When the juncos are here they hang out together.

    We have 29 bird stations around our house. All types of feeders and baths. Birds like running water. With over 300 trees, 5 creeklets and lots of feeders / bird baths / fountains / bubblers etc, we get a variety of birds, and expect more as the trees start to really grow. Wish I lived in an old growth surrounded habitat.

    Once the towhees get used to you and know it's you who puts out seed, they will come peck n eat right in front of you. We have a bench in the front where there's lots of goodies and cover for birds and if we sit still out there the towhees will come within 6 feet and flit about and eat and drink and sing and click.

  • annzgw
    14 years ago

    Glad I could be of help since you've given me advice in the past, plus, I'm a big fan of your beautiful garden!

    The towhees are beautiful birds and we have a couple of pairs that hang out under the shrubs & conifers outside my kitchen window. They love millet and as cascadian said, they prefer to scratch while searching for the seed.

  • Embothrium
    14 years ago

    Like most other songbirds the male is more boldly colored. Notice his red eyes. Notice also these have short, massive bills. Orioles and blackbirds have slender bills.

  • boxofrox
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    annz,

    How kind of you to say ;-) I have several more projects then I may finally be close to glimpsing the finish line, if anyone is ever truly finished what with the constant tweaking and all.

    A couple of years ago, Thane (who posts on this site) decided he no longer had a place for a 6'tall Yaku rhody. I came up to get it and it was so big that it wouldn't fit in my truck so I had to go rent a trailer just to haul it. I had no idea where I was going to place it but I just loved the mature old thing. Anyway, I planted it in an upper bed and it has become the heliport for ALL birds who come into my garden. My buddy the rufous sided towhee in particular loves to hop from the fence to the rhody to the feeder and then to the ground below where he actually prefers to graze :-)

  • Patrick888
    14 years ago

    I had a pair of towhees here last year. In the spring, the male discovered his reflection in the window near my computer and for about 3 weeks he drove me crazy, trying to fight the reflected intruder in his space! He was MORE than persistant! In spite of my efforts to chase him off, he would not leave the window alone.

  • Embothrium
    14 years ago

    Nearly all animals have no sense of a self, are purely reactive. That's why a bird will attack its reflection endlessly: there is no "me" to be reflected. Even monkeys do this.

    A chimp may act like it doesn't get it either at first, but eventually start looking at its teeth and doing other preening. This behavior would not occur if it did not realize it was looking at a reflection of itself.

  • boxofrox
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Speaking of birds, I just had quite an interesting encounter. I am trying to incorporate some very nice used carob bricks into my BBQ which is already built into some very large rocks adjacent to my pond. It is very challenging to try and meld the two materials together. I am totally engrossed trying to figure it out and out of nowhere comes a loud whoosh and a thud and an immature yet still very sizeable bald eagle flopping around at my feet. I'm not sure what attracted him, perhaps my koi but maybe he dove, saw me and tried to swoop out. He flew right into the glass rail of my deck and knocked himself cookoo. I calmly talked him through it until the cobwebs subsided and he was able to fly off to hunt another day. You talk about an adrenaline rush!!!!!!

    Here's a picture of the BBQ I was working on. I had just demo-ed the fake brick off the front when the eagle hit the glass panel on the deck stairs.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1076099}}

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