My grandmother saw this bird at a McDonalds in Central Kentucky. She says it was about the size of a crow and looked similar to a chicken. I have never seen anything like it before. Have any of you? Please let me know if you know what it is. Thanks!
Around mid-July I put out three gourd birdhouses on our deck. A few weeks later (a few WEEKS!!!), a pair of Carolina Wrens moved into the top gourd. I was so surprised and excited that birds moved in so quickly!!!
I found this egg underneath a bush nest to my grandparents feeders. As many birds were feeding there, I can’t be sure which laid it. It is a bit larger than a penny—white with brown speckles. What species is the egg and HOW IN THE WORLD did it get there? Surely the mom wouldn’t have laid an egg on bare ground….
Ansel flew to my window AGAIN and attacked his reflection. FOR 30 MINUTES. AND HE’S STILL HERE!!!
He won’t stop even through I drew highlighter on the outside of my window to break up his reflection. This time I’m even more sure it’s territorial aggression because another Tufted Titmouse flew up and he didn’t attack it. I’m guessing she’s Ansel’s mate. While I was videoing, a male Northern Cardinal came to eat and a Carolina Wren entered my nest box! This is the first time a bird has entered that nest box.
Ansel still will not leave though. What will make him stop attacking his reflection in my window sill!?
4/8/2021, 11:30 AM — A Carolina Wren entered my window nest box!!!
I put it out in March, and birds are finally stating to check it out!!!
Today is the first time I’ve seen one enter it, but a Carolina Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse have inspected it before.
4/7/2021— This Tufted Titmouse woke me up at 8:00 AM to loud chirping and banging outside my window.
Recently, I put out a nest box on my window sill. In case my presence would deter birds from nesting in it, I applied 1-way window-film. Unfortunately, it blocks sunshine from entering my room and it’s reflective on the outside.
I believe this Titmouse was attacking his reflection, thinking it was a rival bird. (I decided to name him “Ansel,” which means “protecter.”)
I drew highlighter on the window to get him to stop, but he hasn’t come back yet so I’m not sure whether it worked or not.
I do have a bird feeder on my windowsill as well, but, since Tufted Titmouse nesting season is beginning, I figured it was probably more likely he was attacking things to protect his nesting territory or claim a new one.
Will birds attack anywhere on their territory or only near their nest? Does he want my new birdhouse?
As I was about to go on a hike with my parents and younger sister, I saw a grayish bird fly into a bent tree. I took a few more steps and looked harder, trying to figure out what kind of bird it was. Then I realized it was sitting on a nest! I slowly approached the nest and the bird flew away. I peered inside and, to my delight and surprise, found a beautiful baby blue egg!!! This is the first active nest I’ve found this year! Time to start NestWatch patrolling!!!
This bird has been coming to my feeder to eat suet for a few days now. I’ve tried to ID it with Merlin and my bird books, but I cannot identify it! Kentucky… the most unfortunate and wonderful place to bird. Last time I couldn’t ID a yellow bird eating at my feeders, it turned out to be a female Painted Bunting!!!!! (Which are extremely rare here, in case you didn’t know.) But this bird has too slender, pointy, and dark of a beak to be a Painted Bunting. Besides, I’m pretty sure the chances of that happening again are very slim. Can anyone identify this bird?!? I’ve been at a loss for days, so ANY ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!
I’ve been seeing a lot of juvenile and immature Northern Cardinals lately, and now there’s also a juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker! How exciting!!!
I’ve been searching far and wide for days now trying to figure out what this bird is. It’s yellow, with grayish patches on the tips of its wings, a little bigger than a sparrow, has a beak like a Cardinal, and is a frequent visitor at my feeder. (It’s been eating seeds.) Is it a female Summer Tanager?
House Finch nests at the Kentucky Castle
American Robin nest with partially feathered chicks at the Kentucky Castle
This woodpecker was eating at my feeder. It is either one of the juvenile Downy Woodpeckers, or, possibly, a Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, which are VERY rarely, if not never, seen in Kentucky.
This is a clay pot birdhouse on someone’s deck at the Kentucky Castle. It looks out onto a pasture with goats. I saw a Tree Swallow enter it 3 times. This is not the first time I’ve seen a Tree Swallow nest on/near someone’s house. Our friends made a small birdhouse without a back and placed it on their windowsill. They posted pictures of the Tree Swallow in it with eggs on Facebook.
I’ve heard Red-Bellied Woodpeckers in this area often, do you think this is an egg?
My dad took me to the Kentucky castle’s farm yesterday, and we found four active nests.
We found lone egg exactly like this one in our garden. My mom hit it with her shovel while she was digging and it cracked in half. I checked the texture of the shell and they’re too large and not circular enough to be a turtle egg and they were not leathery like a snake egg. I’m 98% sure it’s a Wild Turkey egg, but I wish I knew what kept stealing the eggs and where the nest was! Anybody have any ideas on who the nest predator might be? The egg I found today was whole, with no signs of damage, except the stench was unmistakeable. There is no way it’s still viable. Whatever the predator is prefers to bury its prey in loose dirt. I’m completely baffled! Please help!
Micah, I figured it would be easier to show you by posting a whole new submission, so that I could get a photo of every angle of the DIY feeder as I am terrible at explaining things without a demonstration or two.
Needed materials:
Hot glue sticks, hot glue gun, string or desired hanging/mounting substrate, knife or scissors, tooth pick or thin screwdriver, recycled “heavy duty” plastic bottle, (by heavy duty, I mean stronger than your usual plastic bottle, which crinkles and crumples very easily.)
Optional materials:
pony beads, foam, other red, orange, or pink decorations. (I recommend not using yellow, as it attracts bees.)
Step 1: clean out your plastic bottle, and plug your hot glue gun in.
Step 2: Poke holes in your bottle, (5 millimeters in diameter), with your scissors or knife. (Holes should be placed near the lid of the bottle so that when your pour sugar water into it, it won’t leak out from the holes. Make sure that the holes are smooth, and no ridges or bits of plastic stick out from them. You can do this by poking a screwdriver or the tip of your hot glue gun into the pre-made holes and wriggling it around until the sides are smooth no plastic pieces stick out.)
Step 3: poke holes in the top ends of the bottle, measured so that it hangs/mounts without the nectar solution leaking. Then push your desired hanging or mounting substrate into the holes, making sure it hangs correctly.
Step 4: if you want to, you can add pony beads around the feeding hole. (Make sure they aren’t covering the feeding hole!) If you decide to do this, glue a piece of foam over the holes first, then poke holes through the foam where your first feeding holes line up, then glue the beads on. (The reason I recommend using foam underneath the beads is because plastic plus plastic hot glued together doesn’t hold up to the weather very well.)
Step 5: Decorate the feeder however you like. Hummers prefer red for some reason, but they are also attracted to pink, orange and yellow. (I would not recommend using yellow though, because bees are also attracted to yellow, and bees and ants can prevent hummers.)
Thanks, and enjoy the hummers!!!
This photo was taken for my American Robin nest attempt. Today is the first day I figured out how to see inside a nest that was so high up in a tree with no branches: buy an extension pole that’s long enough, attach a camera to the end, start the video, lift it above the nest and angle it so that it can record what’s inside, lower it back down to the ground, stop the video, then watch it and see what you see.
I made 4 hummingbird feeders out of recycled containers and decorated them red. I was hoping but unsure that the hummingbirds would actually use them, but they do!!!!! I don’t know it was the same one or not, but Ive seen a female hummingbird at it three different times today!!!
My mom was digging in the garden. Her shovel went into the ground with a CRUNCH! Then she saw something oozing out of the side of the hole. She finished uncovering the item. It was an egg! She came in and asked if any birds laid eggs in the ground. I said “not that I know of.” It’s too big to be a snake or turtle egg and also not round enough to be a turtle egg. WAY to big to be a salamander egg or anything like that. I’m pretty sure it is a Wild Turkey egg, but the only logical explanation of how it got there is that a fox, coyote, Coywolf, raccoon or something like that stole the egg from a turkey nest and buried it in the soft garden dirt so that other animals wouldn’t find it. Before I start digging gently with my hands, risking touching raw egg insides, do you think there are more, and if so, is there any possible way we can save them?
Coco Quin, I think this would be a good question for you, since you’ve tried so many hummingbird feeders, 😉 but any answers will be appreciated. I made these hummingbird feeders myself, but do you think they can/will use them? I know they drink with their tongues, but I don’t know how long their tongues are, meaning I can’t be sure that they will be able to reach the sugar water once it gets low. With these dimensions, (#3 & #4 have the same dimensions, and #1 & #2 have the same dimensions), do you think they will be able to reach the bottom?
So, here’s what I need help with:
We are making Nest Tubes out of PVC Pipes, but I want it to be a good quality Nest Tube that helps fledglings leave the nest. On All About Birdhouses, on Features of a Good Nest Box, it says to help fledglings leave the nest, you can cut grooves into the box to create a “ladder” with “rungs,” or you can staple hardware cloth to the sides. Problem? The staples won’t go through a PVC Pipe, and we can’t reach a saw inside to cut the ladders, because the pipe is to small in diameter.
Any Ideas?
I was watching the female Downy Woodpecker as she ate from the suet feeder. Suddenly, a male flew up and scared her away. Then a female Baltimore Oriole flew up and scared him away. I happened to look out my window at the oak, and I saw both Downy Woodpeckers sitting on the dead limb. I glimpsed a blur of feathers, and it took me a second to comprehend that they were mating! I’m so excited that I caught that out in the wild!!! Ive seen Barn Owls and Bald Eagles mating on camera, but I’ve never seen it with my own eyes out in nature! It was so cool! I have seen the Downy Woodpeckers pecking at it, but they were moving up and down the branch, so I thought they were only searching for bugs. I’m thinking about climbing that tree in search of a nest cavity, but I don’t want to have to go to all that work to drag a heavy ladder up to it if there’s no nest, so do birds typically only mate at or near the nest site, or do they mate wherever?