Birds in New Jersey 2017
Thursday, 26 January 2017
More food: 50 lbs of "medium" sunflower seeds from Amazon.
That, and a cheap mix from Costco (with an amazing amount of twigs mixed in with the seeds) is zipped into smaller bags for easy filling of the birdfeeders.
This winter the dark-eyed junco has been the most versatile and adaptable we've ever seen. They go on every feeder, even do aerobatics to get food from the suet feeder. Here, one has figured out how to get the tiny nyger (nyjer?) seeds out of a feeder designed for goldfinches.
Always eager to use the water for communal drinking or bathing: house sparrows.
Other regular backyard visitors are nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, house finches, goldfinches, mourning doves and bluejays. Less predictable but still seen at least once a week are a solitary hairy woodpecker and a noisy, scolding Carolina wren.
The house sparrows spar endlessly at the feeder, displaying dominance, expanding their perceived size, and sometimes almost fighting.
"Hey, that was supposed to be MY seed, buddy."
Typical junco behavior is staying on the ground and scavenging whatever falls from the birdfeeders above.
Below the sunflower seed feeder, a junco is joined by house sparrows and another winter visitor, a white-throated sparrow.
The white-throated sparrow is looking up at the feeder. They don't readily eat from birdfeeders, preferring to scratch the ground for food.
One male and three female house sparrows.
