Variety of birds started visiting our feeder. I have yet to identify the species of these two beautiful winged animals.
edit: Found out that the bird in the second picture is a Mourning Dove! ^_^
Archive for October, 2009
Hello Sparrow
2009
10.28
10.28
A new gang of birds were circling the feeder. Small, plump brown-gray and striped feather with buff, black, and brown. I’m familiar with these type of birds. They are abundant in my hometown – the house sparrows.
Male house sparrow. Grayish underparts, black throat and with no streaking. The larger the black patch on the throat the more dominant the male is. In mating season, it changes it plumage. The back and wings turns reddish with black streaks in order to attract a mate. 
Female house sparrow. The underbelly and chest are normally grayish/brownish and with no streaking. Brown face with eye-stripe. Yellowish and thick bill.
The house finches and house sparrows doesn’t get along well at times. But there are days when they just tolerate and eat together. They are just fun to watch. They love that I put water beside the feeder also. It’s so accessible when they want to drink. We’ve already bought a hummingbird feeder also. Now they are not just bystander as they are able to join the feeding frenzy in our veranda. I’ll put pictures of the hummingbird next time. Happy bird watching!
Broccoli and a Worm
2009
10.27
10.27
I bought a head of broccoli at the supermarket five days ago and along with it was a green worm, a protein-rich bonus! Luckily for the worm and me, it was discovered before being boiled alive. I thought of throwing it in the trash ( honesty, I was bit squeamish) but then I imagined its soft body in that dark bin, just waiting to be crushed along with the other rubbish materials inside. It did survive the boiling water just to be crushed in the trash? That’s sad. I know it’s crazy, but I feel responsible for its life now.
So like what I always do when an insect get lost and somehow found a way inside our house. I gently catch them and free it outside (except spiders! I’ll call someone else to do that one haha) This worm looks weak to be let go. So I took small parts of broccoli, small container and put “Wormy” ( I even named it! nuts I know) Hoping it survives.
Today morning, I notice that Wormy is not moving. I moved the container and it just rolled on the other side. It’s turning brown. I poked it gently and it showed small movement. Looks like the fellow is in its pupal stage! I sure want to know how it will look like after the transformation. And if everything turns out right. I’ll make sure that Wormy test its wings and fly for freedom.
Tomato Update
2009
10.21
10.21
Update on the great tomato experiment. It failed. The last of its leaves withered away to nothingness. It did not survive the Arizona heat. Goodbye tomatoes and thank you for the flowers 
House Finches – She chases, He backs off
2009
10.05
10.05
Ever since the seeds were discovered by the house finches, the feeder is always in business. They particularly love the black oil sunflower and millet seeds then happily shove off the other seed mixes. I’ve read that they love the thistle seeds also but we would need to buy a particular feeder if we decided to add that in future.
Nowadays, we found not two but eight (probably more) alternately feeding. They fly, bounce and sit still when they crush the shell seeds. They love chasing each other and make different noises. A male house finch has a visible trace of red on the forehead, throat and breast. It has streaks on the flanks and grayish bill. The female house finch is plain in color, grayish brown and streaked overall.
I noticed that the female is more dominant than the male. Sometimes when the female is on the feeder it chases and intimidate the male to back off, as if telling the male that she wants the feeder all by herself. It’s weird because the feeder can accommodate minimum of two to three birds. I call her the bossy one haha. So the sadly disappointed male chooses to take the fallen seeds on the ground than have another encounter with the female. They look so funny.
I think the news had spread out and the finches cannot keep the feeder for themselves anymore, for we have other visitors – the house sparrows! I would love this feathered friend to visit us all the time too. The arrival of the sparrows caused more yelling and chasing. The finch gang chases the sparrows and at times the male sparrow pecks back but most of the time they just let the finches win. Also, several curios hummingbirds gracefully passed by to check what’s going on and leave disappointed not seeing any nectar syrup bottles hanging. Seeing them roaming our veranda gave us the idea of adding up a feeder for these fast flying friends. This will be noted on our next feeder to-get list.
Morning and right before sunset feeding, they will all chirp in chorus a cheery warble and mixed with all these indescribable sounds that are just so fun to listen and watch. I wonder if bigger birds will notice all this commotion and starts joining the feeding frenzy. Well, hopefully we’ll get visited by bigger types that have appetite for the seeds we offer and not appetite for finches and sparrows!