We have had a fascinating and exciting couple of weeks watching birds in our neighborhood.
We hung up our hummingbird feeders . . .
. . . and the same day we were visited by a male Black Chinned Hummingbird. In the picture below he is sitting at the top of the green-leafed tree. It isn't a very good shot of him, but considering his speed, and the noise of my 3 older kids clamoring to get a look, I feel lucky to have been able to take this shot.
We have seen him every day since this first day. This morning he put on quite a show for my 2 year old and I- darting, zooming, chirping, wings humming as he flew over and over in a big U-shaped pattern, and then he took a moments to chase off a rival before visiting the feeders.
For this weeks challenge we read from the Handbook of Nature Study and the Burgess Bird Book. I had the kids color pictures of the Song Sparrow.
Nyah-
Austin (who didn't feel like coloring)-
We have been watching Mourning Doves feed in our backyard. This is where seeds from the feeder on our deck drop into the grass. We also learned about Mourning Doves a couple weeks ago when we first spotted them in our yard. 
I decided to move our feeder this week after surprising a neighborhood cat on our deck several mornings in a row. She was somewhat hidden by the plants and patiently waiting for an unsuspecting bird. Now the feeder is in a place where there isn't any cover for the cat.
Out on a nature walk
Our mystery bird- This past Saturday my son and I were in the backyard doing yard work when we noticed a lot of bird noises, specifically baby birds chirping for their parents. After a little investigating we discovered where the noise was coming from- our neighbor's house. The birds have their nests in a small opening between the roof and the decorative block of wood, just below where the bird is sitting in this picture.
This video shows a parent bird going into the nest with a bug in its beak.
Our mystery bird- This past Saturday my son and I were in the backyard doing yard work when we noticed a lot of bird noises, specifically baby birds chirping for their parents. After a little investigating we discovered where the noise was coming from- our neighbor's house. The birds have their nests in a small opening between the roof and the decorative block of wood, just below where the bird is sitting in this picture.
This video shows a parent bird going into the nest with a bug in its beak.We can tell many of the houses in our neighborhood are being used for bird nests- comings and going of parents, lots of frantic baby bird calling, and bird pooh decorate these houses. I felt like a bird-nerd when one of my neighbors (in a friendly sort of way) accused me of attracting the birds to our neighborhood, and all I could think was that it seems to have more to do with an ideal nest location, especially after observing the parents collecting bugs (and not seeds) for themselves and their babies.
But I am having a hard time identifying these birds! They are black, with a green iridescent color to their wings. Their under-bodies are black/dark brown. They have a yellow beak, a little shorter than their head and used for catching bugs. They do not eat at our bird feeders, but we have seen them carrying bugs back to their nests. They are similar in size and shape to Robins. Some of the incorrect search results I have gotten at WhatBird is the purple martin (no purple, yellow beak), the barn sparrow (under-body too dark, yellow beak), and the cowbird (yellow beak, beak not a cone shape, greenish color, not as big). Any ideas?
UPDATE: Thanks to Barb for helping me out! The birds we have been watching are European Starlings, with their breeding feathers. Some of my searches at WhatBird came up with the European Starling, but the pictures show their nonbreeding look, which kept throwing me off! The All About Birds website has pictures of both looks.
The highlight of our birding adventures - Observing 2 adult owls while on our nature walk. You can click on the picture to get a better look at these beautiful birds.
I was pointing out a couple black-billed magpies in the background, and my 6 year old daughter said, "The owl?" and I of course said "No, they aren't owls, they are magpies" and went on talking about them, before my son joined his sister in pointing out the owl, and I realized that they were talking about something completely different. At first I thought it was just part of the tree, and it wasn't until one moved, and the second one fluttered up beside it that I realized it wasn't a tree branch at all, and there really was an owl! In my defense it is time to update my contact prescription. I believe these are Great Horned Owls. 
