Birds Birds Birds!

A couple blog posts ago, I mentioned my pair of cardinals.

I went out and bought a bird feeder for them and we put it up on Thursday. We are going to try moving the hummingbird feeder to the front, since that's where the flowers are. Anyways, at first I was very worried they wouldn't like it. The feeder has a relatively small perch that isn't very big for them to sit on and actually be able to eat. They seemed to confirm my suspicions when cautiously flying around the feeder, acting as though they wanted to land but just weren't quite sure the best way to do it.

I decided I was going to give it a week. If they didn't come back much, then I'd find a feeder with a larger perch.

Well, the cardinals seem to have figured it out. They will grab a seed or two, then move away from the feeder to eat them as seen here in my photo. This is the beautiful, orange-red cardinal that has been visiting for quite some time now (but the picture's color really doesn't do him justice.)

But, now I have even more birds coming by! So far I have seen:

• cardinals
• song sparrows
• mourning doves
• a downy woodpecker
• blue jays
• robins
• house finches
• a white-crowned sparrow

Oh, and a squirrel. Of course. Those conniving things always figure out a way. He positioned himself on that corner post in the picture and stretched the gap to the feeder; hind legs on the post, front paws grabbing the food.

This morning I saw about three male cardinals duking it out for territory, so now my pair has some intruders to deal with. I also have a pair of house finches (they look like this) that I saw feeding seeds to each other last hour. They are adorable and small enough that this bird feeder fits them perfectly.

Needless to say, I'm keeping the feeder. The cardinals are happy, many more birds are happy, and I'm happy.