Well, once again, it’s been longer than expected since my last post, dated February 24th. I have been very busy with the planning of our trip to France coming up next week. But I thought I wouldn’t leave without showing you this series of birds in love.
All these pictures show a few different kind of birds, but always as a couple.
The first 2 pics are showing you a couple of red-tailed hawks. I did some research to try to identify which one is the male and which one is the female. But I can’t say with certainty. It seems to me that the left one is the female. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have a better idea.
In the second set we have house finches, with the male at the right, obviously doing his song and dance routine to seduce the female. It was very cute to observe them for a while.
Then, we have a couple of cowbirds, and in the following pic, a couple of blue grosbeaks. If you have been following my work you will recognize the blue grosbeak which I posted in detail in that post. But what is interesting in this juxtaposition is the commonality in the difference between females and males. Females are most often the drab ones, while the males are more colorful, showy even.
The 2 next pics are what I believe to be Anna’s hummingbirds. The male, more colorful again, is at the bottom left, looking up to the female who is studiously bent on ignoring him. I erroneously added these pics thinking I had a male and a female. As you will see in the comments, Mike Evans set me straight. Anyway, I will leave these pics in there, even though they don’t fit in the theme, because I think they are so cute. But they didn’t stay there long enough, unlike the pair in the next series of pictures.
These 2 ravens were most entertaining. They seemed to be alternatively bickering and showing signs of affection. These birds were amazing in how they resembled an old human couple. It’s only later after they flew away that I thought, I should have shot a video. Oh well, I guess it will be for another time.
Oh beautiful! The blue grosbeak is stunning. Just a note, isn’t the more brightly colored hummingbird a male and the green and brown one female?
I’ve been seeing some lovey dovey activity here too. We have a bird house on our porch that I just recently cleaning out. It had a nest of spiders in it, eurgh. Well yesterday I saw a Chickadee trying to coerce his girlfriend into the house. I’m pretty sure they are building a nest in it. I also saw two male cardinals duking it out in our backyard. I added a bird feeder as well as a nesting material dispenser that I put Io’s fur in since I see birds gathering it from time to time. They seem to like the setup.
Thank you for keeping an eye on my work, ma fille 😀
I am happy to hear you are so interested in the wildlife in your surroundings. Keep at it. I am still hoping to pay you a visit before you move so I can take lots of pictures of your birds and who knows what else might be roaming around.
The two Anna’s Hummingbirds are both adult males; females do not have extensive reddish iridescent feathers on the throat or head.
Ahh… after watching a video of the male, I can see why I erred. Under a different angle the feathers just look dark, no iridescence. That’s what confused me. I will change the text to indicate my mistake. Thank you for the correction.