April 22, 2010

Thank Heavens Your Home!

Have you had enough of the birds in my area?  Luckily for me I'm still thrilled to have visitors.  Today's passerby was a Male Rose Breasted Grosbeak, and what a beauty he his!  Thanks again to the Migration Research Foundation, I know he is fully mature as was the Indigo Bunting was yesterday, both being over 2 years of age.
This handsome Grosbeak is a member of the Cardinal family, if you can believe that one. I think it's rather interesting that he is somehow tied to Lady Bird. Male Rose Breasted Grosbeaks have been traveling past my bird feeder each year since 2006 that I know of. Until today I only knew them as "bleeding heart birds", as my Florida bird Guide did not mention them at all (trust me I'd gone through it page by page multiple times).
In fact I was even concerned when I first saw one, because as you can see that red breast on that black and white body might be cause for concern. Wonderfully that is not the case and is merely the way this handsome bird looks.
No sign of yesterday’s migrator, but what a joy to see this one. These migrating birds are so hungry; they don't care one bit about other birds stopping for a snack. I guess that makes them like us at a rest stop.
This little guy is a regular happily taking a bit of seed and baiting his woodpecker holes with bugs.  I normally see him hanging on the edge of the bird feeder though, so to see him right side up was a real switch.

2 comments:

Vicki said...

You must live in just the right area to see such a variety of birds and not just a bunch of different kinds of sparrows and starlings. Oh to have such beauty outside your window. Enjoy.

Craft-a-Boo said...

How luck you are to see birds like this! Hubby's coming to florida end of may, maybe he'll get to see some.

BTW sorry I've not been on a lot, but I've been reading you! :-)