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They'd be pretty birds to have in the gardens here. I like to keep abreast of bird watching discussions from other countries.
I spent a year in Vienna (Austria) and found their birds more interesting the the ones we have here.... in the southeast usa.
 
I spent a year in Vienna (Austria) and found their birds more interesting the the ones we have here.... in the southeast usa.
Here in northern California we used to have a wide variety of finches, the well known titmice (;)) and other interesting species like wild doves.

Now we have crows and Canadian geese.

The crows have decimated the song bird population and are, for some reason, protected. My wife and I used to enjoy feeding them until a crow picked off a baby dove...I will never forget that!

The Canadian geese have forgotten where they came from. I can attest to the recent reports that cities have made that they are full of s--t and polluting parks and ponds. We live on one of their "flight paths" to and from their local habits and are constantly cleaning off our cars and decks.

Maybe Bird Flue with solve these issues but, so far, all we have is a shortage of eggs!
 
Shoot the goose. They make good eating.
Well, if it was only one goose, I could weather the storm from my tree-hugging neighbors. Trouble is, we live close to a city water-park where dozens of them live and the city is fine with that...with my luck, the one I shot would have bird flu :eek:.
 
I spent a year in Vienna (Austria) and found their birds more interesting the the ones we have here.... in the southeast usa.
Depends on what you look for. Granted that Cedar Wax Wings are only seen in North East Florida during migration but you couldn't ask for a much prettier bird. The following is a bunch of them enjoying the bird bath in my yard in Jacksonville Beach. Oddly I also see these beasties in Wyoming but, again, just during migration. When I see them here in Wyoming they are not nearly as colorful being mostly grey but still with the black mask.

waxwings.jpg
 
Canada geese. Yeah, I know them and their waste disposal ways very well. We have a graveyard across the road, and there's an old man who visits his wife's grave daily. She loved birds, so he feeds them. There are hundreds of them. I'm very glad they went south recently.

I have a lot of chickadees out back. I thought being seaside I'd get more migratory birds, but they go by the Nova Scotia coast, across the bay and overland from us. We're on the ocean, but as part of a long thin bay. The islands not far from here, in the Gulf of Maine get more birds passing through.

I saw orioles last summer, a southern bird moving north, and once rare cardinals are now one of the most common birds here. We have lots of cedar waxwings, including one that lived in a spare aquarium here for 3 days after it hit a window and couldn't move its wing. Once it was flying again, it rejoined its world.

Bald eagles are common - unpleasant scavenging nest raiders. Red tailed hawks are nicer, as are some smaller raptors that swoop around when it's warm.

We have a murder of crows who love to taunt the dog, as she falls for it every time. I saw the original pair in an epic battle with a bald eagle a couple of years ago, and while they saved their nest, the female got raked across her back by eagle talons and was badly messed up. I broke my rules and fed them for a couple of weeks til the rips healed and she got her feathers back. I haven't fed them since, but they're still good neighbours, considering. I don't appreciate their singing much.

Sometimes we get large turkey vultures circling over the graveyard. It give the place atmosphere, though it usually means a raccoon or skunk has been hit by a car.
 
Canada geese. Yeah, I know them and their waste disposal ways very well. We have a graveyard across the road, and there's an old man who visits his wife's grave daily. She loved birds, so he feeds them. There are hundreds of them. I'm very glad they went south recently.

I have a lot of chickadees out back. I thought being seaside I'd get more migratory birds, but they go by the Nova Scotia coast, across the bay and overland from us. We're on the ocean, but as part of a long thin bay. The islands not far from here, in the Gulf of Maine get more birds passing through.

I saw orioles last summer, a southern bird moving north, and once rare cardinals are now one of the most common birds here. We have lots of cedar waxwings, including one that lived in a spare aquarium here for 3 days after it hit a window and couldn't move its wing. Once it was flying again, it rejoined its world.

Bald eagles are common - unpleasant scavenging nest raiders. Red tailed hawks are nicer, as are some smaller raptors that swoop around when it's warm.

We have a murder of crows who love to taunt the dog, as she falls for it every time. I saw the original pair in an epic battle with a bald eagle a couple of years ago, and while they saved their nest, the female got raked across her back by eagle talons and was badly messed up. I broke my rules and fed them for a couple of weeks til the rips healed and she got her feathers back. I haven't fed them since, but they're still good neighbours, considering. I don't appreciate their singing much.

Sometimes we get large turkey vultures circling over the graveyard. It give the place atmosphere, though it usually means a raccoon or skunk has been hit by a car.
I would not help a crow at all and wish the geese would find their way back to Canada.
 
Using the Merlin App I identified 33 bird species that visit my backyard.
 
I would not help a crow at all and wish the geese would find their way back to Canada.
Oddly some of the birds that could be considered a pain are some of the most intelligent. Crows, ravens, magpies and starlings included. Mayhaps it is their intelligence that makes them such pests. ;)

Yes, some of these critters can be a problem especially to farmers but, in general, their relative intelligence is being shown in recent research to be much higher than thought. Ravens seem to be one of the most intelligent species with some researches showing that they have problem solving abilities similar to dolphins and chimps.

Ya, while not an extremist, I admit to being a bit of a tree huger. One of the biggest reasons that such birds are a problem is the same as why some mammals such as larger cats, wolves and bears have become a problem. The problem does not reside with the beasties but us humans. It makes no sense for us to takes away the natural habitats of these animals and then expect them to not intrude in our lives while they strive to survive.

I hate to say it but I sort of see us humans as a virus infecting our Mother Earth. All we do is kill anything we can and destroy our home. How many cures for cancer and other deadly diseases have we have we destroyed just in the Amazon basin by making thousands of species extinct? Think about it... sure there are many synthetic meds but I can't think of one that did not start with a natural organism.

Sorry... Something triggered me and I had to rant out a bit...
 
Oddly some of the birds that could be considered a pain are some of the most intelligent. Crows, ravens, magpies and starlings included. Mayhaps it is their intelligence that makes them such pests. ;)

Yes, some of these critters can be a problem especially to farmers but, in general, their relative intelligence is being shown in recent research to be much higher than thought. Ravens seem to be one of the most intelligent species with some researches showing that they have problem solving abilities similar to dolphins and chimps.

Ya, while not an extremist, I admit to being a bit of a tree huger. One of the biggest reasons that such birds are a problem is the same as why some mammals such as larger cats, wolves and bears have become a problem. The problem does not reside with the beasties but us humans. It makes no sense for us to takes away the natural habitats of these animals and then expect them to not intrude in our lives while they strive to survive.

I hate to say it but I sort of see us humans as a virus infecting our Mother Earth. All we do is kill anything we can and destroy our home. How many cures for cancer and other deadly diseases have we have we destroyed just in the Amazon basin by making thousands of species extinct? Think about it... sure there are many synthetic meds but I can't think of one that did not start with a natural organism.

Sorry... Something triggered me and I had to rant out a bit...
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and rants. Mostly, I chose not to argue.
 
We have cedar waxwings here, and they are wonderfully colored and really nice birds. They live here all summer, not just during migrations. Sometimes they sit in our ash tree out front, while I am watering the lawn, and take a bath in the spray from the rainbird. :) We also have crows, ravens, geese, turkey vultures, and bald eagles, but none of them make themselves a nuisance. The geese tend to stay in unpopulated areas, not in town.

But the prettiest birds in the area, hands down, are the little lazuli buntings that live up in the canyon. They live in the dense brush along the creek and it's hard to even see them, let alone get a picture of them, but they are tiny, living jewels. Here is someone else's picture. They're prettier in real life. They have a really cute little song, too, and despite their amazing colors they are more often heard than seen.
IMG-9661B-1024-1333x999.jpg
 
We have a crow family in our neighbourhood. Despite them being supposed to dislike confined spaces, they are regularly seen on our back lawn.
One of the strangest sights I've witnessed was a crow being mobbed by a group of blackbirds on a neighbour's garage roof. Blackbirds are territorial, I have no idea why a group of them got together to do this.

We have local sparrowhawks. We quite often see one of them sitting on the fence at the bottom of the garden and one of them is probably responsible for the pile of feathers and bits of bird we sometimes find on the lawn as they are known to pluck their prey before eating.

We do get geese flying overhead making a dreadful noise but they stay away from our house :)


But we don't get colourful birds visiting us like in other places :( Goldfinches are as colourful as we get.
 

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