Chickadee's

The Mountain Chickadee or Poecile gambeli has a white eyebrow through its black cap and lives in and west of the Rocky Mountains, where he calls chick-adee-adee-adee. The Chestnut-backed Chickadee has a chestnut-brown back and a brown cap and lives in the northwest and along the California coast. His call is more of a tseek-a-dee-dee.
The Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees like mixed forests, open woodlands and suburban areas, while their western cousins prefer coniferous forests.
Chickadee belong to the titmouse family. They are largely an insect eaters, but in winter they may depend greatly on seeds and berries. They are adept at foraging for insect eggs and larvae from twigs and bark, and this accounts for their active hopping and climbing around on trees to spot their food from all angles! Their favorite foods at feeders are sunflower seeds, peanut kernels, other nutmeats, peanut butter, and suet.
In the non-breeding season chickadees tend to flock together, and sometimes the flock may even include titmice, kinglets, nuthatches, and other birds. During breeding season, the males will drive others out of their territories, so you may have only one pair of chickadees in your yard, where you may have had a flock all winter.
From the beginning of courtship through the period of egg incubation, the male chickadee feeds the female. They typically raise one or two broods a year of 6 to 8 young and are year-round residents.
Since chickadees' natural means of nesting is to excavate a hole in a rotting tree, you may make your nest box more attractive to them by putting a little sawdust or wood chips inside it for them. They will not use it for nesting, but since they usually work in pairs to carry a little sawdust away from the hole they are making in a tree, they will perceive that this hole in a tree is appropriate for them, and they will carry the sawdust away before nesting there.
Chickadees move to denser woods for breeding and nesting, but the rest of the year they like open areas and forest edges.

Wren Feeder

Are you a true bird lover? What do you think about this feeder? I think this is a wonderful idea! It is fun to be outdoors and watch the birds, but this is the ultimate. You can be sitting in your living room and the birds will come in to your room. Well almost. This way you can see them up close.

Nesting Boxes

Those who love the bluebird have begun a massive effort to save it through the erection of thousands of nesting boxes appropriate for this species and predator- and competitor-proof. And the bluebird is beginning to reappear in areas where these bluebird houses are established.
There are three species of bluebird: Eastern, Western, and Mountain, and they belong to the thrush family. The Eastern Bluebird or Sialia sialis breeds in every state east of the Rocky Mountains. It is bright blue with a rusty red breast similar to the robin's. The Western Bluebird or Sialia currucoides breeds in the western states from Canada to Mexico and east to Colorado. It has a blue throat, and the red color extends to its upper back. The Mountain Bluebird or Sialia mexicana breeds in the Northwest, east to the Dakotas, and north into Alaska. It is entirely blue, with a white underbelly.
Bluebirds are primarily insectivores, eating many insects considered pests by man: cutworms, grasshoppers, and flying insects. They supplement this diet in fall and winter with wild berries and may starve if snow covers the ground and berries are unavailable.

Truth About Bats

Truth About Bats
Bats are misunderstood creatures that are generally quite harmless to people. They do not become tangled in your hair, nor do they attack humans. Contrary to misconceptions, disease transmission from bats to people is easily avoided. Never handle bats and the odds of being harmed will be extremely remote.
In more than four decades, public health records indicate that only 16 people in the United States and Canada have died of bat-borne diseases... Placed in perspective, this means that the odds of anyone dying of a disease from a bat are much less than one in a million. In contrast, in the United States alone more than 10 people die annually from dog attacks, not to mention dog- and cat-transmitted diseases. - Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, America's Neighborhood Bats, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1988. In contrast, several children in a million are likely to die each year from encephalitis contracted through a mosquito bite.

Butterfly

Your backyard is full of beauty. Sometimes we are so busy with our "stuff" we fail to notice. Take for instance the butterfly. There is such a wide variety that it is amazing! And the colors are simply breath taking.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. Most species are day-flying so they regularly attract attention. The diverse patterns formed by their brightly coloured wings and their erratic yet graceful flight have made butterfly watching a hobby.
Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Butterflies are important economically as agents of pollination. In addition, a few species are pests, because they can damage domestic crops and trees in their larval stage.

Chickadees

The little bird that speaks his name and does acrobatic stunts on tree branches delights all bird watchers. This plump little fellow with the black cap is friendly, and chances are he's been at your feeder in the winter.
Chickadees look for tree holes, either natural or made by woodpeckers, for their nests. But if a tree is sufficiently soft or rotten, they may make their own holes. A dead birch tree, which is rotten in the center, is an ideal place for a chickadee nest.
Four species of chickadee may be found in nesting boxes. The Black-capped Chickadee or Poecile atricapilla lives in all northern and most middle states as well as in most of Canada. Its black cap and bib, and white cheeks identify it, as does its chick-a-dee-dee-dee call. The Carolina Chickadee or Poecile carolinensis, which looks almost the same, lives in the southeast quarter of the US and has a slightly higher, faster version of the call

Pidgeons

In my opinion pidgeons are really a nuisance bird, but this one is kind of pretty.. It's fancy.

Birds are really very interesting to watch. They come in all different colors and sizes. They sing different songs. They are beautiful and fun. On a hot summer day they with land on the fountain or birdbath or along the edge of the pond. They'll splash and peck at their features or each other. They'll hop around and if the water is not too deep they will hop right in splashing and singing. Now that they are refreshed, you probably will be too. You don't even realize how relaxing this is until you think about it.

Penguin

copyied in part From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend about half of their life on land and half in the oceans.
Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin live so far south. Several species are found in the temperate zone, and one species, the Galápagos Penguin, lives near the equator.
The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin adults average about 3 ft 7 in tall and weigh 75 lb or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which stands around 16 in tall and weighs 2.2 lb.

Birds

Have you ever really noticed the truly magnifcent colors of our birds? Most people are aware of the bright colors of exotic birds... reds, blues, yellows, oranges and greens. But many of our native birds have spectacular colors as well. There are deep shiny blues, reds and yellows. Have you spotted them in your backyard?