Love them wild birds

[hiwall]

Coot and egret

 

[SheepDog]

We always referred to the coot as mud hen.

 

[hiwall]

I think magpies look cool. But we have none here and I have to drive 300 miles north just to look at them.

 

[phideaux]

Caw caw

Jim

 

[hiwall]

Gamble's Quail and a Western Grebe

 

[phideaux]

Redtail hawk

Jim

 

[phideaux]

Mallard male

Jim

 

[hiwall]

All the pics I post on this thread were taken by me.
Here are two of Sharp-Shinned hawks. The first one is a juvenile. The one made me mad when he landed on the spinner for our weather station.

 

[hiwall]

A Western Bluebird and then a Mountain Bluebird. Both nest near our house.

 

[phideaux]

Broad wing hawk.

All birds I posted

 

[phideaux]

Jim

 

[Patchouli]

Someone mentioned a peewee. I saw a Phoebe bird, is that the same thing?
Why does it seem like crows travel in groups of 3? Is it siblings, parents and a tot, gang members? No, it is a murder. lol

 

[hiwall]

Someone mentioned a peewee. I saw a Phoebe bird, is that the same thing?

A peewee and a Phoebe are different though they look similar.

 

[hiwall]

Here is a Western Tanager fresh after a bath.

 

[Patchouli]

Ok, @hiwall I've looked up some photos. The Pewee is adorable and a little different looking. The Phoebe is just as cute and more sparrow-like. I am leery of copying and pasting the photos.

 

[hiwall]

First is a Harris Hawk and the second is a young Great-Horned owl.

 

[Peanut]

I see horned owls from time to time... beautiful birds. I found one once with a broken wing which I caught, caged and fed until he healed up. It took almost as long for me to heal. While capturing him he leaped up and latched onto my abs with one claw (I was young and had visible abs). I still have the scars.

 

[phideaux]

Jim is

 

[hiwall]

View attachment 36248
Jim is

Looks like a yellow-shafted flicker.

 

[hiwall]

Here is a red-shafted flicker (its what we have out west).
Second is a Rufus Hummingbird.

 

[hiwall]

First is a Bullock's Oriole and the second is a Hooded Oriole.

 

[phideaux]

A falcon I believe..

Jim

 

[Peanut]

Bullock's Oriole

The Bullock's Oriole is perched on a shrub called Mahonia - Oregon Grape - it’s a shrub commonly used in landscaping. It surrounds my local VA hospital.

It's in the Berberidaceae family. Medicinally speaking it’s one of the "Berberines" a group of plants that are great medicine for upper respiratory issues, it kills "Helicobacter pylori" which many doctors say causes stomach ulcers. It’s great for the entire digestive tract, also helpful with UTI's.

Sadly, the Berberines have been bad mouthed by big pharma for decades, innuendo to outright lies yet never a single study to prove they are harmful, probably because they are such versatile and powerful medicines.

A falcon I believe.. Jim

The fuzzy grey/green lichen sticking out from the limbs of the tree (sort of looks like fuzzy grey worms)... It's Usnea, a wonderful antiviral and antibiotic, great for upper respiratory issues and fantastic for UTI's.

A common practice from pioneer days... cover a wound with moss. This was reflected in lots of western movies... "Put some moss on that wound"... It was used but it wasn't moss. It was a lichen named Usnea.

 

[hiwall]

The Bullock's Oriole is perched on a shrub called Mahonia - Oregon Grape

Down here it is commonly called desert holly and grows wild in the higher desert areas. The flowers are small and bright yellow. I have eaten a lot of the ripe red berries. Very tasty. I was always planning on making some jelly out of them but somehow I never seemed to get enough into the bucket.

 

[hiwall]

Here is a Lazuli Bunting. He would not look at me so all I got to see in the camera was the back of his head.

 

[Peanut]

Down here it is commonly called desert holly and grows wild in the higher desert areas. The flowers are small and bright yellow. I have eaten a lot of the ripe red berries. Very tasty. I was always planning on making some jelly out of them but somehow I never seemed to get enough into the bucket.

There are 60+ species in the Mahonia genus, they vary in medicinal strengh and quality. Mahonia aquifolium is the species commonly used in herbal medicine.

 

[hiwall]

Here is a male and female Phainopepla. The male is black and the female is gray.

 

[Patchouli]

@phideaux are those American birds? I've never seen them in my bird books. Do they have a more common name?
I see, they hang out in northern Central America, Mexico, and SW U.S.

 

[hiwall]

@phideaux are those American birds? I've never seen them in my bird books. Do they have a more common name?
I see, they hang out in northern Central America, Mexico, and SW U.S.

All birds pictured in this thread so far, are all US residents. My pics were all taken by me.

 

[hiwall]

This first one is a White-winged dove. The second is a Collared dove (which was not native to the USA but is now quite wide-spread in the US).