What is your favorite bird? And every fowl encounter you've had under the sun

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After further review I’ve decided to keep my 2020 year list here. So here we go…

The first bird of 2020 was #1 House Finch (heard only). This is appropriate, because if I were forced to answer the question posed by the OP, House Finch would be my favorite bird. Why? Because their extremely versatile and can be found just about anywhere. They have a happy call which when you’re depressed sounds like ‘Cheeer-up!’ And, they make great ambassadors to the bird world since so many people have asked me, “What’s the little bird with the bright red breast?”

So, now you know.

Year bird #2 were 10 Mourning Doves sitting on the power lines outside my home as I went out to pick up the morning paper.

A flock of Rock Doves made #3 as we drove through the city to one of my favorite birding spots, the lower portion of world famous Madera Canyon. And off we go…

#4 American Kestrel, #5 Verdin, #6 Ruby-crowned Kinglet, #7 Northern Cardinal, #8 Gila Woodpecker, #9 Ladder-backed Woodpecker, #10 Lesser Goldfinch, #11 Dark-eyed Junco, #12 Acorn Woodpecker, #13 Bewick’s Wren, #14 White-breasted Nuthatch, #15 Bridled Titmouse, #16 Mexican Jay, #17 Red-tailed Hawk, #18 Wild Turkery, #19 Hermit Thrush, #20 Red-naped Sapsucker

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

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Mexican Jay

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Wild Turkey

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Red-naped Sapsucker, a really handsome bird

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Madera Canyon

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Great pics! We have Red-Naped Sapsuckers out here, although I haven’t seen them in recent years. I could always recognize their telltale calls.

It’s interesting how one year there will be an irruption of species not seen before or since. Such was the case with the Black-Headed Grosbeaks that showed up for just one season at my feeders, and I never saw them prior to then, nor ever again.

Every year for the last five or so, we’ve had Evening Grosbeaks out here. Not as many last year, but still some.

I think I know what’s responsible for the dwindling of certain species out our way. We used to have a very thick privacy screen of tall, healthy conifers that divided our property line from our neighbors’.

Over the last couple of years, some people moved into that property and cut down nearly all the trees in that privacy screen, that were on their side of the line, and opened it up so there’s no more privacy and now we can see across to one another’s buildings and activities. They did it for logging purposes, and even took out a couple of OUR trees, by mistake – claimed ignorance even though the line was clearly marked. That’s another story.

A lot of bird species were nesting in those trees, and as that habitat dwindled, so did they. We still have a lot of surrounding forest left, but bit by bit, people around us are logging it away. Pretty soon, all that will remain is what’s on our own land.

I’ve noticed not nearly as many birds recently as in previous times, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason why.
 
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The Hawk is watching…
 
One of the reasons I wanted to commit myself to birding more this year is because we’ve lost 1 out of 4 birds in North America since I began birding as a teenager in the 70’s.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are part of it, but cats, window strikes and pesticides play their own role as well. We can fight back by turning our backyards into bird sanctuaries. Birds are amazing. If you give them a bit of a toe hold, they will come back.
Cruciferi said:
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Nice Red-shouldered Hawk!

And off we go…

Saturday I took my wife up on the mountain to Gordon Hirabayashi NRA, a former prison camp used primarily for conscientious objectors during WWII. Gordon Hirabayashi was a Japanese/American who refused to go to the relocation camps. It’s an interesting place with stoneworks and other remnants of the camp scattered about.

The birding was typically slow as it has been for the last couple of years. The only year birds I could muster were #21 Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay, #22 Common Raven, #23 Whtie-throated Swift, #24 Spotted Towhee, #25 Hutton’s Vireo, #26 Canyon Towhee and #27 a Golden Eagle on the drive back down.

Here’s a bad photo of the scrub jay. I like to post first-of-the-year bird photos no matter how bad.

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And here’s a Bewick’s Wren.

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Gordon Hirabayashi NRA

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My wife always makes fun of me because I don’t really like birds. They chirp and distract me from thinking…
 
We are very fortunate to live off of a city bird reserve area. Because it has a small creek that overflows with any good rain, it also has marshy areas with cattails. We have red wing black birds, hawks of several types, eagles and owls as well as the typical birds found in Colorado plains. We even have turkeys living in the city. And geese galore!

I’ll post a few pictures when I get a chance.
 
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Turkey in a city parking lot
 
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Sitting on our bird feeder
 
That looks like a Kestrel, also called a Sparrow Hawk, one of our smaller and more colorful raptors.
 
Good call…yes, it is! We have them visit our feeder quite often. Having a bird feeder means having mice nearby so while some hawks may be hunting the songbirds, many are hunting the mice…which is fine by me!😂
 
Massive seagulls that steal people’s chips on the seafront.

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Anyone dare argue with those gulls? Reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcocks’ “The Birds”. I sure wouldn’t want to try to shove that sharp beak aside. Can always purchase more chips. Let the gulls have those.
 
Last Sunday had me out at Sweetwater Wetlands, an urban birding area that was formerly used to reclaim wastewater and to recharge it into the aquifers. We’ve gotten a new water treatment facility, so the wetlands aren’t necessary to treat the water anymore, but it’s still a good place to bird although the diversity has gone down as the number of critters living in the water has dwindled as well.

2020 year birds (not necessarily in order of appearance) were #28 Cinnamon Teal, #29 Northern Shoveler, #30 Amercan Wigeon, #31 Gadwall, #32 Mallard, #33 Green-winged Teal, #34 Ruddy Duck, #35 Ring-necked Duck, #36 Gambel’s Quail, #37 Pied-billed Grebe, #38 Anna’s Hummingbird, #39 Sora, #40 American Coot, #41 Double-crested Cormorant, #42 Cooper’s Hawk, #43 Black Phoebe, #44 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, #45 Marsh Wren, #46 Cactus Wren, #47 European Starling, #48 White-crowned Sparrow, #49 Song Sparrow, #50 Lincoln’s Sparrow, #51 Abert’s Towhee, #52 Yellow-headed Blackbird, #53 Red-winged Blackbird, #54 Orange-crowned Warbler, #55 Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Orange-crowned Warbler

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Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. Impossible cuteness.

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Black Phoebe

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Marsh Wren, difficult to see, more difficult to photograph

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Sweetwater Wetlands

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christofirst said:
No bird photos from me, but here is a webpage about the types of birds commonly seen near where I live at the Ballona Wetlands nature preserve.
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That would be a cool place to live close to. Late Sunday afternoon I went out to Rio Vista Natural Resource Area, a park near me with some distressed desert scrub. The U of A has some farms next to it as well. For the year I picked up #56 Killdeer, #57 Say’s Phoebe, #58 Vermilion Flycatcher, #59 Northern Mockingbird, #60 House Sparrow, #61 Great-tailed Grackle,

Here’s a Phainopepla in the park. It’s North America’s only representative of the silky flycatcher family.

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And a Mourning Dove that looked like it wanted it’s photo taken.

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With the exception of the beak, that Black Phoebe looks very much like a Dark-Eyed Junco.

Where are those Sweetwater Wetlands located?
 
When it comes to birds, I’ve fallen in love with owls the pass couple of years. My top two favorites are the barn owl and the eastern screech owl.
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The only time I’ve encountered both was at a local wildlife refuge center. The barn owls were understandably afraid of us and would hiss, but the screech owl was well behaved while a handler that works there allowed us to see and, I think, pet the tiny owl.
 
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One winter I as doing the Great Backyard Bird Count, when I saw this tiny Pygmy Owl try to attack a Hairy Woodpecker that was eating from a suet cake. The two birds were practically the same size.

The owl flew at the Woodpecker and tried to knock him off the suet cage. Instead, the woodpecker just flew away, while the owl rammed into the suet cage and was stunned. He fell into the snow, and all I could see for several minutes were his fanned-out tail feathers sticking up above the snow cover.

I continued to watch, and eventually the owl righted himself and regained his bearings, then flew off in the opposite direction.

Pygmy Owls hunt in the daytime (diurnal), unlike most other owls that hunt at night (nocturnal).

It was the first and last time I ever saw a Pygmy Owl on our property, or in our area.
 
Here is some kind of sandpiper that ran past me this morning. Is it a Willet? A Marbled Godwit?

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The godwits have it! (2 toned bill, slightly upturned)

Very nice ID and thanks for the pic.
 
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