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

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I must concede that fact, Ms. Stephie, but I think this particular cat excels in humility.

Few cats, however, God-like in their own minds or not, are fool hardy enough to turn up their noses at the great and powerful raptors such as the Osprey. In any case, the Egyptians were a rather backwards folk back in those days and were duly punished by God for their insolent and foolish behavior. After that, cats, though legends in their own minds, assumed a more discrete and less haughty presence among man, which kept them out of much trouble.
 
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You described what experiencing those birds are like perfectly! They live up on the mountain, Always cool to experience a mob coming through. The bird in my photo is one of the empidonax flycatchers, notoriously difficult to identify. My best guess is that it’s a Pacific-slope Flycatcher on it’s way to the Pacific slope. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Here’s year bird #146, a Lesser Nighthawk, celebrating the Easter Vigil.
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And here’s year bird #147 and year yard bird #28 , a Sharp-shinned Hawk, although I’m willing to entertain any divergent opinions. This was my gift from God last Easter Sunday.
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A handsome devil, don’t you think? What stately bearing and keenness of gaze.
 
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A Mourning Dove has a nest in the eaves of my front porch.
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Happy birthday Crenfo!
 
How beautiful tad! 😃
I have starlings nest up near the chimney in Spring,I’ll have to try and block the gap as they arn’t the cleanest of birds and nests up there are a fire hazard.
 
A bird story. As soon as sunrise I started hearing some scratching in the ceiling above the bedroom. So after a couple of days of this I climb up to the attic to do some investigation and I see daylight at the end of the attic. So I crawl over there and see that the weather stripping has worn away from the wires for the central air that go into the attic. There is also the makings of a new nest evident.

So I call down to my wife to give me some duct tape and I do a quick patch job. I start crawling back to the ladder and all of a sudden two birds start attacking me, flying at my head, hovering over my head… pretty agitated! I’m like I gotta get outa here so I do. I climb down into the house and realize uh oh they are still up there and can’t get out. But I ain’t going back up there they’d beat the crap outa me!

So I close all the bedroom doors and put a blanket over the kitchen opening that doesn’t have a door. I take the screens off the living room windows and open them. Then I go back to the attic and turn the light off. I leave the attic hatch open by about 5 inches to let light shine up into the attic.

Sure enough about a minute later one bird flies out of the attic and right behind it comes the other one. I was hopin’ they would fly out the window but they both go behind the couch. I get a bed sheet and slowly I was able to trap one and I release it out the window. Then I trap the other one and do the same.

As I close the window I’m feelin’ pretty good on how it turned out until I see my across the street neighbor looking at me like ‘what the heck?’ Lol So I just shook my head and said don’t ask.
 
That reminds me of the time we were remodeling an old Episcopal church here. We were replacing all the lighting, but the pastor wanted to keep any interior patching and repairs to a minimum. As luck would have it, the roof had wood rot and termite damage, so they removed all the Spanish tiles in order to replace any damaged plywood beneath. We were then able to access the ceiling space down from holes in the roof. Above the altar was a very large dome where they wanted to add some spotlights. When we cut through the old roof plywood above the dome, an overwhelming smell of methane escaped. It turns out pigeons had been nesting in the space between the roof and the dome below for many years. There were dozens of old nests, several with unhatched eggs, piles of bird droppings, and a few dead adult pigeon carcasses too 🤢. My partner looked at me wide-eyed and said, “I’m not going in there!” I had previously worked for years in a pet shop, and I was used to the unpleasant aromas that can come with animals, so I dutifully lowered myself down to cut in the electrical boxes and connect the conduit while my partner handed me parts from above. I won’t soon forget that day!
 
Would have been wonderful for someone’s garden…you were brave !
 
While we’re on the topic of nests, near the top of this 8 story building, some fiscally savvy crows are nesting in the bank sign. This nest has been up there for many years, and as I recall, it was originally built by hawks. The thrifty crows must have done a hostile takeover. You can just see one of the crow’s heads peeking out by the letter “M” in the bottom photo.

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Overall, Cardinals. I love toucans, penguins, canary birds, doves, macaws, parrots.
 
Year bird #154 and Pima county lifer #303, Cattle Egret. Isn’t this exciting?

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Did someone say cardinal?

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This bird was found on Mt. Lemmon yesterday. If accepted it would be the first ABA record for this species. I predict hundreds of birders descending on it this week. Ironically, it showed up in one of my absolute favorite birding spots. My mom and I had picnic there two weeks ago! I’d love to go see it, but I tend to avoid crowds of overly excited birders

 
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