Doug Hayes of Richmond, Virginia is back with another installment of “The Breakfast Crew”: the birds he sees at the feeders in his yard.  Doug’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

The Breakfast Crew is back as well as a couple of ducks not usually seen in the Forest Hill area of Richmond, Virginia. Things have been a bit quiet lately, but I have a feeling that we will be seeing lots of babies in a few weeks.

A female northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) at the feeders:

This rather drenched mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) doesn’t let a little rain interfere with a free meal!:

A male red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) in a never-ending search for peanuts:

Large numbers of chipping sparrows (Spizella passerine) have recently invaded the yard. I would see a few of these from time to time, but there seems to have been a population explosion among them recently:

This rather angry-looking eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) gives me the stink-eye. Not a fan of having his picture taken!:

Carolina wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) are a staple of the backyard. These noisy, curious birds are one of my favorites:

Most of the dark eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) have migrated north for the summer, but we still get a few stragglers at the feeders

The tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is a frequent visitor to the feeders. You have to be quick to get a picture as they grab a peanut or sunflower seed and immediately fly back to the trees to eat:

 House finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) still remain a staple of the backyard:

A female red-winged blackbird. Rainy weather seems to attract them to the yard. Normally, they inhabit the marshy areas along the James River:

A female brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater). There only seems to be one pair of these brood parasites in the neighborhood. I see the same male and female most mornings at the feeders. A couple of years ago, I came across a sparrow’s nest that had a cowbird among the baby sparrows. It grew faster and much larger, even pushing some of the sparrow chicks out of the nest to get more room (and food) on a couple of occasions:

One day, several wood ducks (Aix sponsa) landed in the pond behind my neighbor’s house. It is very unusual to see these ducks in the city. This one is a female:

The male wood duck keeping an eye on the sky. A few moments later, something spooked them, and they flew off. Most likely one of the hawks that patrol the neighborhood:

During a birding trip to the nearby James River flood control wall, we spotted these red-breasted mergansers (Mergus serrator). The coloration is that of females or immature males, although I think the one with the darker head is a male. These ducks have a narrow, pointed bill with serrated edges, adapted to feed on fish, mollusks, crustaceans, worms, insect larvae, and amphibians:

Merganser doing a wing flap:

Camera info: I recently traded in my five-year-old Sony 200-600 telephoto lens for Sony’s new 400-800 lens. The new lens is much sharper (and slightly heavier) than the older lens, even when paired with the 1.4X teleconverter which I used in all of the photos. Camera body is the new A1 Mark II, which features improved image processing at high ISOs. All the photos were shot at 6400 ISO and did not require noise reduction when properly exposed!

Reader Mark Joseph recently sent in some bird photos from his friend Cliff’s April 2024 trip to Belize; part one was posted here, and this is part two.  I am not sure who wrote the captions, but they’re indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Hooded oriole (Icterus cucullatus) – male:

Hooded warbler (Setophaga citrina) – male:

Least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla):

OK, this one is a bit of a story. Cliff called it a house wren, which is what I would have called it too, but when I went to look up the binomial to use in this post, I found out that the “house wren” has recently been split into *8* different species! So, this is now a Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). Besides this common North American bird, the “Northern” group now has five area-specific Caribbean island species. There is also now a “Southern” group, the Southern House Wren and one erstwhile subspecies, Cobb’s Wren:

Limpkin (Aramus guarauna):

Prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea):

Roadside hawk (Rupornis magnirostris):

Rose-throated becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae) – female, if I’m not mistaken:

Russet-naped wood rail (Aramides albiventris):

Rufous-tailed hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl):

Vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus obscurus) – male:

White-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi) – non-breeding plumage:

 

While looking through Cliff’s pictures of his trip to Belize, I see that he also did a nice series of six pictures of the Northern Jacana – Jacana spinosa (aka the Jesus bird, as it can walk on water); the comments with these pictures are Cliff’s:

Northern Jacana are very attractive birds that live pretty much on floating vegetation in freshwater marshes, ponds, etc:

They are very colorful in flight, squawking the entire time aloft.

These birds are interesting in that the female mates with several males, then the male raises the young (newborn Jacana can walk, swim, and feed themselves from birth):

 

Even the young birds have the famed Jacana ridiculously long toes for walking on floating vegetation:

 

This is one of my favorite images from the entire trip (so far)…

Today we have the birds of British Columbia by reader Paul Handford. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them,

I suspect that “endless mountains and forests” come to mind for many when envisioning what British Columbia, in Canada’s far west, but, as well as those dominant aspects of BC’s landscape, the south-central portion of the province, between the Coast and Rocky mountain ranges, is pretty dry, given that it sits in the rain-shadow caused by the Coast Ranges that capture much of the moisture from the moist air-masses that roll in off the Pacific Ocean.

Accordingly, this part of BC supports a mix of dry grassland and sagebrush at lower elevations— much of it along the river valleys— with woodlands and forest higher up.  So it’s a diverse region, and very beautiful— as is all of BC.

These pics are from around our home in the hills on the outskirts of Kamloops, and the surrounding area.

Bohemian waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus.  S. Thompson river valley:

Lazuli bunting, Passerina amoena.  Valleyview trails:

Western tanager, Piranga ludoviciana.  Barnhartvale:

Clark’s nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana.  Barnharvale:

Common Raven, Corvus corax.  Dallas-Barnhartvale Nature Park:

Steller’s jay, Cyanocitta stelleri:

Chipping sparrow, Spizella passerina:

Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis:

Vesper sparrow, Pooecetes gramineus:

Pine grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator:

Red crossbill, Loxia curvirostra:

Tree swallow, Tachycineta bicolor:

Unfortunately, the press of work yesterday made me completely forget it was Sunday, and the day to post John Avise‘s latest and last group of North American butterfly photos. John’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.  Let’s hear it for John’s butterfly photos? Will a new species replace them? You’ll have to wait and see.

Butterflies in North America, Part 18

This week concludes my multi-part series on North American butterflies.With this post, we’ve finally reached the letter Z (of common names), so this will be my final post on the many butterfly species found on this continent.

Western Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis), male:

Western Pygmy Blue, female:

Western Pygmy Blue, underwing

Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), upperwing:

Western Tiger Swallowtail, underwing:

Eurasian White Admiral (Limenitis camilla):

White Checkered-skipper (Burnsius albescens):

Woodland Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides), upperwing:

Woodland Skipper, underwing:

Wright’s Metalmark (Calephelis wrighti), upperwing:

Wright’s Metalmark, underwing:

Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia), upperwing:

Zebra Longwing, underwing: