Category Archives: Perching Birds

Northern Mockingbird

November 4, 2018 Ellen Jennings 6 Comments

His animated behavior brought my attention to this Northern Mockingbird perched in a well clipped hedge. He seemed to have an itch and something to say.

Zoom in on this first image to see the papillae or spines on the roof of his mouth, something I rarely see in my bird photographs.

He was not at all concerned that I was watching.

All fluffed up after his scratching episode this fellow looks like a youngster. It was the last day of October and the references say Mockingbirds can have up to three broods a year.

Finally, he struck a Mockingbird pose then went about his business down the hedge.

Perching Birds

Cardinal: A Classic

October 17, 2018 Ellen Jennings Leave a comment

Despite seeing Northern Cardinals pretty regularly, I found it a challenge to get a good image of one. This one surprised me landing over my head as I was watching warblers at ground level. He had a lot going for him: classic pose with his crest up, aligned to the sun for the catch light in his eye, his feathers tidy and uniformly colored and oh, yes, that red.

Most of the leaves had fallen off the tree where he perched giving me a clear view. Cardinals in our area tend to be quite skittish; this one didn’t seem to care that I was watching him.

Perching Birds

Blue Grosbeak

July 18, 2018 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

It was easy to see this Blue Grosbeak flitting along in the grass of a roadside field, although I wasn’t sure what it was. I eased out of the car and was able to get an image with a clear view of his head.

Grosbeaks are in the Cardinalidae family along with Cardinals, Buntings and Tanagers, all identifiable by their prominent bill. The Blue Grosbeak is slightly larger than an Indigo Bunting and breeding males have chestnut wingbars.

Perching Birds

Who Needs a Bath?

May 16, 2018 Ellen Jennings 8 Comments

Wouldn’t a late afternoon bath be refreshing?

Why, yes!

Hanging out over the swamp waters makes it an easy task.

A little splish splash.

Grackle looking pretty.

Perching Birds

Summer Tanager

May 10, 2018 Ellen Jennings 10 Comments

A flash of red appeared in the middle of the road in front of us as we were leaving a wildlife management area. My first thought was Cardinal, but the shape wasn’t quite right.

A peak through my zoomed out lens revealed that it was a Summer Tanager! He flew to a nearby tree and I got a couple shots out the window. There was room to pull over and I stealthily got out of the car. The perch he selected wasn’t the best for a clear view, but his color in the patch of sun out-weighed a stick across his face for me.

Turns out there were actually three or four of them zipping around, including at least one female. The female is yellow and her color was too close to the the leaves where she landed and too far away to get a focused shot. Then they all scattered into the woods when another car approached.

Perching Birds

Crested Flycatcher

May 8, 2018 Ellen Jennings 5 Comments

Some afternoons in the spring our backyard is a highway for small birds traveling along the edge of the woods. They generally don’t stop long, but this bird was probably a juvenile and appeared to be waiting on some parental guidance.

The Merlin Bird ID app identified this as either an Ash-throated Flycatcher or Great Crested Flycatcher from the two photos below. The Great Crested is most likely to be found in South Carolina.

Also, the “lemon-yellow belly” description of the Great Crested was what first made me notice him as it flashed in the sun.

Perching Birds

Grackle with a Double Snack

May 6, 2018 Ellen Jennings 4 Comments

With his mouth full of bugs this Grackle paused a couple minutes at the edge of the pond before flying off to his nest.

I didn’t see him make the catch and have no idea how he got these two bugs in his beak at once. Maybe the effort was why he rested before heading to his nest.

He eventually flew out to this tree, aka “the skinny tree,” where his nest seemed to be in the broken Wood Duck box seen on the far side of the trunk.

An Alligator was patrolling the water around the tree. The Grackle dive-bombed the Alligator several times with no effect.

There was at least one turtle in the water and there is one Great Blue Heron and three Great Egret nests with chicks in the branches above, either of which would be more enticing to the gator.

Perching Birds

Grackle with a Snack

April 24, 2018 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

I spotted this shimmery Grackle not far from those I saw earlier in the month poking in the water. This one had caught a dragonfly and was attempting to dunk it in the pond.

He jumped closer to the water and bent down a few times but didn’t seem satisfied.

As sometimes happens, I got distracted by other activity around the pond and didn’t see if he had success or just flew off.

Perching Birds

Eastern Phoebe

December 6, 2017 Ellen Jennings 8 Comments

Flycatchers around the marsh can be difficult to photograph as they like to perch on the side of a tree hanging over the water resulting in obstructed views. And they are fast!

This fellow was ahead of me as I wondered up the side of a pond, flitting in and out of trees and occasionally swooping out over the water. He finally took a break on some pretty dried vegetation.

Eastern Phoebe – click photo for larger view

This time he was rewarded with a large catch. It looks like a dragonfly even though he has it scrunched up a bit. The leafless trees gave me a clear shot but also resulted in a lot of background busyness. He promptly turned his back on me and gulped it down.

Perching Birds

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher…

July 26, 2017 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

…I think. Or maybe a Vireo.

It looks a lot like the Gnatchatcher drawing in the Peterson Field Guide and less like the photos on Cornell’s All About Birds website. The eye ring points to a Vireo.

Either way, it was a perky energetic bird that mostly stayed hidden by branches of the trees he was inspecting. A dead limb let me get a few clear shots.

A flash of the tail and he was gone.

I’ve been calling these small birds “Song Birds” but have learned while trying to identify this bird that as members of the order Passeriformes they are “Perching Birds.” The arrangement of their toes, with three pointing forward and one backward, facilitates perching. Somehow I’ve been skipping over that in my bird ID activities.