Category Archives: Songbirds

Carolina Chickadee Working a Cattail

February 3, 2025 Ellen Jennings 6 Comments

This Carolina Chickadee was looking for snacks in a cattail, first pecking on the stalk then he advanced to the flower head. He was pretty acrobatic, and pulled out quite a few tufts but I’m not sure he got anything to eat.

Trying something different with these images, using a WP gallery to display the photos; click on an image to open a slide show. If you are on WP Reader and this doesn’t display correctly you can select the Globe Icon above to open this post in a different view.

Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Chickadee on Cattail

Carolina Chickadee Discarding The Fluff

Carolina Chickadee on Cattail

Carolina Chickadee Discarding The Fluff

Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Chickadee Twirling Around

Carolina Chickadee

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Charleston, SC
February 2, 2025

Songbirds

Blue-headed Vireo, New to Me

December 20, 2024 Ellen Jennings 3 Comments

The Blue-headed Vireo is a more deliberate in his foraging than his zippy relative that I am familiar with, the White-eyed Vireo. This fellow actually sat in place, in the open for a half a minute or so.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Charleston, SC
December 15, 2024

Songbirds

Common Yellowthroat Warbler

October 18, 2024 Ellen Jennings 4 Comments

Elusive and darting in the underbrush, this Common Yellowthroat Warblers gave me a few seconds of a full body view.

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, Charleston, SC
October 15, 2024

Songbirds

Tufted Titmouse On The Move

August 20, 2024 Ellen Jennings Leave a comment

A few Tufted Titmice took the occasional pause while searching for bugs in the leaves of this tree. This branch of the tree appeared dead, and with no leaves gave me a couple of brief photo opportunities.

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC
August 18, 2024

Songbirds

Juvenile Red Wing Blackbird Hanging on Tight

August 15, 2024 Ellen Jennings Leave a comment

Not the snazziest of birds, but finally I have captured a song bird in the classic splayed leg pose😁.

This young Red-winged Blackbird was unsure what to do next.

He made some calls to mamma but he got no assistance.

He looked around for awhile before taking the flying plunge and headed back into the underbrush behind him.

Cypress Wetlands, Port Royal, SC
August 2, 2024

Songbirds

Prothonotary Warbler Looking Around

April 29, 2024 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

A Prothonotary Warbler took a singing break and had a look around the swamp for some food.

I didn’t observe any nests, but these migrant warblers arrived at Beidler Forrest in the second half of March so easily could have hungry chicks by now.

Beidler has an active bird banding and research program and this bird is sporting bands on both legs.

Audubon Center at Beidler Forest, Harleyville, SC
April 24, 2024

Songbirds

White-eyed Vireo Gathering Stuff

April 29, 2024 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

A White-eyed Vireo caught my attention with his singing, then he filled his beak with potential nest material.

Unfortunately some of it didn’t want to detach from the tree.

So he pulled…until it snapped…

Then he checked out the underside of the branch to see what else was there.

Nothing there that satisfied him, he took another look around then zipped into the underbrush.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Charleston, SC
April 23, 2024

Songbirds

Songbird Serenade

March 23, 2024 Ellen Jennings Leave a comment

On the opposite side of the wildlife drive where the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were hanging out a few song birds were using the remains of a bridge as a perch.

This Red-winged Blackbird was hard to ignore as he was singing his heart out.

The Merlin app identifies this as a Savannah Sparrow, appropriate as this location is just a few miles from its namesake Savannah, Georgia. All About Birds says they are “common and widespread” and “are one of the most numerous songbirds in North America.” It’s new to me or perhaps I’ve misidentified it in the past.