Parrot visitors
 

For the last few weeks a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets have visited my front door.

I have given them wholegrain bread and fruit handouts.

They are beautiful birds :).

Beautiful and clever they are
 

Beauties! Don't let your kitties get them ;)

Kiwi-Hi! I saw the photo. Those parrots are beautiful. Are they native to your area? Thanks for the big dose of happy to start my day! I love watching birds.

Hi Hotfoot53

I am glad that you enjoyed the Rainbow Lorikeets :).

Yes, they are native to my area - sometimes they nest in the trees at the back of my land.

About 10 different kinds pf parrots visit my land (not all at once). The others are a bit shy/fast-moving so it is not easy to get photos of them but they always brighten up my day :).

You are so lucky to have these colorful birds in your area.
I'd love to have them here.;)

We feed the birds here every day. The last two summers we did not go to our vacation home as it is very difficult for me to manage now with my more limited mobility. So we have been feeding thru the summer months and have seen many interesting sights, and behaviors that we missed before. The little goldfinches are fun to watch coming to my flowers. The parents teach the fledglings how to get seeds out of spent flowers. And I have many photos of this process now, which I am using to do drawings from. The males are bright yellow during the summer and females a yellowish olive color. I put out 100% cotton fluff in a "corn cob feeder" for their nesting starting in April and thru July. They nest later than other songbirds, and I have many interesting photos of this process too.

This photo is of a fledgling resting on some spent flowers.

Parrots from kiwi
 

They are really beautiful and nice work getting their photos! Lucky you to have them in your yard!

mrsD-hello!
I like the picture of the finch fledgling. I have finches but since I don't feed them, they don't stay in the yard long. How could I tell if there was a fledgling in my yard? (Do you know because you know your birds that well or is there a signature look to them?)
I have a hummingbird feeder. It's so strange to me, I never see them and within 5 minutes of putting out the liquid they're right there. (This was my first year feeding them). Thanks for sharing!
I had a robins nest this year- unfortunately right over the front door. Couldn't see a thing and couldn't use the door until they left- they divebombed me and made a loud racket! Live and learn. 😊

Hotfoot, you are lucky to have hummingbirds.

It is always a high point if I see one on a trip to the US :).

okay, hotfoot....

Photo one is a family of goldfinches.
The yellow and black one is the male.
The farthest left with the light yellow belly is a female.
The two in the middle are new fledglings, they are a bit larger, and darker than the breeding adults. The one perching on the stick next to the yellow male is waiting for him to feed her and flapping her wings, begging.

Goldfinches in N.America are the only songbirds who molt twice.
(I looked that up). The males molt in spring from drab olive feathers, to the jazzy sleak yellow/black. In fall they molt again into the drab colors for winter.

We have a tube feeder outside the kitchen window with finch seed in it. So we get to see them up close.
Goldfinches only eat seeds, and no insects. So they nest late in summer when the flowers and weeds are setting their seeds.
I plant specific flowers for them in containers which are on a bench outside my computer room window--and I take their photos thru the window.

The second photo is of the fluff dispenser I put out for them in spring. (in winter it holds corn cobs for the blue jays and squirrels). The female is at the top and her mate is below.
I originally offered the fluff for the hummingbirds, and was pleasantly surprised that the goldfinches really loved the fluff more! If you Google Goldfinch nests and hit images function you can see how some use it to line their summer nests. I didn't know this either until 2014!

We have hummingbirds too. Just one family I think though.

This is one photo of a fledgling in early fall in 2015, sitting next to the feeder. You can tell fledgling hummers by their short beaks. Males have short beaks too, but they have a red throat in the second season and they are a bit smaller than the female who has a longer beak.

Parrot visitors
 

Kiwi - the funny thing is I didn't know we had them, but I left a piece of orange rope on the deck and they came by to check it out while I was looking out the window! I was so surprised! I'd only seen one once on a trip, so I had no idea they were nearby, and certainly not on my deck! Lol!

Parrot visitors
 

mrsD,
Wow! Thank you so much for all the info and I love the photos! I don't know much at all about this as you could see! But wow, your photos and explanation help a lot. I love the fluff container! My parents were winter bird feeders growing up and I always loved the blue jays and cardinals that came to feed.
You take great photos! You made my day- thank you so much! I need to read up some more about the visitors to my yard. Thank you so much!

@hotfoot:

I am a firm believer that learning a bit of something each day
you will enrich yourself and appreciate nature so much more.

This link is really good and helpful for learning about birds:

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During spring and early summer they run a Red Tailed hawk streaming cam that is fascinating too:

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It is not live now however but will be soon.

I never was a camera buff or good at photography, but I finally did get a digital camera, and that changed me completely!
I use a Sony zoom automatic camera, and it allows me to zoom in on subjects that would be difficult to capture otherwise. Since 2006 I have had 2 of these cameras, and I do confess I don't have 100% abilities on all the features of them. My son is much better and uses a SLR type very well. sigh. Canon, Panasonic and Olympus now make these auto zooms, like Sony and really I think they are lots of fun. No film to be expensive, so you just delete your mistakes.

I am also an artist and have had some university level fine art experience as a post degree student. The design courses I took back in the early 70's have strengthened my compositions when taking photos. I also have an older Corel graphics program on my computers --Paint Shop Pro 9-- Which I use to crop and enhance photos that need improvement.
When I get off this laptop, I'll put up a few recent drawings to share on this thread. My recent files are on my desktop
Training myself and taking some courses in art, has taught me how to fail, and learn from mistakes and move on. Being an artist really teaches one to be patient, and open to new experiences.

Apologies to Kiwi for the thread hijack! :o

Hi Kiwi,
What beautiful visitors. Lorikeets and Lories are some of Natures most colorful creations. Do they recognize you when they visit? My new companion Bodhi the blue crowned conure in the two months he has been here has shown a remarkable intelligence.
Exotic birds are the greatest.

Hi stumblefoot

I think that parrots (like your conure) are pretty smart.

I don't know if the lorikeets recognise me but they are not afraid - they were about a metre away when I took the photo.

Birds
 

mrsD- I looked at this yesterday and saw your sketches somewhere. You are an accomplished artist! Really lovely rendering, of the little visitors in the yard. I'm neither a photographer or a gardener or an artist and still appreciate the wildlife that seems to wander through the yard anyway. I like to do calligraphy. It's really relaxing and I've been doing it for many years. It requires a lot of patience and calm or the stress is noticeable in the lettering. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I do like that birding site, I think it's one that helped me decide I had robins nesting over my front door (of course if I waited a week or so they would have attacked me when I went outside and the mystery would have been solved.) 😊
You are so right about digital cameras, when you can take as many pictires as you want and then discard the "bad" ones, all the pressure is off the expensive developing. Thank you again! Hotfoot

Thanks for sharing your artwork mrsD; I really admire people with that talent :).

Hotfoot, you might like to check out A Field Guide to the Birds of North America - it is published by National Geographic.

It has good illustrations and also has lots of helpful geographic information; where and when a bird is likely to be found, where it is likely to breed, etc.

I take it with me when I do a trip to the US.

The Cornell folks now have an app for bird identification, for tablets and smart phones: and they are free.


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I have used this iPhone app 3 times now.

They have one for Android now too.

Many people believe being an artist requires talent. This is just not true completely.
This famous artist explains quickly and humbly:

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The Field museum is a huge natural history museum in Chicago.
Allow yourself a whole day if you ever get a chance to visit it.;)

Check out Peggy's website.... it is awesome!

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This site is a bit confusing, but very very impressive once you
get the hang of it!

Anyone can learn the skills for drawing. Betty Edwards has books to teach anyone to draw. One is "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It takes patience, learning how to actually SEE and practice--a lot of practice. Wanting to draw and paint, does take desire, however.

The right brain does most of the work, and learning how to turn off the critical left brain takes some practice. But once you learn how to let your right brain "free"...there are many benefits besides the art work. I find that it helps relax you, and can even help with pain control. For me "talent" is about 10% and persistence and patience is 90%. Right now I am taking screen shots as references from Safari Live from S. Africa! This is a fabulous learning tool and aid for artists as well: on youtube, Nat Geo wild TV every Sunday, and Facebook etc.

I have done one drawing so far from Safari Live:
#1 is the screenshot
#2 is my pencil drawing

Kiwi- bird info
 

Kiwi - thanks for that- my folks had a tattered copy we brought always when birding- local or on vacation, and even on the kitchen table w the binoculars. I'd forgotten about that. It is a great book. I'll get it! hotfoot

Birds, drawing and apps too
 

Love the pencil drawing mrsD! I took art in school. We drew brown paper bags and though that doesn't come up as a subject to draw that often I'm ready! lol!
I was so impatient when I first started calligraphy, but my teacher would have none of it. So, we did up strokes and downstrokes for weeks before making a letter. It paid off, must know so fundamentals to make it work well. I will try the app and the website. Thanks for the info. If you ever use instagram there are always amazing photos done by the nat Geo photographers and the park services Really beautiful stuff (not that there's any lack of great photos all over the Internet!
Have a good day! Hotfoot