Since we’ve refilled the bird feeders and filled the sideboards with suet cakes we’ve noticed a huge population of resident birds. I got it in my head to try to identify what we’ve spotted at our feeders. This really won’t be useful to anyone but us, unless one of you readers is interested in bird populations or diversity.

1. Blue Jay – A male, big bright blue and very aggressive.
2. Northern Cardinal – A breeding pair, a male and female and they feed together usually. Very skitterish. They do not like the squirrels.
3. White-Breasted Nuthatch – Not very frequent at the feeder. Will visit the front feeder way more often than the back feeder. Tends to get spooked by picture window and sometimes attacks the reflection in the window. So far no dead nuthatches from window-strikes.
4. Downy Woodpecker – We have spotted 1 male and 3 females. Originally the male had a seriously hard time keeping on the feeder, he would have to perch and then hold his body under the feeder and crane his neck around to get some seeds. This would throw a lot of seed on the ground. Since we installed the suet cake he monopolizes that instead. The females will only visit the suet cake now as well. That’s apparently their preferred food.
5. Mourning Doves – We have at least a breeding pair. They never visit the feeder, they prefer to hang out on the ground and wait for the finches and chickadees to toss seed down from the feeder onto the ground. When the downy woodpeckers are after the seed, the mourning doves are “casing the joint”. They’ll follow much later and much prefer the rear feeder to the front one.