Juvenile California scrub jays

Hello! This spring we have had a family of scrub jays living by our house. I often see the juvenile jays around our backyard. They are almost adults, and can already fly. You can tell the are juvenile because their head is not blue yet.

 I saw this little scrub jay fanning out his wings in our neighbors yard and i thought it was a really cool shot. Its one of my favorite pictures I've taken. I love how you can see each individual feather of the jay's wing.

 Here are two of the little jays on top of a basketball hoop.

 For comparison, here is a juvenile scrub jay (above) and an adult scrub jay (below). You can see that the adults are a brighter blue, have a blue head, and a blue band around their neck.

Below is a mama feeding the little jay. I hope you enjoyed these pictures! Happy summer!

Violet-green swallow

Hello! This blog is about my favorite bird, the violet-green swallow. 

 This is a male violet-green swallow on one of our birdhouses. The males are a beautiful green with a violet tail and neck. Their underside is white and there are two white patches on their rump.

 The females are mostly the same, expect they are a duller green and more of a dirty white on their underside. There is a female swallow living in one of our birdhouses and i am studying her behavior and nest this year.

  Violet green swallow nests are loosely made of straw and lots of feathers. They normally lay 4-6 eggs that are small and plain white. She has laid a couple of eggs, i'm not sure how many.

I hope you enjoyed this blog! Happy summer!