California Scrub Jay

Hello and happy Spring! California Scrub jays are one of the most common birds I see where I live. If you live in the Northwest, you have probably heard their loud call at least once.

 California Scrub Jays have a blue head, tail, and wings, and gray shoulders. They have a darker patch of feathers by their eyes and a white underside. Their bold colors make them easy to spot and recognize.

 Scrub Jays can be seen on high points, diving into flight while screeching loudly.

 In 2016 the species "western scrub jay" was split into two, the California Scrub Jay and the Woodhouse Scrub Jay. They look similar but the California Scrub Jay is a more bold shade of blue and much more noisy. California Scrub Jays are native to the pacific coast in states such as Oregon, California, and Washington, whereas Woodhouse Scrub Jays are seen more in the west.

I hope you enjoyed this blog! Happy Spring!

California Quail

Hello! A couple days ago I looked outside and saw a whole covey of quail in my yard (a covey is a group of quail).

 California quails are a common game bird to see in the northwest and are the state bird of California. They travel in groups and spend most of their time on the ground. The mostly forage in the morning and evening, and eat a wide variety of plants.

 Males are gray with a black head and brown wings. They have bold white stripes framing their face and a black and white scaled pattern on their chest.

Females are all brown with the same scale pattern on their chest. Males and females both have a plume of comma shaped feathers projecting from their head, but the female's is smaller.

 I love seeing quail in my yard and taking pictures of them. I hope you enjoyed this blog!

Spotted Towhee

The Spotted Towhee is a common bird to see in your yard throughout the west. It is a large sparrow with a black head, back, and wings (the females are brown, and the males are black). Its side is a bright orange and its belly is white. Spotted towhees' look a lot like an Eastern Towhee, but they have spots on their wings and back, thus their name. 

The first time I saw a Spotted Towhee was when it was scraping in a leaf pile in search of food. It then started coming to our feeder, and now I see one almost every day. 

Spotted Towhees forage mostly on the ground, digging in search of seeds. In the summer, they eat a lot of insects and berries.

 Here is one scratching his head!

  I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Spotted Towhees'! Bye!

Birds in the snow

Hello again! Its snowed today and i went outside to look for birds. It took awhile before i could find any birds, but I love the photos i got!

 Here is a California scrub jay on a power line.

 I saw a robin on a bush across the street, so I took some photos of him. I noticed there were some sparrows next to him. I was so happy to find out they were colorful finches!
There is, of course, the robin, then in the top right corner there is some sort of goldfinch, and there is also a house finch in the middle (the one with the red head).

I love this picture of this robin because you can see the snow falling.

 Here is a sparrow on our bird feeder. (this one is a little blurry because i took it through the window)

I hope you enjoyed these snowy bird pictures. It was fun taking them. Bye! :)

Backyard birds

Hello! My name is Kayleigh and I recently put a bird feeder outside. I really enjoy taking pictures of the birds that come to it. I love learning about birds and watching them. This bird blog is just going to be me sharing the pictures I take, I hope you enjoy! 

 This is a California scrub jay. I see them a lot by my house.

This is a song sparrow. They are one of my favorite birds.

 These were two house sparrows that were on top of one of our birdhouses.

This is a golden crowned sparrow. They are so pretty

That's it for this blog. I hope you enjoy my pictures! :)