Thursday, May 6, 2010

Some fun for me

One of the things I was looking forward to, as we planned our move to the country, was the chance to see some birds (we didn't see many in the city), and possibly do some bird identification.

Every day, at dusk, we have some brightly colored and noisy birds flying about in the shrubs behind our house. Tonight I was able to grab the camera in time to get a picture. It isn't a very clear picture, but it was sharp enough that I was actually able to figure out what type of bird I'd seen! I'm sure this is not all that impressive to real birdwatchers, but this was my first bird, so I'm proud of myself.

So, here's my bird: It's a Yellow Backed Oriole.



Here's a link to a beautiful photo of the same kind of bird.

I had a little trouble with the identification, as most of the bird identification websites in English specialize in North American birds, and this species ranges mostly from Mexico to northern South America. Happily, since this bird has such distinct markings, I was able to find some pictures on the internet that helped with the identification.

These orioles build long hanging nests - here's a link to a picture - and now I'm going to be watching for the nests, too.

3 comments:

J said...

Oh, cool! It does look a lot like its cousin, the Northern Oriole, our shared home state bird.

Beth said...

What a pretty bird! I like identifying birds too. Just today I saw a swallow-tailed kite--a beautiful white bird with black edging on its V-shaped tail. I think your oriole is amazing!!

Anonymous said...

Those beautiful birds are known locally as chorchas and they indeed build beautiful nests.

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