12 Backyard Birds Who Became Regulars at the Feeder, and a Blue Jay Who Wanted a Refill

“Update on rare bird I saw the other day — he’s now a regular at my feeders!”

I was taking a second to rest before I started dinner so I was just laying in bed watching the birds with my cat lol when the yella fella showed up ! I just changed out my feeders /water bowl and added some extra treats for them (safe fruits like homemade dried cranberries , orange slices and some pumpkin seeds)

I’ve been calling him Homer lol

“This is Chonky, he sits under the bird feeders and waits for the messy birds”

I watched my neighbor fight a great war this summertime, trying to fend off the squirrels from his bird feeders. In the end, my neighbor won. But now I’m thinking Chonky won. He just sat back and let everyone do the work. He’s probably a mob boss.

“Freddy.”

My kids are much more interested in birdwatching since we started naming our regular visitors.

“This guy’s only been at my feeder a week and today I emptied it due to heavy rain, he kept staring at me and pecking the window. No way he actually is demanding me to fill it, right?”

I mean it worked. I didn’t want to put out more feed in the thing itself or it’d get moldy but I bought some peanuts in the shell just for him and put some on the sill, so I guess he’s the smarter of the two of us

So far this guy actively begging for food and tapping on my window is way less obnoxious than all my other neighbors so I don’t mind!

he got spooked when I opened the window but I’d say within about an hour he was back? He can see me working at my desk from the tree outside my apartment window

“A leucistic cardinal has been visiting my feeder”

We have dozens of cardinals both male and female that visit our feeder daily. This one is white and black with some red and even pink accents on it.

I don’t know if it’s a male or female, as it has colors and markings of both sexes. My wife and I have been calling it a him though.

There is at least one other cardinal we’ve seen, this one for sure a male who is 98% normal male markings and color, and one little spot of white. We think they may be related.

Crows can remember faces, at least the ones they have a reason to. Researchers at the University of Washington wore masks while trapping and banding seven crows on campus, John Marzluff and Tony Angell wrote in Popular Science. Afterward, the crows scolded people wearing the “dangerous” caveman mask and ignored a control mask, and many of the scolding birds had never been caught at all. The researchers repeated the tests with similar results over the next year.

A 2011 study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B looked at how that knowledge about dangerous people spreads among American crows through social learning. Nobody has run the test on the crows in this list, but the people who feed them have their suspicions.

“My Balcony”

Been feeding them daily for a few months and they are starting to get comfy. Swipe for pretty rock gifts!

Honestly, I just noticed they were hanging around and I started leaving different foods out there every day. I tried unsalted sunflower seeds, peanuts, chia seeds, and then oats. One day they gobbled up all the oats and I’ve been putting them in the same spot every day since.

They have started to come by and chill when I’m sitting out the last few weeks! I haven’t tried feeding by hand yet still warming up to having bird friends😅

“This quail was determined to get on my 6ft up window feeder even though I already scatter feed her whole flock twice a day. She finally did it and look how smug she is.”

im living out 20 miles from the closest town so i get ALL. THE. BIRDS. (and also all the stars and other wildlife).

“Crow Present!!!”

So it finally happened; my crow friend brought me a present!!!

After nearly 1.5 years of diligently leaving out gifts for them, they left me this crystal leaf earring.

It’s beyond my wildest dreams of what I hoped to receive. I’d been leaving costume jewelry out for them, along with snacks, hoping they’d take the hint.

What’s super cool about this is it is literally the style of jewelry that I would choose for myself for this part of my ear. This crow seems to know me better than I know myself.😂

“She squeaked outside my window yesterday morning to say goodbye before heading south — yes I cried”

The first hummingbird I have ever attracted. She came to me during such a lonely summer — and made it so bright.

I looked forward to seeing her every single day. I sat outside every day for the past month, watching her.

Yesterday morning, I was busy in the kitchen when I hear squeaking. I look out and there she is. I go to my kitchen window to say hi. She was so vocal.

She drank for quite awhile and then flew off. Something in me told me that might’ve been our goodbye.

It feels so silly to be attached to a wild animal, but for so long I tried so hard to attract a hummingbird. I hope she will have safe travels down south and hope we will reunite in spring 😢

“This big floof was the first patron to stop at my new bird feeder cam”

Have to have it close to the house because of the wifi and I don’t think they know it’s there yet. I’d been ignoring notifications recently because they were all false positive but decided to look at work yesterday and this big floof was sitting there doing work.

“My first gift!!!”

I’ve been feeding a little family for four and a half years now; I’m guessing this must have come from a new member of their winter flock? I’ll treasure it always!

I found it right on the table where I feed them!