Tuesday Yard BIrds

I had a friend drop by this afternoon while I was birding to see the habitat we've created.  I noticed a small bird that didn't seem to fit in with anything else and I surmised, and later hopefully confirmed, that it's an immature Brown-headed cowbird.  It has no parents in attendance and it's step-brothers and step-sisters, if any, are strangers. 

Among all the other birds that suddenly showed up about ten minutes after our guest left were all three species of woodpeckers we see here.  First up, a male Northern flicker... 

Next up, a male (you'll have to take my word for it) immature Downy woodpecker... 

And finally, a Hairy woodpecker, a bird that has returned to the yard after an absence of a couple of years.  While the markings of the Hairy and Downy woodpeckers are virtually identical, the Hairy woodpecker is larger (not always evident when viewing in the field) and it has a longer beak.  Since these birds are in a known environment (my yard) and usually on feeders, the size of which I know, I don't usually have to look for beak size to distinguish between them.  

 

In addition to these birds I also had our California quail family, a Black-headed grosbeak family, both common species of chickadees, at least one Pine siskin, American goldfinches, Red-breasted nuthatches, House finches, House sparrows, European starlings, our Spotted towhee family, an immature American robin and probably a few other species that aren't immediately coming to mind.  

While I was showing the friend the yard a crow flew over and it was in a little spat with a Peregrine falcon!