Thank you. Sounds like your aunt and my uncle were people that appreciated people for their uniqueness.
Not surprising, as they move their wings to try to scare insects out of the grass, so that's consistent.
You've got a treat in all that and tons of color.
Turkey vultures! I never saw one when I was a kid in Vermont. The first time I saw one, I was about 14 years old (that was 60 years ago) Now they're as common as robins
Oh, that's nothing. Add in the Blue Jays, Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, yellow and red finches, oriels etc. .....You've got a treat in all that and tons of color.
I would spend summers at her house since I didn't get along with my parents. My uncle even told me I was her favorite.Thank you. Sounds like your aunt and my uncle were people that appreciated people for their uniqueness.
I was the only one he would let sit in his 2nd recliner because I obeyed him and always took care of his stuff; my other cousins wouldn't so he'd tell them to get out of his house.
The Indigo Buntings are a bit of a curiosity, as in a city you could go 3 blocks in a different direction and hear slight variations in their song because the offspring learns the song from parents.
We have them all over TX, and they're so ugly with those puny red heads. But it's really funny when you find a dead skunk on the side of the road and they're eating it.
Le Peu!!!
There's a friend that has a feeder right out her window and the same Cardinal pair comes early morning and just before dusk. The curious thing is many birds will find 3 other feeders and regularly visit those same 4.
I can't speak for other cardinal pairs, but this one is. In fact, you can almost time their visit. It's even funnier that the male comes, eats, then leaves; the female comes about 2 minutes later, eats and leaves.
I get that in such a case, although in her case (and I've witnessed it), it's the only pair.
I've heard wild birds (not just mockingbirds) mimic car alarms (that one which cycles through like 20 different alarm sounds), truck back-up beeps and that Nokia phone ringtone which used to be everywhere before smartphones.State Bird of Texas, so yes (state bird at least one other state too).
Look up the article from (I believe) Miami Herald where it documented people that studied mockingbird behavior where they had students go near a mockingbird nest to see what happened. The mockingbird attacked their heads up to 2 months later because it remembered them.
One allegorical account was where a guy lost some kind of key remote that played a certain song. He later found the remote although 3 weeks later he heard a mockingbird near that same bush singing the same bars off that remote.
Now THAT is hilarious!
Gray Catbirds and Brown Thrashers mimic sounds like that too, along with Magpies and Mynahs elsewhere (but I've not heard them do so personally).
The West Coast versions of bluejays, the scrub jays and Stellers’ jays, definitely do it to make the competition move away from the food. You can watch it happen.
I never see pigeons except in towns. I live in the woods just at the edge of a very small town (village). I see pigeons in the village, but never around my house. On the other hand, I have seen them around farms, so maybe it's just woodland they don't like.
I used to see the very-common Rock Pigeons in the park I walk at least 2x/weekly last year, but I've seen ONE only ONCE this entire year. Have no clue if there's a reason for that.
