Bird Archives - Page 4 of 7 - Sean Phillips Photography

Urban Red-winged Blackbird

I was very surprised to discover a Red-winged Blackbird eating from the bird feeder in my backyard this weekend. It spooked when we went outside to watch it, but it came back soon after. My wife and I sat and watched it eat while the kids went crazy playing in the yard. I don’t know how common it is for a blackbird to eat from a feeder, but I’ve never seen it before, so I had to get some pictures to share.

It’s been pretty exciting to watch all the birds come to the feeder through the spring. Among the many House Sparrows that are year round residents in the neighborhood, I’ve also had several White-crowned Sparrows, many Robins, two pairs of House Finches, and (also surpisingly for me) a trio of Common Grackles. Of course there have been many other birds as well, but these are the repeat visitors…

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the Blackbird from the other day. Because of the patchy colors on the wing it appears that this bird is a juvenile (1st summer).

Intermediate Morph Swainson’s Hawk

I’m not totally sure on the identification of this bird. I believe that it’s an intermediate morph Swainson’s Hawk, but I’ve never seen one before so I can’t tell for sure. It really doesn’t look much like any other kind of Hawk that I’m familiar with, but it also doesn’t look clearly like a Swainson’s either. The light morphs (which account for over 90% of Swainson’s Hawks) have a much more pronounced white chin and a dark band across the upper chest that this bird doesn’t display.

Can anyone help me confirm the identification???

UPDATE – I’ve added another picture, although it doesn’t really reveal anything new. I’ve had one suggestion that it may be a Broad-winged Hawk, but really no better information than what I’ve already posted…

House Finch perched on a branch

I spent a lot of time this weekend watching the birds in my backyard and in my neighbourhood. I was really amazed at the variety of birds that pass through every day, and excited to see several of these Finches dropping by pretty regularly. I was very happy when this one stopped to pose for a few portraits, especially since it was perfectly framed by the surrounding branches!

Red-necked Grebe at Carburn Park

I was at Carburn Park for a walk with my family this morning and there were photographers and bird watchers all over the place. Many of the photographers were set up on the small pond watching a Grebe that was hanging out in the middle. Not wanting to disturb the birds (ie. scare them away from the other observers) we continued on our way around the park. When we got back to the pond I noticed that many of the photographers had bunched together to chat, and that the Grebe that they were watching was still way out in the middle of the pond.

But I also saw that a second bird had come to the surface around the corner from them, and that it very close to shore. I started walking towards it and then ran the rest of the way as soon as it dove back under the water. I wanted to be as close as possible to it, without scaring it away when it surfaced again. Fortunately it came back up in almost the same spot and I was able to make some really nice images!

Red-shafted Northern Flicker hunting for bugs

I’ve seen Northern Flicker’s on the ground before, but they usually don’t allow people to get very close. I would never describe these woodpeckers as shy, as they do tend to allow a close approach when they are perched in a tree, but if you walk towards them while they are on the ground they tend to take off pretty quickly. So I was very pleasantly surprised when this one allowed me to walk up to within about 15 feet of it while it continued to hunt for bugs in the ground. You can see the dirt all over its beak from where it was stabbing it into the ground in search of food.