Bird Sightings - can you help identify?
by Matt, Bonne, Paige, Jack, Kathryn, Lawrence, Laurene
(Bridgenorth, Little Britain, Penetanguishene, Ajax, London, Eastern Ontario)
Several readers have written to tell us about their wild bird sightings and some of them are wondering what kind of bird they have seen - perhaps you can be of help.
Matt from Bridgenorth, Ontario, wrote to tell us of his interesting birds ... I have many different birds come to my feeder, which is great. I've noticed that woodpeckers and nuthatches (at least) have devised a neat trick to get the sunflower seeds from the shell. They wedge the seed into the bark of a tree and peck at it until it breaks. Then they stick their beak in and retrieve the seed. I thought that was pretty smart.
Bonnie from Little Britain wrote ... we feed the cardinals Safflower seed. They have been coming to the feeder for 5 years now, Winter through Summer. The young ones are coming now. The adults stay at the feeder with them and watch for predators, usually the black birds. We love to watch them, they are so beautiful.
Paige wrote to tell us about the flock of birds visiting her school ... the children in our school yard were standing amazed at the sight of a large flock of Cedar Waxwings in the top of a cedar tree. There must have been over 100 birds. It was late November and I was just assuming that they were flying through on their way South and stopped for a bite to eat. Our school is St. Ann's in Penetanguishene, about 2 hours north of Toronto.
Jack Mc Fadden wrote to tell us ... a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks descended on my large crabapple tree on January 11, eating up all the frozen apples. The next day the flock was at my neighbour's feeder. (he has better feed than I do).
Kathryn from Ajax wrote about the activity in her back yard ... in our feeder was a House Finch with the wife. I had to look them up in "Birds of Ontario". Red chest and red crown. I also had a Cooper's Hawk on my fence. No such thing as a free lunch!
Lawrence from London just spotted a mystery bird, he says ... it was about the size of a Robin, with a red crown, white or very light gray belly, medium gray feathers. I saw it on my bird feeder.
One of our readers from Eastern Ontario spotted a bird they couldn't identify, they said ... the bird was robin-size, soft brown, tawny yellow chest and stripe over head, dark stripe beak back through eyes with a whitish strip back under eyes looping at back of head, with dark and light wedges on wings, and it had a long tail.
Another reader wrote to ask if anyone could identify this bird, they said ... it was similar profile to a cardinal, the feathers are orange almost rust in colour and it loves sunflower seeds and cedar trees. Does anyone know what it’s called?
Laurene wrote for help to identify her mystery bird ... I have seen a little bird around my house. I don't know what kind of bird it is. I have seen it about 4 times in less than a 2 week period. The colour of the bird is - the head is black in some parts, then the head and body are like a copper, reddish, orange. I know it is not a Robin. As I know I have a few Robins coming around also. They are much bigger than this bird. It landed on my living-room window sill and was looking inside the house as it walked on the sill. This bird is very beautiful to look at. I don't know the name and would like to find out its name.
If you think you know the identity of any of the mystery birds, please help out our readers and leave comments below!
