On a whim–because it’s the weekend, and I can kill time however I want without guilt, damnit!–I thought I’d compile a list of birds I’ve seen in the yard here. My actual lifelist is probably of no interest to anybody but me, and weighs in at only 86 birds anyway, but the ones I’ve seen around here….actually, I can’t think why anybody’d be interested in those, either, but what the hell. I couldn’t imagine that people would be interested in defective squirrels, either, and boy, was I wrong. And hey, in case e-nature ever goes down, I’ll have a backup.

However, I’ll cut tag it out of politeness to the non-ornithologically-inclined.


American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Blue Jay
Brown Thrasher
Bronze-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Dark-eyed Junco (slate-sided race)
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Towhee
Gray Catbird
Hairy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
House Finch
Indigo Bunting
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Mockingbird
Pine Siskin
Pine Warbler
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Rufous Hummingbird
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Wood Thrush
Yellow-rumped warbler (myrtle race)

Looks like 35 birds. A significant chunk of all the birds I’ve seen in my life! There are also a lot of birds I’ve seen way up in the sky–buzzards, and some variety or other of hawk–but they’re not down in the trees here, so I’ll leave ’em out for my purposes. (Not that I wouldn’t squee with glee to get a buzzard down here, but I don’t think I’m willing to set up a fresh carrion feeder. And the landlady would definitely protest.) But it seems like that’s a lot of variety for a hunk of mixed, largely non-native trees maybe a hundred yards deep, plopped in the middle of the…well, not suburbs, but not really massively urban either. (Medium Residential, let us say–duplexes and townhouses predominate, but plenty of single homes, too.) Surprisingly native species, too. There are house sparrows and starlings in riotous profusion a block over, in one of the little strip malls, but they haven’t colonized this area. Granted, my feeders–and those of half the other people on the block–have got to be a big draw, and probably accounts for the sheer numbers. But it’s still pretty neat.

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