Bird Watching in Our Backyard. Wisconsin Birds.

We have many birds show up in our backyard and I will try to put a picture of each one on my hub and their names. Our table faces the backyard and the bird feeder so I always have my camera sitting nearby to get a picture. All the pictures you see on here I have taken.

When springs comes we hear the birds start to sing early in the morning. There are times when they get so loud you may as well get up, start the coffee and take it onto the deck to drink. It's relaxing just to sit and watch the birds.

We always feed black oil sunflower seeds. We put out suet in the winter and we sometimes have thistle seeds for them.

There‘s always a problem with bears tearing down our feeders.

The old tree (basswood) did it again. Today we realized there's a pair of wood ducks nesting in the tree. We were a little worried about the babies jumping out of the tree with no water. I guess they can jump 290 ft. without injury. They are nesting about 100 yards from our deck. The dogs are running around. My husband is working on the side of the house they just watch us but don't seem to be worried about all the activity.

Below is a video of wood ducks in a nesting box, not ours but interesting how they get out of the box.

Wood ducks prefer wooded swamps, lakes and freshwater marshes. When we lived on the lake many people would put out the wood duck nest boxes. They will nest in tree cavities, but our tree is not near a lake or marsh. We do have a swamp far behind the house.

The females lay about 12 very white eggs.

Pileated Woodpeckers are in our yard all the time they love the old tree you see the woodpecker on. They're very large birds and are they ever loud. My sister-in-law wanted to know what bird woke her up in the morning when she and my brother stayed here. It was the woodpeckers. They are about 16-19 inches in length. They are the largest Woodpecker in North America. We always hear them drumming in our woods.

I'm sure they make nests in one of our old trees though we have never seen them in a nest. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't also nest in this same tree you see the wood ducks on. My husband was going to cut down this tree because he's worried it is dead and may fall down but every year it does have green leaves, so we're just leaving the tree because the animals love it.

We have seen the young pileated woodpecker around and the young ones of the smaller woodpeckers. It makes us feel pretty sure their nesting nearby.

When I walk out my door in the morning I can hear birds all around me. I can also hear what sounds like baby birds. We have bird houses all over the yard.

There were six babies in this little tiny garden birdhouse. This birdhouse was not meant to be an actual house it was just one of those small decorated houses for a garden. I think I bought it at Joann’s. They could barely fit and when they left the nest we never saw it happen.

The Mom and Dad were always close by and never got upset when we looked in at the babies but would go after anyone else. The blue birds come back every year, but they have changed bird houses. The bluebirds are now in a better house a little bigger for all those babies.

We have put up birdhouses all over our yard to try to attract more bluebirds but, sometimes we get chick-a-dees or swallows nesting in them, we don’t mind.

The bluebirds came back this year but they picked a birdhouse which is higher up and I couldn't get a look at the baby birds.

There's a hawk who hangs out in the field across the road from our house. One day he was flying after a bird in our yard. I was just going down the steps from our deck and he was right there coming at me flying down low. I reached out to stop him just barely missing him, but I didn't get him. He ran the bird under our deck and got him. What I found was very blue feathers it looked like blue jay feathers but not sure if it was the bird he got. That's the way of nature I guess.

Rose-breasted grosbeak just a little information on the Rose-breasted grosbeak. The male rose-breasted grosbeak has bold black, white, and rose and is easily identified. The female is drab and stripped. Around here they love the black oily sunflower seeds. The male is so pretty.

We also get Evening Grosbeaks and pine grosbeaks. They bring their big babies here to eat. It's funny watching them feed the babies. The babies are as big as the parents.

The grosbeaks are a bossy bunch always fighting with each other.

The squirrels aren't crazy about coming on the feeder when the grosbeaks are there.

My husband took the picture of this young eagle in our tree. He has to be a least two years old because it takes that long to get an all white head, but he was very spotty looking in his back feathers.

We see eagles often around here. I've seen them on the road and they sit in our big trees in the front of the house watching the field across the road. Looking for what they can to eat. I also have a hub on the eagles.

Little nuthatches in our yard stay busy. They found this hole in the maple tree by our kitchen window and they started loading it with all kinds of stuff they would find, building a nest I guess. Then one morning we got up and we could tell something had pulled all their nesting stuff out of the hole. Maybe it was a squirrel. Little red squirrels have nested in that hole before.

These little birds are always looking in bark crevices trying to find food or bugs. They also like the black oil sunflower seeds we put out. They run down the trees upside down as you can see from the video.

We often get turkeys in our yard. So far they have not torn up anything and I have heard they can really mess up a garden.

We also once in a while do get Canadian Geese and Sandhill Cranes. They come in our yard from the field across the road. The Sandhill Cranes nest there. I think I have a picture of them on my other bird hub. They land in the field across the road and will wonder over here. We know spring is here when the Sandhill Cranes come back. They wake us up because they make so much noise.

We get Canadian Jays in our yard but very few of them. I had a hard time getting the Canadian Jay's picture down below. If I get a better one I will put it on. Maybe I just need a new camera anyone want to tell my husband?

I caught pictures of many new birds in my backyard this year and most of them were just passing through.

Female Cardinal, Blue Bunting, Rose Breasted Grosbeak