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<\/a><\/p>\nWe have several types of woodpeckers that visit our area.\u00a0 We see a giant pileated woodpecker in the woods but never eating birdseed or suet.<\/p>\n But the tiny downy wood pecker loves the feeders.<\/p>\n Then there’s a yellow-bellied sapsucker (actually has a red head and barely a yellow belly, more like what we call “mayonaise”).<\/p>\n And a red-bellied woodpecker (also a red head and not a red belly).<\/p>\n There’s a red-headed woodpecker that is actually called a red-headed woodpecker but he doesn’t show up at our house.<\/p>\n I find it amusing that the aptly named woodpecker isn’t here, but the red-headed varieties with confusing names are regular customers of our bird seed.\u00a0 Feels just about right for our place.\u00a0 Goes perfectly with our bunny, Harvey, who is not considered spotted, or white with black spots, or even black with large white spots.\u00a0 Instead he is considered “broken black.”\u00a0 Um.\u00a0 OK.<\/p>\n Bluebirds didn’t show up until they clear cut a large swath of forest on the next street.\u00a0 Then they arrived in droves and still come regularly.<\/p>\n Another bird also arrived when they cleared that timber.\u00a0 White breasted nuthatches are common here.<\/p>\n But the brown-headed nuthatches only appeared at the same time as the bluebirds.<\/p>\n The very next season the red-breasted nuthatches arrived.\u00a0 They really do have red breasts.\u00a0 Well, red bird<\/em> breasts<\/p>\n There is a blue jay that comes over to eat whenever I put out whole peanuts to feast on, but disappears as soon as they’re gone.\u00a0 Guess I have a neighbor who isn’t as stingy with the whole peanuts.<\/p>\n All of these birds are easily identifiable for us because they’re so common.\u00a0 Telling the species of sparrows apart can be challenging but we still know they’re sparrows.\u00a0 Telling the house finch from the purple finch <\/a>is almost impossible in winter but their summer plumage isn’t as difficult.<\/p>\n Infrequent and unusual visitors are extremely noticeable and, in the past, were identifiable with a quick examination of the Sibley’s Guide.<\/a><\/p>\n A Northern flicker occasionally shows up in the summer, eating ants off the dying tree in the backyard.\u00a0 His large size and speckled chest made him an immediate standout.<\/p>\n The rose-breasted grosbeaks that stop by during migration are so different from the other regulars that we knew they weren’t one of the locals.<\/p>\n But sometimes it isn’t exactly the birds’ appearance that catches our attention.<\/p>\n I only distinguished the brown thrasher that always feeds on the ground amidst the flocks of sparrows because he was always scratching around in the leaf debris for treats.\u00a0 His scratching was so much more like a chicken than a sparrow that I finally started paying close attention to his colors and noting the differences.<\/p>\n And for a while I assumed the Eastern phoebe was just another junco except his tummy was so much whiter and he had a bizarre habit of flipping his tail when waiting for his turn at the feeder.\u00a0 That flipping tail finally drove me to the Sibley’s where I realized he wasn’t a junco at all.<\/p>\n At the backyard bird feeder, little differences sometimes make for an entirely different bird.<\/p>\n Which is why I knew immediately something was up with this newcomer.<\/p>\n Yellow spots under the wing are not something we see around here.\u00a0 At first I thought it was just a goldfinch with weird winter plumage.\u00a0 Or a hybrid.\u00a0 So I kept a close watch and started flipping through Sibley’s.\u00a0 The wing patches really are unique.<\/p>\n But it was the small yellow stripe on his head and the yellow patch on his backside that we saw when he was in flight that gave it away. I couldn’t capture it with my point and shoot camera but it shows in this photograph.<\/p>\n It’s official For the first time ever we have a yellow-rumped warbler at the feeder.\u00a0 Welcome, friend!<\/p>\n Here’s where it gets tricky.\u00a0 A few days later I noticed this yellow bird but I didn’t recognize it.\u00a0 The titmouse was confused, too.<\/p>\n He is yellow like a goldfinch but has more widespread yellow.\u00a0 And his yellow is actually kind of greenish.\u00a0 He has stripes on his wings like a goldfinch but no black bars, just gray and white.\u00a0 Plus, he just isn’t shaped like a goldfinch.<\/p>\n And his beak seems so much pointier.<\/p>\n Here’s some goldfinches to compare shape and color.<\/p>\n Nope. Just not a finch.<\/p>\n But the choices in Sibley’s are, um, overwhelming….<\/p>\n As of right now, I’m thinking it’s a pine warbler.\u00a0 Which may be because I now have warblers on the brain. But it fits the stockiness of the bird and that sharp beak.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether they’re both warblers, the newcomers are scrapping it out over the peanut butter suet every day.<\/p>\n The bluebird and the woodpecker have to stand guard just to make sure any suet is left for them.<\/p>\n The warblers (if they are warblers) are just in time for lots of treats and my favorite birding activity of the year.\u00a0 The Great Backyard Bird Count<\/a> happens in just another week, February 13th-16th.\u00a0 In preparation, the kids and I will hang lots of special treats (including peanuts for the blue jay) this weekend and stock up on expensive seed that we skimp on the rest of the year.\u00a0 The treats that we hang in the tree branches often attract birds that don’t turn out for the feeders.\u00a0 And the feeds loaded with berries and nuts sometimes draw birds that aren’t tempted with regular bird seed.\u00a0 We’re already 2 new species ahead of the game this year.\u00a0 Who knows who’ll show up for dinner next week?!<\/p>\n If you want to play along here’s the recipe we use for making treats to hang in the trees:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n