BIRDS

I love to feed the wild birds - to watch them and study them; especially in the Winter.  What super little creatures.  Some 40 years ago I bought a really good book about bird watching.  It's the Field Guide to Birds of North America by the National Geographic Society.  I love it - but, amatuer that I am, I still can't always determine what bird is what.  

One little bird comes every year that I never could positively identify until this year.  It is the male black-eyed Junco pictured here.  It's female doesn't have the same coloring, so I always thought that he was a loner.  He seemed to live and feed with the sparrows but his coloring is noticably different.  He is about their size.  The sparrows bully him around at feeding time.  He often has to go to the ground and get the food they drop.  Turns out he only winters in this part of the country so he's not around in the warm weather.  He and the sparrows are attempting to eat at my finch feeder but their larger bills make it difficult. 

Anyway, it was a new one on me.  Maybe you've seen one and wondered what it was.  

ps:  I wrote the above a week ago.  Yesterday, during the snowstorm, I had a half dozen at my feeder. Go figure.