Winter Bird Watching

My parents keep the birds here well-fed. Lest anyone think birds aren't intelligent creatures, these birds will land on the front porch, hop up to the sliding glass door and peer inside, turning their head left and right as if looking for my dad—Keeper of the Black Oil Sunflower Seed—to request more when the feeders are empty. It's clear that they have at least a very basic comprehension of where this particular bounty comes from.

This should come as no surprise to someone who’s had a personal relationship with wildlife for over four decades. Yet I’m enthralled. I watch from the viewfinder of my camera while recording video, both eyes open so as not to miss anything, completely rapt.

I love watching birds, especially in winter and when it's snowing. I filmed the video linked below through the sliding glass door, with my Fuji X-T4 and 50-140mm lens with 2x converter, hand-held while sitting in a chair in my parents' living room, nice and warm as the snow (and temp) fell last week. I hope you’ll enjoy watching these smart and interesting birds as much as I do.

Pay particular attention to the red-bellied woodpecker as you watch. She picks up seeds on the ground, flies to a nearby tree and carefully tucks the seeds under the bark (caching). She then moves up the tree laying her head sideways against the bark to peek beneath it and look for goodies that might be left hidden there.

The cardinals and blue jays fly down to the ground, quickly pick up a seed and return to a branch to eat it. They hold the shell between their feet and the branch, pecking a hole in the shell to remove the seed inside. Often they’ll clean their beaks on the branch when they've finished.

The finches, sparrows, and nuthatches prefer to eat directly from the hanging feeder, though many will also pick up seeds that have fallen to the ground. The finches are ornery, bullying each other a good bit if too close. Blue jays are generally quite ornery as well, but as I observe this particular feeding frenzy, the jays appear mostly well-behaved. All of these birds are hyper-alert as they work, constantly scanning the scene with jerky head movements in every direction. They are especially cautious of what’s above them, as there may be hawks nearby waiting to indulge in a feast of their own.

There is so much more to this world if we choose to see it — such beauty and wonder and awe that is beyond the human. Such peace in this interdependence — the realization that we as a human species likely cannot save the earth, but we as an evolving global ecosystem just might.

Life is not merely human experience. This truth has saved me countless times. It’s not unreasonable to believe it could save the world.

Ever an optimist at heart…