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1 month ago | 
birdsandblooms.com | Sheryl DeVore |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader
House SparrowThis sociable bird was introduced from Europe to New York in 1852. It’s common throughout most of North America, although its numbers have declined both here and abroad. The male house sparrow has a gray and rusty crown with pale cheeks and a black bib. It nests in man-made cavities, including streetlights and gas station roofs (and often competes with bluebirds for nest boxes).
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Sheryl DeVore |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager
Courtesy Marsha Boissy“How do I keep bees away from my hummingbird feeder?” asks reader Darlene Clay of Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Feeders filled with sugar water attract hummingbirds. But sometimes, not-so-welcome guests, including ants, wasps and bees, crawl into hummingbird feeders and create problems. For frustrated backyard birders, it may be tempting to use pesticides or insecticides to deter bugs.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Purbita Saha |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Megan White
What Are Owl Pellets? A tight ball of fur and bones lies in the leaf litter under the evergreens—a telltale sign that an owl is nearby. The nocturnal raptors cough up these grisly artifacts at their roosts once a day. After snatching up a rodent or fellow bird, they swallow their prey whole, squeezing together the indigestible bits in their gizzard and discarding what’s called an “owl pellet.” Or in other words, owl puke.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
msn.com | Kimberly Kaufman |Kirsten Schrader
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Lori Vanover |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader
What Does a Cassin’s Finch Look Like? Male Cassin’s finches are hardly streaked, lending them a vibrant plumage. “To me, the Cassin’s finch always seems brighter,” says Dusty Downey, conservation ranching manager at the Audubon Rockies. The rich red crown of a male Cassin’s makes a striking contrast to its pale body. Cassin’s Finch vs House FinchOne could easily confuse the Cassin’s finch with the closely related purple finch or even the more familiar house finch.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Molly Jasinski
How Do Birds Migrate? Autumn is migration season. All over North America and beyond, hundreds of millions of birds are on the move, traveling from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. But they don’t all travel in the same ways. Some birds migrate in flocks and some alone; certain birds move at night, others by day; some travel more than halfway around the globe, while certain birds shift only a few miles to a slightly different habitat.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Ken Keffer |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader
White-Crowned SparrowThe white-crowned sparrow breeds along the Pacific Coast, in western mountains and across Canada and Alaska, and winters in much of the United States and Mexico. This bird has a gray body with a crisply patterned brown back. Adults have bold black-and-white head stripes. Rich rusty brown and gray head stripes are found on immature birds. The bird’s head may be slightly peaked. The white-crowned sparrow’s bill varies from pinkish to yellow.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Lori Vanover |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader
What Does a Blue Jay Look Like? Courtesy Karol HabersetzerBlue jays are large blue songbirds. Blue jays are some of the biggest, most colorful backyard birds in North America. At 11 to 12 inches, with a wingspan of 16 inches, blue jays are hard to miss when they pass through your yard. The species is distinguished by a prominent blue crest and back, a gray breast, and noticeable white and black patterns throughout the predominant bright blue feathers.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Purbita Saha |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Megan White
Get to know the fascinating falcon bird family — and learn why their ferocity is unrivaled all across North America. Falcons are nature’s fighter jets, stealth bombers and next-gen defensive drones rolled into one. These aerial artists can zoom, aim, float and, of course, dive with prowess unrivaled in the animal kingdom. Even other birds of prey pale in comparison when it comes to a falcon bird and its sheer athletic ability.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
birdsandblooms.com | Ken Keffer |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader
Backyard birds will eat nuts — but it's important to offer them safely. Learn which types of nuts to offer, and which birds nuts bring in. What Types of Birds Eat Nuts? For Amber Lush of Burkmann Nutrition’s Bird Seed Divison, feeding birds changed the way she looks at nuts. “Even when I’m at the grocery store, now I think about which birds could eat the nuts if they didn’t have salt on them,” she says. “Blue jays love them. Woodpeckers love them.
