Winter Birds by Feeder | Red-bellied WoodpeckerWinter Birds by Feeder | a 7 Image Story  Colorful winter birds cheer us up during the long, cold winter months.  My bird feeder gets used heavily in the winter; particularly when show covers the ground.  In fact, sometimes there’s so many birds, it seems like they need a control tower to direct air traffic.  They do have their own version of “see and avoid.”  The smaller birds give way to the larger ones on the feeder.  Many just fly down to the ground beneath the feeder to get leftovers.  When a Blue Jay arrives, all birds clear out or given it wide birth.  Of course, many more than seven bird species visit the feeder during winter months.  For this post, I’ve chosen some of the more colorful birds as well as the more frequent visitors.  Perhaps, another post will be needed later.

First things first, why not call the red-bellied woodpecker, a red-headed woodpecker instead?  You might not have noticed the rose coloring on a red-bellied woodpecker’s breast.  Whoever first named this bird must have had a strange sense of humor.  I’m not a birder so I don’t get it.  Still, it’s call a red-bellied woodpecker.  And, why are Blue Jays mean?  Because they are.  For that matter, why do some birds stick around for the winter while others leave to warmer climates?  Experts tell us that birds can and do survive extremely harsh winters. The primary reason for migration is food.  Some birds can forage for insects in the bark of trees and find enough other food to make it through the cold winter months.  In fact, in some areas even a few American robins stay through the winter months.

Winter can be a difficult time to capture wildlife images particularly small birds.  Sure fewer leaves on the trees make it a bit easier to capture an image of the species remaining.  Getting close enough to the bird with a long lens still remains the biggest obstacle.  Placing a bird feeder close to windows and doors make a big difference.  Even then, shooting images through windows takes skill and post processing software.  These seven images were captured with a 70-300mm lens, equivalent to 189-810mm using a 2.7 crop factor on the V1 & V3, at a distance between 5 and 15 feet.  Little birds tend to have big lenses pointed at them.

Each image will be posted individually this week with a bit more narrative under category Winter Birds by Feeder.

Click any image below for a slide show!