Blog Archive: Backyard Birds

Birdorable American Goldfinch

T-Shirt Tuesday: Nine Backyard Birds from Northeast USA

March 10th, 2015 in Backyard Birds, T-Shirt Tuesday No comments

This week's featured t-shirt is the Women's American Apparel T-Shirt shown below featuring nine Birdorable birds that can be found at back yard feeders in the Northeast of the United States. Represented are: Tufted Titmouse; American Goldfinch; White-throated Sparrow; Rose-breasted Grosbeak; Hairy Woodpecker; Eastern Towhee; Red-breasted Nuthatch; Baltimore Oriole; and Dark-eyed Junco. Pick from dozens of different t-shirt styles for men, women and children and make it your own by moving the design around, changing the background color or adding your own text or images. This makes a fun gift idea for anyone that loves birds and especially for people who love to feed their feathered visitors!

 

Graphic Tee with 9 Northeast USA Backyard Birds by Birdorable
Birdorable American Goldfinch

Citizen Science: YardMap

Contributing to citizen Science projects helps our collective knowledge, but it also helps us as individuals learn. We'd like to highlight some citizen science projects in which families can participate. If you know of a project that we could highlight on our blog, please YardMap is a citizen science mapping project that can help you learn more about the birds that visit your yard, and how to attract more. Participating in the project also helps scientists as they study how birds adapt to disturbed habitats.

Birdorable YardBird

YardMap is a project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Participants identify their yard and then map it out, indicating types of habitat found. Using colors and shapes, items like lawn, grass, trees, and more can be marked. Bird baths, brush piles, and other objects can also be placed, to give a very clear picture of the type of habitat found in the yard. Finally, participant bird sightings are linked in via eBird. The YardMap site is full of information on how different suburban habitats impact bird populations, and how participants can help birds by making changes or additions to their yards. YardMap is social, too, with a community forum for sharing pictures and stories.

YardMap

This is a fun and educational year-round family-friendly project that has the added benefit of helping scientists better understand bird habits in your neighborhood! Visit the YardMap site to learn more and get started!

Birdorable Common Redpoll

Citizen Science: Great Backyard Bird Count

February 6th, 2013 in Backyard Birds, Citizen Science 2 comments
Blog Bird Feeder

Contributing to citizen Science projects helps our collective knowledge, but it also helps us as individuals learn. We'd like to highlight some citizen science projects in which families can participate. If you know of a project that we could highlight on our blog, please let us know!

The 16th annual Great Backyard Bird Count will take place from Friday, Feburary 15th through Monday, February 18th. Participation is free and anyone in the world can contribute! Here is a what is involved, taken from the official GBBC website:

"The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual 4-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are.

Participants tally the number of individual birds of each species they see during their count period. They enter these numbers on the GBBC website."

The annual count helps scientists understand what is happening with bird populations during a specific period of time each winter. This "snapshot" of current bird activity is monitored over time to look for population trends. Results from previous counts can be seen by participants and scientists alike. This is a great citizen science project for birdwatchers of all ages! Data entry is easily accomplished via the GBBC site; younger birdwatchers may need help with keeping and entering count information.

Learn more about this project and how you can participate by visiting the Great Backyard Bird Count website.

Have you participated in the GBBC before? Will you participate this year?

Birdorable European Goldfinch

Baby Birdorable: European Goldfinch

October 8th, 2010 in Finches, Backyard Birds, Baby Birds 3 comments

If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Below are some baby photos (shared via Flickr) of the European Goldfinch. European Goldfinches nest in early spring, unlike their American counterparts. They lay 3-7 eggs in a cup-shaped nest, and incubation lasts 10-14 days. Babies fledge at approximately 2 weeks after hatching.

Carduelis carduelis
Carduelis carduelis by Oliveira Pires
 
Goldfinch feeding baby.
Goldfinch feeding baby. by libby owen
 
Young goldfinch
Young goldfinch by pamseyes
baby goldfinch
baby goldfinch by michael.jh

Pretty cute, right? Be sure to check out our (adult) Birdorable European Goldfinch t-shirts & gifts!

Birdorable American Goldfinch

Baby Birdorable: American Goldfinch

September 24th, 2010 in Finches, Backyard Birds, Baby Birds 2 comments

If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Below are some baby photos (shared via Flickr) of the American Goldfinch. American Goldfinches breed relatively late in the summer, starting in June or July, or even into August. Females build a cup-shaped nest lined with soft material and lashed to tree branches with spider silk. Clutch size is from 2 to 7 eggs and the babies fledge about two weeks after hatching.

feeding baby goldfinch
feeding baby goldfinch by kalenewallin
FEED ME!!
FEED ME!! by missgingersnap
Feed me!
Feed me! by Doug Greenberg

 

Pretty cute, right? Be sure to check out our (adult) Birdorable American Goldfinch t-shirts & gifts!

Birdorable American Robin

Baby Birdorable: American Robin

May 28th, 2010 in Backyard Birds, Baby Birds 2 comments

If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Here at Chez Birdorable we were lucky to have a nesting family of American Robins in our front yard. The babies fledged earlier this week. American Robins will have two to three broods per season. Females choose the nesting site and build the nest themselves, using dead grass, mud, and other materials. Typically four eggs are laid, although the nest in our front yard had just three. You can learn more about American Robin nesting behavior at Cornell's NestWatch. Below are some baby photos of 'our' robin babies and some other baby American Robin pictures shared via Flickr.

Eggs
Three "Robin's Egg Blue" eggs were laid in our front yard nest.
American Robin nestlings
Two of the eggs hatched about two weeks later.
Three babies
Robin Chicks
American Robin babies
Here are 'our' babies at 6 days old.
Baby American Robin hours from fledging
This is one of the babies just over a week later, about to fledge.
Baby American Robin sleeping in tree
This baby branched out before finally leaving the nest at 2 weeks of age.
Gompers  Wetland Juvenile Robin 5-19-2010
A recently-fledged baby robin, taken by birdspazz who blogs here.
Gompers  Wetland Juvenile Robin 5-19-2010
A recently-fledged baby robin, taken by birdspazz who blogs here.

Pretty cute, right? Be sure to check out our (adult) Birdorable American Robin t-shirts & gifts!