This group of birds is has a lot of my favorites in it. We can start of strong with the Red-bellied Woodpecker. These birds tend to be pretty shy at the feeder, and I don’t see them very often but when they do come, it’s such a treat. I have a really hard time finding Red-headed Woodpeckers around my area, but there’s one spot by Lake Bella I can usually find one or two hiding in the trees. I haven’t been able to get super close yet, but we’ll get there. And then there’s the Belted Kingfisher. Another bird that is notorious for being hard to approach, but def so worth it if you can sneak up on them.
Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Belted Kingfisher
If you want to hear a bird that sounds like a droid from Star Wars, the Bobolink is your guy. These birds are so strange but their song is truly unique and beautiful. Brown Thrashers are a really different looking bird I found quite a bit during the summer. They are in fact a brown bird, but they have really beautiful golden yellow eyes that really pop against that plumage.
Bobolink, Brown Thrasher
I really enjoyed photographing swallows this summer, and they were extremely plentiful at Lake Bella. I found three different species but in this post I’ll be showing two of them. The stunning blue Tree Swallow, and the slightly more drab but no less cute, Bank Swallow. Typically these birds are flying so fast through the air and it can be difficult to get a good shot. When they sit on a post or wire however, they make great subjects.
Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow
A really tricky and elusive bird for me to find was the Common Yellowthroat. These birds like to hide and make a lot of noise, but when you find one, you’ll know! They are a striking yellow as the name implies. And speaking of striking, there’s the Cedar Waxwing. This odd looking bird is uniquely colored and shaped, and make for such nice photos.
Common Yellow-throat, Cedar Waxwing
I’ll never get tired of posting pictures of hawks, and joining the list is the Red-tailed Hawk. I have a lot of this particular hawks photos and I love every single one of them. A really cool find for me was the Yellow Warbler. This little bird is very small and very yellow, and honestly just a little delight. They were tricky to get photos of but I did get some great shots.
Red-tailed Hawk, Yellow Warbler
The Sedge Wren was another challenge bird for me, and took me a while to find one. They are quite twitchy and fast tiny birds, and their brown coloring makes them blend in to a lot of foliage. The opposite of a challenge, is the Dickcissel. These birds were everywhere all summer long, and have a very distinct, and honestly kind of annoying sound they make. They are pretty birds, though!
Sedge Wren, Dickcissel
Rounding off this post is going to be the Clay-colored Sparrow, and the Willow Flycatcher. I just happened to see the Clay-colored Sparrow out of the corner of my eye in a field and thought it was something else but decided to snap a quick photo. Much to my delight it was a new bird! It was sort of the same situation with the flycatcher, just happen to see it on a branch driving by and snapped a photo for another new bird.
Clay-colored Sparrow, Willow Flycatcher
