Snacking from a feeder is a male house sparrow

A male example of pretty much our most common backyard visitor. We’ve begun to pick out individual traits and name the ones that return regularly.

A chipping sparrow attempts to abscond with a seed... he got caught.

Another of our most common yard birds (NOT the band)… the chipping sparrow. We’ve had babies AND parents this year, but have no idea where the nest is.

A young female house sparrow looking bedraggled after the rain...

After a heavy storm, we had puddles in the yard that were perfect for splashing around in. A female house sparrow takes a break from the fun to dry out.

A female house sparrow searches for seeds in the grass

No, not the doctor. House sparrows are one of the most common birds in our yard. They’re always fun to watch, if you like birds…

A white crowned sparrow wants to play with me...

Today, my computer PSU blew up and I had nothing to do but take pictures. Fortunately, my wife was able to borrow some money to pick up a new PSU so I could actually post my photos.

We had heavy rains today, followed by a frenzy of birds feeding. I took a lot of pictures, so there are going to be a lot of birds over the next little while – you’ve been warned! This is a white-crowned sparrow that seemed like it just wanted to have a little fun.

A member of our family of chipping sparrows

We have many bird nests around our yard, and we haven’t yet put up our bird houses. One of the bird families nesting around our eaves are some chipping sparrows. This is one of the tiniest members of the group, one of the new babies who has just recently fledged out and learned to fly.

A chipping sparrow and his friends visit the aftermath of our bird feeder crash

I wish I could have got a shot of the cowbirds, as we always have lots of chipping sparrows… but these guys were cleaning up the mess from our bird feeder wind incident and didn’t get spooked every time a camera came out like thebrown-headed  cowbirds did.

What I believe (by process of elimination) is a Swamp Sparrow enjoying a seed from our backyard feeder

I’ve been set up for days to capture pictures of birds in our yard at our feeders, but it has taken a while for them to get used to the presence of both the camera and the feeders. When they finally began to feed they were very skittish, and quite difficult to catch between trips to the feeder from the eavestrough and back. This little one today seemed quite prepared to pose. I’ve searched through my reference books and the only thing that fits the description is the swamp sparrow. I’ll revise this post in future if I am able to learn more and if the identification is incorrect.