The Birders Report

Blue Jay photo by Bob Sheldon

This is a photo of a Blue Jay which many people get mixed up with Bluebirds, Western Scrub Jays or Steller’s Jays.  My friend Seabrooke wrote an exceptional post on the Blue Jay that I want you to read.  You can find her post here: Bold and Bossy. The Jays are members of the Corvidae family that includes Crows and Magpies.  We have the Gray-breasted Jay, Pinion Jay, Gray Jay, Western Scrub Jay, Steller’s Jay and Clark’s Nutcracker here in the West, whereas they have the Gray Jay and Blue Jay in the East.  I wrote a post last year on our western Fall Bird Watching Jays.

Belted Kingfisher Female photo by Steve Berliner

The female Belted Kingfisher is one of the few females that is more brightly colored than the male of the species in the avian world. You will most likely find these interesting birds sitting on a wire over a creek doing what they do best; catching fish. These medium size birds are expert fishers as they spy their prey from a perch overhanging the water below. It can be an overhanging branch or a telephone wire but you will see them looking intensely down into the water for a meal.

The Belted Kingfisher is a solitary bird except during nesting season when a pair will defend their territory against other kingfishers. A territory along a stream, brook, river, estuary, pond or lake will be guarded as well as the vegetation along the shoreline. This is where you will often hear the loud rattling call before spotting the bright white collar of this bird that, it seams, must have been the model for Don King’s barber. [audio:https://thebirdersreport.com/audio/BeltedKingfisherShort.mp3]

Belted Kingfisher Female photo by Tyler Allred

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Bluebird Pair Beginning Nesting Behavior

This Bluebird pair has been doing some house searching and decided to start building their nest in this birdhouse I built for my Mom.  Take a look at a previous post to see more in this series of photos.  Go to Camera Critters to see more critter photos.