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Nighthawks are insect eaters. They are not hawks at all they are just called that. Barn Owls are the champion mouse and rat eaters killing dozens a night per bird. Barn Owl numbers are decreasing seriously though.
bbbbbbbbb A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Thorny, I just thought of another question. You told me about the California thrasher. Why is it called a thrasher? Does it thrash something? Like a bower bird builds a bower? Also, I wonder why "towhee". About the origin of the name.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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I searched, and so far I can't find the origins of "Thrasher" It was used for birds in England and Europe and, just a guess, maybe they hung around the thrashing floors to pick up loose seeds of grain. I have NO idea about Towhees either. Nighthawks eat flying nighttime insects like mosquitoes and moths. Nighthawks migrate to Mexico and South America also, so you might have seen a straggler. OR, you might have seen another owl. They look a lot like hawks when they fly. OR, it could have been a hawk trying to sneak and stay up a LITTLE later than its usual bedtimes without getting caught by its parents.
bbbbbbbbb A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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I was thinking that towhee might be an Indian word. Unless there are European towhees. Thrashing floors-good thinking and sounds like it could be true. The bird that looks like a hawk at night makes a short screech, while the owls hoot. OR, do barn owls screech and hoot both?
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Now that is a really pretty bird ! I love the satiny green. I wish our birds here had more color-mostly we have all brown birds with the occasional blue jay, very rare to see one where I live on the coast. Mostly they're in the mountain areas. There's a road runner who lives in the canyon behind my condo, really cool. Thornius, I always thought that robins are the ones in kids' books-black with red chests. We have a sparrow here that has an orange chest and head, is that a robin? Does California even have real robins?
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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And you DO have Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, too, Deborah.
You DO have American Robins in your area, TOO. Your Sparrow with an orange head and chest sounds like a sub-species of House Finch. The males have a red head and chest but there is a sub-species with and orange head and chest.
bbbbbbbbb A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Deborah. Here is a picture of BOTH sexes of House Finch. House Finches are found in ALL areas of the U.S. I took this picture on my front porch a caouple of years ago.
Male (Left) and Female (Right) House Finches
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From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Thorny, that sure looks like the orange chested one, and yes, he always has the wife with him ! You mean the robin IS black with a red chest? So then this orange guy isn't a robin, he's a finch. I have to admit, I'm getting pretty darned interested in this bird thing nowadays. I think it's because I've never had a bird feeder in my life and now there all all of these guys showing up. It's alot of fun.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Gailo, I know we have meadowlarks, they're my second favorite bird, the first being the mockingbirds with their free nightly concerts. The one I THINK is the meadowlarks I can hear from the fields/canyons-is it black with a yellow chest? Sometimes that one sits on the fence but they never get in the trees. We have ruby-crowned kinglets here???? Never have seen one. As for shore birds, I am dreadfully and horribly and lifelong afraid of the ocean and NEVER go to the beaches. In fact when it appears on the horizon when I'm driving, I have to look away, the phobia is that bad. Wouldn't go to Sea World if you PAID me ! So I will never know what shore birds we have, except seagulls which come to our malls. We have an occasional white crane or egret who walks up the street sometimes. A lovely thing to see, and she? walks like a queen, slow and head up proudly.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Gailo, the towhees are great friends. A pair is here every day for food and water. Talk about clean ! They bathe a long time, over and over, even when it's getting dark. I notice that they refuse to eat from the feeder, so I put their seed on the patio floor. Mourning doves eat off the ground too, and won't touch the feeder. Our towhees are the suburbs ones, our mountain ones are endangered. I think it was Thornius who told me that.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Deborah. some birds, like Doves, Sparrows, Cardinals and Jays are platform (Flat surface, like a table, or the ground) feeders. Other birds are tube feeders, like finches. And some, (Finches included), just don't care as long as the food is available. It is best to offer a variety of food and different types of feeders and to use the food that is made for that type of feeder. The so-called Wild Bird seed (that has the white millet, like canary food) is best used on the ground for Sparrows, Juncos, Doves and other platform feeding birds. Black Oil Sunflower Seed (the BEST overall seed to use, ALL seed eating birds LOVE it) can be used in platform OR tube feeders but works best in tube feeders.
If you are getting interested in getting more involved in birdwatching you will need good reference books and online sources. The best field guide in book form, (and the newest) out there, is The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of North America. They have an Eastern (mine) and a Western edition, although there is a lot of overlap between the two. They also have an edition that covers ALL of the U.S. and Canada. You will also need a good pair of binoculars 8X30 are a good strength to use. And I recommend the BEST digital camera YOU can afford. Mine costs about $300.00, but many members on Birders World save up for several years to get a digital camera system costing $2,000.00 or more. I have seen a very powerful one for about $500.00 that I have been drooling over.
My favorite websites to use for birds are, eNature.com and Google Image Search.
My favorite birding site is the forum at birdersworld.com. Both Gailo and I are members of that forum. We have some OUTSTANDING members there including a 13-year-old child birding prodigy named Lucas, who lives in Nova Scotia, Canada and goes by the name, Coppersmithbarbet. He was the youngest member EVER, asked to participate in a bird research camp this Summer.
bbbbbbbbb A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Wow ! Impressive post and thanks ! About binoculars, the birds are right in my face, so I wouldn't need them. For now anyway. Oh, so that's why some of the birds like to eat from the ground, they're platform eaters, like chickens. That's cool about a young boy being interested, refreshing, isn't it? I have a page in eNature but I can't use it because I can't log in to add species, I can't figure out how to add something called a cookie. But my page is named and everything. I'm Backyard Wildlife Habitat certified and meet all the requirements. I'm proud of the certificate and have it framed on my desk here. Sure wish I could do the cookie thing !
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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The food I use is Kaytee wild bird seed. Good or bad? My Western desert cottontail rabbits LOVE it too. The rabbits eat only grass, quartered apples and the birdseed. I don't know if eastern rabbits eat your gardens, but here at least the storybook rabbits who eat carrots, spinach, lettuce and so forth is a myth, a story for sure. Mine won't touch any of that. My favorite boy, 4 years old now, likes graham crackers, but I give him a small piece only occasionally as a treat.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Kaytee is a GOOD brand! I buy whatever's cheapest. Rabbits do NOT like carrots! They do however LOVE lettuce, weeping willow branches, clover, apples, and CHOCOLATE!!!!
bbbbbbbbb A bird in the hand......can sometimes be a mess.
From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Your rabbits eat chocolate? I thought it's toxic to all animals except some cocoa bean eating monkey. Do you mean your wild rabbits or tame pets? The way I learned that rabbits like birdseed is that years ago I had a birdfeeder in a tree but no birds used it. I kept hanging it lower and lower, and one night saw a rabbit pulling it down and eating the seeds. So from then on it was true love and I feed the rabbit and her family and friends every evening. Figured out apples by the process of elimination-just kept tossing onto the clean grass different foods 'til I saw the one they like-apples. BTW, they won't touch the green ones, which I bought because they're cheaper. They will eat only Washington Delicious and Galas. People freak out to see how calm the rabbits are and how close they come to me. What I love best is their trust, which has taken YEARS. When we hear a dog bark somewhere, they all get scared, but when I talk soothingly they calm down and resume eating. Talk about a thrill. Do yours drink water? Westerns won't touch it, even on the hottest days. I keep the grass they eat soaking wet-much to the horror of our water folks, I'm sure.... (And tough turnips!)
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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Deborah, the western meadowlark is one of my favorite birds too. I used to live in the country in Clovis, CA, before my husband retired and the meadowlark's song were the most beautiful sound during the day.
I have eastern towhees in my woods here. They are pretty shy and I only see them in the winter when we have snow. Then they come to the feeder. I had to take my feeders down because rats came. I am trying to decide where to put them this winter. I think far from the house as we killed 14 Norway rats. I didn't want to kill them because I thought there was just one and he was cute but then I saw smaller ones and then they tried to chew into the house. The pest control guy said it is because we live near the water. They are the wharf rats. They loved birdseed too.
Wow you are afraid of the ocean! I am respectful but not afraid. The shorebirds in CA are so plentiful. When our son got married in Santa Barbara, I saw and photographed night herons, a willet, long billed curlews, brown pelicans, brown gulls, grebes etc. It was fantastic.
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My pet male lop-eared rabbit, Two Bean Bags has been eating semi-sweet chocolate drops with me for a year. I see no harm so far. He LOVES them. And he LOVES Apples, too.
TWO BEAN BAGS
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From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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Gailo, I had some bad experiences as a child and had dreadful nightmares all of my life until I began to pray about them and now I'm nightmare free ! (But I still will not ever go near the beach). Thornius, what a cutie ! What's the reason for his name-his ears? Does he eat real rabbit food? Is it true that rabbits can be litter box trained? I wonder how that's done, the teaching them part.
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From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
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We bought Two Beans for my 5 year old grandson and when we asked him what he wanted to name the bunny, he looked around the room and saw his two bean bag chairs by the wall and said, "I will name him Two Bean Bags." That has been his name ever since. He does eat real rabbit food. I buy 50 pounds of Manna Pro rabbit food at Tractor Supply Company for $10.00. a fifty pound bag lasts him 3-6 months. All rabbits litter train themselves. They find one area they want to use and use that area from then on. Two Bean's area is the back right corner of his cage. He runs through the house like a dog or cat but LOVES his cage and spends 2/3 of his time in it and always goes to his cage to use the bathroom. Rabbits don't have to be taught they are 10 to 100 times cleaner than a cat and delight in constantly grooming themselves. They are EXTREMELY particular on the arranging of familiar items, and I have had Two Beans attack and bite me furiously if I mess up the arrangement of his cage or toys. (Had to go to the ER for stitches for the bites, too. Those bunny teeth are SHARP!!! )
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From: Nashville, TN | Registered: May 2005
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