... in fact, I saw about nine of them. Here's what they looked like.
I was sitting in my backyard yesterday morning with my new Nikon Artillery Piece on a tripod, hoping to shoot some bathers when these little lovelies flew in and swarmed all over our lemon tree. The tree has whiteflies and from the looks of things, they were dining well upon those pestilential pests.
Identifying them is harder than photographing them. They have no distinctive markings and it's the wrong time of year to have juveniles. I went to the Birds of San Diego page, but couldn't find them. To me, the beaks tell me they're sparrows or finches among the perching birds, but the lack of markings is throwing me.
Phoebes, perhaps? The coloring would be right, but the beaks seem wrong. Hmm.
Whatever they were, I'm grateful they stopped by to see us. They can dine off of our plants any time they want.
They are cute little fellers, and look so industrious!
ReplyDeleteThe Cornell Lab of Ornithology has an online bird ID tool, and when I ran your little friends through their ID key, the "Bushtits"(pacific form) came up as a likely-looking match. They are the right size and shape, and it is apparently common to see flocks of them foraging in trees and bushes during the winter. The website even includes their calls, so you can have a listen and see if it sounds like them.
We don't have bushtits here, Michigan is way out of their range. We do get big flocks of redpolls and juncos, though, which are both about the same size. They migrate down from Canada, and apparently figure that northern Michigan is "south enough", so they stay here all winter.
Yes! They're the ones, officer! I'd recognize them anywhere! Arrest them immediately! Or maybe just give them some yummy bugs to eat.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tim.
As an aside, I re-uploaded the photos so they're much larger now. It turns out that drag-and-drop into blogger gives you small images whereas upload from computer gives you the originals. Live and learn.
So I had a look at the "Birds of San Diego", and wow, I had no idea San Diego was so birdy!
ReplyDeleteNice birdies!!
ReplyDeleteHere in the depths of winter in VA, i've got woodpeckers, an eagle, many vultures, and this odd royal blue bird that I can't identify.
Still like it when the hummingbirds come back. Last year I almost got them to eat out of my hand.
No question about it, you're right on the money, Tim. Here's more photos and info. I love their Latin name, too - Psaltriparus minimus.
ReplyDeleteYep, "minimus" is right. They look like, under the feathers, their bodies are about the size of ping-pong balls.
ReplyDelete(I've got nothing that makes sense for the "Psaltriparus" meaning, though. Putting it through a Latin-English translator gives me something that I can torture into "frugal female harpist", but that's about it.)