All photography in this video was in entirety the work of my own effort and artistic endeavors. This video is expressly for those individuals who love the beautiful music and sound created by Kenny G performing "Song Bird" and at the same time enjoy the beauty of nature and wildlife, and in this case, specifically, wild birds that populate the South Eastern area here in the Prentice Cooper State Forest located 8 miles north of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Category: MusicAll photography in this video was in entirety the work of my own effort and artistic... more
Beautiful Northern Cardinal sitting in the crab apple tree on this fine October 3, 2009 morning.
The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird. Theyre a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style: a shade of red you cant take your eyes off. Even the brown females sport a sharp crest and warm red accents. Cardinals dont migrate and they dont molt into a dull plumage, so theyre still breathtaking in winters snowy backyards. In summer, their sweet whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning.
Size & Shape
The Northern Cardinal is a fairly large, long-tailed songbird with a short, very thick bill and a prominent crest. Cardinals often sit with a hunched-over posture and with the tail pointed straight down.
Color Pattern
Male cardinals are brilliant red all over, with a reddish bill and black face immediately around the bill. Females are pale brown overall with warm reddish tinges in the wings, tail, and crest. They have the same black face and red-orange bill.
Behavior
Northern Cardinals tend to sit low in shrubs and trees or forage on or near the ground, often in pairs. They are common at bird feeders but may be inconspicuous away from them, at least until you learn their loud, metallic chip note.
Habitat
Look for Northern Cardinals in inhabited areas such as backyards, parks, woodlots, and shrubby forest edges. Northern Cardinals nest in dense tangles of shrubs and vines.
Cool Facts
•Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male.
•Many people are perplexed each spring by the sight of a cardinal attacking its reflection in a window, car mirror, or shiny bumper. Both males and females do this, and most often in spring and early summer when they are obsessed with defending their territory against any intruders. Birds may spend hours fighting these intruders without giving up. A few weeks later, as levels of aggressive hormones subside, these attacks should end (though one female kept up this behavior every day or so for six months without stopping).
•The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces, it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder.
•A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.
•The oldest recorded Northern Cardinal was 15 years 9 months old.Beautiful Northern Cardinal sitting in the crab apple tree on this fine October 3,... more
Red-bellied Woodpeckers are pale, medium-sized woodpeckers common in forests of the East. Their strikingly barred backs and gleaming red caps make them an unforgettable sight – just resist the temptation to call it a Red-headed Woodpecker, a somewhat rarer species that's mostly black on the back with big white wing patches. Learn the red-bellied woodpecker's rolling call and you’ll notice these birds everywhere.
Size & Shape
A sleek, round-headed woodpecker, about the same size as a Hairy Woodpecker but without the blocky outlines.
Color Pattern
Often appears pale overall, even the boldly black-and-white striped back, with flashing red cap and nape. Look for white patches near the wingtips as this bird flies.
Behavior
Look for Red-bellied Woodpeckers hitching along branches and trunks of medium to large trees, picking at the bark surface more often than drilling into it. Like most woodpeckers, these birds have a characteristic undulating flight pattern.
Habitat
Red-bellied Woodpeckers are common in many Eastern woodlands and forests, from old stands of oak and hickory to young hardwoods and pines. They will also often venture from forests to appear at backyard feeders. You can find this species across most of the forests, woodlands, and wooded suburbs of the eastern United States, including oak-hickory forest, pine-hardwood forest, maple and tulip-poplar stands, and pine flatwoods. It’s a bit more common in river bottoms and wetlands, in the south of its range, and at elevations below about 2,000 feet.
Cool Facts
•You may sometimes see Red-bellied Woodpeckers wedge large nuts into bark crevices, then whack them into manageable pieces using their beaks. They also use cracks in trees and fence posts to store food for later in the year, a habit it shares with other woodpeckers in its genus. Starling. In some areas, half of all Red-bellied Woodpecker nesting cavities are taken over by starlings.
•For birds that nest in cavities, nest holes are precious turf. Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been known to take over the nests of other birds, including the much smaller (and endangered) Red-cockaded Woodpecker. But more often they’re victims to the aggressive European Starling. As many as half of all Red-bellied Woodpecker nests in some areas get invaded by starlings.
•You may occasionally see a Red-bellied Woodpecker flying quickly and erratically through the forest, abruptly changing direction, alighting for an instant and immediately taking off again, keeping up a quick chatter of calls. Scientists categorize this odd behavior as a type of play that probably helps young birds practice the evasive action they may one day need.resources in one area.
•A Red-bellied Woodpecker can stick out its tongue nearly 2 inches past the end of its beak. The tip is barbed and the bird’s spit is sticky, making it easier to snatch prey from deep crevices. Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in slightly different places on their territory and maximize their use of available food.
•The oldest known Red-bellied Woodpecker was 12 years 1 month old.
Food
These birds often stick to main branches and trunks of trees, where they hitch in classic woodpecker fashion, leaning away from the trunk and onto their stiff tail feathers as they search for food in bark crevices. When nesting, males choose the site and begin to excavate, then try to attract a female by calling and tapping softly on the wood around or in the cavity. When a female accepts, she taps along with the male, then helps put the finishing touches on the nest cavity. At feeders, Red-bellied Woodpeckers push aside most bird species other than Blue Jays.
Nest Description
Red-bellied Woodpeckers lay their eggs on the bed of wood chips left over after excavating their nest cavity. Nest holes are 22 to 32 centimeters deep, with a cylindrical living space of roughly 9 by 13 centimeters.Red-bellied Woodpeckers are pale, medium-sized woodpeckers common in forests of the... more
Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and huge, rectangular excavations in dead trees announce its presence in forests across the continent.
•The Pileated Woodpecker digs characteristically rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These excavations can be so broad and deep that they can cause small trees to break in half.
•A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. It will defend the territory in all seasons, but will tolerate floaters during the winter.
•The feeding excavations of a Pileated Woodpecker are so extensive that they often attract other birds. Other woodpeckers, as well as House Wrens, may come and feed there.
•The Pileated Woodpecker prefers large trees for nesting. In young forests, it will use any large trees remaining from before the forest was cut. Because these trees are larger than the rest of the forest, they present a lightning hazard to the nesting birds.
Found in deciduous or coniferous forests with large trees.
Eats insects, primarily carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae, fruits, and nuts.Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most... more
Enjoy the peaceful setting of a chipmunk stuffing his cheeks and his bird friends as they begin the day at a breakfast table I have prepared for them.Enjoy the peaceful setting of a chipmunk stuffing his cheeks and his bird friends as... more
Eastern Towhee - eastern states only. The Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, is a large sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the Spotted Towhee were considered a single species, the Rufous-sided Towhee, sometimes called a chewink. Adults have rufous sides, a white belly and a long dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red, white for birds in the southeast. Males have a dark head, upper body and tail; these parts are brown in the female. Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States. There has been one record of this species as a vagrant to western Europe; a single bird in Great Britain in 1966. These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation. They mainly eat insects, acorns, seeds and berries.Eastern Towhee - eastern states only. The Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, is... more
Eastern Towhee - eastern states only. The Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, is a large sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the Spotted Towhee were considered a single species, the Rufous-sided Towhee, sometimes called a chewink. Adults have rufous sides, a white belly and a long dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red, white for birds in the southeast. Males have a dark head, upper body and tail; these parts are brown in the female. Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States. There has been one record of this species as a vagrant to western Europe; a single bird in Great Britain in 1966. These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation. They mainly eat insects, acorns, seeds and berries.Eastern Towhee - eastern states only. The Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, is... more
There are several of hungry birds trying to get on this feeder. I am not sure yet of what kind of birds these are, but I will update once I find out. The red colored ones are males and the darker ones are the females.
