Today I was home quite a bit and saw a plethora of birds in my yard including two "first of the year" birds at opposite ends of the color wheel - an indigo bunting (with his less colorful wife and children) and an oriole. Besides these two glamorous birds I saw red bellied woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers (feeding a fledgling suet right out of his mouth), downy woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, blue birds, gold finches, house finches, black capped chickadees, white breasted nuthatches, catbirds, chipping sparrows, ruby throated hummingbirds and a great crested flycatcher. The chickadees normally do not eat thistle seed. I've never seen them touch it before; not even in the winter. For the past couple weeks the chickadees have really been going after the thistle seed. I figure thistle seed is small enough nourishment for the chickadee to carry home to the fledglings in the cavity nest. Thistle seed might be easier for a young one to eat than a sunflower seed.
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