Certainly, I like all birds and all types of birding. It’s amazing to explore new places and new birds, and I love finding a new species in my own yard. But the ones already there contain a wealth of birdwatching potential, or even a chance at a wild new friendship (you see what I did there?).
It’s always exciting to see a new bird for the first time, and I love to find an unexpected bird in my backyard, but the regulars are beautiful, funny, and interesting to observe over and over. And most birdwatchers begin, over time, to start seeing our most frequent visitors to the yard as individuals with strong, unique personalities. It’s not uncommon, either, to see an especially dedicated birder calling their backyard birds by name. I proudly include myself in that group, whether it makes me sound like a crazy bird lady or not!
To the average non-birdwatcher, this probably sounds really weird – and possibly crazy – but getting to know the birds at your feeder personally adds a whole new aspect of birding. Befriending every individual gives you lots more visitors to watch for than constantly waiting for a whole new species, so for me, it doubles the joy of birdwatching.
When I point out my favorite birds to non-birding friends (no offense to the non-birding friends, of course), it typically goes like this:
Me: *wild pointing* “That downy usually comes to the suet with his girlfriend, over there! Ooh, and that robin has a nest in my neighbor’s yard!”
Non-birder: *blank stare* “What? Where? What are you talking about?”
Me: *impatient gesture at a little blob in a tree somewhere* “There, see! Isn’t he beautiful? That one’s the funniest little guy.”
Non-birder: “How do you tell him apart? He’s just a bird.”
For a experienced birder who’s used to seeing these birds daily, they can usually be told apart by slight variations in color and pattern, special habits, and distinctive personalities, but to most people, they all look the same. So pay attention to your birds! Does one have an unusual pattern on their feathers? Maybe they routinely come to the feeder at a certain time? Or perhaps it’s a downy woodpecker – each male has a slightly different red spot on the back of their head. Before long, you’ll have a mental database of certain charismatic birds that visit your yard – and just like that, you have a feathered family!
Here’s some of the members of my own feathered family:
A chickadee I call Hammer, who always pecks on the window feeder when he’s trying to get a seed.
A male Red-bellied Woodpecker named King, who’s rather flighty but an occasional visitor to feeders and a fan of hackberries.
A Northern Flicker called Fluff, who during the winter is fond of perching on a tree trunk, fluffing up until he’s barely even bird-shaped, and sitting there until it warms up a little. He’s made a guest appearance on this blog once already.
Honorary Birds:
An acrobatic red squirrel named Copper who appears addicted to hackberries and will go to any length to get them.
A grey squirrel with an incredibly long tail (named, naturally, Longtail) who likes to empty my feeders about every ten seconds. I’m too fond of him to hate him, unfortunately.
A raccoon named Bernie who during the summer robs my suet feeder no matter what I do to keep him out of it. The raccoon I think was his wife (who went by Bernadette) got hit by a car last August, but that didn’t stop his life of crime.
I enjoyed sharing my feathered (and not-so-feathered) family members with you. Feel free to comment about your own!