Birding in MA in conifers, and near human community

On Sunday, while visiting family in Massachusetts, I took the chance of slightly warmer weather to do some observations. Which also turned out to offer me a bird species that is not commonly seen in Vermont this time of year, the Eastern Bluebird.

Although otherwise this was not a birding experience with the highest quantity of observations, it was high quality for the species that were observed. I was fascinated on how the species of birds that were observed, behaved with each other, and who had dominance over a feed source.
The woodpecker seemed to have a direct thought when coming in to the feeder, it would hop back and forth between the trunk of the tree and the suet feeder. Once it have had its fill it flew off. To me it looked like the downy had slotted wings, especially when coming in to the tree to land
The bluebirds flitted around quite a bit more. They went from tree to tree and down to the ground for quite a while. They seem to have classic elliptical wings, and would rarely glide when going from tree to tree. They would not spend much time settled on a branch before flitting off again.

I was expecting to see more birds than I did, I was trying not to include the feeder very much but that was definitely where the birds were congregating. This makes sense though as it is the middle of winter and may not have that many food options at this time of year. On the day of observations it was clear and comparatively warm, I was observing mid morning. If I get a chance to again go back to this general location, I would move further into the woods to see whether I see a difference between the two locations. I would expect to see more birds like chickadees back there.

Posted on February 20, 2020 02:40 AM by rrhender rrhender

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)

Observer

rrhender

Date

February 16, 2020

Place

Stow, MA (Google, OSM)

Description

Two adult male Eastern Bluebirds seen in Massachusetts, image of singular adult male.

Photos / Sounds

What

Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

Observer

rrhender

Date

February 16, 2020

Place

Stow, MA (Google, OSM)

Description

A single downy woodpecker seen on a suet feeder in a tree. Unable to define gender, assumed female do to little amount of red on the head when the bird flew in.

Comments

Nice photographs and you entered your observations really well. My suggestion going forward would be more detail in the entry. In this case, more habitat information. Even though it was at a feeder, you could include details like how far from other houses it was, how close any trees were, what kind of trees, how big is the field if it's open, etc. I also would've loved to hear more when you were discussing flight patterns why you thought that was, like connect it to the bird species. What about those species life histories would make those flight patterns make sense?

Posted by chloesardonis about 4 years ago

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