Camera Bird Feeder Fun!

 

A surprise Christmas gift (thank you Joseph and Tamy!) has added a new dimension to my birding hobby. 

It’s a bird feeder with a built-in camera that takes video or still shots. It is designed to be mounted on a tree but my immediate thought was how easy it would be for squirrels to get into it and eat all of the seed. 

I'm really liking the features and quality of this camera feeder, my first. Here's a link to it on Amazon. 

Instead of affixing it to a tree, I found a way to firmly attach it to this hanging basket stand that has long been in our backyard. Fits in nicely don’t you think? 

After charging the camera battery and putting the app on my iPad (and iPhone) soon enough there were visits from a few bird types, particularly Black-headed Cowbirds, Carolina Chickadees and Chipping Sparrows. I had been recently seeing Baltimore Orioles at my other feeders. Knowing their love of grape jelly, I placed a dish of jelly in the tray with the seed. 

In the background right is my long-time main bird feeder set up with its buffet of seed, suet, butter bark, jelly and more. Those feeders stay busy year round. 

Soon the jelly was in belly after belly of beautiful male and female Orioles! Some of them are banded. Look at the legs. 

I'm impressed with the video quality. It's especially good in the morning on sunny days. There is sound but it's only of so-so quality. 

I’m calling this one Bandy Randy for his two bands on each leg. Birds have long been tagged, going all the way back to the naturalist and artist John J. Audubon. 

Bandy Randy was back today (Jan. 27). 

According to this U.S. Geological Survey site, "individual identification of birds makes possible studies of dispersal and migration, behavior, and social structure, life-span and survival rate, reproductive success and population growth."  

Watch quickly this next clip to see three Orioles in the 20-second video. 

Next is a male Oriole that is not banded. He looks a bit wary that he has all this jelly to himself.

This Baltimore Oriole has something going on with the black spots on his or her head and neck. I first thought this a female with a disease or birth marks. 

Sharing the jelly doesn’t seem to be an option!

I’ve tried researching the black marks did not find anything that might explain. Until…

 I shared a clip of this spotted Oriole on the Facebook site Carolina Bird Photo Sharing Group. I received a few informed responses. The consensus is that this may be a youngster still developing the full grown male’s beautiful color palette. Someone else who has had Orioles caught and banded on his property said it is "virtually impossible" to differentiate between a juvenile Baltimore Oriole and an adult female. 

I guess you could call this the ugly duckling phase!  Tell you what, the birding hobby always offers new learning opportunities! 

This is definitely a female Baltimore Oriole that came for jelly at around 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 29.

There have been other types of birds captured on my candid camera. This was an exciting surprise: a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I needed help to positively identify. I have photographed this small bird at my feeders before. But that one had the eponymous red tuft of feathers. The guy on Facebook who helped me identify said sometimes the Kinglet doesn’t show its red head feathers. 

Here's a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet that I photographed in January 2018. See the small touch of red (or ruby)?
We had a very rare deep snowfall at the time. Check out my post from back then!

Here’s a cute Tufted titmouse…no wait…another Baltimore Orioles! 

OK, here again is a Tufted titmouse, this time it has the seed and shells to him or herself.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (below) enjoying some grape jelly. This morning (Jan. 29) I put out a hardy portion, as I finished off a bottle of Welch’s Concord Grape. 

In the next clip, a Chipping Sparrow is at the feeder then it takes off when the Yellow-rumpled Warbler drops in. 

Carolina Chickadee just checking out the scenery.

A pair of Chipping Sparrows enjoying the seeds. 

Brown-headed Cowbirds, interestingly, were the first birds to be recorded. This was a few days after Christmas. This is the male. I don't see these birds too often so that's what surprised me. 

Two males and a female Cowbird. Plenty of room up here! 

I first set the camera to record 10-second clips, but then realized 20 seconds would be better. 

On a recent rainy morning, a Pine Warbler hit the jelly dish. Many types of birds have a sweet tooth! 

Here’s a critter that is NOT welcome! If I catch a squirrel in the act I can remotely sound an alarm with the app. I have ordered barb wire, which I have on the pole and around the bottom of the feeders seen in the background of these videos. A squirrel recently had been getting to that food. A drastic measure has stopped that. 🤞 

I am sure more clips will be added here. Meantime I will keep supplying the grape 🍇 jelly.

Note at the bottom of the above image it says “A person wandering around.” That would be me. This camera isn’t just for the birds. It also provides 24/7 back-of-the-house security.