Acorn Woodpecker - The Chick Has left The Nest!

 Last night or sometime this morning before 8:00 AM, the Acorn Woodpecker chick left the nest.  I was hoping to catch it on video, but I wasn't so lucky.  A few adult birds have been checking out the nest and hopefully they are planning to use it again.

Acorn Woodpecker Chick - To Leave, or Not To Leave?

 So is this the moment the Acorn Woodpecker chick leaves the nest?

Not yet, but this is the furthest I've seen it out of the nest.

Acorn Woodpeckers - Starting To See Babies

 I'm not sure how many baby woodpeckers are in the nest but you can see at least one in this video.

Baby Acorn Woodpeckers are getting bigger!

 The adult Acorn Woodpeckers can now feed the baby birds from outside the nest.

Acorn Woodpeckers - Family Feeding and Housekeeping!

 I have another video of some Acorn Woodpeckers with some interesting behaviors.  At the 0:17 mark, there are three adults bringing food to the nest.  They live in family groups of up to a dozen or more individuals, and they cooperate in raising young. I also noticed that they sometimes fly out of the nest with something white in their beaks.  You can see this at 1:03 and 1:12.  When an acorn woodpecker chick eats food delivered by one of its parents, it conveniently produces a “fecal sac” a few seconds later. The adult bird just has to wait a few seconds for the sac to emerge and then, out of the nest it goes.  Good housekeeping!

Acorn Woodpecker, Going and Coming Back

 Here is a short video of an Acorn Woodpecker going away and coming back to the nest.

Orioles Feeding Their Chicks

Here is some video of the Orioles and their nest. They are feeding the chicks and doing a little nest maintenance. The male bird has a black bib.

Lazuli Bunting Video

After photographing the Lazuli Bunting with the digital SLR, I set up the Birdcam in front of their favorite feeder.

Lazuli Bunting

More Orioles at the feeder

Hooded Oriole,

Here's a one minute and twenty one second video of  several Orioles at the nectar feeder.

Hooded Oriole,

Dueling Hummingbirds

The BirdCam caught these two Hummingbirds at the nectar feeder.

The Black-headed Grosbeaks have arrived

The Black Headed-Grosbeaks have arrived and they have been here for a couple of weeks.  There appear to be about a half dozen pairs coming and going to the bird feeders.  They really like this feeder as it has a mix of premium finch seeds and safflower seeds.

Here is an interesting fact, these are one of the few birds that can safely eat the poisonous monarch butterfly.

Black-headed Grosbeaks, male near the camera and female in the back.

Below is a short video of a male Black-headed Grosbeak flying to the feeder and hanging on for the ride!

Scrub Jay figures out Oriole Feeder!

This Western Scub-Jay has figured out out how to drink out of the Oriole feeder.  It helps that I had filled the feeder to the brim.

You can see this bird drinking in the video.

First Oriole for 2012!

I've had the BirdCam set up in front of this feeder for two weeks, waiting for the Orioles to arrive.  This afternoon the BirdCam videoed the first Oriole to show up in the garden.  No other pictures of Orioles, just this one video. 

A Surprise Guest in the Birdbath!

This Lessor Goldfinch has a surprise guest in the birdbath!

More activity in the birdbath

Here is a White-Crowned Sparrow getting a morning drink out of the birdbath.

White-Crowned Sparrow

A Lessor Goldfinch and two House Finches.

Lessor Goldfinch on left and two House Finches on right.

And I can always count on a Scrub-Jay to visit the birdbath.

Townsend's Warbler in the birdbath

Townsend's Warblers winter in Santa Barbara and here is one visiting the birdbath.

Townsend's Warbler

Townsend's Warbler

Here is a 39 second video.

California Thrasher returns to the Garden

It has been one year since I have seen a California Thrasher in the garden.  They live in the Santa Barbara area year round so I was surprised when they stopped coming to the garden.  I'm glad to see this one back in the garden.  The BirdCam took these pictures and video of the California Thrasher in the bird bath.

California Thrasher

California Thrasher

California Thrasher

White-crowned Sparrow returns

The first White-crowned Sparrow as returned for the season.  I have seen them in the garden, but so far I only have this one video taken by the BirdCam.

Gazebo Flower Show - Time-lapse pictures of the setup.

I mounted a time-lapse camera so that it looked down on the courtyard and photographed the setup, show and tear down of the flower show.  The camera was taking a picture every fifteen minutes from 9:00 AM till 6:00 PM, beginning two weeks before the show and ending a week after the show.  I ended up removing pictures that didn't have any changes from the previous picture and then used video editing software to make this four minute and eight second movie.

 

No Tail Pulling!

Watch the Crow pull the tail of a Band-tailed Pigeon in this short ten second video.