Have you ever done bird watching? A couple of months ago on a Saturday, Bryan and I wanted to walk around and took some pictures to try out Bryan’s new lens. We drove to a near park. And little as we know, there are tons of different kinds of birds. The birds are always around us and we just have to look. So on that day, we saw snowy egret, great egret, red-tailed hawk, prairie falcon, red-winged blackbird, and a few hummingbirds. We really had no idea that all these birds living so close to us. Simply amazing.
Snowy Egret at Playa Vista Central Park
Allen’s Hummingbird at Playa Vista Central Park
Ever since then, I wanted to have a bird feeder. It is lucky that we live in a triplex, so we kind of have a front yard. We went down to a store calls Wild Birds Unlimted in Torrance. That store sells everything related to bird feeding. The store owner was very friendly. He asked us about our living environment and helped us pick out what we need to get started. We got a feeder and some seeds. Back home, we started by hanging up a tube feeder with sunflower chips and sunflower seeds. For the first two weeks, we didn’t have any bird at all. Finally, there were a few house sparrows one morning. Then, a few house finches joined in. After a few weeks, there are so many birds eating on our feeder every day. However Bryan and I wanted to get some different birds, so we went back to the store and got another feeder.
Two weeks ago, we hanged up a finch feeder with Niger seed. Within a few days, we saw a couple of Lesser goldfinches. They are bright yellow and small. They sing nice songs. They are beautiful and cute. We were so excited about that. I can’t wait until Fall, because I heard there may be American Goldfinches. Woo hoo!
It is very nice to do bird watching at home. Bryan and I like to watch them while sitting on the couch and surfing the web. Our next door neighbor can also see the feeder and he said he loves seeing the birds flying back and forth. He likes to watch them while he is watching TV. It is a really fun thing to do. I am glad that we got the feeder and exploring with this new bird watching hobby.
Our feeder and some Lesser Goldfinches
A Lesser Goldfinch was bugging another one.
Want to identified a bird that you saw?
There are two really good sites that will help you. What Bird and All About Birds.
Want to learn about bird feeding?
Wild Birds Unlimited will teach you everything you need to know. They also have stores that sell bird feeders, bird baths, seeds and many more. If not, it is just fun to walk around their stores.
I love this! My husband loves birds. Wondering if it’ll work if we put up a feeder here. Our skies are covered with crows mostly!
It should work in Malaysia too, but it is probably good to do some research to see what birds are in your area. It is because different birds eat different seeds. With different seeds, you may need a different feeder.
A quick tip for you, most seeds have shells, so be prepared to see seed shells on the ground when feeding. My feeder is hanged above soil, so we just kind of ignore the shells.
It is truly a really cool thing to see birds eating your seeds and hear their songs. Let me know how it goes. Have fun!
Bird watching – it reminds me of a science class in college where I had to hear the bird’s sound and name what bird it is… (I was taking lots of nature classes). I used to watch birds a lot back then. Beautiful snowy egret shot!
Thank you. The snowy egret flew in and stopped between my husband and I in the park. We were just a couple feet away. It was amazing to see a big wild bird that close. Your classes sounded awesome. It must not be easy to distinct birds by their calls, but sounds like a lot of fun. 🙂
Oh…how fun is that! I should take my kids to go Bird Watching some time. My neighbor loves bird and she has quite a few feeders hanging at her yard where we can see from ours. They are just so much fun to watch.
Yes, birds are fun to watch. There are just somethings you wouldn’t know until you observe their behaviors. Good that you guys got to watch your neighbor’s birds.
The goldfinches are so pretty! I’d love to see more colorful birds and more hummingbirds in our yard.
Oh yes, I love the bright yellow colors. They are so pretty to look at. I would love to get a hummingbird feeder one day too. I see a hummingbird stopping by my neighbor’s bird of paradise every day.
I love the colors of bird feathers. They are absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never gone bird watching, but I’ve heard it’s so much fun.
Yes, how pretty! We also have some house finches, which have red feathers. They are cute too. Bird watching is really fun. You should try it some day!
We like to go birding sometimes, too. My husband and I are both nature nerds, so this sounds like our kind of fun!