A medium sized black bird with a white belly and white patch on its wings forages for twigs for its nest. Its normally black wings shine cyan blue in the light.
#BirdOfTheDay #blue #magpie #birdsofFrontRange
What's black and white and blue all over?
A magpie in the wind!
Ar! Ar! Bird humor!
From 3/21/2025
A blue jay flies off with a peanut in its mouth. It has only just taken off, so bothe its wings and tail are spread for maximum lift.
#BirdOfTheDay #blue #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling
I was 20 before I saw a blue jay along the Front Range.
Two adult sandhill cranes srand facing each other, wings fully outstretched but tilted vertically, beak tips just touching. A juvenile walks to the left of them.
#WingsOutNotFlying #birdsofBluesky #birdsofFrontRange #BirdOfTheDay
Two sandhill cranes courting. 3/2016 Monte Vista NWR, San Luis Valley, Southern Colorado
A Canada goose with it's bill open in a honk.
#BirdOfTheDay #openbeak #birdsofFrontRange
This Canada Goose was making sure EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS THIS IS HIS TERRITORY! Thank you for your attention to this matter!
A medium-sized bird perches on a small branch. The bird has reddish sides, black wings, tail and head. White spots on its wings give the bird its name - Spotted Towhee.
#BirdOfTheDay #tricolor #birdsofFrontRange
Male Spotted Towhee scratching in the leaves for breakfast.
A downy Great Horned Owl chick sits on a branch and looks to the right of the photograph, while a second GHO chick sits to the right. The second chick has twisted its head almost upside down to get it within range of the needle sharp talons on one foot. One of the talons looks like it is scratching the rim of the eye itself.
#PreenersandScratchers #BirdofTheDay #BirdsofFrontRange #GreatHornedOwls
A Great Horned Owlet watches as its nest mate takes a needle-sharp talon to scratch its eyelid.
From April 2025
An all black medium sized bird stands in the snow in front of a chunk of granite. In its beak is a beak-full of wet dog kibble while it glares at the viewer to make something of it.
#BirdofTheDay #LookingAtYou #BirdsofFrontRange
#AmericanCrow
Nobody does a glare like a Crow with it's beak full of wet dog kibble.
Two ducks floating on still water look somewhat accusingly directly at the viewer. The bird on the left is brown with a gray head and spots on her underside. She has a white eye ring sweeping back from her face. The bird on the right looks like a child went crazy with the markers -- it is black on it's back and wings, brown on its belly. But it's head is what is really striking -- the basic head is black, but the crown is green, sweeping back to a flip. It has a white ring around its neck that extends up to a line that curves up to just below its red eye. Its beak is orange.
#LookingAtMe #BirdOfTheDay #BirdsofFrontRange
Pair of Wood Ducks keep a wary eye on my big lens as they paddle in to shore.
Smallish brown bird sits on naked twigs of a shrub, facing away from viewer, but looking back over its shoulder. Its head is russet with a white eye streak and moustache. Its beak is gray.
#TreePerchers #BirdOfTheDay #birdsofFrontRange
Lark Sparrow May 2025
Not perched in a tree, but a mountain mahogany shrub that hasn't leafed out yet.
Gray duck with a brown head and black bill, and a vivid yellow eye looks disapprovingly at the photographer. Her reflection isn't any more impressed than the living duck is.
#BirdOfTheDay #reflections #Goldeneye
#BirdsofFrontRange #RestingGoldeneyeFace
This female Common Goldeneye doesn't look too impressed with me. Neither does her reflection.
A showy duck - green head and mullet, red eye, orange bill, white mutton chops, russet chest, tan sides and white belly (whew!) Does a tail stand ind still water by rearing up and flapping his wings.
Got out this morning in between wind storms to find this male Wood Duck showing off for the ladies. #BirdsOfBluesky #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling
Small gray bird stand on a rock in a fast moving stream with its toes just in the water. The water is reflecting some light, but the image is overall grey. The bird has a very short tail and slightly upturned black beak.
#greyday #birdsofFrontRange #BirdOfTheDay #dipper #smallbirdsaturday
American Dipper loves low light.
Small borb perches on a twig. The bird is tannish on the chest, gray wings and back, black head with a white mask running from its tiny black beak to the back of its neck.
#BirdoftheDay #TwigsAreUs #Chickadee
#BirdsofFrontRange 🌿
This little borb was flitting along the creek last month, but graciously paused on a twig long enough for me to get *one* good shot.
A medium-small gray hawk with a russet chest and legs, white-ish face, striped under wings and thin yellow legs crouches over a furry something beneath it. The hawks wings are half spread to keep other hunters from snatching its prize.
#wingsopennotflying #BirdOfTheDay #birdsofFrontRange #coopershawk
A Coopers Hawk hoods over a baby bunny it just pounced on.
Focus is on a Great Horned Owl perched on a branch in the foreground. An American Robin is on a branch in the background.
A Great Horned Owl perched on a branch in the foreground. Focus is on an American Robin on a branch in the background.
The Great Horned Owl turns its head to see the American Robin behind it.
And now there is just the Great Horned Owl perched on a branch in the foreground -- the Robin took the hint and flew off.
#BirdOfTheDay #MixedPairs #BirdsOfFrontRange #Owls
#GreatHornedOwl #AmericanRobin
A Great Horned Owl and an American Robin ... until there is just the Great Horned Owl.
April 1, 2025
A male duck paddling in calm water. The body of the duck is two tones of brown, the wings are dark. The head is mostly black, with green swooping up from its forhead across its crown to end in a mullet at the neck. White muttonchop markings, white bill with orange nares and bright red eyes complete the incredible coloration.
#plumescrolling #birdsofFrontRange #birdsofBluesky
A beautiful day - I needed to get outside. Am glad I did - Wood Duck at a local pond.
A female/juvenile broadtailed hummingbird is pushing its beak into a closed red tubular flower on a stalk of Agastache.
#BirdOfTheDay #PerfectLighting #birdsofFrontRange #hummingbird
Last summer was an awesome year for photographing hummingbirds!
Female/juvenile broadtailed hummingbird feeding on Agastache plant.
Raptor with grey head and back, eyebrow streak, and thick dark stripes on reddish chest perches ob a branch. It's brown eye looks at the viewer.
#BirdsOfBluesky #birdsofFrontRange #merlin
Was going through my photos from around the neighborhood from the last few days found one I didn't recognize. Merlin app says Merlin falcon! If so, lifer!
And rare for this time of year.
#WideOpenWings #BirdOfTheDay #hummingbird #BirdsOfFrontRange #TongueOutThursday
A female Broadtailed Hummingbird was darting around some ornamental yucca plants. It came straight at me, then saw me and ... Air brakes deployed! It stopped literally just a few inches from my lens.
From July 2025.
A small bird with brown back, pinkish-orange sides and chest, white belly, gray head, pinkish beak, and dark eyes, stands on the surface of snow.
#borb #BirdOfTheDay #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling #iNat
Juncos are the borb-iest.
Pink-sided Dark-eyed Junco from 2022 12 22. You know, back when we had snow.
A very black American Crow sits on a medium branch. It is puffed up and cawing at my dogs beneath the tree (not shown).
#BirdOfTheDay #corvid #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling 🌿
This crows feathers were ruffled as he was cawing his displeasure at my dogs.
What is it about dogs and corvids mouthing off to each other? Both too smart for their own good, I suspect.
A small gray bird stands belly deep in a rushing stream. It has plunged its head into the water, causing droplets to spray as a wave breaks over it.
#BirdOfTheDay #waterdroplets #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling #iNat
American dipper showing off its borbiness while it plunges its head into a rushing stream.
A small round birb sits in the snow. It is grey with a white chest and belly. It has a dusting of snow on its little pinkish beak.
#BirdOfTheDay #plumescrolling #birdsofFrontRange There aren't many bird I find #cute, but this little birby Slate-colored Junco, aka "snowbird," does it for me.
From 12/22. You know, back when we had snow.
Head shot of a bird with alternating brown and white stripes from the top of his head to his chin. His small sharply pointed beak is covered with bits of purple berry skins.
#collectingfood #BirdOfTheDay #plumescrolling #birdsofFrontRange
Song Sparrow with berry mash all over his beak. Can birds lick their beaks clean, or is this a reason why they wipe them on things?
A cedar waxwing hangs upside-down from a slender branch surrounded by fruit, as it stretches for a crabapple.
#birds&berries #birdsofFrontRange #BirdOfTheDay
Cedar Waxwing going for the perfect dried crabapple!
Two big Bald Eagles perch in a tree above the viewer. On looks majestically into the distance. The other looks at the viewer with lunch in mind.
#BirdOfTheDay #blackandwhite sort of. #birdsofFrontRange #iNat
Met a man over from England on the trail today, here for a funeral but birding to relieve the stress. He was very excited when we showed him a pair of Bald Eagles. Glad we could lift his spirits a bit.
Small grey bird in profile on a shrub who's buds are just about to open. The bird has a white head wth stripes on its crown, across its eye and down from its black bill to its chest.
#BirdOfTheDay #Poecile #iNat #birdsofFrontRange
Mountain Chickadee from foothills west of Denver, CO.
May 2014
Duck with brown mottled feathers has her orangish bill in the water. The water is moving so fast it has created a bow wave that is washing over her face up to her eyes.
A brown duck fliats in fast moving water. Delicate brown patterning covers this duck's head and chest. His black bill has a fringe along its lower edge, reminiscent of a whale's baleen, and used for the same purpose.
#BirdOfTheDay #ducks #birdsofFrontRange #plumescrolling
Female gadwall strains for food in a fast moving creek, while the male shows off the comb on his bill that lets them filter out goodies in the water. Did not know that about dabbler ducks before these photos.😉
In the upper left corner is a solitary berry amid several small shrub branches. An American Robin is crouching profile on a small branch in the lower right corner of the picture. It wants that berry and it's figuring out how best to get it.
#favoriteofthemonth #BirdOfTheDay #birdsofFrontRange
American Robin about to go for the last berry on the shrub.
