You are right. That is one gaudy bird! Love it and wish we got a few more colorful birds at our feeder. What eye candy. I hope he shows up again at your feeder and you get some good pics to share. Thanks for posting. Diane

Thanks for not hollering about it being off-topic. I think rose lovers love birds, too. Viewing one of these guys, let alone up-close, is everyones' dream down here. I bet they nest--I've had a few glimpses of them previously. Thanks for the good wishes:)

I love it when people post pictures of birds or lizards or their cats. Not off topic at all, I don't think. I've not seen one of those birds before - so beautiful. Gean

Frankly, when I read the title I didn't realize it was a bird. I was floored when I saw the photograph of this gorgeous bird. We don't have anything even remotely this colorful in southern California. Lucky you, blue girl! I hope the little guys stay around in your area.

Ingrid

I love birds, too....but just about all I see around here are the usual "city birds" -- house sparrows, starlings, pigeons. But my favorite is my little boy Sammy. He's a 22yo DYH amazon parrot I've had since he was 7 years old. He's a little love-bug with me, but turns into an attack-dog around anyone else.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: A little video of Sammy

This post was edited by AquaEyes on Mon, Apr 29, 13 at 23:03

Oh how beautiful. The most colorful birds we have are hummingbirds and Steller Jays and an occasional Townsend Warbler.

Thanks for the link.

Diane

I think the flashiest birds I've seen in Northern California have been the flock of parakeets, and the flock of parrots that have naturalized here. I used to see the parrots quite often, when I was working at Apple, and then again when I was shopping at my local market. The market had palm trees ringing the parking lot and the parrots would come in and eat for a while. In my personal back yard, I've had Townsends Warbler and a pygmy nutthatch - both nifty little birds. Oh, and I have an Acorn woodpecker pair that live here, so I see them at the suet feeder every day. Fun birds!

Awwwww, my brother's cockateil, who he raised from an egg, would do the nibble/bite too when he stopped petting her. My family has had both softbills & psittacines for over 30 yrs. My doves rest their heads on my hand & close their eyes when I rub their heads. I have another bird who feeds me bits of her food & even spit a mouthful of water in my ear once!

If you have an opportunity to rescue a young starling, they are amazing--yeah, the despised starling. Mozart wrote a crazy musical piece that mimicked his pet's jabbering. And they can learn words, too.

P.S. I don't think Sammy has enough toys. He seems deprived ;-p

Hahaha....those are just the toys in Sammy's cage NOW. He has more in his "toy box" which get rotated into his cage every month or so.

:-)

~Christopher

That Townsend's warbler is pretty. And I saw the neatest show about acorn woodpeckers--how they carefully rotate the acorns in their larders to keep them from rotting--amazing.

I wish we had the Steller's jay as I love jays of all types. I'd love to see a green jay, but they're a deep south TX bird.

Mockers are loveable rouges, they are abundant, as are the cutie-pie little tuffted titmice. Too cute.

Here is a link that might be useful: cuttest little bird in the word

So beautiful. My husband traveled to Winnie Texas (High Island) to see those. Very special. Texas is a great state for birding. PB's migrate all the way to Central America every year. Brave little guys. They need a snack by the time they get to Texas in the spring. Bird feeders and rose gardens go good together.

Here in NorCal we have the migrating snow geese that land in the marshes to rest and feed during their travels. Miles and miles of white. We are on the flight path and we see their V's and hear the honking. Birds are amazing.

That is one colorful bird! You must have been shocked when you saw it, wondering if it was real. I love seeing birds. When I lived on Long Island we had many cardinals and redwinged blackbirds. Here in Georgia we have many bluebirds (they are the state bird of NY, but I never saw one until I came to Georgia:), Thrashers, woodpeckers and ruby throated hummers. This year we had a lot of cedar waxwings. They are beautiful birds. They swooped down en masse and devoured every berry on my pyrocanthia. Then they did the same for my neighbors. They don't stay here, but usually just fly through each spring.

Such a beautiful bird. And Sammy is a love.
kay

Well, one of the funniest things I remember seeing was a whole passel of birds and squirrels drunk on fermented dates and pyrocanthia berries--at least I guessed that's what it was. They were definitely drunk, and that's what they were eating. I'm sure they didn't think it was funny the morning after, though.

Our most interesting bird is the scrub jay. They have absolutely no fear of humans and will eat nuts and seeds right out of your hand. The next most interesting is the huge pilliated woodpecker. Their call sounds just like the birds you hear in jungle movies.

I've never seen a PB live and only occasionally do we get to see a finch in its loud colors. They're still in their winter feathers when they're down here.

Last year I had a titmouse w/o a wife who made love to himself in every car mirror and window reflection he saw. He visited every single window in the house as the sun moved over the house, and he pooped all over our cars. He finally found a mate which saved my sanity.

That is beautiful! I'd love to see all those colors on one bird in my yard.

The most colorful ones I have in my (large) yard are the bluebirds and the cardinals. The cardinals have taken over a tall, netting-fenced portico I have and get angry if I get too near it :) Now that's a birdhouse, lol! The bluebirds live in some hidden spot, but they love the open parts of the yard and sit on posts and things. They are so blue!

I see those cute little titmice and/or finches in a couple of enormous old maples I have. There's a whole colony of little guys way up there, and I love hearing them chat. Those are all tiny things, some colorful. It's fascinating :)

My favorites are the hawks, though. And bats! I saw two bats this year, and I'm so happy, because it's darned buggy out here when the sun is going down.

Yep, this rose lover is also a bird lover, though I don't know much about them except they are busy busy busy. That painted bunting is beautiful. I would fall over if I saw a bird like that.

I've had the doors open this spring and have several instances where the birds have flown into the house. I don't remember this happening any other times, but it happened several times this spring. It's hard to get them out once they're in the house!

Thanks for posting that beauty.