A couple of months ago I set up a feeder in my back yard and even tho nothing out of the ordinary has shown up, it's been fun watching the birds that do show up, their interactions with each other, with their fledglings, etc. Because I was pretty sure the squirrels would make short work of it I started with a cheap plastic gazebo model from Cdn Tire but it's actually held up very well (squirrels notwithstanding!). Lots of sparrows, chickadees, cardinals (see below) and goldfinches along with the occasional cowbird(?) and a red breasted nuthatch that shows up near noon just about every day. I do see some migrants during the spring and fall so I'm hoping things will get more interesting later on.
Last month a pair of cardinals showed up with a small gray bird that would remain on the ground below the feeder while both the male and female would take turns feeding it; fun to watch (no pictures unfortunately) but I'm pretty sure the baby bird was not a cardinal. Anyway, this evening I opened the blind about a foot to check on the feeder and a small gray bird flew into the window right in front of me then flew over to the lilac bush where it was promptly attended to by a female cardinal who was at the feeder when this happened. If it's not a cardinal, what kind of bird does this sort of thing??
