Welcome to my Bird Blog

I am a Georgia girl that moved to West Virginia in August of 2010. I thought it would be nice to put a bird feeder outside my window so I can watch the birds while I play on the computer. Boy, did I underestimate the joy that would bring me. Since then I have learned to identify about 15 different bird species by sight, something I never thought *I* would be able to do. It is so not me to know stuff like that. I can sit here for hours watching my birds and taking pictures of them. I love it!! I have posted so many pictures on facebook that I thought I should start a blog devoted to my bird watching so that I would have a better outlet to post my pictures and write about the joy it brings me. That way I don't feel like I'm always pushing it on my facebook friends. I'm going to try not to post more than 1 or 2 different birds per post, so some days I may write several different posts and other days I may not write any at all.

For my first post I'm going to tell you about the Carolina Chickadee and the Black-capped Chickadee. The Carolina Chickadee was the very first bird that I identified here in WV and it seems he can be a tough one to be accurate with. The Carolina Chickadee and the Black Capped Chickadee can be near impossible to tell apart. Usually their range should tell you what kind you're seeing, as they're very rarely found outside the range for their species. Well, it just so happens that I live right on the overlap zone in WV so it is possible that I may see both types and/or a hybrid of the 2. Some people say that the only true way to know which one you're seeing is to listen to its song. A Black Capped Chickadee should have a 2-note song, while a Carolina Chickadee has a 4-note song. Another way to sometimes differentiate is by their bib. Carolinas have a more defined black bib, while the Black-capped might not have such a defined line. I have some pictures of the different Chickadees I've seen here since August and I think I have pictures of both species. Keep in mind though that I'm an amateur. I always reserve the right to be wrong. :)

Here is what I have determined to
be a Carolina Chickadee.














And this is quite possibly a
Black-Capped Chickadee, although
I haven't gotten confirmation
from my bird forum, what bird.













I hope to feature a new bird each day, at least until I run out of new birds. I must tell you though that I do have favorites and I can't resist taking pictures of my favorites, so you really never know what you're going to get. I may gush at times, too, like over the European Starlings that have been visiting me this week. I love them. They're beautiful. Ahhh, but that's another post. :)

Happy Birding!