Name that bird

[thebratqueen]

The saga of the bomb-building birds continues. They're still working on their bomb, if the twigs and what have you that they carry up to the roof are any indication.

However it would seem that things have reached a stage where the birds are ready to advertise. I assume for a mate, because if Life has taught us anything, it's that animals only do

Comments

[killerweasel]

that looks like a starling to me- http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/160/overview/European_Starling.aspx

[thebratqueen]

Ooo! We may be on the right track here. That long whistling call sounds like what our guy is doing when he's advertising. Not exactly but similar.

[thebratqueen]

Based on what their calls sound like, methinks we have a starling on our hands.

[redbeardjim]

Yeah, that definitely looks like a starling to me.

[thebratqueen]

Icon love!

[aerynvala]

yeah, I vote starling. we have tons of them around here. Starlings, grackles, and house sparrows are really common around here. And we've got pigeons at the grocery store across the street. I love my little city birds.

[thebratqueen]

Sounds like I'm just missing the grackles for the full set!

[aerynvala]

I adore grackles. They're such good parents. The mom's will baby their kids for ever so long. I used to spend my lunch hour outside and toss the birds seeds. The 'babies' would be squawking and hopping around and then the mom would edge her way closer to me until she got within range of the seeds I was throwing. Hilarious. Ooh, we also have Mockingbirds. They're great! Very territorial though.

[mecurtin]

I'm sorry I didn't mention it before -- I could tell from your earlier descriptions that they were starlings. They're very "interspecifically territorial", as we say.

[auroramama]

Yes, I remember reading not long ago that mockingbirds may imitate other birds' calls in order to make cross-species territorial claims. Starlings do the same thing, so perhaps it's for the same reason.