hummingbird ready to feed
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: For the #Birds

What’s up with the expression “for the birds?” Easy enough to google…it’s an expression that “became army slang for anything that was pointless, ridiculous, or simply without value to any but the most pathetic or least capable.”

Someone who announces, “that idea is for the birds” is saying the idea is useless or meaningless. A very negative connotation indeed.

Last time I looked, the birds I’ve seen are more than capable of surviving, feeding, and flourishing.

All negativity aside, did you know that February is National Bird Feeding Month? Yes, it’s really a thing!

The month was established in 1994 by Illinois Congressman, John Porter .

According to Feed the Birds, February is recognized as one of the most difficult months in much of the U.S. for birds to survive in the wild.

https://lansingwbu.blogspot.com/2019/02/february-is-national-bird-feeding-month.html

I thought we could all enjoy an early spring or at least dream about spring as the birds gather for feeding.

Feel free to dip into your archives or add any new images of birds, waterfowl, any feathered friends will do.

Your posts, photos, and creative ideas may be all about birds this week, but certainly won’t be “for the birds.” If you are lucky to already be enjoying birds visiting your neighborhoods and backyards this month, share the love and FEED them.

This guy was all over this feeder last year. I have to be careful in my backyard because all the trees attract large birds of prey like the kite below as well as owls and hawks. Apparently, the feeder attracts the pesky squirrels too.

Blue jay contorts to get some yummy treats!
Blue jay contorts to get some yummy treats!
Bird of Prey Kite
Neighborhood Kite Waiting

Several years ago, while in Baja, Mexico, I took this photo of a falcon that had just captured a fish from the Sea of Cortez. I watched in amazement as the bird wrangled the still flopping fish onto the cactus and prepared to feed! (Taken in 2013 with an older cell phone so photo quality is not great, but you get the idea!)

Falcon feeding on a fish
Falcon feeding on live fish

Our band of suburban turkeys always find something to feed on.

Neighborhood turkeys feeding in front yards

Even in February, Anna’s hummingbirds expect their feeder to be full of juice!

hummingbird ready to feed
Ready to eat!
Hummingbirds' quest for food
Quest for food
Is a hummingbird really ever satisfied?
Is a hummingbird really ever satisfied?

If feeding birds brings you joy this week, cheer someone up by sharing photos of our feathered friends by linking with Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy Challenge.

Woman and parrot
My daughter enjoying a bird display at Balboa Park in San Diego

Feel free to dip into your archives or add any new images of birds and waterfowl. Any photos of our feathered friends will do.

I am looking forward to your capturing their feeding antics or perhaps some close-ups of our bird visitors with your talented lenses and other creative ideas.

Have a great week!

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76 comments

      • Perhaps you are right–But at the moment our garden is “home” to a couple turkeys–who are being monitored by two crows. So I suppose our garden is for the birds? I just love it

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, those turkeys seem to be everywhere! Are you getting ready to plant your sunflowers? We are still getting some mid-30s low temps so I will wait for March before I plant them. I harvested a big mess of teddy bears so I am excited about this last sunflower garden here. You might not have read that we are moving to Spokane, WA early next year. But sunnies grow there too!

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  5. Lovely photos, Terri. The hummingbirds are fascinating to watch. I didn’t know February is National Bird Feeding month in the US. I always look out for birds on my outdoor walks. Toronto is on the bird migration path so we have a lot of birds making stops here. I recently saw a big hawk. There are also lots of ducks and trumpeter swans who don’t mind swimming and dipping in the cold lake (brrr).

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  7. I didn’t know that February was such a tough month for birds, although I think the ones in our area probably do okay. We’ve got all the brilliant blooms from the ornamental and producing fruit trees around, and the birds in my area seem to be very busy darting around. I’ve also seen lots of red-tailed hawks perching on my fence posts, which argues for a fair-sized rodent population, since they seem to be ignoring the songbirds. LOVE your turkey pic.

    I have no bird snapshot, but I do have a short story. When we were at McArthur-Burney Falls several years ago (highly recommended, btw, if you’ve never seen it), and a snag had caught near the top of the falls. A family of eagles had built a nest there. My post does have one of my own pics of the falls, but we weren’t able to get close enough to get a good pic of the birds. https://cathleentownsend.com/2016/02/09/we-are-eagles/. : )

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    • Thanks, Cathleen! In our area, the weather seems fairly mild this time of year, so the birds are well taken care of. With the winter blast hitting the East, those poor birds need all the help they can get. I can’t believe the eagles built a nest in that stream. I’ve been up there but it’s been over 20 years!

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  17. I’ve never heard of that expression ‘For the Birds’ – I thought this week’s topic was literally about birds!. However, your hummingbird photos are excellent by the way, so perhaps I wasn’t wrong adding my own bird pics?

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  24. Love all the bird pics! Such lovely creatures, even and maybe especially the kite – elegant and noble. We’ve been very lucky the last 10 years or so as several pair of peregrine falcon have found haven in the eucalyptus around our house. I love the soft whistle they call to each other. Usually the crows stay away when they’re here. They’re very hard to spot, usually posting them selves very high and under cover of leaves, so I haven’t been able to get even a fuzzy photo of them. Your neighborhood turkeys are a hoot – even if they’re gobbling.

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  28. Hi Terri, I had no idea about the meaning of this expression and did wonder when I saw the prompt for this week’s Sunday Stills, and I didn’t realise that there was a special month for birds in the US. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos with us. I love the one on top of the cactus, not the most comfortable place to sit!

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  33. Our winters are now so wet and mild that the birds seem to have plenty to feed on, Terri. However, during any cold snaps, we do leave something out for them.

    Birds seem to be the main feature of many British gardens all-year-round now. My favourite is the Robin. It’s seen as a winter bird (they are featured a lot on many Christmas cards in the UK), but we now also see them during the summer months. Here in the UK, they’re seen as ‘festive’ because of their redbreast. As children, my father told my sister and me that the robins were the messengers of Father Christmas. They were checking that we were behaving. It was a cool story that always worked.

    On the other hand, I know many people who have superstitions about birds, especially if they are in the house.

    I don’t seem to have any photos of birds (unless they are tiny dots in the sky). However, I was tempted to leave a video clip from my favourite Hitchcock movie, but it may frighten some of your readers. So, I’ll decline to leave the link and allow everyone to focus on the beautiful photography you have shared this week.

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    • Thanks, Hugh! We are experiencing a warm, dry February so the birds are out in force. On Monday I went out and bought two more bird feeders! My husband had been building our backyard deck, but the birdies are not deterred. What an interesting story about the robins. We see a lot of them here, too, but mockingbirds, blue jays and finches are most common. And of course the hummingbirds, although I haven’t seen much of them the last few days.

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  37. Such a good post and theme Terri –
    And the note about birds of prey remind me how we watched our very small puppies in the yard when we first brought them home –
    They were so tiny and some birds of prey were Circling the yard and so the boys and I were vigilant – then the pups grew and all
    Was well!
    Okay – wish I n you a wonderful rest of February and be back to join in with Sunday stills sometime this spring
    Peace

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  48. Love the pictures of your hummingbirds. It reminds me of the time my sister and I vacationed at my SIL’s place in Maine. We were having breakfast on the porch and my SIL was in a bathing suit that had brightly colored tropical flowers on it. A hummingbird flew around the corner and right up to her chest and started trying to get nectar from those flowers. We were hysterical watching her try to shoo the bird away without hurting it.

    I recently joined your Sunday Stills Challenge and here is my link for the birds. https://www.unfoldandbegin.com/whats-with-all-these-birds/

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