Male house finch
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Watching and Feeding the #Birds

birdhouse graphic

Welcome to my last two-week Sunday Stills challenge. This post covers January 26-February 8. I will resume my weekly photo challenges beginning Feb 9th with the monthly color challenge “ROSY RED” in time for Valentine’s Day.

February is known as Feed the Birds Month, mainly because of the inclement weather typically found in the northern hemisphere. February 3rd was designated as National Feed the Birds Day to kick off the entire month.

Dark-Eyed Junco Feeding Banquet Style
Dark-Eyed Junco Feeding Banquet Style

Feed the Birds Day is celebrated to raise awareness of the extra help birds need right before spring when their winter food stores start running out.

Local Arizona Birds

During our five-week stay in the Scottsdale, AZ, area, there was no shortage of birds and waterfowl at the various parks and water ranches. The warm desert air means local birds are always well-fed!

I was ecstatic to discover and see two new-to-me birds in Arizona’s Phoenix area. The Vermilion Flycatcher’s range is found in Mexico and into the southwestern U.S. I saw this beauty at the Gilbert Water Ranch.

red and black vermilion flycatcher
Vermilion Flycatcher

On a visit to the Salt River, I caught this gorgeous bird known as Phainopepla or silky flycatcher. This species is found in Central America and the US Southwest.

Black Phainopepla bird
Phainopepla

“Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” — John Lennon

Public Art Birds

Desert Breeze Park in Chandler, Arizona, is home to a hummingbird habitat. The park is free to stroll through, and visitors can see hummingbirds enjoying volunteer-maintained, pesticide-free plants that attract hummingbirds (and butterflies) year-round. Artist Joe Tyler sculpted the iron arch that features a 3-foot-long hummingbird, shown below. I tried to capture two hummers that visited the habitat, but they were shy. Glad the big fella was available.

hummingbird sculpture
Hummingbird sculpture

In Fountain Hills, where our trip began and ends, Fountain Park boasts a variety of beautiful sculptures. This one is called “Vigilance,” and it describes the nesting habits of the Indigenous Red-Tailed Hawks. Sharp-eyed readers might see the heron sculpture captured within the circle.

red tailed hawk sculpture

“At a staggering 150 pieces, Fountain Hills is home to one of the largest public art collections in the state of Arizona!” Source

Back at Home

“Birds chirping around you is a beautiful realization that life is incredibly good. Let this sound be a gentle break in your routine.” ― Hiral Nagda

dark eyed junco
Dark-eyed Junco caught in the act

Back home, I’m sure the backyard birds are missing their free sunflower seeds. I have no new images to share at this publication date, but I’ve included a few from last February. Most of our winter birds are ground feeders, but the Northern Flickers prefer the suet feeders.

Northern Flicker and sparrow
Northern Flicker and sparrow

According to my Ring camera and my trusty weather app, we haven’t had much snow back home. Although winter in Northeastern Washington is far from over, I expect more snow in February and March. I have a LOT of black-oil sunflower seeds to scatter…I’m sure our winter birds are waiting…

Redheaded Male house finch
Redheaded Male House finch

Sharing for Becky B’s Geometric January, Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, Lens-Artists’ Complimentary Colors, and Natalie’s Public Art Challenge.

graphic

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You’ll have two weeks to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

Creativity is encouraged, so if you participate in the photo challenges, please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and/or music inspired by the theme.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s BIRD theme! Join me in two weeks (Feb. 9) as we explore the various shades of rosy red.

Bitmoji Birding

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162 comments

  4. Never have been a big bird fan. I blame Hitchcock. But since Covid, ha!!, I have been more taken with them. We had some neon green (green being my favorite color) birds that just appeared that difficult year and so enjoyed watching them in our trees. They have never been back since and I think they were sent to give us some enjoyment during our quarantine.

    I have begun feeding them, too!! Who am I? Of all of your lovely bird subjects, I like the Junco best. Rather unassuming, not showy at all and yet a cute little fellow. Have been trying to get capture a photo of what PC says is a female cardinal on our bird feeder but can’t get my phone camera up and ready to go before she is on to me and flying away.

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    • Hahaha, you’re funny, Leslie! I don’t think I ever paid much attention to birds until we lived in our Sacramento home where magpies, hummers and kites (hawk) frequented our yard. I don’t doubt our birdwatching hobbies were piqued when covid showed up. Glad you’ve become a fan of them now. Good luck with your cardinal!

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  7. I’m impressed with all your AZ bird pictures, Terri. They are brilliant, as is the sculpture. I haven’t taken many pictures while we’ve been back in CA.

    I could do a better photo shoot of cats. We have about 20 feral cats running around our small mobile home park. They are well-fed. I noticed some pretty white feathers on the ground one morning, then I saw why there were so many feathers. Needless to say, there aren’t many birds in this park. I haven’t seen any suicidal bird feeders either. We are leaving in a week, so I’m hoping to find my hard drive and have more pictures to share or at least be able to organize them again.

    Hope your trip home is safe. Talk to you soon. Lots of love! xxx

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  21. Thank you for introducing us to some of the birdlife of North America, Terri. We don’t see any of these birds in the UK. I must say that the Phainopepla gave me giggles with the sticky-up feathers on its head.

    I’ve never been able to capture good photos of birds as they always know when I am about to take a picture and fly off. However, I got this photo of a European Green Woodpecker in our garden last summer. It’s a little camouflaged against all the greenery, but I was happy with the opportunity to get a bird photo.

    I’ve heard him/her pecking the nearby trees. It’s a sound we don’t often hear in this part of the world.

    Have a great week.

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  37. Lovely photos, Terri, and the Phainopepla is a gorgeous color. Our feeder is busy all day long, and we have a variety of customers. We counted 12 very small birds all together in our homemade feeder several times since the cold weather. It’s fun to watch them bicker and edge each other out of the feeder. 🐦❤️

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  38. I love this post. I definitely will share some bird pics for Tuesday Tidbits. I have lived in AZ for 12 years and have never seen a Venus Flycatcher, so good for you.
    Great photos of lovely feathered friends!

    I hope it warms up for us on Wednesday!
    Stay warm, my friend!

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  39. I have several feeders here at home, with different stuff in each, for different birds to enjoy. Love watching them eat. They love watching me fill their feeders. At my favorite park I also love feeding them.

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  47. It’s always wonderful to see a new bird, and you captured your new Arizona birds beautifully! I love your picture of the junco as well, one of my regulars here. I hope to be back with some birds later as you know how I love to watch them!

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  48. A lovely ode to our feathered friends Terri. One has to feel bad for them when the cold weather sets in. During our unusually cold week I walked by a neighbor’s home and their bird feeder must have had a dozen or more birds on it. I’d never seen a single one before! Also loved the statues

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  52. Terri, I like your two new Flycatchers. I also like the John Lennon quote. Desert Breeze Park looks like a lot of fun to see the hummingbirds and butterflies. I find it difficult to get shots of the hummingbirds as they usually dine and dash off. I like the large hummingbird too. As to Fountain Park, 150 pieces of artwork is just incredible! That’s too bad your Winter weather is gearing up for your return, but the birds are fine with it and you will get more chances to become adept with those snowshoes.
    Here is my post about feeding the birds. I no longer feed and water the birds at home; now I feed the birds at the Park (along with the squirrels who misbehave just like at backyard bird feeders).
    https://lindaschaubblog.net/2025/01/26/my-park-pals-a-k-a-the-peanut-eating-paesanos/

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    • Thank you, Linda! The hummer park uses reclaimed water and other conservation projects to continue. I’m very impressed with the Phoenix area, but wow, it’s really growing and the population density is increasing. Back home it’s cold and the sun is shining! Gives me hope!

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      • Maybe because Phoenix is the best place to live to guarantee there is no snow or wintry weather! A fellow blogger and her husband spend every Winter in their RV in Dauphin Island, Alabama and they got a foot of snow! Everything pretty much shut down as they weren’t equipped to deal with the snow. Hopefully you don’t get slammed with Winter when you return – soak up the sun while you can!

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  55. Your birds are beautiful – both breathing and artistic. I like the idea of feeding the birds before spring, but ponder what they did before humans started doing that.

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  57. I love the sculptures of all those birds at the park. I am not much of a birder at all, and with working cats, we don’t feed birds. I had to go back to 2021 to even find a picture of a bird in my media files. I’ve attached it as my contribution this week.

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  64. How nice to see a couple of new birds. That’s always exciting. I like your art choices too. Birds make a good subject I think. I’ll be putting mine up next Sunday, which is just as well since I still thought the topic was Fire and Ice!

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  65. Beautiful birds, and I love the “Vigilance” sculpture. The Vermilion Flycatcher is eye catching and one I haven’t seen before. Also the Phainopepla. John Lennon’s quotes always resonate.

    Sitting this one out (no new bird photos), but I’ll be back for the colour challenge.

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  67. How lucky you are to have seen so many new birds! The post is amazing, and so are the colors. You have inspired me to look at some of my bird photos to join your challenge. Also, thanks for the complementary colors I see in your photos here.

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  69. I’ve never seen the flycatcher at the Preserve (Water Ranch), but I did see one some years ago at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson. I miss seeing Cardinal here, because we used to see them all the time in the Midwest. But we do get lots of hummingbirds! I really like that opening shot of theJunco.

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    • Thank you, Janet. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It seemed more tame than skittish as if it was used to cameras being pointed at it 😆 Seems most species of flycatchers have pointed feather crests on their heads (males). So far, and I’m no expert, they do.

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  70. Some really incredible birds. I always love to see the differences between European and American species. Certainly some incredible colours and love the way you choose them to fit into Becky’s squares. Georgina at Navasolanature.

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  72. Beautiful bird photos, Terri. Fountain Park sculptures are some of my favourite birds. I love the Vigilance sculpture of the red-tailed hawks. Thank you for your public art contribution.

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