Birdfy and AI

[Dear_Prudence]

I got one of those Birdfy bird feeders with a camera for Christmas. I am really enjoying it. I've had 60 birds just this morning! My son also bought the AI add-on, which identifies the birds. Part of the fun is finally learning which sparrow is which. And, perversely, part of the fun is being smarter than AI. For example, I am in Cincinnati and AI identified sevrral birds as Anna's hummingbirds. The pictures show the infamous Blurry Birds or LBJ (Little Brown Jobs). As you know, Anna's humming bird lives on the North American West Coast. Yes, it could happen, birds get blown away or transported, but you need more than a blurry picture of a part of a brown bird to document that. As Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims reqire extraordinary evidence." I promise that if I do get a clear photo of that hummingbird (or a UFO), I will post it to DU. 🐦🐦‍⬛🛸👽

[Cirsium]

1. Which sparrows?

Which sparrows are coming to your feeder?

60 birds or 60 species?

[Dear_Prudence]

3. Just 10 species all day

But lots of house finches and house sparrows. My other sparrows are the chipping sparrows with its little Rufus cap and the song sparrows with the striped breast. I was shopping over near the city dump today and saw a gull. Probably not a good idea to create a backyard dump to attract gulls to my yard 😆

[Cirsium]

6. Wonderful

I had a Tree Sparrow on the porch yesterday. Lots of Juncos.

[cksmithy]

2. We feed the birds and squirrels.

We always have mourning doves, scrub blue jays and a wide variety of finches (mostly common), sparrows, black phoebes, and so many more. The birds do actually migrate, I have to get the bird book out to try and identify them. It is so fun to watch them using our small water feature taking their baths. The squirrels are so well fed by us and the mature trees in our neighborhood, that they never raid our bird feeders. We always talk about setting up a camera, but after 20 years I doubt we ever will. I would love to watch video or even stills of the critters who come into our backyard. We have squirrels, possums, foxes, raccoons, owls and hawks in our 100+ year old plus neighborhood with 60 ft tall trees. Hope you get a good photo post.

[Dear_Prudence]

4. Your yard sounds lovely and lively!

Our suburban neighborhood has no foxes running thru it, but sometimes deer, lots of hungry sqirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and possum. I have seen only one coyote in the neighborhood in 25 years although they live in a nearby park, but my NextDoor app goes nuts whenever one is spotted.

[cksmithy]

5. We are literally in one of the oldest parts of our city.

We are surrounded by subdivisions in all directions from all decades (still building), so no deer or rabbits. The hawks, owls and foxes take care of the mice and tree rats. The circle of life, which is wonderful.

[Conjuay]

7. yeah, I cheer when I hear owls around-

We are feeding many more rats than I would like.
And I know that's part and parcel of bird feeders, but still...

[cksmithy]

8. The owls and hawks do a good job.

We live in California central valley which is a native habitat for foxes. We had a fox family move into our neighborhood a several years ago, I haven't seen a rat or mouse since. They cleared out the rats. When the foxes were very active in our area I saw one slinking past our house with a rat tail hanging out of his mouth. We figure they moved to another hunting ground. Community college a few blocks away, lots of food for them. The possums eat the snails, we don't use pesticides because of our wild critters. You can tell if a possum has visited during the night because they will leaved the snaill shells lined up after enjoying them. The circle of life in a 100+ year old house, in a neigborhood built in 1912. We see raccoons, possums, foxes, hawks, and owls several times a year. When the hawk squacks and circles above, the birds get very quiet and disappear into the leaves of the trees. We really enjoy our feeders and watching the antics.