Nesting Birds

This nesting female House Sparrow illustrates what is going on now at Buckskin Mountain State Park. Although the migrating winter birds have left, those sticking around and new arrivals are getting quite serious with nesting. While leading the Bird Walk today I pointed out several nesting pairs of sparrows in this palm tree. Throughout the walk we continued to see a number of House Finches paired up. I also showed the group where a pair of Verdins are making their nest in hanging mistletoe on a mesquite tree. And the population of Western Bluebird pairs has grown from 2 yesterday to 6 today. All told, we set a new identification record for the day of 24 different species of birds.