Yesterday morning while conducting what is now my daily birdwalk here at Dallas Retirement Village, I noticed several birds flutering around in a birch tree. I pulled up my camera and did my best to get a photo so I could make an identification. Once home, with the photos downloaded into my laptop I could confirm that they were American Goldfinches.
Secondly I noticed this bird had a seed in it's mouth, and could further realize that it was harvesting seeds from the catkin on this birch tree. Here is where it went from interesting to exciting. Notice in the close-up below that this bird is actually holding up the catkin parallel to the limb its standing on with its toe nail! I'm sure holding it securely against the limb makes it easier to pull out the seeds. This make so much more sense compared to another Goldfinch I saw hanging upside down to harvest a dangleing catkin.
Focusing in on bird details is somewhat akin to Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. You get sucked into a whole other world and discover details beyond your own personal experience.
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