Male goldfinch, almost ready for spring. (©Huffygirl)
The birds in my area are taking on their colorful plumage, a sure sign of spring. After all, they have to look their best for mating season, especially the males. They need their bright, colorful feathers to attract the hottest babes in the bird world.
The color change is most obvious in the goldfinches. The males are changing from yellow-brown to all yellow, but as you can see by the pictures, this happens gradually. They’re still a way off from the bright canary yellow they put on for spring. The females are shedding their all brown look for yellow-brown, similar to the coloring the males had all winter.
It’s a little hard to tell the males and females apart during this transition time, but by May it should be obvious. In the meantime, watch for typical male behavior to differentiate – things like hogging the remote, watching too much basketball, and driving big birdie SUVs 🙂
This female (lower perch) looks good, but these guys have a way to go (© Huffygirl)
He's still working on getting his bling. (© Huffygirl)
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Huffygirl's Blog 
You got a chuckle out of me with hogging the remote.
You mean you’ve never seen birds do this? Of course, it’s only the males, so maybe you wouldn’t notice it as much 😉
Love your photos. I was starting to get excited about spring until this weekend squashed my hopes with sleet and snow flurries, in Virginia, no less! This week’s weather is supposed to be a bust, but your pictures remind me that spring cannot be stopped, and it has to be just around the corner.
I sure hope it is. Tonight we’re having weather in the teens, and it’s almost April? Unusual even for Michigan.
Oh, no! I’m headed to Michigan this weekend! You mean I still have to bring my down coat?
Maybe – depends on what part of Michigan too. It’s supposed to be into the 40’s and 50’s by the end of the week, so maybe you can get away without the down!
Great shots!
Thanks Mark. Do your goldfinches stay yellow all winter down there?
Thanks for the lesson on birds 🙂 I am not very knowledeable about birds, but I sure love to watch them. Hummingbirds are the coolest 🙂 I had a special encounter with one once. Standing on my front porch…and mind you I had never seen one around my house at all before…suddenly there was a hummingbird hovering only a few inches from my face. It stayed there for at least several seconds, maybe a whole minute. What a gift.
How neat Ann! I have some kind of hummingbird jinx – I can’t seem to attract them, despite planting every flower they are touted to enjoy.
Have you tried the hummingbird feeder where you put sugar water in it?
Yep. Tried commercial nectar, homemade nectar, clear nectar, red nectar.
I love watching the birds…just this morning I noticed there were an abundance of little birds flying through the tree tops. I am looking forward to seeing them visit my little bird feeding garden we are creating. Thanks for sharing. enJOY!
You’ll have to share a picture of your garden on your blog some time.
Maybe the males get the remote in the bird houses but in our house I have a hard time getting my hands on the remote.
Hey, you snooze, you lose. Who’se better at using it anyway? 🙂
Great post – colorful pics, good information, humor. What’s not to love? Now if we can only get Spring to cooperate. I’ve never seen such a winter and am right ready to shoot Old Man Winter in the butt with a load of buckshot.
Thanks so much Sandra. Meanwhile, I better warn Old Man Winter to look out – Sandra’s packin’ heat!
Oddly enough, I just took some photos of birds near our balcony! I’m going to post them soon, but I might wait to do as one of my A-Z challenge.
Sandi
http://www.ahhsome.wordpress.com
So what’s your A to Z challenge? I’ll look forward to seeing your bird photos.
‘big birdie SUV’…. 🙂
Send Sandra to Toronto to kick Old Man Winter’s butt. We have signs of spring, but I fear the snow is not quite done with us yet. geez.
Even here we’re not over safe until the end of April. I’ll tell Sandra to get right on it.
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