The Zeiger Family Homestead Blog

We have positively identified our hummingbird feeder raiders as Wilson’s warblers. The two that had been hanging around our dooryard are immature and/or female. A male joined them a day or two later, confirming our guess. [WRONG! I discovered My 20th that, while the male is a Wilson’s warbler, the other two birds hanging around are the Alaska variety of yellow warbler.]

These are fairly familiar birds here, although we don’t think we’ve ever seen a male before. A bird with so much bright yellow plumage, and its rather outlandish black cap, makes it stand out. One would think we’d remember such a sight. Continue reading →

A day or two ago, the hummingbird situation took an odd turn: a pair of warblers began competing with the hummingbirds for the feeders.

We are used to handling feeder invaders each summer. We buy the feeders with bee guards to prevent the local yellowjackets from sipping the nectar. We had a squirrel last year that used to sneak sips from one of the feeders, until he became raven food. Ants occasionally work their way to a feeder, and have to be discouraged.

But we’d never seen anything like this before.

The as-yet unidentified warbler, raiding the hummingbird feeder (Photo: Mark Zeiger).

Continue reading →