Beautiful back yard birds

North Carolina has the most amazing back garden birds. All of these have been seen on the feeders around the grounds of the lovely hotel that we're staying in.

Northern cardinal - this is the state bird of North Carolina and is absolutely
beautiful. They have a very distinctive call and you can hear them singing from
the trees and rooftops 

Blue jay

Carolina chickadee - very cute little birds

Carolina chickadee

House finch

Red-winged blackbird

 

Not a very good photo, but they hold out their wings, flashing their red and yellow
shoulder pads to attract their mate

Even the house sparrows have luxury digs here!

Common grackle

Eastern towhee

Mockingbird

Mourning dove

They also have a bird that they call a robin, but it's very different to our robin. It looks and behaves like a blackbird, dashing about lawns, but it has a rust red chest.

Not quite a back yard bird, but you see lots of large birds circling high as you drive down the highway. I asked somebody what they were and they said buzzards, but they're much bigger than our buzzards. It turns out they're turkey vultures!