First mom came to check on things.
Then she did some feeding.
Then dad came and did some feeding too, while mom looked on.
I like to see their tails fan out to support them. They remind one of shrimp.
The male sparrows were busy guarding their property this afternoon in the Tiergarten. The women were either gathering food or busy inside the houses. Look closely, you might see one below.
The birdhouses and the trees are all numbered here, this being Germany. You could probably send a postcard to this sparrow: “Herrn Spatz von Sperlingdorf, Hausnr. 76, Baum 144-15, Großer Weg, Tiergarten, 10557 Berlin”
Trying to get a photograph of these lively little birds is an exercise in frustration. They hate to stop in one place for more than three seconds and they flit from tree to tree with very little commotion. One hears only their calls, coming first from here, then from over there, and then from here again, like sounds in a funhouse. But I caught this one! Ha! He is a lesser whitethroat who arrived from Africa a few weeks ago and took up residence near the Spree. Living nearby is his relative, the blackcap, who flits around in the same way but sings a very beautiful song all the while. Here these birds are known as Grasmücke. The blackcap is the Monchsgrasmücke, because of his garb, and the white throat is the Klappergrasmücke, because of the chattery nature of his call.
This leucistic sparrow was out gathering food in the Tiergarten yesterday. Notice the strange arrangement of white feathers on her head and back. She didn’t want to be photographed and was hopping away from me.
Below is a pigeon with feathered legs and toes running away from an approaching horde of rambunctious teenagers. I was running away from them too, hence the single blurry photo.
I was trying to capture a photo of a mysterious little grey bird in our cherry tree, who wouldn’t sit in one place for half a second, and was going mad with frustration, when this lovely green woodpecker showed up and posed very nicely for me. I didn’t enhance the red on his head, it really did photograph like that. Now the question is: is his tail tucked under him, or is it in fact missing?
Dear reader, you need no longer be satisfied with just a blurry picture of a nightingale’s butt. This very kind nightingale sat very still on a fence for me the other day, allowing me to capture this photograph, plus a short video of him. Notice his large and powerful throat muscles.
Two of my favorite backyard noise makers: the blue tit and the greenfinch.
They have been very happy to eat the new buds on the trees this week. The long winter left them very hungry.
These hooded crows have a fine location on a newly trimmed branch of a weeping willow tree that extends over the Spree. Here they are feeding their chicks.