Garden

[Still Raining]

Continue to be shocked at how mean hummers are.

Love those jays.  It you set a time, they will show up for a peanut.

Still awed by the hawks.

[eaesquire]

Here in southern Colorado, my favorites from the many birds in my yard are Bullock's Orioles, hummingbirds, house finches, and scrub jays.  It brings me so much joy to connect with the world through those birds every day by watching them and by keeping up their feeders and a small birdbath.  What a blessing!

[KatieB]

My favorite birds are

Goldfinches

Bluebirds 

Cardinals

Here in central North Carolina (the Triad area).

[Sooner]

It has to be the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher for me!  It's the Oklahoma State Bird.  We see lots of them, but usually along highways and fence lines.

Backyard?  Oh my!  Orioles, chickadees and wrens!  

[GoneButNotForgotten]

I love BIG birds! Bald Eagles and Flickers. We have flickers all over the place in this area (Seattle environs)--they're actually "just" very large woodpeckers--and it's not that unusual to see bald eagles soaring overhead, although they prefer forests, rivers, trees, etc. I guess if they happen to see a yummy treat in someone's back yard: a cat, dog, etc., they'll grab it.

We used to have tree swallows but for some reason we don't see them anymore. They do the most amazing aerial acrobatics, just for the fun of it. I hope the come back someday.

And I'm fond of the humble little day-to-day birds: house wrens, black-capped chickadees, and juncos.

We get hummingbirds too but they're almost too fast for me to see them.

[GoneButNotForgotten]

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

Male cardinals, hands down. Their bright red plumage always lifts my spirits. 

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Oh how I envy you! I live in the NW where they DON'T live. I've only seen one live cardinal, when I visited family in Cinncinnati and I'll never forget it. SO beautiful.

[GoneButNotForgotten]

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@GoneButNotForgotten wrote:

I love BIG birds! Bald Eagles and Flickers. We have flickers all over the place in this area (Seattle environs)--they're actually "just" very large woodpeckers--and it's not that unusual to see bald eagles soaring overhead, although they prefer forests, rivers, trees, etc. I guess if they happen to see a yummy treat in someone's back yard: a cat, dog, etc., they'll grab it.

We used to have tree swallows but for some reason we don't see them anymore. They do the most amazing aerial acrobatics, just for the fun of it. I hope the come back someday.

And I'm fond of the humble little day-to-day birds: house wrens, black-capped chickadees, and juncos.

We get hummingbirds too but they're almost too fast for me to see them.

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eta: Oh yes, one more and it's a really magnificent sight: great blue herons. They can perch on a tree limb for a long time, not making a move or a sound, and then suddenly, with a whoosh, they'll rise into the air and soar out of sight.

[Lucky Charm]

Not really a backyard bird, but we do see them flying over quite often, are egrets (or herons). 

I especially like the white ones, their bodies glow in the dusk sunset--a pinkish color.  They're so pretty standing in the water grasses, but look so prehistoric when in flight.

Least favorite, although you didn't ask, are seagulls.  They drop *paintbombs* on our cars. 

The white truck-it's always black paintbombs. 

The black one- it's always white paintbombs. 

And the red one is a mix.

They're so smart.

[IShopQ]

Hard to choose...we have a lot of visitors...some are seasonal, some are year round but...

Spring

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Summer

Baltimore Oriole

Fall

Eastern Towhee

Winter

Northern Cardinal

[CamilleP]

Here on the slopes of the Coast Range in western Oregon I have to pick the Stellar's Jays as my favorite avian visitor.  They are noble in looks, with their indigo blue bodies and coal black heads with the tall crest, they are very smart and adaptable, and I have one regular visitor who has learned to make red-tailed hawk calls to shoo away all the other birds so it can have all the feeders to itself.  We also have dark-eyed Juncos, black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, two species of goldfinches, purple finches, two species of grosbeaks, downy and hairy woodpeckers, and several more species that I'm not recalling just off the top of my head, and that's just "songbirds", not any of the larger species, but I stay pretty steady in loving those big noisy black and blue birds.