Young Birds and a Black-Headed Grosbeak

This week, I've been seeing a lot of young birds around the yard.  There are many young house finches, which are fluffier and smaller than the adults.  Below is one of the young finches.

House Finch

I've seen only one young house sparrow.  I don't see any of them very often in my yard.  There has been a female visiting the cat food bowls regularly, but the young one only very recently showed up.  It is very tiny and fluffy with a bright yellow beak.  It hasn't tried the cat food yet.  Below is a photo of it.

House Sparrow

I haven't seen as many Nuttall's woodpeckers as I had before.  There was one male on a telephone pole, though.  Below is a photo of it.

Nuttall's Woodpecker

There are some young black phoebes around.  They have a little yellow on their beaks and brown on their wings.  Below is one sitting on a bench.

Black Phoebe

The young mockingbirds are very silly.  There are a lot of them and they don't seem to know how to do anything.  They've recently started taking baths.  However, instead of lying halfway in and splashing like a normal bird, some of them dunk themselves all the way under and get so soaking wet that they can hardly fly.  Below are three photos of young mockingbirds.  The first is one that completely soaked itself, and the second is one that was bathing normally.  The third is one that was not taking a bath.  It was asking it's parents for food.  It appeared to be younger than most of the others; it was smaller with a shorter tail.

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

I've also seen a couple red-shouldered hawks recently.  One was young (it was mostly brown all over) and the other was an adult.  Below are two photos.  The first is of the young hawk on a telephone pole and the second is of the adult on a streetlight.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Red-Shouldered Hawk

The most exciting bird this past week was a black-headed grosbeak.  They are usually here much earlier in the summer or in spring and only stay for a few days.  We thought they had passed us by this year, but not long ago I saw a female, and today I saw probably the same one again.  Black-headed grosbeaks are found in the western United States and southern Canada in the summer and Mexico south in the winter.  Grosbeaks are related to cardinals and have a similar body and beak shape.  Females are streaked on their faces, backs, and sometimes sides and chests.  Both males and females are orange below.  Males have black heads and black and white wings.  They have large beaks and bright yellow under their wings.  Below are two photos.  The first is of the female I saw today.  The second is a photo I took over a year ago of a male.

Black-headed Grosbeak

Black-headed Grosbeak