As I mentioned in a prior post, we have begun to see the results of a successful breeding season in the area.  And thus far it’s even more successful because we have yet to see any cowbird juveniles in the yard.  Interestingly, all of the juveniles we’ve seen so far are the product of year-round residents, which presumably had an earlier start at breeding and nest building.  So this post will feature some of the juveniles we are seeing in the yard.

Here are photos of juvenile Pine siskins, the first sitting on a branch and the second being fed by an adult.

This is a Dark-eyed junco (Oregon race) that has been around the yard for a week or so now. It has been operating fairly independently almost from the day it arrived.  I have one photo of the parents in attendance but after that day the juvenile has been on its own with no attention from the adults.

If it were not for that first photo I took I would have had a difficult time determining the juvenile’s identity.  I think this is the cutest of the juveniles we have.

Here’s a juvenile House finch begging Dad for food…

And later after the parent has left.

A juvenile House sparrow…

And several photos of the male Downy woodpecker feeding a juvenile male suet.  Interestingly enough, I haven’t seen the female involved in any feeding activity.  The juvenile male finally managed to access the inverted suet feeder after two tries about 5-6 days after these photos were taken.

In this photo the young woodpecker joined the father on the peanut feeder but was only obtaining food that he was fed by his father, not directly from the feeder although the food was right in his face!

I saved this photo because of the story behind it.  The young Downy had been sitting on this branch being fed by its father.  Its father was away from the perch when a crow flew into the yard.  The young woodpecker, already mindful of its safety, immediately moved to put the branch between himself and the crow.