a rainbow of birds...

While I was in Michigan, I saw and heard so many different birds! I awoke every morning to the sound of the Canada geese flying over, heard the cooing of mourning doves, the cry of the red-winged blackbirds, the rat-a-tat-tat of the woodpeckers, and in the evening the sounds of the whippoorwill. Blue jays shriek as they fight all the other birds for the best food, and hummingbirds, like little F16 fighter jets, zoom back and forth to their nectar feeders.

Though I wasn't successful at capturing all the birds I wanted to--some are just too quick for my shutter finger--I did shoot almost a full rainbow of birds! (I never did find a purple bird. Grackles have a purple iridescent shine in their black wings, but I couldn't quite snap it when the light was shining right on one.)

Representing the reds...

a male cardinal!

I love the shot above of him in the grass--so very bright and visible!

And my favorite shot...

with the sunset glow on his breast and face...
I know the robin is technically called "Robin Red-breast"
but this robin gets to represent orange...
Yellow is displayed by the Goldfinches...
hungrily eating their favorite--thistle seeds.

And wearing shimmering green is

a ruby-throated hummingbird!

Proudly sporting blue are these mallards.

And, last but not least, I'll let the Blue Jay,

though he is bossy and pushy and rather mean to the other birds,

end the post with his lovely display of blue, too.

(They're also very fast, and this was the only shot I could get though I saw many of them during my stay!)