FAVORED FEATHERED SUBURBANITES

      Mourning doves, house sparrows, house finches, Carolina wrens, northern cardinals and blue jays are my favorite feathered suburbanite neighbors in our typically suburban New Holland, Pennsylvania neighborhood of trees, shrubbery and grass.  These birds are permanent residents here, and nest here; they are enjoyable neighbors to have.  I've seen the young of  these species on our lawn.  All these common bird species are attractive, and have interesting songs.  These species come to feeders through each year.  

     Brown and dark-spotted mourning doves nest in our neighborhood from early March to early September, attempting to rear a clutch of two young per month.  But wind and predators eliminate some of the chicks before they are able to fledge their coniferous tree bough nurseries.  All summer, pairs of doves coo gently to each other, all day and every day, and raise two staggered broods of young at once, in two different cradles, which keeps both parents busy.  Doves are devout seed eaters.

     Little groups of house sparrows daily flit through our neighborhood the year around.  Females and young are plain light-brown, but males have black bibs and beaks, chestnut cheeks and gray crowns that make them quite handsome.  They come to feeders the year around and raise young in human-made 0bjects, including cracks in buildings, spouting, bird boxes, inside sheds and other out-buildings.  They benefit suburban areas, as all small birds do, by ingesting weed seeds and insects.      

     Each spring in recent years, a lovely pair of house finches build a petite, grass and fiber cradle on a support of an awning over our back deck.  The female is gray with darker streaking, while her mate has similar feathering with pink over his head, neck, chest and back.  Male house finches sing beautiful, little ditties to warn off other males of their kind, and attract a mate.  

     From our rec room, we daily enjoy seeing this pretty pair, our closest neighbors, building their little nursery, brooding the eggs and constantly feeding the young, who look like their mother, until they fledge their nest.  

     We also have a fiesty pair of Carolina wrens in our neighborhood.  Over the years, a pair of them has nested in a neighbor's garage, under a neighbor's front porch, under our back deck and in a cooking grill sitting outside.  

     One day in the summer of 2025, seven beautiful Carolina wrens were suddenly all over our deck.  My guess is that a pair raised five young under the deck and I saw them the day they fledged, accompanied by their parents.  These active, little birds of all ages are warm-brown all over with darker markings that lend to their beauty.  They also loudly sing "tea-kettle, tea-kettle-tea-kettle" through the year.  I always enjoy hearing their boisterous, clear chanting, and see them coming to feeders in winter.  But, for the most part, they consume a variety of invertebrates the year around.  

     Male northern cardinals are real stand-outs in their red feathering.  Their mates and young of the year are subdued in coloring, {tan} which camouflages them, including the females on their nests brooding eggs and small young.  Male cardinals perch high in trees and boisterously sing "what-cheer, what-cheer".  Females hatch young in open, grass-and-twig cups in dense shrubbery that protect the young from the weather and predators.  At least a few times through the years, I've seen recently fledged, young cardinals, with their dark beaks, being fed by their parents.  Cardinals ingest invertebrates in warmer months, but eat seeds and berries in winter.  

     Blue jays are my favorites among my favorite suburban birds because of their attractive blue, black and white feathering, boisterous calling and aggressive behavior that often makes them obvious.  They court in April, including on my lawn, and brood eggs in May, including in an eight-foot red juniper tree on my lawn.  Blue jays prefer to hatch offspring among the needled boughs of evergreens that shield the young quite well.  Later I saw the fledglings being fed by their parents in our yard.  Jays are silent when raising youngsters, so as to not give away the presence of the chicks. 

     Blue jays feed at feeders the year around.  They also harvest the small acorns of pin oak trees in autumn when the oak leaves are dying and turning red or brown.  Jays' pretty feathering is especially attractive among colored leaves when those birds flit about to harvest acorns and either bury them in the ground for winter use, or stuff them into tree hollows to be eaten later when food is scarce. 

     Blue jays can be predators.  I have seen a few of them, over the years, using their heavy, black bills to hammer house sparrows to death.  Jays have also been known to consume small, baby birds right out of their nurseries.          

        These are some of my favorite bird species in my neighborhood.  They are all common and interesting to experience.  They help brighten many a day, through each year, right at home.

            

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