Mountain Forest Birds

Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This bird was an exciting highlight of our trip to the Red Feather Lakes district. This little fellow was showing off big time for his lucky lady. He showed her that he could out sing, and display, an entire group of humans.

I was a bit disappointed that my sharpest shots didn't coincide with his best perches, but even so he made for a great subject.

As we worked our way along the road, giving the kinglet his well earned space after the show we reached one of our targets, the American Three-toed Woodpecker.

The American Three-toeds have a snazzy yellow crest, but the identifying field mark to look for is the barring on their sides. That distinguishes them nicely from some of the other woodpeckers in the area with similar black and white coloring.

I was able to get this horrible photograph of a male Pine Grosbeak perching high in a barren tree-top. He looked great, and I will enjoy future attempts to get better shots of these colorful males.

Another good mountain species that I added on the day trip was the Cassin's Finch. The female below was enjoying one of the feeders at the Moose Visitor Center at State Forest State Park.

Finally, an early morning singing Red Crossbill greeted the group of photographer birders who were headed to Wyoming on Sunday morning. Featured in the keynote address, these Crossbills were confirmed as Type 2 by our leader, based on the Ponderosa habitat we were in.

Mountain habitat birds help to contribute to the great diversity of species that we have here in Colorado. I really enjoyed getting to know some of those that I saw last weekend, and hope that I will retain some of this for my own trips up in the future.