[Tweeters] First Bird

[Dennis Paulson via Tweeters]

My first bird of the year was a Dark-eyed Junco, completely expected as they are overrunning the yard this winter, far more than we have ever had before—probably around 20 birds.

But the next bird was a real surprise, a Golden-crowned Sparrow. We had two of them in the yard daily from 9/20-10/9, then not a sighting of them until this morning. There were two adults, while the October birds were an adult and an immature. It’s hard to imagine these birds are the same birds, as we would surely have seen them if they had been around during that gap period. We look forward to seeing if they hang around.

We also have another welcome visitor to the yard, an Orange-crowned Warbler that appeared on 12/30, the first wintering one we’ve had since 2014. The bird is very visible daily, and I can envision its thinking “wow, why didn’t I know about this feast before?” Our warblers (we also have Yellow-rumped and Townsend’s) visit our suet and bark butter, and what has long been surprising to me, they eat bird seed, perhaps only sunflower chips. Haven’t seen the Orange-crowned do that yet.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle
dennispaulson at comcast net


> On Jan 1, 2026, at 9:09 AM, Louise via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> 

> My first bird of the year was house finch, a male, and very pretty he was! An unusual one for me - I don't get them at my feeder a lot. They tend to show up daily for about a week, the disappear for several months,

> 

> Louise Rutter

> Kirkland

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