Birds and Blooms - next in the series

Keeping up with my self-imposed challenge to blip the cherry trees during this short period when they are blooming, and also because it's Flower Friday (thanks, BikerBear), today's offering is an American Goldfinch.  This is a male who's nearly completed his molt (although you can still see a patch on his back with his drab winter duds) and he was perching in a spot where the blue sky was showing through the branches. I like the contrasting colors and nothing says spring to me quite as much as these colorful little birds sitting in the cherry trees.

Had a nice visit with MIL this morning.  Then, after lunch, Hubs and I had a quick power walk.  The rest of the afternoon was spent farting around doing very important stuff outside with my camera.

The bluebirds have still not started building a nest although they are both actively defending two of the boxes against the villainous house sparrow.  Today, the sparrow went to peek in one of the boxes and Monsieur Bleu came flying out of nowhere and knocked the sparrow right off the box.  Glad to see the bluebirds being so aggressive, but really wish they'd start a nest already!  

I added note to my blip yesterday.  It turns out that the bird is most likely a pine siskin/goldfinch hybrid.  Both birds are in the same genus and apparently the do occasionally mate.  It seems that it is pretty unusual, so I've reported it to Cornell/e-bird.  Still counting it as a pine siskin for my yearly yardbird count, though.

I hope it has been a Good Friday for everyone.  And now, on to the weekend...

xo
Debbi