I have another wren in the barn and I will be sad if I see a pile of russet feathers. They forage around too low and aren't afraid. My cats live in the barn. My two crab apples have very small fruit like a berry. They have no disease problems and bloom reliably but briefly in spring. The apples are not the colorful attractive ones that are bigger, but they are a good size for birds. I saw two bluebirds in one of them yesterday also. These trees were planted years ago. They are white with pink buds, very small fruit and were sold as disease resistant. If you are getting one for birds, check that it has fruit that persists into winter and small fruit. I will look in my file and see if I can find the name because my trees have been trouble free for thirty years.

Thanks again everybody, ...we love to share our birds here. :) Carol23- We shoot hand-held (in Manual mode) with 3 Canon compact superzooms... an S3-IS, an S5-IS, and an SX30-IS. These are similar, inexpensive cameras and photographing wildlife of any kind with them can be challenging. But we have had a lot of practice and find they suit our needs as backyard birders on a budget. :) Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Kenn & Temple - Backyard Birders

Isn't it amazing how your birds recognize and trust you enough to be handfed? My birds let me know when all the good seeds are picked out of their gourmet mix, especially the dees. Regular little beggers, they are. They wait patiently in the trees for me to clean and fill the feeders. Every evening, my sweet Cardinal pair come to the feeders. During nesting, I love to watch the male feed the female. The half dozen TUTIs are the real clowns-they are not as timid as I thought. Funny how the dees and TUTIs grab one seed and fly off only to return within seconds. As much as Katrina took from you, you still have your birds.

After consultation, I've decided the sparrows are only a smaller, lighter subspecies of the large reddish Song Sparrows with double wing bars that are common around here. Too bad..thought they were Lincoln's. But they could have been migrating through anyway