Hi all, Just wanted to add that we had a catbird last summer who practically became our mascot. He was here every day, would let me walk right past him and didn't move, we made eye contact and he just watched me walk by. So funny! He spent his time on a fruit and jelly feeder I got, with a roof over it and a cup that drops in the floor of the feeder and a spike for fruit on either side, which I used for orange slices. It is a great feeder, well worth the money. I put an oriole feeder out last summer and only hummingbirds visited it. I only put nectar in it, no fruit, so thanks to reading all your posts I will know to put fruit on that this summer too.

I was late reading this thread but it sure is interesting! :D Kathy, as far as mockingbirds nesting in high traffic areas.....sometimes they do! "My" mockers nested in a Juniper shrub that backs up to my mail box. And it's a good thing I am over 60 pounds cause they are vicious when protecting eggs or babies. We stopped going to the mail box and our carrier (a very nice woman) brought the mail to the door till they fledged. And oh my goodness, the fledglings were absolutely adorable and spent several weeks in my yard after they fledged. Had to "shoo" one out of the middle of the street one day and the adults were after me AND my dog (who was only helping) like you wouldn't believe. Gotta love 'em and that spunk! The only other mockingbird nest that I've personally seen was right outside a neighbors garage door in a tall shrub. Very, very high traffic area once again. Fortunately the neighbors and their young children (real nature lovers) kept their distance once they discovered that there was a nest with eggs in the shrub. Unfortunately I can't tell you what the eggs looked like because I only viewed the nest at a distance with binoculars and could not see the color on the eggs.

i have four nesting pairs of orioles on open woods and old pastures surrounding me. they come off and on all day to my garden area and flowers and necter feeders and fruit tray and jelly dishes and a bowl with dried mealworms soaked till plump. the individual birds each have their own likes and favorites. they all love jelly but some grape and some strawberry and some apricot. some i only see on the necter feeders. i put out watermelon rinds with pulp left on them when we cut a melon and some love to eat the watermelon. they all pick insects off garden plants and there are native shrubs with berrys or fruit on them that some eat on. when the sunflowers plants start to flower on put on heads i see them catching insect.one female eats from a pan on a cooler just outside of the kitchen window and picks out the raisens and fruit bits from the seed mix.

Susan, you may be right that the adult is a male, not a female. Stereotypes die hard, and I'd read that the female can look very similar to the male, so I assumed this bird was the mother. I just checked the Cornell All About Birds Guide, and I looked at some of the other photos I took at the same time. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the female can look similar to the male, but with two white wingbars. "Female Description Variable in appearance. May be similar to male, but head more dark brownish olive than black, and body paler orange. Usually face, throat, and underparts orange. Tail brownish olive, without black. White in shoulder gives it two white wingbars." In these two photos, the second wingbar (shoulder) looks orange, not white, and the tail seems to have black in it. I wonder if the female is also around. Claire