The Summer visitors are returning....

May is always the time to expect the summer visiting birds to pass through. The favorite of everyone is probably the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. When you only have them for a few weeks you enjoy them so much!I've seen at least 4 males and 2-3 females at my feeders the last few days. This is one of the lovely adult males.
The black and white back feathers, white chest and rosy patch make it a very handsome bird....except for that "grosbeak". Not hard to tell how they came up with that name for this class of birds. It is indeed a "large beak".

A back view of the black and white of the breeding male.

Some are always "spotty".....immature? They have a lot of brown mixed in their back feathers and spots on their chests, and sometimes spots on their heads.

Sort of the teenage freckled version :-)

I think that the females are pretty, too, with their brown feathers and yellowish breast and stripe pattern.

The back view. It was interesting watching it eat. It constantly tilts its head this way and that, but otherwise sits there calmly munching away.

"The Ladies 'do lunch'"

I don't think the Cardinals are as fond of the Rosies as we are....they have to share their food and favorite spots at the feeders, but this pair decided to lunch together.

The camera insisted on focusing on only one or the other! However, I included this to show how similar their beaks are. Sturdy seed-crackers.

Another summer visitor for me is the Catbird. I never see it in the wintertime. They are related to Mockingbirds and act very similar. I like hearing the "mew" they make and it confuses my cats.

He wouldn't pose where I could get the rusty red underside of the tail.

There is still one summer visitor to come......the Indigo Bunting. They usually show up about now, also. And of course the Hummingbirds are returning as well! Better get my feeders out.