The Chicks in my Yard

I have mamy white wing doves that visit my feeders every day. I'm seeing their chicks join them. White winged chicks don't have the brilliant blue around their eyes and their eyes are more brown rather than the bright orange of the mature doves. They don't seem to beg from their parents going straight for the seeds. The other distinguishing marks for the juvenile white wings are those white patches on their cheeks.

Other chicks I've seen this year - barn swallows, house finches, house sparrows, red bellied woodpecker and blue jay. I know I have a pair of road runners around the property and I saw a bird this week that had such a long tail and appeared larger than the mockingbirds, but I didn't get a good enough look to verify that it was a road runner chick.

It is fun to watch the chicks beg for their food. They posture, crouching, wings fluttering, mouth open . . . The red bellied woodpecker chick was carefully on the opposite side of the trunk from me. But I could tell that the mother was grabbing suet and feeding something on the other side. I finally got a peek of the chick - no coloring on the head, but perfectly able to fly.

The blue jay chick also assumed the begging posture as its parent was checking out my lawn chair cushions for food.

I'm hoping to capture more images of these chicks in my yard.