It was an overcast afternoon at the house but I decided to try to obtain some bird photos in the yard.  There were a lot of birds in the yard but nothing especially unusual.  But I had the time and opportunity to do a little yard birding so here are some of the results.

Not our most numerous avian guest but almost always around the feeders are Chestnut-backed chickadees…

We have several Golden-crowned sparrows in and around the yard.  This species is here only in the winter and leaves in the spring for breeding grounds to the north.

This is our most numerous winter visitor, the Oregon race of the Dark-eyed junco.  This individual is a male…

And here is a species that has visited each winter for at least the past eleven years… a  Slate-colored race member of the Dark-eyed juncos.  This is a male and is distinguished not only by coloring but by the fact that it isn’t readily accepted by the Slate-colored juncos and prefers to feed alone.

This is a male Anna’s hummingbird that is attempting to control the feeders and yard.  We have at least two males and a female.

This is another new of the same male Anna’s hummingbird.  This view shows the bird’s gorget reflecting, even without any direct sunlight.

This is one of our Golden-crowned kinglets.  On one occasion I had at least one male and four others of undetermined sex in and around the watercourse at the same time.  I can almost never tell the two sexes apart, even when they are bathing.  Occasionally the male will reveal its orange crown when bathing, preening after a bath or when confronting other birds.

Here is the male Golden-crowned kinglet I was able to identify…

We had at least one Ruby-crowned kinglet in the yard…

I also saw but wasn’t able to photograph a Song sparrow, a Fox sparrow, a Brown creeper, about 10-12 California quail and about 15 Bushtits.

Other yard news:

Over this past week we have had both a Bewick’s wren and a Ruby-crowned kinglet accessing our peanut feeders!