Winter visitors

They are all out there in the garden.

I hear them in the trees and shrubs, foraging in the garden, or in the bird bath.

But when it comes to photographing these winter visitors, it's all a matter of timing and luck.

I took these photos of the yellow rumped warbler and white throated sparrow through a glass sliding door.

It would be almost impossible to catch the images outdoors because these birds would probably not hang out around the patio if they saw me.

The yellow-rumped warbler is perched on a California figwort branch.

These warblers are commonly found in the Pacific Northwest, where they mostly eat insects in the summer months.

When visiting further south for the winter, for example here in the Bay Area, they mostly eat fruit from myrtle, bayberry and nectar of camellia blossoms. These birds have the rare ability to digest the wax of berries in the myrtle family.

They also feed on seeds of wild grasses and numerous insects.

I'm not sure how many white throated sparrows are visiting our garden, but usually there is one that is often foraging alongside white-crowned or golden-crowned sparrows. Maybe it's the same one I always see?

Here it is foraging by a plant bed.

Since it spent quite a while in the same spot, about 15 minutes, there must have been some delicious insects and grubs in that little pile.