What’s your favorite bird? Mine’s blue.
I spent many days in my youth watching birds flit around my grandmother’s flowers and bird bath. They included robins, blue jays, hummingbirds, and even the occasional cardinal and Baltimore oriole.
I love many of these birds and during summers enjoy spending time on our deck as hummers buzz our feeder and zip past my head. I appreciate the many cardinals in Janesville. I call back to mourning doves sitting on wires above our house. I love hearing the primitive honk of sandhill cranes and would hate to see the state enact a hunting season on them. I relish chances to see bald eagles on trips to Canada and when visiting my parents in Minocqua. My parents also get big pileated woodpeckers at their feeders. I remember well the days of barn swallows racing past my head in my uncle’s dairy barn.
I also grew up singing that old song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” which includes the line, “Mister bluebird’s on my shoulder.”
Give me a bluebird any day. Maybe it has something to do with the description that it’s almost as if the bluebird is “carrying the sky on its back,” as Anna Marie Lux explains in her column in today’s Gazette.
Wisconsinites helped nurture a record number of young eastern bluebirds in nesting boxes in 2010. I like to think I played a small role with a couple of boxes at our Wisconsin River property near Muscoda. The numbers of young birds, however, fell drastically in 2011 because of a late spring and massive outbreak of black flies.
In her column, Lux interviews Kent Hall. He’s vice president of the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin. Hall will offer a free public program, “Learning to Think Like a Bluebird,” from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 54 S. Jackson St., Janesville. Hosted by the Green-Rock Audubon Society, it sounds like a program worth attending.
So what’s your favorite bird? Do you put out feeders or nesting boxes to encourage them?
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook

Feb 12, 2012 at 11:21 p.m.
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red tail hawks
Feb 10, 2012 at 2:55 p.m.
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Owls
Feb 10, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.
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I thought somebody would mention the one in your hand by now ! )
Feb 10, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.
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wax wing I think is the other one similiar to titmouse
Feb 10, 2012 at 8:26 a.m.
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Everybody knows that the bird is the word.
Feb 10, 2012 at 7:38 a.m.
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Big.
Feb 9, 2012 at 10:45 p.m.
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Foghorn Leghorn!
"Son, ah say lookie here son! See that man standin' up to his tailfeathers in snow tryin' to feed the hummingbirds? Looks like he's a few kernels short of a full cob."
Feb 9, 2012 at 6:52 p.m.
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"Tufted Titmouse"
is this the one that looks like cardinal except gray and yellowish. There is another that looks like this cannot remember the name. They look very sililiar to me. One seems to have a black mask.
Feb 9, 2012 at 5:54 p.m.
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I enjoy seeing Eastern Phoebes,Chipping Sparrows,Purple Finches, and an occasional Tufted Titmouse in my back yard. But most of all, I enjoy watching hummingbirds hiding/resting on branches of a nearby peach tree. One day last fall I had as many as 12 different hummingbirds around the house. Aren't all birds living decorations to our environments?
Feb 9, 2012 at 5:46 p.m.
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Although it is considered waterfowl, mine is the canvasback drake.
Feb 9, 2012 at 5:09 p.m.
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Sigma40 - I thought you were going to say something like "My favorite one is a BLU-82".
Close, but I get no cigar today.
That only counts in horse shoes...
Feb 9, 2012 at 4:35 p.m.
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Wild turkey, hummers, and swallows.
Feb 9, 2012 at 4:35 p.m.
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I like the one's I only get to see a few times a year. the Scarlet Tanager and the Pileated Woodpecker and Indigo Bunting witch there feathers are really black not blue
Feb 9, 2012 at 3:23 p.m.
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Any bird except the blackbirds that dive bombed me while running on the trail last spring/summer.
Feb 9, 2012 at 2:54 p.m.
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I love cardinals, bluebirds, and little purple and yellow finches.
Feb 9, 2012 at 2:50 p.m.
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A male ring-necked pheasant. Am always amazed at the beautiful autumn coloring and multitude of patterns on their feathers. They also have the cutest strut when they kick up snow.
Feb 9, 2012 at 2:44 p.m.
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I grew up watching Robins and hoping to see a Cardinal or Oriole. My Grandmother always pointed out Bob Whites. Today the Western Meadowlark is a favorite. That probably partly due to my geography.
Feb 9, 2012 at 1:59 p.m.
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ooooh woodpeckers. I'll sit outside my camper in the summer and here those little buggers. drives me crazy. not the sound, but the fact that I can always hear them, but have trouble finding them.
Feb 9, 2012 at 1:50 p.m.
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Yes I have a feeder right outside my window in the winter. It is 18 inches from the glass. My favorite is the red bellied woodpecker as it is the prettiest bird I`ve ever seen. Also see black capped chickadees, white breasted nuthatchers, bluejays, juncos, purple & gold finches, 4 cardinals, and downey woodpeckers daily. I see turkeys once in awhile, but only once did I see a pileated woodpecker which was spectacular. In the summer come the occasional orioles, bluebirds, cranes, and more often the hummers. Birdwatching is my winter hobby.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:56 p.m.
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No need to go to Canada to see Bald eagles. Go to Riverside Park.
I love the look of Cardinal in the winter.
I like the bright yellow finches.
I don't think I have ever seen a blue bird.
Blue Jay pretty.
I get to see a woodpecker once in a while.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:41 p.m.
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The wild turkey,grouse,woodcock and pheasants all rank high on my list.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:40 p.m.
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I enjoy feeding the birds though I can't say as I have a favorite. I get six or seven different species though if I could distinquish the different sparrows it would probably be more. I even get an occassional wild turkey. Bluebirds are cool and I've got three nesting boxes on my property. I feed them as well. My mother has a friend who has trained a pair to eat out of her hand. I tried to do that but didn't have the patience.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:37 p.m.
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Northwoods duck-Tasty!
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:23 p.m.
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don't have a favorite bird, but Steve Miller does a great rendition of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"!
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:04 p.m.
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My favorite one is a Firebird, a blue one also.
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