Last year this time, the Pyracantha* was empty of fruit. I am unsure why the tree is still full of berries. A guess is that the unseasonable weather has led to a bumper crop of berries - Pyracantha and otherwise - and my tree is just one of many foraging options for the birds. A few weeks ago, on an overcast morning, the tree was filled with American Robins, House Finches, and Cedar Waxwings.
The House Finch, pictured above, and the American Robin are ranked number 1 and number 9, respectively, in the Southwest and California Regions on the Project FeederWatch 2007-08 list, a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The 2007-08 rankings are based on 810 sites reporting (9,748 total for the U.S.). The Cedar Waxwing was not in the Top-25 list for the Southwest and California Regions. Anne Raver wrote an interesting account of bird counters involved in the project in last Thursday's Times.
American Robin
* In a previous post, I misidentified the Pyracantha as a mountain ash.
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