Black Parrots

Day 216: The "other" Parrots have arrived, which if you're not one of my regular followers, may be a bewildering statement, accompanied as it is by a photo of a Black-Headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus). It might help if I explained that the Porch Parrots are now here in vast numbers, i.e., I have so many Evening Grosbeaks that I'm having to fill the feeders twice daily. It's those big chartreuse beaks, big seed-cracking beaks which earned them the nickname "Parrots." The cacophony of chirps ("CHURP!") is deafening from the back porch, the contorted filbert serving as a jam-packed choir loft. The red dogwood carries as many yellow and orange birds as it does green leaves, and all of them demanding second helpings. My year and my world would be incomplete without the Parrot complement, such bright and gregarious little souls they are.