Those are awesome photos. The detail on the first is just unbelievable and the look of your subject’s face is too cute.
I’m bummed because I saw this gorgeous bluish finch at the park today, and I didn’t have my phone or camera. (I was theoretically exercising. 
)
Thanks, I like the expression on the second.
Was it an indigo bunting? They’re stunning. I never got a decent photo of one, but they look like this:
Absolutely gorgeous, but no. The blue on the one I saw was darker, almost blue jay-ish color. When he (I just assume “he” since beautiful colors tend to go masculine…sigh) flew close by, I saw some brown and some red underneath…and I swear a bit of green?
The only blues I’ve ever seen in SoCal have been blue jays in higher elevation.
Maybe a female western bluebird then? I’d love to see one of those one day. TX is mostly eastern birds, so we have eastern bluebirds, which are always awesome to spot.
It did a bit like those two. A lot of blue on the backside while flying around, which makes me think male rather than female. But the multicolored breast was what made me go, “wow.” So maybe female then?
The males are a really bright blue with a more vibrant brown-orange on the breast, while the females are more muted, you’d know better than I which it looked like, though it sounds like you might have spotted that species. They’re really pretty things.
The most interesting sighting was the time I was at a gas station near the traffic circle in Long Beach and I saw a hawk swoop down on a pigeon and rip it apart. Right in front of all of us at the station and the cars at the red light. I felt bad for both the pigeon and the hawk (because it must have been crazy hungry).
I saw a cooper’s hawk grab a white-winged dove out of the air on the drive to work last week, saw the dove flying with another bird approaching really fast, then saw it hit hard, there was a puff of feathers and the hawk dragged it down. We get cooper’s hawks (and sharp-shinned) in the yard a lot, they hang out on the bird feeder to feed on birds… But today I saw a northern harrier on the drive to the airport today with two crows harassing it. They only migrate through for a little while, really cool to spot.
If you’re still in SoCal, there are a lot of cool birds in the Bolsa Chica wetlands, mostly shore birds, but there are hawks and other things that visit. I wish I spent more time there when I lived out there. When I go out there now I try to hit Laguna Beach/Dana Point, lots of great birding on the shore (and the tide pools are always really cool just to look around in).
Black Phoebe:
Eared Grebe:
Black-bellied Plover:
Black-bellied Plover II:
Black Turnstone:
Black Turnstone II:
Willet with a crab:
Great Blue Heron:
That black phoebe looks like the little guy who hangs out in our back yard, waiting for me to refill the bird bath.
eta: Are all of those your own photos? Just incredible.
Black Phoebes are western, I’ve seen them in CA/AZ, beautiful things. We get eastern phoebes here, which are still cool, though not as cool (sorry eastern phoebes). And thanks, yes those are ones I took in Laguna & Dana Point.
Well, thanks for sharing them!
Careful - it doesn’t take much for me to pull out bird photos.
That’s definitely a finch body and beak…I’m no birder, but I know enough to accept that The Audubon Society has cracked the mystery.
Hey, my dad gets Great Blue Herons all the time! And we’ve started seeing some Sandhill and Whooping Cranes, too.
Sandhill Crane:
Whooping Crane:
I never have a good enough camera on me to get anything more than distant and fuzzy photos myself, unfortunately.
We only get the sandhills flying over here, really want to get to Bosque del Apache some day to visit them during mating season
You actually see whooping cranes!? That’s so cool, they’re such amazing birds! Such a tragically tiny population - people, what a bunch of bastards.
I took the day off today to spend time with my dad. While walking back from a shed I spied two very wary Canadian geese, and knew immediately why. Do pre-born pictures count?
They’re a good 5"-6" long!
Darn immigrants and their anchor babies!
We need much higher walls at our northern border!
psst before the Canucks chime in… it is Canada Geese. /pedant
Not my own ‘fur-baby’ but this vid is too cute not to share:
Wow, that one looks much like our flame point. Thanks for the good feels. 
