American Goldfinches

I get a lot of goldfinches at my feeders and yard in the winter and spring. Then come summer, they are only rarely seen. In winter they are a drab olive yellow color, but in the summer they turn the most brilliant shade of bright yellow. They love thistle seed and have a very musical song. At times I have seen as many as ten of these guys on the thistle feeders.
They especially seem to like the thistle sock I recently put up. They also will eat black oil sunflower seeds.

European Starlings at a suet feeder

Starlings are very common birds in the city and the country. They are non-native birds and can out compete other birds for nesting spots and at feeders. I have seen these birds become quite tame and have even seen them hand fed french fries at the McDonald's on the hospital campus I work at.

Northern Mockingbird

The Northern Mockingbird is Tennessee's state bird and a frequent visitor to my backyard and my feeders. They can mimic the calls of many different birds and even other animal species. I have heard the one who claims the pine tree on the side of my yard copy a hawk, dog, cat, and baby.
These birds mostly come to my feeders for suet, although just recently I saw one eating from my black oil sunflower feeder. They also like fruit when I throw that out for them.

Blue Jay

Blue Jay eyeing my bird feeder. These guys come to the feeder occasionally, but not everyday. They like sitting in the pine trees bordering our yard. Blue jays are pretty mean birds and were swooping at my dog one day for getting to close to its tree. I read that they can carry up to five acorns in their bill at one time.

Northern Cardinal

I see a lot of these guys. They are usually one of the first birds at my feeder in the mornings. Sometimes I will have 4 or 5 male and females in my tree at once. Females are a brown color with red on their crest and tails. Males are solid red with a black face mask. Both sexes have bright orange beaks.
These are nice birds to have in your yard as they will eat a lot of bugs that are detrimental to gardens.

Carolina wren

This is the first year I have been able to entice the Carolina Wren to my feeder. I saw one in my yard once last winter. These birds are fun to watch forage as they will toss leaves aside and dig around in bushes. I have read that they are highly intelligent birds. I have about five of these little guys that regularly come to my yard and feeders. I love the first picture. That bird really wanted a particular seed.

Cooper's Hawk

This is a Cooper's Hawk that landed in my tree. A bunch of sparrows had been sitting in that tree and he swooped down and landed there. I have since seen him sitting in the other tree beside my bird feeder. In the bushes up against the house about ten sparrows were hiding out. I really like hawks, so it made my day when I saw him.

Carolina chickadee

It took me an entire year of feeding to see one of these. Even now, they still aren't a regular visitor to my feeders. I have been feeding more black oil sunflower seeds in a separate feeder and that seems to attract them the most.