Some lucky bird photos

I finally got a photo I like of a dark-eyed junco. I love these little birds, and there are always several at my feeders. But they are so quick, that almost all the photos I've taken of them range from ever-so-slightly fuzzy to totally out of focus. Very few have been crisp. This is as close as I've come to crisp so far.

Isn't he a cutie... and you can even see his eye. And, he is sitting on a branch of the dwarf star magnolia tree... the juncos rarely sit there for long, and 99% of the photos I have are of them on the ground. The males are so dark, I usually cannot distinguish their eyes in their dark heads.

I also finally got a nice photo of a blue jay perched at the feeder. The jays are also quick, and they also are usually on the ground, not up on the feeder. This guy was going to and from the star magnolia for quite a while this morning... to the feeder for a sunflower seed...

back to the star magnolia, where he'd perch with the seed between his feet...

then he'd bend down and use that big beak to break it open and eat the nut...

And then he'd start all over again. If some of the little birds got too numerous around the feeder, blocking his flight plan, I suppose, he'd holler at them in that loud, commanding screetch that only a blue jay can do. The little birds would obey, and all at once, in a quick whoosh, they'd back off.