This is the Great Crested Flycatcher which is a species of Tyrant flycatchers. Its range is the eastern half of the United States. it is sitting on the top of our tallest sunflower plant. This bird hunts in different ways, but its main strategy is “sit and wait”.
The Sunflowers should start blooming very soon. Below is a video of a sunflower from last year that we dried in the barn. The round piece is actually the center of the flower. You can see the brown remains of the petals by the right thumb in this picture. The seeds are standing on end, and come loose when you flake them with your thumb.
The same type of flower can vary greatly from one subspecies to the next. The first pictures (slides 1-17) show the very wide variation in both size and color of Zinnias. Notice, the leaves of the Zinnias stay very consistent even though the flowers vary. Slides. 18-25 show different Dahlias. Dahlias also vary in color and size. Like the Zinnias, the leaves and structure of the Dahlia plants closely resemble each other.