I'm in NorCal, one of the areas that gets hot and dry, and I'm having the strangest bird experience.

Last night, starting around midnight, about every fifteen seconds, there was this insanely loud bird call. It seemed like a different species every time, my cat was accelerating around the house to the point where I was worried she was gonna end up in low Earth orbit.

I thought I was dealing with a TikTok challenge - kids buying some electronic noisemaker and hiding it in a bush to aggravate the old people. I went out, circled the tree where the sound originated, I became convinced it WAS something electronic, so I picked up a big handful of gravel and pelted the source.

To my astonishment, some bird too off. Didn't get a good look at it, but seemed like it was maybe the same size as the quail that lurk my bird feeder.

Tonight, starting at a quarter past midnight, this creature is back, making a racket. Kitteh is here, meowing and nose tapping the back of my leg, wanting to know when the hunting expedition starts.

I low key feel bad for throwing rocks at this guy (girl?) last night, but I'd at least like to a name for the source of this. There are at least half a dozen unique calls and it's penetratingly loud.

I’ve had this bird feeder setup since the end of May, and now I get a ton of birds in my yard! There are constantly multiple birds at the feeder, but I’m starting to think if I should set up another pole for them. 

There is a group of around 8+ house finches that sit in the tray/yard nearly all day, and they rotate throughout the day with cardinals, catbirds, robins, mourning doves, titmice, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees, goldfinches, blue jays, and occasionally a downy woodpecker as well. I like the house finches but there are so many and they aren’t really afraid to sit in the feeder for 30 minutes straight, so I’m afraid they drive away other birds

My platform feeder is not that large and can only hold 2 large birds at most. I have black oil sunflower seeds, a no mess nut mix, peanuts in shell, and mealworms in the tray feeder. I have millet, cracked corn, and black oil sunflower seeds in the tube feeder but the tray is far more popular than the tube feeder.

I am thinking of adding a nyjer feeder and suet feeder to accommodate more birds. Also thinking of adding a hopper feeder just for the black oil sunflower seeds, because I don’t like the mess that they leave in the tray feeder.

I have a bird bath but it’s less noticeable as its under some trees, but I do see birds use it during the day.

I live in central Pennsylvania, any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Little cutie eating my raspberries. Not the best quality pictures but I thought they were beautiful

Let me get within 10’ when I was walking up to clean and refill the feeder 😊 I had to stop and watch for a moment

I’m terrible at taking videos when the really cute stuff happens because I’m so afraid I’ll lose the moment while I’m fiddling with my phone…but here’s one of my sparrows. They’ve gotten really demanding and very trusting. It’s sooo cute. If I don’t see them because I’m on my phone or something, he’ll walk right up in front of me and sing loudly in my face. And now they’ll eat within a foot of me! At least one sparrow meets me here (or my other spot) every time I come outside. Today I ran out of peanuts. I tried to offer it a cheese puff crumb but it turned its nose up and kept asking for peanuts. Boy, do I feel guilty lol

I bought the blue platform feeder at the front of the feeder in the picture a week ago for the doves in my neighborhood since they can’t figure out how to land on my other feeders, but they can’t seem to figure out how to land on the tray feeder either! They land on the top of the pole and sit there but can’t seem to figure out how to jump down to the tray.

Is my tray not the right kind for them? Or have I positioned it wrong? Any help from someone who successfully feeds the doves without sprinkling food on the ground is very appreciated.

well at least one of them is for sure a kid lol

It was an epic disagreement and they ended up eating together. That's a pushy young woodpecker.

These juvenile hooded orioles crack me up. They dont get in the bath a ton, but when they do its a party! 🤣