The Zen Birdfeeder

Feeding Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are easy to attract to your birdfeeders because they like a wide variety of seed and are comfortable at many types of birdfeeders.

FOODS TO OFFER
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks prefer black-oil sunflower, safflower, and striped sunflower.  A perfect blend for them is Wild Birds Unlimited Supreme Blend.  Grosbeaks in our yard also love seed cylinders and stackables.

Three Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at the WBU Supreme Fare Cylinder

 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak enjoying safflower at a window tray feeder

You seldom see grosbeaks at suet feeders but we have seen them take a nip of Bark Butter now and then.  Lately, I've seen them enjoying peanuts too!

FEEDERS TO USE

Grosbeaks eat from a variety of elevated feeders including hopper feeders, tray feeders, and tube feeders.  They'll visit feeders that hold our seed cylinders and we've had them visit window feeders as well.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Catch-a-Seed Tray

The feeder should have a perch since grosbeaks are not clinging birds.  They seldom eat on the ground.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP GROSBEAKS

Put out a source of fresh water for your birds and you might enjoy seeing grosbeaks drinking or bathing in the water you provide.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are here only during the breeding season.  The other months of the year, they thrive in the habitat provided by shade-grown coffee farms.  Sun-grown coffee plantations lack the habitat for these gorgeous birds so the type of coffee you drink can made a difference to the grosbeaks.

Drink certified Bird-friendly® shade-grown coffee like Birds & Beans® to help ensure that these beauties return to your yard year after year.

Look for this certification to know you're getting real shade-grown coffee

The certified Bird-friendly coffee we carry at WBU-Saratoga

Fruit for the Catbirds

Gray Catbirds returned to my yard on May 4th from their winter homes in the southern states.

Gray Catbird on our catch-a-seed tray

They aren't typically feeder birds, but you can possibly bring them in by offering fruit.  So besides the orange halves I had out for the orioles, I also put out a softening pear, hoping they'd take me up on my offer.

It wasn't long before not only one, but two catbirds enjoyed my fruit offering.

In case you missed it, check out this video post of my fruit-eating (and meewing) catbird.

Catbirds might also eat softened raisins as well as the fruit in our WBU Fruit Cakes Suet Dough.

Catbird eating Fruit Cakes Suet Dough

Why not try offering more fruit at your birdfeeders and see what birds take you up on your offer!

 

Wednesday at the Watering Hole

I have five birdbaths out this spring for the birds!  Here's just some of the activity I've had at them.

Couples bath

Hey, no arguing in the bath!!

Gettin' clean

 

Black-capped Chickadee

 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

 
Migrating White-crowned Sparrow

 

Looks like water fireworks (click on to enlarge)

 

Black-capped Chickadee

Our Pear-eating Catbird

Gray Catbirds returned to our yard just a couple days ago and they have been active and quite vocal.  Here's a video of one enjoying the pear I left in a tree, and doing his characteristic cat "meew" call as well.

 

 

Top 5 Ways to Get Orioles at your Birdfeeders

If your yard is home to Baltimore Orioles, here are the top 5 ways to get them down to your birdfeeders.

1. HANG FEEDERS BEFORE THEY ARRIVE
It's important to have your feeder hanging when orioles arrive or very shortly thereafter.

They arrive here when Black Cherry is in bloom but before the insects and fruit they feed upon are plentiful.  If an easy source of the food they like is there when they arrive, they'll be more likely to partake and feed from it all summer.

2.  HANG FEEDERS SO THEY CAN FIND THEM
Orioles are tree top birds so hang the feeder where they can easily find it.

3.  OFFER FRUIT
Orioles love fruit and are especially drawn to oranges halves.  They'll also eat grapes, softened raisins, apples, and other fruit.
Plant fruit trees in your yard and you may find orioles as well as waxwings, catbirds, robins, mockingbirds, tanagers, and towhees enjoying their fruit.

Orioles love fruit! Peel the apple a little to help get them started.

4.  PUT OUT MEALWORMS
Orioles are insect eaters and may come to a feeder offering live mealworms.  Live mealworms are always preferred over dry-roasted mealworms.

Female oriole with mealworm

5.  OFFER OTHER FOODS TO SATISFY THEIR SWEET TOOTH
Orioles have a sweet tooth, so to speak!  They really enjoy grape jelly and nectar.  Serve the jelly only in a shallow dish.  And here's the recipe for oriole nectar - it's weaker than hummingbird nectar.  You'll need an oriole feeder for the nectar; most hummingbird feeder ports are too small for the beak of an oriole.

 

Be patient! 
It may be many years before you can draw orioles down from the trees.  But keep at it - their brilliant coloration and whistling song will be worth the wait!

All pictures are from the WBU, Inc. image library

It's Time to Hang a Hummingbird Feeder!!!

It's time!  It's time!!

If you live in the Saratoga Springs NY area, now is a great time to hang a single hummingbird feeder for the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.  It's still a little early for our resident hummingbirds, who most likely will return in early May (we use the easy-to-remember Hummingbird Season Mantra of "Mother's Day to Labor Day!")

What you'll see first are migrating hummingbirds, stopping in for refueling before continuing on to the area where they were born and will breed.  This initial wave will probably be male hummingbirds. 

Take their beauty in: they are in tip-top shape, both physically and aesthically.  They molted before they left their winter home in Mexico or South America, so their feathers are pristine and beautiful.  And they are in lean & mean breeding condition.

I'll start out with a single hummingbird feeder early on.  I like to use a basic feeder to start with, and I hang a bright red weather guard over it to scream "NECTAR!!" to overhead birds.  As the females return, I'll add all my other feeders.  I like to spread those feeders out to increase the likelihood that I'll see multiple hummingbirds at once.

As throughout the hummingbird season, please keep your feeders clean and filled with fresh nectar.  Change it out every 4-6 days at a minimum.  And don't use red nectar - feeders have plenty of color to attract hummingbirds and birds can't metabolize the red dye. 

Have a GREAT hummingbird season this year! 
I can't wait to see them!

It's Finch City

It's been Finch City around our feeders lately.  Flocks of American Goldfinches and Purple Finches have been finding our birdfeeders and emptying them every 3-4 days.  And every time I step outside the house, I hear their sweet little songs filling the treetops.

The goldfinches are in midst of their spring molt, when both male and female finches replace their body feathers.  So it's not long before the males will flaunt their bright yellow breeding plumage (but it's still months before they breed.)

I have to check over the goldfinches carefully, looking for streaked birds in their midst.  Just about every day lately, I've been finding a Pine Siskin or two in amongst the goldfinches.

Purple Finches have returned in force.  The males are a gorgeous raspberry color and the females just as beautiful in their streaky brown.  The females are outnumbering the males right now, so may the most beautifully colored male bird win!

FAQ - Do All Birds Migrate?

Q. Do all birds migrate?

Carolina Wren

A. Not all bird species migrate, but most do.

Migration is defined as the seasonal movement of birds, north in the spring from the wintering grounds and southward in the fall from the breeding grounds.  Among the birds that are resident, or do not migrate, are many grouse, ptarmigan, and quail species, many owl species, pileated, red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatch, Carolina wren, northern cardinal, wrentit, ring-necked pheasant, Townsend's solitaire, common raven, gray jay, and northern mockingbird.

Originally published in the Winter 2005 WBU BirdTracks®

The First of the Early Birds?

Spring migration came to my yard today in the form of a male Red-winged Blackbird.  He arrived well before what is their average return date in my yard (March 22), and might raise the question, "will we see an earlier spring migration because of our mild winter?"

 

Red-winged Blackbird in the snow-covered trees

As we emerge from our warmer-than-normal winter (though 18" of new snow now covers the landscape), we might be tempted to attribute earlier than normal spring arrivals to the mild winter.  But remember that migration for many species starts thousands and thousands of miles from here and that a warm, snowless winter in the Capitol region of New York doesn't mean that birds will wrap up their winter stay in Mexico or South America or the Caribbean and start their journey north early.

 

There might be more of a chance of a single mild winter affecting migration amongst short-distance migrants, like Red-winged Blackbirds, some of whom spend winter in southern portions of the state.

But don't necessarily expect to see all your spring birds earlier than normal just because of a mild winter.  If they do start arriving earlier on a continuing basis, it's something much bigger than a single snow-less winter!

FAQ - What Bird is our True Harbinger of Spring?

Q. What is our true harbinger of spring?

A.  Here in upstate New York, we say that the return of the Red-winged Blackbird is the true sign that spring is really on its way.

 

Blackbirds leave our area each fall but they don't necessarily go too far (they can be seen in winter in southern parts of the state).  They can start their northward spring movement in February.  In my yard, I can expect to see them as early as the second week in March.  Early spring is the most likely time of year for me to see Red-winged Blackbirds at my birdfeeders.

American Robins are not the harbinger of spring that perhaps they used to be.  Robins are now seen year-round in our area of upstate New York, feeding on the remaining berries and fruits on trees and shrubs.  Watch for robins in winter at your heated bird bath as well!