The Zen Birdfeeder

Wild Birds Unlimited Bird of the Month - House Finch

Fun Facts About House Finches

• The House Finch has not always been found in the eastern United States. In 1940, they were illegally captured in California and imported to New York by pet dealers. Fearing prosecution, the dealers released their “Hollywood Finches” on Long Island in 1940. Since then the finches have spread to all corners of the east and have even rejoined their relatives in the west.
• The eastern population of House Finches has developed a consistent annual and often long-range migration pattern, while the native western population is primarily residential, occasionally migrating only short distances. Many House Finches from the Northeast U.S. and Great Lakes regions migrate to the southern U.S. to spend the winter.
• In the East, female House Fiches migrate farther south than do the males. Southern states often find a majority of brown females at their feeders, while northerners enjoy more of the colorful red males.
• House Finch populations found in the east are rarely found far from urban or suburban areas, but in its native western range they may also be found in a wide variety of open or semi-open habitats including undisturbed deserts.
• Male House Finches display a wide variety of plumage coloration ranging from gray to bright crimson. The coloration comes from carotenoid pigments found in some wild foods. The more pigment present in the foods eaten when they are molting new feathers … the redder the male.
• Female house finches prefer to mate with the reddest males they can find.
• House Finches were introduced on the Hawaiian Islands sometime before 1870. Known there as the papaya bird, after its favorite island food, males lack the red color of mainland birds as papaya has no red pigments.
• House Finches roost at night in close proximity to each other, sometimes huddling together for warmth. Favorite roosting spots are used repeatedly.
• House Finches are fond of nectar and can become a nuisance at hummingbird feeders, if they do, offer them a dish of nectar for their own use.
• A water source can be a strong attractant for House Finches.  They can drink up to 40% of their body weight on a hot summer day.
• House Finches are almost strictly vegetarian feeders and approximately 97% of their diet is made up of vegetable matter including buds, seeds, and fruits. They are strongly attracted to feeders, where they prefer small sunflower seeds.
• House Finches’ diets are the most vegetarian of any North American bird. Unlike most other seed eating birds, finches do not switch to an insect diet during the summer nesting season. They continue to eat mostly seeds, although they will prey on some insects when they are abundant.
• House Finches are highly attracted to sodium salt and will seek out sources of it to eat.
• House finches differ from purple finches by the male purple finch's purple side streaks (unlike the brown streaks in a house finch) and by the female's conspicuous eye stripe (female house finches lack this feature).
• The Eastern population of the House Finch has decreased by almost 50% in the last 10 years due to an eye disease known as avian conjunctivitis.
• Studies have shown that when the avian conjunctivitis enters a new area, it takes three years before the population of House Finches stabilizes at about half of the pre-disease level. It is theorized that transmission of avian conjunctivitis between House Finches is dependant on high density populations.
• It is thought that since the entire Eastern population of the House Finch is the progeny of a small number of birds liberated on Long Island, New York in 1940, their low genetic diversity may make them more susceptible to the avian conjunctivitis disease than other bird species.
• It was once believed that the rapid increase of the eastern House Finch population was responsible for a decline in the number of House Sparrows. Recent research shows that that the two population trends are unrelated.
• Banding studies show House Finches may live to be over 11 years old in the wild.
• House finches are early nesters, beginning in March in most of the country.
• Both male and female House Finch display a strong tendency to return to the same area to breed, often occupying the same nest site as the previous year.
• Male House Finches do not defend a defined territory very far away from their nest; instead they concentrate on defending the area immediately surrounding their mate. They will chase and fight another male when it gets too close to their female partner.
• Ironically, House Finches rarely use bird houses to build their nest in; instead they seem to prefer locations such as: coniferous trees, cactus plants, ledges, street lamps, ivy on building and hanging planters.
• House Finch typically produce at least two broods each nesting season. Research has shown that some individuals may attempt to nest up to six times per year, but only half of the attempts were successful in fledging young.
• A few female House Finches have been observed laying their second clutch of eggs several days before fledging their young from a previous brood. This is possible due to the male predominant role in raising the young from the earlier nest.

Check out Wild Birds Unlimited rightbird Online Field Guide to read more about House Finches.  Hear their song, read about their behavior, view their ranges and more.
Photos courtesy of Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc.

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Why not share these cool fun facts with the children in your life?

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Wild Birds Unlimited Birds of the Month - Wrens

Fun Facts About Wrens

• You can increase your chances of attracting Carolina Wrens to you feeders by providing a brush pile close to your feeding area. They feel more secure with a place to seek refuge nearby.
• A single male Carolina Wren can sing up to forty different songs – up to 3,000 times in a single day.
• A female Carolina Wren is unable to defend her territory alone if her mate dies, so she spends much of her time watching for predators as they forage together.
• Unlike other wren species, only the male Carolina Wren sings the loud song.
• One captive male Carolina Wren sang nearly 3,000 times in a single day.
• A pair bond may form between a male and a female Carolina Wren at any time of the year, and the pair will stay together for life. Members of a pair stay together on their territory year-round, and forage and move around the territory together.
• Breeding from Canada southward to the southern tip of South America, the House Wren has one of the largest ranges of any bird found in the New World.
• A male House Wren may lay claim to a nesting cavity by filling it with more than 400 small twigs. If  the female likes what she sees, she will then take over, adding the nest cup and lining it with grass, inner bark, hair, and feathers.
• The stick filled cavity of the House Wren nest provides “stilts” for the nest cup which allows rainwater to collect in the bottom of the nesting cavity without endangering the eggs or young.
• House Wrens are known for destroying the eggs or young of other birds nesting within 100 feet of their own nest. In some areas, this is the primary source of nesting failure for Prothonotary Warblers, Tree Swallows, chickadees, and bluebirds.
• Bewick's Wren populations have declined sharply in the eastern United States. The declines appear most likely due to competition from the nest-destroying House Wren whose range expansion has accompanied the loss of the Bewick’s Wren.
• Audubon first identified the Bewick’s Wren in 1821 while in Louisiana. He named it for his friend, Thomas Bewick, a British engraver.
• In proportion to its size and weight, the call of the Winter Wren is 10 times louder than that of a crowing rooster.
• On average, Winter Wren’s sings between 16 - 36 notes per second.
• Out of 78 species of wrens found in the New World, the Winter Wren is the only one to take up residence outside of the Americas.

Check out Wild Birds Unlimited rightbird Online Field Guide to read more about Carolina Wrens, House Wrens, Bewick's Wrens, and Winter Wrens. Hear their songs, read about their behavior, view their ranges and more.
Photos courtesy of Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc.

Kids love factoids! Why not share these cool wren fun facts with the children in your life?

IDENTIFY IT.
LEARN ABOUT IT.
CARE ABOUT IT.

Wild Birds Unlimited Bird of the Month - Grosbeaks

Fun Facts about Rose-breasted and Evening Grosbeaks

• The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak shares incubation duties with the female and is known to even sing while sitting on the nest.
• The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is beneficial to farmers, consuming many potato beetles and weed seeds.
• The Rose-breasted Grosbeak will breed with the Black-headed Grosbeak in areas where their ranges overlap.
• Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are known for singing on moonlit nights, sometimes all night, but never very loudly.
• The nests of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are commonly parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, possibly due to the singing done by both the male and female as they construct the nest.
• Rose-breasted Grosbeaks’ preferred feeder items are sunflower, safflower and peanuts.
• The nests of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are so thinly constructed that eggs often can be seen from below through the nest.
• The males of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak share equally in incubating eggs and feeding young, despite having a much showier plumage than their respective females.
• The Rose-breasted Grosbeak has unusual diets for birds with such a big seed eating beak. Throughout most of the year, over half of their diet is made up of insects. Their huge beaks allows them to eat large grasshoppers, crickets and other insects that have tough exoskeletons.
• Evening Grosbeaks like to eat wild cherries, but unlike other birds, they only eat the pits. After removing the fleshy fruit, they crush the slippery seeds with special pads in their “gross beak.”
• So favored are cherry pits that Evening Grosbeaks sometimes seek out the pits voided by American Robins.
• Evening Grosbeaks can break open seeds that require up to 125 pounds of pressure to crush.
• As with many finches whose diet is primarily vegetarian, Evening Grosbeaks are attracted to natural salt and mineral sources.
• The Evening Grosbeak is an irruptive migrant that makes irregular appearances at winter feeding stations throughout much of United States.
• The Evening Grosbeak was not commonly found east of the Rocky Mountains before the 1850’s. Winter irruptions now occur in all of the 48 contiguous states. This expansion may be attributed to widespread planting of box elder trees in landscapes across the east. Its seeds persist on the tree throughout the winter and provided flocks with a reliable source of food.
• The Evening Grosbeak was named in 1825 based on erroneous accounts that they became vocal and active only “at the approach of night.” This erroneous belief persisted for years, and the name is still a misnomer.
• Evening Grosbeaks seem to delight in snipping off the twigs of Sugar Maple trees and sipping the sweet sap.

Check out Wild Birds Unlimited rightbird Online Field Guide to read more about Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Evening Grosbeaks.  Hear their songs, see their ranges, and more.

Kids love factoids!  Why not share these cool grosbeak fun facts with the children in your life?