The Zen Birdfeeder

Wordless Wednesday - Migrating Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler
The first warbler to pass through my yard this fall migration season

What is this Wet Little Bird?

I think that I will never see
a little bird as wet as he.
He's not a jay or chickadee,
tell me what this bird might be.

 

This soaked bird is an AMERICAN GOLDFINCH!
Pretty amazing, huh? Thanks everyone for weighing in!

FAQ - How Do Birds Hang on in Heavy Wind?

Q. How do birds hang on to their perch during heavy winds?

A.  Birds' feet are built so that when they land on a branch or perch, their feet clench around it.  This not only helps them hold onto a branch through windstorms, it's what keeps them put when they sleep each night.

To get an idea of the action, form an 'L' shape between your thumb and index finger.  Now with your other hand, press firmly into the stretch of skin in the crook of that 'L'.  Your thumb and index finger come together, right?  This is similar to the action as a bird lands on a branch, helping it hold on tight!

FAQ - Should I Let My Garden Go to Seed for the Birds?

Q:  Should I let my garden go to seed?  It looks messy after everything is done blooming and growing.  I'm torn between having a tidy garden/yard and providing for my birds.


A:  Depending on what plants you have in your garden, it's an excellent idea to "let things go" at the end of the growing season.  Most bird gardeners try to include a mixture of seed-producing plants such as zinnias, sunflowers, coneflowers, and coreopsis that bloom all summer and provide food in fall and winter in the form of seeds.  Native plants are best, of course, but non-invasive non-native plants can also be good for birds. 

If you are worried about keeping things tidy, set aside a little-used or secluded corner of your property for the birds.  You may be surprised to find that this is the birdiest spot in your yard in fall and winter.

Reprinted from the Summer 2005 edition of WBU BIRDTracks®

Wings on Wednesday - Cloak and Dagger

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Broad-winged Hawk Fly-by

While sitting on the deck today photographing hummingbirds, I heard the piercing, whistle-like call of a Broad-winged Hawk overhead.  Fall hawk migration is underway!

Here in the foothills of the Adirondacks, I'm lucky to get a number of migrating hawks overhead, and today there was a nice breeze coming out of the northwest that apparently the hawks found to their liking.

The first hawk was high in the the sky, as was the next broad-winged that passed over.  But a couple minutes later, I heard the call again and this one paid a much closer visit, flying perhaps only 50-feet high and circling the yard a couple times.

 

Broad-wings are small buteos, and their 13-17" length could even be shorter than that of the Cooper's Hawks that visit the yard.  But they're chunkier birds and their wings are much broader and typically longer.  Though their diet does include other birds, we're much more likely to have Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawk cruising the birdfeeders for a meal.

Broad-wingeds typically hunt from a perch, but his close aerial presence had cleared the yard of birds and chipmunks anyway.  I enjoyed his relatively close fly-by as he journeys to his winter grounds in Mexico, Central- or South America.

"Dealing" with Grackles

I admit I haven't written much or read up much on Common Grackles, other than being able to answer customers questions on how to keep them off birdfeeders. Though they are beautiful birds to look at with their shiny iridescence, they aren't much desired at feeders by many birdfeeding enthusiasts.

Maybe it's because of their size - their 1-foot length and 17" wingspan dwarf our favorite feeder birds. Maybe it's their "mob mentality", showing up almost always in groups that when combined with their size, makes them a formidable group, taking up lots of space on the feeders and leaving little room for other birds. And when they show up in these groups, these big birds can consume a lot of seed and suet!

Lots of grackles!

I also haven't posted much on grackles because frankly I don't see many of them in my yard. Maybe I'll have a few pass through during spring migration and again during fall migration, but nothing to "ruffle my feathers" so to speak.

In late summer, grackles start forming flocks to migrate out of our area. They don't migrate far; they winter all across southern New York and throughout the eastern states, midwest, southeast, and mid-south. The fact that they migrate offers some solace to those in our area who complain about grackles at their birdfeeders: "Don't worry, this too shall pass. They'll be migrating soon."

Over the last week or so, I've had more grackles in my yard than any other fall migration. Something like 40 of them have been in the yard. They've been mostly on the ground, but a few on the larger hopper-type feeders. As the flock has grown and they've become more accustomed to the yard, they've been trying to eat from feeders that are a little tougher for them to negotiate, like the suet log and the seed tube. They're not the strongest clingers, so hanging on to the side of the suet log requires some effort, and their larger size makes it just a bit tougher to sit on a small tube feeder perch and to reach into the portal.

Struggling to hang on to a suet log

If I wanted to deter them, I could fill the hopper feeders with safflower seed, which they don't care for much. I could put suet cakes out in an upside-down style feeder - they would have a hard time clinging upside down to access the suet, whereas woodpeckers, chickadees, and the like would have no trouble. Or if I really wanted to clear them out, I could just take my feeders down for a few days (a good time for a fall feeder cleaning?) and let them move on.

Grackles establishing dominance

I'm not taking any of these actions though. Sure, there are lots of them, but their presence has given me the opportunity to watch them more, admire their perhaps underappreciated beauty, see their kids, and learn more about them. Maybe it's easier for me to welcome them into my yard knowing that they aren't here for the long haul, but who am I to anoint a species with the "bad bird" label?  I'll "deal with the grackles" by just letting them be grackles.

I believe this grackle is molting - grackles molt once a year

A Gallery of Hummingbird Fun Facts

There are lots of Hummingbird Fun Facts out there.  Here's a gallery of images to help illustrate a few of these fascinating facts.

Hummingbirds have a crop in their throat to store extra food, either nectar or insects.  You can see a little bulge in this guy's throat where the crop is.

They do not have an innate preference for red.
Each hummingbird must learn to associate red, purple, or other colored flowers/feeders and food.  Here's one enjoying a stop at a purple-colored feeder.

 

Juvenile males have a pinstriped throat

 

Some juvenile males might also have a stray red feather or two coming in.

 

Female hummingbirds are sleek and have white tips on the tail.  Both male and female juveniles have white tips on the tail, too.

 

The red in the male hummingbird's throat comes from the structure of the feathers – the feathers themselves are not red.  That's why the throat can appear black in low light.

 

Their weak legs and leg placement make hummingbirds unable to walk or hop. However, they can scoot sideways when perched.

 

Hummingbirds have a remarkable ability to learn food-rich plants and memorize their locations.

 

 
They have a flexible wing joint and wings move in a figure-8 pattern that generates lift forward and back, like treading water.  You can kind of see this in the right wing above.

 

Hummingbirds lap up to twice their body weight in nectar every day (most birds only eat ¼ - ½ their body weight)

 

Hummingbird predators include Praying Mantis, spiders, and frogs, domestic cats, and snakes.
Avian predators include Blue Jays, shrikes, crows, Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels.

 

Hummingbirds eat about every 10 minutes; this male is getting a quick sip at a WBU Window Hummingbird Feeder

 

Hummingbirds can extend out their tongue approximately a distance equal to the length of their bill.  While lapping up nectar, they move their tongues in and out of their bill at a rate of up to 12 times a second.  Click on this image and you can see the beak, tongue, and ripple on the nectar through the clear bottom bowl of a WBU hummingbird feeder.

Hard-working Chickadee Parents

I'm pretty sure I had a nestful of Black-capped Chickadees successfully fledge last month from a nestbox in my backyard.  I wrote about them in my early-July post, "A Mid-summer Chickadee Brood?".

Without an easy-opening panel, I was unable to monitor the box for Cornell's NestWatch, but I was able to observe the hard-working parents.  Here's a series of pictures of them bringing in all kinds of high-protein bugs to their brood.

I haven't seen the little family since they fledged because as soon as the last bird has fledged, the whole family group moves away from the nest site.  And as the fledglings get older, the family may move even farther away.  After a few more weeks, the fledglings take off on their own, never returning to their nesting area.  (SOURCE:  Wild Bird Guides Black-capped Chickadee by Susan M. Smith)

Wings on Wednesday - Hummingbird at Bee Balm

Ruby-throated Hummingbird