The Zen Birdfeeder

What to Watch for in Your Yard - Young Cardinals

After having spent 20-23 days in the nest as eggs and nestlings, young Northern Cardinals are fledging and beginning to follow their parents into your yard. Both mom or dad will feed the young, so watch for a tan bird tailing an adult cardinal.

All young cardinals - male and female alike - will have a crest (sometimes not fully filled in) and will have the coloration of an adult female: light tan with some reddish shades. But to pick out a young bird, check out the beak. Instead of the bright orange beak both adults flash, a young cardinal's beak will be dark. Sometimes very dark, almost black, and sometimes lighter and tannish. But it is not orange!

Young Northern Cardinal

Adult female
Image by WBU customer Mary Foss Bullard

Adult male

Enjoy this differentiation while you can. Cardinals molt in later summer or early fall, and by winter, the juvenile males will look just like dad with a beautiful red coat of feathers, and all their beaks, young and old, male and female, will be orange.

 

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What to Watch for in Your Yard: Woodpecker Parents

What to Watch for in Your Yard: Young Woodpeckers

What to Watch for in Your Yard: Young Woodpeckers

Well that didn't take long! Just a few days ago I posted to look for woodpecker parents carrying mouthfuls of Bark Butter back to the nest. And now the young are starting to show up in the yard!

Young Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy and Downy Woodpecker fledglings have probably already been out of the nest for a few days by the time you see them in your yard. During those first few days, they stay close to the nest location and are still fed by mom and dad. But now's the time to venture a bit further and for mom and dad to show the young where to find food, hopefully at your birdfeeders!

Hairy and downy parents will bring their young to the area around your birdfeeders at first, so keep an eye on nearby trees. Young birds will wait there for a parent to bring them a beakful of food. Watch closely and you may be lucky enough to see a parent feeding a young bird. After a few days, the young will join the parent on the birdfeeder and soon after that, the young bird will start picking at the food as they learn to feed themselves at your feeders.

Young Downy Woodpeckers

Here's some helpful hints to identify young woodpeckers: 

• Young woodpeckers will be almost full sized birds and oftentimes are larger than their parents who have lost weight while tending to young in the nest.
• Young birds will show clean, unworn feathers. Their parents, on the other hand, look a little unkempt. The parents' feathers look worn (think of all those trips in and out of the nesthole!) and the white feathers can look a little brownish from the tannins in the tree.
• Young birds will look somewhat fluffy, especially on their head.
• If you see a patch of red on the top of a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker's head, it is a young bird. If it's a male, the patch will reappear on the back of his head (just like dad's) after his first molt.

Watching young birds is so enjoyable. Power up your observation skills and enjoy their antics!

 

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What to Watch for in Your Yard: Woodpecker Parents

Hummingbirds to Warm a Cold June Day

As if to brighten my spirits on an unseasonably cold and wet early June day, two female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds recently provided me with two very special treats.

Hummingbirds in our area do not typically share a feeder. Male and female both guard nectar feeders and swoop in to drive off any intruders. But in the cold and rain these two females decided to conserve their energy and focus on the business of eating. I enjoyed seeing them share feeders throughout the day.

 

And I enjoyed seeing this female use my hummingbird swing which is strategically placed to allow her to watch over 4 different hummingbird feeders.

Seeing these less-than-common behaviors sure warmed my heart on an otherwise miserable June day.

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What to Watch for in Your Yard: Woodpecker Parents

Woodpeckers start the breeding season fairly early, and by early June, they have a cavity full of nestlings to feed. Watch for Hairy Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers parents at your suet and Bark Butter feeders, not eating themselves, but filling their beaks to overflowing. When they can't hold any more, they'll fly off with that stash to feed to their young.

So fill (and refill and refill!) those Bark Butter and suet feeders and sit back and enjoy the show!

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What to Watch for in Your Yard: Young Doves

During early June in upstate New York, Mourning Doves have most likely had at least one brood of young. Within a week of leaving the nest, the young will be on their own, foraging under the birdfeeders with all the other doves. To pick out a young bird, look for buff edges on their wing feathers and/or breast feathers and possibly a shorter tail.

And even as we welcome young doves to our yards, you can look for adult birds engaged again in courtship and mating behaviors. Doves breed early, and can have multiple broods each breeding season.

 

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13th Annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration

13^th Annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration
5 - 7  June 2015

The 13^th annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration is scheduled for 5 - 7 June 2015, at the Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) in Paul Smiths, New York. The event will feature field trips to boreal birding hot spots, informative lectures, and workshops. Field trips include: two all-day birding trips on Friday (Birding Across the Adirondacks and Birding the St. Lawrence Valley), plus a selection of half-day field trips on Saturday and Sunday (Bloomingdale Bog, Whiteface Mountain, Intervale Lowlands, Madawaska Flow, Birding by Ear at the VIC, Beginner Birder Workshop at the VIC, and Heaven Hill Farm/John Brown Homestead). 

The keynote speaker is Chris Rimmer, conservation biologist and founding director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.  He will speak on the conservation of the Bicknell’s Thrush, drawing on the findings of twenty years of research. 

Some of the boreal species that participants in the birding festival hope to find include the Black-backed Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Bicknell's Thrush and a variety of migrating warblers, including the Golden-winged Warbler.

The 3,000-acre Paul Smiths VIC contains every habitat type found in the Adirondack Park with the exception of alpine vegetation. Included on the property is a 60-acre marsh, five ponds, several brooks and swamps, bogs, fens, and varied forest types, most notably northern boreal forest. The site includes significant glacial and geological features and provides scenic vistas of Saint Regis Mountain and Jenkins Mountain. The VIC property includes over 25 miles of trails, including 6 miles of interpretive trails.

For more information: http://www.gabc.info

Point of contact: Brian McAllister, 518-327-6241, bmcallister@paulsmiths.edu