Hummingbird Feeder Buying Tips

For some reason I am in the mood to write product reviews today. Now my stuff here is all chatter, I am not writing to the experienced birder who is trekking through woods and fields with binoculars that are longer than I am tall, but instead writing to the home bird watcher who likes to watch wildlife from the comfort of their porch or just enjoys inviting wild birds to have a small habitat in the backyard.

First of all, everything mentioned here can be purchased at Hummingbird Feeders. This is where the pictures are from and everything, so please don’t ask me where to buy stuff! I’m just babbling about it.

So. Onward. About hummingbird feeders. Why do people insist upon buying hummingbird feeders that don’t work? They leak, attract wasps and ants, or are just generally too high maintenance to take care of for a season. Trust me, by August anyone is tired of cleaning hummingbird feeders, even the hard core deck bird watcher like myself. In my opinion the following is a list of criteria a hummingbird feeder must meet:

1. Is this sucker easy to clean?

2. Is it easy to fill?

3. Does it hold a reasonable amount of nectar?

4. Will it drip?

Why look at these factors?

1. Is this sucker easy to clean?

A hummingbird feeder must be changed every 3-4 days in summer weather. The nectar is sugar water and sugar water is a happy place for bacteria and other yuck to grow. You MUST clean the feeders or please, if you aren’t going to maintain them, do not put one up. The tiny birds will just get sick and you could do more harm than good. If the sugar solution is even slightly cloudy, change it. Face it, us humans can’t see bacteria. Black spots in the feeder mean take the feeder down right now and clean with a mild bleach, assuming that the material a feeder is made from can handle bleach. Remember: metal can not handle bleach. Metal will get destroyed, so do not bleach metal. Plastics and glass can often handle bleach but if you have plastic, check. Also the key word here is mild solution. About 4 parts water to one part bleach.

2. Is it easy to fill?

Same as all the points of number 1. Since the feeder needs to be changed often, don’t make it a big production or you will get tired of it. While the beginning of the summer may be okay, by the end of the season you may be spacing your cleanings and changing a bit further apart. The end of the season is when it is hottest out and also when a feeder needs to be changed the most. You may delay cleaning because you don’t have the time right how for the production of getting the thing down, scrubbing it out with little brushes, etc. So an easy to fill hummingbird feeder is best.

3. Does it hold a reasonable amount of nectar?

Again, back to point 1. Since a hummingbird feeder needs to be changed and cleaned frequently, don’t use a lot of nectar in one. Even if you have 50 hummers, they can’t drink all of it in a matter of days. When buying a feeder make sure that you only need to use a smaller volume of sugar water and that the hummers can still reach it. Hummers have very long tongue! If a feeder hold a whopping 48oz, that’s about 44oz of waste. Sometimes a feeder can hold a lot of fluid but this does not mean it has to be filled up. Sometimes they hold a lot of fluid and they have to be full for the hummers to get to the nectar. For example:

Antique Glass Bottle

This gravity feeder holds 10oz of nectar. You only really need to fill a small bit, say 1/3 of they way full, not the entire bottle. Due to the fact that it’s a gravity feeder hummers will not have any trouble drinking from it.

*Personal Review: I actually like this particular feeder and usually I am not a big fan of gravity styles since they drip like crazy often, but the bottom design of this one does not drip. You can also see the nectar so it’s easy to tell if the fluid is getting cloudy. Also, it’s pretty! Most of the time decorative feeders are just that – decorative. Not functional. The only downside to this hummingbird feeder is that it’s a bit harder to clean due to the neck, but being glass, you can shake a mild bleach solution inside it and the neck is wide enough for easy reach with a bottle brush. The bottom MAY NOT be bleached as it is metal. Some hummer feeders come with built in ant guards and this one does not, so you will have to hang an ant guard or moat over it, but that’s a small thing.

Which leads me to point 4:

4. Will it drip?

Don’t bother with hummingbird feeders that drip. They are a waste of money, and will just end up covered in wasps, bees or ants. I have been given gorgeous, hand blown glass feeders as gifts that I can not use because they are the gravity style with a tube beneath it from which they hummers drink. The tubes have a ball bearing in them that is supposed to stop the dripping, but these do not work. My beautiful, hand blown glass feeders are used as very attractive sun catchers. They are not hummingbird feeders. So many decorative feeders are gravity style (with the nectar above the feeding port) have these tubes, but luckily some companies are doing better and using a different style feeding port to stop the dripping. The Antique Glass Bottlel pictured above is a gravity feeder that works.

Example of the decorative style which often had a leaky tube:

Now you can still get a pretty hummingbird feeder which does not drip, so long as the feeding ports are above the nectar itself or has a design such as the clear glass bottle. Example of a pretty feeder with feeding ports above the nectar:

*Personal Review: The decorative purple crystal feeder pictured above is a pretty and functional style. It does not have a built in ant guard, so you will need an ant guard or moat hung above it. The feeding ports are too small for bees and wasps to crawl in. The feeding ports are removable and shaped like small straws. They are high maintenance in the respect that a tiny brush is needed to clean them out. Also, it is crystal, and the glass tiny straws are easy to break. But! if you want a really pretty feeder and don’t mind the extra work it is a good choice. I actually have one similar but I don’t use it until later in the season. I have several different feeders out at one time so save the higher maintenance designs until the backyard gets really busy with hummingbirds which does not happen until mid summer. I am always hoping that by the end of the season I am not sick to bits of cleaning feeders.

So, what’s the best hummingbird feeder??

In my opinion, the best hummingbird feeder design is a small dish style. A dish has the nectar below, usually has a built in ant guard and is often made of dishwasher safe plastic. It will not break as easily. My favorite feeder ever is:

The good:

Built in ant guard. You can not see this in the photo but it is a dish to fill with water at the base of the hanging post.

Feeding ports are too small for bees, so it does not require extra bee guard parts – (still, on mine I use a large cup Hummingbird Feeder Ant & Insect Moat Guards, Baffles that holds water because the chickadees drink out of it and it’s really cute when they do that but I digress…)

It’s not expensive at all. In fact, it’s one of the cheaper models. Save your money or better yet, buy two instead of one pricey feeder.

It can go in the dishwasher! YAY! Easy to clean with no tiny parts which require special brushes. Just lift the red top off and wipe out with a sponge.

It holds 8oz nectar so is smaller. I only fill it about 1/3 of the way.

Number of feeding ports: It is a reasonable size in the respect that it only has 3 feeding ports. Hummingbirds fight like mad at feeders more often than not. A feeder with a lot of ports is more often than not, a waste. You aren’t likely to have a slew of hummers feeding at the same time but instead two birds at most. They do make larger versions of this feeder, but again, save your money or buy two and place them far apart. That way you can feed multiple birds and cut down on the fighting.

Hummingbirds can easily reach the nectar. They can reach all the way to the bottom of the dish.

It’s plastic. I haven’t broken one of these yet and I have five of them. I have an insane number of hummingbirds and all five are quite active. Every 3-4th day I take them all in at night, rinse, throw in the dishwasher and clean, then fill and put back out in the morning. This is worth it and not too much work that I can’t manage it on a regular basis – which is what is safe for the birds.

The Bad:

Nothing. I have found nothing in my personal experience to say bad about this style feeder. They do come with a more decorative colored top.

Another style I love:

I am tossing this in just because I like this feeder so much.

I got one of these small window feeders on a whim simply because I have this insane number of hummingbirds. Honestly, 10-20 in my yard at a time by the end of the season is common. Due to all this and a wish to keep the hummer fighting down I purchased this window style. It doubles as a seed feeder which is a great feature! I bought this one before the hummingbirds had returned to my area and used it for peanuts. The red top comes off the feeder, leaving just the small dish and turning it into a seed bird feeder, so I put peanuts in it during the winter and the titmice and wrens went nuts (ack, sorry about the pun) for it. Soon I shall have to use it as a hummer feeder and I’m not sure the titmice and wrens will let me. It is made of the same material as the dish style above, easy to clean, small and simple to fill along with being dishwasher safe. What’s not to like about that? I never thought I’d want a window feeder – let’s face it, I’m over the top already with bird feeders and one more is not what I need – but this little guy quickly became a favorite. They are also not at all expensive. You can put whatever you want in the dish if using it as a seed feeder. I used peanuts because only the small birds can get in it and it saves some treats for them.

Bird Checklists of the United States

Here is a web site recommendation for any backyard birder in the US. LOVE this site! Bird Checklists of the United States. They are the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center and provided a checklist of birds which have been spotted in every state. This is necessary for any backyard bird watcher when trying to ID a little fluffy thing they see in the yard! Sometimes you see a bird, think it is one species, or have a choice between several species it may be. It also helps if you want to pick out foods to attract particular species, at least you get a clue what birds are in a region so you can decide what type of food to put out. The checklist can sometimes eliminate a given species if it is not been sighted in an area. The checklist themselves are done by state, and then divided up into wildlife refuges in that given state. IE: Louisiana has the following lists of wildlife refuges:

• Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge — LA
• Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge — Slidell, LA (Printed 08/95)
• Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge — Slidell, LA (Printed 01/93)
• Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge — Bell City, LA
  • Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge — LA
• Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge — Rhinehart, LA (Printed 11/93)
• D’Arbonne and Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuges — Farmerville, LA (Printed 11/85)
• Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge — Lake Arthur, LA (Printed 11/89)
• Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge — Marksville, LA
  • Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge — LA
• Louisiana Wetland Management District — Farmerville, LA
  • Handy Brake National Wildlife Refuge — LA
  • Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge — LA
• Northwestern Louisiana — Offices in Shreveport, LA (Printed 3/99)
• Sabine National Wildlife Refuge — Hackberry, LA (Printed 4/92)
• Southeast Louisiana Refuges — Slidell, LA
  • Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge — LA
  • Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge — LA
  • Braton National Wildlife Refuge — LA
  • Delta National Wildlife Refuges — LA
  • Shell Keys National Wildlife Refuge — LA
• Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge — Tallulah, LA

so you simply pick the refuge closest to your area. Now it can be a bit of a pain in the tush to use at times as the refuge may be listed, but that refuge does not keep a bird count. Still, I have not found a state that does not have an area or three with bird lists. Also, state Audubon Societies most likely maintain a statewide species checklist which you can often order for a minimum charge, or they sometimes make them available for download in printable pdf format. If you print up a checklist, I advise printing on card stock. This makes the dang thing hold up a lot better when you are folding it a zillion times, stuffing it in an id book or generally shuffling it around. So do a search for your state’s Audubon Society, also!

Bluebird Boxes and Houses

A bluebird couple has been visiting me every morning for the past few days. Every day at the same time they come in and inspect my bird houses. I have up four that are appropriate for them, and only one that is made for a chickadee and not a bluebird. Of course the chickadee house is the one the bluebirds keep inspecting. The chickadee house only has a 1 1/4″ entrance hole which is too small for the bluebirds, although the box itself is the correct size. Seems I’ll be drilling a larger hole in that box.

Bluebirds can be very frustrating to a bird watcher – they may spend two days or six weeks looking for the right spot to nest. They are territorial and usually have about a two acre territory, so I am anxious that this couple pick one of my bird houses. They may nest elsewhere withing their territory, and keep my yard free of other bluebirds while breeding. Here are a few bluebird tips:

-Provide water. Bluebirds love to take baths!! While I do not have the perfect property for these birds as it is more wooded than clearing, they visit my bath daily.

-Bluebirds eat meal worms, but if you do not care to get into feeding meal worms – which I don’t – they will eat sunflower chips and suet. Their beaks can not crack the shells of regular black oil sunflower so they need to be shelled already. They seem to like the peanut butter suet in my yard.

-Place a bluebird house on the edge of a clearing. They hunt insects by sitting on a perch, then swooping down to the ground to grab a bug. They need a perching spot and a place to hunt food.

Build a bluebird house! Most of the bird house plans you find on the internet are either just copies of each other, I don’t think these people have ever tried to attract nesting birds or any birds for that matter, but anyhow, they aren’t really ideal for the birds. These are three sets of plans I have found by people who seem to actually want to build a good home:

SongBird House Plans – The North American Bluebird Society has teamed up with the Bird House Network (Cornell), and they offer good, basic bird house plans for different species. Plans are in pdf format.

Eastern Bluebird Box – Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. I love that they have taken the time to put up all the info that they have. They certainly don’t have to.

Bluebird Songbird House – They seem like real people who actually enjoy bird watching and their plans are practical. They also have cute, but quite usable Wren House Plans

If you want to buy a bluebird box instead of building one, this one is a design that I would recommend:

It is available to buy online at Bluebird Houses, Nest Box and called the Double Open Sides Wood The reason that I like this box are because the manufacture build a quality product, first of all. The people that make this box use them. Now, it’s not fancy, but fancy isn’t really what birds nest in. It is a natural color, which is less visible to potential predators than say, oh, bright blue. It also opens on both sides, one side has see thru plexi. This is great for those who are a mottle squeamish about monitoring nesting boxes. There is no danger at all of the babies falling or disturbing the nest. Not that babies have ever fallen out on me, they haven’t. but if you are nervous about this, whelp, that takes care of that. The measurements are 1-1/2 inch entry hole. 6-1/4 x 8-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches which is great for eastern bluebirds. They do have a slightly larger house for western and mountain bluebirds, so if that is your fancy, check it out!

Also, the drainage and ventilation is great in this house, along with the fact that the wood is roughened which is easier for the bluebirds to cling to. It has a built up entrance to help protect the babies, It’s a solid, quality bluebird box which will attract them and also be attractive to other bird species. It’ll last for years.

Although my first choice is to build several boxes and put out a lot of them!

Spring – Time for Bird Houses

Spring is here, or at least almost here being February, but it’s still time to put up bird houses. I’m planning my placement strategy as thoroughly as any serious general would. As I have mentioned, this house I am living in is relatively new to me and I still haven’t got a wild variety of species living on my property so I am hoping when the birds start establishing territories for breeding season, I’ll end up with more.

Here are a few simple tips on bird house placement:

-Always face the entrance of your bird house away from the side of your home that the weather comes from.

-I have found that along the edges of woods or tree line, facing an open area, is attractive to a lot of wild birds. Not quite in a wooded area, but not out in the open, either.

-Make sure there is something nearby for birds to perch on. A low shrub or tree branch. Birds will perch near their nests and take a look before flying to the nest.

-Hang or mount the house low enough so that you can look into it. Bird houses should be monitored while there are babies and if checking on them involves a ladder, it will become too much of a production to deal with.

-Know what species you want to attract and do a little research on them. If you just throw up a box, you may get lucky and attract a wild bird couple to nest, but if you find out what breeds in your area and what that species requires, you’ll learn a little bit and place your boxes better. Check Cornell’s Bird Bios. They list common cavity nesters, what they need and how they breed.

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

For the past week I have had a few rose breasted grosbeaks at my feeders. There have been two females, a very shy juvenile male and an adult male. They have been gobbling up black oil sunflower seeds like nobody’s business., and mostly sticking to my platform feeder with the adult male preferring a hopper feeder.

The rose breasted grosbeak’s range is southern Canada to the central United States, and a winter range of Mexico to northern central America. Where I am they are not even seasonal residents, only migratory. They are just passing through and I am always happy each year to see them make a stop along the way to visit my backyard. I have always wondered how long it takes them to make their fall journey southwards to their winter home since they seem to stay at my house for a week or two during the trip. How many stops such as this do they make?

This morning one of the females showed up with a hurt wing – I am not sure how badly she is wounded. She still flies but is holding the wing slightly away from her body and slightly down. I am also not sure how well she is flying. Knowing that she still has a way to go to her winter home in Mexico, I am concerned for her as I do not know how far she can fly on that wing. I will keep an eye on her but sadly I can not do anything about her wound. Hopefully her injury is minor and soon she will leave me to be safely on her way. I hope to see her in the spring as she returns to her summer residence.

Bird Dust Bath

This is a great idea, and probably one for only the hard core backyard birder like myself. I found some bird dust bath plans at: Bird Dust Bath Plans. How cute is that? For those of us who watch birds, you know that you have seen the little guys go to town is sandy, dry spots in the yard or wherever. It isn’t really known why birds behave like this. It may be to help rid themselves of parasites, but it is one more thing you can use to attract birds to your garden. Here are plans for providing them with a special area to take dust baths. It is simple to do, you can just clear a small area about 3 square feet where the soil is coarse and see if the birds come to use it. Or you could get fancy and build a little frame like structure like these people did and fill with equal parts of sand, leaf loam or peat moss and sifted wood ash. And do use wood ash. I had a girlfriend tell me that she has a bird who frequently takes a dry bath in her cigarette ashtray on her deck. Yuck.

I have a little Carolina wren who is constantly jumping in my outdoor flower pots and making a big mess of things. She digs herself a little impression in the soil and goes to town, flinging the dirt around with glee, taking herself a good bath. One would not think there was enough room for her – these are not big pots! Carolina wrens sing so beautifully that she is always a welcomed visitor but I now have a plan for giving her an alternative to my flower pots. Of course it is up to the wren to decide if she likes her new dust bath or if she still prefers to make a wreck of my pots.

Bird Baths

Bird baths are on my mind right now as far as my bird watching habit goes. While I did put out my feeders right away, it is water that I concern myself with more than food. It’s very hot here and at times water can be hard for wild birds to find – we have all seen them drinking out of any puddle they come across if we are the sort to notice some things. We also all know that you can live longer without food than you can without water.

An important factor to me as far as putting out a bird bath is the fact that water will attract so many birds to my yard who do not eat seeds. The bluebird, for instance, eats insects and berries. I can’t say that they will not feed at bird feeders because one season I had a single bluebird that actually fed at my feeders, but we rather thought this single bird was maybe a bit soft. I did have families of bluebirds show up for daily bathing though. Also, flycatchers, which I dearly love, are insect eaters but will come for water. Three days ago I had a flycatcher show up and it seems he has stayed around. Yay! He can catch all the bugs he wants in my backyard, I will continue to make sure he has a drink.

When flying over, birds are much more likely to see and recognize water than a bird feeder, therefore much more likely to cruise in to investigate.

A birdbath needs to be shallow. Think puddle, not bath. It should be no more than 1 1/2 inches deep on the edges and slope gently to the middle. A bird will not use a birdbath like a pool and dive in, they will walk in the bath the same way we walk in the water at a beach.

The second important factor when putting out a bird bath is that the bottom of the bath is textured, not smooth. Birds need some grip with their little feets. They will not walk on a smooth surface in the water so you need something with raised bumps or ridges or some such.

Now I have a large in ground bird bath which is simply a sheet of very thick plastic like would be used for pool lining. It’s about 4×3 and dug into a slight depression in the ground. I’ve lined it with pretty, flat landscape stones. You don’t need to go to all of that trouble. Because I have just started trying to attract birds to my yard I have also set out:

Flower pot bottoms, which make great bird baths. The trays which are used on flower pots. Just get the plastic ones. They have a rough bottom and are shallow. Perfect! They are very inexpensive and local garden stores will carry these. You can make it a little more decorative by setting it on the ground or wherever you wish and lining small stones about it.

Serving platters. I also went to my local outlet and bought a couple of huge earthenware serving platters. The biggest ones I could find, and they were quite inexpensive. These have a texture ridges on the bottom and are shallow, plus they are pretty. A platter is a lot more decorative than a flower pot tray, but the birds do not care. If you do this, just make sure it’s not smooth ceramic or glass.

Later when the birds get used to using my in ground bath, maybe I will take in the platters, throw them through the dishwasher and serve food to my guests on them. I don’t think I should mention to my guest that they are being served from the platter formally known as a bird bath.

US Endangered Birds

I pulled this information off National Audubon Society site. If you visit their pages, you will find location maps and better photos of the endangered birds.

The Audubon’s 10 Most Endangered Birds of 2006

1. Ivory-billed Woodpecker: Once this species made most of the southeastern United States its home, but it was considered extinct for decades until a single bird was spotted in Arkansas in 2004.

note: no photo of course on the Audubon site, but an illustration.

2. California Condor: The california condor became extinct in the wild in 1987, when the last six wild birds known were captured and placed in a captive-breeding recovery program. Now the condor exists only where it has been reintroduced, in open rangelands, coniferous forest, oak savanna, and rocky open-country scrubland areas of southern and baja california and Arizona.

In November 2005, the California Department of Fish and Game, Habitat Conservation and Planning Branch estimated that the population had reached about 270 individuals, including 145 in captivity. The survival of the California Condor is almost entirely attributable to its listing as an endangered species, Audubon says in its report.

3. Whooping Crane: Whooping cranes once bred across the central prairies of the northern United States and Canada, wintering in the highlands of northern Mexico, the Texas Gulf coast, and portions of the Atlantic coast. Beginning in the late 1800s, the species declined rapidly, and by 1941, only about 20 cranes remained in the wild.

Captive breeding after the crane was included on the endangered Species list in 1967, has rebuilt the population to about 340 Whooping cranes in the wild and 135 in captivity.

4. Gunnison Sage-Grouse: Once native to parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, Gunnison Sage-Grouse populations have plummeted as sagebrush habitat has been lost and degraded due to development, resource extraction, and agriculture. Now only seven populations exist in isolated areas of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. Not yet listed under the Act despite a number of petitions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gunnison Sage-Grouse population is estimated at between 2,000 to 6,000 during the spring breeding season.
5. Kirtland’s Warbler: This migratory songbird nests under trees in young jack pine forests in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario. Fire suppression activities have decreased its habitat, and competition for nest space with cowbirds also has destroyed the warbler populations.

In 1989, the total Kirtland’s Warbler population in Michigan was believed to be around 200. Since then, intensive programs to promote suitable habitat and trap cowbirds have worked. In 2005, a state survey of male Kirtland’s Warblers counted 1,415 singing males. If all have mates, the total population is around 2,800.

Kirtland’s warbler winters in the Bahamas and in the Turks, Caicos, and Hispaniola islands and flies north to Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario for the summer months. (Photo by Ron Austing courtesy USFWS)

6. Piping Plover: This small shorebird nests on beaches and sandflats along the Atlantic coast, the Great lakes, and large rivers and lakes in the Great Plains on the United States and Canada.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the entire species of Piping Plover as either endangered or threatened. With about 6,100 birds, the population has increased after years of intensive management. Federal and state programs include predator fences, restrictions on motorized vehicles in the vicinity of flightless chicks, and stewards to control and monitor nesting sites on public and some private land.

7. Florida Scrub-Jay: Facing extinction, this jay depends on rare areas of oak scrub that must be renewed periodically by fires started by lightning. By minimizing the occurrence of fire, development has fragmented the species’ habitat. Estimated at 10,000 in 1991, the population was guestimated at 8,000 last year.

8. Ashy Storm-Petrel: From 50 to 70 percent of the breeding population is located on Southeast Farallon island in the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge and on California’s Channel Islands. With its already small population having declined by half in the last 50 years, the species “should be listed as endangered,” says Audubon, although the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists it instead as a “declining species of management concern.” An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 birds remain.

9. Golden-cheeked Warbler: This migratory songbird breeds only in Ashe juniper woodlands in Central Texas. Between 1960 and 1980, this habitat was reduced by development by about a quarter. Anticipation that the warbler would be federally listed as an endangered species prompted landowners to deliberately destroy more habitat in 1990. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now lists the golden-cheeked warbler as endangered. The population is estimated between 9,600 and 32,000.

10. Kittlitz’s Murrelet: This small seabird feeds in the coastal regions of Alaska where glaciers meet the sea and nests a few miles inland in the mountains and on cliff faces. Populations have dropped almost 85 percent in Prince William Sound, as much as 75 percent in the Malaspina Forelands, and more than 80 percent in the Kenai Fjords area in recent decades. Ornithologists consider it critically endangered but, because little is known about this species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not listed it, although it was placed on the candidate list in 2004.

An interesting site to visit is CaMacdonald.com, which is a personal website. The MacDonald’s provide endangered birds action alerts.

If you can, and have a yard, please leave it bird friendly. It’s not difficult. If you live in a condo, townhouse or apartment, put out a little feeder or dish of water. Species which are considered Endangered, meaning that they have only a 20% chance of surviving the next 20 years or five generations. This almost happened to the Eastern bluebird because their natural nesting areas were being taken over by a sparrow imported from England. Bluebirds came back in part due to the fact that people put up bluebird nesting boxes. How hard is that? The rewards far outweigh the effort.

Backyard Bird Watcher

Whelp, I intend this to be my personal record of my backyard bird watching habit. Recently I moved to a new place after 15 years in the same house. I am a birdwatcher, I have always been a bird watcher since I was a little girl. My Dad and I used to fill the bird feeders together…well, maybe my Dad went about the task of filling the bird feeders and I followed him around, nattering on as little girls do, secure in knowing that of course he wanted my company. My father grunted a lot to let me know that he was pretending to listen to my babbling. It was a good life.

Anyhow, I digress. Normal behavior for me, I digress often. So. I moved to this new place after living in a house where I fed the birds for over a decade. Within a week of being in the new home I was going quite mad without the ever present bird sound I have known all of my life. My work has been busy and I have not had time to unpack or arrange my furniture, but the bird feeders were frantically dug out of the piles of boxes, careful placement in the yard chosen, filled and made ready for new bird friends. A birdbath was put out and binoculars stationed on the porch table.

So have decided to chronicle my quest to make bird friends. It has been a long time since I’ve had to actively attract birds to my yard after having generations feed and raise their young on my land. They knew a good thing when it appeared under their wings. Here I will tell what I have done to beg the birds to come, stay and sing with me. Attracting birds is about habitat. If you create one, perhaps they will come. Already I have re-located my bird bath three times in hopes that the new spot is more appealing. Perhaps they prefer to bathe closer to this shrub where they will feel more secure in such a vulnerable place? We shall see. I shall record it here.