Birdfeeders

Birds have many physical characteristics that help to keep them warm in the cold winter months. Their feathers provide remarkable insulation and some species even grow extra feathers for extra winter protection. The oil that coats birds’ feathers provides insulation as well as waterproofing. All birds legs and feet are covered with scales that minimize heat loss. They can further reduce heat loss by constricting blood flow to their extremities. Many birds can gorge during the fall to build up fat reserves for the winter. Birds have also developed behaviors to help keep them warm. We have all watched birds sit and fluff out their feathers. This creates air pockets that add additional insulation from the cold. In addition, we see them standing on one leg or crouched low to cover both legs to shield them from the cold. So yes, birds have lots of ways to help protect themselves from the cold, but during frigid temperatures, many birds still succumb. During winters as bad as this one has been, bird mortality can be very high so we all must do what we can to help our backyard birds survive. The most important thing is to consistently offer high fat foods such as black oil sunflower seeds, suet, scraps and whatever other high fat foods you can offer to give birds plenty of energy to generate body heat. It is especially important to have all birdfeeders full consistently but especially early in the morning and just before dusk. Our hanging tube feeders are busiest at dawn when birds are in need of lots of food after a cold night. I can always tell when either a storm is coming or the night is going to especially cold, for the hanging tube feeders, platform feeders and suet feeders are especially busy starting in the early afternoon as the local birds are filling up before dark. In areas that are covered in snow, liquid water is especially important to help birds survive. Melting snow themselves uses up too much precious energy.

Yes, we are still in the throws of winter, but I am already thinking about spring! One of the great joys of spring is to have birds build their nests nearby and then later bring their offspring to our bird feeders and bird baths. One of the best ways to get the attention of nest builders is to supply nest building materials and now is a good time to start collecting assorted bits and pieces for this. Our suet feeders are now in demand to supply suet for winter feeding, but during the warm days of spring, these suet feeders can become containers for nest building supplies. For now, start collecting the lint removed from the dryer trap, the softener sheets used in the dryer, odd pieces of white string and yarn, pieces of soft cloth (like worn out pillow cases), dog and cat hair, feathers from an old pillow, anything that would make good nest building supplies. Just be sure that cloth is cut into narrow strips and no piece of cloth or string is longer than about 6 inches. When the spring courtship rituals begin, get out your collection of nest building supplies and loosely fill suet feeders with these items, or simply display them in a box or basket or hanging over branches - anything to get the attention of courting birds. Offering a mud puddle will also draw robins, phoebes and other birds who use it in nest construction.

We are use to hearing all the bird songs during the spring when birds are busy attracting mates and raising their young, but winter is different. Our resident birds seem to be pretty quiet during bad weather, or maybe I am just not outside to hear them much. However, let the sun come out and the skies clear and the yard is alive with song. As the finches all crowd to the thistle bird feeder and the jays, titmice, sparrows etc. gather at the tube feeders, the sounds of bird songs fill the yard. Are they singing just because it’s a beautiful day (why not?) or are they anticipating the arrival of spring? Or both? This break from winter storms is good for us all and I certainly appreciate the sounds of joy coming from the yard. Right now I count 10 finches hanging on the thistle bird feeder with many more chattering in the nearby tree waiting their turns. We all need to appreciate this morning’s sun, for the next storm is due in this afternoon.

After many days of either fog or dreary rain, we got up this morning to a beautiful blue sky and bright sunshine. I walked out to the backyard to simply enjoy the sun on my face so tilted my head back to the sun and was quite delighted at what I saw. Our flowering plum tree, completely devoid of leaves, was full of finches. There were over a hundred gold finches, house finches and purple finches, as well as a scattering of pine siskins - all sitting on branches facing the sun and enjoying it just as I was. Occasionally, one or more would fly down and splash in the bird bath, go back to the tree and begin preening. What a wonderful sight on a warm Saturday morning! Keeping the bird bath full of clean fresh water has drawn many birds, but this was a very special treat. I wonder if they know that the weather prediction is for another week of rain?

I have really enjoyed keeping some basic records of sightings in our yard. When I started, I simply wrote on the calendar when summer arrivals appeared and when they vanished in the fall. This is helpful so you know when to put out the oriole bird feeders and hummingbird feeders if they are not year around residents. In our area, orioles arrive in March, raise their young and are gone by mid September. There is no reason to leave the oriole bird feeders up the rest of the time. However, we have some hummingbirds all year long, so we never take all these feeders down. Because our winter population is much smaller than our summer population, we take down all but one hummingbird feeder during the winter. Over the years, we have noticed and recorded much more information about the birds visiting our yard, so now we prefer to keep a notebook which is organized by month. However you decide to record your observations, it is really interesting to compare notes from year to year and from season to season.

A bird needs much more dexterity to land on a perch than to land on the ground. Maybe that’s why perching birds are smaller than other birds. It is quite difficult for a large bird to slow down without stalling and this is necessary to land on the perch of a hanging tube feeder. As a bird comes close to the perch, it has to reduce its speed to zero at the exact moment it arrives at the perch. This requires very accurate control. If the bird slows down too quickly, it will miss the perch. If it doesn’t slow down enough, it will overfly the perch. Watching birds come and go from our hanging tube feeders, I never see a miss, except in the spring when the chicks are just learning how to manuver and take advantage of the food provided in hanging tube feeders. When I think about the precision needed to land on these small perches, it is easy to understand why birds spend so much time preening their feathers. In order to take off and land accurately, feathers must always be kept in the best condition possible.

Most of the country is experiencing cold weather now, so we will see much different bird behavior than we see at other times of the year. Certainly, our yard has become a very busy place all day long, not just morning and evening. Today the temperature never went above 40. We had so many birds feeding all day that I had to fill all 4 feeders twice and even scattered seed on the ground. The tube feeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds had birds at all ports most of the time. This is a good time to remember some basic facts about birds and cold weather. No, birds will not freeze to death if the temperature goes below 0. They eat all day in order to store fat to keep them warm during the long nights. At night, they fluff up their feathers to trap body heat and their metabolism slows in order to conserve energy. Keep those hanging bird feeders full to help your local bird populations! If you plan to go away for the holidays, try to have a friend keep your tube feeders full. If this isn’t possible, the birds that normally feed in your yard will quickly move on to someone else’s yard and bird feeders.

We feel terrible when a bird we have attracted to our yard with our hanging bird feeders is killed by local predators. There are things we can do to reduce the losses. In our yard, cats are an issue. They are mostly feral, but also some of our neighbors think it’s fine to let their cats roam. We have done everything we can to make our yard unfriendly to cats so now, they are only appearing occasionally and the instant they see us, they streak out of the yard. For a while, we kept a hose with a high pressure nozzle on it in the yard. Upon seeing a cat, we would pretend not to see it, casually walk out and turn on the hose, then suddenly swing around and soak the cat. It didn’t take long for cats to take off upon seeing us. Now they are rarely in our yard. As a further precaution, we have cleared the area near our hanging bird feeders of all possible hiding places. Since many birds feed on the ground right under the hanging bird feeders, we have also put up short decorative fencing to make a cat’s approach even more difficult. Additionally, we have 6 foot hedges that make great hiding places from hawks as well as good nesting sites. We have had very little trouble with birds flying into windows, but if this is happening at your house, keeping a shade or curtain closed will reduce the glare and probably solve the problem. There are also hawk decals to put on windows to keep birds away. Anything we can do to save a songbird is a step toward saving these declining populations.

Bird have two basic needs for water during the winter as well as other times. They need drinking water and water for feather maintenance, but during freezing weather, open water can be difficult to find. If they cannot find water, they will resort to eating snow. Eating snow really uses up their energy, for it can take 12 times as much energy to warm water from snow as it does to warm water from the freezing point to the bird’s body temperature. Therefore, especially in very cold areas, bird baths can be very important to a bird’s survival. It is also important for birds to be able to bathe in the winter for maintaining their feathers in peak condition is necessary to keep warm. If birds cannot find water, their insulation will be impaired and this is a huge energy waste. Bird baths are only useful if they are not frozen, so the practical solution in very cold areas is to use de-icer. They are easy to hook up and use very little electricity. They have a themostat and only turn on automatically when necessary. Some bird baths come with them, but if you have a bird bath and need a de-icer, they certainly can be purchased separately. Please don’t use antifreeze or salt in or near your bird bath, for these are harmful to birds.

The most difficult time for any bird is it’s first year of life. This is the time when there is not only so much to learn, but many predators are actively searching for the relatively defenseless chicks. During this first year, there is a very high fatality rate for most species. If a bird makes it through this first year, it has a good chance of living for several more. The average life span of most small birds, such as those that generally visit our hanging bird feeders, is two to five years. The larger birds like crows that generally don’t visit our hanging bird feeders but are certainly in our yards and neighborhoods, may live ten years or more.