Birdfeeders

Hummingbirds are known for their aggressive behavior around hummingbird feeders, but can behave quite unafraid around humans. It only takes a little patience to get them to approach you. I stand quietly next to the feeder and before long, a hummer will fly right up and stare at me for a moment, then go about feeding. Last week, I had a painting contractor visit to give us a bid on some work. He was standing near the hummingbird feeders looking at the house when a hummer flew right up to his face as if to say “What are you doing here? This is my territory!”  The contractor didn’t want to admit it made him nervous, but he quickly moved away. It was quite funny to see this big guy afraid of a tiny hummingbird!

During the summer, we want to do whatever we can to maximize bird traffic to our backyards. As the native food supply increases, we have to work harder to draw birds to our bird feeders. The best way to accomplish this is by having a variety of bird feeders and certainly a water source. Be sure to have nectar feeders, at least one hummingbird feeder, an oriole feeder if you have orioles in your area. You should have a seed feeder to offer black oil sunflower seeds. Either a tube feeder or platform feeder is the best choice for this. The other feeder to add is a suet feeder. This is inexpensive and nesting birds love to have suet in their diet. If you want to attract bluebirds and robins, add some live mealworms, which can be purchased anywhere bird seed is sold. During the hot weather, be sure to keep bird baths filled with clean, fresh water. Then sit back, relax and watch for your winged visitors.

Now that the warm weather has finally arrived for most of us, the problem of ants in the hummingbird feeders also arrives. This is also true for oriole bird feeders which are also nectar feeders. After years of moving the hummingbird feeders, washing off the ants, putting out ant bait, or doing anything else I could think of, I finally came across the simplest solution! Instead of hanging the hummingbird feeders from the hook, hang a “Trap-It” ant moat, then hang the hummingbird feeder below the ant moat. This is simply a plastic cup that you keep full of water which a forms a barrier that the ants cannot cross. It is a simple, safe and quite inexpensive solution to a common problem.

The Orioles are certainly busy these days! This is the perfect time to have oriole bird feeders up in your yard. If the nests haven’t been finished, they are being built and the orioles will make many trips a day to nearby oriole bird feeders. They are particularly fond of the palm trees in our neighbor’s yard, but visit our oriole feeders regularly. I brought one of the feeders in yesterday to fill and a female arrived looking for it. She looked and looked like she couldn’t believe it wasn’t there and then visited a hummingbird feeder for a quick drink. She was back within minutes after I put the oriole feeder back up.

The American kestrel is the smallest bird of prey in North America at just 9 inches long. They don’t mind nesting near people so will readily move into a large birdhouse such as an owl house. The owl house needs to be mounted on a pole or in a tree, 10 to 30 feet above the ground.  Kestrels use little or no nesting material in their cavities or birdhouses. The females incubate 4 or 5 eggs for about 30 days and the young remain in the nest for about another month so there is lots of time to watch these birds come and go. Both parents feed the young. When the parents leave them, the juveniles often gather in groups with young kestrels from other nests, so an owl house can draw lots of activity to your yard.

Many people worry about keeping hummingbirds from migrating if they leave their hummingbird feeders up too long. This is absolutely not a problem. Fall migration is controlled by the shortened hours of daylight, not by food availability. Therefore, hummingbird feeders can be left up as long as you see hummingbirds using them. In fact, it is a good idea to leave them up even longer for you may see migrants from farther north stopping by as they pass through your area.

Orioles are certainly not hard to identify, as they are so brightly colored.  They are not as quick to find an oriole bird feeder as a hummingbird is to find its nectar feeder, but be patient for they will come. These are arboreal birds, which means they stay mostly in the trees, so be sure to look up when watching for them. If there are trees in your yard, the orioles will move from one tree to another on their way. Once they reach your oriole bird feeder or maybe an orange half you have provided, they may spend many minutes enjoying the treat. They are also drawn to bird baths or other water features.

While wood ducks aren’t common to all areas, for people who live near the water or have a pond in their backyard, it’s possible to draw ducks to nest near the home.  Wood ducks are fun to watch, and the best part of having ducks in the backyard is that they will return to the same area the following year.  There’s nothing cuter than a gaggle of ducklings following mom and dad duck around.  In order to draw wood ducks to the yard, a few amenities are needed.  For example, wood ducks need a stable source of food, whether that’s berries, seeds, insects, or human provided food like bread or crackers.  Wood ducks also prefer to nest in a soft marshy area, though this doesn’t need to be all that close to the water, it does help to have a water source nearby.  Once a suitable environment has been created, it’s best to have a wood duck house or a few wood duck houses available for nesting.  It’s also best to clean these houses out after use, but ensure they’re left outside so that the human scent isn’t present when the ducks return.

Ducks will often spend time in an area raising their ducklings and nesting, and then move to another area when the weather becomes colder.  Some ducks stay in the same location all year depending on available food and other resources.

It wasn’t too many years ago that orioles rarely visited feeders. Now, they seem to have learned that oriole feeders mean food. From spring until fall, they are frequent visitors to oriole feeders over much of the United States. They move far southward in winter, but these bright colored birds are a joy to have visit our yard. The most common species is the northern oriole which includes the eastern Baltimore race and the western Bullock’s race. Both are bright orange and black, but the Bullock’s also has big white wing patches and the Baltimore has a full black hood. In the southwest, the hooded oriole has an orange hood and a black throat and breast. Commonly seen in the southwest is Scott’s oriole which is vivid yellow and black. These beautiful birds will frequently visit oriole feeders but will also be drawn to orange halves.

You certainly don’t have to be a experienced birder to attract hummingbirds to your yard. They can be found all across the United States, with at least a dozen different species in the west. In the spring, hummingbirds return from wintering in Central and South America, so this is the best time to begin encouraging them into your yard. Of course the first thing to do is put up a clean hummingbird feeder filled with their favorite nectar made of one part white sugar to 4 parts clean fresh water. Remember that like all birds, hummingbirds are attracted to areas that offer food, water and good nesting spots. If you also offer a habitat that offers sheltered perches and good nesting sites, you are quite likely to have these entertaining birds as frequent visitors to your hummingbird feeder.