Do yo
u ever have a day when you have nothing to do and you feel bored? Now there is something to do on these dull days — go bird watching.
No matter where you live you probably have birds of some kind. Even folks in New York have central park and other places where they can go bird watching. There are only three essential things you should have when bird watching — a pair of binoculars, a notebook, and a bird guide book.
Specially priced Audubon binoculars with a magnification of 8X40 are perfect for bird watching. A small spiral notebook works great for taking notes, and you should know what kind birds you are looking at when you spot a new one, so a bird guide book is very helpful. Now you are ready to go bird watching.
If you have any grassy, wooded or open areas with trees or bushes, you can usually find birds. One of the best things about bird watching is anyone can do it, even if you are in a wheelchair, you can sit and watch birds. It is a great recreation for anyone that is alone, or for the whole family to do together.
Bird feeders
are an old staple for attracting birds but they should serve as supplements to the various plants in your backyard that provide food and shelter to encourage the birds to think of your backyard as home.
A landscape to attract birds should provide shelter to protect birds from the elements or from predators. Evergreens are great as they provide plenty of space for a bird to disappear into, but they are very difficult for predators to penetrate. Additionally, they can be thick enough to provide adequate shelter against the elements. Other woody plants also provide good shelter. Bird houses and decks are great places for birds to shelter.
In designing your landscaping to attract birds provide plants that offer a consistent food supply. They should produce enough food to help meet the bird’s needs in addition to your bird feeders. Plants that provide berries and seeds are excellent choices for our feathered friends. While selecting plants that attract birds keep in mind those that attract insects. Not only are there many beautiful flowers, like roses, but these also in turn smell very pleasant. Among your choices for insect-attracting flowers, choose some that bloom during the spring migration periods. Then you will be sure to get birds on their way through town, headed north.
A final landscape feature that cannot be overlooked is water. Birds like to have places where they can bathe and drink. A bird bath is the most practical solution and you will find it can give hours of entertainment for you as well as fill a need for the birds.
Birds are attracted to the sound of dripping or moving water. You can buy bird baths or create a shallow pond with a fountain. If you’re short on time or resources, you can hang a water-filled container with a hole on the bottom above a dish. Try not to place the water source near trees or bushes where cats can hide before pouncing. Also, make sure the water is not more than 1 inch deep.
If you want to accentuate the look of your backyard, birds, as nature’s cheerleaders, will make your garden area look beautiful. A great way to attract birds is to install bird feeders in your yard.
With some research, you can find out how to set them up properly and you can also find out what kind of birds your bird feeders will bring in.
Well, believe it or not, you too can have a bird in the hand! If you regularly feed birds, you might want to get to know them up close. All it takes is patience, persistence, and well, MORE patience.
To start with, it is helpful to have a few bushes for the birds to fly to when frightened, and it also gives them a place to perch while closely observing you. It is also advisable to begin after birds have been regular visitors to your bird feeders.
Start in early fall by putting out seed in the feeders at the same time of day when you wish to try the hand feeding. After filling the feeder, stand or sit about 12 feet away for a few minutes. It is important to remain very still. If you use a chair be sure it is the same one each day and in the same spot. Do this until birds fly readily to the feeder nearby. Once they become accustomed to your presence, go a foot or two closer to the feeder each week. Soon they will come to the feeder while you are standing right next to it.
The next step is to then remove all of the seed from the feeder and hold your hand next to it with food in your up-turned palm. Stand quietly and wait. Don’t give up! The bird in the bush will eventually come to your hand.
You can be sure that the birds are watching and soon even the more timid ones will come to your hand. Eventually your feathered friends will rush to greet you, wanting a handout.
Feeding the birds throughout the summer will not make them “dependent” or “lazy” and once they are accustomed to a reliable source of food, they will faithfully be at your bird feeders and you can enjoy their activity year-round.
When you are first getting started it sometimes seems to take forever for the birds to find a feeder — it may take more time for then to find window bird feeders than hanging bird feeders. If you’re impatient, start with a birdfeeder full of hulled sunflower seeds. If that doesn’t get their attention, wrap aluminum foil around the top of the feeder hanger. Sometimes all it takes is the reflection of light on the foil to catch their attention.
Once the birds discover your yard, you can add different types of bird feeders to accommodate a variety of seeds for different birds. Placement of bird feeders also plays an important roll in good bird health. Birds are more likely to eat at bird feeders that are located among vegetation that offers ample cover for safe perching and provides quick escape from predators. Minimize window collisions by altering the glass appearance. Some ways to alter the appearance include leaving in your screens year-round and placing silhouettes in the window. Window bird feeders can also help break up the reflections.
Always use good quality bird seed and store it in a dry place in a container that is rodent proof.
If you have a balcony, it doesn’t matter if you live in a high rise apartment, you can attract hummingbirds. They will find you even in the middle of a city.
A hummingbird feeder that is easy to clean filled with sugar water is a good start for a balcony habitat. Hang it in a protected place, under the eaves and out of direct sunlight to discourage fermentation of the solution. To add to the setting, try adding a few potted plants — a large pot with a flowering tree or shrub in it, along with some smaller plants around the base. Your local nursery could help you with plants that grow well in your area and with careful thought you could have a single pot with flowers that bloom all year-round.
Hummers aren’t shy. They will feed from plants or feeders placed close to your house or windows. The one precaution you want to keep in mind is the danger of your hummingbirds flying into the glass if you have a sliding glass door onto your balcony. Until the hummers get used to the fact that there is a window there, draw the curtain behind the glass. Once they get familiar with the territory, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Like all birds, hummers need water too, but they use it mostly for bathing. They satisfy most of their drinking needs from the sugar water in your feeder, or from the nectar itself from flowers. You can provide water with bird baths having a rough surface for good footing and it should have areas that are no deeper than 1-1/2 inches. If it is deeper, just place some rocks in the bottom of it to make the water shallower.
Hope you can find the pleasure of these fascinating little flying jewels!!
Hummingbirds especially like the color red. If you have electric fences around your yard with red insulators, please paint them black or white, so hummers won’t think they are flowers and fly into the electrified fence.
Pesticides are another concern. Hummers eat tiny insects and spiders and feed on the tree sap that attracts them. Pesticides used on hummingbird plants is a very bad idea because the pesticides will kill the insects and spiders that form a large part of the protein portion of a hummer’s diet and they might ingest the pesticide directly sprayed onto the flowers which could make them sick of even kill them. Remember the tiny size of hummingbirds — even a small dose of pesticide can be deadly!
So in addition to maintaining your hummingbird feeder, be very diligent about the surrounding vegetation and area.
Hummingbird physical attributes make them unique among birds. Ounce for ounce hummingbirds have the largest brain, heart, energy output and breast muscles in proportion to body size of any bird. They are the only bird that can fly backward, forward, sideways and hover in midair. They can accomplish this because their wings rotate completely at the shoulder. Other birds have only limited rotation abilities in the shoulder joint. They are the only bird who gets flight power from the upstroke of their wing, as well as the down stroke.
Their hearts beat 1,000 tines a minute and their wings beat an incredible 20 to 200 strokes per second! They inhale 250 times a minute and their metabolic rate is so high it must be fed constantly.
Hummingbirds get the energy they need to maintain their metabolic rate almost entirely from flower nectar and the sugar water in your hummingbird feeder. For protein and other essential nutrients they also nibble on tiny insects and spiders. With their specially designed beaks and tongues which allows them to extract nectar from deep within a blossom they can draw up to 13 sips of nectar a second.
Most hummingbirds are not even as long as a bald eagle’s middle toe. In fact, the smallest of the species, the Cuban bee hummingbird, is the tiniest bird in the world, weighing in at about .07 ounces and is only about 2-1/4 inches long. Some of the larger species can grow up to a whole 3 to 4 inches long and can tip the scales at several ounces. Despite their small size, they are amazingly hardy. Many species migrate for a distance of 1,000 to 2,000 miles.
This tiny little bird with the big voice is common throughout most of North America. The House Wren is cinnamon brown above, buff or gray below, and has fine bars on the wings and tail. They are quick to accept bird houses for a home and a house with a small entrance will protect the House Wren and its family from the dangers most nesting birds encounter.
The Wren’s exuberant personality endears him to humans, but he is sometimes not the best neighbor to other songbirds. Only the male is the singer, and most of his singing occurs during courting times.
With their friendly nature, they will live near human habitation. They prefer suburban yards or open areas with trees and shrubs nearby. The House Wren migrates to southern states for the winter.
