Archive for the 'Bird Sanctuary' Category
The availability of clean, preferably moving, water is the single most important feature in attracting birds to your backyard. In fact, studies have shown you will attract two to three times the frequency of bird visits to your backyard bird sanctuary by including water and the easiest way to include water is with bird baths.
The depth of the water is important — the best variable depth is approximately 3 inches. If you are modifying a deeper bowl, you can secure a screen below the water level or build up the base by adding river rocks and then carefully fill with smaller pebbles so birds cannot get trapped.
Make sure the water is not stagnant; splashing of moving water is more appealing to the birds. Hosing out the bath daily is optimum for the health of your birds, as well as a good cleaning at least once a week.
In winter, consider using an automatic electric heater in your birdbath or consider the heated bird baths so that birds have access to clean, ice-free water during this critical period. Do not use water additives such as glycerin or small amounts of antifreeze which are poisonous to birds.
The black-capped chickadees stay on after their fair-weather cousins have departed, migrating for warmer climes and a more varied menu. They will appear as little puff balls at our bird feeders even on the coldest days of winter. Chickadees aren’t really built to take winter cold, but they thrive with unique adaptations to life.
Bigger is better when it comes to surviving winter without artificial heat but the tiny chickadee overcomes its size disadvantage with physical adaptations and by using their brains for preparation. By late summer, they begin wedging seeds, insects and other food into tree bark and other crevices. Thousands of seeds are cached throughout the half-mile range in which they spend their entire life. When food runs low, they are somehow able to find the seeds they cached months earlier.
Chickadees have a fantastic memory. Studies of chickadee brains reveal that the volume of the area linked with memory varies with the season. In fall, when a chickadee is hiding food, it expands. In spring, when there is no more need to find cached food, it contracts. In addition to changes in brain activity, in fall they begin to shiver. Their chest muscles repeatedly flex to generate heat which is contained by the air trapped within a chickadee’s downy coat. Their feathers are amazingly efficient. When it’s way below zero, the feathers rise to create an inch-thick coat that provides a halo of warmth. The difference in temperature of the chickadee’s body core and the environment an inch away is over 100 degrees.
Chickadees do not have a crop so they must eat small meals, digest them, then eat again. Because they only eat in daylight, their window of opportunity is woefully small in winter. To compensate, they eat as much as they can, adding about 10 percent of their body weight and burning it at night. It is a huge physiological feat.
This is where we humans can make a contribution by having some of their favorite foods available in bird feeders. They love black oil sunflower seed, peanut kernels, peanut butter mixes and plenty of suet. Tube bird feeders are great for sunflower seed or peanut kernels.
It is a mystery where they spend the night. Experts believe they ball themselves up in a crevice or cavity by themselves. Once they settle in for the night, they turn down their internal thermostats to save energy from a normal body temperature of about 108 degrees to a cool down of about 90 degrees.
Now these are hardy, amazing little creatures!
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.
What Bird Marks the Return of Spring – Our Delightful Red Breasted American Robin of Course !!
Often referred to as the Red Robin, there is hardly a garden in North America that has not been visited by this sociable beauty. The song of the male is to attract a mate or to advertise his territory. What a wonderful way to start the day listening to the song of the robin at daybreak.
Robins were actually quite rare when settlers first came to the United States. Their relatives, the family of thrushes, all lived in the forests. However, the robin was a specialized bird and stayed near the clearing among the trees. As the settlers cleared land and moved west, the robins joined them and became the ubiquitous symbol of the suburban backyard wildlife across the entire United States and Canada. Now most robins prefer the suburban landscape with the evenly manicured yards and openly spaced trees.
These birds eat different types of food depending on the time of day. Earthworms are their favorite early in the day and prefer fruit later in the day. Because they forage for insects and worms mostly on lawns, they are vulnerable to pesticide poisoning. You can tempt them to dinner by placing fruit on tray birdfeeders or planting fruiting shrubs to attract more of them to your backyard garden. Soften dried raisins and currents by soaking them in water, and then offer them at your feeding stations. Have you ever seen a drunk robin? They love overripe fruit and will ingest it until they are staggering drunk!
