Six things you can do to help the birds that spend their winter in our neighborhood
1. Learn to Recognize Common Visitors
The ten most common Winter Birds are easy to learn by studying pictures and descriptions of them in a field guide. Watch for them at your birdfeeder, in your backyard, and any time you are walking outside. Try to draw and or paint one that you see often. Listen for their calls and songs. Try to imitate the sounds they make.
2. Provide Food
Set up a feeder if you don’t already have one. You can easily make feeders from recyclable items. Three kinds of feeders should be used; seed dispensers, suet containers and ground feeders. Choose a feeder site that is protected and easy to get to when there is snow on the ground. It is important that you can keep them filled when the birds need your help the most. Remember birds, like most living things, are creatures of habit and they will come to depend on the food you provide.
It’s really nice if you can put the feeder where you can see it from a window in your house so that you can enjoy watching the birds. My feeder is located in full view, just beyond my kitchen window. I keep my binoculars and a field guide right on the windowsill; it gives me an excuse to stop washing dishes and look up a bird I don’t recognize.
Keep your feeders clean. After a rain they can be clogged with wet or spoiled grains and seed. Empty and clean before refilling. Also be sure not to locate your ground feeders under a hanging seed dispenser or it can become contaminated with droppings from the birds feeding above.
3. Provide Water
Birds depend on you for water, especially in the winter, I often use flower- pot saucers with a flat stone in the middle so the birds can safely perch while they drink. Saucers are not very deep; I refill them every day to overcome the problem of freezing and I keep them clean. Remember to locate all bird baths out of the way of cats hiding places, for example, near dense shrubs or hedges where cats can sit unobserved and stalk birds while they drink or bathe. Water and bird baths should beat least four or five feet away from any place a cat could hide itself and strike when the birds feathers are wet and heavy making it hard to fly fast or far.
4. Observe Your Birds
If you have binoculars keep them handy so you can get a closer look. Keep your field guide available so you can look up any new kind of bird that you don’t recognize. It is a good practice to write down what you see and keep a record of who visits your bird restaurant.
5. Join The Great Backyard Bird Count
Participating in this citizen science project sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society is a terrific way to share information with Scientists who will make the data you collect available to everyone via the Internet.
6. Use the Internet
To get more information: two good web addresses are http://www.birdsource.org/ and www.birds.cornell.edu.
Mourning Dove
A list of ten birds common at backyard feeders
- Black capped Chickadee
- Blue jay
- Cardinal
- Carolina Wren
- Dark Eyed Juncos
- Downy Woodpecker
- House Sparrow
- House Wrens
- Starlings
- White Breasted Nuthatch