This episode of DIY's Bird Watching workshop focuses on the locations best suited for watching birds. Hosts Don and Lillian Stokes share information on the basics of attracting birds to your backyard and shows how to build a simple feeding platform. Later segments feature a visit to La Jolla, California, for coastal bird watching, and a tour of a birds-of-prey rehabilitation sanctuary in North Carolina. Bird watching is the second most popular outdoor hobby and the fastest-growing of all outdoor recreational activities. Currently it's estimated that there are 70,000,000 bird watchers in the US. Success in bird watching is, to a large extent, based on location -- either by venturing to locations or habitats where birds are plentiful, or by devising ways to attract birds to your own back yard. It's generally easy to attract birds to your yard, and there are many methods and techniques for doing so. The most effective approach is to take several steps to create a bird-friendly habitat. That means creating an environment that provides four of the most basic needs of wild birds: food, water, shelter and nesting places.
Food and Feeders
- To attract the widest variety of bird species, offer a number of different kinds of food in a variety of feeders.
- One of the most popular feeders is the tube feeder (figure A). Filled with black-oil sunflower seed, tube feeders will attract large numbers of birds -- especially smaller species like chickadees.
- A hopper feeder (figure B) has wide ledges that make it easy for birds to land and feed. Fill hopper feeders with mixed seed to attract a variety of birds.
- Suet cakes are offered using special suet feeders (figure C). Suet cakes are a form of rendered fat, which offers high-energy nourishment to some bird species. Nuthatches and woodpeckers in particular are attracted to suet.
- Thistle seed -- or nyger seed -- is offered in a specialized tube feeder with tiny holes (figure D).
- Thistle is a favorite of goldfinches (figure E), one of the most striking of North American songbirds.
- Another method of attracting birds is to add certain plant or tree species to your property that provide food for birds. Apple trees and other fruit trees offer food in a variety of ways. In the spring, sapsuckers (figure F) peck holes in the bark and get nourishment by drinking the sap from the tree.
- There are also ways of managing the vegetation in your yard to make it more attractive to birds. Consider letting the grass around the edges of your yard grow tall to offer locations where birds feel more concealed. The tall grass will attract insects, which provide food for insectivorous species of birds. Also, if allowed to seed, the grass seeds provide food for some species.
Water
- Another important element in a bird-friendly yard is a birdbath with water (figure G). Birds are attracted to shallow water, so make sure that your birdbath is not too deep.
- Birdbaths provide a place for birds to drink as well as to engage in their natural bathing and preening behaviors (figure H).
- After bathing, birds typically seek out a sheltered place for drying and preening. Place your birdbath close to trees and vegetation.
Shelter
- Birds need shelter from wind, rain, sun and snow. Large trees with large, dense leaves provide good shelter for most birds.
- In the northern U.S., many birds prefer conifers for roosting in winter (figure I) since these trees have large branches and vegetation that sheds snow.
Nesting Spots
- A fourth factor for attracting birds, specifically in the spring and summer, is the provision of safe nesting spots.
- Many species of birds nest in tree-holes, but there can be stiff competition for those natural nesting spots. Birdhouses (figure J) that provide shelter similar to that provided hollows of trees will attract nesting species.
- Use a variety of types of birdhouses to attract different species. Nest boxes with smaller entrance holes attract the smaller species like wrens. Use nest boxes with 1-1/2" entrance holes for larger nesting species like bluebirds.
- If you have trees in your yard with large dead limbs, you may want to consider leaving those dead sections intact. Dead wood and rotting limbs tend to offer natural nesting holes and nest sites for birds.
- Many bird species nest in trees or shrubs with dense growth -- heavy growth of twigs and branches -- that will support the nest (figure K).
RESOURCES :
A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Feild Guide)
Model: 0395740460
Author: Roger Tory Peterson
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-351-5000
Email: tradecustomerservice@hmco.com
A Field Guide to Western Birds - Reissue Edition (Peterson Field Guides)
Model: 0395911737
Author: Roger Tory Peterson
Full title: A Field Guide to Western Birds : A Completely New Guide to Field Marks of All Species Found in North America West of the 100th Meridian and North of Mexico
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-351-5000
Email: tradecustomerservice@hmco.com
Don and Lillian Stokes' website
Stokes Birds at Home
Website: www.stokesbirdsathome.com
| 
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
