Archive | February 2025
BACKYARD SECRET – RED-WINGED BACKBIRDS OFTEN ROOST FAR FROM WHERE THEY FEED
As far as many folks that feed birds are concerned, one of the least favored birds that dines are their feeders is the red-winged blackbird. Most of us do not mind if a small number of them occasionally show up to feed. During the winter, however, often flocks of them arrive and literally take over feeders. While they don’t often dine on suet, they love all sorts of seeds. As such, they can quickly dominate feeding areas making it difficult for other birds to feed. In addition, they can gobble of huge amounts of food in a short period of time.
If you are concerned about the amount of food a red-winged blackbird flock eats when it descends on your yard, you have few choices. You can continue your feeding regime and just take the opportunity to study the birds as they feed. Since redwings often fly about in the company of other “black” birds” you may spot rusty, or Brewer’s blackbirds mixed in with the redwings. You can also use the opportunity to study the feeding behavior of red-winged blackbirds.
Another option is simply cease feeding your backyard-feathered guests for a few days. If you take this approach, often the redwings will move on in search of other places to feed.
While I will invariably grumble when a redwing flock invades my backyard, I continue feeding the birds on a regular schedule. I do so because it gives me the opportunity to study and photograph these infrequent visitors.
Another reason I adopt this approach is I realize that like other birds they are trying to survive the rigors of a cold Georgia winter. Each species has its own feeding strategy. In the case of redwings they roost and feed in huge numbers. In addition, I am impressed with the fact that redwings will fly up to 50 miles from their nighttime roosts to feeding areas. That is amazing!
BACKYARD SECRET – THE YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER’S SPECIAL WINTER FOOD
The warblers are some of our most beautiful breeding birds. During the spring and summer, insects and other invertebrates are their primary food. Each year as the days get shorter and insect populations begin to wane most of these colorful birds leave the United States and winter in areas with warmer temperatures and lots of insects. Back homed huge numbers of yellow-rumped warblers’ winter in North America from Nova Scotia to Florida particularly along the coast. How are the able they able to winter so far north?
Yellow Rump Warbler
The answer is the yellow-rumped warbler is able to switch its’s diet consisting mainly invertebrates to a diet that is mainly fruits and berries. In particular, they are able to consume fruits such as bayberries (also known as wax myrtle berries. Other warblers cannot make this transition. These waxy fruits remain on the plants that produced them throughout the winter. Other warblers cannot digest these waxy berries, however, yellow rumps can. Consequently, wherever wax myrtle berries are present they are the bird’s primary winter food.
Well, there you have it, the secret winter food of the yellow-rumped warbler is wax myrtle berries.
Have You Seen This Bird?
BIRD FEEDERS APPEAR TO HAVE HELPED THE CAROLINA WREN EXPAND ITS RANGE NORTHWARD
For decades, a number of birds have been expanding their ranges northward. Some birds appear to have been aided by bird feeders. One such bird is the Carolina wren. A study conducted near Ann Arbor, Michigan seems to corroborate this.
Here biologists compared the density and survival of Carolina wrens inhabiting residential neighborhoods and parks where they had access to feeders to wren populations living in rural areas devoid of feeders. Over the course of the winter the wren populations in both study areas dropped, however by the time spring arrived, the survival rates of the birds that had access to feeders was higher than those inhabiting rural sites where no feeders were present.
BACKYARD SECRET – MOST SONGBIRDS MIGRATE AT NIGHT
Needless to say, the weather we have been enjoying recently is not what we expect in February. Consequently, these sunny days with daytime temperatures reaching the high 70s and low 80s have left many of us believing that we are enjoying a very early spring. The truth of the matter is our weather is an anomaly. Winter will return before spring arrives weeks down the road. However, we have enjoyed this balmy weather for so long, it is hard not think about the spring songbird migration. Although there is much we do not understand about this amazing fete, we do know what time of day most songbirds depart their winter homes in Mexico and Central America.
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
Since we see large birds such large birds such as sandhill cranes and waterfowl migrating north each spring, it is easy to assume that the songbirds that migrate to and through our yards each spring also migrate during the day. Actually, most songbirds migrate during the night.
Different species of songbirds embark on the spring migration at different times during spring. The rese-breasted grosbeak, for example, is a late migrant; it is a late migrant. They migrate long after many other songbirds have already reached the United States.
On their departure day, birds will feed and then rest before dusk. About an hour after the sun has set, they take wing on their epic journey across the Gulf of Mexico. They will fly before eventually making landfall along the coast of the United States the following afternoon.
A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF CHIPPING SPARROW FEEDING
One of the most common birds that visit my bird feeding area during the winter is the chipping sparrow. While they will dine on suet, they prefer the white millet. While I serve it in a tube feeder and two platform feeders, they most often feed on the ground, a short feeding table and metal mesh feeders. Their feeding activity seems tranquil, however, it is serious business. Their ability to find and consume food every day throughout the winter, plays a key role in determining whether the birds will survive to breed next spring. Let me explain.
A study conducted in Arizona revealed that a chipping sparrow consumes roughly 2¼ pounds of seeds each winter. This may not sound like a lot until you consider this is 160 times the tiny bird’s body weight.
The task of eating enough seeds to attain is total is quit a fete when you consider that they prefer to each very small (1 mm or less) seeds. For the most part, these seeds are provided by weeds. The food offered at our feeders makes it easier for the birds of meet their daily dietary needs. Once a seed is found, it takes a chipping sparrow only one to three seconds to husk it. As you might expect, some seeds are easier to husk than others are. Millet seeds are easily husked. Being able to consumer enough food is also affected the amount of food available. In other words, it is much easier for a chipping sparrow to eat lots of food found at our feeders is a shorter period of time than foraging for it elsewhere.
If you would like to assist chipping sparrows obtain the rigors of winter, if you are not already doing so, add white millet or a mixed seed containing lots of millet to the menu of your backyard bird café.