A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF CHIPPING SPARROW FEEDING
backyardwildlifeconnection by Terry W.Johnson
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.
