Archives

HAVE YOUR NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS DISAPPEARED?

Dec28

       Mockingbirds are common permanent residents across the Peach State.  In spite of this, many mockingbirds do not inhabit some backyards during the winter.  Did they migrate? No. Well, if they did not migrate, why did they leave and where they go?

       Look around your yard; if you do not see any berries or fruits on the plants in your yard right now, chances are birds have set up winter-feeding territories that do include plants that produce fruits and berries that persist into the winter.

      It seems that during the warm months of the year invertebrates make up the bulk of the mocker’s diet.  As soon as the days and nights get colder and insects are difficult to find the birds’ diet primarily consists of fruits and berries.  Consequently, if your yard does not contain plants that display berries and fruit, mockingbirds will set up a feeding territory that has plenty for them to eat.

       While both a male and female, will often defend the same winter-feeding territory, sometimes a single male or female will defend its own territory.

              If you want to retain mockingbirds throughout the winter, the best thing you can do is to plant a variety of shrubs, vines and trees that produce an abundance of winter foods. Here are just a few examples of some of these valuable winter food plants:  American holly, native hawthorns, Virginia creeper, Callaway crabapple, smooth sumac, American beautyberry and hackberry.

       If you successfully establish a variety of these winter fruit and berry-producing plants, chances are you will be able to enjoy the handsome beauty and songs of this popular bird throughout the entire year.

      

BACKYARD SECRET – WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS ARE BIG EATERS

Dec28

       White-throated sparrows are welcomed winter visitors to backyards throughout Georgia. They serenade us even the coldest days, and display an attractive plumage.  While most folks that feed birds are excited when they appear each year, the people that have the best chance of attracting them are those that offer them plenty of food and nearby cover.  In backyard settings, the birds prefer shrubs.

       While the birds feed on the ground, they also dine at elevated feeders.  They eat a variety of foods. The whitethroats that visit my yard seem to prefer white proso millet to all other food offerings.  Other foods eaten by these beautiful sparrows include, nyger, cracked corn, mixed seed, and sunflower seeds, to name just a few.

       White-throated sparrows have huge appetites.   Studies have shown that a white-throated sparrow consumes anywhere from 85 to thousands of seeds per hour.  The number of seeds they devour is linked to the weather; they eat more food in freezing weather.

BACKYARD SECRET – ARMADILLOS DON’T HIBERNATE

Dec21

        Since armadillos are rarely, if ever, seen scampering around our yards when it is cold, it is easy to assume they hibernate. In truth, they do not hibernate. 

       Since they are essentially hairless, they have a rough time keeping their bodies warm during frigid weather. Consequently, the only way they can keep warm on cold winter days is to retreat to burrows dug in the ground.  Once the air temperature rises, these odd mammals leave their warm hideaways and resume searching for insects and worms.

CAMELLIAS HELP WINTERING HUMMINGBIRDS SURVIVE DURING GEORGIA WINTERS

Dec4

       It is easy to believe that winter hummingbirds are totally dependent on our feeders to survive.  Although feeders hanging in backyards have helped hummingbirds winter throughout the Southeast, wintering hummers such as the rufous have other sources of food.

       One of these foods is the sap that wells up in active sapsucker holes.  Although yellow-bellied sapsuckers excavate these shall reservoirs to provide food for themselves, a variety of critters such as other birds, squirrels, butterflies and even hummingbirds dine on the sugary sap found their excavations. Since the shrub also produces pollen, they attract the some of the few pollinators that also dine on pollen during the winter.

       Another underappreciated source of food is the nectar is produced by winter blooming camellias. One of the best is (Camellia sasanqua).  This flowering shrub blooms from fall throughout the winter.

       These glossy-leaved thick shrubs also provide the tiny birds with much-needed roost sites.
If you know of any other varieties of camellias that attract winter hummingbirds to your yard, please let me know.

WHY DO WE SEE MORE CHIPPING SPARROWS AT OUR FEEDERS IN WINTER?

Nov26

      One of the most common birds we see at our feeders is the chipping sparrow.  During the winter, it is not uncommon for me to count 30-40 “chippies” feeding in my bird feeder area.  Once warm weather arrives, they simply disappear even though I provide them with as much food as I do throughout the winter.

      Two of the main reasons why we see so many chipping sparrows in the winter is the chipping sparrows that bred locally have abandon their breeding territories and migrants that were raised far to the north of Georgia. The truth of the matter is literally thousands of chipping sparrows winter in the Peach State.  Once here, flocks of chipping sparrows roam places like fields and roadsides looking for the seeds of crabgrass, ragweed and the like.  They are also particularly fond of feeding in our backyards. Here they find an abundance of easily accessible food.

       By far, the chipping sparrows that feed in my yard prefer dining on while millet seeds. Others have found they will also eat canary seed cracked corn and hulled sunflower seeds.

AFTER FREEZE NECTAR SOURCES

Nov16

       This week much of Georgia suffered through the first freezing temperatures of the season.  At our home in Monroe County, the temperature fell to 27º.   Realizing that spelled trouble for many pollinators my wife and I brought in two plants (scarlet sage and pineapple sage) that have been hosting cloudless sulphurs for the past few weeks.

       When the weather returned to normal, we put them back on our deck. In a matter of minutes, they were once again being visited by cloudless sulphurs, syrphid, and hover flies. While our efforts did not benefit many pollinators, they did provide a few with much-needed food. In addition, we extended the time we can enjoy watching pollinators at work in our yard.
Based on our success I decided to visit our local nursery (Mossy Creek) to see if any of their plants had survived the cold and were hosting pollinators. 

       I no sooner got out the door of my vehicle when one of the nursery’s staff called me over to look at a stunningly beautiful butterfly. The butterfly turned out to be a zebra longwing; it was the first I have seen this year.  The whole time that I was there, the butterfly fed at lavender pincushion blossoms.

       While I watched, an American lady joined it.  Nearby, an Ocola and fiery skippers, and a couple of American ladies visited marigolds.  All of these plants had survived the severely cold weather.

       Later, our daughter told us that a hover fly was feeding on a late four-o’clock bloom beside her house.  She also saw several pollinators visiting coneflowers at a nursery in Columbia County.

       Admittedly, the weather was not kind to our gardens this year consequently; we did not have many sources of nectar available deep into the fall.  However, we pledge to do better next year.

       If you want to help late pollinators in your yard, the first thing you need to do is find out which pollinator plants can survive cold weather in your neighborhood.  One great place to learn find this information is your local nursery.  There is no better time do so than after our recent freeze.  Armed with this knowledge you will be better able to address the food needs of the pollinators living close by.

       When I returned home, I was carrying four pots containing cold-hardy plants that we are going to add to our yard. 

      

BACKYARD SECRET – URBAN AMERICAN CROWS OCCUPY SMALL TERRITORIES

Nov12

         Researchers have found that American crows typically occupy territories measuring only 10 acres or so.  On the other hand, the home ranges of crows living in rural areas are often ten times larger.

PROVIDE FOR GROUND-FEEDING BIRDS

Nov9

       Whenever you are trying to attract the greatest variety of birds, you should offer it on and above the ground.  The reason for this is some birds are reluctant to feed at a feeder some distance above the ground.

       Often the only ground feeding that takes place in our bird feeding areas consists of birds dining on seeds that have fallen from aerial feeders.  While birds eat these seeds, they often pose a threat unless you regularly remove them. The reason for this they quickly become a breeding ground for fungi and bacteria.

       The list of birds that prefer to dine offered in above ground feeders placed four or five feet above the ground includes finches, Carolina chickadees, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and nuthatches.

       Some birds readily eat seeds both above and on the ground.  Examples of them are northern cardinals, blue jays, and chipping sparrows.

       A third group of birds are those that spend the majority of their time looking for seeds found on the ground.  The list of these feathered visitors includes white-throated, fox, and song sparrows, northern bobwhites, eastern towhees, mourning doves and dark-eyed juncos.

       Food offering for ground-feeders can be scattered directly on the ground on place in feeding trays or other devices that keep the seeds from being lost in the grass.  There are a number of such feeders on the market.  You can also use other devices as feeders.  One such device is a worn out harrow disc like the one shown in the photo accompanying this blog.

       One final note: one of the best seeds you can use to attract ground feeding birds is white millet.

      

      

BACKYARD SECRET – HYPOTHERMIA HELPS CAROLINA CHICKADEES SURVIVE EXTREMELY COLD WEATHER

Nov5

       A number of birds have the ability to go into a state of hypothermia to survive extremely low temperatures. The bird that is most often mentioned when the subject of hypothermia come up, the ruby-throated hummingbird often comes to mind. You might be surprised to learn that Carolina chickadees also enter a state of hypothermia.

       On cold winter nights, Carolina chickadees like to roost in natural cavities and nesting boxes.  Temperatures inside these cavities are usually higher than those outside the cavity. When it is extremely cold, the chickadees can literally freeze to death with a little help. That is where hypothermia kicks in.

       When a Carolina chickadee goes into a state of hypothermia, its body temperature and heart rates drop dramatically. As a result, the bird may seem lifeless.  The reason why this helps the bird is that in decreases the amount of energy the bird’s body needs to survive. 

       The next morning, as the air temperature rises, the bird’s heart rate and body temperatures increase enough to allow the chickadee to resume its normal activities such as visiting your feeders looking for sunflower seeds.

I’M WAITING FOR WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS

Nov3

           I am anxiously waiting for the first white-throated sparrows to make an appearance at my backyard feeders.  Although I am a fan of all of the birds that winter in my backyard, I am especially fond to this sparrow.

          When whitethroats finally make it to my backyard, I will go outside on a crisp fall morning and hear a clear  O sweet Canada, Canada, Canada call emanating from a thick shrub. When I hear the bird’s call, I will know that, since the white-throated sparrows  migrates at night, there is a good chance it arrived a few hours earlier. 

           I will hope my yard is its final destination instead of a stopover area. If the bird stays and is an adult, it is possible I hosted it last year. This is because white-throated sparrows are likely return the same wintering area year after year.

          Years ago, I learned the white-throated sparrow prefer to dine on the ground.  Its favorite food is white millet; however, they will also eat black oil sunflower seeds. Knowing this, I have already set the table for whitethroats by scattering white millet seeds on the ground beneath my feeders. If you want to stand a fighting chance to see one or more of these migrants in your backyard, now is the time to set the banquet table for them. If your efforts are successful, you will understand why I look forward to hosting them every winter.