Recently Becky sent the following that describes the fantastic success she is having attracting birds to her yard with suet. Wow! I wish I could attract as many different species as possible to my yard.
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A TRULY AMAZING HUMMINGBIRD STORY
One of the things I most enjoy about writing The Backyard Wildlife Connection is fellow bloggers share with all of us a wealth of information regarding ways to enhance backyards for wildlife as well as stories regarding experiences with their wildlife neighbors.
When I read the blog found below, I knew I just had to share it with you. The piece was written in response to a Backyard Secret regarding how hummingbirds recognize human faces.
I hope you will enjoy this story as much as I did.
Thu, Feb 27 at 10:08 AM
I found a baby hummingbird a couple years back in blackberry bushes. Her wing was pierced, and I took her home and syringe fed her sugar water until she could fly again and let her go. I named her hummer and she would always fly back to our apartment and say hi, even bumping the window to get our attention. We moved and I thought I wouldn’t see her again. Fast forward a couple years and we moved into the apartments right next to the ones we lived in when I found her. We were outside and she hit my fiancés leg to get her attention and flew off, I thought it was her but I wasn’t quite sure until about a week later I saw a hummingbird from our balcony. I called her name, “Hummer” and she flew straight at me and my fiancé, like, she got about 2 feet away from us, hovered for a bit, and flew off. I thought it might’ve been a fluke but about 5 minutes later I saw her again a little further back than before and I called her name again, “Hummer” and she flew straight at us again! I know she recognizes me for sure and she even comes to her name! My fiancé tried as well to call her and she went to her too, even though she wasn’t around hummer that much, maybe 2 days. I just wanted to share.
Lucian W
MOURNING DOVES ARE BIG EATERS
Over the years, I have met some big eaters. For example, I know a fellow that ate six-foot long hotdogs in less than 15 minutes. However, this fete does not compare with how much a mourning dove can consume.
A biologist that obviously that was blessed with a lot of patience counted all of the grass seeds found in a mourning doves’ stomach. Remarkably, the final tally was 17,200. Wow! I am impressed.
BACKYARD SECRET – BROWN THRASHERS WERE ONCE RARELY SEEN AT FEEDERS
The brown thrasher was rarely seen at feeders at the turn of the 20th century. Today, however, they are now regularly visit feeders throughout Georgia.
It is thought that this change in behavior is related to the proliferation of feeders and birdbaths. During the winter 95% of the brown thrasher‘s diet consists of small insects and other critters uncovered by scratching among dead leaves beneath trees and shrubs.
If you want to try to attract a brown thrasher to a feeder, place a feeder near thick shrubs. Although the brown thrashers that visit my yard do so primarily to drink and bathe in water offered in birdbaths, they will also eat suet. Thrashers will sometimes eat scratch feed, dried fruit, crumbs, shelled corn, and birdseed beneath feeders.
WHERE DO TUFTED TITMICE CACHE SEEDS?
If you regularly read this blog, you know that I am fascinated with bird behavior. I have found one of the best places to watch feeding behavior is at my feeders. One of the birds I enjoy watching at my feeders is the tufted titmouse.
These perky birds fly to and from my sunflower feeders countless times every day. Each time they carry off a single seed. Sometimes, they will land close enough for me to watch them hull and devour a seed. In many cases, though, they fly out of sight. When this happens, I assume that they are going to store (cache) a seed. While I have never witnessed a tufted titmouse cache seeds, many others have.
Based on their observations, we know that tufted titmice cache seeds within 130 feet of a feeder. Some 46 percent of the time seeds are stored beneath the loose tree bark. They will also wedge seeds between the burrows found on the trunks of trees. If a tree has broken limbs, they also will store seeds in a limb’s rotting wood. They will even bury seeds in the ground.
Titmice will also cache seeds in odd places. One of the most unusual spots used by the birds is a camellia blossom. Since I learned that the birds use such beautiful locations to hide sunflower seeds, I often check camellia blooms around my house. Much to my dismay, I have never found would that held a sunflower seed.
If you have seen tufted titmice storing seeds in odd places, please let me know.
ARE WOODPECKERS ATTRACTED BY THE SOUND MADE BY HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES?
Every so often people ask me if woodpeckers are attracted to the sounds generated by household appliances. Supposedly, the faint buzzing sounds made by electrical appliances mimic the sounds made by insects. If a woodpecker detects these sounds, it excavated holes attempting to feed on the hidden bounty of insects.
Whenever I am asked this question, my answer is, “NO!” I have never seen any evidence that this is the case.
Many other factors appear to play a role in why woodpeckers damage certain houses. According to Cornell University, a study involving more than 1,000 houses in Ithaca, New York revealed that the type of siding used on a house plays a significant role in whether or not woodpeckers damage a home.
The study found the siding that is most susceptible to woodpecker damage is grooved plywood. In addition, researchers found that earth-toned homes stand a greater chance of sustaining woodpecker damage than those painted in brighter colors.
REPORTS OF MONARCHS WINTERING IN THE SOUTHEST NEEDED
For unknown reasons, in recent years thousands of monarch butterflies have been found overwintering throughout the Southeast In an effort to learn more about this phenomena, a consortium of universities, state wildlife agencies such as the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and other conservation groups like Monarchs over Georgia have banded together to form an organization called Monarch Overwintering in the Southeastern United States or MOVERS. The group is requesting the public’s involvement in reporting sightings monarch in the Southeast during the winter.
One of the goals of MOVERS is to determine how monarchs that over winter as adults in the Southeast affect future the size of future monarch populations. The study also hopes to document how winter breeding in the Southeast might affect the monarch’s annual migration to Mexico.
If you would like to take part in the effort to document monarchs in the Southeast this winter, contact journeynorth.org/surveys or www.inaturalist.org.
LOOK FOR SNAKE SKINS WHEN CHECKING NEST BOXES
Since it is November, it is time to begin checking, cleaning, and repairing nesting boxes. Since you never know what you will find when you open a nesting box, I find the task exciting. When I peek into a box and spot a shed snakeskin, I consider it a real prize, since in most cases it means a bird brought the skin to its nest.
The chances of you finding a snakeskin in bluebird nesting box are slim unless a squirrel has enlarged the entrance hole. However, if the whole is at least 2 inches in diameter, the presence of snakeskin means a great crested flycatcher nested there.
The only other cavity nesting bird in our neck of the woods that brings a snakeskin to its nest is the tufted titmouse, however they only do so occasionally.
The only other bird that regularly includes a snakeskin its nest is the blue grosbeak. Since the does not nest in a cavity, look for its nest in low trees in shrubs along the edges of fields.
The birds supposedly adorn their nests with the skins and even drape them over nesting boxes in an attempt to deter animals such as flying squirrels from entering the cavity and devouring the eggs.
At times, pieces of plastic bags are incorporated in nests. Are they substitutes for snakeskins? Who knows?
WING RUBBING OFFERS GRAY HAIRSTREAKS PROTECTION
This gallery contains 2 photos.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH RUBYTHROATS
Ruby-throated hummingbirds exhibit many behaviors that endear themselves to us. One of my favorites is their habit of flying right up to our faces, hover, and stare directly at us before suddenly zipping off.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was hanging a feeder full of fresh nectar on a Shepherd’s hook, a hummer that was flying about anxiously awaiting me to complete my task so that it could resume feeding, flew up within a foot of my face and hovered. While he hovered there, I heard the humming of its rapidly beating wings. I stared into the bird’s dark eyes, and he stared back into mine. It displayed no fear. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.
Unbeknownst me, on the same day, half a state away my daughter was treated with a close encounter with a hummingbird of her own. While standing near the entrance to a veterinary office a hummingbird flew up to what appeared to be a red power cutoff switch. The bird briefly hovered in front of the bright red switch and immediately flew to within inches of her face. The bird seemed to be transfixed with the red and black shoulder strap attached to the purse. In a few seconds, it departed as quickly as it arrived, leaving my daughter trying to process what just happened.
When events such as these occur, we never know why hummingbirds display this heart-stopping behavior. In my case, I believe the bird did not shy away from me because it recognized my face; I am the one that has been refilling feeders at these locations for weeks on end. This belief stems from research that proves hummingbirds are capable of facial recognition.
The reason why the bird flew so closely to her could possibly be it was checking out potential sources of food. Since hummingbirds seem to associate red with food, perhaps the bird thought the red color on the shoulder strap and switch were flowers. Who knows?
In the end, it matters not why such encounters take place. The fact is such experiences happen more often with hummingbirds than any other bird. As such, it helps make the birds so very special.
It is always exciting to have a close encounter with a hummingbird. There is something exhilarating about looking deep into its eyes. When this happens to me, I cannot help but wonder what it is thinking about when it looks into my eyes. What I do know is, when we experience a close encounter with a hummingbird, we are forging a link with the natural world.
My wife and I have hosted a huge number of hummingbirds this summer. Many days my wife prepared 16 cups of nectar to keep up with their seemingly insatiable appetite. The combination of feeding and watching so many hummers and having a close encounter with one at the end of the season, caps off a hummingbird summer we will long remember.