Tag Archive | Backyard Secrets
BACKYARD SECRET–A CHIPPING SPARROW CAN HUSK A MILLET SEED IN ABOUT ONE SECOND
I enjoy watching chipping sparrows feeding on white millet seeds. I am amazed how a chipper can daintily pluck a single tiny round millet seed from a feeder with its bill. However, I find it even more even more fascinating that, while it takes the tiny brown up to three seconds to husk some seeds, it can remove the outer coat of a white millet seed in only about one second. 
BACKYARD SECRET–AMERICAN ROBINS WERE ONCE SHOT FOR FOOD
In this day and time, it does not seem possible that the American robin was once shot for food however, it is true. It seems that up until the adoption of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act on March 4, 1913, each year thousands of robins were legally harvested for food.
This practice was more common in the South than anywhere else was in the country. The reason for this is large flocks of robins spend the winter throughout the Southeastern United States. Some of these flocks are tremendous in size. One year on the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge/Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area Christmas Bird Count, observers recorded an estimated 2 million birds flying southward along the Ocmulgee River.
While I have never personally eaten one of these large songbirds, I once worked with a colleague that grew up in rural Arkansas. He said that each year his mother canned American robins shot by members of his family. According to him, the birds were quite tasty.
BACKYARD SECRET–THE MOST COMMONLY SEEN BIRDS IN AMERICAN CITIES ARE NOT NATIVE TO NORTH AMERICA
Would you believe the three birds most commonly seen in American cities are not native to North America? Each one of these birds were brought to the United States by our ancestors. It is true. The short list of birds that have found ways to thrive in these manmade habitats are the European starling, house sparrow, and rock pigeon.
BACKYARD SECRET – STARLINGS FREQUENT RED-BELLIED WOOPECKER CAVITIES
Woodpeckers excavate cavities for nesting and roosting. These tree hollows are also essential to birds that cannot chisel out their wood-lined nesting sites. Among the birds that nest in abandoned woodpecker holes are backyard favorites such as tufted titmice and eastern bluebirds. Unfortunately, these cavities are highly prized by non-native birds such as the European starling.
The truth of the matter is in most parts of state, demand for natural cavities far exceeds the availability of such natural nesting sites. When an aggressive alien bird such as the starling competes with these a native bird for the same cavity, the starling invariably wins out, often leaving the native bird without a place to nest.
It is a sobering fact that starlings usurp half of all cavities created by red-bellied woodpeckers.
THREE BILLION BIRDS HAVE DISAPPEARED IN THE PAST 50 YEARS
There are roughly three billion fewer birds flying about North America today than there were 50 years ago. This amounts to a staggering 29 percent decline in the continent’s diverse bird populations.
This is sobering conclusion of a study entitled Decline of North American Avifauna recently published in the journal Science.
This assessment was reached after a group of scientists studied data regarding populations of 529 species of birds. According to the paper’s lead author, Dr. Ken Rosenberg, a senior scientist with the Cornell laboratory of Ornithology, and the American Bird Conservancy, “This major loss was pervasive across all bird groups.”
BACKYARD SECRET-FEEDERS DON’T EXPOSE BIRDS TO MORE DANGER THAN THEY FACE ELSEWHERE
We often hear it said feeding birds in our yards exposes wild birds to more danger than they face elsewhere. Have you ever wondered if this is true? According to Project FeederWatch, data collected by thousands of volunteers, such is not the case.
Since 1987, the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, Bird Studies Canada, the National Audubon Society, and the Canadian Nature Federation have joined hands to conduct a continent-wide survey to bird feeding. Each year more than 10,000 volunteers collect and submit data on the bird feeding activities in their yards.
One of the many things the study has revealed is the birds that feed in our backyards are not facing any greater risks than they are exposed to at other locations. Project FeederWatch data have revealed that throughout the course of a winter, on the average, only one bird death per every two feeders takes place, for any reason (predation, disease, and accidents). This is considerably lower than the researchers’ prediction that at least four or five birds would die per feeder over the course of a winter. Actually, the mortality rate turned out to be a tenth of what was predicted. 
It is interesting to note, roughly 35-40% of all songbirds die annually.
I sure you agree it is good to know our backyard feeders are far from death traps for the valued backyard neighbors.
