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| Pygmy Nuthatches, the authors favorite |
Do you want to attract birds all winter long? Regulars at
our house in Golden Gate Canyon at about 8,800’ include: Cassin’s finches, house finches, and (in the
shoulder season) brown capped rosy finches; mountain and occasional black
capped chickadees; dark-eyed and slate colored juncos; pygmy nuthatches (my
favorite!), pine siskins, and red crossbills; hairy and downy woodpeckers;
Steller’s Jays, Northern (Red Shafted) Flickers, Clark’s Nutcrackers, magpies
and common ravens. That’s a start!
3
SIMPLE
STEPS
1.
PROVIDE
FOOD
o
Landscape
with plants that produce berries, seeds and nuts. Delay garden cleanup until spring, leaving
seed heads on flowers.
o
Put out a variety of feeders: suet, large and
small seed feeders. If you are going to
put out just one feeder, make it a sunflower seed tube feeder.
o
Favorite food:
black oiled sunflower seeds
are at the top of the list for most birds.
Add striped sunflower seeds
for large beaked birds and millet
for small beaked birds. Finches love niger seed, but these require a special
feeder. Most birds discard milo, wheat
and oats but beware, rodents love these.
o
Try a homemade
suet feeder (1” deep and 1” diameter holes in a log).
o
Make your
own suet: one part peanut
butter, four parts cornmeal, and one part vegetable shortening or lard. Add seeds, nuts and dried currents. Suet and nuts provide protein.
o
Clean
your feeders at least
once a year with a 10 percent bleach solution-one part bleach to nine parts
water to ward off salmonella and other diseases.
2.
PROVIDE
WATER
o
Create a microclimate around your birdbath to
keep the water from freezing or build a solar birdbath. An electric stock tank heater in a shallow
dish of clean water or a heated birdbath will work.
o
Keep
water away from food so droppings, seeds and hulls do not contaminate it.
3.
PROVIDE
PROTECTION from the elements and predators
o
Wind
blocks include landscaping, woodpiles, stonewalls and other man made
structures.
o
A variety of shrubs, deciduous and conifer trees
provide perches, cover and nesting areas.
o
Keep your
house cats indoors – EVEN those with bells!
Cats account for
about 30 percent of birds killed at feeders.
o
Glass
windows cause more than one billion bird deaths every year. BirdSleuth at Cornell Ornithology Lab says
the best bet is to install a taut, small-mesh net or screen (a net 5/8” in diameter works well) at least 3 inches
from the glass. Little success is had
putting bird images and other decals on your windows. When a Northern pygmy owl crashed into our
kitchen window, I vowed never to wash my windows again!
o
Bring your feeders in at night until bears go into
hibernation!
Read more:
· .ebird.org The
‘go to’ web site for learning about birds sponsored by Audubon and Cornell Lab
of Ornithology.
·
www.birdsource.org
to find out everything you need to
know to get started, from buying a feeder to selecting seed to identifying
birds.
