Watching Backyard Birds.com: Home

Would you frequent a restaurant that served your sandwich on the floor and dog food on the table? That's the human equivalent of offering birds inexpensive mixed seed in a hanging feeder. Cheap birdseed mixes usually contain a high proportion of milo, wheat, millet, and cracked corn. Such ingredients are fine for many ground-feeding birds, such as doves, blackbirds, quail, and sparrows, but not the favorite foods of birds that naturally eat above the ground, such as chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and grosbeaks.

William Gorman, who lives in a wooded area near Albany, New York, rakes up acorns and saves them to feed wild turkeys. The birds are such regular visitors that he has experimented with their food preferences, also offering cracked corn, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, rice, and more.

Did you know? Juncos begin leaving their homes in the boreal forests across northern North America in October and tend to return to the same areas each year, bird banding research has shown.

Winter can bring more northerly sparrows into your yard. Here's how you can make your yard more inviting for native sparrows.

Although we birders tend to think of spring as the most active migration season, in many parts of North America, fall migration is actually "birdier." If you're like most bird watchers, you have no problem making plans to get out and catch spring migration in May, but I'll bet you might not get as excited about a field trip in late August or mid-September. It took me years of birding on my southeastern Ohio farm to accept the reality that fall migration here in the Appalachian foothills is actually better and more interesting than spring.

Did you know? All those bird-friendly plants in your yard and garden can keep on being a source of food long past their blooming prime. Flowers such as zinnias, coneflowers, salvias, poppies, and other summer garden staples retain tiny seeds in their flower heads that birds will find in the months following frost, or the end of the blooming season (if your area doesn't have frost). Even garden plants such as tomatoes, peas, squash, and corn will harbor insect life in their stems and under their brown, curly leaves.

Here's a handy fall tip: While the weather is still fairly mild (and before our first heavy frost), fill a few bags of grapes and pokeweed and save them in the freezer for the birds. Put them out of the freezer in late January or February when you see that the natural food supply is depleted.

In 2021, full moons will occur September 20, October 20, November 19, and December 18. If the night sky is cloudless, aim your binoculars toward the moon, and watch. Most migratory land birds make their twice-yearly journey at night, including thrushes, warblers, flycatchers, sparrows, orioles, vireos, and cuckoos.

Migration, which appears to be a simple concept on the surface, is actually an immensely complicated process. Migration is widely understood to be the movement of birds from one place to another. We see migration every year in our yards: Sparrows and finches arrive from the North in the fall and leave in the spring. The big picture, however, obscures the complexity.

Dear Birdsquatch:

When, exactly, does fall migration start? I stopped offering seeds and suet during the summer months but want to resume in time to power up the birdies as they start their long, southbound journey.

—Beverly B., Baraboo, Wisconsin

How would you like to feed birds in the very best way possible—in a way that is all natural, environmentally sustainable, inexpensive, and easy to do? Get out the garden gloves and the garden trowel and leave the bird feeders and seed alone for a minute. The very best way to feed birds is to offer them the kinds of foods they would find and consume in nature and that starts with offering bird-friendly plants.

Dear Birdsquatch: I'm on a fixed income now that I'm retired, so I'm watching every penny. I really want to get into bird feeding, but it seems like kind of an expensive hobby. Can you give me any advice on how to attract a lot of birds without breaking the bank?

If you live near bright lights, flat roofs, or trees, listen for the beard call of the common nighthawk feeding on the wing above your backyard on warm evenings. Learn more about this fascinating bird!

You may have seen butterflies doing something called "puddling," in which they gather at a puddle and sip the water. In addition to hydrating themselves, they are also attracted to salt and other minerals in the water from the soil. You can easily provide these minerals in your own butterfly puddler as well.

Dear Birdsquatch:

This sounds crazy, but I swear there were two daddy bluebirds in my nest box this summer. I saw only one female, but two males regularly brought food to the nestlings. Do you think Mrs. Bluebird had two husbands? Did she lay eggs from both males?

—Elza B., Mill Valley, California

There are many things to look forward to in late summer and early fall: the leaves changing, the passing through of fall migrants, and the cool nights. Here are a few things to watch for as summer wanes and autumn waxes.

Earlier this year, wildlife authorities in some states issued advisories against bird feeding or offering birdbaths, hoping to stop the spread of a mysterious disease that killed primarily common grackles, blue jays, American robins, and European starlings. If you've taken down your feeder and stowed your bird bath away in the garage, you may be wondering how the birds will manage without your offerings, and how you'll attract them to your yard. Here's some comforting news!

During the winter, you probably enjoyed the parade of birds at your suet feeder. But now that summer is upon us, remember that raw suet can quietly spoil in the sun's heat. Here are some tips to make summer suet feeding more enjoyable.

Dear Birdsquatch:

We have a bird we think is a red-headed woodpecker, but its head appears black. When I look at it through my binoculars, I can make out some very dark red on its head, along with the black, but the head appears to be shades of maroon to black. What is this bird?

—Aneita G., Petersburg, Illinois

Dear Birdsquatch:

Why is it that birds disappear from my feeders—except for a few—when I had so many up until a day or so ago?

—Diane M., Covington, Georgia