Feed: Tom's Bird Feeders and Reptile Supplies - AggScore: 83.7

I was at a show last weekend where I had a Grandmother lament that her grandchildren just weren’t interested in bird watching.  I have grandchildren and found them to be very involved in feeding the birds and are very excited when a bird came in for breakfast or maybe just a snack.

I have been thinking about why my grandkids are interested in bird watching and would like to offer the following suggestions to parents and grandparents.  These suggestions are for young children.  In another blog I will talk about older children.

First, you need to get them involved.  Pointing though a window and saying “Look at the pretty bird” just does not do it.  My grandson (2 1/2 years old) helps fill the bird feeders.  When we have finished filling the bird feeders and hear the birds singing, I tell him that it is their way of saying “thank you”.  If we have not filled the bird feeders, the singing is their way of saying “please”.  I don’t make an issue that he helps every day and I never interrupt a good game of stacking the blocks to do this.  I try to pick a time that he is looking for something to do.  And yes, some times the birds get fed more often than they need to, but who cares as long as the child is interested in birds right then?

We have bird feeders that are at his level.  All bird watchers have experienced “warbler neck”,  that stiff feeling that you get from looking up all day at tree top birds.  For a child a bird feeder at your level will give them “warbler neck”  We have several platform bird feeders that are at his height.  These are the bird feeders that he notices.  The platform bird feeders are outside a sliding glass door at our house, and outside a low picture window at Great Grandma’s house.  The movement of the birds catches his eye and when he knows that he filled that feeder, he is excited.  It means that we have finger prints on the glass, but really, is that something that we should worry about?

Bird Watching at Great Grandma's House. The bird feeders are at a level that helps little ones enjoy the birds

I need to remember that my grandson will not be excited about the first Green-tailed Towhee each fall, but is excited about the House Finches every time he sees them, after all red is his favorite color.  He has helped his little sisters stand up to look out the windows more than once and explained to them that “That’s my bird!”

I try to remember that if  he has spotted a particularly colorful bird, like Blue Jays in South Dakota or a Cardinal in Arizona I need to stop what I am doing for just a few seconds and share in his excitement.

I also need to remember that his attention span is still very limited and he will be off to his next project before I am ready to move on.

I think you get the idea by now.  Make bird watching fun.  Don’t make it a chore.  Get down on your knees and see their world.  You will learn that the world through their eyes is a very different place than the world though our eyes.  Enjoy their wonderment.  As every Grandma knows, childhood does not last long enough.

Today I will review another finch bird feeder.  Now, remember these bird feeders will only feed thistle bird food. They will not accommodate a mixed seed nor will they feed sunflower seeds.

These thistle bird feeders will attract all three species of goldfinches,  House Finches, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and I have had reports of juncos and titmice regularly visiting thistle feeders.

If you have been using a thistle sock and are tired of replacing it or have problems with squirrels, the acrylic thistle feeder might be the next step up for your backyard birding habitat.

The acrylic top will provide some protection from rain and the acrylic bottom does have drain holes so that rain may quickly drain away from the seed.  This feeder also has a center seed diverter so that Every seed can be consumed.  The screen is stainless steel and allows birds to cling to it.  There are no perches, but this will help with some problem birds such as the pigeons and morning doves. Now remember that finches are “cling and peck” feeders and do not need to have perches.

The top has a special lock pin so that it will not blow off in wind storms, but can be easily removed for filling.

To clean the acrylic finch feeder, we spray the screen with a mild bleach solution, use a stiff  brush to scrub it and then allow it to dry.  The bottom may be removed during the cleaning process, but it is held together with a nut on the bottom so you must use an appropriate tool.  For this reason, this feeder  is slightly more of a challenge to clean that some of the others that I will review.  However, at only $14.99 for a 1 quart feeder with a three year warranty this is one of our most popular thistle bird feeders.

A little while back I wrote a blog about the winter birds coming in to our bird feeders early this year. Well, the birds knew what they were doing. For the past two days we have had rain, sleet and snow! On Wednesday the snow actually accumulated on the ground. It only lasted a few hours, but snow is usually at our elevation only in December and January.

This storm brought a new yard bird into our platform bird feeder. It was the Dark-eyed Junco, the Oregon subspecies. It is common in Paradise, but the elevation and the habitat are typical for the Oregon Junco in Paradise, not down here on the edge of the desert.

We also had a Gila Woodpecker coming in to help its self to the sunflower seed bird feeder, one seed at a time. He would then fly up to an agave stock to crack the seed, then back down to the bird feeder.

The weatherman has promised a warm up, but this morning the Oregon Junco was back in. Who do you think predicts the weather more accurately, the weatherman or the junco?

“Which thistle bird feeder is right for me?” is a question I get quite often at the birding festivals.  First I have to ask if you are feeding thistle now.  If you are and are looking for a new thistle feeder I would like to know why.  Do you just need to replace an old thistle feeder that is in disrepair?  Is there a reason you don’t like your current thistle bird feeder?  Is it hard to fill? Is it hard to clean?

If you are not feeding thistle then let’s figure out what birds a new thistle bird feeder will bring into your yard.  We need to check distribution maps and compare your location to the maps.  You will get some birds into thistle anywhere in the country, and checking distribution and habitat will tell you what the most likely species are, such as Goldfinches, Siskins, Redpolls and House Finches.

If you are new to feeding thistle to the birds I like to suggest a thistle sock as a beginner bird feeder.  We have three different thistle socks.  Our basic thistle sock comes filled with thistle seed.  This will give you both the sock and a starting supply of seed.  This is for someone who is just not sure what will come in to the thistle sock.  These socks have a thinner weave to their material.

The other socks are woven from heavy material, and comes in two sizes.  The small thistle socks are approximately 4″ x 11″.  This sock will accommodate approximately 7-8 birds at a time.  The large thistle socks are woven from heavy material and are approximately 4″ x 22″.  This sock will accommodate approximately 12-15 birds at a time.  A draw string retainer protects from spillage of expensive nyjer seed on these thistle socks.

Any thistle sock is subject to damage from squirrels, so this should be taken in to account before choosing a thistle sock.

With any thistle sock, be sure to roll the sock between your hands after rain.  This will move the seed around and assure that the seed dries so there is not spoilage.

These thistle bird feeders provide an economical method for feeding small desirable birds that cling, and may be right for you.  In upcome blogs I will discuss our other thistle bird feeders pros and cons.  We will find the perfect thistle feeder for you!

We have had an Anna’s Hummingbird visiting our hummingbird feeder recently.  That flash of rose red while we sip from our coffee cup always gives us pause.  The color is so brilliant.  When I first started bird watching, I thought that my field guide had taken some creative liberties when they chose the color of ink, but I now know that my inexperience was showing  and that the field guide was accurate.

A facinating fact about this little gem of a bird is his display.  This little guy will not only display for a female hummingbird, but will show off for humans frequently. He will let you know that you are about to be treated to this display by hovering 6-12 feet in front of you.  He will then fly about 130 feet straight up.  He will then plummet in a near vertical dive. This display dive ends when the lets off a loud tweet about a 1 1/2 feet in front of you.  He will then circle back to his starting point.  Now this little hummingbird knows how beautiful he is as he will orient himself to the sun so that his throat and crown are reflected in the sun during the dive.

So, next time you think that the Anna’s Hummingbird you were watching disappeared by flying straight up, stay put, he just may be giving you a special view, and celebrate by wearing your Anna’s Hummingbird cap.

What is the winter weather going to bring us?

I looked out the window this past week to see a Pinion Jay at our stainless steel sunflower bird feeder.  I did a double take.  We have had them in our yard before, but usually in December and January, and then only when we have snow at our elevation which only happen a few times a year.  Although Tom was sure I knew what a Pinion Jay looked like after helping band them for years, his eyebrow still went up just a little.

“How unusual,” was his only comment.

Just a few days ago Tom hollered in from the family room “Hey, we have a Scrub Jay eating at the suet bird feeder!”

“How unusual,” was my only comment.  Although I have to tell you that I did get a good look at him and will confirm his finding.

This morning while we were sipping from our coffee mugs we had a Dark-eyed Junco stop for a bite to eat at the triple tube bird feeder.  We looked at each other and said at the same time “How unusual!”  We can laugh and tease each other and this sort of teasing always makes the day start off right.

It does make us wonder-what kind of weather will we be having if the birds are already scouting out bird feeders at our lower elevation?

Are you people from up north feeling sorry for us?

We started our morning in the typical fashion-coffee mugs in front of the sliding glass door in our family room. Our thistle bird feeder was attracting the Lesser Goldfinches. These finches usually stay for most of the year with us. They will leave us for a few weeks each summer during breeding season.

But this morning we had one American Goldfinch stop in for a bite to eat and a quick bath in the bird bath. This species is uncommon for our area. A few are seen in the area each year, but we have never had the flocks we were familiar with when we lived in South Dakota, and they never stay in the area for very long.

We knew our day was off to a great start, and to add to the day a small flock of Pine Siskins stopped by. These were a first for this fall. They visited our thistle sock, as the stainless steel thistle feeder was pretty much covered with birds. The American Goldfinch was much larger than the Lesser Goldfinches, so he was not shy about making sure he got a hearty breakfast.

It’s great to have more than one kind of bird feeder in your yard. Yesterday the platform bird feeder had all of the excitement and today the thistle bird feeders. What will tomorrow bring?

Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica – where do they go?
Wonder no more!!!
It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life.
The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintaining a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life.
If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into and buried.
The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing:

“Freeze a jolly good fellow.”

Penquins are one bird we know nothing about!

Hope you laughed as hard as we did at this one!

With fall here we know to expect the snowbirds to start to filter in. Now, I am not talking about the snowbirds who come in RV’s, but those who migrate here for the same reasons – to avoid the cold and snowy weather.

The White-crowned Sparrow, with it’s striking black and white striped head, is one of the birds that indicate to us that fall is here. The first year birds will have a brown and white striped head when they arrive here, but by the time they head back north the crisp black and white pattern is apparent. He is one of the first sparrows that beginning bird watchers learn to identify when they come to their bird feeders.

Since the White-crowned Sparrow prefers to feed on the ground along tree and shrub lines their favorite feeder in our yard is the platform bird feeder. A mixed seed seems to attract then however they have been know to be drawn to grains such as oats, wheat, barley, and corn.

A young male White-crowned Sparrow learns the basics of the song it will sing as an adult during the first few months of its life. The song is developed from not only listening to it’s father, but he will pick up bits of song from its neighbors. The birds will return to the same area to nest as they were hatched so the songs of the White-crowned Sparrow have regional dialects. If a young bird develops his song on the edge of two different dialects, the young bird will not combine the songs, but may become bilingual learning two different dialects.

Another interesting fact about the White-crowned Sparrow is that it will share their territories with Fox Sparrows, but chase Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos until they leave. In our yard we have three platform bird feeders so that all the sparrows can find a safe place to eat.

Our defination of “snowbirds” may not be the one that most people have, but in the world of birders, I’m sure that the White-crowned Sparrow is one of the welcomed snowbirds to their bird feeders.

This time of year the hummingbird migration is on and we have had lots of Rufous Hummingbirds visiting our hummingbird feeders.

I have to confess, sometimes I get really aggravated at the Rufous Hummingbird. We have had Black-chinned Hummingbirds here all summer. They have nested in our yard and entertained us with their acrobatic flight. Now migration is on and that little tiny bully known as the Rufous has managed to intimidate our summer long visitors. We have put out more Best 1 hummingbird feeders out of sight of each other, but the Rufous has managed to find a vantage point on the roof of our house so that he can see both the west and south side of our house, and he feels he needs 10 feeders for himself.

Tom has reminded me that the Rufous has the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,900-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths and that they need their strength to make such a migration.

Tom also reminds me that the Rufous has been documented chasing chipmunks away from their nest, so that they have to have a fierce nature to protect their young. Also, that they beat their wings 52-62 times a second, so they have to have a great deal of energy.

Tom has valid points, but still, does the Rufous Hummingbird need to dominate all 10  bird feeders? I think I’m still a little aggravated with him.

We have been out of town for a couple of weeks and working on a plant project in South Dakota, so our birdwatching here in Portal has just started up again.  And this is a great time to be bird watching in Portal.

Our hummingbird migration is still going on.  We still have Rufous Hummingbirds coming through and we still have most of the hummingbirds like the Magnificent, Blue-throated, and Violet-crowned coming into our Best 1 Hummingbird feeder.  We have also set up several saucer humming bird feeders around the yard and of course, Tom still has the window mount hummingbird feeder on the kitchen window.

In the past few days we have had warblers filtering through including the Townsend’s, MacGillivray’s, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson’s, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and the Black-throated Gray.  They have been at our birdbath and enjoying the bird mister especially.  The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher only came in for one day and seemed to enjoy the  bird dripper most.

Many of our winter migrants have started coming in.  The Clay-colored and  White-crowned Sparrows are back as well as the Green-tailed Towhees.

All of this going on and in our recycled platform bird feeder we have a Curve-billed Thrasher feeding young.

Have I convinced you?  It’s Great to Bird Watch in Portal!

This morning we had a Rufous-crowned Sparrow visit us while we were sipping from our coffee cups and doing our daily ritual of bird watching from the easy chair.

Our yard has been fenced off from cattle grazing for about 10 years now.  We are fighting a battle with Russian Thistle and have noticed a definite decrease in this weed and several other noxious weeds.  The return of the Rufous-crowned Sparrow has given us hope that our yard will someday become a true desert scrubland haven for the birds.

Once paired the Rufous-crowned Sparrow remain on their territories year-round and stay bonded for life.  The are ground feeders and like to peck at the base of grass stems.  They are therefore most attracted to platform bird feeders in the winter, however prefer insects in the summer months.  The bird baths we have in our yard seem to be attracting them this year as we have not had much in the way of monsoonal rains. 

To help you find Rufous-crowned Sparrows download our Portal Birding Map and look along the Portal Road and the Foothills Roads in the scrub land before and throughout the big thicket.

The fall warbler migration is in full swing now, here in southeastern Arizona.  During the past week we have had numbers of Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, MacGillivray’s Warblers, Townsend’s Warblers, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Virginia’s Warblers and Lucy’s Warblers visiting our four tiered bird pond.  Without this nice water feature these birds would be only a fleeting glimpse through our Chihuahuan Desert property.  The warblers and hummingbirds enjoy the waterfalls where the water flows from one tier to another.  It is so nice to see the colorful warblers bathing in the various levels with our resident Pyrrhuloxias, Canyon Towhees, House Finches and Black-throated Sparrows.  Water is the key to attracting the warblers, flycatchers, vireos and tanagers.  Moving water is even better because birds flying in the vicinity can see the ripples in the water or hear the moving water.  Even a simple bird bath can be made a bird magnet with the addition of a mister or dripper.  There are not many bird species that can resist the sound or looks of moving water so if more birds of more species is your goal, moving water is the solution.

With the fall bird migration starting, watching our birdfeeders becomes more exciting again. Although not all migrants are rare, all are fun to see as they pass through.

This morning we had a Lazuli Bunting at our tube bird feeder. This male was in the middle of a molt. That is not unusual for Lazuli Buntings when they visit our bird feeder here in Portal, AZ.

The Lazuli Buntings have a very unusual way of molting during migration. The birds begin their Prebasic molt during late summer on the breeding grounds, then abruptly stop this molt and migrate to one of two known molting “hotspots”. These are in southern Arizona and New Mexico and northern Sonora, or the southern tip of Baja California. They then finish molting before continuing their migration to wintering grounds in western Mexico.

So, if you get to come birding in our area be sure to watch out for the Lazuli Buntings.  Their molt is something for you to talk about when you return home, and you will only see it here while bird watching in the United States.

A question we are often asked, especially by our more northern and eastern customers is  “Should I quit feeding my hummingbirds around Labor Day?”  Apparently a number of people have found information in the literature somewhere saying that to continue feeding the hummingbirds after Labor Day may keep them too far north and they may be caught in the winter weather as a result.

Recent studies and literature tell us however that there is no evidence that feeding hummingbirds after Labor Day will keep them from migrating.  In fact, feeding may help weakened stragglers refuel for the long haul to Central and South America.  So leave the hummingbird feeders out until the birds stop coming in.