Attracting more than your share of Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds usually start appearing in north Texas in mid-March and leave around the end of September.  Here’s how to attract them to your yard. 

Put up more than one feeder – There should be several. Enough spots for Hummingbirds to sip nectar without waiting in line. Put feeders far enough apart so a “bully” Hummingbird can’t stand guard over several of them. Hummingbirds are attracted to all bright colors. Nectar feeders in your yard, if not colorful already, can be made more enticing simply by fastening a piece of bright ribbon to them.

Keep nectar fresh – Fresh nectar attracts them, and stale repels them. If they get a sip of stale nectar at your house, they won’t bring fledglings or friends by. Nectar gets stale quickly on a super-hot Texas day. We change nectar every 6 or 7 days normally. But when it’s really hot, we’ll go to every third day. And keep nectar clear - no red dye!

Plant large masses of hummer plants – Hummingbirds look for nectar from flowers in addition to feeders. Some plants have sweeter nectar than others. Birds know this, and are drawn to them (so are butterflies) and often encourage their youngsters to feed there. I strongly urge you to plant masses of plants (a clump of least a dozen) since hummers may not bother if all they see is just a plant or two.

Water source –  Just like humans, Hummingbirds need something to drink with meals. Water from a dripper or mister on a birdbath is ideal (a dripping faucet works too). They’ll use it to drink, to bathe, and just to play in.         

 

Save your money for things that work        Things like fake owls and fake snakes don’t scare away nuisance birds – except for maybe the first half-an-hour after you put them up. It’s well known that birds quickly get accustomed to inanimate objects, whatever they’re shaped like. What an effective “shoo” device needs is a second component, in addition to the visual. Unpredictable motion! Balloons or old CDs hung on a string have movement when they blow in the wind, which makes birds nervous.

July10-W; Birdseed does NOT cause that bare spot in your lawn

Does birdseed cause a bare spot under feeders?

 

Probably  not. Birdseed accumulation prevents grass from growing – birdseed by itself does not.

Birds eating at feeders, when they eat a seed, simply drop the inedible seed hull on the ground, and grass doesn’t grow right there. So there is a widespread suspicion that the thin, woody hulls of sunflower seeds inhibit widespread plant growth. To be perfectly honest, I thought so too – until we did some research.

Lots of people with better brains and more college degrees studied this situation. They found that sunflower hulls (the most common seed) do not present a chemical barrier to germination and seedling development. Rather, an accumulation of seed hulls can function as a mulch. Sunlight can’t easily reach new growth or seeds through the mulch. Also, the empty hulls (as they get mashed into the soil by foot traffic, animals, even a good rain) reduce the amount of real soil available to any plant trying to grow there. Also, the empty hulls take nitrogen from the soil as they decompose, which all plants need to grow.

There is a scientific term for a plant’s producing a chemical that prevents other plants from growing nearby;  allelopathy. In north Texas one of the plants that is allelopathic is the walnut, which produces the chemical juglone that prevents other plants from growing (this is more than you want to know, isn’t it?). Sunlowers aren't allelopathic, however.

 

To prevent accumulation, I recommend that you clean the seed hulls from beneath feeders about once a week. A simple broom and dustpan works perfectly. I’d also rake the area lightly, dislodging any missed hulls. With no accumulated mulch of empty seed hulls, the area beneath your feeders will do just fine. Also, using fresh birdseed minimizes the amount that birds just let fall to the ground, uneaten. Dumping extra water on a bare spot in hopes that grass will grow, may actually have the opposite result - killing grass via root rot.

As an alternative, you can put a few large stones beneath your feeders, or a patch of gravel. I’d avoid putting ornamental plants directly under feeders however. They’re a hindrance to ground-feeding birds like doves, juncos, thrashers and true sparrows

 

 

Why Hummingbirds can use spider webs in nests, without getting stuck.

Hummingbirds quite often use strands from spider webs to build nests. The strands can be very sticky, however, to help the spider catch bugs. The Hummingbirds keep from getting the webs stuck all over themselves and their nestlings by selecting only certain strands. True – much of a web is sticky. But certain structural strands are non-sticky. Hummingbirds know which is which.  Hummers do use the sticky strands for the outside of the tiny nest, so they can affix flakes of lichen or bark as camouflage.

 

Birds’ beaks adapt to their food source   A bird that eats insects, and one that eats seeds have evolved with very different beaks. The type of beaks they’ve developed will help them locate, grab and swallow the specific food that their digestive system can handle and that's around them.  In north Texas you can see this most clearly in the large, cone-shaped beak of the seed-eating cardinals versus the narrow, pointed beak of the insect-eating wrens. And beaks that are massive and powerful like Grosbeaks, or Hummingbirds' long, narrow beaks for getting deep into flowers, where the nectar is.

 

placing your birdfeeder so it'll attract the most birds

Where you put a birdfeeder can make a huge difference in the use it gets.

You can apply the very same rules as a fast-food place opening for business;  the all-important - Location, Location, Location. The main difference, however, is you should always place a birdfeeder in a location where you can see the activity. If after a while you do not have any birds stopping by, it’s probably for one the following reasons:

 

·       Visibility, for you and them. If birds can’t see a new feeder, they won’t come to it.  So make sure it can be seen from above. It sometimes helps to tie a bright ribbon on a new feeder. Often, feeders themselves are brightly-colored enough.

·       Pick high traffic areas. Put a feeder where birds go anyway; a special tree, near a birdbath etc. At my house, lots of birds hang out just past a certain corner (for the shade, I suspect). We hung a feeder there and it’s almost always busy.

• Ease of use. Don’t make birds work too hard for their food. Some people make the mistake of putting the wrong kind of food in a feeder. For instance, putting nut pieces in a regular feeder (birds can’t get them out).
•      
• Placing a birdfeeder in an area that offers little or no safe cover is a recipe for failure.  Try to locate a feeder within 5-feet of cover, such as shrubs or tall (2 ft.+) vegetation. That way birds can quickly escape if a predator appears.
• Offer a wide variety of food. Some birds eat a one kind of seed; others eat another kind; still others eat something else. So if you offer a wide variety of food, you’ll be able to attract a wider variety of birds.  Of course, whatever kind of seeds you offer, it absolutely needs to be fresh and nutritious, or any birds will simply go elsewhere.
• Proximity to water. Whenever possible, place a feeder near some water. It can be as big as a lake or as small as a birdbath – either will increase feeder activity.

• Also avoid placing a  birdfeeder near other animal activity like dog runs, dog houses etc. 
• Make a good attempt to keep seed in your feeders but remember; just because a feeder is empty doesn't mean that you absolutely have to fill it. Birds will just eat elsewhere, but don't leave it empty too long.   
  

It can sometimes take a few weeks for both people and birds to discover they have a new place to eat in the area. Just like a new fast-food place may put out eye-catching banners and signs; a new birdfeeder might get noticed sooner if you put a brightly-colored ribbon on it for a few days. After the birds discover the feeder, and (hopefully) enjoy the food that’s in it, just remove the ribbon.  

 

 

Vultures: designated as nature's "clean-up" bird, is extremely good at the job

Turkey Vulture soaring

 

   Almost everyone has seen a Turkey Vulture; a very common bird here in north Texas. Probably the bird was soaring gracefully, high in the sky. Less common here is the Black Vulture. Most of the vultures’ time is spent effortlessly riding on air currents, or “thermals”. They hardly ever flap their wings. They efficiently scan several square miles at a time. With their keen eyesight, they’re looking for their next meal, from high above.

   Their meals are decomposing carcasses such as roadkill, or some animal dead of natural causes…it could even be household garbage. It has never been proven that vultures (including the Caracara or “Mexican Eagle”) ever kill their prey, they just get rid of already-dead things that need getting rid of…like squished squirrels.

Black Vulture (l.) and Turkey Vulture (r.)

The vultures' long, bare necks enable them to get deep into the dead carcass without picking up stray flecks of flesh or blood, which could carry disease. Their slightly recurved (hooked) beaks are good for deep probing and tearing rotten flesh.

 

Home, sweet underbrush            Many, many birds in north Texas, about two-thirds of them, depend on “underbrush” for things like shelter, food and protection. This is the name commonly given to any mass of vegetation that’s more than a foot tall, but less than 6 feet above the ground – including shrubs. Remove this underbrush and about two-thirds of north Texas birds will not be attracted to your lot, and will go elsewhere to find shade, nest and eat.

When it's super-hot out, what do north Texas birds do for water?

Since birds can’t turn on a faucet or escape to air conditioning during our summers, where do they drink, bathe and cool off? After all, just like us, they need water to stay alive. Considering the summer weather around here, they have to be truly ingenious.

They find it everywhere!  Street gutters. Ditches and tire ruts by the road.  Low spots in a field or yard. Leaking water faucets.  Drainage ditches. Run-off from sprinklers. Birds find water all over!  Some even drink the dewdrops from leaves.

For most birds, however, it’s the sparkling surface of a pond, stream, puddle or birdbath that signals the presence of water. Then, depending on the species, dozens may appear.  When a bird isn’t actually drinking or bathing, he’ll probably secret himself among some leaves or tall grasses nearby.

Wild birds do this, of course, to get in the somewhat-cooler shade. Not only is it cooler, but the water they just got on themselves isn’t quickly lost to evaporation in the hot, Texas sun.

The amount of water required varies from species to species. Hummingbirds, whose diet is high in nectar, rarely need to supplement with plain water. Nectar, whether from flowers or a feeder, is mostly water anyway. Birds that eat insects also get a lot of water in their normal diet. Bugs, worms and other crawly things have a high moisture-content, so eating a bug puts a little water into the bird.  Many birds will eat berries, getting some water from the berry’s watery pulp. In north-central Texas the berries could be from
hollies, agarita, beautyberry, native plums, soapberry and several others.

Birds that live in dry areas (very generally west of I-35W) make use of moisture released as a by-product of the normal metabolic process (a form of recycling, you could say). This lets them go long periods between drinks. Even fresh seed has some moisture in it, to keep their internal systems in balance. Most birds can tell the moisture-content of a seed just by picking it up with their beaks. If it’s no good, they’ll just throw it on the ground and keep looking for any good seeds.  This is why a lot of birdseed gets tossed on the ground beneath feeders.

As for bathing, most birds need relatively shallow watering sites, or they simply won’t get in. North Texas’ small songbirds (like chickadees, finches and titmice) prefer water about an inch deep. Our larger birds (like jays and doves) don’t like bathing in water more than 2 or 3 inches deep. Keep this in mind if you’re looking for a birdbath (or a “lawn decoration” as most should be called).

 Once located, visiting a water source usually becomes part of a bird’s daily routine. Especially since they lose so much water-weight during a typical summer day here. Birds have to replenish this water every day just to survive.

One of the best ways to bring water and birds together is with moving water. The sound of moving water is like the bell on an ice cream truck. And just about any birdbath can be modified to move water. [Mosquitoes can’t lay eggs in moving water either.]

The water in a birdbath can be made to recirculate, or cascade down a rock, with a tiny pump. A tiny pump can also spray a fine mist. The pump can be powered by your home’s electricity or by a solar panel.  The technology of small solar panels has been greatly improved in the last year. The cordless solar panels can now power a recirculating birdbath or fountain with just sunlight – something we have plenty of in Texas.

Every person reading this can do a little bit to help our birds get the water they need to stay alive. Plant the plants that provide water via berries, or that hold rainwater in their leaves. Feed fresh birdseed. Create lots of cooling shade by planting tall, bushy things and reducing the size of your lawn. And be sure to provide at least one safe, usable water-source.

The eastern House Finch is the one we see in Texas

House Finch

The "eastern" House Finch is very common here in north Texas. A 15-year study of all House Finches has been published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; dramatizing that House Finches are of two groups – western (as in “west of the Rockies”) and eastern. Originally, there was only a western population, but a few birds from the west were captured and brought to New York in the 1940s as “Hollywood Finches”. Some escaped and are now common everywhere east of the Rockies. (The western population still lives a rather isolated life). The two groups began as genetically identical; but the eastern group has diversified greatly as its range expanded.

The males are noticeably red around the head, but the females are drab – a brown and tan streaky appearance making nesting less obtrusive.

The eastern group (the one here) is far more susceptible to a common eye disease among House Finches, since the birds stem from just a few birds, and have very little genetic diversity. Cornell is working on a remedy to this contagious disease in check. Until then, however, keep your feeders clean, especially if you spot a House Finch with an eye/s that look swollen shut.

 

feathered insecticide        The colorful Flicker,  fairly common in north Texas is actually a woodpecker. However, it’s a woodpecker who, in addition to pecking on trees, gets quite a bit of food via seeds and berries, and probing the soil for bugs. One biologist opened the stomach of a dead Flicker (the “Northern Flicker” lives here), and counted more than 5,000 ants inside!