The importance of creating small habitats for north Texas' wild birds



House Finch

Scarlet Tanager

Tiny, private spaces can easily be transformed into “bird magnets”.  It’s necessary since birds don’t really care if you own ten acres or ten square feet. To them, ownership of land is meaningless. Birds might choose to forage in a utility easement, cavort in a park a mile away, get a sip of water from a puddle in a parking lot, nest in your neighbor's yard and eat from a feeder on your balcony. A lot of their routine is up to you.

As people are living closer together, more and more products are being made or adapted for use in small spaces like balconies, patios and “postage stamp” courtyards. This is vital since bird habitat is disappearing at an alarming rate.

Wood Thrush

If you have only a tiny patch of ground, consider a pole-mounted system. This lets you put several types of feeders on just one pole. The pole can be simply be stuck in as little as one square foot of ground.  And don't forget a birdbath! Also, at this time of year, one feeder could certainly feed nectar to the amazing little Hummingbirds. (Then, next fall, you can easily exchange it for a feeder for our “winter-only” Goldfinches.)

Many feeders can be mounted on windows, using heavy-duty suction cups. There is almost no danger of birds flying into a window with this type of feeder.   Reason: the bird is in a slow ”landing pattern” when he’s within two feet of a feeder, so he’s alert to the surroundings. The real danger zone is if a feeder is about 2 to 6 feet from a window. At this distance a bird, circling the feeder (and concentrating on its location) isn’t paying attention to a nearby window. To be extra-cautious, stick some sort of ribbon or decal on the glass.

Seed residue can be a problem. To avoid this entirely, use a variety of seed that has had the outside hull removed. Since the birds don’t have to remove the hull from the seed, there’s no hull to fall to the ground. Or to fall on your balcony. The goal, however, is to entice the birds to eat every last seed.

Of course, if a seed is fresh (even if the hull is left on), any that falls to the ground will likely be eaten by ground-feeding birds – like Cardinals. Thrashers and Doves. So, even if the price is a bit more, get the seed that’s freshest from the mill. More of it gets eaten and less of it winds up beneath the feeder. If you can clean up the hulls beneath a feeder, go ahead and buy the less-expensive seed with hulls.

Seed that’s blended especially for our Texas birds is best for small spaces too – more of it gets eaten. Some “cheap” seed blends are loaded with filler that Texas birds don’t eat; like milo and corn. You pay for it, but it just ends up on the ground.

Violet-crowned hummer

 Of course, nectar feeders (for Hummingbirds) and nut feeders (for almost all birds) make hardly any mess, and are great for small spaces.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

 Feeding the birds isn’t complete without bird habitat – even if it's just a tiny bit! Several pots of flowers, even a few planted with shrubs, give birds personal places. They need some of these to wait for their turn at the feeder, crack open a seed or just sit and relax. A small space that’s nothing but a grille and lawn chairs isn’t appealing to birds. A tiny patch of vegetative habitat is!

 

What it means when Cardinals are bright red

Cardinal  (male)

 

     A recent study found that, in rural areas, the bright red of Cardinals was a good indication of their health, including the abilities to resist disease and raise healthy young Cardinals. In urban areas, however, that wasn’t true.

         In urban areas (cities and towns) color didn’t indicate Cardinals’ general health or future reproductive success. In urban areas there are many plants that are “exotic” – derived from other countries or regions. Birds that eat these may get a lot of pigment, but are not necessarily in good health overall, because most exotic plants don’t contain much protein or fat. A good example is species of honeysuckle: the exotic Japanese (or Halls) Honeysuckle doesn’t do much for the health of local birds;  but the native Evergreen Honeysuckle (Lonicera Sempervirons) is avian “health food”.

     Urban Cardinals also have access to birdseed which is very nutrient-rich, but low in carotenoids (which produce pigments).

      Of course, other species, in addition to Cardinals, benefit from good food.  My advice, if you live in an urban area, is to continue to offer fresh birdseed and plant masses of native plants that are mostly red or yellow, such as Lantana, Turks Cap, Salvia Greggii and Cardinal Flower.

 

 

 

 

 

HOW DO YOU DO, MR. CROW       Just like people, American Crows can recognize specific human faces. Even years after the encounter.  Also, they can associate the humans with positive or negative feelings – such as “feeds good stuff” or “scares me”.

        Crow’s intelligence has long been known, but their brains aren’t unusually large. It’s just that they use their brain well. (Humans only use about 10-15% of the brain)

Pyrrhuloxia & Cardinal




Do what you can to attract insect-eating birds, too

             

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

 


Scissor-tailed Flycatcher





Carolina Wrens

Mockingbird

Dickcissel

 Many north Texas birds eat insects exclusively.  These are birds that couldn't care less about  your birdfeeder. Avid birdwatchers try to attract these species too, instead of just writing them off as perennial no-shows. This group of birds isn’t just extremely rare and secretive birds that you’ve never heard of. It includes the Mockingbird which is the Texas state bird (yes, every state has one). Also, there’s the Bluebird, Purple Martin, Flycatcher, Swallow, Robin, several Warblers and two types of Wren. 

            Also, almost all birds feed insects to their young since they’re easier on young, undeveloped digestive systems. If there are no insects around, they just won't nest in your yard.

 

Limit & localize use of pesticides

Think of it this way – imagine sitting down to a plateful of steak and potatoes.  But before your first bite, someone sprayed everything on the plate with bug killer. Suddenly you’re not hungry anymore! Lots of birds experience that every day. Having no insects to eat or to feed to their young, they go elsewhere.

            The point is – either stop using artificial, chemical pesticides entirely, or limit their use to “spot” treatment of only the infested areas. (There are natural pesticides that work better anyway)  Insect-eating birds should take care of most insects!

 

Create a brushpile

Brushpiles occur naturally in forests, as limbs fall off trees. Many birds, particularly insect-eaters, love to nest in them and seek shelter or hide there. But we humans tend to remove or burn brushpiles.  Since they’re comparatively cool and damp, insect-eating birds are always foraging in them. Creating one is a no-brainer.   
            A brushpile is, basically, just a pile of woody branches. Ideally, the first foot or so should be made of woody branches 3 to 6” in diameter, criss-crossed to leave lots of empty spaces inside. Above this, pile branches randomly, leaving plenty of nooks and crannies for birds to find. It attracts the most birds when you exclude small stuff like leaves and grass clippings.

Avoid cleaning your yard fastidiously.  Insect-eating birds love to pick through the leaf-litter on the ground, in search of small spiders and other edibles. If your yard is all lawn - completely free of things like tall grass and leaf-litter, birds won't hang around.  You may not want to leave your entire yard "natural", but maybe an unused corner can be left for insect eating birds.

 

Make water available. Every living thing, especially a bird living in Texas, needs water. I’ve often seen birds in my birdbath that I’d never see at my feeders. Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hermit Thrushes and Robins are a few insect-eating birds that like water, too. Frequently an entire family will take over a birdbath, the mother and father teaching fledglings the proper way to bathe.

Plant native plants. There are many, many native plants to select from, to attract insect-eating birds. From live oak to pecan, and from lantana to Turks cap, Blackfoot daisy and Indiangrass– all are natives. These are the plants that north Texas birds (and their past generations) are familiar with, whatever they eat. They understand how to use them for shelter, food, nesting material etc. They won’t adapt to the heavy influx of exotic imports for many more decades.

Please - do what you can to appeal to all the birds that don't care what's in your birdfeeder.

Bluebirds

Purple Martins

 

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallow

 

How to repel (or attract) Grackles

Grackles love the seed called millet. Of course, they eat almost anything, but millet is their favorite. Millet is a very small, roundish seed often used in birdfood. Because millet has a comparatively low cost to retailers such as "big box" stores, it's very common in inexpensive seed blends. The problem is, there are two different kinds: red and white.  Birds clearly know the difference. Blends that use the cheap red millet, or a mixture of red and white, for marketing appeal and to minimize costs, should be avoided. Birds will actively select the white millet and ignore the bitter-tasting (though inexpensive) red millet.

       Grackles, on the other hand, readily eat them both.   So feeding millet invites Grackles to hang around your yard; not using a seed blend with millet discourages them.

 

 

From whence came Steller’s Jays?     In north Texas we have Blue Jays (much of the Midwest and East, too). In the Pacific Northwest, however, they have Steller’s Jays. The prevalent theory is that a population of Blue Jays was isolated there during the ice ages,

Steller's Jay

  contained by mountains and the ocean. Over the ages, this population evolved differently - into Steller's Jays.

 

Increasing the number of Hummingbirds in your yard

There's something about seeing a Hummingbird that makes people all excited and giggly. If this sort of thing results from seeing just one or two of these amazing little birds, imagine the pure joy a seeing many more in your yard. Here’s how that can happen;

Put up more than one feeder – First, there should be enough spots for Hummingbirds to sip nectar without waiting in line. Put up enough feeders for the number of Hummingbirds you could have, not just the number that you have today. Sometimes, a “bully” tries to scare others away. If you have enough feeding places available, however, the bully is outmaneuvered – less-aggressive ones will like hanging out in your yard.

Keep nectar fresh – Fresh nectar attracts them, and stale or moldy nectar repels them. If they get a sip of stale nectar at your house, they won’t bring fledglings or friends by. They’ll go elsewhere themselves, too. Nectar gets stale quickly on a super-hot Texas day. We change nectar every 6 or 7 days during spring and fall. But when it’s really hot, we’ll go to every other day. Adding food coloring has never been proven to work, and will probably hasten nectar’s staleness by introducing microscopic bits of mold.

Plant hummer plants – Hummingbirds look for nectar from flowers in addition to feeders. Think of a mass of flowers as a form of feeder. All plants produce nectar, but some plants have a lot sweeter nectar than others. These give “more bang for the buck” in the form of energy for the Hummingbird. They know this, and are drawn to these plants (so are butterflies) and they encourage their youngsters to feed there.

Water source – Just like humans, Hummingbirds need something to drink with meals. Clean water is ideal. Water from a hose-run 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. Make sure a birdbath is shallow enough (1.5 inches for small birds) since, like many humans, they avoid deep water.

          Follow these guidelines and it’s a safe bet the number of Hummingbirds in your yard will grow. The main reason is that the parents almost always bring youngsters back to eat, bathe etc. where they were raised. That could be your yard, assuming it’s a healthy and safe environment.

 

 

 

Squirrels and birds need to share our world

 I hope that NOBODY, absolutely no one, has stopped feeding north

This squirrel will go hungry

Texas’ birds because of the tenacity of squirrels. Both birds and squirrels are integral to our ecosystem. They can share your yard quite naturally.

Yes – squirrels, if given the chance, might eat birdseed you put out. But that’s easily solved. Trouble is, the solution isn’t obvious; you won’t find it just by doing a web search because every yard is a little different. The most common measure - trapping squirrels - merely results in attracting more squirrels (the more active ones) to the area, to compete for the now-vacant territory.

Maybe the solution is feeding a type of seed that squirrels don’t like. Maybe it’s the style of birdfeeder you have. Maybe it’s how or where the feeder is hung. Maybe it involves a mix of several solutions. Also, keep in mind that “squirrel-resistant” is not the same as “squirrel-proof”.

Quitting totally and letting the birds fend for themselves, however, is not the solution, it’s a surrender. Most likely the birds will just fly off to somewhere else; permanently. The squirrels, not having wings, will stay in your yard (unless you remove all the trees in your neighborhood, particularly the oaks).

So if squirrels have put a stop to your birdfeeding, try again. Most likely you stopped because nobody gave you any good advice, or you got advice from an inexperienced source. Therefore we invite you to discuss the problem with us (pictures help!), in the comments section of this blog. We'll probably have your birds and your squirrels living together in peace, the way nature intended.

Weekend pollution!          Running a gas-powered lawn mower for just an hour releases the same amount of hydrocarbons into the air as driving a typical car for almost 12 hours! They're that polluting!

Why are lawns so prevalent in "European" cultures?

     Manicured lawns have been present in certain organized societies for centuries, as signs

Lancelot "Capability" Brown

of power, great wealth and ostentation. Especially cultures in, or derived from, Europe, like ours. Often lawns were converted from sheep meadows, since the sheep didn't maintain them neatly. The popularity of the manicured lawn among the rich and powerful reached its peak in late 18^th and early 19^th century Europe (mainly England).

Back then, early landscape designers like Sir James Pennethorpe, Lancelot Brown, Sir John Vanbrugh, William Kent and Humphrey Repton put large lawns in their clients’ estates that served to irritate less-wealthy people, who could not afford the full-time gardeners that large lawns required. The “less-wealthy people” also needed to use whatever lands they had to raise crops and farm animals so they could eat. This trend among the upper classes became known as the Landscape Gardening School, summarized in a 1771 book called “Observations on Modern Gardening”.

So, when Europeans settled this continent, one of the first things the “leaders” did, by habit, was to put large lawns around their homes. Lawns acted sort of like expensive cars or big swimming pools do today. The lawns signified wealth and power – the owners did not need to use the land for food crops like most people, and had to skills to be able to read things like “Observations on Modern Gardening”, unlike most people.

Very gradually, the "lawn trend" crept into fashion with the almost-wealthy, and those who wanted to appear wealthy.

Fast-forward a few hundred years.  21^st century lawns are based on the very same logic behind wearing neckties and cowboy boots; somebody in another era thought they served a purpose and impressed other people. Now, however, very few people grow their own food and most people can read, but almost every house still has a lawn around it.

Before you sneer and call me a “tree-hugger”(which I view as a compliment) let me point out that lawns serve a purpose. To a degree.  Little children can run and play on lawns. A lawn is vital to a barbecue with the neighbors. A lawn is a great place to play croquet, touch football and badminton. The neighbor next door smiles at you more when you have a green lawn. A lawn is a good place to lounge when you sunbathe. 

Native plant fans like me are not irritated when we see a lawn. We’re irritated when we see a bigger lawn than the owner actually needs. It’s rarely the owner’s fault however. Most of the time, a lawn is put in place before the home is even lived in. Why? Because sod is cheap to buy, and can be put down by cheap, unskilled labor very quickly. And because whoever planted the lawn is probably not the same person who will be paying the water bill, fertilizing it and mowing it.

In today’s economy of dwindling natural resources (like water) and rising prices, a big lawn certainly does not promote water conservation.  Of course, this wasn't a concern several hundred years ago. Typically, over half the water a household uses goes for watering the landscape. So a water-guzzling lawn flies in the face of municipal or neighborhood water restrictions, which didn't used to be a concern.

Anecdote: a north Texas resident wanted more time for golf on the weekends. So he reduced the size of his lawn about a third. He now has a 3 handicap, and easily lives within the watering restrictions his city is enforcing.  And his yard looks beautiful - it's colorful and attracts many more birds.

Another Texan became light-headed whenever his monthly water bill arrived. He helped half of his lawn transform into drought-tolerant trees and flowers. His water bill is A LOT lower now. So is his need for weekly lawn maintenance and air conditioning.

A homeowner in central Texas never waters (admittedly a bold step), allowing only the native trees, shrubs and flowers to grow. As you’d expect, the only plants that prosper are those that are accustomed to very little water. She’s also seen a marked increase in birds and butterflies at her place.

How best to conserve water? Start by reducing the size of your lawn – easily the biggest water-user in any landscape. It’s not an easy step to take, but in 2013 it makes a whole lot more sense than maintaining a lawn that was theorized by European aristocrats a century or two ago.