I just spent three days in my backyard watching the bird feeders. There’s nothing like a flock of backyard birds to warm the heart on a cold winter day. Plus, they each told me their stories.
My goal was to produce a video about bird feeding for my Bob Duchesne YouTube channel. Thousands of people are now watching it, but you don’t have to. Here’s what to notice when birds come to your feeder.
First, while overwintering birds appreciate your feeders, it’s a supplemental food source for them. Mostly they feed in the wild, dining on nuts and seeds wherever they can find them. They move around the neighborhood in flocks — small ones for most species, larger ones for American goldfinches.
The feeders can hang idle for an extended time, unburdened by hungry birds. Suddenly, all the local birds flood back into the yard. They’ve been making the rounds together and eventually circle back to your yard.
You can hear them coming. The ever-watchful chickadees lead the way, and the almost ever-watchful nuthatches and titmice follow. Together they swarm back in, linger for a bit, then depart for the neighbor’s house to make the circle again.
The American goldfinches don’t follow the chickadees. They roam over a wider area and in bigger numbers. At least 50 typically descend into my yard like a plague of locusts several times per hour. As noisy as the chickadees get, the goldfinches are worse. It’s no secret when they’re around. You can hear them arrive.
All of your feeder birds share the same desire and the same fear. They want to eat. They don’t want to be eaten. That affects the way they feed. Watch carefully.
For most of the year, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice dine on insects and other invertebrates. They glean them from tree leaves and bark. Accordingly, they have narrow pointed bills suitable for grabbing and munching a caterpillar. They’ll still forage for hardy bugs in winter, but mostly they switch to eating seeds and other vegetative matter.
To open a sunflower seed, these species often must hold the seed between their feet and hammer it open with their sharply pointed bills. To succeed they must focus on their target, and during that time they are less attentive to potential dangers. Thus they swoop into a feeder, grab a seed and return to safe cover as quickly as possible.
Nuts and seeds are the principal diet of finches, including the goldfinches currently haunting backyards. Finches have heavier bills and can chomp open a seed without having to look at it. They’ll sit on a feeder and eat multiple seeds while staying watchful for danger. It’s rare for a chickadee to spend 10 seconds on a feeder. Goldfinches can spend 10 minutes.
Mourning doves don’t open seeds at all. They swallow them whole and let their gizzards do the work. They’ll sit on a feeder and pop down seed after seed, storing them in their crops until they return to a concealed branch to finish digesting. Since doves also tend to gather in flocks, they often linger on or near the feeder until everyone is satisfied.
Now that you know how birds are feeding, spend a few more minutes watching how they relate to each other. Which birds are more aggressive about claiming a spot on the feeder or defending one? Do they remain passive until the feeder gets too crowded? If multiple species want to perch on the feeder, is one more likely to dominate?
How do all these birds react to you? Open the door and step outside. Who panics?
Birds that feed on the ground are more vulnerable to earthbound predators. Mourning doves, blue jays and goldfinches vanish the moment they hear my door creak open. Sparrows and juncos do likewise.
Chickadees, nuthatches and titmice spend little time on the ground. They are more concerned about hawks. Since I am clearly not a hawk, they often stay on the feeder and merely keep an eye on me. They will return even when I’m standing nearby. Woodpeckers barely acknowledge my presence. If they’re on the suet feeder, they mostly ignore whatever I’m doing unless I get too close.
You can see all of this happen in your own backyard and it won’t take you three days. If you watch carefully, you’ll see most of the action within 30 minutes.
It’s a fascinating view, and cheaper than Netflix.
