The Zen Birdfeeder

Wild Birds Unlimited Bird of the MonthGray Catbird

Fun Facts about Catbirds

• Grey Catbirds love water and could visit moving water features in your yard.
• They can be attracted to feeders with mealworms and fruit. Catbirds, like bluebirds, robins and mockingbirds, enjoy raisins and currants that have been soaked in water to plump them up. They may also visit feeders that offer a fruit suet (like WBU Fruit Cakes Suet Dough, shown right). They are one of the many birds that have been attracted to Bark Butter. Keep it easily-accessible by spreading low on a tree trunk or on a Bark Butter feeder.
• Their call sounds like a cat mewing.
• Often heard or seen alone in thickets.
• Catbirds are often heard before they are seen. They are secretive birds that dart into the bushes when approached. They are also very inquisitive and can sometimes be called back out of the bushes to check out a "pishing" sound or a sound like kissing the back of your hand.
• Catbirds are gray with a dark cap on their head and a dark eye. Be sure to look for the rusty under-tail color that is not often seen.
• The catbird's resting heart rate ranges from 307-427 beats per minute. The average person's heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute.
• Average life span is 4-10 years.
• Both sexes help build the nest but construction is mainly by the female over five to six days. Breeding is May through August with an average clutch of four eggs. The female incubates the eggs and will continue to sit on the nest during hatching.
• Gray Catbirds are great mimics and known to imitate dozens of other birds, tree frogs and mechanical sounds. They often sing in ten minute intervals, delivering about 90 syllables per minute.

Check out Wild Birds Unlimited rightbird Online Field Guide to read more about the Gray Catbird.  Hear their songs and calls, read about their behavior, view their ranges and more.

KIDS LOVE FACTOIDS!
Share these cool fun facts with the children in your life to help encourage an appreciation for nature.

Identify It.
Learn About It.
Care About It.

Birds by the Numbers

50,000    estimated pairs of Bald Eagles in lower 48 before population decimated by
hunting, habitat loss and DDT use

417    pairs of Bald Eagles in the lower 48 in the year 1963

1967    year the Bald Eagle was listed on the federal Endangered Species List

1972    year DDT use was banned

10,000    pairs of Bald Eagles now nesting in lower 48

Source: US Fish & Wildlife Service
Bald Eagle photo from WBU Inc. Image Library

Tiger Swallowtail Gallery

Obamicon Birds

Right after his inauguration, the Obamicon.Me website was red-hot, giving you the opportunity to turn your images into a Shepard Fairey-inspired image.  I did my own avatar, and then started doing some birds until I realized I could spend hours going through my files and Obamiconing everything in my path.  I stopped at four and thought I'd share.

LMK which is your favorite.

Is a Starling Ever Handsome?

(Digiscoped images)

This one is gettin' there...

The Underside of a Fly

A fly on my window provided this intimate view of the underside of a fly (I know, I need to clean by windows).

Anyhoo, what's with those feet?

Take a Great Feeder and Make It Better

WBU Decorative Hummingbird Feeder

In a recent post about the "basic" WBU hummingbird feeders, I showed all the great features of that feeder that make it one of the absolute best out there.

• Easy to clean
• Bowl shape - no leaking
• Clear base that allows viewing of the lapping action
• Perch allows hummingbird to sit while feeding
• No yellow on ports - yellow is known to attract bees
• Raised ports - rainwater does not flow into nectar
• Built in ant moat with rainwater overflow
• Easy to fill
• Easy to hang
• Easy to clean - Top shelf dishwasher safe
• Weathers well - no fading
• Lifetime Guarantee

A couple years ago, WBU took all the features of this feeder and made an even better feeder - WBU Decorative Hummingbird Feeders.  Here's how WBU improved on a good thing:

More colors
Hummingbirds are attracted not only to red flowers, so they could surely be attracted to feeders of other colors. WBU Decorative Feeders are available in purple and orange, as well as red.

 

Wasp and Bee protection available
To prevent bees, wasps, and other flying insects from entering the nectar through the port holes, optional Nectar Guard Tips are now available.  These little rubber tips fit on nibs on the inside of the lid and stop insects from entering but allow hummingbirds to feed.  (These guards do not work on the "basic" model.)

Other added features include a more decorative raised flower and vine pattern on the see-through colored top. 

The 12 oz. large decorative feeders also add a spiral hanging rod and decorative finial below.

WBU Decorative Hummingbird Feeders are available at Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs NY, your local WBU store, or online.

Blue Jay Fledglings on Day 1 Out of Nest

The other day I enjoyed a morning of watching a family of Blue Jays on what seems to be their first day out of the nest.  They were a raucous crowd of 5 or so young ones (Blue Jays lay 5-6 eggs so it looked like all of them were accounted for).

 

The first thing that alerted me to their presence was their incessant calling.  Actually whining is more like it.

What a face!

What was interesting to observe was that the young were not feeder-ready yet.  They hung out only in the trees or an occasional trip to the birdbath or deck, but they didn't attempt a feeder landing.  It was as if mom and dad told them to go to the trees, wait for them, and DON'T leave!  Here's two young ones following directions.

Here's some features I noticed to help identify these as fledgling Blue Jays:

Shorter tail

Beak is pinkish, not black, and is shorter in length

 

Fleshy gape at corners of mouth

Clumsy landings

Wing quiver & crying when parent approaches

Crest not fully developed; downy look to some feathers

Just think - this will go on for the next 2-3 weeks!  I'll need to turn my Nature's Window speaker off if I want to get anything done!

More Help Identifying Young Woodpeckers

I posted recently about identifying young woodpeckers in "Welcome to the World, Young Woodpeckers!"  Here's more hints on what to look in identifying immature woodpeckers.

Folks often come into the store saying they saw an "itty-bitty baby" woodpecker at the feeder.  However, most fledgling birds (and especially cavity-nesting birds like woodpeckers) are about the same size as their parents (and oftentimes even bigger) by the time they intentionally emerge from the nest.  So the size of the bird is not necessarily an indicator that you have a baby bird around.

But there are other things you can look for to help distinguish fledgling and immature woodpeckers from their parents.  One thing to look for is the quality of the plumage. During nest-building, egg-laying, incubating eggs, and brooding and feeding of nestlings, woodpecker parents literally make hundreds of entrances and exits through the nest hole.  This understandably causes wear and tear on the feathers of the adult.  As a result, you might see torn and ruffled feathers that give the parents a disheveled look.  You might also notice a slight discoloration of their lighter feathers, like they were dipped in coffee (Bird Friendly® coffee, of course!) 

The newly fledged or immature bird, in contrast, can look bright and shiny in comparison.  They just look like a brand new bird!  Their feathers may look a little fluffy, especially around the head.

Adult woodpeckers tending to a nest also commit an extraordinary amount of physical resources to the process and can themselves become noticeably thinner, even to the point of looking smaller than the young birds.  I especially notice this around the neck, shoulders, and/or breast of the adult bird.

On an extremely rainy day last week, I captured these images of a female adult Hairy Woodpecker (on right) feeding an immature female (on left).  Though the quality of the image is not ideal (dark dreary day; photo taken through triple-pane glass), I think it really shows off the differences between the immature and adult bird.  Click on the image to enlarge and look for the whiter and neater body feathers and the downy, fluffy head feathers on the immature birds on the left.  And note the worn feathers and thinner look to the adult bird on the right.

This next picture was taken at Chenango Valley State Park that I think shows well the thinness of the adult male bird, especially noticeable around the neck area.

The nesting season is a perfect time to learn more about birds by noticing the sometimes subtle differences between birds.  Have fun honing your powers of observation!

Bark Butter: A Recipe for Success

Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter continues to be a hit with our birds, especially the Hairy Woodpeckers.  When I work from home, I have had days where I've refilled the feeder five times!

 
Hairy Woodpecker (digiscoped image)

Hairies aren't the only Bark Butter "customers"; in between their visits, the Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Red breasted Nuthatches, chickadees and titmice sneak in for a quick treat.  And the Dark-eyed Juncos, not exactly first on anyone's list of suet-loving birds, visit the feeder for their little portion of Bark Butter.  They'll eat from the top of the slab, or pick up crumbs that fell to the top of the baffle.

Blue Jay (BirdCam image)

Downy Woodpecker (BirdCam image)

Black-capped Chickadee (BirdCam image)

Dark-eyed Junco (BirdCam image)

Here's our recipe for success with Bark Butter:

- Use it on a specially-made feeder that is hanging or mounted on a squirrel-proof Wild Birds Unlimited Advanced Pole System (APS). Squirrels love this stuff too but MY Bark Butter is FOR THE BIRDS!

Red-bellied Woodpeckers on Bark Butter specialty feeder
(Image from WBU Inc. Image Library)

- Our locally harvested slab feeder is a great way to offer Bark Butter.  It looks great, fits conveniently on an APS setup and is available at WBU-Saratoga Springs.

- Use a Bark Butter applicator (AKA a fork) to apply Bark Butter to the feeder in a cross-hatch pattern.  It should look like the top of a peanut butter cookie.

 - When you apply Bark Butter, remember to leave room for the bird to perch!

- If you have a suet log feeder, you can put Bark Butter in the holes, or supplement the suet plugs by smearing Bark Butter on the sides of the feeder along side or above the holes.

Northern Cardinal - not a percher but likes Bark Butter!
(Image Courtesy of WBU Inc. Image Library)

Red-breasted Nuthatch

- As crevices are created in your WBU Seed Cylinder (shown here on cylinder feeder), fill them with Bark Butter.

- If squirrels and other critters are not an issue, put Bark Butter out on the base of a tree.  This is how I attracted Ovenbirds to eat Bark Butter.  Juncos can eat it easily this way too.

Ovenbird

While our Hairy Woodpeckers were feeding young in the nest, they were taking back huge mouthfuls of Bark Butter.  Now we can't wait for the young to find the Bark Butter for themselves!

Hairy Woodpeckers (BIrdCam images)

Want to see Bark Butter in action?  Here's a link to a selection of Bark Butter videos.  Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter was developed after many years of testing to produce a product that attracts a wide variety of birds but is easy to apply and doesn't melt or separate.

Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter is available at Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs NY, at your local WBU shop, and online.