Threats to bluebirds on golf courses

I"m doing a semester project about Eastern Bluebirds. I read that they tend to like golf courses and open fields a lot. My question is are there any threates in the area that would potentially destroy their habitat? Like a House Sparrow? 

Eastern bluebirds prefer to nest and forage in areas at the intersection of forest and field. Golf courses, with fairways and woods, are prime real estate for bluebird nests.

During breeding season Eastern Bluebirds are typically found in open habitats with scattered trees and shrubs. The trees provide cavities for shelter and the shrubs are good perches to hunt insects. During non-breeding season bluebirds are found in more wooded habitats because their diet switches to more fruits, nuts and berries and more trees provides greater protection from the harsh elements.

Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters because they nest only in cavities that have been excavated first by another species. Historically, they nested in old woodpecker holes, but today they nest successfully in artificial nest boxes.

By placing nest boxes in areas where there is sufficient forest cover with undergrowth, you can significantly improve survival of fledgling bluebirds during their most vulnerable early weeks of independence.

Causes of mortality

Threats to the bluebirds include hawk or crow predation, window strikes, starvation, human disturbance, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and intensive turf management. Sparrows tend to be more city birds. They like the shape of bluebird boxes but tend to ignore them the further away they are from human dwellings.

Read more at:

Reproductive success and developmental stability of eastern bluebirds on golf courses: evidence that golf courses can be productive

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Photo Share: Small Gray Birds with a secret

Many birds show plumage patterns in ultraviolet light that are invisible to the human eye. Gray and white birds may look alike to the naked human eye, but birds can distinguish themselves by the presence of ultraviolet reflective patches on their feathers.

The females respond stronger to males with good UV-reflectiveness. An ultraviolet reflective patch might be displayed in courtship by posturing with the brightest UV- plumage fluffed.

This Tufted Titmouse and White-breasted Nuthatch may appear common but the more we understand, the more we can appreciate the beautiful nuances of the world around us. 

Thank you Sylvia for sharing your photos and allowing me to share them on the blog! If anyone else would like to share a photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com and I'll put it on the Friday Photo posts.

Beautiful bird mugs available at the Wild Birds Unlimited

Take a look at these beautiful bird mugs available at the Wild Birds Unlimited - East Lansing, Michigan store.

There are a total of 12 mugs in the collection. Each one features a different Michigan bird: American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, Eastern Bluebird, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, House Finch, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, and the Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches.

The illustrations on the mugs are just gorgeous. They feature a bird and items from their habitat. It doesn’t matter if you hold the mug with your right or left hand because there are images all around the mug and inside. Pretty smart!

They are dishwasher and microwave safe and make great gifts. Come to the East Lansing store and while supplies last, you get one free with the purchase of five mugs.

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Frozen Frogs: How tree frogs survive winter

Gray Tree Frog, Hyla versicolor

Before the first frost, a tree frog’s survival process is set in motion. Special proteins in the blood cause the water in the blood to freeze first. This ice sucks most of the water out of the frog's cells so that the water freezes outside the cells, causing much less damage. (Humans lack these proteins, so when our skin freezes, we get frostbite, which sucks all the water out of our cells and causes them to collapse.)

Essentially, water pulls away from the center of the body so the internal organs are wrapped in a puddle of water that then turns into solid ice. The frog's heart stops beating, its brain shuts down, muscles stop moving, and the frog stops breathing. When frozen, tree frogs turn blue. For several months the frog is in this state of suspended animation.

When temperatures warm and the ice melts, the frogs thaw. Water slowly flows back into the cells, blood starts flowing again, and the frog revives.

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Source: http://http-server.carleton.ca/~kbstorey/ftverts.htm

Why Don't Birds Freeze After They Take a Bath in the Winter?

Birds have many adaptations to stay warm in the winter and not become bird popsicles after a bath. First birds are the only animals with feathers. When fluffed up, feathers act as a buffer from the winds and wet; think downy coat. Then there is a gland at the base of most bird species tails that produces a special oil. When a bird preens they spread this on their feathers with their bill to help them become weather proof and shed water.

 However after awhile, the feathers become dirty, clump and don’t insulate as well. Then birds need to clean their feathers and the quickest way is with water. If the temperature is well below freezing, they may only drink from the bath and clean their feathers in a sandy pit or a snow pile. Birds can drink snow too but it uses more energy.

Also birds’ feet are made up of mainly bone, tendon, and scaly skin. And unlike humans, birds don’t have sweat glands in their skin to produce any moisture to freeze.

But that’s not all. Certain birds also have a heat exchange system in their legs. It is a specialized circulatory pattern to reduce heat lost through the feet when standing in cold water.

Blood is diverted into a heat exchanger in birds’ legs by sphincter muscles to conserve heat. Arterial blood arriving from the heat exchanger in the leg is as warm as the body core temperature and the venous blood from the feet is nearly as cold as the surrounding air. Similar to a radiator, the heat flows from the arteries into the veins along the length of the heat exchange, ensuring that the venous blood will be warmed before returning to the rest of the body.

So it’s good to have a heated birdbath in the winter. As long as birds are able to find food which they turn into "heat" energy, and keep their feathers clean, they can survive in extremely cold conditions.

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Household scraps for birds in the garden

I live in Thailand, Hua Hin, about 230 km south of Bangkok. We have a number of birds that visit our garden, sparrows, collared and zebra doves, mynahs, hoopoe and many that I have not discovered the names of yet. Bird seed mixes are not readily available here but we put out bananas and fruit also peanuts and pumpkin seeds when available, the sparrows also raid the dogs food bowls. Do you have any suggestions as to what else I might try? Regards, James

Along with this Oriental White-eye, Wikipedia lists 982 wild bird species in Thailand:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Thailand

Water is one of the easiest ways to attract a large variety of birds to your garden. A bowl, no deeper than two inches, with a good perch or a rock in the middle will help a lot of birds. Then look at your landscape. Local birds will come to gardens that provide shelter and natural foods like fruit, nuts, berries, seeds, and bugs.

Zebra Dove

If you are looking to supplement your local birds' diet so you can watch them up close there are a many foods you can try. The better bird food mixes contain plenty of oil sunflower for the majority of seed eating birds. Peanuts pieces are rich in fat and attract a lot of bug eating birds. Nyjer, a small, black seed with a high oil content is a particular favorite with finches.

Millet and Cracked Corn, attracts sparrows, buntings, doves and blackbirds. Oatmeal, Wheat and barley grains are often included in seed mixtures, but they are really only suitable for larger ground feeding birds like pigeons, chickens and pheasants.

Lard and beef suet can help the bug eating birds too. At Wild Birds Unlimited - East Lansing, Michigan we sell high quality suet cakes. Or I have a recipe on how to render your own suet HERE.

Fresh coconut in the shell that has any residues of the sweet coconut water rinsed from the middle of the coconut to prevent the build-up of black mildew can be hung. Dried coconut isn’t good for the birds.

Common Mynah

Apples, pears and other fruit, including bruised and part rotten ones, cut up, are very popular with many birds. 

Some breakfast cereals are acceptable birdfood treats, although you need to be careful only to put out small quantities at a time. Dry cereal is best offered only occasionally.

Bread also has a relatively low nutritional value but isn't harmful to birds if it is offered in small quantities.

If food turns moldy or stale on your birdtable, you are probably placing out too much for the birds to eat in one day. Always remove any stale or moldy food promptly before bacteria can grow and can cause food poisoning.

You can read more at: Share Nature's Bounty http://lansingwbu.blogspot.com/2009/10/share-natures-bounty.html

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Grey and black bird with a hawk beak

When I heard a few small birds strike the window I went to investigate. I saw a beautiful grey shrike perched on the treetop. ~ Grand Rapid, MI

Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor)

with Striped Field Mouse (Apodemus agrarius) propped up on thorn.

Northern Shrikes, the world's only true carnivorous songbirds, breed in the boreal forest way north of us but appear in Michigan each winter for sporadic visits. Shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their habit of catching small birds, mammals, and insects and impaling their bodies on thorns or any available sharp point. This helps them to tear the flesh into smaller, more conveniently-sized fragments, or they can also leave the uneaten portions for another time.

North American Honey Bee, impaled on thorn by a Shrike

About the size of a American Robin at 10 inches long, the Northern Shrike has a pearl grey back and a whitish belly. Their wings and tail are black with white edges and a deep black mask extends from the sharp, hooked beak through the eye to the ear coverts.

Outside of breeding season, groups of birds will gather together and interact through flight displays, chattering and calling to one another. Northern shrikes fly in a heavy, undulating pattern, but when attacking, fly in a straight, determined direction.

They search for food by perching and then dropping from their elevated perch and using their hooked beak to grab the head of their prey. Shrikes then store their finds on stakes, and will usually consume them within nine days.

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Where are my winter birds?

We live in a wooded area. Usually by this time (late November) we have lots of birds at our seed, thistle, and suet feeders: red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers, cardinals, bluejays, nuthatches, titmice, slate juncos, chickadees, goldfinches, etc. This fall we have only a few chickadees, titmice, downy woodpeckers, and juncos. We're using the same kind of seed as last year and haven't changed feeders. Do you have any ideas where the rest of our "regular customers" might be, especially the cardinals, bluejays, and red-bellied woodpeckers? ~ Ann Arbor, MI

If you remember, 2012 was a rotten year for fruit and nut trees. Birds were flocking to the feeders to supplement their diet. Canada’s natural seed crops were also horrible that year and a lot of birds that usually like to winter further north ventured south to Michigan to find food.

This year, 2013, will have no major bird irruptions. According to Ontario Field Ornithologist Ron Pittaway, the cone crops are excellent and extensive across much of the boreal forest and northeast Canada this year. That means there will be plenty of food for the winter finches, nuthatches and woodpeckers. So more birds will stay up north this winter.

It's estimated that only about 20% of a backyard bird's daily energy intake comes from feeders and because we haven’t had a lot of snowfall in Michigan, there still might be a lot of natural food sources available.

Other things to check if you don’t have birds at your feeders:

1. Make sure your seed is fresh. One way to do this is to pinch the seed with your fingernails on a piece of white paper and see if any oil comes out. On cold days where every meal counts, if your seed has dried out your feeder will be skipped. (Wild Birds Unlimited receives a fresh load of seed each week).

2. Make sure there is no mold in the bottom of your feeder. This can be dangerous to the birds and they will avoid your feeder again. To prevent mold in bad weather use Feeder Fresh™ (a silica grit that absorbs water and humidity, is safe for birds, and made from non-toxic absorbent sand). You can also shelter your feeder from the elements by using something like WBU Weather Guard.

4. Look for predators. Hawks or cats can deter birds from feeding in your area.

5. Check with local birding groups. Call your local Audubon or go in to a Wild Birds Unlimited to see if you are the only one reporting fewer birds.

You'll probably notice that the bird activity was very high at the feeders before the last storm and I think more birds will visit when the snow begins to fly.

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Photo Share: Hawk and Blue Jay

Hello Sara, I love reading your blog. It teaches me a lot about Michigan birds. I attached some pictures I made around my house. They're no special birds, but very beautiful none the less. Feel free to use them (or not) as you like :) Kind Regards, Sylvia

"There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way" (Buddha)

I think all birds are special. Thank you for sharing your photos and allowing me to share them on the blog! If anyone else would like to share a photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com and I'll put it on the Friday Photo posts.

White-breasted Nuthatch on classic hopper

Nuthatches are presumably named for their habit of wedging seeds and nuts into crevices and hacking them open with their bills. Although the White-breasted Nuthatch is a regular visitor to most backyard bird feeders like the Wild Birds Unlimited EcoTough™ Classic Hopper feeder, it only sticks around long enough to grab a peanut and then dash off with a laugh.

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Cornucopia: Thanksgiving symbol of abundance

The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form.

In North America, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various kinds of fall harvested fruit and vegetables and has come to be associated with Thanksgiving.

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