Photo Share: Bluebirds frolicking in the bath

Everyday I have a group of blue birds taking their daily bath. They splash so much I always have to put more water in. This day happened to be the largest group I have seen yet. So fun to watch them. When do the bluebirds migrate?  By the way, love our bird bath from your shop. Jo- St Johns 
 
Usually, Eastern Bluebirds will gather in large family flocks at the end of nesting season. If you have fruiting trees or bluebird feeders and a reliable source of water, you may host the bluebirds year-round. Scientists think it’s due to genetics whether they want to fly south or winter over. Some birds are compelled to move south and others are not.

The Eastern Bluebirds are considered partial migrants. Often, the birds from Canada and the northern U.S. will leapfrog over mid-Michigan in order to avoid competition for food and migrate all the way down to Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and the southern portions of Alabama, Georgia and Texas. But our bluebirds might hang around in the woods if it is a mild winter and just shift short distances in search of food and water.

They forage for fruits, nuts, and berries from shrubs, trees, and vines. Some of those include dogwood, hawthorn, mountain ash, sumac, holly, bittersweet, pokeweed, grape, and honeysuckle fruits.

Thank you for sharing! If anyone else would like to share a photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com with a description and permission to post it on the Friday Photo.

Flickers are woodpeckers that like to forage on the ground

from Wikimedia Commons

Warblers aren't the only new birds passing through in the fall. Flickers may migrate through or even choose to winter in our mid-Michigan yards. I had two in pounding in the lawn for bugs last night!

The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a medium-sized woodpecker native to most of North America. Unlike most woodpeckers, the flicker spends a lot of time hopping around the ground like a robin looking for bugs, especially ants.

Adults are brown with black bars on the back and wings. A black bib is on the upper breast and the lower breast and belly are beige with black spots. Males in Michigan can be identified by a black moustache stripe at the base of the beak, a red chevron on the back of their head and bright yellow feathers on the undersides of their wing and tail.

The northern populations of the Northern Flicker are migratory, with fall migration taking place September to November. So if this Flicker is new to the area it may see your yard as a good place to winter from its summer home in Canada. They do also come to feeders for seeds, nuts and suet as snows cover the ground. So keep the feeders full to catch him eating. 

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- Northern Flicker Roosts Alone in the winter http://bit.ly/zouUF6

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- Fun Facts about Woodpeckers http://bit.ly/yGoOUc

- Why Flickers Flick Seeds from Feeders? http://bit.ly/Ar0Rin

- How many woodpeckers are in Michigan? http://bit.ly/x5PGT1

What to feed birds besides black oil sunflower seed

I generally feed just black oil sunflower seeds. Is there something else I should add to attract more birds?

The first ingredient in our top 4 seed blends is sunflower seed. Oil Sunflower seed is the favorite of most of the backyard seed eating birds. I also like to have peanuts in the blend to entice all the bug eating birds like the chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, jays, and wrens to visit more frequently. Peanuts have a high calorie/ounce ratio due to its high fat and protein content.

No-mess is the only blend I use personally. No-Mess Blend is unique because it features seeds that have had their shells removed so only the meat of the seed is left. No hulls on the seeds mean there is no debris on the ground to clean up. The first ingredient in the No-Mess blend is sunflower seed with the hulls removed, then peanut pieces, and finally a little millet, also with the hulls removed. Millet attracts the ground feeding birds like the juncos, sparrows, buntings, and doves. Pound for pound, our No-Mess Blend offers the best value because you do not pay for the shells. The birds eat everything! 

Food is essential to provide birds with the energy, stamina and nutrition to endure the elements. An ample supply of fresh high-calorie foods is crucial to a bird's survival. All our Wild Birds Unlimited seed blends have been formulated regionally to provide the most nutritious food for your birds.

We do not include cheap filler grains like oats, wheat and milo that decrease the price per pound of a mix but aren't eaten by the birds in Michigan. Therefore, there is no wasted seed. Wild Birds Unlimited blends actually end up costing less and attract the widest variety of birds that live in our area.

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Owls disperse in the fall

In autumn there are a lot of first year owls leaving their parents and moving to new territories. Many customers in the Wild Birds Unlimited - East Lansing store are reporting their encounters with owls. Most people are excited about these large birds when they perch in their yard. Other people have experienced silent, unexpected, swoop downs.

Experts theorize that the owls perhaps dive bomb unsuspecting early morning joggers more at this time of year because they are inexperienced in hunting, defending a new territory, because of mistaken identity or maybe the young birds are just behaving badly. Owl strikes are more common at dawn or dusk when vision is not always the best with people or with animals.

Also recent studies show suburban neighborhoods with large trees have been supporting more and more Barred Owls. Using transmitters, scientists found that populations increased faster in the suburban settings than in old growth forest. A factor of this suburban success may be easily accessible rodent prey.

The Barred Owls nest in a tree cavities usually created by woodpeckers or squirrels. They’ll also use manmade bird houses. If they’ve had a successful nesting in the past they will often reuse a nest. Barred Owls are non-migratory.

Breeding season is from December to March. After 4 weeks of incubation by the female, young owls hatch and then fledge four to five weeks later. At six weeks old the young will learn to fly. Barred owls live alone for most of the year but a family group can stay together for up to six months.

Barred Owls help keep down the rodent population. They eat mainly small animals like chipmunks, mice, voles, smaller rabbits, amphibians, reptiles, and some bugs. Most owls avoid human interaction and will fly away when you approach. A few, however, may be more curious and come in for a closer look.

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- Eastern Screech Owl http://bit.ly/wMQBZj   

- Great Horned Owl http://bit.ly/zmlFqY

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Pine Warbler looks like goldfinch at first glance

September is a great time to see a wide variety of birds as they swing through our area. Many warblers are similar in size and coloring to a female goldfinch. I'm usually alerted to visiting warblers in the yard mainly because of their behavior. Most warblers are jittery, bouncy birds in the bushes as they try to flush out bugs or at the bird bath re-hydrating and preparing their feathers for migration.

Pine warblers are active during the day, hopping, climbing tree trunks, and cleaning their feathers. Like many other warblers, their wings beat in an irregular pattern when they fly. They are partial migrants. Pine Warblers from the northern U.S. and Canada migrate to wintering grounds in the southeastern U.S. but the ones that breed in the Southeast stay there year-round.

Besides bugs and water, the Pine Warbler will also regularly eat millet, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and suet from elevated feeders. And fruits from bushes and vines, like bayberry, flowering dogwood, grape, sumac, persimmon, and Virginia creeper.

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- What birds migrate from Michigan? http://bit.ly/qa0CVU

Palm Warbler on the way to the Caribbean

The Palm Warbler breeds farther north in Canada than most other warblers. In the fall they may join flocks of other warblers, chickadees, juncos, and sparrows. They are a common migrant through mid-Michigan from mid-August to mid-October.

In the winter when the Palm Warbler hangs out in "palm country" they seem to prefer to feed on the ground in a variety of woodland and thicket habitats. They were named from a specimen taken during the non-breeding season on a Caribbean island. A better name for this species might be the "Wagging Warbler" because of the tail-wagging habit that shows off its yellow undertail.

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Small gray bird with bright yellow throat

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Northern Parulas are small gray wood-warblers with bright yellow throats that extend through the breast. We only see them in mid-Michigan during the spring and fall migration. They breed above and below us.

Northern Parulas forage by gleaning leaves and branch tips for insects and spiders. They fly with rapid wingbeats and hop quickly through branches. When acting defensively, parulas may demonstrate a wing-droop display, during which wingtips are held below the base of the tail as the bird calls.

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When is bird migration over? http://goo.gl/1Fiq6
Blackpoll Warbler: Greatest warbler migrant http://goo.gl/GcSTE

Photo Share: bird sunrise

Evan was commenting on how orange the sunrise was this morning as we were going to school then I saw this lamp post with the birds watching the sunrise.  If you want to post for a Friday photo you can photo you can.

Thank you for sharing! If anyone else would like to share a photograph of nature send it to bloubird@gmail.com with a description and permission to post it on the Friday Photo.

Photo Share: Grasshopper in Michigan

I love my backyard birds! Bird watching is among the most popular of all American recreational pursuits. It is estimated that there are over 9,000 species of birds, at least 200 breed in Michigan and more than 400 species spend at least some time in the state.

Bugs can be just as fascinating or frustrating if they are found somewhere other than outside. In the United States only, the number of insect species named is approximately 91,000 and another 73,000 are unidentified.

I saw this little two inch grasshopper on the bird bath in front of the Wild Birds Unlimited store. I could identify "grasshopper" but needed more help to find her name. So I went to http://bugguide.net and made an ID request. They came back immediately with female Grasshopper - Melanoplus differentialis.  A common roadside grasshopper.

Like most grasshoppers, Differential Grasshoppers eat many different types of plants, including: grasses, weeds, crops, clover, and fruits. They breed in late Summer and early Fall. Then females lay their eggs near the base of vegetation. These eggs won't hatch until the following Spring.

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Easiest to identify warbler

Black-and-white Warblers look similar to nuthatches at first glance. When I spotted him in the viburnum bush he was feeding on insects moving up, down, and along branches in every direction. On second glance I could see that this bird looked a little smaller and more delicate than a White-breasted Nuthatch.

Black-and-white warblers are one of the easiest warblers to identify. They are a little smaller than a House Sparrow at 5 inches long and they have very obvious black and white stripes like a referee’s shirt. The females and young look a little duller and have a dark gray cheek instead of black.

Keep your eyes open for them migrating through the mid-Michigan area from August through October and then again in the spring from late May to early July. They are common in mature and second-growth deciduous forests during the summer throughout the eastern United States and Canada, and they have an unusually extensive winter range that extends from Florida to Venezuela and Colombia.

Their gentle oscillating song sounds like the squeaky wheel of a car coming to a stop. So keep your eyes and ears open for new birds visiting your yard. All birds need water and a lot of birds will stop in your yard to rest if they see other birds in the area eating safely at feeders. 

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When is bird migration over? http://goo.gl/1Fiq6
Blackpoll Warbler: Greatest warbler migrant http://goo.gl/GcSTE

Why the bird feeder is empty

As many of you have noticed, birds have been attacking the feeders like there is no tomorrow. And there won't be if they don't bulk up now to prepare for a harsh Michigan winter or a long journey south. Birds change into a “superbird” state when their internal clock is triggered by shorter days and cooler weather at the end of summer.

Right now a bird needs to increase their fat reserves by as much as 1-10% per day. This feeding frenzy is called hyperphagia. In human terms, this would mean I would have to gain 12 pounds per day. That gives "eats like a bird" a whole new meaning. But remember that their fat increase is vital for the extreme energy required to survive the coming months.

To help the birds, you can feed them high energy, high fat foods. Wild Birds Unlimited is dedicated to offering fresh, top-quality seed. Our no-waste bird seed blends are made from 100% edible seed and have been exclusively formulated for the feeding preferences of our local birds. No cereal fillers—just fresh, high-quality seed your birds will love. 

Source: 
Have Wings, Will Travel: Avian Adaptations to Migration

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