Flickers' territorial display

I see two flickers going around and around the tree. How do you tell the males from the females?

Northern Flicker males in Michigan can be identified by a black mustache stripe at the base of the beak. These medium sized woodpeckers have a gray head with a red V on the back of the neck, a black-barred brown back, black polka dots on the belly, a black bib under their long bill and bright yellow feathers on the undersides of their wing and tail.

Flickers dancing around a tree together could be a male and female getting to know each other or two males performing a territorial display. Now that you know how to tell the difference between the males and females you can distinguish between the two.

Before breeding season, rival flickers may face off in a display where the boys face each other, bills pointed upward, and bob their heads or chase each other around or through branches of a tree while a prospective female watches. Females may chase other female rivals around the trees too.

Two Northern Flicker males in a territorial display from Wikimedia Commons

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How birds survive single digits

During these windy, cold nights you might wonder where the birds that don’t migrate south for the winter sleep. Birds that nest in cavities like sparrows, chickadees, woodpeckers, wrens, and nuthatches tend to sleep in tree hollows, man-made nest boxes or roosting pockets far away from many predators. Other birds like cardinals, jays, doves, juncos and finches roost in dense brush or foliage. I have a lot of backyard birds that like to sleep in the pine trees near the feeding stations. If the wind is blowing, they go to the other side of the tree and avoid it.

Most birds will fluff up their feathers to cover their feet and create air pockets that will help them keep warm like a down jacket. Birds that perch also scrunch down to sleep because that automatically makes the toes grip their perch and stay locked. In the legs of most tree-dwelling birds, tendons extend down the leg behind the ankle to attach to the tips of the toes and when their knees bend, the tendons are pulled taut, making the toes on their feet clench. Even on windy nights, this grasp cannot be released until they wake up and their limbs are straightened again.

Another way birds combat the cold is by shivering. This converts muscular energy into heat for the short term, but the energy must be replenished shortly thereafter. By keeping your feeders filled with high energy, high fat foods you can provide your birds with the vital nutrition they need to survive. High on the list of best choices to meet this nutritional need is suet or seed blocks and certain seeds like peanuts, sunflower  and nyjer seed.

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Squirrel Appreciation Day: Why you should celebrate squirrels

Why are squirrels such an important part of nature?

Many people look at squirrels and see the cute and cunning furry creatures and may not realize the important role they play in the world.

1. Many squirrels help in forest regeneration. When they bury seeds and nuts as a way to cache food for use later in the season, some are not recovered and grow.

2. Like most rodents, tree squirrels have a relatively short lifespan. Most live only a year or two. Hawks, owls, foxes and coyotes all depend on squirrels as a food source.

3. Researchers can look at tree squirrel populations to measure just how well a forest ecosystem is faring.

4. Scientists may develop a new drug that can limit the brain damage caused by strokes based on research on how ground squirrels hibernate in the winter, and the way their brains function while they do.

5. Squirrel antics at bird feeders has generated many family businesses. Building the better bird feeder that deters the squirrels’ tendency to disassemble and investigate bird feeding stations and develop food that only birds like has created jobs all across America.

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Photo Share: Odd white-winged sparrow

We have an interesting house sparrow visiting our feeder here in Lansing with white feathers on the side of its wings as well as in its tail. When it flies, you can really see the flash of white in both wings and tail. Odd!- Jennifer Otto

Cool! I have a similar male House Sparrow in front of the Wild Birds Unlimited store (https://bird-with-no-tail.html). He started out with no tail and it grew back white. Occasionally a bird will lose feathers in a close call with a predator. When this happens the new feathers sometimes grow in white and then change back to the normal color at the next regular molt.

Or this kind of white coloring could also be leucism. Leucism refers to an abnormality in the deposition of pigment in feathers. There is some disagreement as to whether the condition is genetic or caused by pigment cells that were damaged during development. Whatever the cause, the condition can result in a reduction in all types of pigment, causing pale or muted colors on the entire bird. Or like your bird the condition can cause irregular patches of white, and birds with these white patches are sometimes described as “pied” or “piebald."

Thanks for the info. I'm more inclined to think it is leucism as each wing is identically white on the outside edge.

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

Birds by the numbers: How long do songbirds usually live?

How long do songbirds usually live, for example the chickadee?

The lifespan of songbirds can vary. Most common backyard birds on average live between 2 and 5 years. However, the maximum lifespan recorded for many of these birds is much higher.

To look up a particular bird, I go to the University of Michigan's site (https://animaldiversity.org/). It gives a lot of averages. For example it's estimated that the Black-capped Chickadee has an average lifespan of 2.5 years with the oldest on record being 12.5 years old, based on information they've gathered from the Bird Banding Laboratory.

While chickadees are one of the more adaptable birds and 12 years in impressive, during that first year there is a steep learning curve. Then once they reach breeding age, their survival chances are better. Premature deaths can be caused by window collisions, toxic chemicals, including pesticides, accidents, diseases, loss of food sources due to habitat destruction, predators, or many other factors. And let's not forget about weather.

Chickadees choose to be year-round residents in Michigan. This choice means they expend more energy than tropical birds and even more than migrating birds to survive. The cheery chickadees make the winter blues less blah. That's why as the temperatures dip and natural food sources may become covered with snow or locked in ice, I am happy to offer them a few treats to make the day easier for them.

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Photo Share: Preparing for snow

Watch for birds flocking to the feeders before bad weather. Are you ready for the first snow of the new year? Studies show the average bird forages for food about five hours per day to meet their energy requirements. In severe weather bird feeders can be important. High on the list of best choices to meet the nutritional needs of birds is suet and certain seeds like peanuts, sunflower seeds and nyjer seed. Our most popular Wild Birds Unlimited No Mess Seed Blend is filled with many of these high fat seeds and nuts making it an ideal food, along with suet, to offer your birds.

The Wild Birds Unlimited No-Mess Seed Cylinder is another way to offer sunflower chips, peanuts, tree nuts, and fruit to all the seed, nut and fruit loving birds. No-Mess Seed Cylinder is a tidy dining option that a lot of birds will enjoy. No shells means no mess and no wasted food, making this seed cylinder a great value. This 100% edible cylinder is great near flower beds patios and decks.

Also if there is an available source of open water, birds can conserve their energy for heat and survival during cold winters. Besides helping birds digest food properly, water helps birds keep their feathers clean and in top condition for effective insulation.

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When does nesting begin?

Squirrels are acting squirrelly and I am hearing the starlings squabble and squawk in the rafters of the Wild Birds Unlimited store. These are just a couple signs that the new year of nesting has started.

Nesting season can vary depending on the species of bird, the weather conditions, food availability, and many other variables. Some larger birds like owls, hawks, and eagles may begin courting in December and nest in January and February.

Other birds that winter in Michigan may begin to sing and scout for good nesting territories as early as late January. A reliable source of food like bird feeders may contribute to a bird deciding to nest early in your yard.

Black-capped Chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds, and woodpeckers may begin scouting out bird houses soon. Northern Cardinals and American Robins usually nest anytime from March to August. In some areas the Mourning Doves nest almost year round because they feed their young “crop milk”. And by the end of February we'll get calls about birds making their nests in holiday wreaths. Anyone who places hanging plants on a covered porch in the spring or leave a holiday wreath hanging on the door may find that by April a female House Finch has begun to build a nest in it.

If a bird starts to nest and a cold front moves in, they may suspend their nest building activities and then continue when the weather is more favorable. This may happen especially with inexperienced and excited first year nesters. Research has found that the basics in nest construction are primarily instinctive, but birds’ nesting skills improve through trial and error.

Other birds that migrate in to nest in Michigan usually begin nesting in May. Birds like House Wrens, Tree Swallows, Baltimore Orioles, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds come in hungry but get right down to business and begin nesting as soon as possible.

To help the birds you can keep your feeders clean and full of fresh seed. Stressed birds are susceptible to disease. Make sure your bird houses are ready for occupancy too.

Video of bird looking good: Starling changing over to yellow bill and losing his stars in anticipation of nesting season: https://youtu.be/HmG2DBQwCqk

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Introduction of squirrels to the neighborhood

January 21 is National Squirrel Appreciation Day and I was watching the squirrels acting squirrely in the yard today. January and February is when squirrels begin looking for mates. You'll see them zig zagging around the yard with the males following females and fighting with other males.

People tend to react to squirrels in one of two ways, either they see them as cute and entertaining, or they make it a lifelong quest to keep the critters out of their bird feeders. Songbirds and squirrels have similar tastes in food, so it’s no surprise that they are constant companions to backyard bird feeding.

You can blame urban planners for the introduction of squirrels into the neighborhood. It’s hard to imagine, but in the 1800’s squirrels were shy little woodland creatures that supplied meat for early settlers. Overhunting and clearcutting the land for development nearly decimated nesting populations.

Then as cities developed and people moved away from caring for farm animals, public green areas were developed. Numerous naturalists, zoo directors, educators, park designers, and poets persuaded the public of the squirrels' value as members of the urban community. Because squirrels appeared to be responsive to human charity, they held a special place in the community. And by the early twentieth century, Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) had become the most visible non-domesticated mammals in American cities. The arboreal rodents were protected, sheltered, and fed by the humans who treated them as public pets.

The urbanization of the squirrels in the United States between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was an ecological and cultural process that changed the squirrels' ways of life, altered the urban landscape, and adjusted human understandings of nature, the city, and the boundaries of community. Even the East Lansing black squirrels were introduced in the 1960s at the request of MSU President John A. Hannah to add character to the campus. They have now spread widely past the campus borders to bring their natural charm to your neighborhood (which I hear about daily).

Sources: 

The Urbanization of the Eastern Gray Squirrel in the U.S: http://jah.oxfordjournals.org

Black Squirrel History at MSU: http://goo.gl/k1H1p5

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How big is a squirrel’s brain?

You are what you eat. A squirrel’s brain is about the size of a walnut, one of their favorite foods! They can eat their own body weight (approximately 1.5 pounds) every week. Squirrels are mostly vegetarian but sometimes they do eat small insects.

To celebrate National Squirrel Appreciation Day on January 21, come in to the Wild Birds Unlimited - East Lansing store for some Wildlife Blend which is full of nuts and seeds the squirrels love.

I personally enjoy squirrel watching almost as much as bird watching. A 2010 study found that squirrels actually engage in deceptive, or paranoid, behavior. When squirrels are being watched by other squirrels or birds like jays, they’ll construct fake caches. They pretend to bury a nut, going through the whole act of digging a hole and patting it down while all the time concealing the nut in their armpit to hide elsewhere.

And research conducted at Princeton University's biology department discovered that squirrels are far from squirrelly when it comes to food. It was assumed previously that gray squirrels couldn’t remember where they buried their nuts. However the study revealed they were not only good at locating buried food by odor, they can also remember the individual locations of nuts they have buried personally.

The study suggests that squirrels bury food in a series of locations, near landmarks, that help them form a cognitive treasure map in their head. Squirrels will also often dig up and rebury food to determine whether the food stored is still good or perhaps to help refresh their memory. 

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Not Just for Birds: Wildlife Blend

To survive the winter months, squirrels stash pinecones, tree nuts, fruits, and berries that they can eat later. These clever creatures also eat mushrooms. They'll hang the fungi out to dry between tree branches so that it keeps better over the winter. Squirrels have an interesting adaptation that allows them to eat mushrooms containing deadly amanita-toxins with no ill effects.

A supplemental treat for them would be the Wild Birds Unlimited specially formulated Wildlife Blend. It's a blend of whole corn kernels, oil sunflower, peanuts in the shell, shelled peanuts and striped sunflower. This blend attracts a wide variety of bigger birds, as well as squirrels.

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American Goldfinch food

The American Goldfinch has a varied diet. Mainly a seed-eater, the birds have an abundant natural food supply for much of the year, including seeds of grasses, thistle, dandelion, ragweed, mullein, cosmos, goatsbeard, cone flowers, and sunflowers. At the feeders they prefer Nyjer® (thistle), or sunflower seeds.

People are always amazed that I recommend the Wild Birds Unlimited mesh feeder as my favorite choice. "How do they land on it to get the food out?" is frequently asked. Actually, mesh feeders imitate the natural flower seed heads. Goldfinches use their feet extensively bopping from flower heads to grass stalks, grasping delicately to extract seeds from plants swaying in the wind. In the spring the American Goldfinch feeds on the catkins hanging from birches and alders by pulling them up with their beak and using the toes to clamp them down on the branch. Their dexterity with their feet and bill, combined with low body weight, enables them to take advantage of food sources relatively inaccessible to some potential competitors.

Even though they lose their sunny color in the winter they still have a cheery call that sounds like, to me, they are saying Honey Bea. And they let you know when there is an impending storm by their frenzied manner at feeders. They are so small that they must put on a significant amount of weight before and during a storm to increase their chance of survival if they have to hunker down and can't make it back to a food source for a few hours.

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Photo Share: Winter Tufted Titmouse

Fun Facts About Tufted Titmice

Though the large, dark, fluid black eyes of titmice seem to be their defining characteristic, these birds exhibit a number of behaviors that make them unique.

• Tufted Titmice have an alarm call that seems to fade off into the distance, giving the impression that the bird is moving from one place to another. Birdwatchers and predators alike can be fooled into chasing this ghost call while the titmouse stays securely hidden out of sight.
• Tufted Titmice are one of just a few perching birds that can use their feet to hold seeds while they break them open.
• During the winter, Tufted Titmice forage together with chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and Brown Creepers.
• The Tufted Titmouse has been expanding its range northward since the 1940s and is now found almost to the Canadian border across most of its range. Speculation for the expansion suggests warming winter temperatures and the increase in mature woodland habitat.

Can Robins survive winter?

Some America Robins migrate but if you look at the range map you’ll see that there are winter populations of Robins in most states year round. Robins are surprisingly hardy birds, capable of surviving temperatures well below zero. But that doesn’t mean sightings are common.

After nesting season has ended, they usually form large nomadic groups that roost at night in the woods. Their diet changes from mostly worms and insects to fruit, nuts and berries. I’ve seen them devouring our crab apples, Mountain Ash tree berries, and sometimes under my feeders looking for nuts. They also appreciate open water in the winter. If you have a pond or heated birdbath they may show up for afternoon drinks.

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Frosty birds keep warm

Small birds face many challenges during the winter, including short days and long nights, tough weather conditions and food shortages, along with the risk of becoming a meal for hungry predators. In North America there may be some local movements in response to weather changes but House Sparrow populations do not migrate extensively. The hunker down in thick bushes and bird houses to wait out a storm.

Fortunately birds have many adaptations to stay warm in the winter. 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.

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.

 

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What a difference a day makes

After all the rain and wet weather we've experienced earlier, make sure your feeders are free of any mold, clean, and full of fresh seed. The switch from rain to snow is driving many more birds to the feeders in search of food.

Birds can detect subtle changes in air pressure, which can indicate an approaching storm and prepare. So if they think they are going to have to hunker down for awhile, birds must stuff themselves with high fat, high energy foods to get them through the period of inactivity. During storms birds may think of your feeder as a known source of food. While not dependent on feeders, birds don't feel like foraging for food in bad weather. Feeders make it easier for wild birds to brave a storm.

A seed blend with sunflower seeds and peanuts is great to offer year-round. It has a high calorie/ounce ratio due to its high fat and protein content. At Wild Birds Unlimited that would be our most popular WBU No-Mess Blend or WBU Choice blend.

Suet or seed blocks are also great foods to offer. Suet is a high energy, pure fat substance which is invaluable when birds need many more calories to keep their bodies running strong. I would recommend our peanut butter suet.

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Warm winter is bad news for the birds in the long run

For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it. Jacques-Yves Cousteau

In the short run a warm winter for the birds that live in Michigan year-round is a good thing. The birds have a lot of natural resources available and don’t visit the feeders for supplemental food as often. So what is the downside? Because resident birds are feasting now, when migratory birds return in early spring there will be little food left. Research released by the U.S. Geological Survey showed different weather patterns are changing migration habits and threatening hundreds of species.

Eric Waller, a research scientist for USGS and lead author of the study, wrote that birds rely on things like day length to determine when seasons are changing. But as climate change disrupts those cycles, while day length remains constant, birds get mixed signals to determine when to migrate. Buds, blooms, and bugs may all be devoured by local birds before migratory birds show up.

“Spring is arriving much earlier across most of North America, and there is important geographic variability to that change,” says Waller. “These migrating species may have trouble accommodating that variability and may suffer declines in food resources, fitness, survival, breeding success, and ultimately the population of the species.”

But while it will take massive international regulation to slow or stop climate change, there are a few things nature lovers can do to help out. You can create a bird friendly yard with plenty of food, water and shelter to make it a welcome habitat for resident birds and a “stopover site” for migratory birds to rest and recuperate.

Among the most popular reasons that people feed wild birds is that they want to help. With more weird weather predicted, feeding birds is one of the best ways to impact the world around you.

The simple act of putting out a bird feeder and keeping it clean and full can greatly improve the chances that birds and their offspring will survive. Many believe that birds only benefit from feeders during certain times of the year. However, birds actually have a year-round need for reliable, steady food sources. Click to download our Feeding Birds Makes a Difference infographic.

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What’s the difference in No-mess blends?

All of the No-mess Blends Wild Birds Unlimited East Lansing offers have sunflower seeds and peanut pieces without the shell as the first ingredients. Sunflower for all the seed eating birds like finches and peanuts to attract all the bug eating birds like chickadees. Peanuts have a high calorie/ounce ratio due to its high fat and protein content to attract a variety of interesting birds.

Our #1 selling Wild Birds Unlimited No-mess LM has a Little Millet (LM) added to attract additional ground feeding birds like buntings, juncos, sparrows, and doves. The hull is removed from the white proso millet so it can’t grow. It is 100% edible and because the shells are removed there is about twice as much seed in the bag. That means it should go down twice as slow in the feeders.

Wild Birds Unlimited’s No-Mess NM CD is sunflower seed with No-Messy shells, Calcium and Diced Peanuts. The chopped peanuts flow easily through any feeder and the calcium helps birds grow healthy feathers and produce strong eggs in the spring. Birds usually obtain calcium from mineral deposits in the dirt. Unfortunately, acid rain has leached calcium out of the soil making it harder for birds to get the required amount. This supplemental source of calcium is from finely ground and easily consumed oyster shells or limestone. This also gives them a source of grit, something else birds need to digest food.

Our Wild Birds Unlimited No-mess NM has a chopped-up Nutty Mix (NM) added to attract more of the woodland birds to the feeder. The blend has Tree nut pieces that include, but are not limited to, pecan, walnut, almond, hazelnut, cashew, pistachio, and Brazil nuts. Birds that would head for the peanuts and tree nuts are chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, jays, wrens, robins, bluebirds, warblers and more.

At Wild Birds Unlimited you will get the very freshest seed, blended regionally for your backyard birds, with no filler grains. Fillers such as milo, wheat and oats, are ingredients not preferred by most birds and are generally, left uneaten and found in a moldy pile on the ground or attract rodents. These fillers add bulk to the bag and lower the price, but they are undesired by the birds, and a waste of your money.

By offering your birds Wild Birds Unlimited bird food, you are providing the highest quality calories and making sure that every penny that you spend is going towards feeding the hungry friends outside your windows.

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