Backyard Birding

Backyard birding is an extension of field birding, hence you will still need the basic equipment of binoculars and a field guide, but backyard birding is also oriented to attracting birds – by offering food, water, shelter, and housing in your yard, school yard, or business property.

More than 50 million Americans feed birds, so if you are not 1 in 5, join the fun. If you are already feeding birds, we offer a wealth of information about the ways you can attract birds and help them to prosper in your yard, and at school, work, and community centers.

Bird Feeding*
The key to feeding birds is knowing what birds will be attracted when you offer certain foods. If you want to attract certain birds, you must offer their preferred foods. Conversely, if you want to omit some birds from your feeding station, don’t offer the foods they prefer.

When we think about feeding birds, most people think about offering seeds, although nectar attracts hummingbirds and orioles; corn and peanuts attract jays, quail, and pheasants; fruit attracts tanagers, grosbeaks, and orioles; meal worms attract warblers and bluebirds; and suet attracts woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, and others.

There is even something of an art to offering the right seeds to attract certain birds. Thistle seed attracts finches, crossbills, chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, and others; black-oil sunflowers attracts cardinals, grosbeaks, and a multitude of other species; but limiting your seed feeding to these seeds to discourage unwanted birds such as introduced House Sparrows, Rock Doves, and European Starlings. One of the keys to seed feeding success is to avoid typical grocery store seed mixes, which have a high ratio of cheap filler seeds that introduced species prefer. Stick to thistle and sunflower seeds, and you will have the best luck.

For more information about what foods attract which birds, refer to the following bird food table, to attract just the specific birds you want to see at your feeders.

Feeders
The feeders you use will also help or deter certain birds – and squirrels. A tube feeder for thistle seeds will provide excellent perches for smaller birds, while keeping larger birds such as blackbirds, grackles, and jays from perching – and competing or excluding smaller birds. You will need a specialized feeder to offer sugar-water nectar for hummingbirds, and while orioles will feed from a hummingbird nectar feeder, there are now specialized oriole feeders available, complete with a special oriole-orange nectar mix. Suet is best dispensed in a suet cage that birds can readily hang on, while the old reliable platform and hopper feeders are standards for dispensing sunflower seeds. The following feeder table is an excellent guide for using the right feeder for specific foods:

Where you position feeders is important for your enjoyment of the birds you attract. First, you should understand that birds are opportunists, and will search for food until they find it. They do not rely on you for food; they merely use what is easy and abundant. Hence, you are feeding birds to attract them, not to save them. Understanding this, the true interest in attracting birds is to enjoy them close at hand, so position your feeders where you can easily see them, near a window where you enjoy sitting, where you work, where you cook, or where you read or watch television.

Don’t hesitate to position your feeder within a couple feet of a window, for this is actually better than if the feeder is located a distance away from the window. By positioning a feeder close to the window, any bird that flushes from the feeder will not harm itself if it hits the window, lacking the inertia. If, however, a bird has a longer distance from which to gain speed after leaving a feeder, it may be fatally injured upon impact with a window. By positioning a feeder close to the window, you will also be rewarded with up-close and personal looks at the birds that feed there. Some models of feeders even attach directly to a window with suction cups or a hanger.

Be sure to keep your feeders and the area surrounding your feeders clean, for the sake of the birds, as well as your family and neighbors. Also, be aware of cats in the area; don’t allow your bird feeding station to become a cat feeding station!

Experienced birders know that you should not limit your feeding operations to winter months. Feeding birds is all-season endeavor, but the foods you offer will depend on the season of the year and the kinds of birds in your area during that season, especially in northern latitudes. Feeding during migration is especially exciting, and spring or fall may be the only times certain birds stop at your feeders.

Summer feeding is good, too, although many birds switch from seeds and suet to insects during summer. However, what you may lack in numbers of birds, you will get quality visits from a greater variety of interesting species. Then too, add fruit, berries, and meal worms to the menu you offer, and you will be duly rewarded.

Watering*
If you are looking for a catch-all way of attracting birds with little muss or fuss, just offer fresh water in a simple dish. All birds are attracted to water, both for drinking and bathing, and many birds that do not visit feeding stations – such as robins, mockingbirds, vireos, and warblers – will lavish in the opportunity to drink or bathe in a water dish, birdbath, fountain, or water feature.

To ensure that birds find your source of water, consider adding a dripper or mister. A dripper adds the sound of water drops into a dish of water, a sound that many migrating songbirds gravitate to when they might otherwise miss the water source. A mister provides a fine spray into the air above, filtering down to the water feature, making an irresistible lure for hummingbirds, warblers, chickadees, swallows, and other birds.

A small fountain would take this a step farther, while adding an artistic feature to your yard or business property. To test the attraction of a fountain, just try turning on a small sprinkler in your yard on a hot, dry day and watch the feathered action! You will soon be convinced of the considerable attraction of spraying water for birds.

Water features come in a variety of forms to add natural or artistic elements to landscaping. At the same time water features provide water for birds and other wildlife. Water features can take the form of a pond, waterfall, stream, fountain, or a combination of these features. Just imagine a rocky ledge with a small waterfall fueling a plant-lined stream that flows a few feet into a small pond. What a great addition to your yard, and what an fine way to attract birds. Or consider a small fountain in a corner of your yard that bubbles and gurgles a flow of water over a simulated Renaissance sculpture as it flows into a basin below where birds can utilize the water. Water features can be a fun part of your home or office landscaping, or they can be the centerpiece for the area.

Even during cold weather, when temperatures dip below freezing, you can add a small heater to your water dish or water feature to keep open water available. You will need to use a heat-tempered dish or a ceramic or cement bowl, and be very careful to address any electricity-related precautions to ensure safety for you, neighborhood children, and birds.

Cavity Nest Sites*
Nest boxes, also known as bird houses, provide artificial cavities for cavity-nesting birds. With 88 different cavity-nesting species in North America, ranging from House Wrens to Barred Owls, you need to provide the right size of nest box for the birds you want to attract. And the right size is most relevant to the size of the entrance hole in the nest box. The idea is to provide the smallest possible nest box entry hole to allow the intended birds in, while keeping predators and introduced competitors out.

The key to attracting birds to nest boxes is to 1) provide a nest box with the right dimensions, and 2) installing it in the right kind of habitat. For instance, wrens prefer thickets, Prothonotary Warblers prefer swamps, and bluebirds prefer “edge” habitat with open woods and expanses of meadows. For optimum nest box dimensions and preferred habitats for cavity-nesting birds, refer to the following table:

Entry = entrance hole diameter; Floor = size of floor; Height = height of nest box sides; Habitat = species’ preferred habitat to install nest box; Position = installation height above ground; top of nest box should be same size as floor, but longer on the side with the entrance hole to provide some shade and protection from rain. Dimensions listed are not absolute; swallows will nest in bluebird nest boxes, as will chickadees, etc.

Some larger birds also nest in cavities, including Wood Ducks, Buffleheads, American Kestrels, and Barred Owls. Of course, these larger species require appreciably larger nest boxes, and while some species prefer open areas, others prefer woodland habitat or wooded wetlands. For optimum nest box dimensions and habitat for larger cavity-nesting birds, refer to the following table:

(entrance hole should be 4” above floor)

The dimensions listed above are not absolute; you may find a screech owl or Hooded Merganser nesting in a Wood Duck nest box, and you can expect American Kestrels to use that nest box if installed in open country.

Where do you find nest boxes with these dimensions? Some of the standard nest boxes for bluebirds and wrens, and even for Wood Ducks, may be available at a wild bird store or garden store. Part of the fun of providing nest boxes for many people is to build them yourself in your garage or work room. Nest boxes are relatively easy and inexpensive to build; and it’s fun to share the experience with children at a birding event, school or church activity, or a scout meeting.

Three tips: 1) It’s best not to paint, stain, or varnish nest boxes. Leave them au natural to ensure the good health of the nestlings raised inside. 2) You should also omit a perch in front of the nesting hole. Cavity-nesting birds habitually cling to an entry hole, and a perch provides an advantage to predators or introduced competitors. 3) It is best to install nest boxes on a post that has a metal predator baffle attached below the nest box. This is a wide metal circle that prevents raccoons, snakes, mink, and other predators from accessing the nest box.

Some people become so enthralled with providing nest boxes for birds that they set up extensive nest box trails. They install nest boxes along fence lines, on woodland edges, and along wetland borders; they keep accurate records of the birds that use each nest box, including nesting success, dates and numbers of eggs, number of nestlings, date of fledging, and other pertinent data.

Purple Martins provide a unique opportunity to offer colonial housing, for these birds prefer to nest in close proximity. Most martin houses resemble miniature apartment complexes, but some people prefer to provide traditional hollowed gourds hung from a stand or tree branches to attract nesting martins.

The bad guys – introduced European Starlings and House Sparrows – are fierce competitors for nesting cavities, often usurping native birds from cavities and even destroying native cavity nesters’ eggs or nestlings. One requirement of providing nest boxes is to ensure that these birds do not take over nest boxes, either by providing entrance hole that keep these competitors out, or by physically removing them and their nesting materials. It’s one of the times a backyard birder must be tough, and act on behalf of native birds. If you allow starlings or sparrows to nest in a box, you are adding a competitive edge to these birds. Overall it’s best not to provide a nest box than to provide one for the species that compete fiercely with native cavity-nesting birds.

Other Nesting Structures
Of course, not all birds nest in cavities, so an option to attract robins and phoebes is to offer a shelf, simply two pieces of wood nailed at 90 degree angles and placed in an elevated, shaded, predator-proof location.

Another housing option, on a grand scale, is to build a platform for nesting Ospreys. These large birds of prey will readily build their bulky stick nests on 4-foot-wide square platforms attached to the top of a 15-foot-tall pole. Installing the pole near a lake, river or beach is the tricky part, as it will require anchoring the pole several feet deep to stabilize it to resist the effects of high winds.

After a pair of Ospreys has used a nesting platform, a pair of Great Horned Owls may use the nest. (Owls do not build their own nests, and Great Horned Owls usually use the nests of Ospreys and hawks.) Or you can prepare a platform expressly for Great Horned Owls by building a nest of twigs that are anchored to the platform by a couple loops of wire to hold them in place. Good luck.

Landscaping*
Landscaping for birds is a great way to combine 2 of Americas most popular outdoor activities –birding and gardening. A yard of mowed grass attracts few birds, unless bordered by an area of trees, shrubs, and flowers. To attract birds to your yard, you should landscape with the aim to provide shelter, food (flower nectar, berries, fruits, nuts, insects), water, nesting habitat, and nest sites.

If you are tired of a monotypic blue-grass lawn, start planning a backyard habitat with a mixture of landscaping elements that will offer perches in the form of branches and rocks, a mix of sun and shade provided by some well-placed trees, a tangle of shrubs and vines to attract wrens, cardinals, and other underbrush specialists, and a nice mix of flowering plants that will attract hummingbirds (especially tubular red flowers), and all these plants will attract some of the small insects that hummingbirds, warblers, flycatchers, and other species rely on.

Trees are attractive to birds in many ways, and one unique way that birders add to their landscaping is to “plant” a dead tree stump to attract cavity-nesting birds, woodpeckers, nuthatches, creepers, and other species that feed on the insects and insect larvae that inhabit such snags, or excavate cavities in them for nesting or winter roosts. This may seem like a whacky idea at first, but you will be amazed at how adding an attractive-looking snag to your yard can add to its design, as well as serve as an attraction to certain birds.

You will soon find that providing a landscaped habitat for birds also provides a pleasing habitat for you and your family. Then too, when you’ve completed your yard, you can initiate landscaping for birds at work and at school, enlisting the assistance of interested co-workers and students and their parents. The more micro-habitats we have in urban and rural areas, the greater the benefit to birds, especially the migrating neotropical songbirds that have had so much of their natural habitat destroyed or degraded due to urbanization, de-forestation, and other developments. Bet you never thought of landscaping your yard as a bona fide conservation project?

* Each of the above elements can be incorporated into a yard, school yard, and business property, parks, nature centers, and other public areas (courthouses, convention and visitors bureaus, fire stations, police stations, courtyards, etc.). Certain businesses, including motels, hotels, bed and breakfasts, and restaurants, can attract people by using some or all of these elements outside their windows; businesses have seen amazing results when they have added feeders and water features, nest boxes, and enhanced landscaping to attract birds and new customers.