Wood Thrush Notes: Bird Bio: Indigo Bunting

Bird Bio: Indigo Bunting

The Indigo Bunting is one of the few species that can make our beloved Eastern Bluebird appear dull. Male Indigo Buntings fill our meadows and forest edges with their bright, almost cheerful song from April into early summer. Once you learn to identify their song, you’ll be shocked at just how common and wide-spread these stunning members of the Bunting family can be. Click here for a listen.

Male Indigo Bunting

Photo by Eli Haislip

Typically arriving in early to mid April, these neotropical migrants waste no time with males beginning to sing to establish their territories. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, young male Indigo Buntings will learn their songs from neighboring males. Indigo Buntings in different areas will have slight variations in song, while males that are in the same area, or “song neighborhood,” will have a nearly identical call.

Females alone construct the nests, building them low to the ground in dense vegetation. Nests consist of a woven cup of grasses, held together with spider silk with softer natural materials lining the interior of the cup. Eggs are white and plain, with some occasional brown spots. Incubation takes 11-14 days, while the nestling phase lasts as little as 8-14 days before the young fledge.

Indigo Buntings are neotropical migrants, meaning they will spend the winter in Central and South America, as far south as Colombia. A particularly interesting fact about Indigo Buntings is that they, like many other migratory birds, migrate at night. Research conducted during the 1960s using captive birds in planetariums showed that the birds are able to use the stars, in conjunction with their internal clocks, to aid in staying on course while migrating at night. (Yet another example of the term “bird brain” being laughably inaccurate, but I digress.) For those of you wanting to learn more about this in more scholarly terms than I am capable of, click here for an excellent article from Smithsonian covering Emlen’s study in thorough detail.

If all this has you wanting to see one of these dazzling birds, I have a few places I can recommend. Gossett Tract, the Harpeth River Greenway behind Ensworth, Bell’s Bend, and Hidden Lake State Park are some of the best places to spot them. Look for them perching on open tree limbs at the edge of fields and meadows, singing merrily.

We recommend having binoculars with you, as aside from the Eastern Bluebird, another blue bird shares this same habitat with the Buntings that from a distance looks similar. Blue Grosbeaks can be mistaken for Indigo Buntings, although a quick look through binoculars and the differences become obvious. Blue Grosbeaks are larger, with a chunkier bill, and brown on the wings. (An aside, take $25 off Nikon Monarch M5s and M7s for Father’s Day!) Let us know at the shop if you succeed in finding either of these blue beauties on your next hike, and happy birding!




Midweek Spotlight: Father's Day Specials

Father’s Day Specials

With Father’s Day this Sunday, we will be running several specials through Saturday, June 14th that we are excited to share with you!

Our popular outdoor solar towers will be 30% off while supplies last. Available in 24” and 36” sizes, these solar powered LEDs will illuminate automatically at dusk, and will stay illuminated upwards of 8 hours on a full charge. The patterns that are carved into the metal tower will cast the light onto the ground, making these an excellent piece of décor for stone, brick, or concrete patios, as well as wooden decks!

Normally $120 and $152; Now $84 and $107

What better to go with your nice new outdoor solar light than a waterfall with included illumination? Our Alpine Waterfall Fountains are now 30% off as well! These will add a nice ambiance to any outdoor setting. Don’t let the large box fool you, these are actually our lightest fountains, despite their size!

Normally $500; Now $350

A good pair of binoculars can make the difference between “that’s probably a bird” and seeing that ultra rare county first species. For Father’s Day, our Monarch M5 and M7 binoculars are $25 off! These are the nicest binoculars that we stock, and they rarely are on sale so don’t miss out!





Wood Thrush Notes: Ashland City Birding, Father's Day Gift Ideas

Morning Birding in Ashland City

This morning, while doing a little pre-work birdwatching at Ashland City’s Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail, my ears were assaulted by a harsh and raucous shrieking call that I have not heard for some time. Scanning the swampy area to my left that separates the greenway trail from the Cumberland River, I quickly spotted the culprit clinging high in the top of a dead tree… A Red-headed Woodpecker!

Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail

Photo by Eli Haislip

Not to be confused with the more common, feeder frequenting Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpeckers are arguably the most striking of the six woodpecker species we see in Tennessee. Stark black and white wings, with a white tail and breast, and a red head and neck are the giveaways for this beautiful bird. Last fall, we discussed these birds and how they have been turning up in new places, specifically Radnor Lake. While I have seen them before, this is my first sighting in Cheatham County. Seeing them here makes sense, though. The swampy marsh contains numerous dead trees, which provides them with ample nesting opportunities.

Father’s Day Gift Ideas

Not sure what to get for Dad? We’ve got you covered! While we have a broad assortment of different possible gifts, today, let’s just focus on a couple options… Gifting the father in your life the gift of being squirrel-proof!

While we currently have over a dozen squirrel-proof feeders, today let’s talk about a couple of our favorite models: The Brome SquirrelBuster Classic and SquirrelBuster Plus. These two feeders have consistently been the most popular of our squirrel proof feeders. The main difference between the two is the capacity. The Classic holds 2.4 pounds, whereas the Plus holds 5.2. This is convenient, especially in winter when the weather outside is unpleasant but the birds are still draining your feeders! Both feeders are also covered by Brome’s lifetime warranty. This means that if it gets broken or damaged by squirrels, we can repair it at no cost to you! Another benefit of these feeders is they actually work best when hanging from an eve or tree limb, so if he is new to bird feeding, you don’t also buy a pole as well!

What if Dad already has feeders and poles? Depending on the yard, a baffle can be an excellent solution to squirrel troubles. A baffle does require a few things to work effectively, first and foremost, 8-10 feet of separation of things a squirrel can jump from. It also must be mounted between 4-5 feet up on the pole, that way the squirrel cannot simply jump from the ground to above the baffle.

Not sure if you have the right setup for a baffle? Send us a picture of your current feeder placement and yard, and we will help you out! Also, as we tell folks almost daily, we make house calls. We WANT you to be squirrel-proof if that is what you desire!
































Midweek Spotlight: Last Days of the Campania Sale

Wood Thrush Notes: Last Chance for Campania Pre-Order Sale

Just a friendly reminder; if you were hoping to take advantage of our Campania Pre-Order Special, now is the time! The deadline is Friday, June 6th at 5:30 PM. After this, we will send them our order and it will be too late to capitalize on our sale. Campania is the maker of all of our cast stone statuary, bird baths, and fountains, and we typically are only able to order from them 2-3 times per year because of their large minimum order. For one of these orders, we always like to do our pre-order sale, and that’s what this is! It also gives folks a chance to browse through their catalogue and pick out what they like! To browse their full inventory, I will link to their website here.

While we would never tell you that the birds require running water, it IS more appealing to them than still water. Fountains are a great way to provide this. Another benefit to bird baths and fountains is the ability to attract birds that you would ordinarily not see at your feeders. Here is video from a customer’s yard of several Scarlett Tanagers visiting a Campania Andra birdbath!

The way our sale works is you browse through their products (the sale is not limited to fountains, ) and then let us know which you are interested in. The sale is 20% off any item over $150. Also, please try to pick an item with a weight under 400 pounds, as none of us are body builders! That being said, some items may have a heavy weight listed but come in a number of more manageable pieces so it’s always worth asking us!

Yellow-rumped Warbler in the Little Harpeth

Photography by Eli Haislip




Wood Thrush Notes: Convenient Local Birding, Feeding Suet in Warm Weather

Birding Location: The Nature Center

If you want a great location to relax, do some bird watching, and just enjoy some forest sounds and scenery, Edwin Warner Park’s Nature Center offers all of the above! Located just seven minutes from the shop, I decided that it would be a good spot to do a little bird watching on my drive home. Before I had even found a parking spot, I had already observed Purple Martins wheeling in the sky overhead, as well as a pair of Eastern Bluebirds sitting on the fence.

One of the fun things to observe at the Nature Center this time of year is their active colony of Purple Martins. These large members of the swallow family begin to arrive in late February and early March. They catch all their food on the wing, and they also get their water in this method, flying low to scoop water with their lower beak. After watching these beautiful aerial acrobats, I moved on in search of shade and other birds.

In addition to more Eastern Bluebirds, I also observed a few Barn Swallows, flying low over the overgrown sections of field in search of insects. Barn Swallows are in the same family as Purple Martins, and there is a good chance you might have seen these long distance migrants. They are the most wide-spread species of any swallow, with them being dispersed throughout North and South America, Europe and Africa, Asia and northern Australia, and occasional migrants even turning up in Antarctica. Their most identifiable characteristic is their deeply forked tail and almost showboating level of acrobatics.

In the same field, I also observed a small flock of American Goldfinch, a Carolina Wren, two Brown-headed Cowbirds, and by ear I was able to pick out a male Indigo Bunting. With all the recent rain, I had forgotten how bright the Sun is so I decided to take the gravel path that follows the creek through the forest. While I did not spot any birds here, I did hear several Wood Thrush (my favorite!) calling back and forth. It is worth adding; this entire loop is level and would be a relatively easy walk for many people. If you aren’t able however, or, perhaps you just want to take a load off, the Nature Center has you covered. They have a tremendous number of hummingbirds visiting their feeders in the garden area, and these can be watched from the comfort and shade of their covered porch. As we get later into the summer and into peak feeding time for hummers, they literally have dozens of hummingbirds.

The Nature Center also has seed feeding stations you can watch! If you happen to live in a location where bird feeding is not allowed, this is a great spot to get your bird feeding fix. It’s all the relaxing benefits, with none of the effort!

Should You Continue Feeding Suet?

With the warmer days, we have frequently been asked if it is time to stop feeding suet. The answer to this is an emphatic no! All of us here feed suet year round, and it is an especially popular food source in the spring and early summer when birds are raising young. Some of you may have concerns over it melting in the heat; while this is not usually a problem until it gets much warmer, (think summer days when it is in the 90s) we have a solution for this as well! Our suet dough is specifically designed for feeding in hot temperatures. It has a higher melting point, meaning that you can continue feeding suet even in the dog days of summer. It comes in two flavors, Peanut Butter and Orange, and costs the same as their non-dough counterparts.