Fall slow down at feeders

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Many of you have already noticed a slow down at your feeders.  Sometimes it can be abrupt and dramatic.  You may even notice some species become practically non-existent.  Bird feeders in September and October are typically very quiet. This is surprising to some but actually normal and understandable.  With the conclusion of the breeding season birds are now in less need of a quick, easy food source... your feeders.  While raising their young during the months of March through July birds expend tremendous amounts of energy and will take great advantage of backyard feeders.  We sell more seed and suet during those months than we do in winter. 

Now young birds are independent and the lives of adult birds are at a much more leisurely pace.  On top of that nature is producing an abundance of food at this time.  Not only are insects still plentiful but every tree, shrub, weed, and wildflower has produced seeds, nuts, and fruit.  There is literally food for birds everywhere.  It is a great example of the fact that birds do not rely on our feeders but simply take advantage of them in times of more demand for food.  So, don’t worry that you are not seeing many birds around the feeders right now.  It is totally normal. About the time we get the first frost or two, you will begin to see a return of your favorite birds to feeders.  I don’t know about you but a good frost sounds good right about now. 

And you will begin to see our winter visitors, like Junco’s, White-throated sparrows, Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, Kinglets, and hopefully, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Keep this in mind while you are buying your seed next time.  It’s advisable to buy smaller quantities until birds begin visiting with more frequency in November.  Remember, the more seed you end up storing in a container over the next two months the more chance there is of having a bug hatch.   

And while birds take a break from your feeders take time to give your feeders a thorough cleaning.  Warm soapy water, a brush, and a little effort are well worth the effort to provide a clean, healthy feeding environment for the birds. 

Disassemble your feeder if possible and soak it warm soapy water. Use brushes to clean caked on debris.

Store update: Item are still available on our 50% off table. Also all remaining mailbox covers, flags, and door mats are 50% off to make room for new fall and winter designs.

Happy Labor Day weekend!

We hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day weekend. If you need bird feeding supplies don’t forget to stop by on Friday or Saturday. The Wood Thrush Shop will be closed Monday September 3rd. We will re-open on the 4th at normal hours.

Things are starting to slow down a bit at seed feeders, so I thought it would be a good time to revisit some old blog posts that are still very relevant for this time of year with the upcoming fall migration.  Click on the linked title of each blog post to see the entire post.

Peak time for Hummingbirds: As many of you are aware the Hummingbird activity has geared up quite a bit since mid-August. Click here to read our blog post detailing all the reasons we see so many of these little birds this time of year.

Hummingbird Happy Hour: Don’t forget there is still time to purchase tickets to the Hummingbird Happy Hour at The Warner Park Nature Center on September 7th. Proceeds from ticket and art sales will support the Bird Information, Research and Data (B.I.R.D) programs. Click Here for more info.

Drippers, Misters and Moving Water: This time of year water can be scarce. Having a clean fresh birdbath is a great way to attract birds. Click here to check out this blog post all about adding moving water to your birdbath or backyard water source.

Bird Bio: Chimney Swifts & Common Nighthawks: Soon if not already we will start seeing signs of fall migration and what better blog post to revisit than the bird bio on Chimney Swifts and Common Nighthawks. Click here to read our bird bio

Late Summer and Fall Butterflies

For the backyard birder the next couple of months will be a little on the dull side in regards to wild birds.  The breeding season is over, with the exception of some final Bluebird nests, and the usual cast of bird characters will typically become a little less busy at the feeders, at least until the end of October.  Fall migration, of course, will provide opportunities to see all the neo-tropical migrants heading back to Central and South America.  Hopefully, hummingbirds have picked up their pace at your feeders and are providing their unique “aggressive” style of entertainment.   Remember to keep nectar fresh and to clean feeders regularly.  There is no particular time to take your hummingbird feeders down.  It is not true hummingbirds will not migrate if feeders are still available. 

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

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Pipevine Swallowtail

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Monarch

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Black Swallowtail

Now is a great time to turn some of your attention and interest to butterflies and late-summer and fall wildflowers.  My yard has been very busy with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Pipevine, Spicebush, and Black Swallowtail.  And most summers I get to see Giant Swallowtail and Zebra Swallowtail.  It’s so easy to get a good look at these butterflies because they are so intent on getting nectar from flowers they seem to barely notice your presence. Other common yard butterflies include: Red spotted Purple, various Frittalary’s, Sulphur’s, Skipper’s, and of course Monarch’s. 

Spicebush Swallowtail

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Gulf Fritillary

And when the fall wildflowers are at their peak one can spend hours observing and identifying the plants and the butterflies at the same time.  Some of the areas I frequent are loaded with Ironweed, a tall (up to 10”), stalky plant that has clusters of intensely purple flowers, and Tickweed with its yellow flowers, and the several varieties of Sunflowers.  The purples and yellows and all the greenery make for quite a show and the butterflies can’t get enough of it. 

Both subjects are challenging so a really good field guide is needed to help one get started. The definitive guides to wildflowers of TN, “Wildflowers of Tennessee the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians”by Horn, Cathcart and butterflies, “Butterflies of Tennessee” by Rita Venable are available here at the store. To help you get started we are offering 20% off both of these fantastic field guides.  There has been a lot of buzz over the return of the wildflowers book so if we run out of our first order we will promptly re-order and honor the sale price. 

Friday the 10th through Thursday the 15th both books are 20% Off. 

Miscellaneous Bird News

Once in a while as I am considering subjects to write about for our blog I run out of inspiration.  So, this week I’ve decided to try something different and touch on a number of “odds and ends”.  A mixed bag if you will of current bird issues to ornithological vocabulary. 

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Finches with Eye Disease

We’ve been seeing some evidence of House Finches with an eye disease known as Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, or House Finch eye disease.  And just yesterday a customer inquired about a bird that seemed sick.  It did not move away as she approached, as if it was not really aware of her presence.  The bird turned out to be a sick House Finch.  We had one behind the store the other day that was afflicted with the disease.  We hear reports and see evidence of this every year that range from sparse to wide-spread.  
Birds infected with House Finch eye disease have red, swollen, runny, or crusty eyes. In extreme cases the eyes become swollen shut and the bird becomes blind. House Finch eye disease is caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum. This bacterium has long been known as a pathogen of domestic turkeys and chickens, but it has been observed in House Finches since 1994. The disease has affected several other species, including American Goldfinch, Evening Grosbeak, and Purple Finch
You might observe an infected bird sitting quietly in your yard, clumsily scratching an eye against its foot or a perch. While some infected birds recover, many die from starvation, exposure, or predation. If you’re a songbird it’s impossible to survive if you can’t see.
When birds are concentrated in a small area like at a birdfeeder the risk of a disease spreading within that population increases.

What To Do
If you detect a sick finch at your feeders the standard procedure is to take down your feeders for a few days to a week and give them a very thorough cleaning.  Cleaning your feeders is always a good idea and is recommended it be done on a regular basis.  Clorox wipes are very handy to give your feeder a quick clean particularly around the feeding ports.

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Altricial vs Precocial

Almost all of us have seen baby songbirds in a nest.  We know they are completely dependent on the adults to keep them warm as they are featherless for the first few days and to bring them food while in the nest developing.  They are completely helpless and mostly immobile.  And the adults continue to feed them for weeks even after they have fledged. This is referred to as altricial.  Altricial birds include herons, hawks, owls, and most songbirds.
Precocial means young are capable of a high degree of independent activity immediately after hatching. Precocial young typically can move about, have their eyes open and will be covered in down at hatching. They are generally able to walk away from the nest as soon as they have dried off.  They will also begin searching for their own food. Examples of precocial birds include most duck species, Wild Turkey, Quail, Killdeer and Canada geese.

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Have you seen them?  I’ve seen several in the past few weeks.  I’m referring to bald cardinals.

In mid to late summer it’s not uncommon to see Northern Cardinals, and sometimes, Blue jays, completely void of head feathers.  This odd appearance can sometimes be attributed to the summer molt, or more likely from feather mites. 
Most bald-headed-bird reports occur in summer and fall, which are typical molting times. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology many of these strange-looking birds may be juveniles undergoing their first pre-basic molt, which produces the first winter adult plumage. For some unknown reason, the bald birds may have dropped all of their head feathers at once. Staggered feather loss and replacement is the normal pattern.
It is possible that the baldness is caused by feather mites, or lice. A mite infection is the likely explanation for the loss of head feathers only.  After all, the head is the one place a bird would not be able to preen effectively to control mites.    Feather mites are tiny arthropods, whose feeding destroys feather shafts.  This is not a condition the affected bird will not recover from.
But why does it seem to affect primarily Cardinals and Blue jays?  Do other songbirds have effective methods of removing these parasites from their heads?  We’re just not sure.

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Interesting Behaviors of Birds

Wood Thrush Shop employee, Eli Haislip, recently photographed an adult Red-bellied woodpecker feeding a juvenile Northern Flicker.  Over the course of a few days he witnessed the Flicker following the Red-bellied woodpecker and begging for food.  So, is this an example of hybridization, where two different but compatible species mate, or an example of a Flicker laying an egg in the Red-bellied’s nest?  I looked for information regarding hybridization among songbirds and there are examples ranging from rare to common.  Some examples of common hybridization include Baltimore and Bullock’s Oriole and Indigo Bunting and Lazuli Bunting.  Examples of rare hybridization include Blue jay and Stellar’s jay and Eastern Bluebird and Mountain Bluebird. This juvenile seems to possess all the field marks of a Northern Flicker and none of the Red-bellied woodpecker but we may just have to settle for uncertainty.

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Adaptable Bluebirds

I’ve always tried to point out to people that Eastern Bluebirds are not nearly as choosy about nest-sites as they have been portrayed.  If Bluebirds really needed such specifics in the location of a nest-site they probably would have been extinct by now.  And there’s nothing natural about a birdhouse but they, as well as other species, have adapted to using them because they “represent” something they would find in nature.  I have seen Bluebird nests in large horizontal pipes, a hole in a basketball goal pole, and even in a stack of cement foundation blocks.  But a new one was presented to me by a customer recently.  A pair of Bluebirds used the abandoned nest of a Robin, Phoebe, or Barn Swallow.  It was hard to see detail in the picture but the nest was built of mud and plant material on a ledge against the wall of the house under an eve.  The Bluebirds raised an undetermined number of young in this nest.  

The Hummingbird Wave is Coming

Soon hummingbirds will ramp up their interest in feeders and the action will be fast and furious.  August through mid-September is peak time for us to see hummingbirds at feeders.  Based on frequently asked questions at the store there's a lot of confusion surrounding Ruby-throated hummingbirds and the first few months they are here.  It is true Ruby-throated hummingbirds begin migrating through and into TN as early as mid-March.  This year the first reported sighting by a customer was March 30.  My first sighting was April 6th.  By the way, I've recorded first of spring (FOS) hummingbird sightings for over 20 years and it's always between April 3 and April 12.  And the first has always been an adult male. 

Occasionally we here a customer say "I have all kinds of different hummingbirds" when in fact they really only have one kind, the Ruby-throated hummingbird.  Only the adult male has the bright red throat while both sexes have an iridescent green back.  Adult females and juvenile's look very much alike but will vary somewhat in plumage.    

Although all Tennessee summer resident hummingbirds are here by mid-May, most people will see very little of them, and activity at feeders will be infrequent and minimal until at least early to mid-July when there is a sudden surge.

It is thought by many the reason for this sudden surge is they have just "come back" from where they've been.   Actually, it is that the summer resident hummingbirds have concluded raising one or even two broods of offspring and are ready to begin taking advantage of the free nectar in the feeders you've provided. Also, the added activity is indicative of recently fledged hummingbirds beginning to understand and visit feeders.  Then as we move into August hummingbirds that have been north of us, as far as Canada, will begin their migration south and stop at feeders along the way.  

It must be remembered hummingbirds don't travel all the way from central and south America because there are hummingbird feeders here.  They DO NOT NEED the feeders but will take advantage of them when they are ready.  Hummingbirds have been migrating here for thousands of years to breed and to take advantage of the abundance of insects, which is their primary food source.  They would come here even if hummingbird feeders did not exist.

Since hummingbirds feed on small insects there is an alternative to offering only nectar. Try placing some fruit in a mesh sack or container with holes, and hang it near your hummingbird feeder.  The fruit will draw fruit flies which the hummingbirds will readily devour.  It is quite interesting to see a hummingbird dart its specialized tongue out to snag the flies. Last year we introduced a new feeder called the Humm-Bug that is designed to hold fruit and draw fruit flies.  

Aspects high view Hummingbird feeders are some of our favorite feeders. They are easy to clean, fill, and come with a built in ant moat. The high view refers to the new perch design which is raised up compared to older models. This helps keep the feeder from obscuring the bird while perching.

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Hummzinger high view excel holds 16oz and has 6 ports.

Hummzinger high view feeders come in three different sizes. 8oz, 12oz, and 16oz.

Humzinger high view mini holds 8oz and has three ports.

Humzinger high view holds 12oz and has four ports.

Hummingbird Nectar

A question frequently asked at The Wood Thrush Shop is “what nectar is best for hummingbirds”? 

The best nectar you can offer hummingbirds is a simple 1 part sugar to 4 parts water solution.  It is not necessary for the water to be brought to a boil before adding sugar.  The nectar is ready after the sugar has been stirred in and fully dissolved.  Do not add color. Color is absolutely unnecessary and potentially harmful. When hummingbird feeding activity is slow, like it tends to be in early spring to mid-summer, make small amounts and avoid refrigerating large quantities.  Think in terms of making fresh nectar each week in small amounts until feeding activity becomes vigorous, like it does in the latter summer months.  This is when it makes sense to make larger batches and refrigerate extra nectar.  Remember, nectar in the feeder is only good for about 3 days in summer heat.  Fill your feeder according to the activity level and you will waste less nectar and reduce your maintenance on the feeder.  The peak time for hummingbird feeding activity typically starts mid-July and lasts through September, and even into October.

So, if you’ve been disappointed and concerned because you haven’t seen much of hummingbirds now is the time to make sure your feeders are clean and the nectar is fresh.  It’s going to get very busy!

Hummingbird Myths

Hummingbirds have "scouts".  Not really sure how this got started but likely because people would see an early arrival and then other hummers would eventually follow.  There is no way an adult male Ruby-throated hummingbird would actively help or encourage others to share "his" territory.  Everyone sees how territorial they are as they fight for the rights to a feeder.  It is believed an adult male can and will defend a territory of up to an acre.

Hummingbirds and Geese.  I haven't heard this one in a long time so hopefully it has gone away for good.  It was believed by some that hummingbirds would ride on the backs of larger birds, specifically geese, during migration.  This does not occur. 

Feeders must be taken down in the fall.  We still hear this one quite often.  People believe that hummingbirds will not migrate in the fall if feeders are left out.  Not so.  It is in their DNA to migrate.  Again, hummingbirds do not NEED sugar water, so why would an artificial food source keep them here?  If we had to take away all food sources to make them migrate we would also have to eliminate all of the various insects they feed on.