The Birds of Autumn on Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Autumn is the time to say “hello” to birds that migrate to the Pacific Northwest in search of seeds and soft ground for probing.

Autumn signals time to say “goodbye” to many fascinating birds that migrate to warmer climates.  Gone until spring are Rufous Hummingbirds, Vaux Swifts, Barn, Violet Green and Tree Swallows, and many American Robins.  They’ve migrated south because the supply of nectar and insects diminishes in a Pacific Northwest winter.

But autumn is also a time to say “hello” to birds that migrate to the Pacific Northwest in search of seeds and soft ground for probing.  Coming to our region for the cold months are members of the sparrow family-- interesting birds like White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows and Slate-Colored “Oregon” Juncos. We also welcome Spotted Towhees, Varied Thrushes, and Pine Siskins, as these birds return from breeding grounds at higher elevations.  As numbers of insects dwindle, Bushtits frequent our suet feeders.

How to recognize our newly arriving guests?

For the members of the sparrow family, watch the ground!  Sparrows, juncos, towhees and thrushes all feed on or near the ground much of the time.  They will all eat grass seed, which is why millet is a good food to offer them. 

* White-crowned Sparrows are 6-1/2 to 7-1/2” long, have a clear grayish breast and puffy crown striped with black and white. 
* Golden-crowned Sparrows are similar to White-crowned Sparrows, but without the head stripes.  Instead the sport a dull yellow central crown stripe. 
* Spotted Towhees are smaller and more slender than a Robin, and is usually on the ground rummaging among the dead leaves.  The male’s head and chest are black with white spots, its sides robin-red, its belly white, its eyes red.  The female is similar, but more brown than black. 
* Varied Thrushes are similar (and related) to the American Robin, but with an orage eyestripe, orange wing bars, and a wide black (male) or gray (female) band across the rusty breast.

Autumn Bird Feeding Tips:

Fall is an excellent time of the year to “open the restaurant” to your feathered friends. Most songbirds’ diets are heavy on insects and spiders during spring and summer.  Insects are highly nutritious, abundant, and easily captured in those months.  During fall and winter, however, non-migratory songbirds must eat fruits and seeds instead, because insects become much less abundant.

What should be on the menu? 

Like Hamburgers and Vanilla Ice Cream: Like some foods that virtually all Americans are willing to eat, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds are the “old standbys” that virtually all seed-eating birds enjoy.  These seeds have a high meat-to-shell ratio, and they’re nutritious and high in fat.  Their relatively small size enables even small birds like chickadees and nuthatches to handle and crack them.  Cornell Lab of Ornithology and other experts confirm that black oil sunflower seed is the favorite of the majority of birds that visit a feeder.

Specialties:  The table on this page is based on studies conducted by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  It shows, by bird species, seeds that are both preferred and readily eaten.  Dried, whole-kernel corn is a favorite food for jays, pigeons, doves, quail and pheasants.  Cracked corn, is liked by blackbirds, finches and sparrows.  White proso millet is eaten by sparrows, blackbirds, pigeons and doves.  Niger, or “thistle”, is a sterilized relative of thistle seed that is loved by goldfinches and pine siskins.  Peanuts are another food that many backyard birds will eat.

High Energy Foods: As the weather gets colder, insect-eating birds like chickadees, woodpeckers and nuthatches really go for suet or peanut butter.  Suet is beef fat, and since plain beef suet becomes rancid fairly quickly, many of our customers select from a wide variety of suet cakes available at Backyard Bird Shop.  The suet cakes we sell have suet which has been “rendered” (the impurities have been boiled away) and mixed with either seed, fruit, or even insect larvae, to add to the overall nutritional value of the bird food.  To feed peanut butter, mix it with corn meal or oatmeal to make it easier to handle, and insert into peanut butter feeder holes, or spread on tree trunks or branches. 

Fruit Lovers: Birds who eat very few, or no, seeds, like American Robins, thrushes, bluebirds and waxwings , are often interested in fruits like raisins or currants which have been soaked in warm water until soft.  Tanagers, orioles and robins come to fresh fruit.  Backyard Bird Shop offers “fruit feeders” that allow you to either place the fruit inside a wire basket, or impale it on a skewer, to make it easier to offer to backyard birds.

How to Serve: The least wasteful method of feeding a variety of seeds is truly to offer one seed per feeder.  In fact, if you fill a feeder with a seed mix, you’re likely to observe many birds kicking out the smaller seeds to get to the prized sunflower seeds!