Songbird safety: hawks

Do your songbirds suddenly vanish? There may be a hawk nearby. 

The most common backyard hawks are the Cooper's and Sharp-shinned. Perhaps it is disheartening to see a songbird fall victim to a hawk, but hawks are part of nature's cycle. Hawks do not kill more than they need to survive. Many birds they catch are old, weak or injured, which leaves the remaining flock stronger.

To keep songbirds safer from hawks, provide protection in dense trees, shrubs and brush piles within 10 feet of feeders (assuming, of course, that you don't have outdoor cats in your yard). If a hawk stations itself nearby, remove feeders for a week or so and the hawk will move on to other hunting grounds. 

You can also use a feeder that has a cage around it to protect the perches and feeding ports.

Objects are closer than they appear ...

New Product: Lantern-style Bird Bath and Waterer

Lantern Bird Bath and Waterer

You may have seen First Nature’s globelike Bird Bath and Waterers in our store. We’ve begun carrying a new design from First Nature—one styled to look like an old-fashioned lantern. Both designs feature a durable water reservoir that holds up to 100 ounces of water for gradual release into four separate drinking pools on demand. 

The Lantern Waterer, just as the earlier Globe Waterer, relies on the vacuum principle. You unscrew the base from the transparent dome, turn the dome upside down and then fill it with water. Screw the base back onto the dome and re-right unit.  The water fills the four drinking pools, but the rest of the water is kept in the dome, held there by vacuum. The water is released gradually as the birds need it. The birds have pools for drinking and bathing—and you needn’t worry about the problems connected with birdbaths, such as rapid evaporation or having to scrub away accumulations of algae.

First Nature’s Bird Bath and Waterers can be hung from a chain (a hook is included but not the chain) or mounted on a 4-by-4 wooden post. The manufacturer recommends cleaning the unit occasionally to guard against disease. Wash with soapy water and rinse.

And one final noteworthy feature of the Waterers: They are manufactured in the United States. First Nature was founded in 2001 and has its headquarters in Rogers, Arkansas.

Are you bugged by bugs?

As the days get warmer, we see more insects and other squirmy critters in the yard. Some are beneficial to the garden; some aren’t. To birds, they’re dinner! Most backyard birds eat insects, along with seed or suet, because the little bugs are high in protein and easy to feed to nestlings. But which bird eats what?

A starling takes a potato vine larvae to its nestlings

Cardinal: beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders, butterflies and moths.

Chickadee: insects and spiders.

Tufted Titmouse: caterpillars, beetles, ants, wasps, stinkbugs, treehoppers, spiders and snails.

Mockingbird: beetles, earthworms, moths, butterflies, ants, wasps and grasshoppers.

Catbird: ants, Japanese beetles, midges, grasshoppers, caterpillars and moths.

Starling: grasshoppers, beetles, flies, caterpillars, millipedes, spiders, and both the adult and grub stages of Japanese beetles.

Downy Woodpecker: beetle larvae that live in wood or tree bark, ants, caterpillars, bark beetles and apple borers.

Carolina Wren: caterpillars, moths, stinkbugs, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and cockroaches.

House Wren: beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, daddy longlegs and flies.

Northern Flicker: ants, beetles (gathered from the ground or from “cow patties”), flies, butterflies, moths and snails.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird catches an insect

White-breasted Nuthatch: weevil larvae, wood-boring beetle larvae, other beetles, treehoppers, scale insects, ants, gall fly larvae, tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, stinkbugs, click beetles and spiders.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird: mosquitoes, gnats, fruit flies and spiders. They can catch insects in mid-air or pluck them from spider webs.

Purple Martin: any kind of insect. As is the case with other members of the swallow family, they eat nothing but insects.

So there you have it: Insects can bring birds to your backyard the natural way. In fact, if your lawn service uses pesticides to kill insects or grubs, you are doing birds no favor. Pesticides are non-selective; they kill any insect or grub that comes into contact with the chemicals. Using pesticides may cause birds to move to other areas in their quest to find a wider range of food than seed from feeders.

New Product: PineBush finch feeder

Looking for a new feeder for those goldfinches you see in your neighborhood? Consider PineBush Products’ 18-inch-tall Nyjer tube feeder. 

The feeder has six metal seed ports, plus an 8-inch-diameter tray that catches stray seed and provides other finches an opportunity to snack. The seed ports and perches are die-cast metal securely bolted to the seed tube. The tube is made of a poly material that is both break- and shatter-resistant, which extends the useful life of the feeder. The poly components contain UV protection to help maintain the feeder’s vibrant color.

Although designed for Nyjer seed, the seed ports are large enough to accommodate outdoor finch mixes.

PineBush is a privately owned company based in rural Elmira, Ontario.

Products sold at The Bird House may be available for a limited time, so hurry in!

Grosbeaks

Evening Grosbeak (male)

Grosbeaks are any of several conical-billed birds belonging to the families Fringillidae and Cardinalidae. Their name is derived from the French word gros bec, or “thick beak,” which accurately describes the birds’ adaptation for cracking seeds with ease.

The Fragillidae family contains a wide range of grosbeaks and finches whose color may be yellow, black, brown or white. The group includes two noteworthy birds: the Evening Grosbeak and the Pine Grosbeak. 

Evening Grosbeak (female)

The Evening Grosbeak breeds in coniferous forests in the northern United States and southern Canada. In the winter, noisy flocks of these chunky, big-billed finches descend on feeders for sunflower seeds. Their thick beaks are ideal for cracking sunflower shells. They can even crack cherry pits. They also may feed on small fruits, maple seeds, insects and small invertebrates. Evening Grosbeaks are irruptive locally, meaning they are seen in some years here and sometimes not.

Pine Grosbeak (male)

Pine Siskin (female)

The Pine Grosbeak is a bird of boreal forests across northern Eurasia and North America. A large finch, it may be seen in southern Canada and the northern United States, including Pennsylvania (but uncommonly). The Pine Grosbeak forages in small flocks and sometimes flies great distances in winter in search of natural food. Adult males are a bright reddish color; females are mostly brown. The Pine Grosbeak's diet consists mostly of buds, seeds and fruits of spruce, pine, juniper, maple, mountain ash, and apple and crabapple trees. A breeding adult develops pouches in the floor of its mouth to carry food for the young

The family Cardinalidae (which includes the Northern Cardinal) includes three varieties of grosbeak. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which can be seen in our area, nests mostly east of the Rockies. The Black-headed Grosbeak resides mostly west of the Rockies. The Blue Grosbeak is mainly found in shrubby habitats in the southern United States.

The boldly patterned Rose-breasted Grosbeak is easily identified. The contrast between the pure black back and hood, the white front and the red bib of the male is striking.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (male)

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks eat seed, insects, fruit and buds. We may see them as they migrate in the spring, stopping by feeders for sunflower seeds. They usually call Pennsylvania home from May through September.

The nest of the grosbeak is so thinly constructed that the eggs often can be seen from below. The male participates in the incubation of the eggs. Both sexes sing softly to each other as they exchange places.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (female)

In the Great Plains, where territories of the Rose-breasted and Black-headed grosbeaks sometimes overlap, hybridizing can occur. Hybrids can look like either of the parent species, or various combinations of pink, black or orange.

So “grosbeak” links characteristics—thick, strong beaks—of birds that may or may not be “cousins.”

Lehigh Valley bird sightings for June 28

White-rumped Sandpiper

Dave DeReamus of the Eastern PA Birdline, a project sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, compiled the following list of bird sightings for the week that ended June 28.

Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County
Snow Goose, 16 on June 14 along Blossom Hill Road

Kunkletown, Monroe County
Yellow-breasted Chat, 1 on June 15

Kresgeville, Monroe County
White-rumped Sandpiper, 9 on June 14 along Silver Springs Boulevard

Walking Purchase Park, Lehigh County
Yellow-breasted Chat, 1 on June 16 and 17. Also seen: Bald Eagle

To report sightings, send an e-mail to beard@rcn.com with the word "Birdline" in the subject heading.