Feeding Birds 05/22/12

If you put bird seed out, birds of all sizes and shapes will eventually arrive show up.

Feeding Birds Is Fun…and Messy!

By Connie Goldin, MA, MFT

Mom Sparrow Feeding Her Baby

Every spring I throw handfuls of wild bird seed out on the lawn, or hang a feeder, to see what birds arrive. It never fails that the sparrows are the first to come for a free meal. I also get black phoebes, who I love, and little house finches. A few towhees arrive and I always have hummingbirds, but they are there for the flowers. I am delighted when I hear the whistles of hooded orioles that migrate from Mexico to nest in our our Palm trees. When they finally make their first furtive visit to my garden, it is a spring treat. The male is a brilliant yellow and black, and the female is a soft yellow and brown. Finally, I begin to see them regularly and it is a joy.

After a while, bigger birds come-starlings, black birds, blue jays and mockingbirds.This is where it begins to get a little dicey because they all have naughty, aggressive tendancies. I know it is time to stop the free-form feeding when pigeons arrive. However, they aren’t the top of this pecking order.

One year, I looked out my window and saw a big hawk hanging out, hidden, in my plumeria. When I went outside, I saw gray pigeon feathers all over my patio. The hawk (probably a cooper’s hawk, who nest in my neighborhood) had found his easy, fast food spot. That is when I said, “Okay! No more bird seed for awhile.” (I have “hidden” some on the ground in a different spot by the bird bath, so that no one will go hungry!)

Even though, where I live, this is the usual course of feeding birds, I love it and highly recommend doing this with young kids. It is fun, a great education, a vocabulary builder and an introduction to “Nature 101.”

Here are some of my regular visitors: