|
|
Preferred Foods At
Feeders
|
Food and Feeders By
Bird
|
|
In order to have a
page about the diet of birds and the type of
feeders they prefer, I first decided to organize
them into three groups-- the birds often seen at
our feeders; the ones seen equally at feeders
and foraging in nature; and the group of birds
that never feed at a feeder. The theory seemed
ideal, until I tried to organize pictures and
information. It was as if I had tried to line
up the birds themselves. Some things defy
outlines and lists.
|
|
All birds derive most
of their diet, in warmer weather at least, from
nature. (Grain, flower, grass and even seeds
from trees; insects in trees, on the ground, and
flying in the air; nuts, fruit, and berries
from trees and bushes; invertebrates, other
birds' eggs, even garbage and carrion. But still
they eat frequently from our feeders (it almost
seems as if they eat constantly from our
feeders- even in summer).
|
|
After searching my
photo files, I realized that a lot fewer photos
were taken of birds feeding on the natural
things we hadn't provided first-hand. Feeders
are conveniently placed near the large windows,
along with water sources and branches and bushes
positioned nearby. This often makes for great
photos (if the windows are clean and the sun is
just right). But natural food can be found
anywhere-- tree tops, under raspberry bushes, in
the hedges, in snags and branch piles and behind
and between out buildings and ,ugh, even on the
roadside. Any great photos of birds feeding
in outer locations are often taken by lucky
chance.
|
|
So we're going ahead
with a chart based on the observations of many.
Added to this will be a few exceptions to the
rules, from our own backyard and its cast of
unruly thousands.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Peanuts,
sunflower seeds and corn
Ground feeding for insects, seeds, nuts,
and berries; will eat eggs, nestlings
and carrion; caches food and forgets
some seeds thus perpetuating new tree
growth |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Platform
feeders, peanut holders; forages
directly on ground |
|
Eating Style: |
Aggressive at
feeders; good scouts and alarms for
predator sightings
Carefully turns peanut shell to see if
peanuts are inside, puts into crop (a
special pouch in the esophagus that
temporarily stores food), and then
snatches another full peanut before
flying off to eat or bury in a cache (a
storage area for food that may or may
not be retrieved and eaten later) |
|
|
...more
information and photos
|
|
Our Backyard: |
Peanuts are a
great favorite, but they also will take
sunflower seeds (crack open on branches)
and will cling to large suet holders |
|
|
...Blue Jay main
page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Searches ground
and low shrubs and trees for seeds,
grain, insects and berries and fruit;
ground feeders for cracked corn,
sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds
|
|
Type of Feeder : |
Low platform
feeders and directly on the ground under
feeders or spread by hand-tossing seeds |
|
Eating Style: |
Feeds early
morning and dusk (usually first in and
last out). Prefers to eat alone and not
in crowds. |
|
Our Backyard: |
| This winter
in our backyard, the cardinals have no
hesitation feeding during the day. The
three males and three females are freely
mixing with other birds, even crowds of
other birds. Some of their known
associates (have the pictures to prove
it) are mourning doves, blue jays, white
throated sparrows, juncos, house
finches, chickadees, red winged
blackbirds, red and gray squirrels and
even chipmunks (see below). |
|
|
|
|
...Cardinal main page |
|
|
|
|
| Chickadee;
Tufted Titmouse |
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Black sunflower
seeds, suet, solid seed blocks, peanut
nuggets
Insects and their eggs |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Small feeders to
cling on; platform feeders; hopper
feeders |
|
Eating Style: |
|
Quickly
grabs morsel and flies to tree branch;
holds large seed between feet on a perch
and hammers open seed coating with small
beak; repeats process many times.
Travels on twigs and branches, sometimes
clinging upside down, to search bark for
insects |
|
|
Our Backyard: |
The chickadee
leads a flock of small, mixed species
birds to the feeders. He does not fight
for position on a feeder but will easily
move to another . He shows little fear
of Food Folks. The tufted titmouse is
shyer. Our backyard seems to be the home
for only a few of these little gray
birds. |
|
|
...Chickadee
and
Tufted Titmouse
main page |
|
|
|
|
|
Finches;
Pine Siskin; Redpoll |
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Seeds
(sunflower, nyjer) and finch mix; wild
seeds, insects, and berries. Pine
siskins eat seeds from alders, birches
and spruce trees in Canada most winters
(will come south when those foods are
scarce) and feed with the finches. |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Sunflower seed
from wire cages, hopper feeders and
platforms; nyjer from net sacks or wire
tube feeders; small finch seed from
hoppers or tubes. Will eat these seeds
on the ground under feeders. |
|
Eating Style: |
Feed in flocks.
Gregarious and tame. Finches slit open
nyjer shells and remove the tiny seeds
with their tongues. Most of the waste
under a sack is just the shells - any
intact seed is usually eaten by a ground
foraging bird. |
|
Our Backyard: |
|
We
have found that our peaceful finches are
becoming as aggressive as our irruptive
pine siskin visitors this year. While
we have many of their favorite foods in
many bird feeders, the numbers of these
small birds are enormous. The spirit of
cooperation goes down with the mercury
level on the thermometer and the seed
level in the tubes. We often fill them
twice a day (it's not bird feeder month
for nothing!) |
|
|
|
...Goldfinch
and
Pine siskin
main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
| |
Forages
on the ground for insects (especially
ants); captures flying insects (unusual
in a woodpecker); fruit and berries
(mostly in winter); will eat suet. |
|
|
Type of Feeder : |
Suet feeders or
suet product placed directly on trees or
stumps. |
|
Eating Style: |
Long, sharp beak
allows penetration in the ground for
ants |
|
Our Backyard: |
We've seen this
strange colored bird several times this
past year. He stays for a few days at a
time looking for ants in the lawn or
suet for energy. |
|
|
... Northern
flicker main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects
(especially caterpillars, beetles and
moths), seeds (especially sunflower
seeds from feeders), fruits and their
blossoms |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Hopper feeders
with large perch area, platform feeders
and suet cages |
|
Eating Style: |
Large beak
(grosbeak/great beak) crushes sunflower
seeds at a rapid rate (fastest of the
seed eaters) right at the feeder |
|
Our Backyard: |
Rose breasted
grosbeaks dominated sunflower seed
feeders last summer, because of their
general size and the fact that they
don't need to fly off to crack the seed
coverings. |
|
|
...Rose breasted
grosbeak main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
| Ruby
Throated Hummingbird; Baltimore Oriole |
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Hummingbird: Nectar
from flower centers; eats small
insects and spiders.
Oriole: Ants,
caterpillars, moths, aphids, beetles and
wasps; probe flowers for nectar; eats
fruit (particularly orange pieces;) suet
|
|
Type of Feeder : |
| |
Hummingbird:
Sweetened water (one part sugar to four
parts water, boiled then cooled) taken
from feeders (attracted to red feeders,
but not red liquid)
Oriole: Hummingbird feeders with
perches; special orange, oriole feeders
provide cups for jelly and sections for
orange segments as well as nectar; will
also eat from suet cages
|
|
|
Eating Style: |
Hummingbird:
Uses tongue and long bill to extract
nectar from blooming flowers, especially
the red tube-shaped type; often drinks
while hovering (extremely rapid wing
beats- up to 75 per second); may also
sit on perch at nectar feeder
Oriole: Gleans shrubs and canopy
vegetation for insects; can cling to
suet feeders and drink nectar on perch
at hummingbird feeders
|
|
Our Backyard: |
We tried several
hummingbird feeders and purchased an
oriole feeder we'll try in spring. We
had a female Baltimore oriole at our
suet cages and many hummingbirds at the
feeders and our shrubs and flowers.
|
|
|
...Hummingbird
and
Baltimore oriole
main pages |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
A ground feeder
who loves millet, cracked corn, and in
general seeds and grains; |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Low platform
feeders or eats directly from ground |
|
Eating Style: |
|
Needs
course sand or small gravel to aid in
digestion; drinks water by sucking and
does not have to lift head to swallow;
needs seed that can be swallowed easily
as mourning dove rarely opens seeds with
beak. |
|
|
Our Backyard: |
Our mourning
doves spend a lot of time eating from
the ground. They usually come in a large
crowd and join with the cardinals and
shyer sparrows. They seem to have
developed a taste for safflower seeds.
When that area is picked over, they
walk, bobbing their heads to feed from
the seeds under pole feeders. |
|
|
...Mourning dove
main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
Nuthatches-Red and White
Breasted |
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects,
spiders, nuts, seeds; to feeders for
sunflower seeds, and suet; loves peanut
nuggets and peanut butter products. |
|
Type of Feeder : |
|
Wire
cages for sunflower seeds; suet cages;
posts with holes for stuffing and tube
cages for peanut products; solid seed
blocks |
|
|
Eating Style: |
Often walks on
underside of branches and climbs
headfirst down tree trunks to get
insects that woodpeckers miss; extracts
sunflower seed, tucks into crack in tree
bark, uses beak to expose seed; nuthatch
from Middle English means hacking (the
wedged seed open); may hide seeds near
feeder. |
|
Our Backyard: |
We usually see
one nuthatch at a time. While he comes
to most feeders, he always starts and
ends on our large maple tree, scurrying
up or down and around the woodpeckers
and squirrels. |
|
|
...White and
Red Breasted
Nuthatch main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects in
summer; forages for grass and weed seeds
(especially likes crabgrass, ragweed,
dandelion and clover) and berries in
fall by scratching ground or snow; wild
bird seed from feeders; insects,
caterpillars and spiders; eats seeds at
and under feeders ; loves sunflower
seeds |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Hopper, tube,
platform feeders; on ground under
feeders |
|
Eating Style: |
Forages on
ground and in vegetation by double
scratching (slight hop forward with both
feet, then a sweep backward kicking
aside debris exposing any
food). Chipping sparrow does not double
scratch (also known as bilateral
scratching). |
|
Our Backyard: |
| Our backyard is
full of happy, little birds hopping in
the grass. Even as they move on to
warmer scratching grounds, a new group
arrives to frolic in the snow. We're
glad to provide seeds in our feeders for
the bigger, messy birds and these little
guys provide the ground clean-up crew. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
...Junco,
Chipping,
Tree,
White
Throated,
Song sparrow, and
Towhee Pages |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Mostly insects
(crickets, ants, grasshoppers and
beetles); fruit and berries; feeder
food: bread, cheese, raisins, peanuts
and suet cakes |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Forages on
ground, platform feeders, suet cages |
|
Eating Style: |
Spends time on
the ground and in bushes and brambles
looking for insects and berries. |
|
Our Backyard: |
|
It
was always fun to see the catbird arrive
in our yard to eat suet occasionally,
but it was really gratifying to see a
bird eat berries from all the bushes we
had planted around our little pond.
Shelter and beauty that all that
planting provided the birds and the Food
Folks and now even nutrition beyond the
bird seed. Hurray! |
|
|
|
...Catbird main
page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
Woodpeckers
Downy; Hairy; Red
Bellied; Pileated |
|
|
| |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects (carpenter ants, beetles, tree
boring types); seeds, nuts and berries;
visits feeders for suet, and peanut
products. |
|
Type of Feeder : |
| Suet
feeders with tail support;
peanut nugget tubes; posts or
logs with holes to stuff suet or
peanut butter mixes |
|
|
|
|
|
Eating Style: |
Stores food by wedging in crevices;
occasionally ground feeds; usually works
up the tree trunk; stiff tail feathers
for support; long barbed tongue to reach
tiny insects imbedded in tree trunk |
|
Our Backyard: |
We've been able to observe that the
smaller the woodpecker, the bolder and
friendlier he is (maybe because he has
more access to smaller feeders and even
to smaller and higher tree branches than
his larger cousins) Because of this, he
has more chances for suet and tree
dwelling insects. |
|
|
...Hairy,
Red bellied,
Pileated
and
Downy Woodpecker
main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
| Smaller
Blackbirds-Red Winged; Cowbirds |
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects, spiders, caterpillars, grain, seeds, berries
and fruits |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Feeders for
cracked corn and bird seed; seems more
comfortable on the ground or low
platform feeders |
|
Eating Style: |
Red winged
blackbird runs or hops to forage on the
ground and cowbird walks with tail
cocked over back. |
|
Our Backyard: |
|
All
the blackbirds seem to travel together
in summer months. There is little to no
competition to eat. Cowbirds spend more
time on mixed seed feeders that are
mounted on taller posts, than the red
wings do. There is always plenty of
seed under all the feeders, in addition
to the tossed corn. |
|
|
|
...Red
winged blackbird and
Cowbird
main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
Larger
Blackbirds
Grackles; Crows |
|
|
|
|
Food Choices: |
Omnivore;
opportunistic scavenger; insects, seeds,
grains, crops, including fruit and
berries; eggs of other birds, fledglings
and mice; crows will eat garbage and
carrion. Takes mixed seeds and suet at
feeders |
|
Type of Feeder : |
|
Grackles
can adapt themselves to any feeder or
food available, crows are limited by
their larger size, but not by their
intelligence and problem solving
abilities. Seem to prefer to ground feed
for seeds, but can manipulate most suet
feeders. |
|
|
Eating Style: |
|
Walks
to forage on ground; searches for food
in trees, shrubs, fields and may wade in
water. Crows appear to approach food
(even kernels of corn) very cautiously-
body close to ground, head turned, and
food is then snatched quickly. |
|
|
Our Backyard: |
We've seen only
the crows on a regular basis this past
winter. They usually arrive in a
threesome and walk along the outer
fringes of our feeders, not really
eating much. They seem to find the
snowy area under our largest cherry tree
interesting. They busy themselves
pecking at things that aren't apparent
to us. |
|
|
...Grackle
and
Crow
main page |
|
|
|
Name of Bird: |
|
|
Food Choices: |
Insects
(especially beetles), fruit and berries;
feeds under trees and bushes; ground
feeds on mixed seed and millet; suet |
|
Type of Feeder : |
Feeds on ground
or ground platform; will cling to suet
holders |
|
Eating Style: |
Noisy feeder
due to foraging and tossing over leaves
and debris |
|
Our Backyard: |
|
We
first noticed this bright cinnamon bird
as he struggled to master a suet cage
with a roof. It took him quite a few
tries before he could hang on and eat.
On all later visits he and some friends
foraged under feeders eating seed on the
ground. |
|
|
|
...Brown Thrasher
main page |
|
|
...more at
feeders
and
types of feeders |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|