Entomologists believe successful agriculture would be impossible without birds. They occupy a unique position among insect and weed destroyers.
Their remarkable powers of flight enable them to gather immediately at the sites of insect infestation or at areas where the ripened seed is abundant.
Their high metabolism rate, higher than human temperature, faster respiration, and quicker pulse force them to expend huge quantities of energy.
This, in turn, demands rapid ingestion of vast amounts of food. In fact, much of the time, from dawn until dusk, birds devote themselves solely to obtaining food.
Food Of Birds
Their highly specialized means of securing it is of paramount importance, in conjunction with the quantities of food required by birds.
The amazing agility, grace, and precision of airborne swallows, the powerful wings and remarkable vision of the hawks, and the phenomenal eyesight and noiseless flight of the owls are ready examples.
Birds In Winter
The birds you can entice to your garden this winter are equally specialized, and their presence is of inestimable benefit.
Brown Creeper
Among these is the brown creeper, a small, dark-colored bird with sharp eyes and a slender decurved bill.
Looking closely, you may see one spiraling upward, inch by inch, around the bole of a tree.
Unceasingly industrious, it canvasses each niche and crevice of bark for minute insect eggs, cocoons of tineid moths, and plant lice and scales undetected by other birds. It performs a singular service in this respect.
A short length of a rough-barked sapling with holes bored and billed with suet or peanut butter, and hung by a cord to a tree, will bring him to your garden.
White-Breasted Nuthatch
The white-breasted nuthatch, blue-gray colored, with a black crown, may be summoned by putting sunflower seed in a feeding station.
This bird wears an air of perpetual belligerence, peering up from the lowered head and uttering a peevish “yank” as he walks upside down in surly defiance of gravity.
His spring through fall food includes beetles, moths, caterpillars, ants, wasps, acorns, and waste grain.
Black-Capped Chickadee
In high favor year-round is the black-capped chickadee. In winter, he clamors for suet, peanut hearts or butter, and sunflower seeds.
Souffle paper cups inserted with a toothpick from one end to the other, just above the bottom, then filled with melted suet and seed, and lashed with string to a branch of a tree near the house, will bring him close to your window.
He feeds upon moths, caterpillars, beetles, ants, wasps, bugs, flies, and grasshoppers for much of the year.
The chickadee would be welcome for his exuberant spirit alone if he never ate a bug!
Unique Downy And Hairy Woodpeckers
Two other uniquely helpful birds are the downy and hairy woodpeckers.
Both are strong and muscular and possess sharp claws, a chisel-bill, and a barbed prop of a tail.
Combined with extraordinary hearing, these features are utilized to locate and chip away wood to reach the beetles and larvae found beneath the bark or deep in the timber.
A rectangle of chicken wire 12″ x 7″ inches, folded part way back upon itself, its rough edges turned under and the resulting “pocket” filled with suet, can be tailed to a tree trunk for the use of the downy or hairy.
Sparrow Family
Members of the sparrow family will also come to your garden in winter.
Birds of this group all have one specialization in common: a short, stout, conical bill for cracking the seed, their primary food.
Song And Tree Sparrows
The two sparrows most likely to be seen are the song and tree sparrows.
The former is a small, plump bird with stripes on its chest and a single spot in the center of its breast.
He constantly eats until you fear he’ll “pop” his feathers. But his fond is weed seeds.
Or, if the ground and tall weeds arc covered with icy snow, he will eagerly feed upon the seed you provide, possibly on a 3-foot square, open tray, with an edge, set on top of a 4-feet post.
Tree Sparrow: Neat And Dainty Bird
The tree sparrow is a neat and dainty bird, with a rusted cap and clear gray breast displaying a single central spot. Impressive statistics have been gathered concerning the tree sparrow.
Conservative estimates credit the tree sparrow with eating a one-quarter ounce of weed seed daily.
And on this basis, in an agricultural state such as Iowa, tree sparrows alone consumed 875 tons of weed seed annually!
Obviously, our gardens do not need any such monumental operations. But it’s consoling when one thinks of that stand of weeds he didn’t get around to destroying.
Other Members Of Sparrows Family
These sparrows are joined by other members of the family:
- Goldfinches In winter drab
- Siskins
- Juncos
- Redpolls
Seed should be provided constantly for hunger-weakened birds in the winter months.
It can be broadcast in the snow, though this way, it is easily covered and lost.
It can be sprinkled on canvas and spread on the snow, but only if your garden is free of marauding cats.
The best single feeder, perhaps, is the box-type standing station with glass on three sides and an old muffin tin on top filled with melted suet and seeds or an assortment of seeds.
Four Things That Birds Must Have
With a thought to the year-round value of birds in your garden, there are four things they must have:
- Protection
- Nesting Sites
- Food
- Water
Thickets, hedges, and heavily foliage shrubs offer protection from storms and foes. They also provide nesting sites for some birds.
However, free literature providing the proper dimensions can be obtained from the Massachusetts Audubon Society, 155 Newbury St., Boston, Mass., for making nesting boxes on these long Winter evenings.
Necessity Of Water
As for food, aside from commercial kinds, many plantings you may have been intending to set out can consist of shrubs or trees which bear edible and appealing fruits.
Vital as any of these, however, is the necessity for water.
Birds baths serve in summer; in winter, shallow pans frequently filled and de-iced work very well.
Ingenious Method
One ingenious method is to place an electric light on an extension cord in a metal container supporting a pan of water.
Shelter them! Feed them! Provide nesting places and water for these birds!
Then reap your reward, not alone in their beauty of color and motion, but also in the increased loveliness and satisfaction of your next Summer’s garden.
44659 by Barbara Elinore Hayden