Tom's Bird Feeders and Reptile Supplies

Our spring bird migration is continuing.  Today we had our first Blue Grosbeak into our sunflower bird feeder.  He then hopped down to have a drink from our tiered bird pond.  He had not completed his molt completely, so he wasn’t the most beautiful grosbeak, but was welcomed to our yard anyway.

The Lark Sparrows are still here in great numbers enjoying the platform bird feeder.  Their face pattern on this sparrow plus the fan shaped tail with the white band make this  one of the easiest to identify of the sparrows. 

 One interesting observation is that Lark Sparrows walk rather than hop across our bird feeder. If fact, hopping is only used during courtship.  During courtship a male Lark Sparrow crouches on the ground, holds his tail up at a 45 degree angle from the ground, spreads the tail feathers to show off the white tips, and then struts with its wings drooping so that the wingtips nearly touch the ground. When the female is receptive, the male gives her a small twig just before copulation.

In our area we have observed Lark Sparrows recycling old Mockingbird and thrasher nests.  I have also read reports where  the eggs and young of two species are found in the same nest, suggesting that the Lark Sparrow shares the nest with the other bird.

I will continue to report on the spring bird migration here in Portal.  Good Birding to all.

We have been in Wyoming and South Dakota for the past couple of weeks.  The duck migration is in full swing and the Greater Prairie Chickens are on their lecks.  It was great to get the ducks, we don’t get many in my part of the desert (lol).

We came back to Lark Sparrows in great numbers at our bird feeders.  We had 9 in our platform bird  feeder and about 10 more on the ground under the bird feeder.  The Pine Siskins and Lesser Goldfinches are still coming into the stainless steel thistle feeder, but we have not seen the Lawrence’s Goldfinches since we got back. 

We have had a Cassin’s Kingbird into the bird bath and the warblers are bathing on a regular basis with the most common being the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Our first juvenile Black-throated Sparrow was being fed just above our triple tube bird feeder in the mesquite tree.

The most common birds at our Best 1 hummingbird feeders have been the Broad-tailed and the Black-throated Hummingbirds.  All three of our orioles have be into the saucer oriole feeder and they have been sneaking sips from the hummingbird feeders.

We have reports of the Elegant Trogan in our canyon (see our birding map for directions)

This is a great time to visit Portal, Arizona.

Today while we sat in front of our bird feeders sipping  from our Southwest Arizona Canyon Birds coffee mug, a Lucy’s Warbler came in to our bird bath for a quick splash.

Lucy’s Warblers are one of the smallest warblers and has chosen to make the desert its home, making its nest in the driest of all warbler habitats.  

Dr. J. G. Cooper discovered this tiny and inconspicuous warbler at Fort Mojave in Arizona in 1861.  He named it after Miss Lucy Baird, daughter of his associate Dr. Spencer F. Baird. 

The Lucy’s Warbler is one of only two warblers that breeds in cavities. (The Prothonotary Warbler is the other.) If using a woodpecker hole, the warbler may fill the cavity nearly to the top with debris and put the nest on top so the bird can see out.  Abandoned Verdin nests are also a favorite nesting place.

I could not find if anyone has established the size of a Lucy’s Warblers territory. However, it is not unusual to find up to 5 nests in 1 acre.  When Tom and I do breeding bird surveys, the over lapping songs make it very hard to impossible to get an accurate count on the number of males singing.

Most people spot this bird while it is gleaning insects off foliage, and its quick movements catch the eye.  Remember, if you are in the dry desert do not eliminate all warblers when trying to identify a little gray bird!   It just may be a Lucy’s Warbler!

This is just an update to keep people current on how the spring bird migration is progressing.  This past week we had our first Black-chinned Hummingbird into our Best 1 hummingbird feeder.  He was quickly followed by several other Black-chinned, and the aerial contest was on.  As usual they dove at each other and hovered above each other buzzing angrily.  They created quite a show for us.

Meanwhile, a Magnificent Hummingbird was quietly sipping nectar from our saucer hummingbird feeder.  The Black-chinned Hummingbirds chose not to challenge him.  I’m not sure why as they have done so in the past.

The Lawrence’s Goldfinch continues to come in to the thistle bird feeder.  He comes in with a flock of Lesser Goldfinches, so be sure to check the entire flock out.

We still have only the Scott’s Oriole coming into the jelly at the oriole feeder.  The rest of the orioles should be arriving soon.

Hope everyone’s bird migration is great this year.  Ours is off to a good start.

Today we had our first Scott’s Oriole in to our recycled oriole feeder.  It must be time to put up the saucer oriole feeder  in the backyard.  The Scott’s was about a week late for the average arrival time, and two weeks later that last year.  Those of you planing a trip to southeast Arizona, stay tuned and I will keep you informed of the migration situation.

While driving home yesterday I saw one lone Turkey Vulture soaring by Rodeo, N.M.  For those of us in southeastern Arizona that means that spring is upon us. The trees are starting to bud and the poppies are turning the hillsides golden.

We had a Broad-tailed Hummingbird into our saucer hummingbird feeder this morning and the Cactus Wren and the Curve-billed Thrasher are fighting over the telephone pole. Both feel they  have territorial rights to this pole.  We cleaned out the nesting platform, but the Cactus Wren has started moving nesting material into it already.

The spring bird migration has started, the flowers are blooming and it is a GREAT day for nature lovers!

This week-end we saw our first signs of the spring bird migration.  We had put up our Best  1 hummingbird feeder a few days ago.  Over the week-end we had a Magnificent Hummingbird and a Blue-throated Hummingbird.  We also had a smaller humming bird in, but was not able to identify it.  It just didn’t stick around long enough.

We also had  Mountain Bluebirds come into our Supper Dome bird feeder. If you are not familiar with the Supper Dome, it is both a mealworm feeder and a suet feeder.  We had put out some mealworms for the Says Phoebes, but phoebes weren’t fast enough.  I guess the old saying  “The early bird gets the worm” would apply.  Our new supply of mealworms came in Monday, but the poor pheobes had to find breakfast the old fashioned way-hunt for it.

With the bluebird migration on, remember to have your bluebird houses cleaned out, repaired or replaced, as territories will be established soon.  Get the mealworm feeders out and get your supply of mealworms stocked.

Remember to only put out a little nectar in your hummingbird feeder until the hummingbird migration is in full swing.  Also remember to change the nectar regularly. 

Hope your bird migration is great this year and I will let you know what is coming into our yard.

I have written about the importance of nest boxes for bluebirds. The importance can be emphasized when talking about the Mountain Bluebird. Most studies of the Mountain Bluebird involve birds in nest boxes, and in fact very little is known about natural nest site requirements.

Scientists have learned by observing the nest boxes that only the female builds the nest. The male sometimes acts as if he is helping, but he either brings no nest material or he drops it on the way. (Men- we are talking about bluebirds and this behavior should not be reflected in your actions.)

Where territories overlap Mountain and Western bluebirds will compete for nest boxes, and consider males of the other species direct competition.

The Mountain Bluebird will usually dominate the Eastern Bluebird. This relationship may limit the westward expansion of the Eastern Bluebird.

Your effort in establishing bluebird trails and your addition of a bluebird feeder will help this species continue to recover. And really, what would the world be without the bluebird of happiness in it?

For many years now the bluebird populations have been declining because land has been cleared for new houses, shopping malls and highways.The old wood fence posts that provided nesting cavities are now being replaced with metal posts. Much of the natural nesting cavities for bluebirds and other native cavity nesters has been greatly reduced.

We also have to remember that the House Sparrow and the European Starling have been introduced to the U.S. Both starlings and sparrows are cavity nesters, and both are very aggressive. House Sparrows are small enough to enter any hole that a bluebird can, and are so aggressive that they will chase away the more timid bluebird. Starlings can be excluded from bluebird boxes by using the correct size entrance hole, but will compete with bluebirds for woodpecker holes and other natural nesting cavities.

During the summer, bluebirds feed mainly on insects. In the winter, bluebirds depend on many kinds of wild berries for their food supply. However, the supply of wild berries has also decreased over the years. The few berries that remain are often stripped quickly by large flocks of starlings.Even though the bluebird population has greatly decreased, you can impact the population positively. One very important step you can take to help bring back the bluebird is to provide nesting sites by setting out a bluebird box or starting a bluebird trail. A bluebird trail is simply bluebird boxes placed along a prescribed route. In areas where nesting boxes have been put up in suitable habitat, bluebird populations are increasing. Bluebirding is a great project that people of all ages can enjoy. Many a good bluebird trail has been set up by boy scouts and other similar youth groups.

Another way to enhance your area for bluebirds is to add a bluebird/mealworm bird feeder.  These feeders have entrance holes the correct size for bluebirds, and been designed specifically so that your mealworms will not be able to escape from the bird feeder.

These simple steps will encourage bluebirds to stay around your area and help increase the bluebird population nationwide.

We all have watched a TV station that advertises that they have America’s favorite “characters” on their station.  Well,  I just spent quite a bit of time in South Dakota, and now remember that one of my “favorite characters” in the bird world is the Black-capped Chickadee.  This character was busy taking sunflower seeds out of my parents  sunflower bird feeder and hiding them for a snowy day.  The Black-Capped Chickadee hides seeds and other food items to eat later. Each item is placed in a different spot and the chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places.  Not that a chickadee should ever worry about going hungry - my parents would never let their bird feeders go empty for very long.

Chickadees will flock in the winter.  The center of a flock of chickadees contain a mated  pairs and nonbreeders, but generally not the offspring of the adult pairs within that flock. Other birds that can be observed with chickadee flocks include nuthatches, woodpeckers, kinglets, creepers,  and further south  wintering warblers and vireos.

One of the reasons other species of birds may follow chickadee flocks may be the great danger call of the chickadee.  The more dee notes in the chickadee-dee-dee call the greater the threat level.  Even species that do not have a danger call will respond to the chickadee’s threat level.

One story I have heard about the Black-capped Chickadee was about Robert Bates who trained a rehabbing chickadee to pull a string, to raise the cup, to make the cup spill a sunflower seed into his cage.

The flocks that visited my parents do not have to work quite that hard for a sunflower seed, but the acrobatic stunts they do pull make them one on my favorite characters.

We had two Northern Flickers visit our yard this morning.  I can’t say we had a pair as they were both males.  We first noticed them when they flew down to our bird pond for a short drink.  They then proceeded to have a little breakfast.  Their breakfast was not provided by us, as Northern Flickers rarely visit suet feeders.  It has warmed up and the ants were moving around their holes.  Ants are the main food source for Northern Flickers.  The flicker will dig in the dirt and then use its long barbed tongue to lick up the ants. 

The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that migrates.  Flickers in the northern parts of their range move south for the winter, although a few individuals often stay rather far north.

Although flickers prefer to eat on the ground, they will act like other woodpeckers and drum on objects.  This drumming lets other flickers know that they have established a territory and that the flicker considers it priviate property.  For this reason the flicker likes to make as much noise as possible and will drum on metal objects.  One Northern Flicker in Wyoming could be heard drumming on an abandoned tractor from a half-mile away.

We are glad that the flickers stopped in for a visit, but do hope that they do not start drumming on our metal chimney pipe!

Those people who follow our journal know that we start each day with our traditional coffee mugs and watch the birds coming into our feeders for their breakfast.  It is a time of reflection and reminds us each day why we live where we do.  The birds are what brought us to Portal.  Nearby Cave Creek Canyon has a very diverse and unique birdlife and has provided thousands of birders with new and different life birds.  Even the “everyday” birds have thrilled many a visitor.  To commemorate these birds our coffee mug supplier has developed artwork featuring the Birds of Cave Creek Canyon, both common and rare, and has made them available to us on our 11 ounce ceramic coffee mugs.  These mugs feature the much sought after Elegant Trogon and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher as well as the Blue-throated Hummingbird, Bridled Titmouse, Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Canyon Wren, Painted Redstart and Elf Owl.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  A cup of hot Joe and a handful of wonderful birding memories to start each day!  For those of you who have made the pilgimage to Portal and wish to have a momento of your previous trip we have the Birds of Portal mugs available here at Tom’s Bird Feeders.  For those planning a visit in the future, stop in at the Portal Peak Store and Lodge and visit our mug display, Nancy’s hand made soy candles, soaps, pine needle baskets, bird jewelry and other momentos of your trip to Southeastern Arizona.

Goldfinches cling sideways mimicking feeding on seed heads.

In my continuing series on different types of finch bird feeders I would like to review our 1 quart stainless steel thistle bird feeder. 

I have to admit that this thistle bird feeder is my favorite.  It truly optimizes our philosophy of easy to clean and easy to fill bird feeders.  It’s die cast yellow top and bottom along with the  perforated stainless steel sides and lifetime guarantee will make it one of yours also.

You may notice that this bird feeder has no perches.  If you review our article on attracting finches to your yard you will remember that these acrobatic bird use a cling and peck method in nature, so no perches are necessary.

To fill it, you simply lift off the yellow die cast top.  This top is very tight fitting and will keep squirrels from lifting the lid.  Because it is die cast metal the squirrel has no chance of chewing on the lid to get to the thistle/Nyjer seed.  This feeder does not have a center pole, so the seed does not bounce out when you are refilling.  It  also has a seed diverter so that every seed can be consumed and you will not have any waste.

Top lid swings out of the way for filling. The bottom is completely removable by pulling the stainless steel pin.

  This bird feeder will come apart without the use of any tools.  A stainless steel pin, complete will a hoop for easy removal, has to be pulled to remove the bottom.  Once the bottom is removed, I use a Swab wet with a mild bleach solution to clean the inside of the feeder.  I rinse well, allow to dry, and refill.  It’s that easy and as we all know, easy is better.  It also means that the feeder will get cleaned more often.  The  advantage of good hygiene is obvious.

Now I warned you from the beginning of the blog that this was my favorite finch feeder, and now I’m sure that you know why.  If you want me to continue to sing its praise, contact me and I will write pages and pages for you.

This morning we were running on slow, even though we had the coffee mugs filled.   I think we wanted to take a four day weekend and just veg out after our Thanksgiving meal yesterday.  But we were inspired to get moving by a Crissal Thrasher.  He ran across our yard, up the stairs and across the porch.  He then ran back to the bird pond and started scratching under the triple tube bird feeder.  His energy inspired us to get moving and get those bird feeders filled.

You might notice that I say he “ran”.  He did not fly.  Crissal Thrashers are known for their habit of running or walking around their territory.  Even when threatened by a predator or disturbed by us he runs for cover.  He does not fly unless death is imminent.  This unique habit makes things interesting when a Cooper’s Hawk flies over the bird feeders and a covey of quail are also in the yard.  They will all head for the same juniper/acacia tangle.  If the quail have young they win, if not the quail will usually head for the brush pile.

We have only found one Crissal Thrasher nest.  It was built close to the trunk of a tree, under a large branch.  Access to the nest was difficult for even the parent birds and should have provided great protection from predators and becauses of the location the nest was in a shady spot.  The Crissal Thrasher is only thrasher that lay unspotted eggs.

The energy of the Crisssal Thrasher inspired us to get moving or at least inspired me to get out to the office and write this blog.  You can find Crissal Thrashers and observe their habit of running by going to our Portal, Arizona birding map and looking for the big thicket.

With fall here we know to expect the snowbirds to start to filter in. Now, I am not talking about the snowbirds who come in RV’s, but those who migrate here for the same reasons – to avoid the cold and snowy weather.

The White-crowned Sparrow, with it’s striking black and white striped head, is one of the birds that indicate to us that fall is here. The first year birds will have a brown and white striped head when they arrive here, but by the time they head back north the crisp black and white pattern is apparent. He is one of the first sparrows that beginning bird watchers learn to identify when they come to their bird feeders.

Since the White-crowned Sparrow prefers to feed on the ground along tree and shrub lines their favorite feeder in our yard is the platform bird feeder. A mixed seed seems to attract then however they have been know to be drawn to grains such as oats, wheat, barley, and corn.

A young male White-crowned Sparrow learns the basics of the song it will sing as an adult during the first few months of its life. The song is developed from not only listening to it’s father, but he will pick up bits of song from its neighbors. The birds will return to the same area to nest as they were hatched so the songs of the White-crowned Sparrow have regional dialects. If a young bird develops his song on the edge of two different dialects, the young bird will not combine the songs, but may become bilingual learning two different dialects.

Another interesting fact about the White-crowned Sparrow is that it will share their territories with Fox Sparrows, but chase Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos until they leave. In our yard we have three platform bird feeders so that all the sparrows can find a safe place to eat.

Our defination of “snowbirds” may not be the one that most people have, but in the world of birders, I’m sure that the White-crowned Sparrow is one of the welcomed snowbirds to their bird feeders.

This time of year the hummingbird migration is on and we have had lots of Rufous Hummingbirds visiting our hummingbird feeders.

I have to confess, sometimes I get really aggravated at the Rufous Hummingbird. We have had Black-chinned Hummingbirds here all summer. They have nested in our yard and entertained us with their acrobatic flight. Now migration is on and that little tiny bully known as the Rufous has managed to intimidate our summer long visitors. We have put out more Best 1 hummingbird feeders out of sight of each other, but the Rufous has managed to find a vantage point on the roof of our house so that he can see both the west and south side of our house, and he feels he needs 10 feeders for himself.

Tom has reminded me that the Rufous has the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,900-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths and that they need their strength to make such a migration.

Tom also reminds me that the Rufous has been documented chasing chipmunks away from their nest, so that they have to have a fierce nature to protect their young. Also, that they beat their wings 52-62 times a second, so they have to have a great deal of energy.

Tom has valid points, but still, does the Rufous Hummingbird need to dominate all 10  bird feeders? I think I’m still a little aggravated with him.

This morning we had a Rufous-crowned Sparrow visit us while we were sipping from our coffee cups and doing our daily ritual of bird watching from the easy chair.

Our yard has been fenced off from cattle grazing for about 10 years now.  We are fighting a battle with Russian Thistle and have noticed a definite decrease in this weed and several other noxious weeds.  The return of the Rufous-crowned Sparrow has given us hope that our yard will someday become a true desert scrubland haven for the birds.

Once paired the Rufous-crowned Sparrow remain on their territories year-round and stay bonded for life.  The are ground feeders and like to peck at the base of grass stems.  They are therefore most attracted to platform bird feeders in the winter, however prefer insects in the summer months.  The bird baths we have in our yard seem to be attracting them this year as we have not had much in the way of monsoonal rains. 

To help you find Rufous-crowned Sparrows download our Portal Birding Map and look along the Portal Road and the Foothills Roads in the scrub land before and throughout the big thicket.

The fall warbler migration is in full swing now, here in southeastern Arizona.  During the past week we have had numbers of Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, MacGillivray’s Warblers, Townsend’s Warblers, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Virginia’s Warblers and Lucy’s Warblers visiting our four tiered bird pond.  Without this nice water feature these birds would be only a fleeting glimpse through our Chihuahuan Desert property.  The warblers and hummingbirds enjoy the waterfalls where the water flows from one tier to another.  It is so nice to see the colorful warblers bathing in the various levels with our resident Pyrrhuloxias, Canyon Towhees, House Finches and Black-throated Sparrows.  Water is the key to attracting the warblers, flycatchers, vireos and tanagers.  Moving water is even better because birds flying in the vicinity can see the ripples in the water or hear the moving water.  Even a simple bird bath can be made a bird magnet with the addition of a mister or dripper.  There are not many bird species that can resist the sound or looks of moving water so if more birds of more species is your goal, moving water is the solution.

With the fall bird migration starting, watching our birdfeeders becomes more exciting again. Although not all migrants are rare, all are fun to see as they pass through.

This morning we had a Lazuli Bunting at our tube bird feeder. This male was in the middle of a molt. That is not unusual for Lazuli Buntings when they visit our bird feeder here in Portal, AZ.

The Lazuli Buntings have a very unusual way of molting during migration. The birds begin their Prebasic molt during late summer on the breeding grounds, then abruptly stop this molt and migrate to one of two known molting “hotspots”. These are in southern Arizona and New Mexico and northern Sonora, or the southern tip of Baja California. They then finish molting before continuing their migration to wintering grounds in western Mexico.

So, if you get to come birding in our area be sure to watch out for the Lazuli Buntings.  Their molt is something for you to talk about when you return home, and you will only see it here while bird watching in the United States.

A question we are often asked, especially by our more northern and eastern customers is  “Should I quit feeding my hummingbirds around Labor Day?”  Apparently a number of people have found information in the literature somewhere saying that to continue feeding the hummingbirds after Labor Day may keep them too far north and they may be caught in the winter weather as a result.

Recent studies and literature tell us however that there is no evidence that feeding hummingbirds after Labor Day will keep them from migrating.  In fact, feeding may help weakened stragglers refuel for the long haul to Central and South America.  So leave the hummingbird feeders out until the birds stop coming in.

We recently received a question from a wonderful lady who had purchased a Best 1 Hummingbird Feeder from us at a birding festival.  She was concerned that her hummingbird feeder seemed to empty mysteriousy overnight.  I thought I would share my answer to her with everyone.  I hope this answers some other concerned people who have the same question.

Hi,

I’m glad that the hummers have found the new hummingbird feeder. Our hummingbird
migration in in full swing here so you should be getting several different
species shortly.

You said that your feeder seems to be emptying overnight. I would bet
that you have nectar eating bats coming into your feeder. These are
endangered species that come up from Mexico approximately in August following
the yucca and cactus blooms. With this dry year, they are visiting
hummingbird feeders even more than usual.

We simply feed the bats. We like to help endangered species whenever we
can. You can take your feeders down overnight to stop the bats from
feeding. Hummingbirds will still use your feeder even if it is not up at
sunrise. With their metabolism, eating all day is necessary.

If you are handy you can make a homemade cage to stop the bats from coming
in by purchasing some fencing called rabbit guard. Turn the rabbit guard
upside down and make a dome out of the fencing. Be sure the smallest
squares are by the feeder ports. It should be twice the diameter of your
feeder. Hang you feeder inside the dome. The bats will not be able to
reach the ports, but the much smaller hummingbirds will have no problems.

Hope this helps, and feel free to contact us anytime.

Nancy Hays
Tom’s Bird Feeders

Well, according to the quail, a great tragedy has befallen our bird feeders.  You see, we didn’t fill the bird feeders before we went to bed last night and the platform bird feeder was out of seed.  Now before you get terribly upset it was only the recycled platform bird feeder.  The cedar platform bird feeder had some seed in it.

But according to the quail that were on our porch squawking and calling and generally making their displeasure known it is a tragedy.  You see, the Curve-billed Thrasher has claimed the cedar platform bird feeder as his and only his.  He can’t get by with that year round, but we still have very young baby quail coming in with their parents and at the first sign of trouble, everyone heads for cover.

The question you may be asking yourself is why did the quail come onto the porch?  Well, they come up to the sliding glass door and holler at us until the bird feeders are filled.  This is a learned behavior.  They have learned that the bird feeders are filled when someone comes out that door.  They are not quite as bad as chickens, but will come with in a few feet of us at feeding time.

Now you know why the quail had a bad Monday morning.  The next question would be why was our morning bad?  This all took place before 6:00 am, before we are normally up.

Did we get up to feed the quail?  Of course we did!  Our quail are really spoiled.  The only thing more spoiled are our grandchildren.

You can send sympathy cards to our daughter after we visit for a week at the end of the month.  She will deserve them. Spoil them rotten and then leave-that is our motto when it comes to grandchildren!

The fall hummingbird bonanza is gearing up in Portal, Arizona now.  We are having to put out the 32 ounce Best 1 hummingbird Feeders along with the 8 ounce Best 1 Hummingbird feeders.  We have also put up a couple of 8 ounce saucer hummingbird feeders on pole mounts to supplement our other feeders.  Currently we have Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-tailed, Magnificent, Anna’s and Calliope Hummingbirds coming in to our feeders.  Violet-crowned, Costa’s, Lucifer’s and Blue-throated Hummingbirds have all been observed in the Portal area in recent days.  White-eared and Berylline Hummingbirds have been observed in the nearby Huachuca Mountains in the past week.  We had a large hummingbird which we tentatively identified as a Plain-Capped Starthroat a few days ago.  It appeared to be as large as a Magnificent but sat more horizontal on the branch it was perched on.  The red throat was visible but the bird took off before we received a decisive look.  Portal is definitely the place to come to for hummingbirds and now is a great time to break out the hummingbird coffee cups.

This is just a short note to let bird watchers who plan to visit our area that the fall migration has started.  This morning our bird bath was visited by a Lazuli Bunting, a Wilson’s Warbler and two Yellow Warblers.  We have not had many hummingbirds through yet, but will keep you posted.

The Pyrrhuloxias that fledged several weeks ago came back for a visit to our platform bird feeder.  No parent birds were present, so they are on their own.  We hope they continue to visit throughout the winter.  Pyrrhuloxias roam more during the winter and will sometimes leave the dry thorn scrub they prefer to nest in to visit more stream side and even urban settings.

Beginning bird watchers have a tendency to misidentify Pyrrhuloxias.  They are quite often confused with the female cardinal.  This mistake can be avoided by looking at the beak.  The Pyrrhuloxia has a strongly curved bill that can be described as “stubby”   The beak is dark in the juvenile and yellow in the adult.  The cardinal has a larger, more triangular bill.  The juvenile does have a dark beak, but adult cardinals have an orange to red bill.

The odd name Pyrrhuloxia comes from the genus names Pyrrhula (bullfinches) and Loxia (crossbills). The roots mean “flame-colored” and “crooked,” and aptly describe the reddish bird with the crooked bill.

During the summer the Pyrrhuloxia will glean insects from the plants around our bird bath.  During the winter they would normally forage while hopping on the ground, so to attract Pyrrhuloxias the platform bird feeder will be most likely feeder used by this species.

It is alway exciting for birdwatchers out of our area to see their first Pyrrhuloxia and we still enjoy seeing them, specially when we know that a successful nest has taken place in our yard.  If you download our Portal, Arizona birding map you can find the Pyrrahuloxia along the Portal Road or along the Foothills Road.  Good Luck and Good Birding!

Cooper’s Hawks like to eat smaller birds.  It is their way, and we have an article in our hints and tips about what to do when you have one of these birds visiting your bird feeder for his snacks.  The suggestions we make have been proven to work at our feeders and we have had people tell us they have helped at their bird feeders also.

But…..(you could hear that but coming, couldn’t you)…  we have a new bird feeder problem.  We have a young Cooper’s Hawk that has decided that our four tiered bird pond is a great place to soak it’s feet on a hot day.  It comes in and just stands in the water next to the water fall so that it gets a little splash, but not soaked.  We have never seen it attempt to hunt while it is here.  In fact it comes in with a great deal of wing flapping and hopping around.  It seems to want to clear every other animal out so that it has the bath to its self.  It is great to see the hawk stand so still for so long when you want to identify the bird or want to show it to a fellow bird watcher……but….you sure aren’t going to be able to show your fellow bird watcher any other birds when the hawk is around.

Now I realize that Cooper’s hawks have a rough life.  In a recent study of 300 skeletons,  23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the wishbone.  The males have a particularly hard life.  Let me remind you that:

1. Cooper’s Hawks eat birds smaller that they are. 

2. The females will eat medium-sized birds.

3. Male Cooper’s Hawks are smaller than the female. 

 Are you getting the picture?

This tends to make the male submissive and he will make sure that his mate is in the mood before he makes his move, for reasons I’m sure are obvious to you.

The male will build the nest and will then feed both the female and the babies for the next 3 months, the time it takes for the young to be ready to go out on their own.

Now despite this rough life, I wish this particular Cooper’s Hawk would find some other way of cooling off this summer.  He is wreaking our chance to see the baby birds that would usually visit our yard.  It is always fun to watch the adult plumage slowly emerge.

We do have bird feeders on other sides of the house, so we haven’t been totally out of touch with the maturing of the baby birds, but it is just not the same when we fill our coffee cups each morning.

This hawk does not have a flight plan, so we can’t discourage him in the normal ways.  Our only solution is to let the pond go dry and water the birds in the other bird baths are offered around the yard.  I hope he gets the message soon.

Of course, we are not having to put out as much bird seed as usual, so we are saving some money. But, doesn’t the President want us to spend money right now?  Maybe I can get him to address this problem over a beer at the White House some time.

A male Black-headed Grosbeak visited our sunflower bird feeder today. We were excited, because we are slightly out of their habitat. We are in the foothills of the mountains, in desert scrub. The Black-headed Grosbeak prefers a variety of deciduous and mixed forest habitats. We have some small deciduous trees and some short evergreens, but our yard could not be considered a forest habitat.

When the grosbeaks builds a nest they do their best to install air conditioning by making the bottom of the nest so thin that you will be able to see the eggs through the bottom of the nest and the best air circulation is available to the eggs and the parent bird. The thickness of the nest depends on the part of the country the nest is built in.

The female grosbeak is a true feminist. She expects the male to do about half of the work when it comes to incubating eggs and feeding young. If the male starts to spend too much time away from the nest, she will start singing. The male will then return thinking his territory has been invaded.

Attracting grosbeaks to your yard is as easy as providing food, water, and shelter. Grosbeaks will eat insects, seeds and fruits. The grosbeaks visiting our yard prefer sunflower seeds. They like our hopper / platform bird feeder. This feeder has a hopper in the middle of the platform. It is easy to keep full.

These birds seem to prefer our bird pond over our bird bath. They seem to prefer to be near the splash of the tiers, and are regular bathers.

Our yard does not have many of the large deciduous trees, but I have heard them singing from our 15-20 foot trees, although we have never found a nest.

In conclusion, you do not need the ideal habitat to attract Black-headed Grosbeaks to your yard.  Provide the right type of food and some water and they will come.

For the past couple of weeks we have been entertained by a pair of Lucy’s Warblers while we sit with our coffee mugs and watch the birds coming in to our backyard bird habitat.  These birds do not come in to the birdseed we put out for the birds.  However, the sound of flowing water in our four tiered bird pond has been bringing them in every day.

I am not sure why else they would be here.  Their preferred habitat is generally streamside willows, cottonwoods and mesquites.  They generally nest in cavities or under peeling bark of these trees.  The closest habitat of this sort is nearly three miles away from our property and there is not a tree large enough on our property to have cavities or peeling bark. 

These small active little elves have pale gray upperparts, plain gray wings and whitish underparts.  Both male and female have a rusty patch on the upper tail coverts.  The male has a very noticeable rusty red patch on the top of the head.  The bills are thin and very pointed and they have dark legs.  Overall size is smaller than some of our hummingbirds at about 4 1/4 inches.

Lucy’s Warblers are insect eaters and a great deal of the joy we have for these little tykes is watching them glean insects from the sage, acacia and mesquites which border our bird pond.  The acrobatics of these birds in catching their food is amazing as they chase small insects in every imaginable position up and down the branches of the plants.

I do not know if this pair flies from the better habitat three miles away or if they are nesting closer and are utilizing a non-traditional nesting site.  Today, however, they showed up with a juvenile bird.  The youngster was fully feathered and was catching its own food on the various shrubs.  It was similar in looks to the female but had some buff on the underparts.  Now we have three of these little birds to enjoy and enjoy them we will.

When new birders are learning the bird songs, Northern Mockingbirds can be very annoying!  Each bird will sing 10-15 different songs and both the female and the male sing.  These rather plain gray birds sing endlessly, even at night.  To add more confusion for new birders, Northern Mockingbirds continue to add sounds and songs to their repertory throughout their lives.  It has been estimated a male mockingbird may learn about 200 songs and sounds during its life.

Because of this musical talent, they were nearly extirpated from parts of the east coast in the early 1900s.  People took fledglings and  trapped the adults to sell in cities like New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis.  In 1928 these talented singers could bring as much as $50.00.

The Northern Mockingbird is found in shrubby areas with open grassy spots.  Shrubs that form thickets and produce berries are their favorites.  You can find Northern Mockingbirds in parkland, cultivated land, suburban areas and in second growth habitat at low elevations.

Northern Mockingbirds eat mainly insects in summer but switch to eating mostly fruit in fall and winter.  What this means for you is that you must create a backyard bird habitat to attract them to your yard.

Start by planting shrubs and hedges that produce fruit and will become quite thick.  Try to pick native plants, although mockingbirds will eat ornamental berries.  The mockingbirds that clean off the pyracantha berries from our thickets are already establishing territories although the berries are still green.

We use our recycled oriole feeder to feed raisins to the mockingbirds and birds have taken mealworms from other cups in our recycled oriole feeder.  It is always a thrill to see the flash of white in their wings as they approach the feeder.

We also have a four tiered bird pond that recycles water throughout the system.  This is a magnet for the Northern Mockingbird.  They seem to enjoy the splash from one tier to the next.  The less dominate mockingbirds take turns at the bird bath, pretending they can’t see each other.

 The Northern Mockingbird population has rebounded from their low counts in the nineteen hundreds, and even though the mockingbirds in our yard have waken me on more than one morning, I for one know that I am going to have a good day when I hear that song.

Finches are the true vegetarians of the bird world.  While many different bird species enjoy a good seed, most feed on insects when they are available in the summer and usually feed their young insects because of the high protein content.  This is not so when it comes to the finches.  They prefer seeds year round and I can see them reacting as you or I would if we caught a bug in our mouths.  If fact if a Brown-headed Cowbird lays its egg in a goldfinch nest the young cowbird usually does not live past about three days.  They cannot survive on the totally vegetarian diet.

Finches use what I call the”cling and peck” method to feed.  These small birds can cling to the head of a flower and peck at the seeds.  Now these flowers do not have to be sturdy like a sunflower and can be as fragile as a blanket flower.  In fact most finches enjoy seeds from any of the composite family of flowers.

Now that you have the facts you need to back you stance, I would like to offer you the opportunity to do more bird watching.  We all wish that we had more time to go bird watching, I mean would you rather mow your lawn or go bird watching?  Would you rather deadhead the flowers in the garden or go bird watching?  Would you rather dig weeds out of you yard or go bird watching? 

What?   You think your neighbors might object to your yard?  Well, tell them you are doing your part to protect the wild birds.  After all who doesn’t like goldfinches?  They eat the seed heads of thistles and dandelion, so you have to be green and feed the birds.  No, you can’t deadhead the flowers in your garden, you must let them go to seed- to feed the finches.  Trim your shrubs?  What if there is a finch nest in that shrub?  Mow your lawn?  What if that exposes the fledglings to the neighbors cat?  They need places to hide!  I’m sure you see how this is supposed to work.  And it does work for us. 

Of course our closest neighbor is a 1/4 mile away…..

We do enjoy our quail at our bird feeders here in Portal, Arizona.  We normally get good numbers of Gambel’s Quail and Scaled Quail in our yard.  We are located in a transition zone between the grasslands enjoyed by the Scaled Quail and the shrubby foothills preferred by the Gambel’s Quail.  Quail are what we in the bird feeding business call scratchers.  That means that they like to scratch on the ground for the seeds that they eat.  We found out a long time ago that if we just tossed the seed out on the ground for the quail that soon we had a variety of rodent pests coming around to feed there also.  At that time we started using platform bird feeders.  These flat feeders hold the seed far enough off the ground that the rodents cannot get into it and still accommodates the scratching instincts of our quail.  We have seen as many as 12 quail on these feeders at one time.  Even the babies can get up to them at about 10-14 days old.

Speaking of baby quail we just had our first family of Gambel’s Quail in the day before yesterday.  Mom and Dad had 15 young ones in a downy mob at our four tiered bird pond.  The young ones had no trouble jumping up onto the platform feeders to eat with the parents.  Yesterday, our first family of Scaled Quail came in with 8 youngsters.  These little guys looked like a cotton balls on toothpick legs and were only a couple of days old.  They also drank from the bird pond, but were unable to jump up to the platform feeders yet.  Usually by this time we are feeding from 60-80 baby quail a day but this has been a slow year for them.  It has been our experience that the quail fail to nest normally during unusually dry years.  While this has not been as dry as some years, weather predictions are rather dire for this year when it comes to precipitation.  Maybe the quail are trying to tell us something.

Portal, Arizona is a place that most dedicated bird watchers visit at least once, most several times and those who don’t mind the desert habitat (but it’s a dry heat) come more often. We quite often find people standing at our gate trying to see what is at our bird feeders. Normally we try to visit with these birders, as most are really nice people.

Yesterday we noticed a car barely pulling down our road, backing up, then pulling barely in again. After watching this odd behavior for a while we wandered up our road to see what was going on. They were a bird watching couple and the wife was trying to get the car angled so her husband could see our feeders without crossing into the acreage we have fenced off. He had a problem with mobility and getting in and out of the car was difficult. We, of course asked them to pull down our road and park so most of the bird feeders could be observed.

They noticed that we have three recycled oriole feeders hung around our yard, and asked how many orioles we have at one time. Now we get the Scott’s, Bullocks, and Hooded Orioles visiting us for grape jelly, oranges and sugar water just about constantly during the day , but we use the feeders to feed more than just orioles.

These feeders have plastic cups that can be filled with just about anything your imagination can think of and that birds will eat. We currently have one oriole feeder with jelly in one cup and peanut butter in the other with orange halves on the pegs. This feeder is visited by not only the orioles, but can attract wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, warblers, tanagers, woodpeckers and in our yard towhees, thrashers and several species of sparrows.

In the second recycled oriole feeder we have mealworms and raisins with apple on the pegs. All the insect and fruit eating birds favor this feeder. Species this food attracts includes bluebird, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, robins, titmice, warblers, mockingbirds, tanagers, orioles and woodpeckers. We have also had flycatchers visit in our yard.

In the third oriole feeder we have crushed egg shell and fruit we let get a little soft without actually being spoiled. This feeder attracts just about every bird that passes through our yard.

We have had people who have more jays than us tell us about filling the cups with crumbled dog food and people who have grated their suet blocks and used the cups to hold it to make it easier for the kinglets.

The recycled oriole feeder is one of the most versatile feeders we have. Maybe we should rename this feeder. Any suggestions?

During the past couple of weeks we have been conducting Breeding Bird Surveys on the Coronado National Forest here in southeastern Arizona.  We conduct four of these surveys with one each in the Peloncillo Mountains and the Dragoon Mountains and two in the Chiricahua Mountains.  These counts are part of a nationwide system of similar counts, all conducted on a standardized basis, with the intent of showing population fluctuations of birds in general or any given species in a given area.  They are conducted in the same place at roughly the same time every year.

These routes have already been randomly laid out by computer and consist of a starting point (Stop 1) with 49 more points each 1/2 mile apart.  Basically it is a linear transect 24 1/2 miles long.  At each point the counter counts all of the birds he sees or hears within a three minute time period.  At the end of three minutes he moves to the next stop 1/2 mile away.  Birds observed or heard after the three minutes or between stops do not count.  This goes on for the 50 survey stops of each route.  Each route has a designated starting time which is 1/2 hour before official sunrise and most end before 10:00 AM in the morning.  Each stop should remain constant from year to year and many Breeding Bird Survey conductors GPS the stop locations.  Also, it is not permissible to use audio recordings, pishing or any other method to coax the birds.

As you can see, Breeding Bird Surveys are technical and, I must admit, a drier form of bird watching.  However, the knowledge we get from them can be immense.  It was Breeding Bird Survey data that told us of the dramatic decline in numbers of individuals of many prairie species.  We have 15 years of data on our counts.  While the same species still reside on our sites, we have noted declines in numbers of individuals of many species.  However, this year we had a number of Botteri’s Sparrows, a grassland species on one of our counts.  We had never had them on any of our counts before and their arrival probably coincided with the breaking of a 30+ year drought a couple of years ago.  Areas which have not had grass since the 1940s now have luxerient grass over 4 feet tall.  Now this population fluctuation is documented by this survey.

Now that you know a little about Breeding Bird Surveys, it is time to decide if you would want to do one.  Nancy and I were doing about 20 a year at one time and have conducted them in South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.  Routes are available in all 50 states.  All you need to conduct a count is a reliable automobile, a pair of binoculars, a notepad and pencil and the ability to know the local birds by sight and sound.  If you think a Breeding Bird Survey is for you, you may contact the Breeding Bird Survey Office at (301) 497-5843 and they will refer you to your state’s coordinator.  Are you up to the task?

“Listen, listen. I hear something.” I said poking Tom in the ribs. 

“I don’t hear anything,” Tom mumbled trying to hear what the announcer was saying about the foul in the soccer game he was watching.

“Mute the TV, and listen!” I insisted.

Tom muted the television and with a frown pretended to listen while most of his concentration was on the soccer game.

Finally the sound was repeated. Now Tom’s frown deepened.  He had just completed several Breeding Bird Surveys and had had his ears tuned into bird calls for several weeks.

“Boy, that call is something I can’t place.  It definitely sounds more bird like than it does mammal or bug,” Tom said shaking his head.  ” I just can’t place it.”

It was time to investigate.  I stood inside the back door and scanned the trees and bushes before opening the door.  The only thing is sight was a Canyon Towhee.  We were both familiar with all of the calls and songs of the towhee, after all they are with us year round.

The call repeated itself.  It sounded close, but we couldn’t see anything.  It was time to open the door and take our chances that the bird would simply disappear.  I crept down the steps with binoculars ready.  Tom stayed on the porch to  get a wider view of anything that might fly.  I couldn’t see anything that would make that call.  The only thing around were some Black-throated Sparrows and the towhees.

“Hey, Nancy, I have it identified.  I think you are looking to far away from the house.”  Tom was smiling with a knowing look on his face.  He pointed straight down off the porch. 

Sure enough he had the culprit with the weird call found and identified.  See if you can identify it.

Can you identify this bird?

It was a fledgling Canyon Towhee.

Now you may ask what we did to help this little guy.  Well, we followed our own advice that is in our hints and tips page.

Everything turned out right.  The parent birds called and lead the little guy to the safety of a Mormon Tea Bush.  Tom’s team even won the soccer game.

Summer might be considered the most “prosperous” time of year for birds.  Most raise their families during this time of year because of the abundance of insects and berries to feed the young and themselves and the leafy shelter of trees, shrubs and vines is much more luxuriant during the summer than any other time of year providing cover for birds and nests.

For some birds, however, this may still be a critical time of year.  While nature and man may provide luxuriant growth in many areas, some birds must still travel afar to obtain water and food to feed themselves and their young.  The birds are exposed to added dangers during these forays.  This is where we as birders can come in and make a difference for the birds and add a great deal of enjoyment to our own lives by attracting a greater number of birds and bird species to our yards. 

By providing fleshy fruits for feeding babies and water we can eliminate or lessen these dangers.  Many nesting birds require fleshy berries for food during their early development.  We can help by providing or planting cherries, mulberries, serviceberries, blueberries, elderberries, raspberries, pyracantha, blackberries, wild plums, chokecherries or other fleshy fruit producing plants in our yards. 

In summer, birds look for thick plantings to provide shelter and nesting areas.  They naturally look for thick evergreens, yews or barberry hedges, vine thickets, hawthorns and trees providing hollow cavities for nesting.  We can help by putting up bird nest boxes for the species that will utilize them.  These plantings also attract many insects which the birds eat themselves or feed to their young.

Fresh water is even more important during the summer than any other time of year, especially in hot dry weather.  It is more important during this time of year to keep fresh water in the bird baths than to operate feeding stations during the summer.  Always remember that the sound of moving water will attract more birds to your yard during this time of year than non moving water.  This can be accomplished by providing your bird bath with a dripper or mister or by providing moving water with a backyard waterfall kit.

Summer is a “prosperous time of year for the birds, but, this does not mean that we cannot still help them out and provide enjoyable, educational and relaxing entertainment for ourselves.  Summer can be fun in the backyard.

We recently had the opportunity to go bird watching on the other side of the mountain, over by Patagonia, Arizona.  Now it may be just a short distance as the crow  raven flies, but for us it is about 2 1/2 – 3 hours from our house. I have to change it to raven as we have no crows in the area.

A trip like this will usually let us see some species that don’t get over the mountain too often like the Phainopepla, the Cassin’s Sparrow and the Gila Woodpecker, to name a few.  Now before I get bombarded with comments about who has seen the birds on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains, I know they get here, but they are much more common on the west side of the mountains.

We were looking at a woodpecker, and had to opportunity to show it to some visiting birdwatchers from Virginia.

The gentleman thanked us and explained that they get Red-bellied Woodpeckers all of the time.

Tom and I  commented that we had gotten a lot of Red-bellied when we worked in Virgina and soon tired of them much like people from our area soon tire of the Acorn Woodpecker.

My Mother-in-law asked us to remind her to write the Gila Woodpecker down on here list because it was a year bird for her.  (She was visiting from Wyoming.)

The gentleman asked where we got the Gila.  Tom pointed up to where the Gila was still sitting.  The wife grabbed the field guide.

“Do you realize that that is a lifer for both of us?” The gentleman exclaimed.  He said that the Red-bellied Woodpecker was so common in the area that they lived that they just didn’t even bother to look closely at a medium-sized woodpecker with barring on its back and some red on its head.  They had noticed that there was less red than on most from their area, but had written it off as a regional difference or perhaps a young bird.

I think both of our new Virginia birding friends felt a little embarrassed about the misidentification.

I guess the lesson to learn from this story is to always check the distribution maps, especially when birding for the first time in a new area.  You might just add a lifer!

While bird watching yesterday, my Brother-in-law tagged along.  He is not a birdwatcher, and I feared he would become bored after a few minutes.   He is usually a very active mountain biker type of guy.  He had come from California to visit with us while my Mother-in-law from Wyoming, who is an avid birdwatcher, was visiting.

While we were showing my Mother-in-law some of the local specialties such as the Pyrrhuloxia and Painted Redstart, Paul asked what kind of bird was in the bush right next to the road.  All of our heads immediately went to the tops of the oak trees.

“I think they are a little lower than where you are looking at’” Paul ventured.  “There’s one right next to me.”

Our eyes and binoculars went to the edge of the small pool of water about 20 feet from Paul.  We started to scan the brush around the pool.

“Uhm, if you are looking for what I am seeing they are about 5 feet from me about chest high.”  The birds Paul had spotted were still near him and still not spotted by three “seasoned birdwatchers”

Now admittedly, I figured he had spotted one of the swallowtail butterflies that had been flitting around.  About that time something fluttered out from a bush, about 5 feet from Paul.  When it landed, it was perched at the very end of a branch and worked its way upside down.  Suddenly,  a second ball of feathers with a long tail appeared.  This one had yellow eyes where the first had dark eyes.  This ball of feathers was a soft gray color with a slightly lighter breast.  They were foraging for bugs and had a very soft tzee tzee tzee call.

Have you guessed what Paul had found for us?  A pair of Bushtits!  Although this bird is considered common in our area, they are frequently overlooked,  just as we had done. 

I think the most interesting fact about the Bushtit is that the female has yellow eyes, while the male has dark eyes.  These birds usually can be found in flocks, but this time of year they have paired off.  The nest can be anywhere from 8′ to 35′ above ground.  Although they do pair off, territories are not usually strongly defended and pairs can be found quite close together.

Here’s our big THANK YOU, PAUL!   Without you, our bird list would be shorter!

For directions on how to find Bushtits visit our  Portal, Arizona Birding Map.  The Bushtits were by Stewart Campground.

Everyone knows that the bird watching is terrific in the Portal, Arizona area by day.  What a lot of people do not know is that it can be equally exciting at night.  At least 12 species of owls inhabit the area.  Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls, Western Screech-Owls, Whiskered Screech-Owls, Northern Pygmy-Owls, Burrowing Owls, Mexican Spotted Owls, and Long-eared Owls are all permanent residents in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.  Flammulated Owls and Elf Owls spend the summers and breed here.  Short-eared Owls and Northern Saw-whet Owls spend the winters in the area.  Overall it is a pretty owlly place we live in.

Yesterday the Western Tanagers returned to Portal, Arizona.  A beautiful male came in to bathe and drink from our four tiered bird pond.  He was later joined by two more brilliant male birds and a female.

We always enjoy these colorful birds and we are sometimes asked by our customers how to attract tanagers to their yards.  Since these birds are not generally seed eaters we must look to other aspects for attracting these birds.  Looking at the National Wildlife Federation’s list for attracting wildlife (food, water, shelter) it becomes more apparent what must be done to attract them.  A combination of the three will certainly get them to your yard if they are in your area.

Water is probably easiest method for attracting tanagers.  They love moving water and the sound of it seems to be magnet for them.  We get them every year in the spring and fall and our property in the Chihuahuan Desert is nothing like the mountain canyons or riparian habitats they prefer.  Water can be provided in a simple birdbath or, more elaborately, with a small backyard pond kit.  Pond kits usually come with a waterfall type setup.  Misters or drippers can be used to move the water in a birdbath.

Since tanagers do not normally eat seed you must accommodate their fruit and insect eating habits.  We have found that they truly love watermelon fruit.  Other birding friends have told us that they also come in to grape jelly and mealworms.  All of these items may be offered at one time using a recycled oriole feeder like the one shown below.   Instead of the oriole setup shown you can use one half of an orange and a slice of watermelon on the pegs.  Keep one tub filled with grape jelly and put live mealworms in the other tub.  The sides are slick so they will not crawl out.

Shelter is a little more problematic if you do not already have trees or shrubs on your property.  Tanagers enjoy tall trees and frequently forage in the tree tops.  A thick stand of evergreens is ideal and if you have provided food and water in the proper ways, you may keep a pair of tanagers around to nest for the summer.

For the past two weeks we have been on a business trip to south Texas.  However, the beautiful thing about birding is that it is an interest that will travel anywhere with us.  There are birds everywhere in the world that a person would travel to.  After our own Portal, Arizona area, the Rio Grande Valley is our favorite birding area.  A trip can’t be all business…right?  It is an area with a number of unique bird species such as the Altamira and Audubon’s Orioles, Groove-billed Ani, White-collared Seedeater, Red-billed Pigeon, Long-billed Thrasher, Clay-colored Robin (Thrush), Brown Jay, Blue Bunting and Aplomado Falcon.   Even the common birds birds such as the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Harris Hawk, Crested Caracara, Ringed Kingfisher, Green Jays and Olive Sparrows keep us entertained because they are all species that we can only see when we visit “the Valley”.  Migrations in the area will always provide fun because most shorebird and warbler species that call North America home in the summertime will pass through the area both coming and going.

While many of our old birding haunts in the Valley are now closed to the public because of the rampant drug trade with nearby Mexican cities, several great places are still available for birding and nature studies.  Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is an excellent birding location.  We have spotted Aplomado Falcons here on several occasions and feeders and water features at the headquarters bring in many local favorites.  Falcon Dam and Falcon Dam State Park provide homes for Green and Ringed Kingfishers and Green and Brown Jays.  Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is great for a number of Texas endemics.  The Hidalgo Pumphouse Nature Park in Hidalgo, Texas is a wonderful early morning birding site.  Favorites here include the Clay-colored Robin which behaves much like the American Robin hunting worms on the grassy lawns.  Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park also provides for exiting birding.  There is even a Birding Trail which covers the vicinity and takes you into many small nature centers and special habitat areas.

We have found the birding to be very good in the Lower Valley all 12 months of the year.  Each season has its specialties, but you just can’t go wrong with this area at any time of year.

We have a report from Campbell County, Wyoming that the Greater Sage Grouse are booming.  They use the same area year after year, so any bird watcher should be able to give you directions.  Contact us if you need more help locating a lek.  This is something every bird watcher should see at least once.  On this particular lek there were about 20  males and only 3 females.

We also have reports of a good shore bird and duck migration from there.  Sitings include Cinnamon Teal, Black-necked Stilts, Western Grebes and Wood Ducks.

Tom and I just spent 2 weeks in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas.  We were working, but as any good birdwatcher knows there is always time for a little side trip to birdwatch.  We were on Highway 281 by Los Indios when we spotted a small wetlands off of the highway.  As shorebirds and ducks are something we don’t see much of at Portal, we decided to stop.

Tom had wandered just a little ahead of me when I heard the “shouted” whisper. “Nancy, Nancy, Bluebird!”

I just nodded and continued looking at a Common Yellowthroat and had something wading just inside of some cattails.  I was hoping for a rail.  Besides I had all of the Bluebirds for the year.

“Nancy!” exclaimed Tom, giving be the behind the back wave which means he has something good.  I proceeded to catch up with Tom.  “We have a blue bird blipping through the brush.  I’ve lost him, but we need to find him.”

“Like a bunting or grosbeak?” I inquired.

“You tell me” he replied.  That is a clue that he does not want to influence what field marks I see or identification I may make.

About that time a blue bird hopped up onto open branch.  I got my binoculars on him just in time to watch him fly back down. 

“That was a dark, dark blue.  Much darker that an Indigo Bunting.  I don’t think I saw any wingbars.  I’m not sure what it was.”  The bird continued to move in the underbrush giving us glimpses of him, but never came out to give us a clear look.  Suddenly he flew across to an inaccessible area of the wetlands and disappeared.  We hung around as long as we could, but work called.

We returned to the car and dug out the book. The Blue Bunting is much darker than the Indigo Bunting.  Tom thinks that he may have caught a glimps of the beak, but not a great look.  The habitat was right, and if you are going to see one, we were in the right area.

We returned for the next 3 days to the wetlands and had lots of Indigo Buntings.  Most of them were between winter and breeding plumages.  None of then were dark blue to blackish blue.

It might have been a Blue Bunting.

It could have been a Blue Bunting.

I would like to call it a Blue Bunting.

Maybe it was a Blue Bunting.

This bird is going on our 2040 list.  If we have not seen a Blue Bunting by the year 2040, we will probably not get one.  When we are that old, no one will argue with us so the plan is to add all of the  might of….could of…..maybe birds to our life lists. 

2040 is going to be a great year for our life lists.

We have been commenting on the fact that the bird migration is running weeks early this year with many bird species back in Portal almost a month early.  Now we know for sure that spring is here.

• A male Scott’s Oriole is in full song from the top of the neighbor’s Yucca.
• The baby Red-eared Sliders (a turtle species which we work with at our facility) are swimming in the turtle pool.  These babies hatched from eggs laid last fall by parents we are caring for after they were hit by vehicles in the wild.  Quite often they hatch in late fall, but remain in the nest underground until favorable weather exists.  They seem to know when there will be no more freezing nights.
• The mesquite trees are leafing out.  They also seem to know when there will be no more freezing nights.

Spring has truly sprung here in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Over the past weeks I have discussed the first two necessities of providing a good backyard habitat for birds; food and water.  Today I will elaborate on the third and final component of a good habitat, shelter.

Shelter can be provided to birds and other wildlife in three basic ways:

• birdhouses for nesting
• brush piles for roosting, nesting and foraging
• plantings to provide nesting, roosting and and safe foraging areas.

While not a large number of bird species use nestboxes, many very desirable species do.  For these species the following components are important:

• size proportional to the bird species you wish to occupy it
• thick wood construction to provide insulation from the heat and cold
• an easy way to remove one side or the top for cleaning and clean it out when nesting is over to prevent parasites and disease
• the proper size hole opening to discourage predators
• no perch (perches are used by predators, not occupants)
• a rough interior or grooves on the inside under the opening to assist the young birds in leaving the nest
• box must be hung in the right habitat, at the right height for the species meant to occupy it and the opening must face away from prevailing winds

Brush piles provide a favorite nesting place for many bird species including quail, doves, towhees, juncos and several of the native sparrow species.  A simple pile of branches and yard cuttings will provide homes and hunting areas for many species of birds.  It will be a hub of activity during the nesting season and will provide great shelter in the winter time.  After a year or two move the brush pile and you will find a wonderful layer of compost beneath it which your garden plants will love.

You can also use plantings in your yard to provide shelter.  Massed plantings of evergreens are useful for nesting and protection from wind and bad weather.  Thick shrubs and trees will assist in providing nesting places and safe foraging areas for birds.  This is the hardest aspect of a backyard bird habitat to provide sometimes as it almost always seems like it takes forever for the plants to grow to a useful size.  Be persistent and it will come.

Remember the three Cs when providing shelter for your birds; cleanliness, comfort and consistency.  Then, sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee in your bird themed coffee mug and enjoy these beautiful and interesting birds you have attracted to your backyard bird habitat .

This week-end we went bird watching in South Fork just above Portal, Arizona.  On our way to the canyon we stopped at the Sunny Flats Campground.  Much to our surprise the Elegant Trogons are back already!  The trogon’s average return date is from the middle of April to the middle of May.  This is again a sign that the bird migration is early this year.

As with most times when bird watching we heard the trogon before we saw it.  The call is 4-6 low “croaks”.  For such a beautiful bird, Mother Nature balanced its beauty with a non-musical voice.

The trogons have nested in Sunny Flat Campground for years.  When you look for the nest of the trogon look about 25 feet up in a dead tree or branch with sycamores being their favorite tree.  In courtship, the male will climb into the cavity and call to the female.  If the female enters the cavity true love is in the air.

They usually have 2 eggs, but can have up to 4.  Both parents share the job of incubation, with the female taking the overnighter and again at midday.  The male gets the early morning and late afternoon shift.  Incubation lasts about 22-23 days.  Both the male and female will feed the young.  After about 3 weeks the young leave the nest, but still rely on the parents for care.

Trogons establish a territory.  The territory is announced by the calling and it is thought to be about 1/2 mile in size.  While you are looking for the trogon keep your eyes out for the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher as they will compete for nest sites.

One thing I must emphasize–trogon nests are vulnerable to disturbance by observers!   Be quiet when in their area and do not disturb the tree or use any mechanical device to call for the birds.

This morning we had our first Common Yellowthroat of the season at our four tiered bird pond setup.  May 1st is the traditional return time for this species, so, like several other species this year, he was very early (over a month).  Common Yellowthroats are rare here on the desert, however we do seem to get one or two every couple of years coming into our bird pond to bath and drink during their migration.  This shows the importance of providing water for the birds as a form of attraction.  Whether you are on the desert like us or in a suburban backyard, water will attract a wide variety of birds to your property.  Many of these birds are species which would not normally come in to seed type bird feeders because they normally eat insects or berries.  Always remember the three Cs when you provide water, food or shelter for your birds; cleanliness, comfort and consistency.  Always keep the container clean.  Place it such that it is far enough from trees or brush so that a cat or predator cannot sneak up on the birds, but close enough that the bird can jump into the tree or brush if a predator does happen by.  Try to provide the water on a consistent basis, but do remember that wild birds are not totally dependent on you.  Put out water in a bird bath or small pond kit and enjoy your birds.

This weekend we had a Hooded Oriole visit us for the first time this spring.  They usually do not arrive in this area until the first week of April, so migration is still about one week ahead of schedule.  This male came first to the necar in the hummingbird feeder and then moved over to the recycled oriole feeder for a bite of jelly.  This species will stay with us for the summer and will build their nests on the underside of yucca leaves.

We have observed the courtship ritual.  The male circles the female bowing low, then raising up until the beak is straight up.  He sings a very soft (and romantic) song to the female while “dancing” for her.  She  will mimic this behavior if she is interested.

They lay 3-5 eggs and the incubation period is about 12-14 days.  Both the male and female feed the young.  I should note that the Bronzed Cowbird will parasitize the nest.  We have seen up to three broods brought off the nest in one summer.

While birding in Cave Creek we found six Painted Redstarts.  Now we have had Painted Redstarts winter over in our area.  When they do stay, the redstarts are common visitors to hummingbird nectar feeders.  They are one of the warblers that will come to nectar. others being the Townsend’s Warbler, the Black-throated Blue Warbler,The Cape May Warbler, the Orange-crowned Warbler to name a few.  But this number of redstarts is another indicator that spring is here.

These birds seem to be aware of how beautiful they are, and regularly posture with the wings and tail slightly spread.  They will also turn around on the branch so you can see all sides of the bird.

The Painted Redstart nests in a shady area on a steep slope.  In our area they like to use bank overhangs or a small crevasse between or under boulders.

To find the redstart here in Portal your first stop should be the bridge just before the picnic area in South Fork.  Good birding to you!

The spring bird migration was about a week ahead of schedule here in Portal until we reached the first part of March.  Two things have influenced our bird migration.  First we are having a cold spell that has lasted about 5 days now.  We have had some early hummingbirds in the canyon mostly the Broad-tailed Hummingbird and a report of a Magnificent Hummingbird.

The other thing that has influenced the birds in the area has been a large fire.  The Hog Fire is over 16,000 acres.  The fire is now 50% contained thanks to Mother Nature and hard working firefighters.  Mother Nature gave us about 2/3 of an inch of rain over night and the wind is down today.  The fire is in the Peloncillo Mountains southeast of Portal, but the smoke has found us.  Neither the birds or the local residents were enjoying the smoke.  Hopefully the hummingbird migration will be in full swing next week.   We will keep you posted.