Ornate Tree Lizard
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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? Recently a birding friend of ours approached us with a problem he was having. His wife, who was also a long time birder had recently been admitted to a nursing home due to failing health. While still being of sharp mind (It was her body which was failing.) she was bored with the daily routine of the facility. He said that she missed the birds that she had so happily watched at their home. We suggested that they talk to the facility’s management about putting up a window mounted bird feeder on the large window in her room. This was allowed and this story had a happy ending. Window mount bird feeders are great for people who are home or facility bound or that wish to bird while they work in home or office. These feeders bring the birds into easy viewing distance from inside the house. Draw the birds of your choice with the variety of platform, suet, oriole or hummingbird window mount bird feeders. To properly mount your feeder be sure the glass is clean and then soak the suction cups in hot water until they are pliable. These feeders will stay put! Yet, they are so simple to remove! Some people have expressed the concern that window mounted bird feeders may lead to more window collision deaths or injuries for their birds. This could not be farther from fact as the feeder breaks up the reflective quality of the glass. The birds slow down for the feeder as they approach it. We have far more problems with birds leaving the feeders 15 feet away from our sliding glass door on our patio when a cat or hawk passes through. We have never had a casualty as a result of our window mounted feeders. Window mount bird feeders are a nice solution to the problem of being home bound. It allows a person to observe up close a variety of the local birds and keeps one’s mind sharp with the identification process. 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. Today when we went outside to fill our bird feeders, a Great Blue Heron was sitting on top of our roof. This would not be an unusual species except I live in the middle of a desert with the nearest body of water several miles away. All I can say is birds are where you find them. 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. This battle started with a Loggerhead Shrike perching on top of an agave stalk we had placed above our bird feeders. After a few days of his continuous presence, our morning ritual of filling our coffee cups and watching our bird feeders became rather boring. We thought we had solved the problem by removing the agave stalk. The shrike moved to our satellite dish. From there he can now dominate all three bird feeding stations in our yard. This morning we climbed onto the roof and attached several strips of surveyor’s fluorescent pink tape to the cable he perches on. Hopefully this will discourage his continued presence. I’m hopeful, but not ready to declare the war over! We have been blaming the windy weather for keeping the number of birds down at our bird feeders. But today the wind was down, the sun was out and birds were still not coming into our bird feeders. In fact even the thrashers were hunkered down deep into the bushes instead of claiming a platform bird feeder. We had recently had to take an agave stalk down because we had a Loggerhead Shrike use it as a perch. But with the stalk down we had not seen him lately. This morning when we went to fill the bird feeders, we discovered that we had not discouraged the shrike, but only accomplished moving him to the top of our television satellite dish. Now he can see all three bird feeding stations at the same time. We can’t take down the satellite dish. He does not fly away when we try to scare him. But, we do have some neighbors worried about our sanity. It seems that yelling and waving your arms while staring at your dish is not normal. This shrike thinks he has outsmarted us. And I guess we may have lost the battle, but have not given up the war. If you have ideas, PLEASE let us know.  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. We have often heard the comment “I don’t feed birds because I travel and I don’t want to make them dependent on my bird feeder.” Often we are asked about this at our booth at various birding festivals and trade shows. For the longest time I really didn’t have a good answer based on facts. Now I do. Margaret Brittingham at the University of Wisconsin’s Wildlife Ecology Department conducted a three year study, tracking 576 Black-capped Chickadees and found no difference in the rates of survival of feeder visitors to wild foragers. Her study indicates that feeder birds obtained only 20 to 25% of their daily energy requirements from feeder food. However, when temperatures dropped below 10 degrees Fahrenheit the chickadees increasingly turned to feeder seeds. The goal of Brittingham’s study was to learn whether birds become dependent on feeders and loose the ability to forage in the wild. Her study did not support that premise. The specific citation for this study is Journal of Field Ornithology, 63(2):190-194: Does Winter Bird Feeding Promote Dependency, by Margaret C. Brittingham and Stanley A. Temple. With this said, let’s get out there and put up the bird feeders. Birds are colorful and interesting. They provide a wonderful link for both children and adults with the natural world around us. Studies show that relaxing and enjoying the birds coming into a feeder reduces stress. These are good things for you and your family. The food does help the birds out so it is a win-win situation. And you will not make them dependent on your feeding in the process. I was at a show last weekend where I had a Grandmother lament that her grandchildren just weren’t interested in bird watching. I have grandchildren and found them to be very involved in feeding the birds and are very excited when a bird came in for breakfast or maybe just a snack. I have been thinking about why my grandkids are interested in bird watching and would like to offer the following suggestions to parents and grandparents. These suggestions are for young children. In another blog I will talk about older children. First, you need to get them involved. Pointing though a window and saying “Look at the pretty bird” just does not do it. My grandson (2 1/2 years old) helps fill the bird feeders. When we have finished filling the bird feeders and hear the birds singing, I tell him that it is their way of saying “thank you”. If we have not filled the bird feeders, the singing is their way of saying “please”. I don’t make an issue that he helps every day and I never interrupt a good game of stacking the blocks to do this. I try to pick a time that he is looking for something to do. And yes, some times the birds get fed more often than they need to, but who cares as long as the child is interested in birds right then? We have bird feeders that are at his level. All bird watchers have experienced “warbler neck”, that stiff feeling that you get from looking up all day at tree top birds. For a child a bird feeder at your level will give them “warbler neck” We have several platform bird feeders that are at his height. These are the bird feeders that he notices. The platform bird feeders are outside a sliding glass door at our house, and outside a low picture window at Great Grandma’s house. The movement of the birds catches his eye and when he knows that he filled that feeder, he is excited. It means that we have finger prints on the glass, but really, is that something that we should worry about?  Bird Watching at Great Grandma's House. The bird feeders are at a level that helps little ones enjoy the birds I need to remember that my grandson will not be excited about the first Green-tailed Towhee each fall, but is excited about the House Finches every time he sees them, after all red is his favorite color. He has helped his little sisters stand up to look out the windows more than once and explained to them that “That’s my bird!” I try to remember that if he has spotted a particularly colorful bird, like Blue Jays in South Dakota or a Cardinal in Arizona I need to stop what I am doing for just a few seconds and share in his excitement. I also need to remember that his attention span is still very limited and he will be off to his next project before I am ready to move on. I think you get the idea by now. Make bird watching fun. Don’t make it a chore. Get down on your knees and see their world. You will learn that the world through their eyes is a very different place than the world though our eyes. Enjoy their wonderment. As every Grandma knows, childhood does not last long enough. Today I will review another finch bird feeder. Now, remember these bird feeders will only feed thistle bird food. They will not accommodate a mixed seed nor will they feed sunflower seeds. These thistle bird feeders will attract all three species of goldfinches, House Finches, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and I have had reports of juncos and titmice regularly visiting thistle feeders. If you have been using a thistle sock and are tired of replacing it or have problems with squirrels, the acrylic thistle feeder might be the next step up for your backyard birding habitat. The acrylic top will provide some protection from rain and the acrylic bottom does have drain holes so that rain may quickly drain away from the seed. This feeder also has a center seed diverter so that Every seed can be consumed. The screen is stainless steel and allows birds to cling to it. There are no perches, but this will help with some problem birds such as the pigeons and morning doves. Now remember that finches are “cling and peck” feeders and do not need to have perches. The top has a special lock pin so that it will not blow off in wind storms, but can be easily removed for filling. To clean the acrylic finch feeder, we spray the screen with a mild bleach solution, use a stiff brush to scrub it and then allow it to dry. The bottom may be removed during the cleaning process, but it is held together with a nut on the bottom so you must use an appropriate tool. For this reason, this feeder is slightly more of a challenge to clean that some of the others that I will review. However, at only $14.99 for a 1 quart feeder with a three year warranty this is one of our most popular thistle bird feeders. A little while back I wrote a blog about the winter birds coming in to our bird feeders early this year. Well, the birds knew what they were doing. For the past two days we have had rain, sleet and snow! On Wednesday the snow actually accumulated on the ground. It only lasted a few hours, but snow is usually at our elevation only in December and January. This storm brought a new yard bird into our platform bird feeder. It was the Dark-eyed Junco, the Oregon subspecies. It is common in Paradise, but the elevation and the habitat are typical for the Oregon Junco in Paradise, not down here on the edge of the desert. We also had a Gila Woodpecker coming in to help its self to the sunflower seed bird feeder, one seed at a time. He would then fly up to an agave stock to crack the seed, then back down to the bird feeder. The weatherman has promised a warm up, but this morning the Oregon Junco was back in. Who do you think predicts the weather more accurately, the weatherman or the junco? “Which thistle bird feeder is right for me?” is a question I get quite often at the birding festivals. First I have to ask if you are feeding thistle now. If you are and are looking for a new thistle feeder I would like to know why. Do you just need to replace an old thistle feeder that is in disrepair? Is there a reason you don’t like your current thistle bird feeder? Is it hard to fill? Is it hard to clean? If you are not feeding thistle then let’s figure out what birds a new thistle bird feeder will bring into your yard. We need to check distribution maps and compare your location to the maps. You will get some birds into thistle anywhere in the country, and checking distribution and habitat will tell you what the most likely species are, such as Goldfinches, Siskins, Redpolls and House Finches. If you are new to feeding thistle to the birds I like to suggest a thistle sock as a beginner bird feeder. We have three different thistle socks. Our basic thistle sock comes filled with thistle seed. This will give you both the sock and a starting supply of seed. This is for someone who is just not sure what will come in to the thistle sock. These socks have a thinner weave to their material. The other socks are woven from heavy material, and comes in two sizes. The small thistle socks are approximately 4″ x 11″. This sock will accommodate approximately 7-8 birds at a time. The large thistle socks are woven from heavy material and are approximately 4″ x 22″. This sock will accommodate approximately 12-15 birds at a time. A draw string retainer protects from spillage of expensive nyjer seed on these thistle socks. Any thistle sock is subject to damage from squirrels, so this should be taken in to account before choosing a thistle sock. With any thistle sock, be sure to roll the sock between your hands after rain. This will move the seed around and assure that the seed dries so there is not spoilage. These thistle bird feeders provide an economical method for feeding small desirable birds that cling, and may be right for you. In upcome blogs I will discuss our other thistle bird feeders pros and cons. We will find the perfect thistle feeder for you! We have had an Anna’s Hummingbird visiting our hummingbird feeder recently. That flash of rose red while we sip from our coffee cup always gives us pause. The color is so brilliant. When I first started bird watching, I thought that my field guide had taken some creative liberties when they chose the color of ink, but I now know that my inexperience was showing and that the field guide was accurate. A facinating fact about this little gem of a bird is his display. This little guy will not only display for a female hummingbird, but will show off for humans frequently. He will let you know that you are about to be treated to this display by hovering 6-12 feet in front of you. He will then fly about 130 feet straight up. He will then plummet in a near vertical dive. This display dive ends when the lets off a loud tweet about a 1 1/2 feet in front of you. He will then circle back to his starting point. Now this little hummingbird knows how beautiful he is as he will orient himself to the sun so that his throat and crown are reflected in the sun during the dive. So, next time you think that the Anna’s Hummingbird you were watching disappeared by flying straight up, stay put, he just may be giving you a special view, and celebrate by wearing your Anna’s Hummingbird cap. What is the winter weather going to bring us? I looked out the window this past week to see a Pinion Jay at our stainless steel sunflower bird feeder. I did a double take. We have had them in our yard before, but usually in December and January, and then only when we have snow at our elevation which only happen a few times a year. Although Tom was sure I knew what a Pinion Jay looked like after helping band them for years, his eyebrow still went up just a little. “How unusual,” was his only comment. Just a few days ago Tom hollered in from the family room “Hey, we have a Scrub Jay eating at the suet bird feeder!” “How unusual,” was my only comment. Although I have to tell you that I did get a good look at him and will confirm his finding. This morning while we were sipping from our coffee mugs we had a Dark-eyed Junco stop for a bite to eat at the triple tube bird feeder. We looked at each other and said at the same time “How unusual!” We can laugh and tease each other and this sort of teasing always makes the day start off right. It does make us wonder-what kind of weather will we be having if the birds are already scouting out bird feeders at our lower elevation? Are you people from up north feeling sorry for us? We started our morning in the typical fashion-coffee mugs in front of the sliding glass door in our family room. Our thistle bird feeder was attracting the Lesser Goldfinches. These finches usually stay for most of the year with us. They will leave us for a few weeks each summer during breeding season. But this morning we had one American Goldfinch stop in for a bite to eat and a quick bath in the bird bath. This species is uncommon for our area. A few are seen in the area each year, but we have never had the flocks we were familiar with when we lived in South Dakota, and they never stay in the area for very long. We knew our day was off to a great start, and to add to the day a small flock of Pine Siskins stopped by. These were a first for this fall. They visited our thistle sock, as the stainless steel thistle feeder was pretty much covered with birds. The American Goldfinch was much larger than the Lesser Goldfinches, so he was not shy about making sure he got a hearty breakfast. It’s great to have more than one kind of bird feeder in your yard. Yesterday the platform bird feeder had all of the excitement and today the thistle bird feeders. What will tomorrow bring? Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica – where do they go? “Freeze a jolly good fellow.”Penquins are one bird we know nothing about! Hope you laughed as hard as we did at this one! 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. |
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