Who Visits Your Birdfeeder?

Forgot to mention, we went through 60 lbs of sugar last year feeding the hummers. Practically a full time job keeping the feeders full. They sure get testy when I'm slackin'.

Haven't really tallied how much black sunflower seed we give away. I'd guess about 150 lbs/year. That goes a scoop at a time on top of a stump (bear country so we don't bother with hanging feeders). Used to do suet but messy and didn't seem to attract anything different.

Hucksters are a rare breed around here. Of course, we put some impediments in their path.

[QUOTE=Hummer;2049554]We're currently feeding both suet and seed.

Suet birds:

Clark's Nutcracker
Steller's Jay
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Wodpecker
Mountain Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Golden-crowned Kinglet

Seed eaters:

Common Raven
American Crow
Steller's Jay
Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Juncos including:
Slate-colored Junco
White-winged Junco
Oregon Junco
Oregon Pink-sided Junco
Gray-headed Junco

The various mountain finches have been conspicuously absent for the past month although I think I heard a Pine Grosbeak in the yard Monday. We did have both male and female Great Horned Owls duetting in the yard a couple weeks ago.

I'm on the lookout for Bohemian Waxwings and Common Redpolls which are arctic species that visit the Colorado Rockies in winter.

Here's a photo of male and female Golden-crowned Kinglets feeding on elk suet. They are tiny, active birds that survive at high altitude.


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Here's a Bohemian Waxwing that visited our Palisade yard a few years ago.


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Hummmer, you have hit the bird jackpot in Boulder County. Nice pics of some of your birds! Let us know who visits your feeder in the summer and send more pics.QUOTE]

A few months ago my wrought iron shepherds hook that I use for the bird feeder was bent over. At first I was thinking I had a 10lb squirrel jumping on it - or a deer managed to jump the high fence. Nope; had 7 wild turkeys decide to roost up the hill from me. Every so often they land on the feeder and bend it over.

I get the normal mixture of birds along with a few that look like young robins before they change color.

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We get the Black-capped Chickadee Mafia visiting out feeder. Two 'guards' make sure all other birds stay away while the Don Chickadee and his favorites eat their fill. We also get a small group of Pine Siskins, in addition to a Downy Woodpecker, nuthatches, and various little 'tweety birds' that come in such a flock that it's hard to say what they are. Robins, of course, nesting in completely inappropriate places. Tiny little house wrens, who are real comedians. We also have Northern Flickers, and they're my favorite. The males are such clowns! In the early make their way around my neighborhood, hammering on the flashing of the chimney to set up their territory. Last year, I could set our clock by the hammering on our chimney (7:07 am), along with his goofy laughing call. We've not had any damage done by flickers, or I might not hold them in such favor as I do.

We also have the variety of Kestrels, Red-Tailed Hawks, and the occasional great horned owl.

We do get little hummingbirds in the spring and summer, but I don;t know how to keep the wasps and hornets from taking over the feeders. Any tips? I've got the yellow wasp traps, but there are apparently a variety of the little bastards.

We also like the flickers and other woodpeckers. I find if you put up a nesting box for flickers they are less likely to damage wood siding. Very often they are pecking siding because they hear bugs behind the wall.

Bees, wasps and hornets can be a problem on hummer feeders in late summer. Wasp traps are effective. Sometimes they will prefer to visit open trays of sugar water rather than humfeeders. And at peak hornet time I take the flower ports off one or two feeders so the bees and yellow jackets can enter, drown and fill the feeder with dead bodies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheGrey

We get the Black-capped Chickadee Mafia visiting out feeder. Two 'guards' make sure all other birds stay away while the Don Chickadee and his favorites eat their fill. We also get a small group of Pine Siskins, in addition to a Downy Woodpecker, nuthatches, and various little 'tweety birds' that come in such a flock that it's hard to say what they are. Robins, of course, nesting in completely inappropriate places. Tiny little house wrens, who are real comedians. We also have Northern Flickers, and they're my favorite. The males are such clowns! In the early make their way around my neighborhood, hammering on the flashing of the chimney to set up their territory. Last year, I could set our clock by the hammering on our chimney (7:07 am), along with his goofy laughing call. We've not had any damage done by flickers, or I might not hold them in such favor as I do.

We also have the variety of Kestrels, Red-Tailed Hawks, and the occasional great horned owl.

We do get little hummingbirds in the spring and summer, but I don;t know how to keep the wasps and hornets from taking over the feeders. Any tips? I've got the yellow wasp traps, but there are apparently a variety of the little bastards.

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A Northern Red-shafted Flicker at an aspen nest hole in our yard. All woodpeckers are cavity nesters that drill into heart-rot diseased trees for bugs and nest sites.

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Hairy Woodpeckers visit our sugar water feeders in summer, and take suet and seed year around. They can deftly pop the flowers off the hummer feeders. Clown!


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The Northern Three-toed-Woodpecker is similar to the Hairy Woodpecker but lives only in high altitude spruce-fir forests. We regularly get them in our yard but they have never used our feeders. Seldom seen and highly sought after by birders.

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A Lewis's Woodpecker at our Palisade tray feeder. Named after Captain Meriweather Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Lewis's Woodpeckers populations are in steep decline.


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Like woodpeckers, the Clark's Nutcracker goes for elk suet at our kitchen window. This pic taken a few minutes ago. The Clark's is a strong corvid or jay species, named for Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Interestingly, the flight pattern of Lewis's Woodpecker and Clark's Nutcracker are remarkably similar.


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Anybody have any ideas how to keep the peckers off the house? Not the best way to wake up every morning, and they don't seem affected by the Owl.

Feed them in the yard.