Did You Know

Answers by Val Cunningham

Late January 2012

Are crows the bad boys of the bird world?

Q. I’ve twice seen a crow dive-bombing a Canada goose on the ground. In each case the goose was walking along, minding its own business, but the crow kept swooping down on it. What was this all about?
A. I can’t imagine how a Canada goose would pose a threat to a crow, so this doesn’t sound like the crow was protecting its young or its nest. The more likely explanation would be that in both cases these were young crows engaging in play behavior, practicing what to do when presented with a threat, although the poor Canada geese might not appreciate this. I once observed a crow and some very young kestrels playing what looked like a game of tag around a ball field, and the same explanation seems to fit: the young crow and the young falcons were playing at skills they’d need later as adults.

Waste management

Q. I don’t really know how to ask this, but do birds urinate?
A. That’s a good question, and one with an interesting answer. Birds don’t have bladders for collecting urine, so unlike mammals they don’t excrete both solid and liquid wastes. Those white splotches we find on cars and in birdbaths are a concentrated paste combining both forms of waste. A bird’s system reabsorbs most of the liquid before making a splat. Doing without a bladder is an example of the many ingenious ways that birds are streamlined in order to be able to fly.

Snowbird diet

Q. I love to see the juncos arrive in the fall, and wonder what I should feed them?
A. It’s good to hear that you’re feeding juncos, because they work so hard to scratch out a living during the winter. These small sparrows prefer to feed on the ground, but they will come to tray feeders, too. Juncos like millet and cracked corn, as well as sunflower seeds, especially hulled sunflower. They also hop around under nyger feeders to pick up what the goldfinches spill. They’re always interested in fallen seeds, whether in the forest, on our lawns or under our feeders. They’re thirsty birds, like all seed eaters, so if you have a heated birdbath, you’ll really be putting out the welcome mat.

Siskin search

Q. I saw very few pine siskins last year and wonder what the chances are of seeing siskins and redpolls this winter?
A. Sorry to say, your chances aren’t good. Both of these small birds, part of a group of birds known as winter finches, are abundant some winters in our area, but in other years they’re hard to find. Siskins and redpolls are birds of the far north who move south when food is scarce in the boreal forests of Canada. The fact that there seems to be abundant spruce seeds up north for siskins and birch seeds for redpolls is good news for the birds, not so good for Minnesotans who’d like to see these handsome finches.

January 2012

Winter bird watching can hold surprises

Q. What do bird watchers do in the wintertime?
A. Winter is a very good season for watching birds. Yes, there are fewer birds around, because the majority has migrated away. But the hardy few that live here year round are fascinating to watch. Keep an eye on your sunflower seed feeders to watch for signs of “pecking order” behavior in chickadees. Glance frequently at your finch feeder to see if any stripy pine siskins are hiding among the goldfinches. Or take a hike around a nature center or park: any place with open water and shrubs and trees is a good place to find birds. You might see robins or even eastern bluebirds near water and berries, while wooded areas can produce brown creepers, woodpeckers and nuthatches. And there’s always room for a surprise, maybe a flock of cedar waxwings or a northern shrike.

Night visitors

Q. I re-fill my feeders in the late afternoon and birds consume some seed before dark. But lately I’ve noticed a great deal of seed spilled on the ground each morning. What night bird is doing this?
A. Since owls are the only true night birds, and owls don’t eat seeds, I wonder if you’re hosting visits from flying squirrels. These small, nocturnal mammals gather in small groups in winter and climb and glide between tall trees in search of food. A well-stocked feeder is an open invitation to a flying squirrel squad.

Owl season

Q. I thought I heard some owls hooting in the woods behind my house. Is this possible?
A. It’s very possible that you heard owls nearby, since some are very vocal at this time of year. This is courtship season for two species of owls: a low-pitched “who-who-whooo” sounds, almost like a foghorn in the distance, means great horned owls are calling in the night woods. Higher pitched “who cooks for YOU” calls are made by barred owls, calling from the deep forest. These two species nest fairly early in the year, with great horned owls laying eggs as early as February, barred owls in March. Owls don’t build their own nests: barred owls seek out tree cavities, and great horned owls generally commandeer old red-tailed hawk or squirrel nests.

Teenaged eagles

Q. The other day I saw two very large, dark birds in a tree along the lakeshore. Neither had a white head, but for some reason I thought they were bald eagles.
A. I’ll bet you’re right, based on the size of the birds and the fact that they were perched near water, typical eagle behavior. Those two eagles are what are called “sub-adults,” between 2 and 4 years old. These younger birds won’t molt into the adult white head and tail feathers until they’re at least 4 ½ years old. The iconic white-headed and white-tailed bald eagle, the one we think of as typical, is 5 years old or older.

Crow talk

Q. A friend said that he’d been told, years ago, that crows could be trained to talk because they have a split tongue. Is this true?
A. No, crows don’t have split tongues. This sounds like a variant of the old tale that a crow’s tongue must be split in order for it to learn to make human-like sounds. There are two problems with this myth: Crows use the voice box in their throats, not their tongues, to make sounds. Also, they’re natural mimics and learn to recreate sounds on their own. I don’t know whether people used to cut crows’ tongues, but such a practice sounds hideously cruel and totally unnecessary.

Cord chewers

Q. Something keeps chewing through the cord for my birdbath heater. What animal is doing this?
A. The miscreant nibbling on the electrical cord is either a squirrel or a rabbit. I had the same problem with my birdbath heater until someone suggested hanging the cord through some nearby tree branches so it angles down to the birdbath from above. Or try covering the cord in pvc pipe, available at home supply stores. I hope you can try one of these tips for keeping the cord away from gnawing teeth.

Clever crows

Q. I remember hearing about crows dropping walnuts in the road so cars would drive over them and split them open. I want to try setting out a few walnuts at a time to see what the crows will do—do you think it will work?
A. I believe the crows you’re thinking of are Japanese crows. I haven’t heard of similar behavior being documented in this country, although coastal crows drop mussels and clams onto rocks to split the shells open. Crows are very smart and willing to try just about anything to get at a food source. At the very least you’ll have some fun with the walnut test, but keep in mind, squirrels will be watching, too!

Food for doves

Q. We seem to have mourning doves around my house all year long, even though I thought they were migrants. Is this normal and what should they be eating? I scatter cracked corn for them, and dried fruit and seeds.
A. You’re feeding the right foods to the doves in your backyard. These ground feeders are big fans of corn and will enjoy the fruit and seeds, as well. You might consider setting up a heated birdbath, since doves are always eager for a drink. In winter, a large group of mourning doves shows up at my birdbath just before nightfall and drinks with great enthusiasm.

December 2011

Q. I’ve been meaning to drive up to Monticello to see the trumpeter swans but have never made it. Can you remind me where to go?
A. “Where” is easy: go to the Monticello Chamber of Commerce’s web site, www.monticellocci.com/pages/Swans/ and you’ll find directions to the swan viewing overlook. “When” is another factor to take into consideration: the swans begin arriving to spend the winter along the Mississippi in Monticello as area ponds freeze. The river is open here all winter due to the nearby power plant. They might begin arriving as early as late November or it could be as late as mid-December, depending on how cold the weather becomes. That web site will list a swan count, or you can call the chamber at 763-295-2700, or send an e-mail to info@monticellocci.com for the latest word on the swans.

Q. We feed birds all year but are never sure when is a good time to start putting out suet?
A. Raw suet, the kind you buy at the meat counter, is safe to offer to birds when the temperature stays below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In warmer weather the suet can melt onto bird feathers, impairing their insulating qualities. Those cakes of rendered suet, often with fruit or nuts pressed into them, are safe to offer nearly all year, except on extremely hot days.

Q. I saw very few pine siskins last year and wonder what the chances are of seeing siskins and redpolls this winter?
A. Sorry to say, your chances aren’t good. Both of these small birds, part of a group of birds known as winter finches, are abundant some winters in our area, but in other years they’re hard to find. Siskins and redpolls are birds of the far north who move south when food is scarce in the boreal forests of Canada. The fact that there seems to be abundant spruce seeds up north for siskins and birch seeds for redpolls is good news for the birds, not so good for Minnesotans who’d like to see these handsome finches.

Late November 2011

Q. A couple cardinals are eating the little red berries on our burning bush. Is this normal?
A. It’s very normal. Those small red berries of the winged euonymus bush must be very tasty, since many kinds of birds feed on them, including cardinals, chickadees and house sparrows. Cardinals need to eat enough red and orange foods to produce the male’s brilliant red and female’s warm taupe feather colors. And young cardinals need the red from berries and other fruits to change from their drab brown “kiddy” feathers into their adult plumage.

Q. I don’t ever remember seeing or hearing about wild turkeys when I was growing up, but now they seem to be everywhere. Can you tell me what’s going on?
A. You’re right, turkeys are much more plentiful now than they were even 40 years ago. Pioneers cleared the forests that provided food and shelter for these big birds, and over-harvested them to the point that they’d disappeared from Minnesota by the late 1800s. After many unsuccessful attempts over four decades, reintroductions of wild turkeys “took” in the 1970s. Now there are so many turkeys that they’re hunted legally in about two-thirds of Minnesota each spring. They’re even harvested in some metro area parks when their numbers exceed the local carrying capacity.

Q. There’s a bird coming to the birdbath that’s robin sized and has an orange breast but its head is all white. What’s up with that?
A. You’re seeing a robin exhibiting a condition caused by a genetic mutation that leaves a bird with white patches or paler feathers overall. This is called leucism, and affects only a bird’s feathers. That’s different from the genetic mutation called albinism, which removes all color from a bird, including feathers, eyes, legs and beak. Leucism seems to occur more frequently in robins than in other species.

Q. We occasionally hear a bird that we’ve dubbed the Beatle Bird, because its song sounds like the first six notes of “A Day in the Life”: “Woke up, got out of bed . . .” Do you have any idea what this bird is?
A. What a funny and fun question. You’ve already indicated that you don’t think it’s a white-throated sparrow or a blue jay, my first choices. At this time of year we often are hearing young male birds who are still practicing their species’s song, adding to the identification complexity. So this one is a real challenge. Readers: any suggestions?

Q. We see great blue herons down along the Gulf Coast during the winter and it finally occurred to me to ask why their legs are so long?
A. Herons and egrets make their living along shorelines, so long legs are an advantage in searching in not-too-deep water for frogs, fish and crustaceans. Once they spy a tasty food item, then they snap their long necks down to snare it. They have long, thin toes, too, that help them walk on a soft pond or lake bottom without sinking.

Q. Should I leave the birdhouse up during the winter, would that help birds?
A. Your birdhouse could provide shelter for one of your backyard birds during the winter. A wren house’s tiny opening is too small for all but chickadees to enter, but a standard-sized birdhouse might become night lodging for a woodpecker, nuthatch or even a chickadee. The nest boxes on my bluebird trail are left up all winter, and I can tell, by feathers left behind, that downy woodpeckers use them all winter. So give it a try, and just remember to brush it out once spring arrives.

November 2011

Tundra swans are gathering on the Mississippi, fattening up and gabbling loudly until ice grips the river.

Q. This is the fall that we’re going to drive down to see the tundra swans on the Mississippi. Can you tell me where and when to go?
A. The best period for swan viewing is from mid-October to mid-November. On their way from nesting grounds near the Arctic Circle, the regal swans drop down on the Mississippi River below the Twin Cities to fatten up on vegetation before heading out on the last leg of their journey to Chesapeake Bay and the coast. You could visit the observation deck at Brownsville on Hwy. 26 near the Iowa border to see the swans. Another good spot is the swan-watching platform at Rieck’s Lake, three miles north of Alma, Wis. Even closer to home, I’ve had good luck traveling to Weaver Bottoms, a bit south of Weaver, about 120 miles from the Twin Cities. The big swans are visible in the river and its marshes until the river freezes. Check this web site for swan watching information: www.almaswanwatch.org/migstatus.asp

Q. We didn’t take our hummingbird feeder down until mid-October this year and while we didn’t see any late migrants, we did find chickadees at the feeder. Do they drink nectar?
A. Chickadees land on my saucer-style hummingbird feeder, too, but they’re not looking for sugar water. Instead, they’re drinking water out of the feeder’s central, water-filled ant moat. Their enthusiastic vocalizations around this feeder seem to express their pleasure that someone designed a bird bowl just for chickadees.

Q. I love feeding birds but I worry about what’s going to happen to them while we spend three months in Florida this winter. I don’t want to just cut them off so should I gradually put out less food?
A. Many Northlanders face this dilemma each winter and may find it reassuring to know that birds use our feeders to supplement the food they find in the wild (except on the very worst days, when feeders become more important). Each day they continue to forage for seeds or fruit, or hibernating insects or, in some cases, food they hid away in autumn. However, I like your idea of a gradual drawdown of the food you put out. Another option might be to find a reliable youngster in the neighborhood or a neighbor who wouldn’t mind filling your feeders while you’re gone. If this isn’t possible, then before you leave, take the feeders down, clean them thoroughly and store them until spring.

Q. We had hummingbirds around all summer and are going to miss their visits to our flowers and feeders. But I find it almost impossible to believe that birds this small can fly thousands of miles to spend the winter.
A. It is amazing to think that such tiny beings are able to travel thousands of miles each fall. But they do it, fueled along the way by nectar-rich flowers like jewelweed, and tiny insects for a protein boost. Our region’s ruby-throated hummingbirds are south of here by now, many making the turn from Southern states to head into Mexico or points much further away, such as Costa Rica or even Panama. Even more amazing is their return trip in spring when many hummingbirds fly nonstop across the 500-mile Gulf of Mexico. They’re tiny, but also strong and resilient.

Q. It’s not hard to recognize which are the young cardinals out back because they don’t have red feathers and their beaks are a dark color. When will they look like their parents?
A. It takes several months for teenaged cardinals to exchange their scruffy-looking brown feathers for the brilliant reds that cover their father or Mom’s golden taupe feathers. It also takes two to three months to develop their species’s bright red-orange beak, colored by the red and orange foods they consume. By late December, all the cardinals in the backyard should look like calendar photos.

October 2011

A too-sweet treat?

Q. My neighbor feeds hummingbirds all summer long with a mixture of half sugar, half water, instead of the recommended 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Is this mixture harmful to hummingbirds?
A. The homemade nectar that your neighbor is feeding hummingbirds is much more concentrated than the nectar found in flowers, which makes me think it’s not a good idea. That 1 to 4 recommendation is based on years of experience, although there are few studies in this area. So I visited the web site of hummingbird expert Lanny Chambers, www.hummingbirds.net. He wonders if such a high sugar concentration could cause liver damage in hummingbirds and concludes: “I stand by the opinion of the majority of hummingbird researchers, that a 1:4 mixture has been shown to do no harm, and any other formula must remain suspect.”

Mystery eggs

Q. A little bird built a nest in my mom’s rose bush this summer, then laid tiny, bluish eggs. My mom lives on a farm, if that helps, but we don’t know what kind of bird this was.
A. We know it wasn’t either of the two birds famous for laying blue eggs: robin eggs are quite large, and bluebirds don’t nest out in the open. I suspect this bird might have been either a house finch or a goldfinch. The females of these species are fairly drab and they do lay bluish eggs.

Family dynamics

Q. Watching young Canada geese grow up at our local park this summer, I’m wondering if they recognize their parents as they get older?
A. Turns out Canada geese do seem to recognize their family group, even after reaching maturity, which is fairly unique in the world of birds. Most birds go their separate ways after they can take care of themselves, but geese and cranes do continue to remember their parents and siblings. Crows and blue jays, too, seem to recognize their families throughout their lives.

Way out west?

Q. We see lots of bluebirds in our suburb and yesterday we saw a family of Western bluebirds. Are they common around here?
A. Almost anything is possible in the world of birds, but Western bluebirds live and nest in the West and along the west coast. So for a male and female to be so far out of their range, and then to find each other and raise a brood seems to enter the realm of the impossible. I wonder if what you saw was a particularly bright and handsome family of Eastern bluebirds—the two species do look so much alike.

A ‘gratitude gene’?

Q. A couple weeks ago you had a question about whether tree swallows hold wakes. I wanted to tell you about some crow behavior I experienced. I found a crow tangled in fishing line hanging from a tree limb over a pond. I paddled out in a boat and was able to untie him and he flew up into the tree. As I got into my pickup the crow landed on the cab’s roof and stayed there as I drove the few blocks home. He began calling and within minutes a group of 10 or so crows showed up. They circled my house while calling and calling, then they all flew away. Did the crow I freed up tell his mates about how I’d rescued him? You can’t convince me otherwise.
A. I love stories about crow behavior and yours is a fascinating one. A number of other people who have rescued a crow from dire straits have reported scenes that seem to imply gratitude on the part of the crow. They’re very smart birds, some of the smartest in the bird kingdom, and almost nothing surprises me about crow behavior.

Late September 2011

Q. My wife and I have been wondering how cowbirds, raised by other species, manage to get together with other cowbirds. One would think that a cowbird raised by a cardinal would think it was a cardinal, too.
A. That’s an excellent question, and the answer has been evolving as we learn more about these birds. Cowbird don’t raise their own young, instead depositing their eggs in the nests of other kinds of birds, from tiny chipping sparrows to larger cardinals, thus consigning their offspring to foster care. It’s a behavior found only in this one bird species in our region. Soon after leaving the nest, young cowbirds become very attracted to other young cowbirds and meet up in large flocks in open spaces. The young birds make a chatter call that all cowbirds instinctively recognize, and it serves to draw a group of cowbirds together. Some researchers also feel that cowbirds know what they, themselves, look like, and recognize these characteristics in other cowbirds. It’s in these late summer gatherings that cowbirds learn to identify with their own species. A combination of instinct and learning makes a young cowbird a cowbird. Find out more at: www.birds.cornell.edu/bfl/speciesaccts/bnhcow.html.

Q. The little wrens that nest in my backyard make so much noise, I’m wondering if they sing all year long?
A. Good question, and one I’d never considered, so I consulted the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of North American Online. It’ll be a lot quieter in many backyards when these little chatterboxes depart in September for the southern United States or northern Mexico. House wrens become silent and secretive before they leave here, but males may sing sporadically in the winter, and as spring approaches, they begin to sing more frequently.

Q. We have a problem with pigeons in our barn and wonder if there is a humane way to get them to leave?
A. Barns have ideal habitat for pigeons, with food in the form of spilled seed and grain and plenty of places to roost and nest. Turns out that a lot of thought has gone into controlling pest species around barns, and one of the best booklets I read was produced by Penn State University: “Controlling Birds Around Farm Buildings.” Please search for this phrase on Google and you’ll find a handy, downloadable pamphlet with many tips. Hope this works for you, and kudos for being willing to explore humane approaches.

Q. Barn swallows keep building nests on our air vent and make a terrible mess on the air conditioner and dive-bomb us whenever we’re near. We’ve taken down several nests but they rebuild within hours. Any suggestions?
A. Barn swallows are very persistent little birds, as you’ve found. The best solution is to exclude them from that air vent area, either using heavy-duty bird netting or chicken wire over the site. Another approach is to hang heavy plastic, the theory being that it’s too slippery for allow swallows to attach their mud nest base. Washington state Fish and Wildlife has an excellent downloadable pamphlet on this topic.(Remember, it’s not legal to take down nests after the birds lay eggs.) People who really want to help barn swallows can place a human-made nesting platform some distance from a home’s doorways and utility structures.

Q. After this nesting season, it occurred to me to wonder why young birds fall out of nests before they can fly. This doesn’t seem to be a good survival strategy.
A. You’re right, flightless young robins and other birds on the ground are vulnerable to cats, dogs and other dangers. But strange as it may seem, a young bird’s nest is a very dangerous place to be. With all the comings and goings on feeding missions by parent birds, predators (cats, raccoons, squirrels and others) quickly figure out where a nest is and can raid it easily. So it’s a good survival strategy for young birds to leave as quickly as possible and space themselves out on nearby branches (or even on the ground). That way, a predator may strike only one bird, not an entire nestful.

Q. When cardinals sing in the late summer, is this part of the mating process or is it territorial? And since they raise two broods in the summer, do they re-use the nest?
A. A cardinal pair typically remains together to raise two broods during the spring and summer. The vocalizing you hear may be a male telling other males to stay away, or a female telling other females that the territory is still occupied. The pair could also be communicating among themselves: a female sitting on eggs might be requesting a meal or either bird might be announcing that a predator is nearby. After their first batch of nestlings fledges, the nest will be soiled and unhealthy. So the pair almost always builds a new nest for the next batch of youngsters.

September 2011

Q. I’d like to show bird migration to my kids, and my son is fascinated by hawks and eagles. Is there some place without a long drive where I can let him watch the big birds migrating?
A. There are several such spots nearby but I can’t think of a better one than Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings. Carpenter has many trails on the property, where you can view songbird migrants. Your son should especially enjoy the overlook with its long view high over the St. Croix River, a major flyway for raptors. There’s no charge for a visit and Carpenter is open every day, with a visitor’s center housing many wild creatures: http://carpenternaturecenter.org/.

Q. A house finch visiting my feeders seems to have a broken leg. Will it survive?
A. It’s not uncommon for a bird to break one of its delicate leg bones, and this usually isn’t life-threatening. The leg dries up and falls off at some point. Birds seem to adapt fairly well to getting around with one leg.

Q. I put out beef suet all summer, and the birds love it. Is this ok, since I have a birdbath nearby that they can bathe in?
A. I’d advise against putting out raw suet in the summertime. It does melt, unlike suet cakes, whose suet has been rendered and is less “melty.” I’ve seen oil dripping off suet left out in summer and this is dangerous to birds, if it gets on their feathers. They can’t wash it off, the only way to remove it is to molt a new set of feathers, and this only happens once or twice a year. Suet on feathers impairs all the qualities that birds depend on them for, such as insulation (from both heat and cold) and protection from sun and rain. Try suet cakes for the warmer months.

Q. I found a dead hummingbird on my balcony and wonder what killed it. I don’t think they fly into windows, but they do get quite aggressive around the sugar-water feeder and chase others away.
A. Sorry to hear about the hummingbird and I suspect that it did hit your window, possibly during a chase by another hummingbird. Hummingbirds crash into glass to their detriment, just as songbirds do. They see the outdoors reflected in the glass and don’t realize they can’t fly through it. Many migrating birds are in our area now, and they’re not familiar with all the local hazards. Try putting some UV-reflective decals on your balcony door—these are nearly invisible to humans but very visible to birds (check with your local wild bird supply store).

Q. I see hawks on freeway light poles all the time and wonder what they’re doing there.
A. They’re watching for their next meal. The most frequently seen highway hawk is the red-tailed hawk, a species that prefers a “watch and wait” hunting style from elevated perches. They’re mainly watching for voles, rats and rabbits, which seem to thrive near roadways.

August 2011

Do swallows hold wakes for failed nests?

Q. I have a tree swallow nest box that the birds use every year. This year, during a cold and rainy period, I noticed five adult tree swallows perched on top of the box. When I went to check inside, I found that the nestlings had all died. Were the adults holding some type of vigil?
A. What a sad ending for the tree swallows, and for you. It’s possible that the series of wet days made it impossible for the parents to find enough flying insects to feed their young, and their nestlings starved. Were the adult birds holding a vigil? I’ve never encountered such a tale before, but more things happen in the world of birds than we have explanations for.

Another possible explanation for this gathering you noted could be that another pair of tree swallows and an unmated bird became aware of the nest failure and had gathered to see if they could commandeer the box from the original parents—remote, but a possibility. We will probably never know, but thanks for sending in this intriguing observation.

Q. I’m wondering what’s going on with the blue jays in my neighborhood: we’re used to seeing one or two at a time, but the other day there were six in the backyard. Since they have a reputation as being rough on other birds, I worry about this.
A. You’re right, blue jays are beautiful but they do drive other birds from feeders. I wonder if you’re seeing a family of jays, with parents still teaching the youngsters the ropes. Or, at this time of year, it might be a group of jays getting ready to head southward before winter, not a true migration but a shift. Since nesting season is nearly finished for songbirds, there’s little need to worry about jays indulging in chick-stealing. But they do use their big corvid brains to devise ways to drive smaller birds from good feeding sites.

(One technique some jays use is to imitate the call of a Cooper’s hawk, which spooks other birds into seeking shelter.) Many birds, however, are pretty used to jays by now, like littler kids developing strategies for dealing with the neighborhood bully.

Q. I’m noticing a cardinal lacking head feathers at my feeders. Something is causing the bird to lose its feathers in a progressive fashion, starting from the beak and spreading back. Any idea what’s going on?
A. At this time of year, we usually hear about a number of “bald cardinals” showing up in backyards and at feeders. This is songbird molting season, but the jury is still out on what causes cardinals (and other birds, such as blue jays) to lose all their head feathers nearly simultaneously. Some say it’s due to a sudden, all-over-the-head molt, while others maintain that it’s caused by mites chewing the feather shafts. I lean toward the parasite theory, since there’s little evolutionary advantage to bird baldness.

July 2011

Ducklings “popcorn” out of nest boxes.

Q. After watching tiny ducklings jump out of a wood duck house, I’m wondering how the mother duck knows when the box is empty?
A. You’re very fortunate: few of us have been privileged to see this sight, one of the most wonderful in nature. The day after her ducklings hatch, the hen wood duck is ready to call them out of the box. She stands outside and gives a special whispery kind of call. The ducklings “peep” in reply and jump up to the box entrance before dropping down to their mother; it may take only 5 minutes to clear the nest. “Once they start, it’s like popcorn popping,” says Kraig Kelsey, who runs a wild bird store in North Oaks. This is a very dangerous time for ducklings, with many predators on the lookout for easy prey, so the mother duck can’t wait for very long. Once there are no more “peep” sounds from inside, she leads her brood away.

Q. How many eggs does a bird lay in a day?
A. Female birds lay only one egg each day, since egg production places great stress on her resources and she needs time to replenish them. Songbirds tend to produce from three to six eggs over three to six days. Eggs are usually laid in the morning, then the female leaves the nest site for long periods. She only begins incubating once the last egg in her clutch is laid, to ensure that all hatch at about the same time.

Q. We’ve had chickadees robbing the potting soil from a hanging basket. They pick up a piece, fly to a branch and seem to be trying to peck it open. Any thoughts?
A. It sounds as if the chickadees are being fooled into thinking those little white pieces of vermiculite are some kind of seed. Even though they’re not finding any food inside, they’re persistent little birds and keep trying.

Q. I’ve seen bluebirds carrying food in to the birdhouse, and then they fly out with something white in their beaks. What is going on?
A. You’re seeing signs of good housekeeping: parent birds stuff food into their nestlings’ beaks, then scoop up their youngsters’ droppings to keep the nest clean. They take these fecal sacs some distance away from the nest site so predators aren’t alerted to the presence of helpless young birds. Some birds, notably grackles, drop the fecal sacs into water, which might be the local birdbath.

Q. I had many orioles at my feeders this spring but they’ve disappeared. Have they migrated north?
A. Your orioles may still be in the area, but they’ve switched over to an insect diet, so aren’t visiting feeders. During nesting season these beautiful birds, like nearly all songbirds, become insectivores, hunting for flying, hopping and crawling insects to feed their young. Once the youngsters leave the nest, the entire family may visit your feeders and birdbath.

Q. Can you shed light on this: last week I watched a red-bellied woodpecker spend an afternoon at the neighbor’s nest box. The woodpecker pulled out each of the nestlings, one by one, and flew off with them. What was it doing with those little birds?
A. I’d never heard of this kind of woodpecker behavior, so consulted the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of North America Online. Shocking as it may seem, red-bellied woodpeckers do eat other birds’ eggs and nestlings, when the opportunity presents itself. Most of their diet is made up of insects, berries, seeds and nuts, however. The bird you observed has apparently learned that nestboxes can be an easy source of protein, for itself and possibly its own young. Red-headed woodpeckers are also reported to engage in this kind of behavior.

June 2011

Q. My son and I would give anything to see an indigo bunting. Where should we be looking?
A. These small blue birds, about the size of a goldfinch, are on many people’s “must see” list. They’re fairly common in parks, woods and roadsides in our area in spring and summer, but unless they’re in bright sunlight, they tend to look black, so they’re often overlooked. The very best way to discover a bunting is to learn this species’ distinctive song. Unlike many other birds, indigo buntings don’t clam up during nesting season but sing all summer long. Check this site to hear their song. The song will lead you to the bird.

Q. This spring I saw more rose-breasted grosbeaks than ever before. Any chance they’ll stay around all summer?
A. Depending on the habitat around your home, you might be able to enjoy a nesting pair of grosbeaks this summer. They prefer to nest at the edge of deciduous woodlands, not deep in the woods, near streams or ponds. They’ve also been known to nest in parks, orchards and even backyards, as long as there’s plenty of cover.

Q. I love to watch birds but I live in a condo where the rules forbid any seed mess. Is there anything without shells that I can feed the birds?
A. Many birds, including cardinals and chickadees, have a strong preference for sunflower seeds, and these are available without the shells. Look for sunflower hearts or medium-sized sunflower chips. In winter, you could offer the shelled seeds as well as suet cakes, which woodpeckers and other birds enjoy, and whole peanuts without shells.

Q. I’ve been trying to attract cardinals for years with no success. We live near a wetland and there are trees around, plus I have tried seed mixes advertised as cardinal food. Any ideas?
A. A funny thing about cardinals is that they’re very loyal to feeding sites, but it can be a challenge to get them to become regular guests. In my experience, a platform feeder is the best choice for cardinals, followed by a domed feeder with the dome raised high enough to allow them access. They do love black-oil sunflower seeds, but can be coaxed to eat safflower, as well. Enhance your feeding station with a birdbath, since cardinals love to take a drink after eating.

Cardinals are on the lookout for places to rest, take shelter, and build their nests. It might be a good idea to plant several shrubs in the backyard, such as viburnum and dogwood. As you can tell, it may take a bit more effort than offering tasty seeds, but once you attract cardinals, they should be reliable visitors for years.

Q. I don’t understand why Baltimore orioles would eat an unnatural food like grape jelly.
A. Orioles are fond of fruit, as long as it’s ripe—or even overripe. At the end of summer they feast on ripe mulberries, raspberries, cherries and grapes. In the spring, after migrating up from the tropics, where they’ve been eating fruit all winter, orioles adapt easily to grape jelly, which is similar to their end-of-summer treat. Once they start feeding their nestling, however, their diet emphasizes insects, until their brood leaves the nest.

Q. Help! A chickadee is eating big holes in my wooden window frames. I keep patching the frames but the chickadees keep coming back. How can I stop them?
A. This is a new one for me, I hadn’t heard of a chickadee pecking at a house before. With their small beaks, they need to find rotting wood to be able to chip away small pieces. They’re either looking for insects or trying to build a cavity to hold their nest. The only surefire way to stop them is to exclude them from the window frames. Heavy cardboard tacked to the frame temporarily might do the trick, as would hardware cloth. Then, try offering food chickadees like—black-oil sunflower, suet cakes, and peanuts—in feeders nearby. If they can’t reach the frames and can catch a meal nearby, they’ll soon give up on the window wood.

Do gobblers leave the ground?

Q. I’ve been seeing groups of wild turkeys in unlikely places lately, such as along the freeway. How do they get there—can turkeys fly?
A. Although they may look a little ungainly, wild turkeys can and do fly. They don’t migrate but are strong fliers over short distances. They need to fly in order to escape predators and roost in trees overnight.

Busy birds

Q. Chickadees used one of my bird houses last year, and now this year I see them working to remove all the old pine shavings left inside. Should I open the box and clean it out, or let them do it?
A. Sounds like your chickadees have their own ideas about setting up housekeeping. Chickadees tend to nest in snags with old, dead wood, so they’re used to picking out bits of wood and carrying it away (so predators don’t detect nest-building activity). They’re mimicking this behavior with the chips in your nest boxes. Turns out they’re more likely to use a nest box if there’s material to remove inside, so if you put in fresh chips, they might just discard those, too.

Blackbirds in trouble?

Q. Ever since I can remember red-winged blackbirds have returned to the cattails on my lake by mid-March, but not this year. Could this be due to the incidents down South this winter?
A. I’m not sure why your lakeshore is being ignored by red-winged blackbirds this year, but you can rest easy on one point: the two die-off events, in Arkansas and Louisiana last New Year’s, isn’t the reason. Federal agencies have determined that several thousand blackbirds died after being startled awake, and then flying into structures and the ground in the dark. As unfortunate as they were, these two incidents had no effect on the overall population, which is pegged at around 190 million red-wings.

Duck houses

Q. Where can I buy a wood duck house in the metro area?
A. Many wild bird stores carry wood duck nest boxes. You might call a few to check that they’re in stock before making a trip.

Eyes or ears?

Q. Ok, when robins stop on the lawn and tilt their heads, are they looking for worms or listening to them? My neighbor and I disagree on this.
A. They’re looking for signs that worms are burrowing under the surface. Because of the way their eyes are positioned on the sides of the head (in order to help detect an approaching predator) robins need to point one eye toward a close object to see it well.

White wings

Q. Crows are nesting in my neighbor’s trees. The interesting thing is that the offspring have white feathering on the underside of their wings. I have tried to get pictures, but they have to be in flight to show the color.
A. Your crow observation is fascinating. As it turns out, it’s not unusual for crows to have white feathers, especially on the undersides of their wings. I’ve seen several such crows around my neighborhood, too. There even used to be a web site dedicated to people’s photos and writings about white crows, with many of them being the white under the wings variety. I can no longer find that site, but here’s a relevant web page from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/whitecrows.htm
It’s fun to discover unusual coloration in birds because it helps you notice and track individuals.

Foiling feeder pigs

Q. I enjoy feeding birds but not some of the pigs that show up at my feeders. Right now it’s starlings that are eating everything in sight, especially suet. Any suggestions?
A. Invasions by starlings are one of the down sides to feeding birds. They have long beaks to help them pry food out of many situations, so you may need to stop feeding suet for a while—you just can’t keep them out. I’ve had success with replacing black oil sunflower seeds with safflower seed. Starlings don’t seem to like safflower, while the birds we prefer to feed, such as cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches, like it just fine. You might also try a specialty feeder, such as a tube feeder filled with nyger seed for finches. The openings on these feeders are too small for starling beaks. Once nesting season is underway you may notice that the starling crowd drops off significantly.

Red bird duets

Q. I’ve been hearing that wonderful cardinal song, and my neighbor, who knows birds, says that both the male and female are singing. Isn’t this unusual?
A. Your neighbor is correct, male and female cardinals sing duets to each other in springtime, strengthening their bond before beginning courtship and nesting. And this is unusual since in most bird species, only the males are singers.

Alarming squirrels

Q. What’s happening to the squirrels under my feeders? They’re losing their fur and have painful-looking sores.
A. Backyard squirrels with strange, patchy-looking coats are suffering from mange. This disease is caused by a tiny mite related to the tick that burrows under the skin to eat the subcutaneous layer. Intense itching caused by the mite causes furious scratching by squirrels, in the process pulling out clumps of fur. Partially naked squirrels have a tough time making it through the winter but if they can survive until spring, they seem to recover well. The mite seems to be squirrel-specific and won’t transfer to humans or pets. However, they can easily spread through a local squirrel population, and may be one of nature’s ways of controlling their numbers.

Backyard ducks?

Q. A house in my neighborhood seems to attract ducks. There can be 25 perching on the roof peak and some are always flying around. What’s up with that?
A. I’ll bet the homeowners are feeding the ducks, either with corn kernels or cracked corn. The word gets around in the duck world and they show up in numbers.

Too much regulation?

Q. You recently wrote that it’s illegal to toss bird food on the ground in Minneapolis. This seems like over-regulation to me, and I wonder about the rationale.
A. The restriction is found in the section of city law relating to the control of rodent populations. A number of suburbs forbid ground feeding, as well, in order to discourage wild turkey flocks and deer.

Beak break

Q. I’ve been photographing the cardinals that visit my feeders and I’m worried about one bird with a chip out of its beak.
A. Birds are so reliant on their beaks for eating, nest-building, preening and other activities that these need to be in top condition. Fortunately their beaks are continually growing, with new growth replacing old, damaged areas.

Beak business

Q. I watch birds eating seed from my feeders, and then they land on a branch or even the patio furniture and rub their beaks. Why do they do this?
A. Birds need to keep their beaks in top condition, since beaks are so crucial to feeding. When your backyard birds swipe their beak from side to side on a twig or metal furniture, they’re probably cleaning off debris leftover after cracking shells and consuming the oily seeds. They may also be honing the edges a bit, since bird beaks grow throughout their lives.

‘Innies’ or ‘outies’

Q. Does “shelled” peanuts mean peanuts with shells or without them? Is it okay to put out peanuts in their shells in a wire mesh feeder?
A. That word can be read either way, but I take it to mean peanuts without shells. And yes, you certainly may offer peanuts with or without shells in a mesh feeder. The woodpeckers and nuthatches can peck into either kind, and chickadees will pick up peanut bits on the ground.

Why only sparrows?

Q. We hung a bird feeder under the house’s eaves but it seems to be attracting only sparrows What can we do to bring in other kinds of birds?
A. You’ll probably need to move the eaves feeder or add a second feeder, farther from your house. Those (non-native) little birds earned the name house sparrow because they’re willing to feed so close to human habitation. Other birds, such as cardinals, goldfinches and chickadees, seem to prefer feeders placed farther from human activity. Be careful, though, not to place a feeder too close to a window. To avoid window strikes, place feeders within three feet or farther than 30 feet from glass.

Best bird cams?

Q. I’d like to get a camera to take photos of birds when I’m gone. Where can I find one and what can I expect to pay?
A. I don’t have a remote camera that takes images of birds, but I Googled “bird cameras” and came up with a wide variety of choices. There are motion-activated cameras that take still photos, cameras that attach to nest boxes and others that work with bird feeders, solar-powered cameras and cameras that stream video into your television.

Outdoor cameras are great for those of us who leave home every day and can’t
observe the birds that visit our feeders and nest boxes. I found prices that ranged from $90 to $400 on various Internet sites, but you might find some deals locally. The best thing to do is figure out what you want to see (stills, video, feeding or nesting), and then pick the best camera for the job at the price you can afford.

Red hot seed

Q. I’m tempted to add red pepper to my birdseed, to try to deter the squirrels. What do you think?
A. I am not a fan of using red pepper as a solution to squirrel problems. Some people, and some bird stores, recommend this because the pepper is an irritant to mucous membranes. If a squirrel encounters pain when it eats birdseed, the thinking goes, it might avoid the seed in the future. But birds have mucous membranes, too, and the red pepper conceivably could burn their tongues and throats, and even eyes, if it gets blown upward when a bird lands to feed. Please try other methods to keep squirrels out of feeders.

Feed switch

Q. I enjoy feeding birds but now the local deer empty out the feeders every night. I switched to safflower seed, which seems to have deterred the deer, but now the bird traffic is considerably slower. Do birds not like safflower?
A. Your backyard birds are probably just taking some time to learn that a new kind of seed contains s a good source of energy. We switched to safflower a couple years ago, to try to deter house sparrows. It took the cardinals and chickadees a few weeks to adjust, but unfortunately, the sparrows adjusted, too, and now toss great quantities of safflower out onto the ground each day.

The deer may learn that safflower is tolerable, as well, so you may need new strategies to keep them away from feeders. Try hanging feeders on a long rope that crosses a high tree branch, and then lower the feeders to fill them. The knowledgeable staff at your local wild bird store will doubtless have some other suggestions for foiling deer.

Insects making music

Q. In a recent column about woodpeckers, you wrote that insects aren’t true instrumentalists because they make sounds within their bodies. Are you aware of the many insects that make sounds in other ways?
A. This alert reader sent along descriptions of death watch beetles, that tap or drum their heads against a surface, and cockroaches and aquatic stoneflies that tap surfaces with their abdomens to make sounds. This qualifies them as instrumentalists, by my definition, and I stand corrected.

April 2011

Picky Peanut Eaters

Q. I feed peanuts in the shell to the backyard squirrels and birds and have noticed the blue jays doing something odd with them. They’ll pick one up, lay it down, pick up another and then drop it in favor of a third peanut, before flying off. Any ideas about what they’re doing?
A. This behavior points up how smart blue jays are. They want the biggest reward first, so they’re picking each peanut up, looking for the heaviest one. Once they have a heavy peanut in the beak they fly off to consume it or hide it for a later snack. Then they return to find the next heaviest nut, and on and on. Blue jays can clear out a pile of peanuts very quickly. This is pretty amazing bird behavior and it may be even more amazing that researchers have studied jays to come up with the answer.

Hawk or owl?

Q. Could a red-tailed hawk kill a cottontail rabbit? We found a rabbit carcass in our yard, with no tracks around it, and wondered what animal did this.
A. A carcass with no track around it does sound like it was killed by a bird of prey. Red-tail hawks can and do capture and kill rabbits, but so do great-horned owls. Hawks work the day shift, owls hunt at night. So if you found the carcass in the morning and it hadn’t been there before, I’d vote for an owl as the predator. If the rabbit remains showed up sometime during the day, then it might have been a hawk’s prey

Q. A large bird landed in a tree near where I was walking, and I realized it was a woodpecker, the largest I’ve ever seen. When I looked it up in a bird book I found it was a pileated woodpecker. I live in the city and wonder if it’s usual to see these birds here, and will it come back?
A. These large (crow-sized) woodpeckers patterned in black, white and red, are always an awesome sight. It’s not usual to see them in an urban area but they’re not a rare sight, either. Pileateds have fairly large feeding territories, which include ample woodlands. They range through their territory, stopping to search for insects hidden in old or dead trees. Sometimes you’ll hear the pileated’s wacky, high-pitched call before you spot one. This web site has a recording of their call: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/id

So many crows

Q. The sight of all those crows heading toward downtown for the night fascinates me. Does this mean that crows have recovered from West Nile Virus? When they head out for the day, what do they eat?
A. I asked Kevin McGowan, a researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, about crow roosts and he notes that we can’t tell much about the health of crow populations by the size of a nighttime gathering. The roosts we see may be drawing in all the crows around our area. Midwest crows were hit harder than crows in any other area by the nearly always fatal virus and no one knows whether the population is recovering yet. When they head out during the day, they’re looking for what omnivores eat, anything and everything. Crows eat road kill, but they also check compost heaps, lake ice for fishsicles, farm fields, bird feeding stations, crabapple trees and so on.

Feeding without fear

Q. After seeing a Cooper’s hawk swoop in and grab a bird, I’m wondering if I can build some kind of shelter for birds as they feed.
A. Good question—most of us are just trying to feed our backyard birds, not feed them to predators. If you search on the Internet, you will find a variety of suggestions for building shelters for birds, from a kind of plywood teepee to a simple brush pile. A pile of branches and twigs does provide excellent shelter for birds in all kinds of weather and from most kinds of predators.

Another way to protect ground-feeding birds, a category which includes cardinals, mourning doves, sparrows and juncos, is to place chicken wire around the base of an evergreen tree or shrub. Toss seed inside the wire and birds feed happily and safely inside. I saw a kestrel once slam into such fencing around a pine tree, with no injury to itself and he was not able to snag a sparrow feeding inside.

Birds for kids

Q. Our little granddaughter, who loves watching birds, is coming for a visit and I want to make sure there are birds to see. Any suggestions?
A. It’s wonderful that you’re introducing your granddaughter to the fascinating world of birds. In this extremely cold winter, birds have sometimes seemed scarce. Try sweeping off a spot for ground-feeding birds, then toss some cracked corn and millet seed there each day. A suet feeder should bring in woodpeckers but is also popular with squirrels, so try hanging the feeder from a shepherd’s hook pole. If you have a deck or patio (or swept spot), it’s fun to toss out 15 or so peanuts in the shell and watch the blue jays show up. They’ll “weigh” each one, departing with the heaviest first, then return until they’ve carried them all away.

Not to sound like a broken record, but a birdbath with heater is a reliable way to attract winter birds: even if they can find food in the wild they’re always thirsty for a drink.

Cold feet

Q. Birds don’t have feathers on their legs, so why don’t their legs and feet freeze in the winter?
A. Even though their feet and legs aren’t protected by insulating feathers, birds seldom suffer frostbite in their extremities. Look at birds on a very cold day and you may observe some with one foot tucked into belly feathers, or they settle down over their legs and feet to keep them warm. Bird feet and legs lack fleshy muscle and have a limited nerve structure and blood supply, all protections against freezing. Mourning doves, however, aren’t well adapted to cold and may lose some toes during a cold winter.

Country birds

Q. We live out in the country and I recently saw some horned larks out in a field. Is it unusual to see these birds at this time of year?
A. Many of these small birds of open country spend the winter in our area, and others are starting to move through on migration. It’s fun to watch a flock swirl away from the roadside, then return to almost the same spot after vehicles pass by. Named for the tuft of feathers above each eye, these larks sing a sweet, tinkle-y song.

Easy eagles

Q. Some friends want me to go to Red Wing to view bald eagles, but I’m hoping I can see them closer to home.
A. There are quite a few bald eagles spending the winter near open water in the Twin Cities. One spot that’s fairly reliable is Kaposia Landing in South St. Paul. It has plowed trails that lead toward the sewage treatment plant’s outfall, where the water is always open. On a recent Monday, six to eight bald eagles were visible from this park. For a map and directions, visit www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/kaposialanding.htm.

Robins may drop in for a winter snack

Q. I feel sorry for a robin visiting my backyard. I bought some dried mealworms to feed him but what else can I do to help him?
A. In wintertime, the robin diet is made up primarily of fruit. In the natural world, in our area, this generally means hackberry, buckthorn, crabapple and mountain ash fruits. Robins don’t often visit feeders, since their diet is made up of so much wild food. But studies of robin diets suggest their first choices are dark blue and red fruits, so try offering raisins, currents, dried or frozen blueberries and craisins. You could place fruit on the ground near where the robin perches, or on a platform feeder. You could also offer small pieces of suet or bird pudding. Robins can be opportunists and even have been reported eating frozen minnows on shorelines and seed under feeders.

Mourning dove concerns

Q. A mourning dove is sitting in the snow under my feeder. Isn’t this unusual?
A. Mourning doves are year-round residents in our area. If they can find grains to eat (cracked corn is a favorite of theirs) and water to drink they can withstand the winter in good shape.

Homemade seed mixes

Q. I’d like to mix up my own finch feeding mix. Do you have any suggestions?
A. Goldfinches are big fans of those little black needles called nyger seed, and they snap up small chips of sunflower seed, as well. Buy 5 or 10 pounds each of nyger seed and sunflower chips, mix them together, store in a cool place, and you have an ideal diet for goldfinches. House finches use their larger beaks to crack open black-oil sunflower and safflower seeds No need to mix these for house finches, just offer one or the other, or both, in a feeder.

Where do hawks sleep?

Q. We have a number of red-tailed hawks in our area and a red-tailed hawk nest close to our house. Do they sleep in their nests in winter?
A. You’re fortunate to live close enough to observe one of our most beautiful hawks on a regular basis. Red-tails build a new nest every year and once their youngsters fledge, they abandon the nest. This is a good deal for great-horned owls, a species that doesn’t build its own nest but uses those built by other birds, especially those of the red-tailed hawk.
Red-tails don’t sleep in their nests. Instead they’re known to spend the night in deciduous trees, standing erect with feet locked on a branch.

Crow slumber parties

Q. Those large gatherings of crows in Minneapolis fascinate me. What’s going on with them?
A. Large numbers of crows gather in the city each evening in parks and cemeteries with many deciduous trees. They make a great ruckus as they fly around, call and settle in on treetops for the night. With the metro heat island effect, it’s a bit warmer in the city, which may be part of the reason they do this on winter nights. Scientists don’t have all the answers about this roosting behavior, although it may also provide protection from predators such as great-horned owls, and/or it just might be how this highly social species prefers to spend the night. Some speculate that these large roosts are made up of young birds who haven’t yet found a mate, and that older birds with mates remain on their territories winter and summer. Come spring, these nighttime roosts will disappear as the crows disperse to find territories.

Uninvited feeder guests

Q. Why would a red-tailed hawk be hanging around our backyard, watching the feeders? I didn’t think these hawks ate birds.
A. Red-tailed hawks usually hunt for small mammals and larger birds like pheasant and grouse, although they have been known to consume songbirds. More likely this beautiful hawk is looking for rodents: feeding stations sometimes attract mice, voles and squirrels to the spilled seed underneath. Some savvy hawks have learned to hang out at feeders for a four-legged meal.

Q. On a recent biking trip several of us noticed a pair of sandhill cranes emerging from an oak forest. Could they have been eating acorns in the woods?
A. Great observation about a bird we tend to think of in wetlands, using its long beak to explore for snails, frogs and insects. But sandhills have a varied diet and it turns out that they do eat acorns where these are available. In our area cranes also hunt for seeds and berries in late fall.

Q. I’m having trouble with a cardinal continually attacking the outside mirrors on our cars. What can I do to get him to stop?
A. Cardinals are known to attack their own reflection in windows and mirrors—in the springtime, when they’re highly territorial. This is fairly unusual behavior in the fall, but the solution is the same in both seasons: cover up the mirrors, maybe with paper bags, when the cars are parked. It shouldn’t take long for the cardinal to give up and move on.

Q. One or more woodpeckers visit our house each day to peck on our window frames and wood siding, creating holes in the wood. What can we do to discourage them?
A. Woodpeckers can be a problem around wooden houses. They also are very determined birds and it takes determination on a homeowner’s part to deter them.

At this time of year the bird may either be drilling for insects or thinking of carving out a roost hole to sleep in at night. These activities are fine when practiced on a tree, but are alarming when it’s on your house. The not-so-good news is that woodpeckers are a challenge to discourage, but the good news is that it can be done.

Below are two links to sites with good suggestions for situations such as yours. Cornell Lab has studied this problem for years and their suggestions are field tested for success.

I’ll bet you find some tips here that work in your situation:
www.birds.cornell.edu/wp_about/control.html
www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06516.html

We wouldn’t serve our human guests on dirty plates, would we? Clean-up sessions should be part of every backyard feeding regime.

Q. How often should I clean out my bird feeders?
A. I’m so glad you asked this question because it touches on one of the most important aspects of feeding birds—the need to keep feeders and food clean. If birds could talk, I suspect they’d say something like this:

“We’re really grateful for the food you put out for us and don’t mean to be ingrates but . . . ahem . . . sometimes things aren’t as fresh as they could be. A couple times, after a rain, the seed has gotten damp, and this can make us sick. Sometimes the nectar tastes a little off, too. If people would clean out the feeders more often, it would be better for us birds.”

There you have it, straight from the birds’ beaks. All of us who feed birds want to do the best by them, but we hear little about one of the most important aspects of feeding birds—feeder maintenance and sanitation. For some reason the bird feeding industry doesn’t talk about this much, but it’s of paramount importance.

Feeders need to be cleaned on a regular basis and moldy or insect-infested seed or bacteria-contaminated nectar must be tossed. Otherwise, birds may be sickened with diseases like salmonella or, in the case of hummingbirds, fungal infections, and may end up dying. We don’t see sick or dying birds because they instinctively hide away when they feel ill, but wet and moldy food and feeders can kill birds.

Every two weeks during the summer, and half as often in winter, inspect plastic feeders for any cracked or broken edges that could cut bird feet or beaks. Watch wood feeders for damaged spots that could cause splinters. While you have the feeder down, pour out the seed (if it’s clean you can save it to refill the feeder later) and give it a thorough wash and rinse. Experts recommend submerging just-cleaned feeders in a 9-to-1 water to bleach solution, then thoroughly rinsing them. This should kill most of the pathogens that build up.

Hummingbird feeders need slightly different treatment: skip using any detergent or bleach, since they can sense these even after many rinses and will avoid such feeders. A thorough rinse should do the job for them. If you have a large, barrel-type feeder at the cabin, set it out only while you’re in residence, otherwise bacteria can build up and sicken the little birds.

Another major hazard to hygienic bird feeding is moisture. I’m not going overboard by advising that you check feeders after every rainstorm and snowfall. Moisture can enter most feeders and begin to spoil the seed, especially the shelled kind, such as sunflower pieces. If you find clumps in the seed, pour it out, toss it in the trash and start fresh. I do check my feeders after any precipitation and often find that most of it has remained dry. Dry seed can be saved, but the clumping stuff goes.

And lastly, don’t ignore the birdbath. A reliable source of water brings in droves of birds to drink and bathe nearly every month of the year. But please get in the habit of spraying out the birdbath bowl on a daily basis before refilling it with fresh water. After only a few hours a bath can be cloudy with feather dust.

Do these things, which shouldn’t add more than a half hour a week to your feeding regime, and you can rest easy knowing you’re offering a clean, healthy environment for your wonderful birds.

Discouraging sparrows

Q. I have a problem with house sparrows wolfing down all the seed in the feeders and scaring other birds away. How do I discourage sparrows and encourage the nicer birds?
A. Nearly everyone who feeds birds encounters problems with house sparrows. They’re pigs at feeders and a large flock may drive away the cardinals, finches and chickadees. Try scattering millet and cracked corn on the ground under a tree at least 30 feet from your feeders. House sparrows are naturally ground feeders so this strategy should keep them busy for a while. Replace sunflower seeds with safflower to discourage them at feeders. You could also buy or make a sparrow deterrent. Sparrows are not very maneuverable in flight and don’t like to fly around or through things. An arrangement of monofilament fishing line with weights attached, hanging from feeder tops, seems to deter sparrows. To get an idea of what this looks like, try visiting www.sialis.org/halo.htm.

Disappearing bluebirds

Q. What happens to bluebirds after the youngsters leave the nest? They seem to vanish from mid-summer until fall.
A. The bluebirds that you notice on the local golf course are probably still in the area all summer, but one of two things may make them fairly invisible. One, bluebirds are surprisingly tough to spot unless they’re right in front of us. And after they raise a first brood of young birds, they’re impossibly busy starting up a new nest while still feeding their teenagers, outside the nest box. Adults and juveniles do gather in late autumn before migrating several hundred miles south.

Backyard bird census?

Q. I recently put up a bird feeder and am excited by the large number of birds that visit. Is there any way to estimate the number of different birds that come by each day?
A. There are so many variables here that there’s really no way to come up with an estimate. To get some answers and have an enjoyable time, try watching your feeder in the early morning and again in the evening to see for yourself what birds it draws. You’ll notice that some birds, especially starlings and house sparrows, can be feeder pigs, while others, such as the chickadees, dash in for one seed at a time. But unless the birds were marked in some way, there’s no way to differentiate between a bird making repeated visits and one arriving for the first time.

Q. I want to put a heater in the birdbath so birds can have a drink this winter, but I’m worried they’ll take baths then freeze to death.
A. A heated birdbath is a great idea, since birds do need a place to drink when all other open water is frozen solid. And you’re right to be concerned about birds bathing: if the temperature sinks below zero, it’s a good idea to put boards or other materials across the birdbath so birds can drink but not bathe. Another idea was suggested on a bird listserv recently—cut a circle of bubble wrap to fit over the water, leaving about an inch all around for drinking.

Q. Since we’re going to be away from home from January through April I’m wondering whether I should stop feeding birds now, to get them ready?
A. I’d go ahead and continue filling the bird feeders through December, to help your birds remain in good condition to face the coming winter. Then, before you leave, I’d take the feeders down, clean them up and store them for the season. Or try asking a neighbor to hang the feeders in his yard and keep them filled.

Q. How high do birds fly when they’re migrating?
A. Most songbirds lift into the night sky and fly at an altitude of between 2,000 to 4,000 feet. The air at this level is fairly still and cold, providing cooling as bird muscles heat up in flight, without exposing them to the extreme cold higher up.

Q. I didn’t think blue jays were migratory because I see them all winter, but lately I’ve been seeing big flocks of them. Does this mean we’re in for a cold winter?
A. Rest assured that blue jays are not good predictors of winter weather. What you’re seeing is typical for these jays: about 20 percent of the population migrates in the fall. Some of our summer jays move several hundred miles southward, and are replaced by birds from farther north. Most blue jays are year-round residents.

Q. This year we’ve seen downy woodpeckers drinking the nectar in the hummingbird feeder. We’re wondering if downies have made an evolutionary leap since we’ve never seen this behavior before?

A. Several other readers have reported woodpeckers helping themselves to hummingbird or oriole nectar. Birds are observant creatures and they notice when other species flock to a food source. The more intrepid among them are willing to try new things to see if they’re nourishing. Your downy may have followed a hummingbird in to the feeder and found its sugar water similar to the tree sap he laps up in the spring.

Q. I know birds are going to start migrating soon and wonder how many of our birds leave?

A. The majority of birds that we enjoy from spring through fall will travel to wintering areas where they can find a reliable source of food. No one really knows how many millions of birds will be winging southward from Minnesota. But of the 250 or so species that nest in our state, something like 21 species remain here through the winter. These include several kinds of woodpeckers, goldfinches, cardinals, blue jays and great horned owls. Juncos and a few other birds from farther north settle in our area to wait out the winter.

Q. I spotted three tall, long-necked birds feeding on the side of the road on Highway 61 recently. They were rusty-colored and when I looked them up they closely resembled the picture of young whooping cranes. Is this possible?

A. I think it’s more likely that what you saw were sandhill cranes: many of these pale gray birds are stained a rusty color after weeks of dipping their heads and necks into iron-rich water. This might have been a family group of two parents and their youngster. Whooping cranes are very rare, numbering only about 360 wild birds. Most spend the summer in Canada, and a few summer in Wisconsin; neither flock had started migrating by the time you saw your cranes.

Q. I’m very confused: one neighbor says to take down my hummingbird feeders now, another says I should leave them up for awhile. What’s best for the birds?

A. People seem to have strong opinions on this point, but the fact of the matter is that it’s better for hummingbirds to leave nectar feeders hanging until two weeks after you notice your last hummingbird visitor. One of your neighbors may be worried that leaving feeders up will cause hummingbirds to delay or even cancel their migration, but this won’t happen, they’ll leave when their internal clocks tell them it’s time. And stragglers or impaired birds will appreciate feeders left up into October for a high-energy drink.

Q. I put up a bluebird house in the spring and there were birds in there, but I don’t know what kind. Should I clean out the birdhouse each fall? I think there’s a bird still in there.

A. It’s a good idea clean out the nest box after the bluebirds leave, so it’s ready for them next spring. If there’s a bird in there, it may be a sparrow, and we don’t want to encourage these non-native birds to proliferate. I’d advise tossing any nesting material, then leaving the front of the house open for a month so sparrows (or mice) don’t take up residence over the winter. If you close the box back up in October, a downy woodpecker or chickadee may use it as a life-saving night roost during winter—a good thing.

Q. I recently put up a bird feeder and am excited by the large number of birds that visit. Is there any way to estimate the number of different birds that come by each day?

A. There are so many variables here that there’s really no way to come up with an estimate. To get some answers and have an enjoyable time, try watching your feeder in the early morning and again in the evening to see for yourself what birds it draws. You’ll notice that some birds, especially starlings and house sparrows, can be feeder pigs, while others, such as the chickadees, dash in for one seed at a time. But unless the birds were marked in some way, there’s no way to differentiate between a bird making repeated visits and one arriving for the first time.

Q. Are cardinals territorial? A male and female cardinal visit my feeder but I have no way of telling whether this is the same pair or many different birds.

A. I’d bet that at this time of year you’re seeing the same pair of cardinals. They’ve just finished raising their second brood, and are looking a little tattered after working so hard all summer. Like most songbirds, they defend a territory during breeding season, but are less aggressive as the fall advances. People whose backyards offer food and open water all winter may find up to 20 or more cardinals dining and drinking together at dawn and dusk.

Q. The goldfinches don’t seem very interested in my feeders right now. Will they come back this winter?

A. This must be the best time of year to be a goldfinch: nature is rife with maturing seeds, perfect for birds whose diet is entirely made up of seeds. Unlike nearly all other songbirds, they don’t switch to insects during the summer. And yes, I can safely predict the goldfinches will return to your feeders later this fall, as long as the seed inside is fresh. Please be sure to check feeders after each rain or snowfall and toss any damp seed, which can lead to illnesses in birds.

Q. A small bird with a spotted chest just hit our window. What’s a good way to prevent this from happening again?
A. It sounds like an ovenbird, a kind of warbler, hit your window. To help prevent birds from smacking into windows, try the new window decals that are nearly invisible to humans but reflect ultraviolet light, which birds can see. I’ve put these up on my front and back windows and haven’t had any window strikes since. Now that migration’s getting under way with millions of birds on the wing, this would be a very good time to visit a wild bird store or check on the Internet to buy a packet of decals.

Q. I’ve been seeing a lot of sea gulls lately. What are they doing this far from the coast?
A. Many people are surprised the first time they notice gulls in the city. While most gulls are coastal birds, two species spend the nesting season far to the north of here, and then migrate back through our area in the fall. These are the crow-sized ring-billed gull and the much larger herring gull (raven-sized). The ring-billed gull (named for the dark line around its beak) is more common, swooping and swirling over our rivers and lakes—and mall parking lots—in search of food. Both kinds of gull will spend the winter south of here, along open water.

Q. We watched a pair of wrens raise a family in our wren house this summer. A couple times we saw an adult stick its head into the house, then leave with something white in its beak. What could this be about?
A. You observed a parent bird on sanitary duty. Adult birds stuff food down their nestlings’ gullet, and then take away the waste material that emerges at the other end. This compact package is called a fecal sac; parents remove them to keep the nest clean, depositing them some distance away to confuse predators.

Q. I put up a 16-hole house for purple martins but haven’t had any takers, even though I keep the sparrows out of it. Someone told me that a disease on their winter grounds killed most of the martins off. Is this true?
A. I haven’t heard of any purple martin die-off, but what I have heard is that it’s a challenge to attract martins to set up housekeeping in a new house. It would be worth your while to check out a couple of the web sites devoted to martins. They’ll fill you in on things like dawn song tapes to help attract these beautiful birds: http://purplemartin.org and http://www.mnmartin.org.

Q. I was fortunate enough to find a hummingbird nest and have been keeping an eye on it as the baby birds grow up. Will the dominant youngster push out the other one so only one survives.
A. You’re lucky to be able to observe a hummingbird nest (from a distance, I’m sure). I don’t think you need to worry about siblingcide in hummingbirds. Most female hummingbirds lay two eggs and unless disaster strikes, both twins grow up and fledge from the nest.

Q. Our bird house has been very successful this season. First chickadees raised a family, then wrens moved in. The wrens are just about ready to leave and sparrows are perching on the box. Are the sparrows waiting to occupy the house when the wrens leave?
A. It’s lucky that the wrens waited for the chickadees to fledge, since wrens are usually much more impatient and will puncture eggs or kill the youngsters in order to take over a nest box. Now that sparrows have discovered the box, the wrens may be in danger themselves, since sparrows are notorious for killing nestlings and even adult birds in order to claim a nesting cavity. The best defense is an the entrance hole that is too small to admit sparrows. If it’s larger than 1 1/4 inches in diameter you might want to buy a metal piece at a wild bird store to narrow the hole, in order to keep out sparrows.

Q. We have two cardinals coming to our feeder and they seem healthy except that both their heads are completely bald. It looks rather grotesque and I’m wondering if they might have some sort of disease?
A. This is the time of year for reports of bald cardinals and blue jays. Your birds aren’t diseased but probably are going through the molting process. For some unknown reason, a few birds lose all their head feathers at once, instead of molting in staggered fashion, like other birds. The head feathers invariably grow back but it is a bit disconcerting to see these beautiful birds looking so unhandsome. These “baldies” make it easy to see that birds evolved along the reptile side of the animal kingdom.

Q. I was interested in the recent piece on how birds learn to sing, but what I want to know is how they sing. Do birds have a voice box or something else that allows them to make such sounds?
A. Birds do have voice boxes, just as we do, and the vibration of air through the walls of the voice box is what creates their songs. There’s at least one major difference: where humans have a larynx located at the top of the windpipe, a bird’s voice box, or syrinx, is located farther down, where the trachea branches out. Birds can change pitch and volume by manipulating muscle tension within the syrinx and the speed of the air moving through it. Some birds, such as veeries and hermit thrushes, make two sounds at once, resulting in a haunting, echo-like sound.

Q. My dog got fairly close to a robin’s nest along our fence line, and the robins were very agitated, although the fence kept the dog away. Later we noticed that the nest was empty and wondered if the parents moved the baby birds?
A. Robins (and other birds) don’t move their nestlings—when the young birds leave the nest it’s under their own power. It’s possible that the youngsters were just old enough to fly away from the perceived danger posed by your dog. The other possibility is a sadder one: your dog may have provided a scent trail for another predator, possibly a cat or other mammal, to use to find the nest and eat the young.

Q. Even when I put out fresh sugar water, the hummingbirds won’t feed at my feeders. They hover for 10 seconds or so and then flit away. How can I get them to stick around?
A. Something is discouraging your hummingbirds and if the sugar water is fresh, then I’d suspect that insects are the problem. Do you see bees, wasps or ants around the feeder? Wasps, especially, frighten off hummingbirds. If ants are a problem, it’s a good idea to hang a water-filled ant moat above the feeder. If bees and wasps come in for the sugar water, try switching to a saucer-style feeder — these keep the solution too far away for the insects to reach.

Q. Robins raised a family on the nesting platform I put up for them. Now that they’re gone, should I remove the nest they built?
A. I’d leave the nest alone for now. Robins, and some swallows and phoebes, incorporate mud in their nests, which makes for a very sturdy structure. They may reuse the nest this season, adding some grass and leaves to freshen it up for their next brood. At the end of nesting season, though, you could take the nest down.

Q. My friends and I noticed a paucity of birds at our feeders in late spring and they’re just now starting to return. Any explanation?
A. The same thing is happening in my backyard, with greatly reduced bird traffic at feeders until about mid-June. The reason: this is the time of year when nearly all songbirds ignore seeds, switching instead to an insect diet. They feed their offspring exclusively on insects, especially juicy caterpillars, for the big dose of protein they provide. On this diet, young birds mature quickly and leave the nest in just over two weeks after hatching. This is necessary because predators are always watching for a tasty meal. Once the youngsters leave the nest, the whole family may show up at your feeders.

Q. Are birds color-blind?
A. Just the opposite, birds are highly sensitive to color, more so than humans. The fact that birds are so brilliantly colored is proof that color is important to them. They use color to discern which birds would make good mates, how healthy another bird is and which birds are youngsters needing some guidance. Birds see a broader spectrum of color than we do and they’re able to see some ultraviolet light, which we can’t.

Q. I saw a bald eagle land near an ice-fishing hole on a city lake, when it was still all frozen up. Do eagles eat fish in winter, or only when there’s open water?
A. Eagles eat fish all year round, and can and do fly long distances to find open water for fishing. In the metro area, eagles bunch up at open areas on rivers near power plants. Eagles occasionally snatch injured ducks and they’ll also scavenge on road-killed deer.

Q. I just saw the strangest thing on my backyard maple tree—the bark seemed to be moving! When I looked more closely it turned out to be a bark-like bird, but I don’t know what kind.
A. That’s an excellent description of the brown creeper, which does look like a piece of bark as it spirals upward around a tree trunk in search of insects. The creeper is perfectly camouflaged, with its brown back over an all-white belly. Creepers invariably move upward and their cousins, the white-breasted nuthatches, move downward on tree trunks. Each may find hidden insects that the other’s feeding strategy has overlooked.

St. Paul, Minnesota resident Val Cunningham writes about birds for many publications, is a field trip leader for St. Paul Audubon and conducts IBA and Breeding Bird Atlas surveys. A version of this piece appeared first in the Minneapolis StarTribune.