WILD BIRD FEEDING STATION (AT THE OLD STUMP PHOTO BLOG)

Hi Everybody!!
Tonight I am going to tell you how easy it is to set up a Wild Bird Feeding Station. Once upon a time bird watching was a difficult hobby at best. The tools were field glasses, old film cameras and a field guide handbook. Not anymore! Now Anybody who is Anybody is into "Birding" with digital cameras that will reach up in trees, zoom field glasses, phone cameras, internet Birding I D Sites and Google Maps, just to name a few new toys. Your Feeding Station can be elaborate or just some seed on the ground. I have shared Wikipedia Info below on Bird Feeding. Your photostudy is of an old stump I made into a Feeding Station simply by putting seed on top of it everyday. Then sit back and wait to see who shows up! It is Fun-Enjoy!

Northern Cardinal and Red Bellied Woodpecker






















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_feeding

Bird feeding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bird feeding is the activity of feeding wild birds, often by means of a bird feeder.

A bird table, with a Wood Pigeon on the roof, in an English garden. The table provides water, peanuts, sunflower seeds and a seed mix.

History[edit]

James Fisher wrote that the first person recorded as feeding wild birds was the 6th century monk Saint Serf of Fife who tamed a pigeon by feeding it. In the harsh winter of 1890-91 in Britain national newspapers asked people to put out food for birds. In 1910 in the United Kingdom, Punch magazine declared that feeding birds was a "national pastime."^[1] Bird feeding has grown into the United States' second most popular hobby behind gardening.^[2] To celebrate the bird feeding hobby, February was named National Bird-Feeding Month by congressional decree in 1994.^[3]

Activity[edit]

See also: Bird food

Bird feeding is typically thought of as an activity of bird enthusiasts. People who feed wild birds often attempt to attract birds to suburban and domestic locations. This requires setting up a feeding station and supplying bird food. The food might include seeds, peanuts, bought food mixes, fat, kitchen scraps and suet. Additionally, a bird bath and grit (sand), that birds store in their crops to help grind food as an aid to digestion, can be provided.

Feeding bread to waterfowl at parks, lakes and rivers is also a popular activity.

Types[edit]

Certain foods tend to attract certain birds.^[4] Finches and Siskin will be attracted by Niger,^[5] and Jays love corn.Hummingbirds, sunbirds and other nectivorous birds love nectar. Mixed seed and black oil sunflower seed is favoured by many seed-eating species. Birds such as white-eyes, barbets, and some thrushes will take fresh and cut fruit. Different feeders can be purchased specialized for different species.

Garden birds can be fed using peanuts, seed, coconut (but never desiccated coconut) or fat (but not oils that are liquid at room temperature) using a variety of feeders.^[6]

After the station is established, it can take some weeks for birds to discover and start using it. This is particularly true if the feeding station is the first one in an area or (in cold-winter areas) if the station is being established in spring when natural sources of food are plentiful. Therefore, beginners should not completely fill a feeder at first. The food will get old and spoil if it is left uneaten for too long. This is particularly true of unshelled foods, such as thistle seed and suet. Once the birds begin taking food, the feeder should be kept full. Additionally, people feeding birds should be sure that there is a source of water nearby. A bird bath can attract as many birds as a feeding station.^{[citation needed]}

Impact[edit]

Bird feeding in winter

A study conducted in Sheffield, England, found that the abundance of garden birds increased with levels of bird feeding. This effect was only apparent in those species that regularly take supplementary food, raising the possibility that bird feeding was having a direct effect on bird abundance. In contrast, the density of feeding stations had no effect on the number of different bird species present in a neighbourhood.^[7]

The use of bird feeders has been claimed to cause environmental problems;^[specify] some of these were highlighted in a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal.^[8]

Prior to the publication of the Wall Street Journal article, Canadian ornithologist Jason Rogers also wrote about the environmental problems associated with the use of bird feeders in the journal Alberta Naturalist.^[9] In this article, Rogers explains how the practice of feeding wild birds is inherently fraught with negative impacts and risks such as fostering dependency, altering natural distribution, density and migrationpatterns, interfering with ecological processes, causing malnutrition, facilitating the spread of disease and increasing the risk of death from cats, pesticides, hitting windows and other causes.

In a paper in the journal Oecologia, it was reported that feeding of blue tits and great tits with peanut cake over a long time period significantly reduced brood size. This was driven by smaller clutch sizes in both species and lower hatching success rates for blue tits.^[10] Studies by the University of Freiburg and Environment Canada found that Blackcaps migrating to Great Britain from Germany had become adapted to eating food supplied by humans. In contrast blackcaps migrating to Spain had bills adapted to feeding on fruit such as olives.^[11]

Economy[edit]

Large sums of money are spent by ardent bird feeders, who indulge their wild birds with a variety of bird foods and bird feeders. Over 55 million Americans over the age of 16 feed wild birds and spend more than $3 billion a year on bird food, and $800 million a year on bird feeders, bird baths, bird houses and other bird feeding accessories.^[12] The activity has spawned an industry that sells supplies and equipment for the bird feeding hobby.

Red Bellied Woodpecker




Northern Cardinal


https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117645114459863049265/albums/6010647205050303185


Northern Cardinal




Crow




Red Bellied Woodpecker and Blue Jay



Red Bellied Woodpecker




Red Bellied Woodpecker


https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117645114459863049265/albums/6011604010246490977

Red Bellied Woodpecker




Red Bellied Woodpecker



Red Bellied Woodpecker


https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117645114459863049265/albums/6011606073088361313

Red Bellied Woodpecker,Inca Dove, Northern Cardinal




Red Bellied Woodpecker and female Cardinal


Crow


Blue Jay


https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117645114459863049265/albums/6011610095093217569

Northern Cardinal




Northern Cardinal



Buzzard


https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117645114459863049265/albums/6008296308030351905

Anole

...this is brendasue signing off from Rainbow Creek.  See You next time!

O+O