Birding at The Woodlands: Attracting Birds in the Snow

Snow is hopefully right around the corner! When snow seems to blanket everything in sight, ground-foraging birds can have some trouble finding food. So with wintery weather predicted this week, I invite you to try a neat new way of attracting birds to your yard. Read on to see how you can use something as simple as a tarp to create a winter songbird buffet!

Dark-eyed Juncos are cute winter sparrows, and colloquially known as Snowbirds. Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

Dark-eyed Juncos are cute winter sparrows, and colloquially known as Snowbirds. Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

Just before the flakes begin to fall, spread a tarp across an open patch of ground in your yard. If you can, set it up in a place where seeds may have fallen, such as under bird feeders or near tall native grasses. If that's not possible for you, no worries - just toss a couple cups of birdseed across the area. When the snowstorm is over, lift up the tarp to uncover the bare ground underneath. This patch becomes a sort of oasis in the snowy landscape, and can funnel in birds who are looking for a meal. It's a good way to try to get a species to visit that you've never seen in your yard before!

A bright male cardinal like this one may visit your yard, and bring a welcome splash of color! Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

A bright male cardinal like this one may visit your yard, and bring a welcome splash of color! Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

There are also natural places that provide food for birds when it snows. Wide, dense bushes, particularly evergreens, can keep ground bare and have an effect similar to that of the tarp, as well as provide some shelter from the cold. Check out some of the Yew bushes near Center Circle to see this phenomenon in action. Also, taller plants such as goldenrod or purpletop grass have seeds that are high enough to remain uncovered and accessible to birds. The small meadow near the mansion at The Woodlands is chock-full of these sorts of plants and thus very popular with birds on a snowy day!

The most frequent visitors to a snow-day cafe, whether natural or man-made, are likely to be sparrows. From the handsome slate-and-white Dark-eyed Junco, to the White-throated Sparrow sporting racing stripes on the head, these active little birds keep the scene full of lively flutter and chatter. If you live in a particularly urban area, the non-native House Sparrow from the Old World may dominate the scene. Other species, such as the classic Northern Cardinal and portly yet elegant Mourning Dove may also come. And you never know what additional surprises might drop in!

If we get snow this week, we will be setting up a tarp of our own at The Woodlands! It will be by the meadow, to the west of the mansion. I hope you get a chance to swing by and check out the songbirds stopping by to dine!

A video of White-throated Sparrows and cardinals enjoying an exposed and well-seeded patch at The Woodlands on the evening of December 21. Video by Toribird.

Written by:
Toribird

Birding at The Woodlands: Migration and a Call to Action

There truly is no other event on the birding calendar quite like migration! The southward movement of birds is in full swing, and there are lots of fascinating feathered friends taking a pit stop here in Philly. Some of my favorite avian travelers are the diminutive warblers. Like many other birds, they migrate at night and pause to feed and rest when dawn comes. To spot warblers, search out trees lit by the soft fall morning sunlight, and you will likely be rewarded with the royal pattern of a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, or the flickering color in an American Redstart's tail. 

This male American Redstart shows off his striking coal-and-fire plumage. Photo by Toribird.

This male American Redstart shows off his striking coal-and-fire plumage. Photo by Toribird.

Several Ospreys, presumably migrants, were seen flying over the Woodlands at the Bird Calls morning concert in late August. Photo by Toribird.

Several Ospreys, presumably migrants, were seen flying over the Woodlands at the Bird Calls morning concert in late August. Photo by Toribird.

Birds much larger than warblers are also on the move. On a brisk day with winds out of the northwest (optimal for migration), you may see gulls, raptors, herons, and nighthawks pass by overhead. If you are lucky, you may even catch large flocks (called kettles) with double-digit numbers of Broad-winged Hawks circling high above! If you are interested in finding out when the most migrants will be coming through, check out BirdCast. It's a website that analyzes various factors, including wind direction and radar, to predict how strong bird flight will be over the next three days. It now even lets you easily look at migration alerts for your local area!  

And, on top of all the birds already mentioned, Red-breasted Nuthatches are already moving in! Like many boreal seedeaters, these nuthatches are an irruptive species (to read more about irruptive birds, I invite you to look at this previous blog post). Since the food source of these birds can fluctuate substantially, they must be able to adjust from year to year. Luckily for us Pennsylvania birders, this adjustment sometimes means that the birds come down to our area for the colder months of the year. 

Illustration of a Carolina Parakeet by Alexander Wilson, a prominent early American ornithologist. The other three birds in the picture are (from left to right) Wilson's Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Hooded Warbler. The warblers have escaped extincti…

Illustration of a Carolina Parakeet by Alexander Wilson, a prominent early American ornithologist. The other three birds in the picture are (from left to right) Wilson's Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Hooded Warbler. The warblers have escaped extinction, at least for now - a haunting echo of the one in four birds lost. Picture from Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

On a more solemn note, we just recently hit the one-year anniversary of the staggering finding that North America has lost three billion birds in the last 50 years. That's the equivalent of having lost 1 in 4 birds since 1970. Perhaps the most worrisome part of this finding is that it's not only endangered species that are declining, but even common birds like Chimney Swifts and Herring Gulls are having a hard time as well. 

I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the species that we have already lost. Last winter saw the premier of a remarkable choral piece focused on four extinct North American birds. Here, you can hear the movements dedicated to the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina Parakeet. Both of these birds graced the Pennsylvania landscape in the time of William Hamilton. 

Luckily, there are things we can all do to prevent the birds that are still with us from meeting the same dark fate as the Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet.

Here are seven simple actions to help birds: 

1. Make windows safer - up to one billion birds die each year from colliding with windows. Applying decals, tempera paint, or stripe patterns spaced four inches apart horizontally to the outside surface of windows greatly reduces bird strikes. 

2. Keep cats indoors or on a leash - cats make wonderful pets, but pose a significant threat to wildlife when left to their own devices, and kill about 2 and a half billion birds a year. Having cats as indoor pets or trained to walk on leashes is more humane for both cats and birds.

3. Use native plants - native plants are an essential source of food for birds, both directly and by providing a food source for the insects that birds rely on. As increasingly large swaths of habitat are destroyed, it is all the more important that we give birds the resources they need. 

4. Avoid pesticides - these toxic chemicals can have deadly impact on birds if they are ingested, and have taken a severe toll on the insect population, which in turn also affects birds. Staying away from pesticides is much healthier for both people and birds. 

5. Drink shade-grown coffee - the majority of coffee is grown on sun plantations that offer about as many ecological resources as a parking lot. Shade-grown coffee, as the name implies, is grown under tall trees and largely preserves the habitat. 

6. Use less plastic - many birds, particularly those that live in or near the ocean, will frequently mistake plastic items for food. Stay away from single-use plastic as much as possible. 

7. Watch birds and share what you see - citizen science is a vital part of tracking bird population trends. With increased knowledge, it becomes easier to identify how to best help at-risk species. Consider submitting your bird observations to eBird, a global database.

Written by:
Toribird

Studying Breeding Birds at The Woodlands

It's Toribird here, and I am excited to say that on June 14th, I surveyed The Woodlands for my part of the Philadelphia Breeding Bird Census! The census is pretty much what it sounds like - birders visit all sorts of places in Philadelphia County, and look for evidence of birds breeding. It takes place every four years, the last one was in 2016. I have wanted to get a better understanding of the kind of breeding bird activity that we have at The Woodlands for a while now, so this was a great way to get to learn a bit more about that. 

You can see how the American Robin who built this nest used mud and ribbon as well as straw and twigs. Photo taken by Toribird.

You can see how the American Robin who built this nest used mud and ribbon as well as straw and twigs. Photo taken by Toribird.

Though the mention of breeding evidence may bring to mind searching for nests, there are a myriad of additional things that also show that birds are raising families. These other clues are often quite useful, since birds usually hide their nests quite well to make it harder for predators - and in turn birders - to find them. An example of something good to look for is a bird carrying food, which is confirming proof that the carrier is busy catering to a nest full of hungry young. It is also good to pay attention to birds with nesting material, which could be branches, fibers, mud, or any number of other things depending on the species. Also, there are many courtship rituals that birds must go through before they reach the point of having offspring. Singing is a way for birds to both defend territories and attract potential mates, as is, often, some sort of display, which can take many forms. So, these are also important and interesting behaviors to keep an eye out for.  

I enjoyed doing my census of The Woodlands. I started at 7am, near the huge Evans obelisk. To cover as much area as possible, I walked in a spiraling fashion, starting by walking along the perimeter, working my way inward to eventually end at Center Circle. I found confirmed breeding evidence for nine species, though since the time for spring migration has passed, we can assume all of the 26 species I came across are attempting to nest in the area. I was surprised that I didn't see certain species such as orioles and kingbirds, and I saw only one flicker; all these birds usually seem to be much more abundant. I also feel as though I had more of the invasive starlings and House Sparrows than normal; I wonder what caused these differences. 

A young Brown-headed Cowbird getting fed by their foster parent Chipping Sparrow. Yes, the baby cowbird is the bigger one! Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

A young Brown-headed Cowbird getting fed by their foster parent Chipping Sparrow. Yes, the baby cowbird is the bigger one! Photo taken at The Woodlands by Toribird.

There were several highlights throughout the day, and my favorite is probably the very cute and fuzzy Downy Woodpecker baby which was getting fed by its dad. It was also neat to see a young Brown-headed Cowbird attended by a parent Chipping Sparrow. Cowbirds are rather infamous brood parasites that leave their eggs in other species nests, and so it was a nice chance to see this "textbook" bird behavior. 

Of course, the recap of the trip would not be complete without highlighting our Cooper's Hawk nest, which is high in an oak tree on the VA Hospital side of The Woodlands. I always enjoy checking in on that family! I took a look at them on June 4th, and when I returned on the 14th it was incredible to see how much the babies had changed! On the 4th, they were little more than a nestful of white fuzzballs, and lacked any longer feathers, but just ten days later they were much larger and already sporting flight feathers in the wings and the brown striping on the chest that is distinctive of young Coopers. The hawks will soon be fledging, and so I encourage you to visit them and watch as they explore the world beyond their nest for the first time in their life!

Below is a video I took of a parent feeding the little guys. 

Though summer lacks the wonderful diversity of migration, it is arguably the most important season in a bird's life, since it is now that birds reproduce, and without the new generations, the species would not survive. It is also fascinating to watch the displays, fights, and, of course, lovely songs that are a key part of birds' courtship. So, I hope you get a chance to get outside and take in the wonderful intricacies of the avian summer! 

Written by:
Toribird