Backyard Birding

Mother Earth News has a good article on birdhouses posted on their website. The description of the birdhouse (complete with directions to make your own!) has everything I enjoy about backyard birding: it is simple and does not require an elaborate set up. Sure, you could purchase a birdhouse for $50 or more, paint it to match your house and complete with a welcome mat. If you are a serious woodworker, you can also find plans for a birdhouse which will challenge your skills and your tools. But if you want to use your saw and hammer to put something together with your children, the birds will not know the difference.

Why am I talking about nest boxes in the fall? While their main purpose may be fulfilled during the breeding season, nesting boxes can be important as roosting sites during harsh winter weather. These temporary shelters may then become a nest site in the spring.

If you are interested in making this addition to your backyard habitat, check out the article. The directions are about halfway through the article and there are some important housekeeping chores at the bottom.

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Backyard birding math, from Journey North:

Last time you read Be Mine! Robins and Their Mates. We said that one scientific study showed that about 75% of all fledgling robins die before November their first year. Of those that survive that long, about half die before the next November. About half of all 2-year-old robins die each year, and about half of all robins of every other age die each year, too. If this is true, what’s the answer to…

Challenge Question #9:
“If 200 robins were fledged in a town one year, how many of the fledglings would be alive in November? How many would be alive the following November? How many would be alive the November after that? How many years would it be before all these fledglings had probably died?”

The numbers in the study surprised me. No wonder robins generally raise two broods every year. Then one bird might survive the winter!

Don’t forget the comment contest going on for the month of August here at 451 Press. Every comment counts!

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It is not uncommon to find a young bird that has fallen from its nest. In fact, I remember it as an exciting opportunity to get a closer look at the wildlife around our home. Like many children, we took the birds home, tried our best to raise them, and discovered just how attentive parent birds must be to their nestlings when we struggled to keep them fed. But what should you do if you find a baby bird out of the nest?

Chances are, the best bet is to do nothing at all. The mother bird is likely close by, watching her young bird. If it has developed feathers, it is likely a fledgling just learning to fly. Fledglings often struggle with early flight and fall from the nest. Parents stay nearby, continue to feed the baby bird and often do their best to ward off predators. Observe from a distance, keep dogs, cats and children away, and you likely will see the parent shortly. It won’t be very long until the bird finds its wings and flies.

If the bird does not yet have feathers, or feathers which are undeveloped, however, it is still a nestling. Nestlings are not capable of survival for long outside the nest. They get shoved out for a variety of reasons. A parasitic species such as the brown-headed cowbird may have laid an egg in the nest. If this is the case, the invading bird will push whatever eggs or nestlings are in the nest out to ensure its own survival. Sometimes this happens even amongs nestlings of the same species.

And sometimes birds just fall out of their nests.

Common folklore says that handling the bird will cause the parents to reject it. This is not true.

No matter how flighty birds appear, they do not readily abandon their young, especially not in response to human touch, says Frank B. Gill, former president of the American Ornithologists’ Union. “If a bird’s nest is disturbed by a potential predator during the nesting or egg-laying stage,” he says, “there’s a possibility that [it] will desert and re-nest. However, once the young are hatched and feeding, [their parents are] by and large pretty tenacious.” Scientific American

If you find a nestling, look nearby and try to locate the nest. If possible, gently return it. Be prepared for angry parents. I once was hit in the head by a blue jay as thanks for returning her nestling to its nest. If you cannot find the nest or it is impossible to reach, you can try constructing a replacement nest.

If the nest has been destroyed or is unreachable, you may substitute a strawberry basket or small box lined with tissue and suspend it from a branch near to where you believe the nest is located. Audubon Society of Portland

We once used an old butter tub with holes poked in the bottom. The holes are important so that the bird does not drown in the event of rain. It may take an hour or two, but the parent birds are quite likely to return to the nestling, even though you have handled it and even though it is in a new nest. The best thing to do at that point is to leave it alone. Checking on it will only cause further stress and there is not much else that can be done. Hand-raising the bird may be interesting for the family, but such birds also have minimal chances for survival when released.

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If you set up nest boxes in your yard, it is highly recommended that you place them within reach so that they may be monitored easily. They require regularly monitoring for one simple reason: house sparrows.

Population declines of several native species are widely attributed to competition with house sparrows, which are not native to North America. Nest boxes for wrens, chickadees and other small song birds should have holes which are too small for the sparrow to enter. Kestrels, blue birds, woodpeckers and many other species are too large however, and sparrows will likely take up residence in the boxes you provide.

To monitor nest boxes, you need only a pen and notebook. This is a wonderful opportunity to observe your birds very closely, but it is essential to do the work quickly and quietly with minimal disturbance to the birds.

1. While waiting for birds to nest, check the box frequently. Learn to identify sparrow nests so that you can remove them if they begin to nest. Because they are an invasive species, it is legal to remove their nests, eggs, the young and even trap and destroy the adults if necessary.

2. Once a native bird has begun nesting, do not check the box in the morning. This is when birds lay their eggs. They are more likely to be searching for food in the afternoon, so it will be less stressful on the birds to check the nests at this time.

3. Once a bird has begun incubating, give her a few days before checking the nest. Observe the nest box from a distance. Watch for the parent birds to come and go, and make sure they are not being attacked by sparrows which can injure and even kill larger birds.

4. Once the nest is established, you can check it once or twice a week. Take notes and enjoy this glimpse into the natural world.

5. Remember not to check the nest in inclement weather which could bring harm to the baby birds. Also do not check the nest when the nestlings are close to fledging. This would increase their likelihood of leaving the nest prematurely.

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Two years ago, a robin nested in the pine tree outside our back porch. I would sit with my daughter in the back yard and listen to the babies cheep and watch as the mother bird came to feed them. She rarely flew directly to the nest. From the bushes in the back, she would fly up into the ash tree, hop through it and then to the pine tree. If we didn’t watch closely, we would lose track of her before she arrived at the nest.

To satisfy our curiosity, I helped my daughter climb onto the roof of the porch. From there, we were the same level as the nest, but far enough away to observe without disturbing. The nest appeared empty until mom came near. Then we could see three tiny heads pop up, mouth gaping and cheeping wildly.

It is an amazing experience to watch new life and share the natural world with children. These moments of quiet observation build an appreciation for the natural world around us.

If you are curious to learn more, Journey North offers a great deal of information about the American Robin, including lesson plans which can easily be adapted to your child.

Rebecca of Little Homeschool on the Prairie also shares her family’s experiences with nestlings in their back yard this year.

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In 1851, 100 house sparrows were released in Brooklyn to help control insects. The descendants of this small population spread throughout the Eastern United States and Canada. With help from additional transplants, the species moved across the rest of the United States and south all the way to Panama. Unfortunately, this bird, which is actually not a sparrow at all but a weaver finch, did more damage than good. It continues to compete with native birds for food, and perhaps more importantly, for nesting sites.

Cavity nesters, such as the Eastern bluebird, require holes to build their nests in. Some species of woodpeckers make their own holes. Many other species use these abandoned holes later. Because of the stiff competition for suitable nesting sites among cavity nesters, they can often be easy to attract to nest boxes.

Especially wrens are known for their interesting nesting sites close to humans, including mailboxes, flower pots, tin cans, old shoes, pockets on hanging laundry and just about anywhere else they can fit.

Anywhere there is a hole large enough, a cavity nesting bird may take up residence. And if the hole isn’t quite large enough, many will excavate further. Such as this little chickadee in his unique home: a deer target.

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