Bird feed?

Who doesn't like small birds, and who isn't tempted to feed them?

 

Many parks warn people not to feed the birds, but at Reifel Bird Sanctuary they sell suitable seed and encourage visitors to feed the birds. Both the visitors and the birds seem to love it.

 

The black capped chickadees know a good thing when they see it and eagerly cue up to be fed.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately they move so quickly a few of my pictures are out of focus.

 

The golden-crowned sparrow prefers to retrieve seed from the ground. These birds are very well camouflaged:

 

The junco is a ground feeder too and quite a shy bird.

 

 

 

The redwing blackbird cannot be described as shy. This fellow below has a spectacular set of epaulets.

 

 

They are gorging at a feeder but I have seen them take food from an open palm.

 

In the photo below the male is in the centre of the picture, the female is off to the right.

 

Here is a closer look at the female ...

 

 

and a couple more pictures of the male:

 

 

I think this is a house sparrow, also quite well camouflaged.

 

And finally the rufous-sided towhee, a ground feeder and

 

 

not so well camouflaged against this background:

 

Love that bright red eye:

 

So you want to feed the birds this winter, what should you offer them?

 

"Most birds that visit backyards in snowy weather thrive on seeds, since insects and fruit are harder to find naturally during the winter.

The best foods to offer birds in colder weather have a high fat or oil content that will provide abundant energy for winter survival."

 

http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/a/winterfeeding.htm

 

Nutritious winter foods for birds include black oil sunflower seed, hulled peanuts, thistle (nyjer) seed, suet, peanut butter and white millet seed.

 

 

Here is "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins sung by Julie Andrews:

 

 

 

This is all for this week, happy Wednesday, with whimsy,

 

Gillian.