"Dish-Style" Hummingbird Feeders

Here is it again: Here's a rerun of the picture of the dish-style feeder I recommended about a month ago. This post will give you leads on how to find one, or one like it. Except for this one, all of the photos in this post are from the respective manufacturers' websites.

SINCE RECOMMENDING "DISH-STYLE" HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS about a month ago, I've had several inquiries from people who have had trouble finding one. Several large companies do make them, however, so with a few tips (which will arrive shortly) anyone who wants a dish-style feeder should be able to locate one for sale.

First, let's quickly review the advantages of dish-style feeders. In my book, the main advantage is that they're easy to clean: Just remove the top and you can clean the inside thoroughly, without having to use a bottle brush. Another advantage is that because the feeding holes are above the water level, there is no risk of dripping as there is with styles that place the holes below the liquid. This style also deters some of the larger insects that are attracted to sugar water, because their tongues aren't long enough to reach the water. (If the insect is small enough to crawl in through the feeding hole, however, it will do so.)

So how can you find them? I'm aware of three companies that make this style of feeder.

Yule-Hyde

The one in the photo above is made by Yule-Hyde Associates Co., a Canadian company. It has most of the characteristics I recommend in a hummingbird feeder:

1. Dish style for easy cleaning.

2. Perches for better viewing of the birds.

3. Mounts on the window. This allows better viewing of the birds, but another advantage is that window-mounted feeders are rarely troubled by sugar-seeking ants.

The one drawback of this inexpensive feeder is that the perches seem to break off easily. For that reason, a more expensive feeder made out of tougher plastic may be a better investment.

Now oddly, I cannot find this feeder on the Yule-Hyde website. In fact, I can't seem to find this feeder available online or even mentioned online. I purchased mine at a local feed store, but have no idea how anyone who doesn't live near me can get one. All I can suggest is that you ask local stores whether they are able to order them. Ask for Model Number HBW1.

Aspects

Meanwhile, two U.S. companies also make dish-style hummingbird feeders, and their products are widely available. These feeders are more expensive than the Yule Hyde, but they are also made of tougher plastic. So they may well be a better deal in the long run.

Right, the Aspects HummZinger "Mini" holds 8 ounces of sugar water, which is usually plenty as you should replace the food frequently anyway. Note the perches and the ant moat around the hanging stem.

Aspects makes several versions of its dish-style "HummZinger" brand. All are hanging styles (in other words, not window mountable), but they do have perches. They come with a lifetime guarantee and also have built-in ant moats, which is a convenient feature on a hanging feeder. (An ant moat, as the name implies, is a trough that you fill with water. This helps to prevent ants from reaching the sugar water in your feeder.) An ant moat is nice to have but not essential on a hummingbird feeder as ant moats can be bought separately from companies such as Lee Valley.

Aspects also sells a window-mounted dish-style feeder which they call the "Nectar Bar". Unfortunately, the Nectar Bar does not have perches.


Right, the Nectar Bar from Aspects. I like the little roof that prevents rain from getting into the sugar water, but I wish it had perches.





Droll Yankees

Droll Yankees is one of the best-known and most respected makers of bird feeders, and they also make dish-style hummingbird feeders. They offer a hanging style and a window mounted style, both in a sturdy plastic with a lifetime guarantee. Both feeders also have a perchable rim.


Right, dish-style feeders from Droll Yankees. The top one is a hanging style, the "Happy Eight 2", while under that is the window-mounted "Window Hummer 2". Both have perchable rims.

I think all of the feeders described here are good ones and would be happy to have any of them. However, by a hair I think my favorite would be the Droll Yankees window-mounted dish-style hummingbird feeder, shown at bottom.

The Hummers Are Coming

Above, Wild Flora's favorite hummingbird feeder is an easy-to-clean "dish" style that attaches to a window with a suction cup and has perches so the birds can sit while feeding.

SPRING IS ON THE WING. The hummingbird migration map at hummingbirds.net is starting to show those little colored dots that tell us ruby-throated hummingbirds are being seen in North America. So far they are being seen only along the southern edge of the United States, along the coastline in Texas, Louisiana, and other southernmost states. But with their arrival on the continent, most of us can look forward to seeing our friends within the next month or so.

Male hummers arrive ahead of the females and establish territories around good food sources. Once they've found a good territory, they return year after year. So it's important to make sure your feeder is already out when the males start to arrive.

The best feeder

Time to buy a new feeder? The "dish" style, shown in the photo above, has a lot of advantages over the more common "bottle" style. In the dish style, the feeding holes are in the lid (the red part of the feeder shown in the photo) while the nectar fills a container (the clear plastic dish under the red lid) that screws onto the lid. One advantage of this style is that the dish and lid are both easy to clean--unlike the bottle in the bottle style, which usually can be cleaned thoroughly only with a bottle brush.

Another advantage is that dish-style feeders don't drip. Also, this style of feeder tends to discourage wasps and bees, as their short tongues can't reach the nectar in the dish. (Unfortunately, this sometimes encourages them to crawl into the dish in search of food. However, on the whole I think you are less likely to see wasps and bees hanging around this style of feeder than around many of the bottle styles.)

It's fun, though not essential, to have a hummingbird feeder that attaches to a window with a suction cup. Hummers are very brave and will not be discouraged from feeding even if you stand on the other side of the window to watch them.

Perches are also nice to have. Hummers don't need them, as they can hover while feeding. However, if perches are available the hummers will use them. This lets them rest and gives you a better look at the birds while they're feeding.

"Hummer Juice"

Before the hummers arrive, you'll want to be sure to have a big bag of plain white sugar. Mix tap water and sugar in a ratio of 4:1 (four cups water to one cup sugar) and store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It's no longer considered necessary to boil the water before you mix up a batch of "hummer juice"--just be sure you change the liquid often.

There's no need to add anything to this liquid. With their extremely high energy needs, hummingbirds use sugar water to meet calorie requirements. But they get most of their nutrients from a diet of small flying insects, which they hunt on the wing.

In fact, attempts to "improve" the standard formula for hummingbird food are likely to do more harm than good. Well-meaning efforts to enrich the liquid can unintentionally introduce ingredients that are not good for the birds and/or encourage the growth of molds and bacteria.

Maintenance

Once you start feeding the birds, be prepared to change the sugar water every few days, as often as daily in warm weather. Molds and bacteria are probably the biggest threat to feeder-using birds, so probably the most important thing any bird lover can do is to make sure the food is always fresh.

You will also want to be sure to keep the feeders full throughout the breeding season and until there are an abundance of nectar-producing flowers in bloom.

And finally, you'll want to do whatever you can to attract small flying insects to your garden, as these are an important part of the hummingbird diet. Like almost all birds, hummingbirds eat a lot of insects and also feed a lot of insects to their young.

I'll return with a discussion of planting for hummingbirds soon. In the meantime, to learn more about hummingbird migration, see this page at hummingbirds.net For a longer and more detailed discussion of hummingbird feeding, see this post of mine from last year.

(Not So) Scary Things About Peanut Butter

Photograph by Piccolo Namek, made available via Wikimedia Commons under a GNU Free Documentation License.

Back in December, I wrote about using peanut butter, straight from the jar, as a winter food for birds. Someone then asked about the possibility that sugar or preservatives in commercial peanut butter might be harmful to birds. I decided to do some investigating, and this is what I learned:

As far as I have been able to find out without checking the ingredients of every brand, commercial peanut butters contain salt, sometimes sugar, and what are known as stabilizers, which prevent the oil and solids from separating.

You can leave it on the shelf (for a while anyway)

Preservatives are not generally found in peanut butter because peanut butter has such a low moisture content that it does not support the growth of bacteria—at least, that’s what is claimed by leading peanutbutterologists.

That’s why people are able to keep opened peanut butter on the shelf rather than refrigerate it. However, the oils in peanut butter can go rancid, especially in heat. That jar on your shelf will eventually start to smell off if you leave it long enough, and should be thrown out at that point.

A fungus among us?

Peanuts, hence peanut butter, are also susceptible to an Aspergillus mold (A. flavus, to be exact) that produces the potential liver carcinogen called aflatoxin. Both commercial and “natural” peanut butters are equally subject to this problem as Aspergillus occurs naturally on peanuts as well as on a number of other food products. Amounts of aflatoxin in human food are closely regulated in North America, and most authorities seem to agree that risk from aflatoxin in foods in the industrial world is vanishingly low.

That being said, the risk of aflatoxin contamination is apparently lowest when the peanuts are ground soon after picking and immediately placed in an airtight container. As a result, this may be one of those cases (and they do occur) where buying the big supermarket brand is a safe choice. About 5-10 years ago when the Consumers Union in the United States tested various brands of peanut butter for their aflatoxin content, the highest levels were found in peanut butter “ground fresh” in health food stores, whereas the lowest levels were found in the big supermarket brands.

Trans-fat free?

Another possible reason to be afraid of peanut butter is the stabilizers used to keep peanut butter from separating. Generally these are fats of some type; they used to use hydrogenated vegetable oils but these are being phased out. I don’t have information on what’s being used to replace them. However, in the United States at least (and I suspect in Canada as well), peanut butter must be at least 90% peanuts. The quantity of stabilizers of any type to be found in peanut butter is relatively small.

Our friend, the peanut

Peanuts themselves convey quite a few health benefits, incidentally. According to the Wikipedia, they contain high levels of monounsaturated fats and Resveratrol (a phytoalexin also found in the skin of red grapes), various nutrients, and an antioxidant called p-coumaric acid. The American Peanut Council is even touting a study in which peanuts were found to be so nutritional and satiating that they might be used as a method of weight control.

But that's a possible benefit to me, not a bird. When all is said and done, I've concluded that peanut butter is not very scary at all. I certainly have not been able to find any evidence that birds are placed in any danger by consuming the relatively small amounts of sugar, stabilizers, or salt found in commercial peanut butter.

This item originated as a posting to the NSNature e-list.

Winter Bird Feeding

THERE WAS SNOW ON THE GROUND this morning, marking the time to begin my winter regime of bird feeding. In winter and spring, I make an effort to be more consistent about keeping the feeders full, for reasons explained recently in this post. Other than that, the one big addition to my usual routine is a giant jar of the cheapest peanut butter I can find.

Years ago, before meat came in packages from the grocery store, butchers often gave away bits of cow carcass that their human customers did not want to eat. This is how many dogs got their bones; these days, it is almost impossible to get a dog bone from from a butcher, even if you offer to pay for it.

The butcher was also a source for a winter bird food known as suet. Suet is a thick piece of nearly pure white fat that is found behind a cow or steer's kidneys. Hung outside, often in an old onion bag, it would provide high-calorie fuel for small birds during the depths of winter. Suet functions as a substitute for insects, which are also quite high in fat, during a time of year when insects are very difficult to find.

Today it is almost as difficult to get suet from a butcher as it is to get a good dog bone. However, you can purchase suet in stores; it usually comes in the form of a square cake that fits into a "suet holder" that you can also purchase.

I spent a lot of money on commercially prepared suet over the years, believing that this was the ideal way to feed winter birds. But eventually I realized that the custom of feeding suet arose because suet used to be cheap, not because suet is necessarily the ideal food. As a matter of fact, almost any high-fat food will work just as well. And birds actually seem to prefer peanut butter. When you buy it in the giant jars in the bulk foods section of the grocery store, peanut butter is also also quite a lot cheaper than commercial suet.

After discovering peanut butter, I went through several years in which I tried combining it with other things, such as corn meal or dried fruit. Eventually I realized that this is unnecessary and wasteful, so I just started putting out straight peanut butter.

Some people are afraid to give birds straight peanut butter because they've heard that the birds will choke. But I've never seen or uncovered any evidence that this is likely to happen. As far as I know, most authorities now consider this to be an urban legend.

The only concern in offering birds peanut butter or any other high-fat food is that these foods should not be left outside in warm weather. Fats of all types go rancid in heat. This is why I reserve peanut butter for winter feeding.

All of which is to say that today I celebrated the beginning of winter by finding a couple of old, battered suet feeders, a large jar of inexpensive peanut butter that I bought a couple of weeks ago in expectation of this day, and a big spreading knife. I scooped peanut butter out of the jar and into the suet feeders. Within a minute after I had hung up the first one, a chickadee had taken its first bite.

If you don't have some old suet feeders in the garden shed, you can make a peanut butter feeder out of almost anything: a can open at both ends, a piece of scrap lumber as long as it's not treated. Peanut butter sticks to almost anything, after all. Screw an eye-hook into whatever it is, hang it up where the birds will see it, and you have a free feeder. Do not spread peanut butter on a live tree or shrub, however; squirrels will chew through the bark as they try to get at the last of the peanut butter.

In addition to offering peanut butter to the birds, I will also continue to offer the same foods I put out during the rest of the year: black oil sunflower seeds in the hanging feeders and, thrown daily onto the driveway, cracked corn and/or white millet and/or the cheapest seed mix I can find, which is likely to be mostly white millet. (More about choosing seeds for birds can be found in this post.) This combination keeps a wide array of birds (chickadees, nuthatches, doves, juncos, various sparrows, and various finches, to name a few) very happy during the winter. The peanut butter may even attract woodpeckers and other birds that ordinarily would eat mostly insects.

Do You Have to Feed Birds All Winter?

IT'S WIDELY BELIEVED THAT anyone who puts up a bird feeder, especially in winter, is duty-bound to keep the feeder full day in and day out. This notion is based on the belief, also widely held, that birds become "dependent" on feeders, thus will starve if we humans don't keep the feeders full.

As is so often the case, the reality is more complicated than that. Research into the habits of birds that visit bird feeders indicates that they use the seed we supply primarily as a supplement to other food sources. They probably rely more heavily on this supplemental food in winter and spring, because calorie needs are high in those seasons. (In winter, they need the extra calories to stay warm; in spring, because they are nesting and raising babies.) However, birds forage widely for food, so if the feeder in one garden happens to be empty they usually know of other places where they can get something to eat.

Think about it: Nature never provides a constant supply of food from any one source. Seeds of one patch of plants mature and are available for eating for a week or so, get eaten, and disappear. The birds move on to another food source. (This is one of many reasons why it's important to have diversity in plantings.) The bird that became dependent on one particular type of seed from one particular patch of plants wouldn't survive its first week!

Birds as a group do not become dependent on feeders in the sense that they cannot survive without them. Mom Nature is not that dumb.

But does that mean you can go to Florida for a week in January and not worry about keeping the feeder full? Well, it depends.

How birds use feeders depends on the species. Banding studies show that members of the finch family tend to move around a lot; the finch you see at your feeder today is probably not the same finch you saw yesterday, even if they do look alike. These birds deal with food shortages simply by moving on to the next food source, be it a patch of plants or somebody else's feeder. In contrast, chickadees tend to be faithful to a particular territory, especially in winter. Throughout the winter the same small flock (usually about six birds) will visit your feeder all day every day as long as you keep it full. But even chickadees are prepared to deal with shortages; a lot of the seeds they take from your feeders are not eaten that day--instead, the seeds are hidden for future use. An individual bird can remember thousands--yes, thousands--of spots where it has hidden seeds away.

This means that the majority of birds will survive even if you leave the feeders empty for a week during a cold snap. There's no evidence that a population of birds has ever been wiped out because somebody forgot to fill her bird feeders.

Individual birds are another matter, however. The presence of a well-stocked bird feeder can make the difference between life and death for a bird that would have died without human intervention.

Sick or injured birds are an example. These birds will often hang around feeders because they are not able to feed themselves as easily as other birds are. Sick birds usually die regardless of whether they have access to food, and their presence at feeders may be a threat to healthy birds. Injured birds may heal, however; many people have heart-warming stories of one-legged or otherwise disabled birds that have managed to live, sometimes for years, through the kindness of humans. These are birds that Mom Nature, who is smart but not always kind, would have thrown out of the gene pool. They survive only because some humans have an endearing soft spot for weak and vulnerable creatures.

Another example is what happens during a patch of especially harsh weather. Mom Nature would let some of the weaker birds freeze or starve. Not so we soft-hearted humans; when we make food readily available, even in the worst weather, we help the marginal creatures get by.

So ... do you need to keep those feeders full or not? The less-than-simple answer is that it depends on how hard hearted you are. Some people would, and do, argue that providing supplemental food interferes with Nature's plan, helping weaker animals to survive and breed when it would be better to let them die. This is harsh, but it may be true.

Efforts to keep individual birds alive are often destined for failure. Nature has plenty of ways to prevent a species from overpopulating. If starvation doesn't bring the population down, disease (a very real danger among feeder birds, who pass diseases around while sharing space at the feeder) may do the trick. And if not disease, hungry predators (like that hawk who will probably be attracted to your feeder at one time or another) will take care of the problem.

On the other hand, some of us get emotionally attached to "our" birds. And we think it's worth making the effort to feed them, even if it only gives a few individuals a few more days or weeks (but possibly months or even years) of life. Humans are just funny that way.

If you're in this camp, you'll want to try to keep your feeders full. However, if you do happen to miss a day or even a few days, you can rest easy in the knowledge that the vast majority of your feathered friends will make it through just fine.

How to Set Up Those Bird Feeders

Above: One of many bird feeders I had around my house in the Pacific Northwest. Note that it was positioned close to a living room window, so I could watch the birds. Though designed as a squirrel baffle, the plastic dome over the feeder helped to keep the seed dry. Unfortunately, this style of feeder doesn't take a plastic dish to catch seed, so I had to clean the ground under the feeder using a small rake. The feeder was positioned away from the bird bath (it looks like a large rock) so that seed and droppings don't fall in the water.

MOST BIRDS ARE MESSY EATERS. They throw seed around. They scatter seed hulls, to say nothing of droppings. If you let this stuff accumulate under the feeder it will not only make a mess but also, potentially, spread disease to other birds.

Previous installments in this series:

• Buying a bird feeder.
• What type of seed should you put in those feeders?

That's why it's important to give some thought to how you set up a bird feeder. Your goal is to make cleanup as easy as possible.

One trick is to attach a plastic tray to the bottom of your feeder. The tray will catch most, but probably not all, droppings and waste, and it can be removed for easy cleaning. Droll Yankees makes trays that attach to the bottoms of almost all of their feeders. It's also possible to buy trays that can be hung underneath other styles of feeders. In choosing a tray, bigger is better because bigger trays catch more. You also should think about how easy the tray will be to clean, as it will have to be cleaned often.

A disadvantage of trays is that they provide comfortable seating for squirrels and large birds. If you're trying to avoid feeding either or both of the former, you may want to try another option.

An alternative to putting a tray under your feeder is to hang the feeder over a surface that can be swept easily. This is also a good way to feed ground-feeding birds: If you throw the seed on a driveway, for example, it will be easier for you to sweep up or hose off any waste.

You can also put a big piece of cardboard under your feeder, as long as you replace the cardboard often. (That wet cardboard covered in bird droppings will be a fine addition to your compost bin, incidentally.)

Another potential threat to birds is damp seed, which can quickly become moldy. It's important to store seed in a dry place and not buy so much at one time that it will go moldy before you use it. Likewise, don't put more seed in the feeders than can be used up in a day or so.

Although a good-quality feeder will be relatively watertight, it's unlikely that any feeder will be completely waterproof. So it's a good idea to put your feeder where it will stay as dry as possible. Possibly the best possible location for a feeder is underneath your eaves, especially if they are wide, or on a roofed-in porch. If you put the feeder near a window, you will not only keep the feeder dry but also bring the birds where you can get a good look at them.

If you don't want to hang the feeder near the house, do put it under a cover of some sort. You can buy clear plastic domes for this purpose. Sometimes they're referred to as squirrel baffles, because they can also be used to prevent squirrels from reaching a feeder, but they also work well as rain covers.

What Type of Seed Should You Put in Those Feeders?

Above, black-oil sunflower seed, shown at the top of the photo, is the birdseed of choice for feeders that are above the ground. Cracked corn, shown at the bottom of the photo, is a good choice for birds such as doves, pheasants, and quail, and should be scattered on the ground.

For information on how to buy a bird feeder, click here.

DIFFERENT BIRDS HANG OUT IN DIFFERENT RESTAURANTS. In other words, different birds have different styles of eating and prefer different types of food. Some, like doves, sparrows, juncos, pheasants, and quail, prefer to eat on the ground rather than from a feeder that's suspended above the ground. They also tend to enjoy cracked corn and millet.

On the other hand, birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, and finches, like to visit feeders that are suspended above ground. Fortunately for those of us who prefer to keep our bird feeding activities as simple as possible, all of these birds seem to enjoy black-oil sunflower seed. In fact, studies show that black-oil sunflower seed is the favorite food of chickadees and nuthatches, two species that are widespread and universally loved.

So the easiest and most cost-efficient way to fill feeders is to buy black-oil sunflower seed in quantity, store it in a dry place (a metal garbage can works well if the seed is stored where rodents might get to it), and use it in all the feeders.

Why is black-oil sunflower seed so popular with these small birds? The seeds are small and have a thin shell, making them easy to eat. They are also very nutritious.

The seed is also a good choice for you, the person who is earning the money to buy the seed for these little guys. Black-oil sunflower seed keeps well, and it's inexpensive compared to some other seeds such as niger thistle (aka nyger). What's more, there don't seem to be any major environmental concerns around growing sunflowers for seed; in fact, sunflowers are North America's only native agricultural crop. Most of the crop is used to make oil for human use; the seeds that are designated for birds are those that are not of good enough quality to be used for oil.

Now, black-oil sunflower seed is more expensive by the pound than many birdseed mixes you might find in grocery stores, but in practice it probably is cheaper to use because there's less waste. When mixes are offered in feeders, birds tend to pick through the seeds, looking for the ones they like best. The seeds they don't care for are dropped on the ground, where they can make a mess or attract rodents.

Seed on the ground also attracts birds such as sparrows and juncos. But it's best not to encourage these birds to eat right underneath your feeders. (Think about it--it's not very hygienic!) All in all, the best strategy is to buy one type of seed for the feeders and, if you want to feed ground-feeding birds, buy them some seed of their own.

I usually buy black-oil sunflower in quantity for the feeders and keep it in a metal garbage can on the porch. For the ground-feeding birds, I buy both cracked corn and an inexpensive mix that is predominantly composed of millet (those round, shiny, off-white little seeds) but also has a bit of sunflower seed in it. This appeals to a wide variety of ground-feeding birds, including the pheasants we get around here. (When I lived on the West Coast, the same strategy attracted whole families of California quail.) Food for ground-feeding birds is scattered right on the driveway, away from the hanging feeders.

Coming soon: How to set up a bird feeding station.

Buying a Bird Feeder

Shown above is a metal bird feeder, made in England, designed to frustrate squirrels. The cage works well to keep out large (that is, adult Eastern gray) squirrels, but the holes are too large to frustrate young gray squirrels, red squirrels, or most large birds. Cover, our celebrity spokesduck, is a little too big, however.

AT ONE TIME, I HAD 17 BIRD FEEDERS. What can I say? Once I also had 10 cats. I used to believe in the principle that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing to excess.

Now that my watchword is moderation, however, at least I do know quite a bit about bird feeders (and cats). Fall is a time when people often start feeding birds (and with good reason, as studies show that access to well-stocked feeders does help birds survive the winter). So here is my advice on how to choose a bird feeder:

1. Get a bird feeder made of heavy-duty plastic and metal. Yes, I know, you love the rustic look of wood. So do I. But, in my reluctant opinion, wooden feeders are often not the most practical choice. First, they can easily be destroyed by squirrels, which can chew right through wood in search of birdseed. Second, in wet weather wood tends to get damp and stay damp. Dampness means mold, and moldy seed is not good for birds. Finally, wooden feeders are hard to clean. In contrast, a good-quality bird feeder made of heavy plastic and metal will resist squirrels, help to keep your seed dry, and be easy to clean.

Among my favorite feeders are the ones made by the well-known company called Droll Yankees. As far as I know they are easy to find all over North America. These tube-shaped feeders are made of high-impact plastic with metal at the top and bottom and around the holes from which the birds get the seeds. They come with a guarantee. They are relatively watertight. You can take them apart for cleaning and even put them through a dishwasher. And they are very reasonably priced, given the quality of the feeders.

2. Buy a feeder that will hold about a pound or two of seed. That amount doesn't have to be precise. The point is that you want to get a feeder big enough so that you don't have to refill it every day, but not so big that the seed will go moldy before the birds have a chance to eat it. For most people, that means a feeder holding a pound or two of seed, like the Droll Yankees' classic A-6 model, the first tube-shaped feeder ever introduced (in 1969) and still the one to beat.

3. Plan to feed squirrels. Most parts of North America today are abundantly supplied with the large, gray, fuzzy-tailed rodents most people think of when they hear the word squirrel. Actually, chances are that what you're seeing is just one type of squirrel--the Eastern gray squirrel, a species that is doing very well, perhaps too well, in many areas where it is not native. If you are lucky enough to have small red squirrels coming to your feeder, consider feeding them, as they are most likely native and may be threatened in your area.

Eastern gray squirrels, on the other hand, are far from threatened; some people even blame them for driving out the smaller red squirrels, although other people think they are being unfairly blamed for changes caused by humans. One thing is certain: Grey squirrels make a full-time job of emptying bird feeders. This infuriates some people, who then spend a lot of time and/or money fighting off the furry marauders. (Often unsuccessfully, I might add.) If you want to keep your bird feeding simple, plan on sharing. If you can't fight 'em ... feed 'em.

4. If you don't want to feed squirrels ... plan on spending extra money. There are good reasons to try not to feed grey squirrels, including the possible impact on native red squirrels, and there are a variety of devices designed to frustrate grey squirrels. But they do tend to be expensive.

Many anti-squirrel devices, called baffles, are designed to prevent squirrels from reaching a bird feeder. These include covers designed to prevent squirrels from reaching bird feeders from above and plates, cones, or drums designed to prevent squirrels from reaching bird feeders from the sides or from below. (Here are various such devices made by Duncraft.) In my experience, sooner or later squirrels usually manage to find a way to get around these devices. (Remember: They are clever, agile animals, and getting into your bird feeder is the only thing they have to do ... all day.)

I think squirrel-resistant feeders usually work better, although not perfectly. (Note that I said squirrel resistant, not squirrel proof.) One of the simpler and more economical versions is a bird feeder in a cage, shown above. The one shown work fairly well on adult grey squirrels, much less well on the young 'uns, who can slip through the bars. For more protection, look for a cage with smaller openings.

Another option is a feeder that is designed to close if a heavy animal such as a squirrel sits on it; these often can be set so that they will frustrate not only squirrels but also larger birds such as blue jays and doves. The best of these models are built like tanks (the better to frustrate the powerful jaws of professional rodents), and priced to match. After getting over sticker shock, I've had good luck with a feeder similar to the Heritage Farms Absolute II Squirrel Proof Feeder, for example.

But there are quite a few different styles, as you can see at the Duncraft website. And (no doubt this is a testimony to the inventiveness of squirrels) new styles are being introduced all the time. The "Yankee Flipper" from Droll Yankees is one such new entry, for example.

Coming soon: Where to put a feeder, and what to put in it.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

YES, THAT'S A CHICKADEE clinging to the front of that nestbox on the side of my garage. I put that box up three years ago, and it has attracted attention from swallows for the past two summers. Last summer I was sure the swallows were nesting in it, but when I went to clean it earlier this spring I found that the box was empty. (This means either that the swallows did not nest or that I should give them their security deposit back.)

As of today, however, the box is definitely the object of attention by nesting birds. Not surprisingly my new tenants are chickadees, as these little birds seem to accept nestboxes a lot more readily than other birds do.

I've written recently about nestboxes for chickadees. But this photo illustrates some points that are worth emphasizing: The box is tall, with the hole near the top. It has a bit of a roof to prevent rain from getting in. The entrance hole is fairly small. There's no perch. (You can see from the photo that the bird doesn't need one.) You can't see this but it also has proper drainage and ventilation and can easily be opened for cleaning. I'm also very proud to say that the box was made locally, from wood harvested on a woodlot certified as well-managed by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Aside from providing a properly designed box, another way to help nesting chickadees and other seed-eating birds is to continue filling your bird feeders regularly through the entire nesting season. Most authorities agree that the best seed for chickadees and many other birds is black sunflower seed, because of its high fat content and easy-to-open shell.

Also, please try very hard to not use pesticides, as most birds, including chickadees and hummingbirds, feed insects to their young.

Chickadee Deelights

A FEW YEARS BACK, after I had been feeding chickadees for several years, I left my front door open for a few minutes while I stepped into the garden, and a chickadee flew into the house. He didn’t panic—he just flew to a windowsill and, when he realized that he couldn’t get through the glass, perched there calmly, looking out. Ordinarily I’d throw light cloth over a trapped bird so that I could capture it and take it outside. But this bird didn’t seem to be in any distress, and I knew he would probably recognize the sound of my voice, since I always talk to the birds while I’m filling their feeder.

So I started walking toward him very slowly, talking to him. When I got close enough, I put my outstretched finger in front of his feet, offering him a perch just as I would have done for a pet bird. And, to my surprise, he hopped on. I then took him outside, and he flew off.

There are many stories of people who have taught chickadees to take seed from their hands. But I hadn’t done anything to try to make friends with “my” chickadees beyond feeding them. Evidently that was enough. Mind you, this little bird probably would not have been at all happy if I had tried to grab him. (Most pet birds hate that too—it’s a bit too much like being grabbed by a hawk!) But he was willing to trust me enough to jump on my finger, even though he had probably never been in physical contact with a human before.

Chickadees’ friendliness toward humans is a big part of their appeal to us. Add to this the fact that their round little heads and round little bodies strike us as exceptionally cute, and no wonder they are one of North America's favorite birds.

But wait, there’s more! Unlike quite a few other species of birds that visit feeders, chickadees are "stay-at-homes." Banding studies suggest that once a chickadee has adopted your feeder as part of its home territory, it will return every day, year after year. Other birds, especially those in the finch family, tend to move around a lot; the finch at your feeder today may not be the same one you'll see tomorrow.

Chickadees are also very intelligent. They hide food, and an individual chickadee can remember thousands of places where it has left snacks for future use. The calls chickadees make are so complicated that they have been compared to human language. According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, “They code information on identity and recognition of other flocks as well as predator alarms and contact calls.”

In other words, the chickadees that visit your feeder regard your garden as home, and they are quite capable of learning to recognize you and regard you as a friend. If you don't already, try talking to them while you’re filling the feeder. If you stand still after you've filled the feeder, and don't make any sudden moves, they'll come quite close to you while they eat. You might even be able to teach them to land on you to get food, but I'm not sure I recommend that. (On the whole, it's not a good idea to teach wild animals that they don't need to be suspicious of humans.)

Chances are you too can have a friendly encounter with a dee-lightful chickadee.

(This one’s for fellow chickadee fan Jodi DeLong, aka Bloomingwriter! Thanks for leaving comments, Jodi.)