Hill Gardens of Maine -- Northern Songbirds Rely On Us In Winter

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Northern songbirds rely on our generosity and concern
by Fred Davis, MG, Hill Gardens of Maine (To view other articles, click Archives)

Welcome through Fred’s Garden Gate! Until only a few decades ago, the cardinal was considered a strictly southern songbird. The gradual spread into northern realms, according to ornithologists in the know is, in large part, due to increased popularity of bird feeding. It seems that songbird longevity is also enhanced by the practice. In the not-so-distant past, a typical songbird might survive a year or two in the wild. These days, a life span of four or five years is not uncommon. Some can live far longer life spans. The record for cardinals in captivity, for example, is 22 years. Birds in the wild, faced with considerable adversity—winter cold and predation included—don’t make it through quite as many seasons.

Even given improved conditions, birds have a tough time during winter. Here in the frozen north, most of the winter food supply lies buried beneath a blanket of snow; a grass seed here, a bud there, morsels of precious nourishment are often few and far between. Sparse weed seeds and pupated or otherwise dormant insects provide marginal nutrition for a few species but the real key to survival rests squarely in the hands and hearts of growing numbers of bird feeders. Like you and me!

And how wonderfully entertaining is a mixed flock of oftentimes raucous, colorful and charming bird-characters vying for position on a feeder filled with highly-nutritious morsels of warmth and succor. Truly, how much more tolerable life in the below-zero outdoors can be when one’s little feathered tummy is full.

Suet, an otherwise low value byproduct of the human food industry, is an excellent source of high-value sustenance for a number of species of birds.

Sunflower seeds are high in oil, a definite warming influence for seed-eaters. I prefer to provide the smaller black-oil type. While the edible part is almost the same size as that contained in the larger striped variety, pound for pound there is much more nourishment in the black-oil seeds. Simple mathematics and basic physics: larger, bulkier seeds with an almost identical size “meat” when compared to those with smaller, more compact shells means a larger proportion of edible parts per bag.

Cracked corn is preferred by doves, and is readily accepted by most jays. But then jays will eat almost anything offered. Whole corn kernels will keep squirrels and chipmunks fed but not necessarily contented. They’d prefer sunflower seeds and are uncannily adept at defeating virtually all “squirrel-proof” gimmicks devised by theoretically more clever humans. Ample supplies of bread crusts and other stale or discarded whole grain products help keep furry critters out of the feeders.

Blends of seeds, called “songbird mixes,” fill in the gaps by providing food for other types of small birds. I prefer the brands without sunflowers because of the squirrel’s habit of nearly ripping a feeder apart to get at a single sunflower seed. Chickadees, too, will just about empty a transparent feeder of smaller seeds if they see a sunflower seed or two.

Thistle seeds are for those colorful and delightful little treasures—the finches.

An important point: once you’ve begun feeding birds in the winter, the practice gradually weans them away from their (albeit meager) natural food source. In effect, they begin to rely on a steady human-provided supply. Mid-winter is no time for even a wild creature to spend days—weeks, even—relearning survival tactics. So, once you’re committed to helping some of Nature’s little creatures through difficult winter conditions, don’t stop or you may lose your resident population.

What a tragically boring winter that would be!

Additional Resources on the same subject: Birds in the winter landscape

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