Birds overview

Birds like other wildlife (and us human animals!) need food, water, cover, and a place to raise young.

They’re also essential for humans, as China found out in Mao’s Great Sparrow Campaign (shown in this video and in this History Guy video)

Determined to rid the entire country of sparrows that supposedly ate their crops, they killed nearly two billion sparrows in a few months. They soon discovered that the birds had been eating the pests, which had actually been eating their crops. This became one of the causes of the China’s Great Famine. They eventually had to import sparrows!

• Food for birds including:
  • Seeds
  • Nectar
  • Fruit
  • Insects
  • Suet
  • Mealworms
• Water for birds
• Cover for birds
• Birds raising young including baby bird pix!

Because hummingbirds have unique charms and somewhat different needs, I have separate pages on:

• Food for hummingbirds
• Feeders

And finally:

• Besides their beauty, bird behaviors are fascinating.
• Birds face many challenges in the modern world, but we can help in many ways.

Our bird visitors since 2001

Here’s a list of the the bird species that have visited our habitat garden since 2001. For each bird species I indicate how many individual birds of that species were seen in our yard for each month since 2001.

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Resources

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
  • Landscaping for birds
  • Migrating birds drawn by light fact higher chemical exposure
  • Merlin app – FREE phone app for ID’ing birds by description, photo, or song!
  • Creating a Garden for Birds – a PDF
  • Bird cams – Fascinating to watch birds up close!
  • Creating a garden for birds
  • Gardening for birds – June 2021 webinar
  • Seven simple actions to help birds
  • Open lectures from the Bird Academy – A wealth of information
  • Top bird photography tips
  • Bird song hero – A matching game from Bird Academy
  • Bird Academy has many interesting and useful courses
  • Warblers ID guide
  • Seven important plant groups for birds – for food, cover and places to raise young
  • Voices of backyard birds
  • Top bird photography tips from Melissa Groo
  • VIDEO: The wonderful world of owls – Superb owls
  • Grassroots banding project shows how amazing saw-whet owls are
  • How do birds survive the winter
  • Best bird photos of 2023 (compiled 1/24)
• Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science:
  • The sound of Merlin: Like Shazam but for birds – Great aid for bird ID!!
  • Painted bunting: The fun of local bird quests
• 2/3 For the Birds:
  • At 234birds.org, make a commitment to plant 2 native plants for every 3 and use no pesticides. Then put your yard on the map!
• Bird Watcher’s General Store:
  • Bird poop
  • Bird poop 2020
  • Fall molting
• CNN:
  • Birdwatching for peace of mind and better health
• Lesley the Bird Nerd:
  • VIDEO: There’s big health benefits in birdwatching
  • VIDEO: Can birds ease anxiety and depression?
• Audubon:
  • Six unexpected ways birds are important for the environment (and people)
  • The joy of birds – A variety of resources to enhance your joy of birds while fueling our fight for their protection; includes tips on photographing birds (2021)
  • More birds bring more happiness
  • These stellar photos show the special link between birds and native plants
  • How to create a bird-friendly yard
  • What is a songbird exactly?
• Audubon Magazine:
  • Birding with Benefits: How nature improves our mental mindset
• Audubon Photography Awards: AMAZING!
  • 2022 – Winners and honorable mentions
  • 2021 – Winners and honorable mentions
  • 2021 – Top 100
  • 2020 – Winners and honorable mentions
  • 2020 – Top 100
  • 2022 Plants for Birds photos
  • 2021 Plants for Birds photos
  • 2020 Plants for Birds photos
• American Bird Conservancy:
  • How long do birds live?
  • Wild bird longevity records
  • Common backyard birds of the US
  • Extraordinary appendages – an introduction to bird wings
• USGS:
  • Longevity records of North American birds
• Endangered Species International:
  • Birds – ecological role etc

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Books and articles

• Native Plants for Native Birds: A Guide for Planting for Birds In and Around Ithaca New York ~ Joel Baines – Excellent, especially for us here in Upstate NY
• BirdWatcher’s General Store: Ask the Bird Folks – Entertaining articles written by Mike O’Connor for The Cape Codder (and mentioned by Stephen Pinker as an example of excellent writing). He also wrote Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me? and Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches?, both highly recommended and reminiscent of CarTalk, except with birds!
• DeGraaf, Richard – Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Attracting Birds – (NOTE: Even though this link is crossed out, it does seem to work if you click it!) I bought this book many years ago and now it’s being offered by the US Forest Service as a free PDF. For each plant, it lists which birds find it useful and for what reason (type of food, shelter, nesting, etc.). BIG CAUTION: This book was published before the importance of native plants and the danger of invasive plants was clear, so it includes scary invasives such as multiflora rose, Norway maple, and many others. In addition, as with any general purpose guide, it includes plants that are native anywhere in the continent, so it’s important to note which plants are native in your own area. In my copy of the book, I’ve just X’d out the invasive and non-native plants and use the information on CNY-native plants.

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Reflections

I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
~ Charles Lindbergh, 1902 – 1974

Why do birds sing in the morning? It’s the triumphant shout: “We got through another night!”
~ Enid Bagnold, 1889 – 1981