Many many years ago my younger brother who was probably 4 or 5 was convinced he could feed the birds by hand. He had watched us throw out bread crumbs and saw the birds gobble it up. So one day our family watched very quietly from the sliding glass door as my little brother laid down on the patio and streched out his hand. He had put about 10 bread crumbs in his palm. He layed his head down and pretty much fell asleep. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Now he would probably never admit to doing this now that he is the strong muscular adult he is, but the preciousness and innocence of a child is always remembered!!
So I get to gloat a bit. As his older sister I tried a different method of feeding. Our family went on a trip to Colorado. We stayed in some condos near a lake. By one of the public porches there was a hummingbird feeder. I stood there for an hour watching the rubys zip and nip and fight and sip. I was absolutely transfixed. Every 10 minutes or so I would inch closer to the feeder. After almost an hour I put my finger up by the foot rest of the feeder and I was delighted when the hummingbirds actually landed on my finger to eat the sugar water. I have actually tried to do this at other feeders since but now as a wife and a mother its hard to make the time needed to wait for the birds =)
Alabama’s State Bird is the Yellowhammer. It’s proper name is the Northern (common) Flicker part of the Woodpecker family. The back of the male is gray-brown with broken black waves. It’s belly is speckled and the males have a “mustache”. They also have a back”bib” on their chest. The underparts of the wing and tail are yellow.
The flicker nests in April and the female lays 6-10 eggs, one a day until done. The eggs incubate for 17 days and when the fledglings are about a month old they leave the nest. Both parents care for the young birds. They love to eat ants and their favorite berry comes from the poison ivy plant. The name Yellowhammer dates back to the Civil War when the confederate soldiers in Alabama wore bright yellow armbands.
***Flickers will nest in birdhouses!!! They need a 7X7 space that is 16 inches deep. The entrance needs to be 2.5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches from the top. The nest box needs to be 6-20 feet from the ground and the bottom should be covered with wood chips about 2 inches deep.
Build a birdhouse…Save a state bird!!
Enjoy the printable color sheet.
So as I said yesterday I thought today might be more “birdy” than usual since we had our fun day at the park. We started off our day looking through National Geographic’s “Field Guide to Birds of North America”. Just a bit off light reading before breakfast. I must say the bird guides are getting better at showing the underside of birds!! I was quite impressed with the number of “in-flight” pictures of ducks, shearwaters and gulls. Now I can be sure the kids and I will be even more proficient naming the birds since what we usually see is their bellys (as they fly away from us)!
So the birding did not end there. We took our usual 20 minute walk about our neighborhood which by chance is also bird related- Quail Creek. Kids are natural birders (kind of). They are quick to see, point out and then scare away all birds that happen by our happy group. We saw Mourning Doves and House Sparrows aplenty. We walked home to “Mom did you see that bird”, “Mom I saw another bird”, “Mom SEEEEEEEE”
So just when I thought perhaps we had our fill of birds I turned on our pre-lunch TV show “Build a Word” and lo and behold they were talking about birds. It was the cutest thing. The star of the show was an egg. The other animals on the show picked the most motherly and fluffy animal to care for it while its mother was away (the sheep of course). The egg wouldn’t stay where it was put- it would jump and hop around until they solved that problem with a nest (or if you want to stay with the theme of this blog- a birdhouse). So after a night in the nest the sheep awoke to the horror that the egg had a crack in it. All the animals gathered around trying to figure out what had happened. The duck of course just laughed and said that the egg was ready to hatch and voila it did. Oh happy day- the little bird emerged just as mother bird swooped in to claim its baby. And all the while these characters are teaching young ones to spell. GOSH I am tired just writing this.
Well I couldn’t let all this good bird training go to waste so my 3 year-old and I sat down after lunch and did a fun bird craft. We took muffin cups and flattened them out and snipped away at the muffin cup to where it had tail feathers and wings. Then we glued these partial birds onto paper leaving the wings free. With a marker we made necks and heads and eyes. Pretty cool craft =)
So that was just the first half of my day. What did you do today?
Build a birdhouse, save a bird!
Yesterday I took our 3 and 1 year-old kids to a nearby lake and we all enjoyed their squeals of delight as they discovered the Mallard ducks, Graylag geese, and American Coots swimming along minding their own business. My son calls anything that is an animal or bird a “gog gog”. He was yelling at the top of his lungs “gogogogogogog”. His verbal display was enough to keep the birds at a safe distance(for them). And being a typical parent I snapped a few pics of my daughter running through the grass hoping to “pet” a grackle or two. It was a brief break from the routine we normally keep during the day and its something I am sure to hear about tomorrow.
As you can tell by my website and blog I am pro birdhouses. It doesn’t matter whether they are white or black or old or new or organic or processed. All birdhouses rank high with me!! The number one reason I do not discriminate against birdhouses is BIRDS + BIRDHOUSE = NO MORE BUGS!!! As a mother of 2 children I am tired of spraying my kids with toxic bug repellants so they can enjoy the great outdoors. Is Citronella the in-fragrance? NO MORE I SAY!! My backyard is about to become bug free the natural way. Build a birdhouse…Bugs bite the dust!
