I just read a great article/bird interest story from the Mississippi Audubon Society. It was about the 2006 Operation Backyard Recovery. When we think of Katrina we think of massive housing and business damage, but we often forget that birds lost their roosting and feeding sites.
A well-known birder, Judy Toups recognized this problem and called for birders within the Missisippi, Arkansas and Lousiana 
areas to build and put up birdhouses wherever possible. The benefits of OBR were to provide a family oriented activity, to connect the local Audubon Societys, and to promote the Great Backyard Bird Count.
The Houses for Birds Program included birdhouses that were low-cost and easy to assemble and specifically focused on woodpeckers, titmice and chickadees. This project has engaged children and families and schools and fostered a true sense of service and appreciation for nature. To date, hundreds of birdhouses, built with recycled fence boards collected across coastal Mississippi have been placed across the coast.
Doesn’t that feel good!!! Build a birdhouse, save a bird. (I knew my slogan had roots somewhere =))
The cactus wren spends its time in the desert living in the spiny saguaro and cholla cacti. The male and female
look alike; their backs are brown with white spots and their wings have white bars and their tail has black bars. It is the largest wren in North America.
They are skittish and noisy often “yelling” at those who dare to come near. They eat insects, seeds and fruits. The male often builds several nests and then the female picks her favorite. The female lays 3-6 eggs and incubates them about 16 days. The young leave the next after about 3 weeks. Between March and July they will raise 2-3 families. The cactus wren was made Arizona’s state bird in 1931.
Enjoy the printable color sheet.
Miscellaneous birdhouse thoughts: If someone was brave enough to stick their hand into the cactus and nail up a birdhouse do you think the wrens might nest there? If I had easy access to a desert I would try it out. If someone is brave enough to try please let me know if it works =)
I must preface this story with a reason for my title. Hopefully you can tell by my blog that I am pro birds and pro birdhouses!! Hopefully what I am about to ask/say next will not send you into a bout of heart palpitations. Is a bird’s life ever more valuable than a human? Well most of you would probably say a human’s life is more valuable but can we ever overprotect? I am not an ethicist or a philosopher just a regular person who like birds and loves people!!!
Here is a story from my sister who is in New Zealand right now. I have copy and pasted exactly what she wrote to me in our last correspondance.”When I went ice climbing in Franz Josef there was an alpine parrot, Kea, that nearly killed us. They are really intelligent, mean, but still they are protected. I watched as one of these birds ripped open a guides backpack with his razor sharp beak. There were three of them that tried to get to our guides pack while we were climbing. It was a really nerve racking situation when the birds were trying to get to the ropes that secure you from falling. So we tried to chunck ice balls at them so we could escape this fate….Needless to say we were victorious. No keas were harmed in the process.”I think the ice balls idea was great and one I know PETA would support =) I just have to say for the record if the ice balls had not detered them could I have been arrested if I chose to blow one up with something a little stronger. What if it had attacked my children(who hopefully as a wise mother I hadn’t taken to the top of a cliff =)) would the law make an exception for the valuableness of a humen life.
Here are some Kea facts: As the world’s only Alpine parrot, it is known as the “feathered wolf” because it has killed sheep and other small farm animals. The keas were then killed for many years by hunters hired by local farmers who were tired of their livestock perishing at the cunning of a kea-this is why they are now protected. Kea’s are super smart and get bored very easily, hence their “weird” behavior of stealing parts off of cars or ripping open backpacks.(Someone should teach the keas to knit or something). Males and females are green with some red feathers around their neck. They nest on the ground usually with 2-4 eggs per season. After 29 days the babies hatch and the males help feed them after they are a month old. Besides farm animals Keas also eat normal bird food like leaves, insects and bugs =) Because the Keas live in such a harsh climate they need the extra fat that the animal remains provide. (Its one thing to picture bird-of-prey eating a typical fleshy meal but another to picture a cute green parrot ripping open a lamb-hmmm)
So despite the propensity for destruction people swear that they are a fun loving bird. I don’t think I will be bringing one into my home anytime soon!!
In 1955 Alaska voted the Willow Ptarmigan its’ state bird. It is a grouse with brown feathers on its neck and back. It has a red comb on its head that gets larger in the summer and spring. It’s body has brown and white feathers intermixed. In the winter it’s feathers turn completely white camoflauging it from predators. The ptarmigan is the size of a small chicken.
The birds live in the tundras and thickets in Alaska and British Columbia. They eat flowers and insects during the summer and during the harsh winter they eat budsand twigs off of Alder/Birch and Willow trees.
The female lays 7 to 10 eggs on a hollowed out area of the ground, usually near rocks or logs. The female incubates the eggs for 3 weeks while the male stays protectively nearby. The chicks leave the nest when they are 10-12 days old. Several families will often flock together and migrate southward.
Enjoy the printable color sheet.
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!
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!
Did you know there is a ‘most wanted’ list for birdhouses. Can you imagine such a thing? Cornell University has a great ornithology department. Their website “The Birdhouse Network” mentions the usual birdhouse occupants: Eastern Bluebirds, Western Bluebirds and Mountain Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, House Wrens and House Sparrows but they are eager to learn more about the other “cavity-nesting” birds that don’t show up on their usual “Top 10″ lists. So they have given the public an assignment. One I am sure avid bird watchers will take quite seriously. Please if you want to help Cornell in their research department they are eager for you to set up bird houses a.k.a. nesting cavities for the following birds: Mountain Chickadee, Purple Martin, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Screech Owl, Great Crested Flycatcher, Bewick’s Wren and many more. Check out http://www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/outreach/most_wanted and see the birds and what kind of cozy home you can build for them!!
Build a birdhouse…Save a bird!
Have you ever noticed going through a day without ever seeing or hearing a bird. Well I think today would have been that day for me. Granted the day is not over yet, but I have not seen a Sparrow or heard a Mockingbird or hoped to scare away a Grackle. I am pretty sure the hecticness of changing diapers and making meals and running off to the store did not blind me from noticing the birds.
I am even more convinced of the need for birdhouses now. Have we industrialized ourselves so much that now we can actually go through half of a day without seeing a feathered friend. I have 3 large trees in my yard and I went out even now and looked up and listened, not a chirp or a feather.
I am here to help save the birds from the impending concrete disaster. Please join me. Build a birdhouse…Save a bird!
