Bird feeder

“ Fig. 50 shows a feeder mounted on an iron pipe so it can be turned in any direction. This feeder has one end closed by a pane of glass, and is to be turned so that prevailing winds do not enter. Fig. 49 shows a feeding shelf for winter use which makes an acceptable robin nesting shelf in spring. In Fig. 53 is given a feeder mounted on a base with a vane so the adjustment takes place automatically. Figs. 51 and 52 show two food shelters considerably more difficult to construct. They have glass on all sides, and are open at the bottom so that birds can enter or leave at will. Fig. ”

“ In the feeding of a farm flock the first thing to consider is what the birds can pick up by foraging. The poultry keeper on a farm, even more than the poultry keeper elsewhere, should make it a rule to do nothing for poultry that they can do for themselves. Fowls can do more for themselves [Pg 88] at some seasons than at others, because natural food is more abundant. As fowls do not usually go very far from their house, the larger the flock the less food each bird will secure. ”

“ The same has been recorded for many other species in the wild: in eastern bluebirds, - 82 - mountain bluebirds, wheatears, long-tailed titmice, barn swallows, coots, rails, and gallinules young have been recorded as feeding still younger birds. In captivity this habit has been seen a number of times. Young birds hardly able to feed themselves may help feed still younger individuals of the same or other species, and a nestling crowned hornbill has been seen to offer food to its nestmates. This tendency to feed nestmates evidently appears very early in the life of the bird, as Dr. ”

“ Experience has shown that the artificial feeding must be a limited one and the bird must be sent to market as soon as it has reached its maximum of perfection under the process. Experience has also shown that in the artificial feeding it is best to have each bird in a small compartment to itself with the cage so arranged that the bird can put its head through a slat in front and thus receive the food from the machine without disturbing any of its neighbors. ”

“ Not that he would make a tasty dish, but any bird which stands 4 feet high with a wing spread of almost 70 inches is in constant danger. His favorite feeding grounds are wet meadows or pastures, ponds, lakes or streams. Most of his food consists of rough fish which he catches expertly, either standing patiently in shallow water until a fish appears, or walking slowly along the edge of some shallow pond until he discovers his prey. Snakes, frogs, insects, mice, eels, or even small birds are not safe from a hungry heron. ”

“ Cold alone is scarcely a menace, while snow and sleet are chiefly harmful only when they cover up the food. Given proper food, the only real requirement for a feeding station from the birds’ point of view is that it shall keep the food available, as by providing a roof to shed snow and ice. Among the wide variety of birds which frequently patronize food stations, various members of the sparrow and finch family, which includes the grosbeaks, juncos, and crossbills, vie with nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, and blue jays as the most dependable boarders. ”

“ Feeding habits, economics, and protection of birds.—The feeding habits of birds are not only interesting, but their determination decides the economic relation of birds to man, that is, whether a particular bird species is harmful or beneficial to man. Casual observation shows that birds eat worms, grains, seeds, fruits, insects. A single species often is both fruit-eating and insect-eating. Do fruits or do insects compose the chief food-supply of the species? ”

“ Young birds are ravenous feeders. They seem to live to eat, and have no thought of eating to live. For an hour and a half, one August day, I kept watch of a nestful of bantlings, and during that time the parent birds were so shy that they fed their infants only twice. At last the little things became fairly desperate for food, springing up in the nest and opening their mouths with pitiful cries every time the breeze stirred the bushes about them. ”

“ Those that remain may be grouped according to the kind of food upon which they subsist during the winter: first, birds that eat animal food; second, birds that eat vegetable food; and third, 2 those that eat the eggs or young of insects on tree-trunks and branches, or chisel them from the wood.
To the first group belong six species of owls and eight species of hawks, eagles, crows, gulls, shrikes, and about eight species of ducks. They feed on mice and other small rodents, on smaller birds and poultry, and on seafood such as fish, clams, mussels, and scallops. ”

“ He keeps ever in the vicinity of the nest, calls her from time to time to come to the mouth of the hole to take her food, or else to receive his endearments and caresses, and at the approach of danger fearlessly intervenes to warn her of it. When feeding together, the male bird keeps up his peculiar nasal cry of hŏnk-hŏnk, repeating it from time to time, as he moves around the trunk or over the branches.
Their favorite food is insects, in every condition. With this, when abundant, they seem content, and rarely wander from their accustomed woods in summer. ”

“ Indeed, the difficulty now lies not in identification, but in discovery; unless one is thoroughly familiar with a given locality and its bird-life, one may walk for miles and not see a feather—a particularly unfortunate state of affairs if one has a bird-class in charge. This dilemma, however, may be avoided by catering to the dominant demand of bird-life at this season, the demand for food. Given a supply of the proper kind of food, and birds in the winter may nearly always be found near it. ”

“ What right has a hen to go and lay her eggs in a meadow, carefully hiding them from her friends in the tall grass, but leaving them conspicuously exposed to every bird that flies over them? As for its depredation on turnips, what difference in the amount of sheep-food do the rooks’ pilferings make in a twenty-acre crop? Instead of grumbling, the intelligent farmer should scatter a barrow-load or two of mangolds conspicuously over the field for the frozen-out birds to eat at their comfort and to keep them from pecking the crops. ”

“ Food shelters become centers of interest in proportion to the number of birds attracted to them. The kind of food placed there determines in time the kind of birds that will be found frequenting them. Seed-eating birds are readily attracted by the use of small grains such as oats and wheat. ”

“ With the altricial birds the young are hatched in an absolutely helpless condition, being both blind and naked, and it is necessary that they be fed by the parents, not only while occupying the nest, but also for several weeks afterward. To this group belong most of the small birds we are accustomed to see about the house. When newly born the food they receive is first digested in the crop or the stomach of the parent from which it is regurgitated into the mouth of the young. ”

“ The food of birds is in general very mixed, but at one season of the year, when they are breeding, they are most industrious destroyers of insects; but it is just at this time that they are kept from the crops, exactly when insects are working the most mischief: hence, then, as the exigencies of a small growing family become more and more pressing, birds are driven to feed their young upon seeds, fruits, buds, and other vegetable matters, as unsuitable to build up the constitution of the young bird as bread diet for an infant. ”

“ Howard Saunders, in his 'Manual' (p. 518) , says:—"Two, if not three, broods are produced in the season, the young from the first nest assisting their parents in building another, and even in taking care of the second brood." The method of feeding struck me as peculiar. The old bird, on catching an insect, swam up, and presented it to the youngster, who picked it out of his (or her) bill. ”

“ As soon as hatched the male and female birds commence feeding on what is known as marsh feed, that is, on low, springy ground. And from this feed is supplied to both the male and female bird what is known as pigeon's milk, forming inside of the crop a sort of curd, on which the young pigeon is fed by both father and mother, who supply this food. The young bird is gorged with this food, and in a few days becomes as heavy as the parent bird. ”

“ Incidents like this prove that the old birds must be on the jump every moment to procure a sufficient supply of food for their young. Even after they have left the nest, the juvenile members of the family must be fed for several weeks. ”

“ The food most congenial to this species, and on which it thrives best, is abundantly distributed over a very extensive region, offering such differences of soil and climate, that in one part or another of the area the supply never fails. The bird is capable of a very rapid and long-continued flight, so that it can pass without fatigue over the whole of the district it inhabits, and as soon as the supply of food begins to fail in one place is able to discover a fresh feeding-ground. ”

“ Now, when the young birds are taken from the nest and reared by hand, they insist for a long time on being fed in the juvenile manner. However, by and by they begin of their own volition to pick up food after the manner of the adults. At first they are very clumsy about it, but they persevere until they acquire skill, and presently they refuse entirely to open their mandibles for food. Here again Nature is their sole guide. Without human or avian suggestion they also learn to drink in the well-known bird fashion ”

“ The young birds are fed from the parent’s crop, as young pigeons and young hummingbirds are. The old bird thrusts its bill down the throat of the nestling and gives it a meal of partially digested food by what scientific people call a process of regurgitation. ”

“ The stay of the birds that resort there to breed is prolonged by the successive loss of the eggs they lay. Each loss is a stimulus to a fresh act of pairing; a new lot of eggs being the result, possibly in number equal to the former lot, but probably less, as the latter deposits are a forced production, at the expense of the vigour of the bird, without any additional strength to the constitution by the increased nourishment of food, the process by which domesticated birds, in changing their habits, are led to lay a continuance of eggs for a long season. ”

“ After the pheasant season, young birds that have been hatched the same year are excellent substitutes for that fine game, and fetch a fair price. They should never be fattened, but have a good supply of grain and meal for a week or two before being killed. The flesh of the young bird is very delicate, juicy, and well-flavoured, but the old birds, even of the second year, are dry, tough, and tasteless. ”

“ For all practical purposes they are without covering of any description and consequently require protection from the elements, warmth from the body of the brooding bird, and repeated supplies of nourishment. A threefold burden is thus imposed upon the parents: they must find food for themselves, they must afford protection to the young by brooding, and they must supply them with the necessary food at regular intervals. ”

“ By judicious feeding, good care, warm quarters, and careful breeding, we have induced the bird to produce her eggs in winter instead of summer, and, not only that, we compel her to lay three or four times as many of them; and when the poor bird shows a desire to incubate and recuperate her exhausted frame, we induce a change of mind, as soon as possible, and set her at it again. ”

“ I have watched a kingfisher flying again and again from a winding creek in the valley to her nest on a hillside nearly a half-mile distant, with a minnow in her bill, while the sun was pouring a sweltering deluge upon the fields. It kept her busy every moment to supply the imperious demands of her hungry brood in the bank. A common field-bird, which I watched one day for a long while, would often return to her nest every minute with an insect. ”

“ Owing to the position of the nest, it is often most difficult to get sufficiently concealed to allow the parent birds to feed their offspring and clean the nest perfectly naturally; and in order to obtain accurate knowledge of the mysteries of their nursery, especially with regard to certain problems relating to the order of feeding the young, the actual food that is brought, the condition in which it is delivered to the young, and the possibility of different food being supplied by the male and female respectively, it is necessary to be within a few feet of the nest. ”

“ Feed and water. Feed birds liberally on the first day they are placed in the loft, but never feed them heavily at any time after that. Make sure the water fountain is placed where it can be found easily. Young pigeons should be kept prisoners for about 2 days. During this time watch them carefully to determine whether all have learned how to drink. If any bird appears sleepy it may not have learned how to drink or where to obtain water. ”

“ The new food house was being visited by bluejays, who nibbled at the suet. A smaller feedery on a tree had corn in a tray and suet in a wire pocket. This feedery was much liked by downies, and small gray birds with white on lower front and tail—juncos. Juncos came in flocks of a dozen or more, and twittered, “Tut, tut, tut,” to each other and to us, in sociable fashion. They preferred to pick up the scatterings of chickfeed on the ground, rather than perch 100 on the tray. Both of these food stations were protected with tin sheeting to keep the squirrel from eating the birds’ food. ”