Happy Monday Everyone!  Post a caption for this cute pic and you could win a $15.00 Duncraft Value Card.  Winner will be chosen on Friday, May 11th.  Check back each week for a new image and a new chance to win! Have fun!

It’s spring and already the chirps of winter birds have changed to songs that attract mates and define territories. Soon the migratory birds will be arriving to join them and beginning their yearly nesting ritual. Back yard birders can help ensure the success of the next generation of wild birds by providing five nesting-specific needs.

Nesting boxes and shelves: Putting up nesting boxes gives cavity dwellers, those birds who would otherwise nest in natural holes in trees or in old woodpecker holes, a place to nest where trees are scarce. Different birds are attracted to different types of housing. Duncraft offers a complete guide to bird house types and placement on Duncraft’s Wild Bird Blog. Nesting shelves suit birds who don’t nest in cavities, but rather, build open cupped nests attached to branches of trees or in the crotches of limbs. Robins and doves are two birds that readily use nesting shelves.

Tree snags: When taking down dead trees, it’s desirable to leave the majority of the trunk, as long as it doesn’t pose a danger. Woodpeckers are a primary cavity excavator and will use these snags to hollow out nesting areas. Although woodpeckers will not reuse a cavity the next year, these holes become prime nesting locations for smaller cavity nesting birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, wrens and others.

Nesting materials: Putting out nesting materials such as cotton, moss, string and animal hair eases the nest-building process and may also help keep inappropriate materials such as plastic out of the nest.

Suet: Suet supplies busy parents with the energy they need for nest building, raising young and foraging for them. Any type of fat is beneficial. It can be beef suet or even vegetable shortening. Peanut butter also supplies high calories. Baby birds can digest suet and parents will typically take chunks of it back to the nest. Suet-based pellets are also a practical alternative.

Insects: Newly hatched baby birds can’t digest seeds, so parent birds spent a lot of time foraging for insects to feed them. Offering birds insect foods such as live or dried mealworms, waxworms, or even fly larvae and the like, makes it easier for birds to supply their young with enough protein food for healthy growth.

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Water increases the chances that birds will visit a backyard—whether in winter or summer. Duncraft offers five easy and fun ideas for providing water to back yard birds so customers can help the birds and enjoy more of them!

Birds bathe in water to keep feathers clean. Clean feathers are more flight-worthy, helping birds escape predators.  Clean feathers also fluff up better, retaining heat in winter. Although birds get most of their dietary water from food, they also seem to enjoy a drink at times. In some areas, natural water sources simply aren’t easily available to birds, especially when water is frozen over or water sources are dried up in summer. Birds don’t want to travel far from water, so not having a water supply in the yard might even keep birds from visiting bird feeders.

The most obvious way to provide water to birds is with a bird bath. Duncraft carries a supply of over forty bird baths styles, giving their customers a full range of choices—ground baths, pedestal baths, hanging baths and more. Duncraft also urges customers to provide ice-free water in winter. This can be accomplished with a bird bath heater or a bird bath with a built in heater.

For creative customers, Duncraft offers the “Bird Bath Raft”.  The raft is a round tray with holes that can be placed in any vessel that holds water and is over 14” in diameter.  The raft floats on the surface and lets in about an inch of water so the bird bath isn’t too deep.  It’s ideal for use in a back yard pond. A whiskey barrel with a liner also makes a perfect bird bath when a Bird Bath Raft is added, allowing customers to use water plants such as duckweed and lily pads to create a natural setting.

Duncraft suggests another way to provide water for birds and that is with a simple mister attached to a hose. When attached to a tree branch, it delivers a fine, cooling mist in the area.  Hummingbirds especially like flying in and out of a gentle mist.  Other birds may simply perch in front of the mister to wet their feathers while they preen. Birds will also drink the water-droplets that form on leaves.

Moving water is especially attractive to birds.  Duncraft recommends a product called the Water Wiggler which continuously agitates the water and creates ripples. Along with being very attractive to birds, moving water removes the tension on the surface of the water that enables mosquito larvae to develop. Larvae sink when there’s no tension for them to cling to and breathe—mosquitoes hatching in the bird bath are no longer a problem.

One more way to accomplish moving water is with a fountain.  Duncraft offers a solar operated fountain that can be placed in a bird bath.  The solar panel connects to the fountain with a ten foot cable so the panel can be placed where it gets the most sun. When the sun hits the solar panel the fountain operates, creating a beautiful, sparkling water feature.

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Despite years of efforts by noted ornithologists, universities and others to bring awareness to the public, bird mortality resulting from birds crashing into windows continues to be an ongoing and escalating problem. Duncraft’s Bird Safe® Decals are applied to windows to help make glass visible to birds and help save birds’ lives.

Duncraft addresses the problem of window strikes for the homeowner and wild bird lover with informational articles on their website as well as with their Bird Safe® Window Decals.  How do the decals work?  To answer that question, it’s important to know the two main reasons that birds strike windows.  The first is that a window, being transparent, is simply not seen by the bird at all and the second is that the window is reflecting images of nearby trees, clouds and other objects that the bird perceives as flyable air space.

Common strategies for preventing window strikes include hanging moving objects outside the window to frighten birds away, dulling reflections and attempts to make the glass more visible. But most homeowners are averse to many of the strategies offered by experts because they create eyesores or block the homeowners view.  Suggestions to dull reflections and make windows more visible to birds by soaping them up, smearing them with toothpaste, tacking up netting or applying tape or cloth to them are unacceptable to the homeowner. But there is a solution that most homeowners do find acceptable: reflective decals placed outside the window.

Duncraft’s product, Bird Safe® are decals offered in pleasing shapes that reflect ultraviolet sunlight.  Placed on the outside of a window, these shapes are effective in breaking up reflections of trees, clouds and sky and they make the window more visible to birds because of the brilliant color they reflect.  But the real advantage to these decals is that when viewed from inside the home, they’re almost invisible to humans.  With acceptable solutions like this, thousands and thousands of birds can be saved each year.

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Enjoy these selected blog articles on orioles and how to attract them to your own backyard!

How to Attract Orioles to Your Backyard | Bird Birds & Birding

Attracting Orioles to your yard. Tips on attracting, feeding and creating habitat for Orioles. For more information on Orioles or or other birding topics visit us at www.wild-bird-house.com Pictures by Todd & Melody Weller …

Publish Date: 02/27/2012 21:43

http://boardnbirds.com/blog/2012/02/28/how-to-attract-orioles-to-your-backyard-2/

BirdsEyeViews: Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles. It was a treat in March to photograph- and see in person- my first Baltimore Orioles! My friend and neighbor Richard Hayes has been attracting them to his backyard feeders with grape jelly. In the above …

Publish Date: 04/03/2012 9:21

http://mybirdseyeviews.blogspot.com/2012/04/baltimore-orioles.html

Homemade Oriole Bird Food That You Can Make

Homemade Oriole Bird Food. Make your own homemade Oriole bird food to attract more Orioles. Most Orioles spend their winters in Florida, the Caribbean,central Mexico, Central America and the northern part of South America. While there …

Publish Date: 05/31/2007 16:37

http://www.a-home-for-wild-birds.com/oriole-bird-food.html

STOKES BIRDING BLOG: Feeder Friday; Attracting Orioles

Feeder Friday; Attracting Orioles. Baltimore Oriole. Most orioles do. not winter in the. United States, but return during the breeding season. There are 8 species of orioles that breed in the United States. The two most …

Publish Date: 04/02/2010 9:22

http://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/attracting-orioles.html

Tips to Attracting Orioles To Your Backyard

Information about the Oriole including how it nests, migration habits, and how to attract it to your backyard using oriole nectar feeders and fruit feeders.

Publish Date: 01/13/2010 8:00

http://blog.newenglandbirdhouse.com/backyard-birding/attracting-orioles/

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd, and began in 1970 after the senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, announced the idea of a nationwide day to teach awareness of the environment. Now Earth Day and Earth Week are observed in over 175 countries!

As a bird lover, there are many ways to celebrate and observe Earth Day! Just being aware of the environment in our own backyards is a great start. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Be aware of any chemicals you might be using for pest control, weed control or as fertilizers. Chemicals get into our water supplies, kill off the food sources that our wild birds depend on and can create an unhealthy environment in your yard. Inviting birds into your yard is a great, natural means of pest control as birds (and bats!) consume large quantities of potentially harmful insects. And birds that are seed-eaters such as goldfinches do a great job of eating weed seeds, keeping those plants at bay. And consider compost and organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers for your flowers and vegetables. Your family and the wildlife in your yard will be healthier for it!

Another way to help the birds and also our environment is to purchase bird feeders and birdhouses in bio-degradable wood or those made with Eco-friendly recycled materials. Recycled plastic bird feeders and birdhouses are great because they’re non-porous and very easy to keep clean and hygienic. Made from discarded milk jugs and other plastics, they are highly durable and keep their good looks indefinitely without warping, cracking or discoloring. Wood bird feedersand bird houses won’t last as long, and they will be harder to keep clean, but they are a natural, bio-degradable material and inexpensively replaced when necessary. Both are much better choices than the cheap, plastic bird feeders and houses you find in discount stores!

And there are more things you can do as well! You can improve your backyard habitat with water, native plantings that provide berries or fruits, and nesting spots for birds. Or leave an area completely natural where wildflowers and grasses can go to seed and provide natural food. Also consider a brush pile in the corner of your yard where birds and small animals can take shelter and scratch for food under cover. And whenever possible, try to keep dead trees standing. The insects that live there are an important food source for woodpeckers and other birds, and old woodpecker holes are used by many birds as nesting cavities.

Happy Earth Day!

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Spring is here and once again, Duncraft is receiving lots of calls about a strange, but very common phenomenon–cardinals repeatedly flying into windows, car mirrors or any other reflective surface.  Other birds have been reported exhibiting the same behavior–bluebirds, robins and wrens to name a few.  What is going on and how do you stop it?

Although female birds have been known to do this, it’s mostly male birds that repeatedly fly into windows.  The reason is simple.  In spring all birds are staking out territories.  Birds seldom allow other birds of the same species to share territories because too many of one species in an area depletes food sources and nesting locations.  A cardinal may tolerate a catbird nesting nearby because the birds are after different nesting locations and different foods, but it won’t tolerate another cardinal.  When a male cardinal spots another male, a chasing fight will ensue.  The dominate male gets the mate, the nesting location, the territory and the food in that area.  A lot is at stake!  When a cardinal happens to see its reflection in your window, or car mirror, it’s seeing another bird in its territory–and that’s not allowed.  The bird will continuously attack until the other bird goes away.  In nature, the other bird will indeed go away, but that reflection just stays there!  Being persistent, the cardinal just continues to attack its own reflection.

So, how do you make the bird stop?  All you have to do is block the reflection. The easiest way to do this is to put a piece of cardboard on the outside of the window where the bird is attacking.  It may not look pretty, but you don’t have to do it for long–only until the bird thinks the other bird has departed. As soon as the bird is mated and is busy with nest building and feeding nestlings, he’ll calm down and won’t be worried about intruders.  Other cardinals will be busy too, in territories of their own.

So, what initially seemed like a mystery turns out to be a simple, springtime response to another bird–and it’s easily remedied!

Check out these other articles about this very common problem…

Why does this bird keep flying into the kitchen window? | Cardinal Bird

There is a male cardinal who has been hanging out by, and repeatedly flying into, one of my kitchen windows for months now. He sits in the branch of a sapling.

Publish Date: 02/11/2012 19:02

http://cardinalbird.org/why-does-this-bird-keep-flying-into-the-kitchen-window/

Fallen Cardinal | Cardinal Bird

If you do find a bird who’s hurt themselves by flying into your window / sliding door, the best way to? take care of them is to put them into a dark area in a box with air holes and let it rest for a while. Don’t disturb them too much. After a few hours, …

Publish Date: 03/11/2012 5:09

http://cardinalbird.org/fallen-cardinal/

A Mother and A Daughter: A Persistent Cardinal

A Persistent Cardinal. This past fall we had a cardinal that would fly into the glass of our back door every single day. He would show up as soon as the sun came up and perch on the back of this chair. He made a BIG mess! He would sit there for a while and chirp away. Then he would look at … I did have the same problem and was tired of finding little dead birds from flying into my patio three panel window. The ribbon relects the sun and scares the birds away from the …

Publish Date: 02/16/2012 7:00

http://amotherandadaughter.blogspot.com/2012/02/persistent-cardinal.html

It’s March and already the chirps of winter birds have changed to songs that attract mates and define territories.  Soon the migratory birds will be arriving to join them and beginning their yearly nesting ritual. Back yard birders can help ensure the success of the next generation of wild birds by providing five nesting-specific needs.

Nesting boxes and shelves:  Putting up nesting boxes gives cavity dwellers, those birds who would otherwise nest in natural holes in trees or in old woodpecker holes, a place to nest where trees are scarce. Different birds are attracted to different types of housing.  Duncraft offers a complete guide to bird house types and placement on Duncraft’s Wild Bird Blog. Nesting shelves suit birds who don’t nest in cavities, but rather, build open cupped nests attached to branches of trees or in the crotches of limbs. Robins and doves are two birds that readily use nesting shelves.

Tree snags:  When taking down dead trees, it’s desirable to leave the majority of the trunk, as long as it doesn’t pose a danger.  Woodpeckers are a primary cavity excavator and will use these snags to hollow out nesting areas.  Although woodpeckers will not reuse a cavity the next year, these holes become prime nesting locations for smaller cavity nesting birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, wrens and others.

Nesting materials: Putting out nesting materials such as cotton, moss, string and animal hair eases the nest-building process and may also help keep inappropriate materials such as plastic out of the nest.

Suet: Suet supplies busy parents with the energy they need for nest building, raising young and foraging for them. Any type of fat is beneficial. It can be beef suet or even vegetable shortening. Peanut butter also supplies high calories. Baby birds can digest suet and parents will typically take chunks of it back to the nest.  Suet-based pellets are also a practical alternative.

Insects: Newly hatched baby birds can’t digest seeds, so parent birds spent a lot of time foraging for insects to feed them.  Offering birds insect foods such as live or dried mealworms, waxworms, or even fly larvae and the like, makes it easier for birds to supply their young with enough protein food for healthy growth.

Did you like this article?  “Like” us on Facebook too!

]]> http://blog.duncraft.com/2012/03/13/five-ways-to-help-nesting-birds-this-spring/feed/ 1 http://blog.duncraft.com/2012/03/01/announcing-duncrafts-backyard-wildlife-photo-contest/ http://blog.duncraft.com/2012/03/01/announcing-duncrafts-backyard-wildlife-photo-contest/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:27:31 +0000 R. Brune http://blog.duncraft.com/?p=8888

Enter to win!  Beginning today, March 1st, start sending in your entries for our new contest!  We’re looking for beautiful, funny or interesting photos of the wildlife you see in your backyard–birds, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, possums, you name it!  Be sure to read the guidelines below before sending in your entry.

Contest will run from March 1st to midnight, June 1st.  Finalists will be chosen by Duncraft and put up for public voting on June 6th.  Voting will continue to June 13th and the winner will be announced on June 15th.

Now to the prize package!  Winner will receive a Wildlife Prize Package consisting of:

3139 Block Feeder   2612 Snack Block    2011 Snack Jax  0396V Ground  Bath

This is a $160.00 value!

Guidelines:

Submit only one entry per email address.  Images should be sent as a .jpg attachment to rbrune@duncraft.com with Contest in the subject line. Photos should be the largest and highest quality your camera can output. New entries only–no previous submissions please!  Images must be the creation of the entrant. Contest is open to professional and amateur photographers alike.

NOTE: All images submitted for this contest become the property of Duncraft, Inc. and may be reproduced at our discretion.  Please do not enter copyrighted images. Owners also retain their rights to their own images. All email addresses submitted during our Duncraft 4th Annual Squirrel Photo Contest will automatically receive our email newsletter. You can easily set the frequency of emails on our preference page. A link is available in the footer of each email newsletter sent.

If you have any questions that have not been addressed here, please feel free to email Roxanne Brune at rbrune@duncraft.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.  Good Luck everyone!

With all the bird seed choices bird lovers have these days, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to buy to feed your birds. What it really comes down to is, what birds do you most want to attract?  Some people love all the birds, some people only want to feed smaller birds, while others want to keep pigeons and starlings away. Here we’ll give a rundown on the different seeds available and what birds are most attracted by them. Most people prefer to offer a blend of seeds to attract the greatest variety of birds. After you review the seeds separately, you’ll have a better idea of the seeds to look for in a mix or blend.

Black oil sunflower seeds
By far the most popular of all the bird seeds and the one seed accepted by all seed eating birds.  Black oil seeds have a soft shell and are easy for birds such as chickadees and titmice to open. They also have a high oil content which provides calories and energy all year long. Black oil seeds are also available as whole “hearts” which are the seed meat with the shells removed, or “chips” which are small bits of hearts. If you want to offer only one seed, it should be black oil sunflower seed. Expect to attract chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, woodpeckers, grosbeaks, cardinals, finches and more.

Striped sunflower seed
Striped sunflower seeds are a large seed with black or gray stripes. They don’t have as high an oil content as black oil seeds and they’re harder for small birds to open. However, birds with beaks designed to eat big seeds, such as goldfinches, cardinals and grosbeaks enjoy the striped seeds as much as black oil seeds.

Nyjer seed
Nyjer seed is often served alone in special feeders that hold these tiny seeds without allowing them to fall out. However, Nyjer can also be found in some mixes as well.  Nyjer seeds are also a high-oil seed and are especially loved by finches such as goldfinches, redpolls, pine siskin, house and purple finches.

Safflower seed
Sometimes offered alone to deter squirrels, safflower seed is particularly enjoyed by cardinals, but will also be eaten by grosbeaks chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, mourning doves and buntings.

Millet
Of the two types of millet found in bird seed mixes, red and white proso millet, the white proso is the most favored by birds. Millet is a small, round seed that especially attracts buntings, both painted and indigo, doves, juncos, and sparrows.

Cracked corn
Small pieces of corn are included in many mixes or can be purchased separately. The birds it’s most likely to attract are doves, sparrows, towhees, blackbirds, grackles, and jays as well as larger birds such as turkeys, pheasants and quail.

Peanuts
Peanuts are high in oils and very nutritious for birds. They can be offered as bits, shelled or even whole peanuts. There are also special feeders that hold peanut halves and whole peanuts. Expect to attract jays, woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and more.

Other seeds you may encounter in a bird seed mix are wheat, milo, or canary seed. Canary seed is accepted by juncos and sparrows, but if you live in the eastern part of the country, the wheat and milo will probably go to waste. These seeds are grown primarily in the midwest and eastern birds aren’t used to them. In addition to seeds, many mixes include tree nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans and pistachios as well as fruit bits such as dried blueberries and cranberries. Experiment with different seeds and mixes and have fun feeding the birds!