Wood Thrush Notes: Questions Answered: Hummingbirds, Grosbeaks, and Updates!

With spring officially here, and a flurry of pleasant days both behind and ahead of us in the forecast, the yearly spring-time questions have gone from a trickle to a daily deluge. Today, we are going to answer some of these questions, and also give you some fun updates from the store!

When are the hummingbirds arriving?

The first and most frequently asked question is by far “When are the hummingbirds getting here?” This is an easy question to answer. Each year, almost like clock-work, hummingbirds will begin to be seen by folks in our area within a few days either side of the first of April. However, just because you are out in your yard picking up sticks after our ceaseless wind and you hear that unmistakable buzzing of your first hummer of the season, don’t go hustling to get all your feeders filled and put out just yet! While yes, hummingbirds begin to be seen around the first of April, they did not fly thousands of miles for sugar water. They are here to breed and raise young. Also, early in the season, it’s entirely possible that that first hummingbird you encountered is going to continue north, maybe even as far as southern Canada!

Where are my grosbeaks?

For those of you who do want to put out a feeder, we recommend only presenting one.  There simply is not enough activity this early in the season to warrant putting out and filling multiple feeders; most of the nectar will go to waste. Remember, for those of you making your nectar at home (our recommended method) the correct ratio is four parts water to one part sugar. This most closely simulates the nectar found in flowers. Do NOT try to make it extra sweet for them, and please, again for emphasis, please, only use plain white table sugar. Never, under any circumstances, should you use brown sugar, raw sugar, or honey. We will cover all this and more soon when we have a hummingbird dedicated post!

Another common question we get during these early warm days is “When do the grosbeaks get here?” The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a long distance migrant that will winter in Central and northern South America before passing through Tennessee anywhere between mid-April and mid-May on the way to their northern breeding grounds. Fortunately, they are easy birds to attract and can become an almost common sight at our seed feeders during this time. Sunflower seed in and out of the shell, safflower, and our Woodland Blend are all popular with these seed-eaters! While the males are unmistakable with their striking black and white bodies and red throats, females can cause some confusion. If you see something that looks like an oversized House Finch, chances are that you have a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak!

Store Updates!

To round things out, we’d like to share a few updates about the store. We have expanded our fountain offerings, and now have 8 different fountains in stock ranging from small table top models, a waterfall, and a 4+ foot tall cast stone pedestal model! For those of you who enjoy house plants, or rooting plants, we now have some offerings for you! We now have Couronne’s full line of rooting vases, so now you can grow your plants in a much more visually appealing way than putting them in a disused cup or bowl. Last, but not least, we are excited to share that our door mats are finally back in stock and we are well supplied with all your spring and summer favorites! We’ve made new changes as well, including new displays and fresh paint, so if you haven’t stopped by in the last few months, there is no time like the present. We hope to see you soon, and happy spring!

Bird Bio: The Carolina Chickadee

Bird Bio: Carolina Chickadee

One of the most common visitors to our backyard bird feeders is the Carolina Chickadee. These small, cute birds can often be overlooked, (at least until they build a nest in a bluebird box, but we’ll touch on that point later) but we can assure you that there is a lot more going on with these birds than meets the eye… Quite literally!

An Inquisitive Carolina Chickadee in the Fall

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip

Let me elaborate on my last point there. We are all likely familiar with the chickadee, and their seemingly simple black, grey, and white color. However, while reading through our copy of Sibley’s What It’s Like To Be A Bird, I learned an interesting fact. Did you know that research suggests that the chickadee, at least to the eyes of other chickadees, is likely a vibrant bird with clear differences between male and female? That is because unlike us, many birds including the chickadee are able to see ultraviolet light, opening them up to see an entire range of colors beyond purple.

While the sight of a chickadee picking out just the right sunflower seed or out of the shell peanut from your feeder is common, don’t take this to mean that they rely on you and your bird feeder for their survival, even in the dead of winter! To the contrary, over half the diet of the chickadee consists of insect prey, even in the cold winters of the northern parts of their range. Chickadees are also prolific seed cachers, being able to store up to 1,000 seeds per day! According to Sibley, the hippocampus, or the part of the brain responsible for spatial memory (recalling events or where you leave things; my missing key for instance) is larger in chickadees that live in northern areas with colder winters, where food storage is more important. The hippocampus actually begins to expand in the fall to accommodate the many new seed storage locations the bird must remember, and then shrinks again in the spring.

Chickadees often are one of the first birds that we hear reports of nesting activity in the spring. In fact, you could have a fully built chickadee nest and not even realize it, as they are very elusive about their comings and goings and if you blink, you’ll likely miss it. Being cavity nesters, chickadees will use abandoned woodpecker nests, nesting boxes, or other natural cavities for nesting. Nests are constructed from moss, with an inner cup filled with soft fur or plant material. Unlike the Eastern Bluebird, chickadees will only raise one brood of 3 to 10 white with reddish brown blotted eggs. Incubation lasts 12-15 days, with the nestling phase lasting an additional 16-19 days.

While we are on the subject of chickadees nesting, every year we will get customers becoming upset because a chickadee has built a nest in their bluebird box. This is normal, and it is completely fine! We assure you, the tiny chickadee did not bully the larger, more territorial bluebird out of its home. On the day of writing this, we watched our back alley bluebirds aggressively defend their box from a Chickadee, as well as a Titmouse and several House Sparrows. Never, under any circumstance, should you remove or destroy a chickadee’s nest in hopes of attracting bluebirds. If the bluebird wants the box, it will take it over. Also, as we mentioned, chickadees only nest once, early in spring, whereas bluebirds will nest up to three times throughout the spring and summer. Let the chickadees nest, and enjoy the learning process that comes with observing a new species nest! There is still plenty of time ahead for watching bluebirds.

During the winter months, chickadees will begin to band together, forming small flocks. There is a hierarchy in these flocks, with the dominant chickadees staying in the same territory to breed in the spring. Oftentimes, other birds such as Tufted Titmice, Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Red and White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, and Brown Creepers will join in these flocks in search of food and protection from predators. Remember, for birds, there is safety in numbers!

Carolina Chickadee in the Snow

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip














Wood Thrush Notes: Bluebirds Part Two: How to Feed Bluebirds

Feeding Bluebirds

In addition to the numerous nesting bluebird related questions we receive this time of year, another frequent question is how best to feed them?

Male Bluebird Feeding on Mealworms on Our Delivery Dock

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip

Many of you may have noticed bluebirds visiting your feeding stations, especially in the late winter. While in the past this was rare, it has now become commonplace. During cold weather, when there is a lack of insect activity, bluebirds may be drawn to out-of-the shell seeds, such as sunflowers or peanuts, as well as suet. While this may continue into the spring, expect this to begin to taper off, with it becoming almost non-existent by summer. Fear not, though, as there are still ways to continue feeding bluebirds!

The best way to feed bluebirds during warm weather is with live mealworms. These are actually not worms at all, but rather the larval stage of the darkling beetle. We carry these year round, and sell them by weight. Large, or roughly 1000 worms, (if you’re wondering, yes, one slow fall afternoon John actually took the time to count out mealworms) is $15, medium, or 500 worms, is $11, and small, or 250 worms, is $7. Note: If you purchase live mealworms, they MUST be kept in the refrigerator, where they will then enter a dormant state and keep upwards of a month. NEVER put them in the freezer, as this temperature will kill them.

Folks also ask us which is better: Live, or dried mealworms? During the colder months, bluebirds will consume dried mealworms, but when temperatures are warmer and insects become prevalent, live always wins! It would be like trying to entice someone to your table by offering fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls, vs hard-tack. Like us, bluebirds prefer fresh over dried.

Odd baked goods analogies aside, how do you present mealworms? Do I need to buy a special feeder? The answer to this is that it can be as simple, or elaborate, as you would like. For instance, here at the shop, our concrete loading dock is our bluebird feeder. Fortunately for those of you that don’t happen to have a loading dock in your backyard, we have a variety of different options ranging in price from as little as $15 to as much as $85.

To maximize success when feeding bluebirds, there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, don’t just put a lot of worms out and hope for the best. Because most other birds eat insects, this is a great recipe to attract every other bird to your mealworms, including larger species such as mockingbirds and robins that can, and will out-compete your bluebirds. For this reason, we always tell people to put out a small amount of worms, and to do so only when the bluebirds are present to take advantage of the offering. If the bluebirds do not notice the worms and fly away, bring the worms in and try again when the bluebirds are in a position to see the worms. While this method does require a little more patience, it will work out much better in the long term. Over time, the bluebirds will often come to associate you with food!

Below is a video we took on our delivery dock of our bluebirds, feeding on live mealworms! Enjoy!






Wood Thrush Notes: Bluebirds Part One: Putting Your Mind at Ease, Nesting

Bluebirds Part one:


In the past week, we have noticed a significant uptick in Eastern Bluebird activity, both at our boxes, and in questions from customers at the shop. This week, let’s take a deep dive into one of our most popular birds… The Eastern Bluebird.

Putting Your Mind at Ease

Before we begin this deep dive, I would like to attempt to put some of your mind’s at ease. There are numerous misconceptions about Eastern Bluebirds, with many online sources making them out to be delicate birds that must have extremely specific requirements to breed and survive. This is simply not true. As we all tell folks daily during spring and early summer, if Bluebirds were as picky as they’re made out to be, they would have gone extinct well before the arrival of people and the invention of nest boxes. On the contrary, Eastern Bluebirds are hardy, adaptable birds that can be found from Nicaragua to Canada. Speaking of adaptability, we have even seen them build a nest in a cinderblock! As an experiment, we set up a box that was too damaged to sell, behind the store in the shopping center’s service alley. It is mounted on a fence right next to the trash and recycling dumpster, facing due northwest, where we and the Sam’s Place employees park. According to “bluebird literature,” we should have no success in this location. Flying in the face of this, however, we have had multiple successful nestings in this box in the two years we have had it up, and we have already had bluebirds investigating it again this year.


Male Eastern Bluebird

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip

Nesting

While bluebirds will utilize nesting boxes during cold winter nights, they will begin seriously investigating them, sitting on the roof and going in and out as early as February. At the earliest, nest building can begin in March. As of typing this, John has even had a completed nest built in one of his boxes at his home in Cheatham County! However, for most of us, bluebirds will begin nesting in mid April. However, just because you don’t get a nesting during this time frame doesn’t mean that you have missed the boat. Bluebirds will nest up to three times in a season, all the way into August so there is plenty of time to attract a pair!

Bluebirds in Fall Investigating a Box

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip

This brings us to my next point. Bluebirds are not the only birds that will use a “bluebird” box. Any cavity nesting species will utilize a bluebird box. This list includes Chickadees, Titmice, Tree Swallows, and House Sparrows. (There are others, such as Downy Woodpeckers and even Great-crested Flycatchers, but these are less common.) With the exception of the House Sparrow, which I will cover in a later blog, we encourage folks to let these birds use your boxes. While we understand that you want to see Bluebirds, these are native species to Tennessee too, and they can offer an excellent opportunity to learn about some of the other species that call our yards and gardens home. Most of these birds will only nest once, and typically earlier in the season which means you still have months to attract bluebirds after the other bird’s young have fledged!

Tufted Titmouse Using a Bluebird Box

Photo Credit: Eli Haislip

The first nest can sometimes take several weeks to build, with subsequent nests taking as little as a day or two to construct. Depending on what is available to them, bluebirds commonly use fine grasses or pine straw. Bluebirds lay three to six light blue, sometimes white, eggs. One egg is laid per day until completion, and then incubation begins. Incubation takes 12-14 days. After the eggs hatch, the young birds will grow rapidly, going from small, helpless, featherless birds with their eyes closed to fully developed bluebirds that are ready to leave the nest. This second phase takes 14-16 days. After the young have left the nest, they will not return and the birds will have no further use of the nest. We then strongly recommend that you remove the old nest material to reduce the risks of insect infestations or disease.




Wood Thrush Notes: Bird Songs vs Bird Calls

With the beginning of spring just a few weeks away, some of you may have noticed birds beginning to sing. During the warmer days of the past few weeks, I have heard Tufted Titmice and Carolina Chickadees beginning to sing. You may be thinking to yourself, I hear those bird sounds YEAR ROUND, what is he talking about? Today, that is going to be our topic of discussion.

Song vs. Call

Did you know that there is actually a difference between bird “songs” and bird “calls?” Bird songs can be quite elaborate and vary greatly between different species. Some species, such as Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, and European Starlings are able to learn and mimic the calls of other birds. For arguably one of the most impressive bird songs, let’s look to our namesake, the Wood Thrush. It may seem like an odd choice to name our shop after a bird that many people have never seen or even heard of, (and the reason that we get monthly calls from people asking if we can refinish their dining room sets) but if you ever are fortunate enough to HEAR their song, it would make a lot more sense. For those of you who have never heard one singing, I will link to it here. Thanks to its Y-shaped syrinx, or voice box, a careful internal balancing act with its airways, and millennia of evolution, it is actually capable of harmonizing with itself. That’s right; our namesake can sing a simultaneous duet, with itself!

To put it simply, birds (usually males) use song as a means of attracting a mate and establishing/defending their territory. Bird calls, while melodically more simple, can often have more meanings. They typically fall into four categories: Contact, flight, alarm, and begging.

Contact calls are made by birds as a way of keeping in communication with one another while foraging for food. Generally speaking, these are fairly short, simple, and not designed to carry far. However, if a bird gets separated, it may produce a louder, more urgent call to broadcast its position to others.

Flight calls serve a similar purpose. If you have ever seen flock of Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Robins, or Common Grackles flying overheard, you have likely noticed that they can be quite noisy. This is flight calling in action. This serves to help a group maintain contact with one another whilst airborne.

Birds also have alarm calls to help alert one another to threats, such as birds of prey, snakes, or cats. Certain birds, such as Chickadees will use different calls for different threats. According to the National Audubon Society, for aerial dangers they will utter a sharp, quick seet. If the bird of prey is perched and deemed to be less of an immediate threat, they will call out chick-a-dee with added dee’s on the end to indicate greater urgency.

Lastly, we have the begging calls. These simplistic calls are a far cry from the complex songs of the adult males or even the interesting meanings of mature bird’s alarm calls. These are simply the young birds trying to attract the attention of their parents