Midweek Specials! Hummingbird Window Feeder, ATZ Squirrel Feeders and More


Bird’s Choice Window Hummingbird Feeders- 25% Off

Each year, we receive a number of questions from customers asking if we carry window feeders, and the answer is yes! This week, we are running a special on our favorite small window-mounted hummingbird feeders. Take 25% off Birds Choice Hummingbird Window Feeders, today through Saturday, December 7th. These feeders are made in the USA from durable recycled plastic and will last for years. Our favorite aspect of these feeders? Their unique ability to be used for more than just hummingbird nectar. By removing the lid, the feeder transforms from a standard, easy to clean and fill hummingbird feeder to a year-round window feeder for peanuts, suet nuggets, seed, or mealworms! Get one today and enjoy it as a seed feeder until it’s time again for hummingbirds.

Regularly: $22 Sale Price: $16.50 with Discount (Before Tax)

ALL Wooden Squirrel Feeders- 25% Off

I know what you’re thinking… Why would I WANT to feed squirrels?! Several reasons come to mind. Number one; YOU don’t, but with options under $30 before the 25% off, these make great gag gifts for the squirrel hater in your life. Put the intelligence of the Eastern Gray Squirrel to the test with the Squirrel Munch Box. Handmade in Ohio, these feeders force squirrels to learn to open the lid in order to get to the seeds inside.

Regularly $34 Sale Price: $25.50 with Discount (Before Tax)

Perhaps this is a gift for someone who enjoys their squirrels. These feeders are sure to please them too! Perhaps you’d like to treat your squirrels to a lesson in etiquette? We have the feeder for you! The Squirrel Table & Chair design has been around for decades and for good reason. These simple, effective feeders are an excellent way to feed corn on the cob or pressed corn logs to your squirrels, chipmunk and even birds. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that squirrels will use the chair, as they are, you know… Animals.

Regularly $28 Sale Price: $21.00 with Discount (Before Tax)

Sure, testing the intelligence of squirrels or their table manners is fine… But what about their acrobatics and agility? Enter the Squirrel Pinwheel. This feeder is exactly what it sounds like, a four armed pinwheel where you place corn on the cob on each arm and watch the squirrels balance while they feed.

Regularly $30 Sale Price: $22.50 with Discount (Before Tax)

Have you ever watched a squirrel contentedly munching your bird seed and wondered what that squirrel would look like in a large glass jar? No? Is that just me? Well, ready or not, we have the answer for you in the Squirrel-In-A-Jar feeder from Songbird Essentials! If you’re reading this thinking we have gone nutty, there is actually a genuine benefit to this unique feeder. Because the seed is inside a large glass jar, it is completely protected from the elements. This makes this a good late fall/winter time feeder to keep your offering protected from rain and snow. It is also possible to attract certain birds into the jar, such as Carolina Wrens, Tufted Titmice, and White-breasted Nuthatch.

Regularly $65 Sale Price: $48.75 with Discount (Before Tax)




Handblown Red Glass Parasol Feeders are 25% Off

The sale of the Parasol red hand-blown glass orb hummingbird feeders continues! Through Saturday, take an additional 25% off the marked price on all red glass orb feeders by Parasol!

Happy Thanksgiving! Holiday Hours, Specials, Cedar Waxwings, and Our Favorite Blend

Holiday Hours

With the holidays now racing towards us at seemingly impossible speed, we would like to take a moment to discuss our hours for the coming weeks before we blink and it is January. Our holiday hours are as follows:

Thanksgiving Day: Closed

Christmas Eve: 10:00-2:00

Christmas Day: Closed

New Year’s Eve: 10:00-5:30

New Year’s Day: Closed

Wild Turkey

Photo credit: Eli Haislip

Cedar Waxings

One of the most striking birds that we encounter in Tennessee has got to be the Cedar Waxwing. If you have never done yourself the favor of an up close look through your binoculars, (remember, if you’re not using binoculars, you’re not truly birding!) then you are doing yourself a disservice. An up close look reveals a striking black mask, traced by a fine line of white that outlines the mask from behind the eye to the beak. A tan body fading to a gray tail tipped in yellow, tan fading to yellow on the belly, and tan wings fading to light gray, then to slate with bright red accents on the wings finish off this vibrant species.

While these beautiful birds are in fact a year round resident to Middle Tennessee, we do receive reports with greater frequency in the late fall and winter months. Why? Because as we like to remind folks, “We are south!” Some Cedar Waxwings will spend summer months as far north as Canada, so for these birds, we are far enough south to be in their winter range. Also, with every plant that produces fruits or berries having already produced its harvest for the year, there is ample food supply to keep these birds fed through the winter months. If you have Holly, Hackberry, Privet, or Honeysuckle anywhere in your yard, look for these birds in flocks of anywhere between five to over fifty in and around these plants eating the berries they produce.

Unfortunately for us, these are not seed eating birds and would not visit a seed or suet feeder. It is possible, however, to see them flocking in numbers to water on a chilly morning. If you have a de-icer, this increases your chances of attracting these and other birds to your water source all year long! Even if you don’t have any of these things in your yard, there is still a good chance of seeing them as they are quite common this time of year and with a little practice can be spotted with ease. Some things to look for are any type of berry producing plant. If you hear or see a flurry of activity in one of the aforementioned bushes or trees, have your binoculars ready to investigate as it is entirely possible that it is a hungry flock of Cedar Waxwings. Case in point; one of our longtime friends and shopping center neighbors often complained to us about never seeing Cedar Waxwings. We continually assured her that they were around, but still no luck. Finally one day while carrying out a customer’s seed, I heard the unmistakable high pitched “bzeee bzeee bzeee” whistle that so often gives them away. After offloading the seed, I rushed back inside to grab a pair of binoculars and hurried down to our friend’s shop. Together we made our way to the parking lot where we could get a clear view of the holly tree by the road, where we saw literally dozens of cedar waxwings consuming the berries. This story serves to show that you do not always need to be in the textbook location to find the interesting bird.

Cedar Waxwing Feeding on Privet Berries

Photo credit: Eli Haislip

Red Parasol Feeders 25%

With highs next week projected in the 40s, late November may seem like an odd time to have a special on hummingbird feeders. However, with Christmas fewer than 30 days away, now is the ideal time to get the hummingbird lover in your life one of these beautiful red hummingbird feeders! Take an additional 25% off of any red Parasol feeder while supplies last through Saturday, November 30th.

A Feast for Your Birds

Did you know that in addition to our straight seed options, we also sell blends custom mixed to our specifications? Of our six custom blends, our Woodland Blend is by far the best seller. Comprised of 80% black-oil sunflower, along with out-of-shell peanuts, white-stripe sunflower, and out-of-shell sunflower, it has something for everybody. During the winter months, the out-of-shell sunflower can sometimes attract birds not ordinarily seen on seed feeders such as Carolina Wrens, Pine Warblers or even Eastern Bluebirds! Year round though, this blend routinely attracts Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-Breasted Nuthatch, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Blue Jays, Downey Woodpeckers, and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, depending of course on your specific habitat. With bags available in 8 Lbs. ($15), 20 Lbs. ($32), and 40 Lbs. ($55), we have a size that will work for anybody!

Does this sound appealing, but you don’t want the mess associated with seeds in the shell? Ask us about our No-Mess options!











Birds Seen Recently, Caching of Seeds, and a Blend for Ground-feeders

Birds Being Seen Recently

One part of the job that we always enjoy is hearing from folks about what they are seeing at their feeding stations. With the chill of autumn finally in the air, let’s take a moment to discuss some fall/winter residents being seen in the area!

Over the last few weeks, reports have been coming in of White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Purple Finch, and even several sightings of the Hermit Thrush. Unlike our namesake, who fills the forests with their haunting calls in the spring and summer, the Hermit Thrush is actually a winter resident in Tennessee. As it is unlikely to see them visiting your feeder, instead, look for these unassuming members of the Thrush family patrolling the undergrowth in forests or brushy fence lines. Last weekend, I spotted one in an over grown fence row making its distinctive “tchup” call as it worked the undergrowth in search of food.

Hermit Thrush

Photo credit: Eli Haislip

Purple Finches are another wintertime visitor that have recently been spotted in Pegram and Bellevue. Famously described by Roger Tory Peterson as “a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice,” these beautiful finches are only seen in Tennessee during the fall and winter months. There are several key differences that separate them from the House Finch, and once you learn to spot these, identification is a breeze. First and foremost, the coloration is different. Where House Finches are much redder in hue, Purple Finches are a distinctive raspberry color with coloration further down their belly than their relatives. Last, but certainly not least, look for a darker band of coloration behind the eye of the Purple Finch. Like their introduced cousins, female Purple Finches lack the coloration of males and are instead a streaky brown. However, female Purple finches have a darker brown band from behind the eye that female House Finches lack entirely.

Due to the aggressive actions of the invasive House Sparrow, the thought of sparrows visiting a feeding station can elicit a groan. However, we have a number of native winter resident sparrows that we always look forward to seeing! The mnemonic of “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” ringing out on a frosty morning is one of our favorite calls to hear in late fall and winter, because it signals the arrival of the White-throated Sparrow. Ground feeders by nature, look for these birds underneath feeders scratching around in the grass for fallen seeds. There is a good chance that you have seen them at some point, as they are quite the common visitor. There are actually two color forms to look for, white-crowned and tan-crowned! This is where having a good pair of binoculars handy can be helpful.

Perhaps one of our most widely recognized winter visitors is the Dark-eyed Junco. Long known as “Snowbirds” due to their appearance in late fall, if you have feeders up in the winter than you have likely seen these slate gray members of the sparrow family. These striking birds have slate colored backs and wings with white undersides, and pinkish bills adapted for cracking seeds. Along with the aforementioned White-throated Sparrows, look for Dark-eyed Juncos hopping around underneath feeders eating fallen seeds. A fun fact; according to Cornell University’s All About Birds, Dark-eyed Juncos will sometimes breed with White-throated Sparrows despite looking very different and not being especially closely related resulting in an odd hybrid of the two that is described as a “dully marked grayish White-throated Sparrow.”

Dark-eyed Junco

Photo credit: Eli Haislip

Continued Caching of Seeds

In the woods of Cheatham County, John has been putting his binoculars to good use and observing an interesting phenomenon in action. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one of several species of woodpeckers known to store, or cache their food for later and it is this species that is responsible for the peanut placement in the photo. Certain other backyard feeder birds are known to exhibit this behavior too, such as Red-headed and Downey Woodpeckers, as well as White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Chickadees, and Tufted Titmice.

A Blend for Winter Ground Feeders

Did you know we have a blend specifically for the ground feeding species that call our backyards home in the fall and winter? Our Wood Thrush blend is made up of 50/50 black oil sunflower seed and white and red millet, and while we never recommend this blend for use in feeders, (feeder birds will kick the millet out in favor of the sunflower seeds) as a ground feeding blend in the winter it works great. Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Eastern Towhees and Cardinals will all happily search through the grass (or snow) for this blend. Available in 40 Lbs. ($36) 20 Lbs. ($24) and 8 Lbs. ($13)








Midweek Product Profile: PopClox Wall Clocks

Today through Saturday, November 23rd, our Popclox Bird Clocks will be $15 off! These fun clocks are made in Massachusetts and make excellent gifts. They even have swinging pendulums, great for entertaining cats and children alike! We are well stocked with both owl (available in brown and gray) and house (available in gray, red, and green) designs and either one would make the perfect addition to the living room, home office, kids room, or even nursery!

Price before sale: $55

        Sale price: $40



Continued Brisk Feeder Activity, Seed Special, and Bird Bio: Red-headed Woodpecker

Brisk Feeder Activity Continues

Many more of you have noticed and commented on the very busy feeding activity this week. At my feeders, Goldfinch numbers have steadily increased from a few to enough to warrant presenting another finch feeder. If you haven’t had success in a while attracting Goldfinches with Nyjer seed, we would suggest trying the Fine Sunflower Chips or the Finch Blend. Both have out performed Nyjer the past few years. I am thoroughly convinced Goldfinches prefer sunflower seed. Remember, Goldfinches lose their bright yellow plumage this time of year. They are definitely around and may actually be more plentiful in winter as northern birds eventually settle in to this area for the winter.

To celebrate the increase in Goldfinch activity, today through Friday the 22nd save 10% on 20 lbs. and 10 lbs Finch Blend and 20 lbs. and 8 lbs. Fine Sunflower Chips

Bird Bio: Red-headed Woodpecker

Of all the woodpeckers that visit our feeders, this is perhaps the least common. Even the Pileated woodpecker seems to appear at feeders more. The Red-headed definitely relates to habitat that is a little different than the others, which is to say more open habitat relative to wooded areas with pine and cedar trees mixed with hardwood.

At the start of the breeding season, Red-headed Woodpeckers will move out of the forest interior and begin frequenting forest edges and areas of disturbed habitat. They will have up to two broods with a clutch size ranging from 2-10 eggs. Unfortunately, like the Red-bellied Woodpecker, they are prone to being out competed for their nest sites by the invasive European Starling.

Unfortunately, these striking members of the woodpecker family became scarce during the latter half of the twentieth century, with a population decline estimated at 54%. However, as we touched on recently, Red-headed Woodpeckers have been sited in numbers at locations where they would not have been previously expected such as the Natchez Trace Parkway and Radnor Lake. Montgomery Bell State Park, Bowie Nature Park in Fairview, TN and the campgrounds of Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area have all been hotspots where one can typically see these gorgeous woodpeckers in numbers.