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COPYRIGHT 1997 Kalmbach Publishing Company
When the brilliant fall colors of September give way to the more somber grays and browns of late fall, you know that the snows of winter will soon transform your yard into a different world for the birds and other animals that inhabit your property. Now is the time to change the composition of bird foods offered and possibly the arrangement of your feeders. This will help the birds survive and increase your enjoyment of bird feeding in the snowy months ahead.
Even in snowless regions of the country, feeding birds during the winter months presents new opportunities for attracting those migrants and wanderers from northern climates. Knowing something about the feeding habits of these visitors will improve your chances of keeping them around for the winter.
One of the most fascinating aspects of winter bird feeding is the anticipation of which species will show up. Permanent residents, such as chickadees and cardinals, are dependable every year, but some winter visitors include birds of boreal regions that are unpredictable because they tend to be cyclic, where numbers peak at three to four or nine to ten year intervals, or irruptive, meaning periodic appearances of unusually high numbers. The production of seeds by pines and other trees in northern forests can also be cyclic in nature. If seeds are in short supply, some species, such as Red-breasted Nuthatches, Common and Hoary Redpolls, Pine Siskins, Red and Whitewinged Crossbills, and Pine Grosbeaks, may wander far from their normal ranges in search of food.
In addition to the boreal species from the North, some birds wander east or west of their usual ranges. For example, the colorful Varied Thrush occasionally moves eastward from old-growth forest habitats in the Pacific Northwest to midwestern yards where it spends the winter. The Blue Jay, on the other hand, may stray from the Midwest to visit western feeders during the winter months.
It is relatively easy to plan for winter bird feeding. There are three main choices of food: large seeds, small seeds, and suet. Large seeds include...
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