Backyard Bird Watching & Bird Feeding Specialists                                November  2016 Newsletter
In This Issue
~Share the Love
~The New Sign
~Attracting Juncos by Steve Frye
~Cats Outdoors?
~Sunflower Chips Prices Fall
~Wildlife Tree Day
~Ask Steve
~COUPON: Save $4.00 on 8 lbs Outdoor "Finch" Mix!
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 Bird Cams 
                                              
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Xcel Energy Bird Cams
(cams for eagles, falcons, herons,
kestrels, ospreys & owls) 
 
Web Cams
 from US Stream
Broad-Tailed Hummingbird
©Steve Frye 
 
   Hummingbird Nest Cam



 

Osprey Cam
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Osprey ©Wendy Marie Stuart 
 
 
Wild Bird Company Saturday Bird Walk 
(Every Saturday morning for our Colorado Birders) 
 

birders
 Bird Watchers (that's us)    


From 7:30 am (promptly)  

to 10:00 am (approximately)
  

Every Saturday year-round.   No reservations required. Every last Saturday of the month we travel further afield than normal and return a little later. Bird Walk locations are determined on the morning of the walk. All ages and birding abilities are welcome!

 

Meet at Wild Bird Company

1641 - 28th St., Boulder, CO 80301
Call for more info: 303-442-1322 

 

 

Wild Bird Company Weekly Bird Walk Newsletters & Bird Counts

 

Wild Bird Company
Weekly Bird Walk Slide Shows




 

 

Share the Love



I know many of you really love receiving the Facebook postings, weekly bird list and slide show emails and/or the monthly newsletter emails. Please consider sharing or forwarding these emails and postings to your friends interested in nature. I would really appreciate getting these educational postings to a wider audience. Thanks for the help.  -Steve Frye

The New Sign

Some of you may have seen our new sign and logo or noticed our new name. After many years as a franchise store, we have gone independent and changed our name to Wild Bird Company. We look forward to a continued relationship with our customers, increasing our brick-and-mortar and electronic inventories, greater educational resources, and so many other plans. Thank you all for making the last 27.5 years so memorable. I look forward to more good times.     -Steve Frye

Attracting Juncos  by Steve Frye

The Dark-Eyed Junco, or just junco for short, is the most common feeder bird in North America during winter. Some people have juncos year-round, but for most, juncos are "snowbirds", only showing up in wintertime. The dark-eyed junco is a sparrow
Dark-Eyed Junco
©Kevin Rutherford
dressed in beautiful earth tones of gray, rose, charcoal, and browns, but always with white outer tail feathers which flash two parallel white stripes as they fly away. There are many different subspecies or regional races of the dark-eyed junco. They can look quite different, but they are all juncos and all have the white outer tail feathers. My chilly and dormant winter backyard would not be nearly as lively or entertaining without the social flock of juncos that are ever-present.

 
Bird Seed and Feeders for
Attracting Juncos

Juncos, like other sparrows, feel most comfortable feeding on or near the ground. Their preference is for platform feeders or wide-tray hopper feeders. They may visit a tube feeder or even a suet feeder on occasion, but a platform feeder is preferred. Juncos are more likely to frequent feeders that are in close proximity to good cover such as bushes or evergreens.
Dark-Eyed Junco ©Neal Zaun

Millets, especially white proso millet, are juncos preferred seed. They are also attracted to sunflower chips, cracked corn, canary seed, and nyjer. The juncos in my yard cannot resist millet sprays (millet seed heads). I take 3 or 4 sprays and twist-tie them together and hang them over the braches of our lilac bush. That way the juncos can feed on the sprays from multiple branches.

Bird Houses for Attracting Juncos

Juncos build their own nests on or near the ground. Since they do not use bird houses or nesting shelves, about the only thing you can provide to help them nest is habitat with lots of ground cover or possibly a brush pile. For the protection of juncos and other ground nesters, please keep cats indoors at all times.

Providing Water for Juncos

A great way to attract dark-eyed juncos in the winter is with a heated bird bath. Open water in the winter is not only important for drinking, but also for bathing to keep feathers in good shape and insulating properly. After installing a bird friendly water feature in my yard I had a lot more juncos bathing in the water garden compared to my other bird baths. 
Dark-Eyed Junco ©Steve Frye


Gardening for Attracting Juncos

Juncos enjoy a good weedy patch to feed in so consider leaving some seed heads in your flower garden for winter. You could also plant millet, lettuce, sunflowers, and other plants specifically to produce lots of seeds for the juncos to eat.

The element that will make your yard most attractive to juncos is good cover or shelter. That means lots of
Dark-Eyed Junco
©Kevin Rutherford
bushes and evergreens-places to hide. If you don't have enough cover in your yard consider making a brush pile for the juncos. A brush pile is simply a pile of brush, but you can make it more attractive to the
Cats Outdoors?
     
If you feel that your cat must go outdoors, please consider a catio. A catio is an enclosed and safe space for your cat to enjoy the outdoors. More importantly, your cat will live much longer, have fewer vet visits, and it will protect wildlife from cat predation.
         Sunflower Chips Prices Fall

                             Hulled Sunflower

Many of you feed sunflower chips because of their broad appeal and less mess. They are our number one seller and now they are less expensive! The price of 20 lbs bag of sunflower chips just went down by 20%. So start your winter feeding program out right with some sunflower chips from the Wild Bird Company.
Wildlife Tree Day
Saturday, December 3rd
wildlife tree day
Our annual event to make edible ornaments for the birds is coming up on December 3rd from noon to 2pm. Start this season of giving by helping the birds. We will be making many different kinds of ornaments including millet sprays, fruit loop garlands, peanut butter pine cones, and more to make your very own Wildlife Tree in your Yard! Mark this great free event on your calendar and do something nice for the birds. This is great fun for all.
           Ask Steve Ask Steve image

Q: Are there any tricks to putting out a suet feeder?
 
A:   The best "trick" is just to be patient. If you want to have suet eating birds like chickadees, bushtits, nuthatches, and woodpeckers this winter, it's best to start to attract them now. During cold snaps, the birds tend to go to reliable food sources and not waste energy exploring to find new resources. So start now even though the weather is almost summer-like. It can take a while for birds to find suet feeders and start using them. After they have been discovered, you will have plenty of activity. The most important aspect of suet feeding is using good suet. All suets are not created equal. We would suggest starting out with a peanut based suet cake. Our most popular cake is a peanut butter suet cake. Other peanut based suets like insect and orange are also very attractive. Our line of Pacific Bird Suet Cakes is also very popular. They are a bit more expensive, but they are harder cakes and get eaten more slowly. In terms of price per bird visit, they may be more economical.

Suet eating birds, like most birds, do not have a good sense of smell. They find their food visually and by watching other birds. So birds will have to "bump" into your suet feeder, try it, and if you have good suet there, they will return. Suet eating birds are usually looking for food on tree bark so putting your suet feeder on a tree trunk is a good place to start out. If you don't get any activity on the feeder in the first couple of weeks, I would move it to a different location. Keep moving the suet feeder to different locations every ten days or so until they discover the feeder. Leave the feeder there and get the birds used to it, then you can move the feeder to a better viewing location if you wish and the birds should move with the feeder.

Any style suet feeder will work, again, the suet is more important than the style of feeder. Basic suet feeders are just wire cages which hold the suet cakes and let the birds peck at the suet through the openings. Tail-prop suet feeders have a support hanging down from the cage which allows woodpeckers and other birds to support themselves on the prop while feeding. These feeders can hang down from branches so they do not have to be on the tree trunk themselves. One of my most popular suet feeders is a log style feeder which is a 4x4 (or an old log) with holes drilled into it which accept suet plugs. You can make your own feeder or buy one. We sell both peanut and insect plugs which are wildly popular in my yard. Another style of suet feeder is the upside-down feeder. These feeders were designed to reduce the amount of suet that birds like European Starlings could eat. You see starlings don't like to hang upside-down (at least not for very long). While other birds can hang upside-down to feed, I find that they also do not like to hang upside-down. Therefore, I am not too keen on upside-down suet feeders.

European Starlings, magpies, crows, nutcrackers, jays, and squirrels are sometimes unwelcome consumers of suet. The biggest complaint is that they eat too much, stealing away with big chunks of suet which can get expensive. To curb this behavior you can use a suet feeder with smaller openings, use a harder suet cake like those from Pacific Bird, or use a less attractive suet. This last suggestion might sound odd, but it can work well. If you use a less attractive suet sometimes the problem species stop coming so much, but the other "desirable" birds will still come to the feeder (albeit less often). A little activity from your "pest" species is good because it does stimulate activity on the suet feeder from others. If your pests are just too much to handle, consider using a squirrel-proof suet feeder. This style feeder has a double cage to block out larger birds and squirrels from getting to the suet. Don't worry about large woodpeckers, they have very long tongues and can still feed from the squirrel-proof feeders. 

Enjoy Juncos & Other Winter Sparrows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save $4.00 on 8 lbs Outdoor "Finch" Mix!
(regularly $18.99)
Dark-Eyed Junco ©Kevin Rutherford

[Note: When purchasing online, discount
will be applied during checkout]

"Finch" Mix is a blend of several millets, nyjer, and fine sunflower chips. Great for platform feeders!


Shop Online , Call (303) 442-1322 and mention this Coupon or visit our Store to redeem. Code:  WBCo1215

Not to be combined with other offers.
Expires 12/15/16. 
Don't forget to pro-actively attract your favorite birds. Stop by the Wild Bird Company today or
Shop on our Online Store and stock up for the Fall.
 
Sincerely,
Stephen Frye
1.844.442.1322 (toll free)

Wild Bird Company Headquarters

1641- 28th Street, Boulder, CO 80301 
Wild Bird Company


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