Coastliner wrote:
Sorry for the late reply.
Sorry, I should have mentioned here at the beginning that there is no need to apologize, I think this format of one reply in 1-2 weeks is not late at all, to me it’s very OK because you need to set aside some free time to watch birds, plus more thorough instructions about bird feeders and the nuances of feeding wild birds, as well as sharing your personal experiences and observations are very informative and helpful, and I'm very grateful that you are posting it here in this format.
(I, in turn, need some time to try to implement some of it into reality and to observe the results).
Coastliner wrote:
Thanks for asking, but, well, no new birds, instead the old ones seem to be getting fewer as the weeks go by. At the moment there are only a handful of great and blue tits, a handful of magpies, three pigeons, a blackbird couple and the occasional robin.
The two jays went missing a couple of weeks ago (jays are the cutest things ever, almost as large as magpies but too cuddly for words), and the woodpeckers… I don't know where they are gone. In December there were daily visits by a hedge sparrow. Not anymore.
Hope the jays are fine. Since they can gather and hide a lot of food in the warm season with intention of using it in the cold season, the first thing that comes to mind is that they decided that it's time to use their own food reserves more actively instead of visiting bird feeders (although I don't know how/if this process depends on the weather in these birds).
We have a second wave of cold weather and snow these days in Ukraine (there were days when the temperature reached minus 17 degrees Celsius in the region where I live, and there was also a strong wind from the north), and, from what I saw these days in the city, it seems that the nuthatch preferred not to waste energy on flying to the feeder and it seems the bird stayed closer to personal food stores instead, but, as soon as it got a bit warmer, the bird started to visit the feeder more often and regularly.
It's harder to assume a positive theory with the sparrow (and with those small birds that do not store food in general).. I have never seen a hedge sparrow, but I've read that they can be both resident and migratory birds.
Is it possible that one could meet some flock of birds and join them, and they flew away in search of food in some other direction/bird feeder?
I saw flocks of Eurasian tree sparrows at the feeder near the summer house almost every time I visited there, but I think I haven't seen house sparrows during this cold season.
There also seemed to be only tree sparrows at the feeder in the city. I saw the flock for the first time this year a few days ago when the weather was at its coldest and snowiest (now I see the sparrows at the feeder every morning and sometimes in the evening). They are a bit too noisy and "untidy" for a feeder near a window, plus sometimes there are a bit too many of them at once at the feeder - and then it is a bit difficult for the tits to get to the feeder -
https://i.ibb.co/0hSsQtG/20240112-080437-1.jpg (although it is still possible to do, and tits usually do not wait for the sparrows to fly away, i.e. not like with the nuthatch -
https://i.ibb.co/X5VsFn9/20240107-082710-1.jpg), but, on the other hand, I've got a chance to see if tree sparrows would eat these seeds with the mysterious name “seeds of meadow herbs” - although to me it looks more like seeds of field herbs (I don’t know which ones exactly, but they are intended specifically for birds), which I randomly found and bought at a pet market on my recent visit to Kyiv:
https://i.ibb.co/qMLw3xQ/20240112-115429.jpg (I mix them in small quantities with proso millet)
I've finally got rid of those plastic bottle feeders, but not in the way I planned.
I hung that classic wooden bird feeder near the summer house (completely closed one wide entrance and replaced the side of the second wide entrance).
The small round entrances are perfect for great tits and blue tits - the birds flew inside without any problems, but the problem was that the wide entrance in height turned out to be suitable for bullfinches, and these birds completely occupied the feeder (the way they eat at feeders is the same as they eat ash/maple seeds in the trees - they just sit in one place for quite a long time and eat the seeds one by one, these birds are just masters at saving energy) - and the tits had to go back to the old big feeder.
I think the main reason bullfinches prefer that small bird feeder is that it is located relatively far from the house (most birds fly to the feeders from those thickets of apple trees and ornamental bushes across the road), but I hope that the bullfinches also fly to the big feeder (that is located in front of the house) when I leave - besides the sunflower seeds, I also left them a bunch of ash seeds there.
I've made the side of the wide entrance even higher (but with possibility to move it to clean the feeder and to add food there) so that only tits/sparrows could get through there, and I've also made wooden platforms for bullfinches under the round entrances - they can sit there and take food through round holes, but cannot completely get inside the feeder (I watched them for a while and they didn't try to get inside through those entrances, so hope it's safe for them).
https://i.ibb.co/KDtXSK8/20240115-094642-1-1.jpg https://i.ibb.co/nCgzXdZ/20240115-103903-1-1.jpgAs for the feeder near the window in the city, I took the risk of giving the two-story wooden bird feeder a try, hopefully that metal structure (an old TV antenna) near the window can protect even this type of bird feeder from visit of larger birds. I didn’t change anything in this feeder, only attached a wooden perch to the bottom and screwed in two metal screws with a hook of this type -
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... EOTwwrFI&s (one on top and the other on the side - for additional safety) to drag the wire and to hang the feeder. I'll probably also add a horizontal partition at the second floor to make the top entrance a little smaller and more protected from pigeons/crows (along the lines of those 2 small holes I've made there).
It's not the easiest feeder to clean, so I just try to put food for 1-2 days only, plus I remove, wash and dry the feeder once a week. After the snowiest nights there was a lot of snow on the roof and on the perch, but there were almost no snow inside the feeder (the feeder is placed with an entrance to the east and usually the wind is not so strong/frequent on that side).
As for the blue tit on the photo with the nuthatch, I saw the bird for the first time a few days ago at this feeder, now the bird is also a regular visitor here.
Jays are interesting and beautiful birds, but it seems they are much more “wild” and cautious here, because I have never seen them at bird feeders. The only place where I saw them here was in the forest outside the city (and only from afar - by using binoculars).
Magpies and woodpeckers are more common here. I saw magpies both in the city and not far from the summer house (although the bird did not visit the feeder when I was there).
As additional information, I read that both jays and magpies can kidnap (as a food) chicks from nests/nestboxes of small birds - so this is one of the reasons to make nestboxes without a perch under the entrance.
Coastliner wrote:
Great idea with the nesting boxes (especially as a winter hideout!), and – since you said "there are already two such bird houses on the wall of the summer house"… – have there been any breeding successes yet?
Yes, I hung the nestboxes last winter, and both bird houses were taken over by great tits, and the birds had chicks there. When I cleaned the houses in the autumn after the nesting season, there were no eggs/dead chicks inside, so hopefully they are all alive and well.
In theory, sparrows can also have a nest in nestbox with 35 mm diameter entrance, but these birds seem to prefer nests under a roof with wavy slate of a house here.
I will take into account the recommendations for food during the nesting season and will think about alternatives to sunflower seeds (such as sunflower hearts, walnuts and peanuts crushed into small pieces).
The main reason sunflower seeds seem to me to be the best for use in feeders near the summer house is that husk can longer protect edible part of the seed from affect of weather/other external conditions. For the same reason, I don't put oat flakes there - they are too vulnerable to rain/snow. I only add whole oat grain to the feeder there sometimes, but this is of course more suitable for hard bills. *sigh*
Coastliner wrote:
Why (oat) flakes? Because all birds, even sick birds, can eat and digest them quite easily. Sugar- and salt-free, of course. If there are no fat-coated flakes available, you can also bathe the flakes in e.g. sunflower oil. That'll do. (As long as hard-bills find something that's more to their liking, e.g. nuts, it can happen that they ignore the flakes altogether, though.)
I've added some oat flakes to the feeder in the city, but it seems great tits have either become too "conservative" in food there or are not experienced enough and do not know that it can be eaten at all - all the members of the flock gathered at the feeder and unsuccessfully tried to figure out what to do with these flakes, they took oat flake in their beak and then just threw it down, and after that tried to find pieces of that kind of food they were used to. -
https://i.ibb.co/xqcH7Wn/20240109-084132-1-1.jpg I only had "hard" flakes (those where on the package is written that they need to be boiled, cook for 10-15 minutes - when to use it as a food for humans, of course), maybe to try using softer and smaller ones?
Fortunately, this flock looks quite healthy and strong so they can eat sunflower seeds quite easy, but it might be good to give their diet a bit more variety.
I also add halves of peanuts to the feeder from time to time - both the great tits and the nuthatch eat it (as well as crushed walnuts).
Coastliner wrote:
even sick birds
(Speaking of sick birds... I think this is important to mention here: what do ornithologists recommend to do when, in the midst of the cold season, someone notice a sick bird with a contagious disease (such as avian pox in great tits) at a bird feeder? Temporarily stop feeding?)
Coastliner wrote:
You probably know all this already but I just thought fat shouldn't be forgotten if we're talking about food.
Thanks for this information! No, I knew only part of it and always thought that birds need more sources of fat in a feeder in winter rather than in summer.
I would only add to point 3 that, when it comes to this kind of food on the bird table, it is necessary to remember that there is a higher risk that such food can attract cats - so you need to make sure that they don’t get in there.
I think I need to mention that those sources of fat that ornithologists recommend here are...different, to put it mildly -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salo_(food)
I don't eat this kind of food myself, and rarely buy it for birds either (but when I do, I always choose only fresh and unprocessed+unsalted one). I only use it in cold frosty weather (to prevent the fat from hight temperatures and also to prevent the birds' feathers from getting covered with the fat), it especially helps with the situation near the summer house because it serves as a source of energy for birds when all other food in the feeders has run out.
I'll try to search fat balls/suet balls for birds in Ukrainian online stores, and, if I don’t find it, then I’ll buy the necessary ingredients and make it myself.
Taking this opportunity, that you know German, could you please say what is written here -
https://www.riffreporter.de/de/umwelt/f ... -interviewIs it too critical and should it be taken into account or is it still acceptable to give fat/fat balls/suet balls for birds but not too often?
I will also try to find hemp seeds here.
I will also add some raisins and sultanas to the bird feeder near the summer house on my next visit there.
I have already placed raw fruits (pieces of apple) near the feeder there, but it seems there were no blackbirds or fieldfares at all, unfortunately. Blue tits are the only birds I saw who pecked apples (a bit) there, I didn’t even know before that these birds could eat it.
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Coastliner wrote:
I hope the New Year's fireworks didn't kill or expel many animals here. Bloody fireworks… but now that I think about it it's a bit strange to complain about New Year's war games while you, in the Ukraine, have problems of a far greater scale…
Yes, fauna, including birds, in Ukraine suffers from military actions a lot - most of all, from the fact that many bird habitats are destroyed/polluted - some forests are burned, a lot of trees are damaged/"killed" by artillery, rivers and lands in war zones are polluted with heavy metals and fuel from heavy equipment and shells, etc. etc. Some of the habitats were quite unique so it puts certain species of birds at risk of extinction here.
People also need to understand that this is partly a problem on an international scale - in the south of Ukraine, in the regions where there were/are intense military actions during the war, there are routes of many migratory birds that fly further to Europe, and it is very difficult to predict the extent of the negative effect on these birds due to the war.
As for the life of wild birds in the city where I live (in Khmelnitsky region), I think loud noises are the main negative impact on the birds here during the war - not far from the city (fortunately, in the opposite direction from the territory of summer houses, plus it is also quite far from that forest outside the city I mentioned earlier) there is an active military airfield, and planes (mostly military and cargo) can take off from there 5-10 or more times a day.
Plus the Russian military from the first days of the full-scale war regularly is trying to destroy this airfield (and also it seems is trying to destroy the city as a whole) - so the birds also suffer from explosions (and possibly fires) due to Russian missiles/Shahed drone attacks here.
But this does not mean that the problems of wild birds in countries where there is no war should be discounted because of this - these problems are also equally important to mention and to pay attention on them.
The official ban on distribution and use of fireworks in Ukraine these days is one of the few positive things that happened for birds here during the war.
Fireworks can affect not only wild birds /animals by the way -
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the- ... -wildlife/ , pets can also suffer from this - I remember reading a story about a relatively old (but he was still quite active) family dog who was so scared by the loud sounds of fireworks that he had a heart attack and died because of it.
This is completely off topic (sorry, once again, the OP): the mention of fireworks in the context of birds also reminded me that I prefer to avoid films where people celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve (even in cases the films are very nature-related), not only because I'm not religious, but also because those films tend to contain scenes/episodes that can turn the whole film into nonsense.
As one of examples of it for me is the film “Eia’s Christmas at Phantom Owl Farm” (2018), which I once watched with my sister and her little son (for whom this film was actually intended because my sister thinks that her son is still a bit too young to watch documentaries about owls and birds of prey in general). One of the plot lines was that the forest was saved from deforestation because the film’s main characters noticed a great grey owl there and made efforts to make the forest a protected area (by proving the fact that this is the nesting and hunting place of this owl).
Throughout the film, the characters demonstrate their love for wildlife and wild birds, but at the end of the film the same people were glad to see the explosions of fireworks in the sky near/above the forest on New Year's Eve.
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Coastliner wrote:
Sometimes even the trees need some amendments and extensions.
A couple of days ago, the branch right below the milk carton for the pigeons (and anybird that's interested) just broke off. Crack! Bye, bye, branch… Problem: how could a hungry customary pigeon reach the food if the perch is gone?
The story with the tree branch is very impressive
; I’ve never made artificial branches in a tree.
It also seems that the local pigeons in the city where I live are so used to having food thrown to them directly on the ground here that I’m not sure they would get to such feeder in a tree at all, even with the help of a branch.