White-throated sparrow. Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com
A bird’s life is tough in winter when food supplies and drinking water are scarce. This makes it an ideal time for us humans to participate in “armchair birdwatching.” If you keep your feeders and baths full and clean (and heated, if temperatures gets below freezing), you’ll get to enjoy the show when your feathered friends come to visit. It’s a wonderful way to get kids interested in nature – who wouldn’t be excited about spotting a brilliant red cardinal or a bright yellow goldfinch? Armchair bird-watching can be enjoyed at any age. My great-aunt Stefanie, who is 94, loves watching the birds, especially on days when she can’t go outside. The other day I spied some kind of woodpecker with a brilliant red patch on its nape that put even the most showy cardinal to shame. I looked it up in my Field Guide to Birds of North America (which I keep near the window for precisely this reason, just as my parents did when I was growing up) and learned that it was a yellow-shafted northern flicker. Who knew? There’s something about seeing and watching birds that elicits fascination, wonder and delight in even the most curmudgeonly sorts, and you don’t even have to leave the cozy warmth of your home.
Here are some links if you want to learn more, do more or buy more to watch the birds and help them at the same time:
- The National Audubon Society
- The National Bird-Feeding Society
- Round Robin: The Cornell Blog of Ornithology
- Wild Bird Watching
- Wild Birds Unlimited
And here are some sites and articles specifically about winter bird-feeding:
- Birdfeeding.com
- “The Winter Banquet” from Audubon Magazine
- “Feed the birds for hours of entertainment” (really good!)
- EEK! – Environmental Education for Kids
If you buy one book on bird-watching, it should be a field guide to help you identify what you see. A guide to birds in your area is probably sufficient (see the first book on the list below for my favorite regional guide). Other recommendations for book on bird-watching and creating a garden for birds include:
- My favorite book for the past couple of year has been the Birds of New York Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela – There’s one for every state, and some come with cds to help you identify bird calls: www.adventurepublications.net.
- The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher
- The National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Backyard Wildlife
- Sally Roth’s Attracting Birds to Your Backyard
- The Backyard Birdlover’s Field Guide, by the same author
- Projects for the Birder’s Garden