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September 1999
Many exciting events occur in the backyard habitat. So intimate and pleasing are these observations of life, we are loath to miss a detail. So fast is the response to even slight improvements, there is instantaneous reward for our efforts.
Watching the competition of large and small birds for the large birdbaths, I puzzled how I could separate their use to the benefit of all. There are terra cotta saucers for use with flowerpots that are six and one half inches in diameter and one and a half inches in depth. This is a good size for smaller birds. Two small, rough stones placed in the saucer so they are stable provide good footing and a shallower area for the smallest or more timid bathers.
The chickadee family came to bathe en masse. The titmice visited regularly to drink and bathe. Young northern orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks bathed vigorously and often. Two yellow warblers showed up in late July, alternately bathing and gleaning insects in thickets nearby. Gold and purple finches took turns drinking.
Early in the summer, a female rose-breasted grosbeak had come to the saucer to drink every morning and every evening. I learned to tell the hour by her appearance. Once the young had fledged, her regular routine ceased.
Our yard seemed like a bird nursery. Cardinals nested in a hedge. We watched the female collect nesting material with the male's help. Later, two young females were often on the ground, where the adults brought them seeds from the feeder and fruit from the bushes.
Robins built a nest in a small spruce tree, right next to the trunk. They chased all species of birds from the immediate area, so active were they in defense of the nest. Later in July, another robin built a nest in a dying Russian olive tree next to the deck. After the eggs hatched, the robin sat either next to the nest or on the nest with little orange beaks sticking up around her.
Judging from their evening songs, five pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks nested in a two-acre area around our yard. Although none of the nests were on our property, the birds ignored human territorial demarcations and used our birdbaths and black oil sunflower feeders.
Catbirds nested in the privet hedge outside our living room window. Phoebes built their nest of mud, moss and twigs high on the east side of our neighbor's two-story playhouse. A female downy woodpecker fed a young female on the tree where we hang suet in cold weather. They searched under broken bark and, when the adult found an insect, she fed it to the young one.
Two song sparrows were active in a large patch of daylilies. They would land on the stalks of the day lilies and drop down into the leaves. Amongst the lilies we discovered their nest with four young, barely moving but with mouths wide open.
A pair of hummingbirds was often around, but I never could locate their nest. In general, hummingbirds reuse the same nest year after year, adding new materials as needed. All season, they had plenty of flowers for nectar in my yard and my neighbor's. I saw them at the bee balm, of course, and phlox, blue globe thistle, hollyhocks, catmint, the lychnis called Maltese cross, anise hyssop, Solomon's seal, blue cardinal flower, foxglove and geranium. The flowers on these plants have structures that allow hummingbirds access to the nectar.
All of these bird species may be found in backyard habitats, parks, and settled areas. In an urban forest, habitat can be rich if we plant and manage our yards for wildlife as well as for ourselves.
By Nancy Coverstone (ncstone@umext.maine.edu), University of Maine Extension Educator in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties
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