We are on vacation. We will return at the end of June!

Enjoy! And feel free to e-mail ideas or suggestions to us at birdyonmywindow at gmail dot com =)

A Black-capped Chickadee found the peanut butter log

He was very excited and to add to his excitement–I put out donuts for him. Oh! This was a happy weekend for our little chicka-dee-dee-dees!

We had a surprise out-of-state visitor to our platform feeder today: a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. YAY!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Female)

A bit about the Rose-breasted Grosbeak from Wikipedia:

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, is a large seed-eating bird in the cardinal family.

The adult is 19 cm long and weighs 47 g. It has dark upperparts, white underparts and a large pale bill. The adult male has a black head, wings and upperparts and a bright rose-red patch on its breast; the wings have white patches and rose red linings. The adult female has dark grey upperparts, a white stripe over the eye, streaked underparts and yellowish wing linings.

The song resembles a more refined version of the American Robin’s. The call is a sharp pink.

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak’s breeding habitat is open deciduous woods across most of Canada and the eastern United States. Northern birds migrate to southern Mexico south through Central America to Peru and Venezuela in winter. The species occurs as very rare vagrants to western Europe.

Misguided fire prevention policies have created habitat on the Great Plains, thereby allowing the Rose-breasted Grosbeak to extend its range westwards. Increased hybridization with the Black-headed Grosbeak subspecies Pheucticus melanocephalus papago has been recorded as a consequence.

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak forages in shrubs or trees for insects, seeds and berries, also catching insects in flight. In the winter quarters, they can be attracted into parks, gardens, and possibly even to bird feeders by fruit like Trophis racemosa. It builds a twig nest in a tree or large shrub.

House Sparrows like millet from the wildbird seed mixes we put out. They also like donuts, bread etc. Try simply using Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and Thistle/Nyjer and see what happens.

We are trying it here but we made the mistake of leaving out donuts for the chickadees (because we read that chickadees love them and we love the chickadees sooo….)

If you have any ideas other than this and crazy-bird-killing… I’d love to know. Let us know. We are sick of the House Sparrows.

That may NOT be the question. The question may be how to kill pest birds (house sparrows, starlings etc.). We have been infested with these pesty birds and so we thought we would start to research viable solutions to our new Sparrow/Starling problem. We came across many sources of information on how to rid your house or yard of these pests. From elaborate (and expensive) ultrasonic sounding devices which emit very high and apparently frightening sounds to the birds for anywhere between a couple of feet up to a couple of miles–to–suggestions of bird food unpalatable to these nasty winged bullies. We also found traps. Sparrow/Starling traps. Perfect. First, we needed to know how they kept other birds out (not allowing them to be trapped) but it appears they cannot. Unfortunately, there is no certain way to avoid capturing ANY bird in these traps. That was the first problem we found with the traps. The next problem was what to do with these birds once we trapped them. If a poor little chickadee or a sweet little pine siskin or a friendly little dark-eyed junco got caught and was stuck amongst the bully birds–it may not survive. But even if you could save that little bird–what to do with the bully birds you trap became the immediate question.

They give many humane ways of getting rid of the trapped birds. You can drive them (in these wire cages) a LONG way away from where you are trying to get rid of them–effectively delivering them to pester someone else, bully another set of birds or decimate another population of bluebirds. Even driving them far away does not guarantee they will not beat you home as they have the ability to go home as the crow flies and you must follow the long way. Birds often have an innate sense of direction. Thus, you may have to drive them really, really far in order to prevent them from returning. Another option given is to take them to your local Wildlife Conservancy where they have falcons and hawks etc. These birds will eat the House Sparrows (but not the Starlings–darn) for lunch. Seems like a win-win if you have one near you and they will accept the House Sparrows you bring and you don’t mind taking a wire-cage full of birds who poop on a regular basis with no discernible care as to where or how to clean up after themselves in your family car and listen as they chirp for their lives all the way there.

The last option is to kill the birds once you have caught them. And here is where the most outrageous suggestions come in the most sublime terms. Here are the methods:

• Gassing them: If you have the right equipment (a flow meter, a hose, a tank and a release/adapter valve) you can use CO2 to kill the birds “humanely” as deemed by whomever in your state. But you have to know the rules like keep it upright and don’t let the liquid escape into the hose, keep it out of the sun, don’t leave it in your car, etc. etc.  It just takes a coffee can or a one gallon jug with a hole, a cork or plug and a big plastic bag. You can simply bribe your drunk uncle with a case of cheap beer to sit outside and take the birds one-by-one–put them in the container–then place it inside the bag TIGHTLY–and then fill it with CO2 (hoping he can close it completely and shut it off completely by midday nap time) creating a CO2 Birdy Ballon–wait for the bird to die “peacefully” which takes about 5 minutes and then open it, and begin again with the next bird.
• Cervical dislocation: AKA break its neck–yes, they have official methods on doing this “humanely”.
• Gunshot: Shoot the bird but you can place it in a mesh bag first to avoid its pleading stare.
• Blow: Seems harmless enough–nope–you put the bird into a drawstring mesh bag and close it up tight…then swing it forcefully against a tree, a wall, a big rock–any hard surface until it is dead. This was originally just for baby pigs but it can be used for birds too. (My question: WHO IS KILLING BABY PIGS LIKE THIS?!!? GAH!)

And don’t forget to kill the nestlings and the bird eggs by smashing them up.

So, back to square one. I need to either hire someone a bit less sensitive than myself to get rid of my new bird bullies, like Uncle Guido or the demented kid who likes to inflict harm on small animals or the thugs currently terrorizing panda bears in Australia…or I need to put away my bird feeders because I cannot fathom sitting around killing birds, even the pesky ones. Ewwwwww. I know it may be legal–which ironically is given as just cause to kill them–but it was never the law that prevented me from killing any bird or human. It was my sense of humanity. If you need a law to prevent you from doing something, you have more problems than just a pest bird.

One of my favorite young children’s book series is the Pigeon series by Mo Willems. I own most of them and have read all of them. They are fun and cute. A friend once surprised me with a giant stuff Pigeon from the story and put a sign around his neck saying, “Pigeon Loves You”. This was such a thoughtful gesture. =) But the fun doesn’t stop there… apparently real life pigeons love us too…

Pigeons taking over the bird feeders...

Of course, these pigeons are not as cute as the pigeon in the book series…

Our birdy feeders have been seemingly sparse lately, or so we thought but then we realized we have attracted bully birds to our porch. The crows have always been a welcome bird. For the most part they do not harm or disturb the other little birds. We began feeding them and then branched out to other birds. Soon, we had many birds and the pigeon showed up. Again, they came but did not disturb the other birds. They ate and left. So, we did not fret about them. But now a host of House Sparrows and a chattering of European Starlings have showed up and well, these birds are menacing. They swoop in and frighten off the small birds. They even chased off our frequenter female Downy Woodpecker today. =/ We are going to take the bird feeders down till these birds leave. Then try again.

Here are some of the birds we saw this week–both good and bad:

Birds will often use whatever humans discard in building their nests. Shame on the lazy smokers who do not dispose of their cigarette butts properly…

Cigarette butts used to make a bird's nest

Um, smokers are disgusting

A duck's nest of cigarettes

In the beginning scene of the movie E.T., filmed in California, you can hear an Eastern Screech Owl. Why is this interesting? Because the Eastern Screech Owl’s natural habitat is in the Eastern United States not the Western.

Eastern Screech Owl (Creative Commons)