Tree Talk: Backyard feathered friends

Birdwatching has grown to be one of the most popular hobbies in the U.S. North Dakota is noted as a birdwatcher's paradise, with wide-open spaces featuring habitats that range from grasslands to prairie potholes to forests. The state is home to a surprising abundance of 376 different species! (see a checklist on the N.D. Game & Fish website)

An easy method of birdwatching in the winter is to simply look out the window into your own backyard. Birdfeeders are a sure way to attract a variety of common winter species but this should be a commitment – consider it an easy New Year's Resolution. Once birds become accustomed to feeding, they will rely on your feeder to sustain them through the cold months. This is especially crucial with a thick layer of snow, making foraging for food even more challenging.

Winter foods should be high in fat/calorie content to provide maximum energy to enable birds to maintain body heat (as opposed to high protein foods in spring and summer). Different foods will attract different species. Black oil sunflower seeds are the best food to offer birds in any season, as they have a high oil content and thinner shells than confectionary sunflower seeds. Suet is a superb winter food with high caloric content. Peanuts are great for winter feeding, but are also favored by squirrels – so you need a feeder that is not squirrel-friendly. Peanut butter is a great feeding option and can be smeared on pine cones, then hung from tree branches (a great project for the kids – smear the peanut butter, then roll the cones in seed for a double treat for the birds). Niger thistle is a favorite of some birds and can be offered in a mesh or sock feeder – but this is also one of the more expensive bird foods. Natural bird foods are available if you have a flowering crabapple tree with persistent fruit or a cotoneaster hedge (pronounced ka-tony-aster). Unannounced, a flock of cedar waxwings can easily clean off all the berries on a cotoneaster hedge in a quick feeding frenzy. Finally, for convenient and economical winter feeding, choose a good quality birdseed mix. A good mix will feature large proportions of sunflower seeds and millet. Avoid mixes with large amounts of unappetizing fillers such as wheat, milo and corn.

Year-round North Dakota songbirds include black-capped chickadee, mourning dove, American goldfinch, house sparrow, song sparrow and horned lark. Other common fall and winter residents include blue jay, dark-eyed junco, downy and hairy (smaller of the two species) woodpeckers and common redpoll. One of the most entertaining birds is the white-breasted nuthatch, easily recognized by the way they creep down tree trunks head first – although they can also creep up as well as horizontally along branches. Hopping headfirst down tree trunks helps the nuthatch to see insects and insect eggs undiscovered by birds such as woodpeckers that are creeping up. Using their bills, nuthatches chip, probe and pry under the bark to reach their prey. After they've grabbed a morsel of food, they often hammer it into the bark to rip it apart for consumption.

Many birds that spend their winters in cold climates will cache their food, increasing their chances of winter survival. A buffet at a winter bird feeder is a welcome sight to our backyard feathered friends.

(Note: A great beginner's resource is 'Birds of the Dakotas' by Stan Tekiela – about $15)