Good tips for helping your backyard birds!

The coming of warm weather every spring not only awakens dormant plants and our urge to get outside, it also signals many birds to breed and raise young. Many birds nest in our own backyards and there is a good number of simple things we can do to help the parents and their fledglings have a successful season. A few highlights touched on in an article from The Thomaston Times, a newspaper out of GA (along with some of my own input shown in yellow):

1. Delay Mowing if you have big open spaces such as fields, grasslands, or pastures. Ground-nesting birds lose many eggs and chicks to mowing each year. A more in-depth article on when and how to mow these types of areas can be found here.
2. If you find a nestling on the ground, return it to its nest if you can. If you find a fledgling on the ground (a bird covered with baby feathers, a short stubby tail, and who is able to walk or hop), leave it, and the area, alone. Unless of course it is in obvious danger of cars, dogs, cats etc. Many fledglings are mistaken for nestlings. It is common for someone to see a baby bird on the ground and think that it needs help, but the bird's mother is almost always around, and is still feeding and teaching it what it needs to know to survive. Also, the idea of a bird abandoning its baby if it smells like human, is a myth. Birds have a terrible sense of smell, and would not likely abandon the baby after being touched by human hands. If the bird were to abandon it's young, more likely it would be because it feels threatened in the area.
3. Keep your cats inside, or at least confined to an area outside, so that they cannot hunt freely in your backyard.
4. Make your windows more bird-safe. Hang nets or screens to cushion impacts. Place bird feeders close to windows so that the birds cannot gain enough speed to harm themselves if they hit the window. The effectiveness of window decals is still debated, but I can say from personal use and observation, that after applying these decals to the windows that birds hit most often in my home, the number of window fatalities has gone drastically down. The decals are not COMPLETELY effective, but they do help alert the bird to the window's presence.
   
5. Refrain from using pesticides. This is a big one. Spraying chemicals on your lawn is a good way to harm your backyard birds. Also, do you want your kids and pets rolling around on chemically treated grass? Birds are excellent pest controllers, and if you have too many bugs, attract more birds! It is safe, all natural, effective, and fun to watch! :)
6. Plant vegetation that is native to your area. This is what your backyard birds have been accustomed to for hundreds of years. Also, allow some of it to overgrow, as this provides protection for young birds.
7. Install nest boxes! Just be sure that the nest box does not have a "doorstep" under the entrance hole. As cute as it may be, it is basically a place for hungry egg-and-chick-eating predators to sit while they feast.
8. Provide nesting material. Natural fibers, dried grass and non-chemically treated hair do well. Drape them places outside, or hang them in a suet basket for the birds to come and take.
9. Offer eggshells. Mother birds use a lot of their body's calcium producing eggs. Chicken eggshells are an excellent source of calcium, and here is how to do it! Rinse the eggshells of any yolk or white residue, and spread them on a baking sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes to kill any bacteria that could harm the birds. Lastly, crush the eggshells up, put them outside, and watch them disappear!
   
10. Offer mealworms. Mealworms are a great source of protein, and live mealworms have a high moisture content which will help keep the nestlings hydrated. When we aren't offering live mealworms, we offer the cooked-in-the-can mealworms, which have a more natural texture than dried mealworms. Bluebirds love them, yes, but so do many other insect-eating birds. The Robins nesting on our property will stuff their beak full of these nutritious little larvae.

Simple actions on your part can really help nesting birds, and by providing a safe haven for them, they will return year after year to raise future families.

Happy birdwatching!