Some ways to keep our backyard birds healthy

News headlines have described how much of the continental U.S. is either in record high temperatures this summer, or severe drought conditions, or both. Birds, and other wildlife, are being affected by these extreme conditions in many areas. You can help them out by providing clean and fresh water.

Birds like the American Robins in the poster above pant with their beaks open to cool themselves. They have several other strategies to cool off but one that appears most enjoyable, at least to those who are watching, is taking a dip in a bird bath. So be sure to keep fresh water in that bird bath and do keep it clean.

[caption id="attachment_16258" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Photo by Scott Catron--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/[/caption]

Suet and commercial suet cakes are often very effective at bringing birds in to feed on this high fat food. But there are problems with feeding fat-based food during warm and especially hot weather.

From the website of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the folks who study birds: "Avoid offering unprocessed suet in hot weather—it quickly becomes rancid. If you want to offer suet year-round, commercial suet cakes are preferable, but check the package recommendations. Another suggestion is to put out only small amounts of suet, keeping the rest refrigerated until needed. A good warm-weather alternative to suet is a mixture of one part peanut butter to five parts cornmeal."

Another food that has some health issues that many backyard bird watchers are putting out to draw orioles and other birds is jelly. The folks at Cornell Lab of Ornithology provide the following important information and caution: "Make sure to only offer very small quantities at once, because jelly gets extremely sticky; small birds can become mired in it. Also, jelly has much higher sugar concentrations than any natural food. It’s probably not unhealthful for adult birds to supplement their diets during severe food shortages associated with unseasonable cold spells in spring, or in small quantities during the rest of the year. "

This oriole mom in the photo above is bringing some nutritious food (insects are high in protein that baby birds like human babies need for healthy development) back to her babies. However, oriole mom's don't know the nutritional content of the foods we offer them and a harried bird mom will bring an easy meal from a feeder back to her babies that may not be healthy for them.

Ornithologists note that jelly is not going to meet the nutrition needs of growing young birds: "Sometimes adult orioles and other birds visit jelly for a quick snack while searching out insect food for their young in summer; this won’t hurt them, but bring in the jelly if adults are bringing their young to it more than once a day. Growing fledglings need proteins far more than carbohydrates, and jelly is probably a very unhealthy meal for them."

Birds are not much different than you and me when it comes to needing nutritious and safe foods to be healthy.
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2012 Am Ornithological Union changes

Bird nerd stuff-Summary of Am Ornithological Union(AOU) changes to birds in North America from Ken Kaufman's blog: Xantus's Murrelet was split into Scripps's Murrelet for those breeding "on islands off the coast of southern California and northwestern Baja" and Guadalupe Murrelet for those that breed "mainly on islands off of western Baja (and wanders north into California waters)" "Gray Hawk: Buteo nitidus becomes Buteo plagiatus. (Split from South American "Gray-lined Hawk," which keeps the name nitidus.) "Purple Gallinule: Porphyrio martinica becomes Porphyrio martinicus" "Chuck-will's-widow: Caprimulgus carolinensis becomes Antrostomus carolinensis. Eastern Whip-poor-will: Caprimulgus vociferus becomes Antrostomus vociferus. Mexican Whip-poor-will: Caprimulgus arizonae becomes Antrostomus arizonae." "Calliope Hummingbird: Stellula calliope becomes Selasphorus calliope." "Sage Sparrow: Amphispiza belli becomes Artemisiospiza belli." "Carpodacus purpureus becomes Haemorhous purpureus. Cassin's Finch: Carpodacus cassinii becomes Haemorhous cassinii. House Finch: Carpodacus mexicanus becomes Haemorhous mexicanus."

 Per Ken Kaufman, the AOU is also changing the order of Falcons and Parrots in the checklist of birds. Go to the link above for a little more info. SeEtta

As can be seen in the top pic, this bird is attempting to pick up food with it's damaged bill though I cannot imagine how it can feed itself with the position of the upper and lower mandibles as they are. The bird let me approach on foot relatively close (40-50 feet) and once I got close enough to see the bill well I realized it might be doing so because it is very hungry. So I took my photos where the bird was (in lieu of waiting for it to move to a less trashed up (with beer bottle) location and backed away to let it try to feed.

It would seem unlikely to survive to adulthood (I believe it is an adult female in breeding plumage) with it's bill like it is so wonder if it could have run into something and bent the bill (it has some enlargement on the top at the base of the bill?). SeEtta

American Golden-Plover, a sad sight

Earlier this week I traveled to the lower Arkansas Valley to do some birding during a brief respite (only a few days) in the 100+ temps they have had from Pueblo to the Kansas border. Due to the continuing drought, all the lakes including Lake Holbrook were very low. As can be seen in this photo there were fish around the lake edges as they were dying due to low water and hot temps which increases the water temps and reduces oxygen levels. Along with the sad state of hundreds of dead and dying fish, I spotted this American Golden-Plover, a rare visitor to Colorado, and it had a damaged bill as can be seen in this photo. I suspect this poor bird was here to try to feed on the insects drawn to all the dead fish. More photos to follow. SeEtta