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Bird Poop Thread 1: About Bird Poop !

El Chupacabra said:
The father of a childhood friend posted this on facebook, and I felt it appropriate to share.

Birds: how fascinating they are! Always on the move, so colorful, so vulnerable especially in cold weather..I still can’t get my head around how small birds can survive prolonged cold spells in the winter!? Also, what goes on inside their heads...I re-read a book from my pre-teen years called Birds as Individuals by a female British musician. She lived in my home county, Sussex, and allowed the birds to enter her home and approach her at any time. Her yard was a haven for all kinds of species with feeding stations and nest boxes and the like. She characterized the individuality of their songs, not only between species but from one bird to another within species...some really powerful and creative singers, others not so much...she wrote out their songs using conventional musical notation so someone could re-create what she heard and how birds differed. This book was for some reason very popular in the Netherlands but probably also in other European countries. A US edition was also produced.

Here’s a strange occurrence at our bird feeders this winter: we left our home in PA in early winter and ended up in Florida after a brief sojourn in Philly...before I left, I filled up both feeders, one on the front of the house facing South, the other on the side of the house facing East..both feeders are very well subscribed..I have to work to keep them in seed when I am home. Well, before leaving this year, I had been saving up some bacon fat in a small plastic yoghurt container and tied it to the bottom of the East facing feeder. A friend (LD) who was looking after our house reported that the seed in that feeder had not been touched whereas the feeder facing south was quickly emptied. This continued for a couple of months until early Feb when I had occasion to visit home. I removed the bacon fat containing yoghurt containers and within a week she said the birds had emptied the previously avoided feeder!

I thought that the fat supplies would have attracted some species but it seems that the altered appearance of the feeder had a powerful repulsive effect. I expect this kind of thing is well known to birders..most animal species, after all, are neophobic to some degree...but to avoid a feeder which they had been using for several years during a cold winter amazes me!
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Off he top of my head I don't really know why the birds would be avoiding the bacon fat. Fear of novelty is maybe a reason, but another thought I have is that the smell of bacon fat might attract other animals that seed eating birds need to / want to avoid, like squirrels and raccoons or even raptors.
 
What bird has been singing in my backyard for several day.....something like tooowwweee, tew tew tew tew?
 
ConnorEl said:
“Conservative” grackles?
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Ok, for real it is probably a roosting flock that got confused by the parking lot lights of the strip mall. They roost together by the thousands in the winter. At Dusk they gather together in massive flicks and find a place to settle for the night and on this day they flew past the strip mall and got confused by the parking lot lights.
 
birdman said:
Off he top of my head I don't really know why the birds would be avoiding the bacon fat. Fear of novelty is maybe a reason, but another thought I have is that the smell of bacon fat might attract other animals that seed eating birds need to / want to avoid, like squirrels and raccoons or even raptors.
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Nice, thanks man. Have you read that Len Howard book, Birds As Individuals?
 
another neighborhood listserv bird sighting

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Bird question. I have two bluebirds that have nested in the backyard in a bird house for the past eight years. They are very protective of the nest and will attack other birds if they enter their territory, no matter the size. There has been one exception, a single robin they allow to perch next to them within several feet of the nest. This has been true for several years. An explanation would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
BlackjackMc said:
Bird question. I have two bluebirds that have nested in the backyard in a bird house for the past eight years. They are very protective of the nest and will attack other birds if they enter their territory, no matter the size. There has been one exception, a single robin they allow to perch next to them within several feet of the nest. This has been true for several years. An explanation would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on. Could be that Robins are definitely not nest predators nor cavity nesters so they are in no way a threat. Blue birds have to be really wary of their box being stolen by wrens, chickadees, woodpeckers, titmouse, other bluebirds, ect. or eaten by blackbirds, grackles, crows, hawks, etc. Robins would do none of those things and may incidentally help by keeping an extra set of eyes out for those other birds...just a guess though.
 
I was out canoeing last weekend and saw this bird. It had about a three foot wingspan. Super cool.

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