December 12, 2023

| Night Grosbeaks by Alison Bezubiak |

For the eighth season in a row, Challenge FeederWatch and our sponsor Wild Birds Limitless are rewarding registered FeederWatchers with the possibility to win prizes. Celestron has joined the enjoyable by providing one pair of binoculars to every information entry contest winner as properly. After getting into counts into the FeederWatch web site, contributors have the chance to share a narrative, reminiscence, or tip by clicking the “Enter to Win” button on the Rely Abstract web page. We randomly choose two winners per immediate. Our first Knowledge Entry contest immediate this season was:

What’s your favourite chook to see at your feeders? Do you wait all season for a glimpse of it, or does it come daily? Share with us what makes that species so particular to see at your feeders!

Congratulations to our winners, Ellen Reeves and Thomas Ryon!

Ellen shared:

I like to see Brown-headed Nuthatches in my yard and at my feeders. Generally just one will come to the feeder, however usually an entire household of Brown-headed Nuthatches will come – all of them calling, speaking and chattering to one another. They’re small bundles of cheerfulness and vitality! Not like different grasping birds who linger on the feeders, the nuthatches take just one sunflower seed at a time and hurry off with it to a secret place. They arrive to the feeders nearly daily. More often than not, I hear them coming earlier than truly seeing them. They’re enjoyable be round, like a loud household at time for supper. It’s a particular a part of my day when the brown-headed nuthatches come to the feeders!

Brown-headed Nuthatches will usually retailer further seeds for later in a cache, akin to below a unfastened piece of bark or in a tree crevice, generally utilizing bark chips to cowl it up. These nuthatches primarily eat spiders and bugs, however may even come to feeders if sunflower seeds, suet, peanuts, or mealworms are supplied. You’ll be able to learn to appeal to birds, like these nuthatches, by utilizing Challenge FeederWatch’s Frequent Feeder Birds Interactive Instrument to study every species’ meals and feeder preferences.

Thomas shared:

I get pleasure from seeing the Night Grosbeaks yearly. They’re most frequently on my property in fall and I often hear them earlier than I see them. Then, I see many within the timber, shrubs, and on the feeder. They take over for a few half hour after which the entire group will transfer some other place. I get pleasure from their yellow, black, and white colours, and seeing all of the people of various sizes, age, and patterns. FeederWatch has helped me recognize the grosbeaks all of the extra.

A heavyset finch of northern coniferous forests, the Night Grosbeak provides a splash of colour to winter chook feeders. Some contributors in Canada may even see them at their feeders yearly, however in years with poor cone crops, giant flocks depart their northern breeding grounds en masse to hunt meals sources within the south. Night Grosbeaks desire black-oil sunflower seeds at feeders, however may even forage on the seeds, berries, and buds of timber and shrubs—particularly maples. It may be laborious to foretell when this irruptive species will present up at feeders. Within the meantime, try the Cornell Lab Chook Cams’ Ontario FeederWatch Cam to catch a dwell view of those stunning boreal birds!

Because of everybody who participated and shared their tales – we want we might share your whole submissions! Learn the tales from previous winners on our weblog. E-mail feederwatch@cornell.edu with questions. Keep tuned for after we announce our subsequent information entry contest winners on January ninth, 2024.

Enthusiastic about turning into a FeederWatcher? Be a part of the enjoyable now!

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