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For Preferred BirdTracksthis special Youbecause have edition youreceived are of a A special BirdTracks edition from Winter 2012 preferred WBU customer! PRST STD Customers Only U.S. POSTAGE Frequently Asked Are you enjoying BirdTracks? We’d appreciate your feedback and comments MARIETTA,PAID OH PERMIT NO 161 the next time you visit our store. : At a bird feeding workshop several years ago, a speaker suggested Qplanting oaks so that squirrels will have acorns to eat and will stop bothering my bird feeders. I planted two oaks fi ve years ago and now have ® by Kevin Cook ’s nice trees but no acorns. Did I plant the wrong oaks? and our partner Q : If you bought your trees from a garden shop or nursery, you probably got trees that were about 10–12 years old, which would make them something under 20 years old now. MostA oaks don’t start producing acorns until they are 25–30 years old, and some oak species don’t start producing acorns until they reach or pass 50 years. Your trees may need just a few more years or possibly another decade before they start producing acorns. Any other tree species that bears fruits or seeds that squirrels will eat—hawthorn, plum apple, maple—will Species need at least three to fi ve years in the ground to start producing. Tracks BIRD by JULIE ZICKEFOOSE To decoy the squirrels now, off er them corn on or off the cob in their own feeder and place it away from your Profi le: Purple Versus House Finch bird feeders. You can also plant multiple patches of sunfl owers and corn and disperse the patches in nooks and Purple Finch, House Finch, crannies. e giant sunfl owers with the huge heads are okay, but the regular wild type will produce more small male. male. heads that will preoccupy the squirrels far longer. : I planted both Virginia creeper and cherry to provide Qwinter food for birds in my yard. Both are well developed Northern Mockingbird. and producing fruit now; but by the time autumn came and all the leaves fell, the berries and cherries were gone with none left for winter. What should I do? : Cherries are a summer fruit eaten by thrushes, robins, bluebirds, thrashers, starlings, waxwings, blackbirds, orioles,A and a lot of other birds. Creepers are an autumn fruit, and I have seen 37 bird species eating the fruits just in my yard. That fruits are being produced in your yard and are getting eaten clearly indicates you are doing nothing wrong except expecting them to last longer into the year than they natu- rally will. For winter-durable fruits readily eaten by birds, consider the BILL THOMPSON, III MENKE/USFWS DAVE pome-bearing species in the rose family: hawthorns, service- P VS. H F— Continued from page 1 berries (locally called “juneberries”), crabapples, Ussurian In every issue of BirdTracks pear, and the various rowans (variously known as “mountain- we feature questions from Purple Finch, House Finch, he two common “red” fi nches that and wings—the lower sides and belly it’s a male House Finch. If the fl anks ashes” or “beam-trees”). female. female. visit bird feeders all over North only are clean white. On the male are white with a hint of pink, it’s a If you live in an area naturally grown with native junipers, you, our best customers. AmericaT are the Purple Finch and the House Finch these areas are streaked male Purple Finch. juniper cones—erroneously called “juniper berries”—make We welcome your House Finch. e House Finch is the with brown. an excellent winter food for Townsend’s Solitaire, American suggestions, comments more common of these two species Female Purple Finch versus Robin, bluebirds, thrashers, Northern Mockingbirds, and and questions. We also and also the more commonly misiden- Male House Finch female House Finch several others. tifi ed, because its plumage can vary A male House Finch has much Female Purple Finches look entirely hope to share your tips and from dull red to bright orange. I’ll start more localized color. He is reddish diff erent from males and are much ideas for enhancing our by describing the male Purple Finch. only on his head, breast, and lower more boldly streaked than female : I forgot a bird feeder and left it hanging unused in a tree all summer. While doing some autumn yard back. e upper back and wings House Finches. Look for the sharp con- enjoyment of backyard are streaky brown, without a wash Qwork, I rediscovered the feeder and found it almost completely covered with gray papery material that birds and wildlife with Male Purple Finch trast in the female Purple Finch’s dark looked like a beehive or a wasp nest or something. What would do this, will they do it again, and can the bird e male Purple Finch is a lovely bird, of color. Perhaps the quickest way brown and white areas. Female House feeder still be used if cleaned or is it ruined? other BirdTracks readers ing into dull white. is diff erence is head, unlike the fl at-crowned House thanks to the pinkish-purple wash of to distinguish the two adult male Finches are more muted in color, with all over North America. especially evident in the faces of the Finch. At feeders, Purple Finches are color throughout his plumage. It looks fi nches is to look at the birds’ lower fi ne streaks of brown and tan blend- : Bald-faced hornets build paper nests in trees, but they enclose the cells so that they are not usually vis- two female fi nches. A dark cheek patch calmer and will perch quietly in one as if the male Purple Finch has been fl anks (the area on the bird’s side ible from the outside. Yellow-jackets build paper-celled nests but almost always at or below ground level. Write to us at: encircled in white sets the Purple Finch place to eat while the fl ightier House dipped in raspberry wine. is rasp- from below the wings to the tail): if Continued on page 6 VariousA paper-wasps build discrete little hanging nests. I suspect your bird feeder was taken over by European BirdTracks apart. e female House Finch’s face is Finches fl utter and tweet incessantly. berry color bleeds onto the bird’s back the fl anks are streaked with brown, paper-wasps, which closely resemble yellow-jackets. ey started on the inside and through the summer kept c/o BWD dull and evenly colored. building and expanding to the outside. Songs ey are fi nished with the nest in autumn and won’t use it again. Now that it’s winter, they have abandoned PO Box 110 Overall appearance e songs of both species are rich, Feature Bird Bits e Backyard Watcher the nest and you can clean your bird feeder and rehang it. Marietta, OH 45750 In overall appearance the Purple rapid, and musical, but the Purple Species Profi le: Purple Versus House Understanding Birds’ 10 Things I’ll Watch for in My Backyard Finch looks more substantial, plumper, Finch’s song lacks the harsh, burry Finch ..................................................1 Life Stages .........................................3 This Winter ........................................4 Red-shafted adult male Or send an e-mail to: and chestier. Purples often appear to downward slurred notes that the House Northern Flicker. LEE KARNEY/USFWS ....................5 ALVARO JARAMILLO ALVARO [email protected] BILL THOMPSON, III have a slight crest of feathers on their Finch inserts into every song. Birds in Depth Readers’ Questions ISTOCKPHOTO.COM Cozy Winter Housing for Birds ............2 5 CONTENTS 1 For Preferred Wild Birds Unlimited Customers For Preferred Wild Birds Unlimited Customers For Preferred Wild Birds Unlimited Customers Birds in Depth Bird Bits e Backyard Watcher by BILL THOMPSON, III Understanding Birds’ Life Stages Cozyby BILL THOMPSON, WinterIII Housing for Birds by KEVIN J. COOK 10 ings I’ll Watch for in My Backyard is Winter ven though it’s 90 degrees F outside farm. We always wonder if it’s because every snow-covered tree look like it’s full ost people use the terms “chick,” as I write this column on an overcast the natural food crop of seeds and fruits of bright red apples. “juvenile,” “fledgling,” “imma- 1 2 E Eastern M October afternoon, I already am looking is so abundant that the finches don’t need Roosting bluebirds. A friend of mine Bluebird. ture,” and “subadult” as synonyms for forward to some of the things winter will to visit the feeders for sunflower seed. any young bird. A bird might be a teased me a few Octobers back, when hold in store. Here’s what’s on my mind is year looks to be a good year for he3 saw me winterizing our bluebird juvenile in one breath and an imma- today about the chilly tomorrows ahead. Purple Finches, which now outnumber ture in the next. boxes with weather stripping. “Why I like the anticipation of fall. At our the House Finches at our feeders. don’t you put in a heating pad, too, Bill?” Historical bird literature reveals place fall migration is almost always bet- that ornithologists have not always Common Redpolls. If it’s a finch Believe me, I thought about it. Many ter than spring migration—we get more invasion winter, then this is among cavity nesters use our bluebird boxes as used the terms consistently, either. birds, and we get more unusual birds. e BILL THOMPSON, III our6 most hoped-for visitors. We’ve had nighttime roosts in winter.

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