I am growing to love photography and our bird feeder right out the living room window gives me some pretty remarkable sights for taking photos, especially on these a cold days! All I have to do is feed the birds and they entertain me by visiting. It seems that I always seem to get the same birds! I learned today (in Moneta Garden Club) that the birds I feed are seed-eaters and the ones I am missing are worm eaters or bug eaters, probably foraging in the trees.
I realize that I have spent a great deal of my life learning about things other than wildlife, but I just didn’t realize that there are over 10,000 species of birds and that we only have about 973 of them in the United States.
I loved observing the ravens when we visited Yellowstone a few years ago.
and I even liked the cute budgies at the natural habitats at Natural Bridge zoo,
but also I have gotten to know the birds right out my window!
I realize that these wild birds are quite different from my domestic chickens, but they are birds still!
(An aside) I am proud to report that our chickens are laying this winter. Upon the advice of friends with chickens and chicken books, I extended their day light by about 4 hours with a lamp on a timer in their hen house!
But wrapping up my little flighty blog on birds, here are your fun facts about birds…
- When it comes to birds, the males have the more colorful feathers, songs and dances. That’s how they show off for the females.
- The smallest bird egg is a hummingbird’s; about the size of a pea.
- The common phrase “eat like a bird” should mean something quite different. Many birds eat twice their weight in food each day. I can attest to that with an empty feeder each day!
- Chickens have over 200 distinct noises they make for communicating…but enough about chickens!
Go watch the birds!