Giving Birds a Place to Perch

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Giving Birds a Place to Perch

Squirrels, while not predatory on birds at a feeder, take large quantities of food and keep the birds from feeding. Some people enjoy them as Hulett as the birds, but, if you want to keep them off the feeder, you will have to place it on a pole 6 or 7 feet above the ground and far enough away from overhanging branches or the buildings, so that they cannot jump from them to the feeder.

A circular funnel-shaped metal guard, 2½ to 3 feet, in diameter, must be placed on the pole under the feeder to keep the squirrel Erma climbing the pole or jumping from the ground to the feeder. All other devices I’ve tried or observed have failed.

When Jane’s friends questioned her as to why they couldn’t get birds to their shelves when they put out the same food in similar places, she sought my help in trying to answer them. This time another basic principle of winter feeding was evident at Jane’s, but she had not helped in providing it or even realized its presence. I refer, of course, to the abundance of spruce, hemlock, and pine trees in the area and the tangles of forsythia, Virginia creeper, and Japanese honeysuckle nearby.

Evergreen cover and tangles of briers or dense shrubbery give the birds a place to perch in the daytime when not feeding, an escape cover if chased by a hawk or cat, and a safe roosting perch at night.

These trees and shrubs are immensely important and require a long range program of planting for the birds. If you are building a new house, or making new plans for landscaping your present house, and you want to he surrounded with as many species of birds the year around as possible, you may find the following considerations helpful.

Food, cover, and water are three of the essential environmental requirement. Food can be supplied by winter feeding as suggested above but can more logically be provided through careful planting in the yard and garden. Extensive use of native trees and shrubs is preferable as it is less expensive and more likely to provide the type of food the birds of the area require. Such shrubs and vines as bayberry, sumacs, bittersweet, Virginia creeper, honeysuckles, dogwoods, viburntuns, black alder, yews, roses, blackberries, green briers, wild grapes, slmdbush blueberries, choke-berries, elderberries and wild cherries are among those most attractive to birds in the Northeast. These species are also better able to withstand the insect and fungus infestations of the region.