February brings Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl, and Presidents' Day, but it is also National Bird-Feeding Month, a great time not only to feed your feathered neighbors, but also to share this hobby with friends and family, and especially kids.
Watching Backyard Birds, a bimonthly magazine from the publishers of Bird Watcher's Digest, is the only North American magazine devoted exclusively to backyard birds. This month, the magazine is offering an at-a-glance bird-feeding chart and backyard bird list with paid subscriptions. On one side of this beautiful, refrigerator-worthy poster is a chart of food preferences for common feeder visitors. Can't remember which birds like safflower seeds or mealworms? This chart is a helpful reminder. Flip it over to find a yard list decorated with art by Julie Zickefoose. With room to record 50 species and observation dates, this list will help you keep track of which species have visited your yard. An area for notes can be used to record annual arrival dates of migrants, such as juncos and hummingbirds. Keeping a yard list and watching it grow increases the fun of backyard bird watching.
Feeding birds and offering them fresh water during winter draws them closer to view, and allows us to enjoy the parallel universe of wild creatures—their behavior, social structure, interactions, courtship, and so much more—that goes on all around us. Watching wildlife survive and thrive is a wonderful reward for our simple gifts of food and water. Sometimes active feeders can attract unusual species, even rarities, which can be a thrilling experience.
Of course, birds can survive without human help—they did so for countless thousands of years before humans started attracting by offering food. Snow and especially ice can make survival more challenging for wildlife, though. By providing fresh food in clean feeders, and thawed water, we can help birds have an easier time. Of course, providing a bird-friendly yard with natural shelter and cover helps them, too.
Share the joys of backyard birding by subscribing to Watching Backyard Birds. Find out more about the species that visit your yard, and read about the experiences of other backyard bird watchers across the continent, stories such as overwintering hummingbirds, Eurasian species turning up at bird feeders, and unexpected close relationships with "regulars." Get great tips for improving your backyard bird photography skills and on landscaping to encourage bird diversity, and new ideas for attracting birds to your yard.
To subscribe to Watching Backyard Birds (and receive the free bird-feeding chart and backyard bird list), visit birdwatchersdigest.com/feedingchart, or call 800-879-2473. You may also visit Facebook.com/WatchingBackyardBirds.
