Welcome to
Outdoor
Birdfeeders. Outdoor Birdfeeders, Inc. is your web
site to purchase birdfeeders online because bird feeders are what we
sell. We have a selection of backyard bird
feeders to choose from. A wooden bird feeder is a very natural look for
your yard and will attract many different kinds of birds and a
humingbirdfeeder will bring nearby hummingbirds to your yard for a
scrumptious meal. Would you like to purchase a bird feeder
online? Our backyard bird feeders will make a great gift for a bird
lover. And our hummingbird feeders are great additions to your yard.
Since
a wooden bird feeder is natural looking it will attract more wild life
to it. We also sell glass bird feeders and
metal bird feeders for bird enthusiasts who want to add natural beauty
to their sanctuary. Start searching our web site to purchase
bird feeders online. Go to the top left-hand corner of your screen to
get started.
A
reader had a question about the American goldfinch, a beautiful canary-yellow
and coal-black bird. The reader said there seem to be fewer of the birds around
the feeder this year. I have noticed the same thing, so I turned to the
Internet to investigate.
I
couldn't find much information but did learn that American goldfinch nests are
vulnerable to predators, including weasels, snakes, squirrels, blue jays and
cats. These predators eat the eggs right out of the nest. There could be a
relationship between these animals and anecdotal evidence of fewer goldfinch.
However, that wouldn't become apparent right away, because the birds we see at
our feeders are adults.
Such
a decline would become apparent next year. Many birds tend to return to the
same general areas where they were born, and a decrease in young one year would
show up the next year in a given area.
Birds
are one of the latest breeders in Western Pennsylvania, waiting until late July
to raise young. A mix of plant fibers and thistle down is woven by the female.
The location is in a shrub or tree as high as 30 feet off the ground. Some
nests are woven so well that they hold water.
This
summer has brought regular, heavy rain and a couple days of drenching storms at
the critical time when young birds hatched, proving potentially disastrous to
the overall population. This happened to purple martins during tropical storm
Agnes in the 1970s, when a long period of rainy days kept insects from flying.
The lack of insect food during the critical part of the breeding season killed
young and adult martins, and many breeding colonies in the region were
destroyed.
Bird
populations change in response to surroundings. The Breeding Bird Survey has
shown a decline in goldfinch population of about 4 percent each year. This is
attributed to loss of breeding habitat, an increase in predators and factors of
which we are not aware.
There
are some birds in North America that don’t build their own nests. Birds such as
the brown-headed
cowbird, a robin-sized songbird, lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.
The host bird can’t distinguish the difference between his own bird and the
other bird, so he feeds and raises the invader.
