I recently bought two simple bird feeders from Home Depot, and a hummingbird feeder at Walmart. I thought I would put them up and have to wait weeks for any birds to notice them and make my yard a regular stop. I couldn't have been more wrong. Within the first 30 minutes of putting them out, my two seed feeders were swarming with birds! Within a few hours I noticed two hummingbirds visiting their feeder. I've had my feeders for about a month now and more and more birds have started to visit. Last weekend I added a birdbath to my yard and it too is a hit with the birds.
I've already started to notice different behaviors and feeding patterns from the different birds. The smaller birds, like the finches, like to dig through the seed to get to what they like and the stuff they discard falls to the ground where the doves, pigeons, and occasional quail gobble up the rest. They all seem to work together to get what they like. I've been Googling birds every few days to help identify what kinds of birds I'm seeing. I live in Arizona, about 35 miles southeast of Phoenix, and in the past couple of days, a bird known as a Gila woodpecker has started to visit. He/she is about the size of a dove and pretty agile. It can grab on to the edge of the seed feeder while flipping its wings to balance itself while it eats. And just this morning I noticed the same bird was able to grab onto the hummingbird feeder and drink from it! Roadrunners (my favorite bird) are starting to notice the birds too. You can tell when one is around because all the bird songs stop because they all fly away. I've noticed two different species of hummingbirds so far and I hope more show up. I'm really glad I did this and I want to add a few more feeders around the house. My wife and kids are starting to get into it now too which is great.
Does anyone else out there do this? If so, what kinds of birds are visiting your feeders?
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