Watching and attracting birds in your own backyard is one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways of getting to know our local wildlife. Part of the fun of even backyard birding is that the world of birds is constantly changing with the revolving seasons. The more you pay attention to the birds, the more you will come to recognize and expect the regular patterns of the year. So, what happens in the summer?
The most obvious change is the movement of migratory birds. While many backyard birds can be seen year-round — jays, hummingbirds, finches, titmice, woodpeckers and towhees, for instance — there are others that are here only in the summer or winter. These seasons should be understood in a looser sense than our formal human division of the year into four equal parts: Our “summer” birds typically arrive around March and will be seen into September, while “winter” birds are present roughly from September through April.
At feeding stations, much of the winter crowd may have been composed of such migratory birds as white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows, Townsend’s warblers and pine siskins. All of the sparrows and Townsend’s warblers, along with many of the siskins, have now headed north for the nesting season, resulting in less activity at feeders overall, especially when combined with spring’s longer, warmer days and greater abundance of natural food.
Those natural food sources of spring include a great deal of insects, along with flowers and fruit. This means that the summer birds, broadly speaking, include more insect-, nectar- and fruit-eating birds and fewer of the seed-eating birds that are most common at feeders. Still, there are some new backyard arrivals. The most notable are undoubtedly the hooded orioles, brilliant golden birds that will visit feeders for nectar, jelly or mealworms. Hooded orioles have a unique distribution, locally nesting almost exclusively in ornamental California fan palms, a tree native to their original breeding grounds in Southern California deserts.
In yards near native woodlands, you may also see Bullock’s orioles or black-headed grosbeaks, the only notable addition to seed feeders in the summer. Hummingbird feeders may see a smattering of the petite and rusty-sided Allen’s and rufous hummingbirds joining the larger, year-round Anna’s hummingbirds. Birdhouses may host nesting tree or violet-green swallows, while barn or cliff swallows may nest under the eaves of buildings — all of the swallows feed essentially exclusively on flying insects.
Even among nonmigratory birds, however, you will also notice changes in abundance and behavior. For some birds with year-round territories — towhees, titmice, woodpeckers and jays — you can expect to see roughly the same birds throughout the year, temporarily swelled in the spring by the addition of this year’s young. But other birds are more mobile in response to changing food sources. Hummingbirds are one of the most notable of these: Although they are abundantly present in our latitudes year-round, it is not uncommon to see a decrease in activity at hummingbird feeders during the spring and summer when flowers and insects are in abundance. Keep your nectar fresh and they will return!
A similar pattern is evident among goldfinches: In addition to the greater availability of natural foods, finches break up their large winter flocks as each pair finds their own nesting site, leading to a great decline in apparent abundance at feeding stations. Try switching out dedicated Nyjer seed feeders for goldfinches in favor of feeders offering shelled sunflower — this food is even more attractive to goldfinches, while also appealing to a wide variety of other birds. At suet feeders, choose “no-melt” versions to attract nut- and insect-eating birds year-round.
Besides changes in abundance, there are also changes in the behavior of backyard birds in the summer. Most of these revolve around the nesting season. First comes more singing, territoriality and pair bonding. Then comes nest building and a few weeks of incubating eggs, followed by a few weeks of feeding nestling babies. Then the year’s young birds fledge, leaving the nest for a brief period of parental dependence as they continue to beg for food despite being equally as large as their mother and father. Avian infancy is subtle and short in duration — but it’s happening right now, right outside your windows.
Jack Gedney’s On the Wing runs every other Monday. He is a co-owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Novato and author of “The Private Lives of Public Birds.” You can reach him at jack@natureinnovato.com
