A lighter note...

[280plus]

A hummingbird just hovered ittself in front of my window for a good ten seconds. I didn't quite know what it was at first. It was cool...

[Larry Ashcraft]

Hang a feeder up there and you can watch them all summer.  We have lots of hummingbirds at home, but we finally convinced some orioles to stay around just last year and this.  Now we're going broke buying oranges.

[280plus]

Excellent idea!

[Fly320s]

Why oranges?

[Marnoot]

Why oranges?

[Most] orioles love oranges. At least the ones that used to nest near my parents house did, they kept coming so long as there were some left out for them. We used to have a hummingbird feeder outside one of our windows; hummingbirds are fun to watch. There would usually always be a couple males fighting for the "rights" to the feeder, and occasional Hummingbird vs. Bees & Wasps battles; usually resulting in the hummingbirds giving up. If you put up a feeder, remove or nail-polish over any yellow parts, it's been found that yellow is a big part of the unwelcome insects noticing the feeder.

[grampster]

Orioles like grape jelly too.  If the hummingbird feeder runs out, the birds will let you know.  At our house they will hover in front of the slider until you notice them.  Then they flit to the feeder and back to the glass.

[Larry Ashcraft]

Marnoot, thanks for the tip on the yellow.  One of our feeders does have yellow on it.

We put out four half oranges hanging by zipties from one of our hummingbird feeders.  The orioles love them and so do the little finches.  We've been replacing the oranges every day.

Amateur birdwatching is a great hobby, and not too expensive.  We buy 100 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds and mix in 50 lbs of white proso millet for our feeders.  Most of the other grains you get in commercial mixes aren't really preferred by birds.  A large metal garbage can will hold 75-100 lbs of feed.  We also buy the 99 cent suet blocks for the woodpeckers.

We have a couple pairs of really small woodpeckers hanging around.  If the suet baskets are empty, one of the males will land next to it and squawk until you put more in.

I've got a great book at home named something like Backyard Birdwatcher.  I can find the author later if anyone is interested.

[280plus]

I can find the author later if anyone is interested.

I am !

[Larry Ashcraft]

"The Backyard Birdwatcher" by George H. Harrison, copyright 1979, published by Simon & Schuster.

I highly recommend it.

[280plus]

Thanks! I've been meaning to learn the identities of the birds we see around here.An avid watcher was here at the house once and told us our treeline was perfect for all kinds of species. I'll make sure to pick up a copy. It's about time for me to buy some more books anyways.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

My mom has a bird feeder, they can be dangerous to those poor birds...




They got the bird out, alive and well.  I almost fell over laughing when I saw the pictures

[280plus]

Caption:

"Uh, a little help?"

LOL...

[Stand_watie]

Flowers of the right type are great for hummingbirds too.

Climbing vines that produce flowers of yellow and red are especially good.  Luffa gourds, sweet pea vines, morning glory vines, things like that are great for trellises or porches around the house to attract hummingbirds.

Birds are very attracted to color of the food they eat. That's why hummingbird feeders are red and yellow. Also, birds are very attracted to the color of things that camoflauge them - hence orioles being attracted to oranges.

We have a lot of a bush/weed called sumac around here, it's bright red in it's fall/winter foliage, and in the fall/winter we have huge flocks of Cardinals that hide out in it.

[S_O_Laban]

I'm a little bit of a bird watcher myself.  

Since moving to where I now live, I've not put out the feeders.

 But even without feeders and their cost you can still enjoy birds of almost all types with the simple and cheap addition of a bird bath.  I clean and refill both of mine everyday after work and have all types of birds come to drink and clean/preen themselves.  The cost of the bath is higher upfront than most bird feeders but the cost to refill with fresh clean water each day is almost nothing.  Of course having both (feeder, birdbath) will  produce the best results.