The Birders Report

If you want to attract birds to your yard you need three main attributes, food, shelter and water. For most song birds, a water source is essential for both drinking and bathing, and if you have a choice, running water is your best bet. Birds can’t resist moving water, as demonstrated by the Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) in the video above.

It’s been almost ten years since we built a water feature off our back porch and we love it.

The sound of running water is not only soothing to the soul, it attracts all kinds of birds and other critters, especially if you live in an area that has few water sources available.

A water feature like this, with a pond, does require quite a bit of maintenance, especially if you add fish to the pond. There is an alternative however if you want to have all the benefits of the soothing sound of the water and the visual waterfall, without all the maintenance.  It is called a pondless or vanishing waterfall. This is how it works.

Instead of a pond at the bottom of the waterfall, the water cascades down a short stream and dumps into a pondless basin where the water pump lives.  It pumps the water though a hose back up to the top of your waterfall where the process starts all over again.  The pump chamber and pump are covered with rock and the flowing water disappears into the rock.

The great thing about this flowing water system is that all you have to do is fill up the basin with water occasionally or include an automatic fill valve and you’re good to go!

Even a water fountain that includes some splashing water will attract more birds than a simple bird bath, but a bird bath is better than nothing.  To prevent smaller species of birds from drowning, make sure to place some rocks in bird baths and water fountains if they are too deep (over 2 inches).

Here are some of the birds that have enjoyed our water feature over the years, starting with the

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) Female

Nashville Warbler (Oreothlypis ruficapilla)

Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus)

Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) Juvenile

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) Juvenile

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) Male

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)

and one of my favorites, the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) Juvenile Male

To see more great bird photos, check out Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D’pot!

Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) Male Feeding Fledgling

A couple of weeks ago I kept hearing a simple, three pitched call from the yard. I went out to investigate and it was the Black-headed Grosbeak fledgling calling to be fed. Click on photos for full sized images.

It was a familiar song but I hadn’t heard it since last year and it is quite different from the adult’s calls when they come through on their way to their breeding grounds.

If you hadn’t seen this bird actually being fed by the adult, you can tell it is a fledgling by the pinkish bare skin at the commissural point, at the base of the bird’s bill where the upper and lower mandibles come together. You can still see it in this photo where the adult male and the fledgling are at the tray feeder two weeks later, along with one male and two female House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus).

They enjoyed their time at the feeder until the Western Gray Squirrel (Sciurus griseus) showed up.

Even more interesting than watching the Gray Squirrels playing in the trees was the young male Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) figuring out how to eat out of the tube feeder. He seemed quite adept at using his tail as a prop under the bottom of the feeder and grabbing the perch with a foot.

The Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) were cleaning up the spillage under the feeders…

with some help from the California Quail (Callipepla californica) which usually come around in the early morning and late afternoon. I caught this male scurrying across the open yard to get to the relative safety under the trees.

Focusing my attention on the pond, hoping the young Black-headed Grosbeak would come over and give me some photo ops, I noticed an American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) lurking among the water lilies.

Not knowing much about the bullfrog, I looked it up and found some interesting information. They are voracious feeders!

There were damselflies…

and a Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) dragonfly looking out from various perches.

A Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) fledgling was also perched nearby. Notice the bare pink skin at the base of its bill also.

This female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) was getting a drink of water as they often do during the heat of the summer. In hot weather, water is as important to the hummingbirds as sugar and they need a fresh water source for drinking and bathing.

One of the many House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) that come to the sunflower feeders also enjoy the waterfall. This is a female that just came over for a drink…

and a fledgling that was all fluffed up after taking a very enjoyable bath.

A female Lesser Goldfinch (Carduelis psaltria) was waiting her turn in the overhanging eucalyptus…

while the fledgling Western Scrub-Jay approached from below in its brilliant new blue suit.

To see more cool bird photos, make sure you get on over to Stewart’s Wild Bird Wednesday and Anni’s The Bird Depot and maybe share some of your own bird photos!

Read the full West Coast Beat Writer post on the White-headed Woodpecker (Picoides albolarvatus) over at 10000 Birds!