Bird Watching in your Own Backyard

If you like to watch the playing, fluttering and fanciful nature of birds, watching birds in your own backyard or right outside your window can be a great joy. It's extraordinary how many different kinds of species you can see. If you think there aren't very many birds in your yard, there are a few things you can try that will attract them. With bird baths, different bird feeders and a couple of bird houses, you'll soon have some special visitors.

You'll find many different bird feeders on the market, and you will find that most of them fall into three different categories. There are hoppers, tray feeders, and tube feeders. Tube bird feeders are cylindrical, with landing places at the holes where the feed comes out. Tube bird feeders are good for various kinds of seed, as long as the opening is big enough for it to fit through. Hopper feeders will attract birds that might be leery of tube and tray feeders. Tray feeders are wonderful for birds that are smaller. If you really don't care what types of birds visit your backyard, and you would just like to watch and enjoy any bird that shows up, you can purchase a general bird seed. A lot of bird seed can appeal to a number of different varieties of birds, because it's got a number of seed varieties. If you want a particular kind of bird to come to your backyard, then you want to include a seed or food that appeals to that species.

Bird baths are a great thing to add to your backyard if you want to attract more birds. Birds love wading and splashing in the water, and if it's kept clean, that's even better. You can choose from more conventional bird baths, or you could go for something different, like a fountain that's solar powered. Bird baths with moving water will appeal to wild birds that customarily would not frequent a regular fountain, like humming birds, robins, warblers and thrushes. Birds particularly like moving water, and it easily attracts them. Bird baths also look great as garden accessories. There are those that love bird baths for the fact that they bring the birds very close. This is the perfect chance to take some fantastic photographs, and enjoy the company of the birds.

If you decide to add a birdhouse to your yard, birds could potentially nest in it. Not only will they frequent now and again, but if it's safe and secure, they might choose it as the place to lay and hatch their eggs. What a delight this would be because you could get a peek at the babies every once in a while, or when it is time for them to start flying. Not only is a birdhouse a place the birds will like, but it is a charming yard decoration too. Naturally, there are a variety of sizes, kinds and shapes of birdhouses, and the one you decide on depends on your particular taste.

Implementing these three things easily can make your backyard a little bit more accommodating for birds. There are a couple of other simple things you can add, like fragrant flowers, and crevices and openings so the birds can hide. If they feel safe in your yard, they will stick around. Happy backyard bird watching!

Anna Mcanthony

The Truly Fascinating World of Bird Watching

Birds are the most visible form of wildlife, they are found in every part of the world that is not permanently covered by ice, and you can see them in any weather, any time of day or night, anywhere you go.

Whether you live in the country or the city, there are birds nearby, 835 species of birds spend at least part of the year in North America.

You can go out looking for birds or attract them to your home. Birding is one of the fastest-growing outdoor activities all around the world. The Verb ‘To Bird' would serve as an excellent jumping off point for a feature, which highlights the growing popularity of birding. More than 70 million Americans are feeding and watching backyard birds.

Success in bird watching is, to a large extent, based on location, either by venturing to locations or habitats where birds are plentiful, or by devising ways to attract birds to your own back yard. Birds seen at a distance may be enjoyable to watch, but the true excitement of the hobby is greatly enhanced when you can see the birds up very close.

Some of the most useful tools that enhance your bird-watching experience are those that makes birds easier to see in striking detail.

There are numerous ways to participate in the hobby of birding. Aside from simply viewing birds in nature, avid enthusiasts engage in numerous other activities.

Some of those may include: feeding birds, providing nesting sites or birdhouses, growing specialized plants and gardens to attract birds, traveling to nature sanctuaries and other bird-watching locales, keeping lists and notes on birds seen in the wild, making diagrams and sketches and spending hours trying to snap the perfect photograph of a favorite bird species.

In order to enhance your beautiful experience of bird watching in winter one can learn bird's song. Birds' strongest senses are sight and hearing, and they have evolved ways to communicate and to recognize their own species by using signals based on those two senses.

Because we are also creatures of sight and sound, we can tap right into all the fascinating distinctions of color and shape that birds embody, and just as naturally we can appreciate the sounds that are so important in their lives. As you begin to recognize bird songs, your own backyard will become a much more interesting place.

For me, it was like gaining supernatural vision, being able to see through the leaves and around buildings. I was amazed at how many birds were all around me and how much I had been missing out on.

To broaden your bird-watching experience beyond your own backyard, consider incorporating some bird-rich locales into your next vacation. Serious bird enthusiasts actually plan trips around visiting bird sanctuaries, nature parks and other natural locations where they can view birds in large numbers, in diversity of species and in their native habitats.

Traveling to a region of the country other than the one in which you live will allow you to see species you may have never seen before for e.g.

• The southeastern Arizona Mountains known as "sky islands" and in particular the Chirachua mountains are home to many impressive species such as the acorn woodpecker

• One of the most distinctive attractions in this area, however, is the diversity of hummingbirds. As many as 14 different species may be observed here. The large magnificent hummingbird can only be found in the Southwest.

Some of the basic tips for bird watching are:

• Try to observe the birds so they don't know you are there. Move slowly, make as little noise as possible, and keep your distance.

• Going too close to a nest or repeatedly scaring a bird off its nest can cause the parents to abandon their nest leaving the eggs vulnerable to predators. Do not touch the eggs or young birds.

• Avoid trampling fragile natural areas to get a closer look. Stay on paths and trails.

• Don't litter.

Now once you have started on the bird watching its important to build a bird house, start the proper bird-feeding all year around, provide them with water either through bird bath or providing water specially in extreme weathers. In this way the birds would be attracted and would keep coming back to the backyard.

John Savage