We learned something last week about feeder placement. We visited Pat Brodbent who had dozens of redpolls coming into his Nyger feeders (6 of them), whereas we saw only a couple of Pine Siskins, and saw them only briefly. We figured out that the jays (and probably House Finches, flickers, downies, even chickadees) intimidate the smaller siskins.
The difference: Pat's feeders didn't have any other jay-attracting feeders near them. Ours we had crowded in sort of an urban cluster. So -- we moved the nyger feeder about 20 yards away, into a separate section of our yard. Result: today, 20 Pine Siskins and a couple of goldfinches too perched above the nyger feeders (now we have two), and clusters of siskins clinging to the feeders. They also stay longer. Lesson learned: Suburban sprawl works for birds. Divide your feeders by food type into different suburban locations so that different constituents of your largess have uncrowded restaurant parking. Hugh Kingery Franktown -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
