Bird habits

[LostintheOzone]

I feed the birds here in the back yard. I have 2 feeders up, one with black oil sunflower seeds and one with food for finches. I'm not sure what's in that one, maybe thistle seed.

I've noticed something strange at the sunflower seed feeder. The Nuthatches and Chickadees are not feeding but carrying seed away and returning for more. Normally it would take them 4 or 5 days to empty the feeder but they do it in a day now. I think they are caching seeds but I've never seen them do it before and I've been feeding them here for 20 years.

Is this the sign of an early, hard winter coming? I was gone last winter so maybe they're just adapting.

 

[6518John]

Excellent Question

Common behavior in the fall and winter with Chickadees and Nuthatches. Who knows about the hard winter--that has always been my excuse for gaining weight as I told my doctor. He replied "you are ready for at least two ice ages."

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/199/1/165.full.pdf


Food storing is seasonal in most species, occurring
principally in autumn and winter and declining or ceasing in
spring and summer. There are various estimates of how many
food items may be stored in a year by a chickadee, tit,
nutcracker or jay, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds
of thousands (Vander Wall, 1990).

 

[Rigor Mortis]

They hide the seeds in the rough bark on trees.