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Find a bird-watching partner or invite a young birder to join in your outings. There are many young birders without transportation who want to explore good birding areas. Sharing the thrill with beginners re-invigorates your interest and helps both of you learn new things. It is also a good excuse to get out and bird more often! |
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Contact your local park, nature center, or recreation area to see what programs and bird walks they are offering this spring. Parks offer programs geared to every skill level and physical ability. Get one or more of these events on your calendar! |
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Volunteer with a local bird or nature group to staff a booth at a local festival, conduct a bird censusing project, or to help plan a fundraiser. Find a club near you with BWD's Bird Club Finder. |
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Clean your binoculars, or better yet, replace that ancient pair with a new pair (optics have come a long way!). Visit Bird Watcher's Digest's optics section for more bird-watching optics tips and advice. In particular, use our Optics Finder search engine help you find new binoculars. |
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Tidy up your feeding station. Rake the seed hulls from underneath your feeders and plant new grass, if necessary. Move your feeders to another part of the yard to discourage the spread of fecal-borne diseases and to limit weed growth. |
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Erect at least one birdhouse in your yard, paying attention to the size and habitat requirements of the species you'd like to host. Read up on how to build, place, and take care of birdhouses with the Original Birdhouse Book (see below) and our specialty birdhouse booklet: A Guide to Bird Homes. |
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Brush up on your bird songs and calls using audio/visual guides so that you're prepared when the birds begin their morning chorus. Check out the selection of audio/visual guides in our online store. |
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Set some goals for improving your bird identification skills. Select a handful of "target" birds that you want to better identify in the field or out your window. Will it be wood warblers? Thrushes? Shorebirds? Raptors? Or maybe just start with your backyard friends. Devote special effort to learning tips and techniques to identify this group. Refer to our website for tips, and ask experts for advice. Also browse our best-selling specialty field guides in our online store. |
Bill Thompson, III, editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, answers readers' questions.
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Dear Bill:
I'm getting excited about the hummingbirds returning to my backyard and I hope to attract and feed them this summer. There are a few hummingbirds in my neighborhood, but I didn't consistently feed them last year. When do they return to the Midwest? Would it hurt to put the sugar water out for them before spring arrives? Thank you.
– G. Chesterfield (Indiana)
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Bill says:
I'm glad you're thinking about your hummingbirds already. These birds make such an amazing annual journey. They travel thousands of miles from their winter grounds and often fly back to the very same feeders every year. I was late putting my nectar feeder out one year, and sure enough my hummingbird friend arrived in April and hovered outside my window in the exact same spot I had installed the feeder the year before, peering in at me as if to say "What'cha waiting for?" Needless to say, I got the feeder out within the hour!
In the the Midwest and throughout the East we are normally treated to only one breeding hummingbird: the ruby-throated hummingbird. Their wintering grounds are primarily in southern Mexico and south through central Costa Rica. In those places, they must compete with native species and other nectar-eating birds for abundant food. A small percentage of the population spends the cold months in Florida and the coastal regions of the southen U.S. Northward migration of hummingbirds coincides with the blooming of nectar-producing plants and the emergence of gnats and other tiny insects. Spring arrivals in the Deep South are as early as late February, and breeding birds might not reach Quebec and Ontario until early June. I suspect your rubythroats might come back to Indiana as early as April, so it pays to have your sugar water out in early April to be prepared (especially if there is a dearth of early blossoms in your neighborhood.)
Of course, there are many other vibrant species of hummingbirds in the West, and members of our online family of subscribers can view photographs and species profiles of these hummers in our Hummingbird ID Guide. To view the ID Guide, Login Now. If you're not already subscribed to Bird Watcher's Digest, Subscribe now for only $19.99/year for full access to our online member area as well as six great issues delivered to your home.
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