With many stuck at home, bird-watching soars in popularity

Pandemic restrictions led people to create backyard sanctuaries

Hosting a gathering of friends may not be advisable at this time, but getting together with a flock of feathered friends is a great diversion. During the pandemic, birding has become a popular escape with sales for seed suppliers, birdhouse builders and other bird related businesses “through the roof,” according to Audubon magazine.

Extending an invitation to the bird community is simply a matter of offering a meal. A backyard rich with trees and shrubs is an ideal place to hold the get-together, but a patio or rooftop will suffice. Provide a bounty of goodies, and birds will gather like eager children. Once the birds become regular guests, you can enjoy hours of entertainment watching the beauties, identifying them and, if you wish, photographing them.

Set the table

You can attract birds with a single feeder of mixed bird seed, but drawing a large and varied population requires multiple feeders, each offering treats meant to attract certain species.

Tubular feeders, fitted with perches too small for large birds, are meant to attract finches and other small birds.

This type of feeder can be filled with thistle seed — a favorite of finches — or mixed-seed finch food, which supplements the thistle seed with sunflower chips and millet, and attracts a greater variety of small birds.

A feeder with perches spacious enough for large birds, filled with a wild bird food blend that is rich with nuts, fruit and sunflower seeds, will attract cardinals, blue jays, grackles and other big birds. A cage hung from a tree and containing suet cakes laced with peanuts or fruit is a favorite of woodpeckers, but other species will indulge as well. Red hummingbird feeders and orange Baltimore oriole feeders filled with sugar water will attract these magnificent specimens.

Patience

With feeders in place, patience is required. The birds will discover your banquet, but it could take weeks. Sparrows may show up first, and other small birds will follow. Soon blue jays, cardinals, grackles and others will arrive. Hummingbirds will stop by in the warmer months.

Once your feeders are established, you’ll see birds you haven’t seen before. Exactly what species you’ll encounter depends on where you are.

When your home has become a favorite feeding ground, you can sit back and enjoy the show. A printed field guide, like The Sibley Guide to Birds or The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America will help you identify your visitors. If you’d rather go digital, the Audubon Bird Guide app is helpful.

Watching birds battle for position at the feeder is entertaining, as is taking note of the way they come and go.

Get a closer look

Observing birds with the naked eye is entertaining, but most birders use binoculars. You can get a good pair for less than $150. Audubon publishes a guide to binoculars that offers choices at every price level.

Look for models that provide 8x magnification or more, so a bird will appear at least eight times larger when viewed through them than when viewed with the naked eye.