Birdwatching: Backyard birds are like live theater

Published 11:17 am Tuesday, May 1, 2018

If you love birds, now is the time to be watching for them in your very own backyard. Seeing the birds in action is live theater! As you know providing food and a fresh water source will ensure that you will be entertained by the birds that visit your backyard. Anna’s hummingbirds have been with us throughout the winter and now the rufous hummingbird has returned. If you put up a hummingbird feeder you will definitely be entertained by these two tiny jewels. Hummingbirds also love tubular flowers and flowering shrubs such as the Fuchsia.

Hummers will dart all over your yard and if you get too close to their territory, one might buzz you in warning! If you wear colorful clothing and are out in the yard, a hummer may just come up to you to inspect. They must be asking themselves, whether you are a flower or just someone pretending to be one?

As migration ramps up other songbirds will be stopping by. Some may stay and nest, but some will only stop by on their way north to their breeding grounds. No matter how long the birds stay you will have live theater from now until at least the end of summer. Golden-crowned sparrows are among the current entertainers, along with the white-crowned sparrows. The latter are singers extraordinaire. They are singing to attract a potential bride and/or to mark their breeding territory. Spotted towhees can be seen doing their little dance on the ground as they scratch for tasty morsels of food along with the fox sparrow who also likes to scratch in the leaves making them fly high up in the air. Watch as the leaves tumble to the ground. This is live theater at its best.

The American robin and the varied thrush are two of the thrushes that will spend time in gardens searching for their next meal. The robin may even choose to set up housekeeping in your yard if it can find a safe and suitable nesting spot in a tree or on a man-made ledge. More live theater will be in the offing when their babies become feathered, leave the nest and search for their own food. You will know them right away because, while they look and act like their parents, they have beautiful spotted breasts as opposed to their parents’ orange ones.

House finch, purple finch and the American goldfinch might also visit your yard, and of course you can always count on the black-capped chickadee to entertain you with its song of “chick-a-dee-dee-dee.”

So the curtain is about to rise. Live theater is in the making. Are you ready to put your hands together for the birds? The Willapa National Wildlife Refuge makes all of this possible. It is the director of our theater live.

The Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge is hosting a birding, art and nature festival on the Long Beach Peninsula on Saturday, Sept. 29. Details will be forthcoming. Please check out the website: friendsofwillaparefuge.org/wings-over-willapa/ and the Friends of Willapa National Wildlife Refuge Facebook page for news on festival events, preregistration, sponsorship, volunteer opportunities and more. Questions? Interested in getting involved? Contact us at wingsoverwillapa@gmail.com.