Helping The Early Birds
January 14, 2010 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Fauna, In The Garden, Wild London, Winter
Something was different today as I opened the back door to check the bird feeders and fill up our makeshift bird table – all along the back fence sat a row of little birds. They were waiting! Almost overnight it seems they have taken to using the bird feeders, almost emptying the seed feeder in the space of 24 hours. Robins, wrens and blackbirds fidgeted impatiently, and whizzing through the air blue and coal tits cheeped and twittered. I’m sure I saw a song thrush too, but it was extremely shy and flew behind the fence when I appeared. Not so the robins, who could barely wait and had already stormed the table before I’d reached the fire escape.
Robins are highly territorial birds and they are extremely bad at sharing – the fact that these two were able to tolerate each others presence shows just how desperately hungry they were. Eventually the bird on the right muttered “get lost” (which to human ears sounds like an incredibly sweet and lovely song) and the bird on the left, losing it’s nerve, flew into a rose bush to wait it’s turn.
I’ve only recently begun to feed the birds and it’s suddenly feeling like quite a responsibility, having all these small lives dependant (to some extent at least) on me. But it’s also an honour, the thought that I can actually help. Seeing that little fidgeting group of birds waiting in the thickly falling snow brought home to me their plight, and how easy and simple it is to do something about it.
Feed The Birds:- my do’s and dont’s list
…And don’t forget your fellow humans
As I have just written about the responsibility of saving lives I feel it would be a crime if I signed off from this post without mentioning the terrible earthquake in Haiti. If you don’t feel moved to feed the birds, please do not forget your fellow humans in their hour of need. If just one person who reads this feels moved to donate, that could mean a human life saved.
Oxfam Uk Haiti Earthquake Appeal
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Nice post and I love your robins. They do not look anything like the robin here in the states. Nice photos.
Hello Eileen and thanks for dropping by! I think your American Robins are bigger than the ones we get in the UK? Ours might be tiny but they are incredibly tough!
I also like the robins and thought the same thing: those are robins? I have to Google it now…do we even get robins until the spring? I always hear when people see the first robin of the year around here.
Hi Caron and welcome! I think American robins (Turdus migratorius) are related to European thrushes, and they are migratory so that would account for you expecting them in springtime! European robins (Erithacus rubecula) are present year round and I don’t think the two birds are very closely related, if at all.
…just to make things complicated, European Robins do occasionally migrate but generally short distances, and as they are continually present throughout their range, you can’t be sure that the robin you saw in your garden in spring hasn’t gone away by autumn, to be replaced by an identical bird
It is a responsibility isn’t it. When we are gone for a couple of days, I have a friend who fills the feeders and bird bath because they count on it for survival in winter. At least you know that some of your birds will make it through the bad weather and that is a very good feeling.
Our robins (as you say a thrush) won’t be here till early spring. I soak raisins in water and put them out as our robins are insect and fruit eaters, but they don’t share well as I guess your robins don’t either…
Thank you for posting to Nature Notes…
I know that when we go away for weekends now I will have to leave a long list of instructions with our neighbours who share the garden with us
I’m pretty sure that one guy in particular would be really diligent if asked, so that’s pretty lucky for the birds.
I looked up American Robins after getting the first two comments – I’d seen pictures of them before and thought they looked like thrushes so it was an interesting exercise to learn more. They are quite different birds to ours – apart from the liking for dried fruit and being argumentative that is!
“Robins are highly territorial birds and they are extremely bad at sharing” – we get robins here. My bird feeder came in the mail – I will set it up with my daughter on Sunday. I will be learning…
My robin photo shows the red-breast – I guess you get a different kind of robin.
Hi Leora, you are in the USA, right? You will probably get the American robin (Turdus migratorius), which is bigger than the European robin. I’m sure European robins must have been introduced to the USA somewhere though, so look out for a round, sparrow sized bird with scarlet orange breast framed with blue grey flanks, and a light brown body. They are also very, VERY aggressive with other birds! If you see that bird, it’s one of ours
Good luck with your bird feeder, it will be interesting to hear who comes to call!
Well, I knew that English robins were a different bird than American robins, but I didn’t know how vividly red their breasts and throats were. They look darling!
I have heard that birds don’t really depend on our bird feeders, although they do make life a bit easier for them. The birds won’t die if you forget to fill your feeders. But the people of Haiti are certainly dying, so thanks for the links to make donations to help them.
Hi Jackie, European robins are beautiful birds, and in the UK most of our robins are a UK specific variant which is more brightly coloured and a lot more confiding – many robins are very easy to tame and the bird is held in great affection because of this.
In most years I would agree that birds do not depend on our feeders – I’ve never fed the birds in this garden because the cat predation problem seemed to outweigh any benefit. But the UK has just gone through an extreme weather event – must make you smile and shake your head when you see what we consider to be heavy snow, but to us this prolonged cold weather is incredibly unusual – and not just to the humans. Many birds, particularly insectivores and ground foragers really are starving. At this time of year we are host to migratory species which come from colder parts of Europe in search of a milder winter and easier foraging, and they struggle in the kind of weather they migrated to leave behind. The incidence of unusual species in my back garden and their eye popping tameness makes me think that they probably would die if it were not for supplementary feeding.
Anyway before I turn into the overly dramatic bird lady that people back away from at parties, I will also say thank goodness you noticed those links. I hope they are big enough in all the clutter for others to notice too. Helping our fellow humans is never a thing to lose sight of or neglect. I’m hoping those links will be seen by someone with a few extra pennies in their pocket, and am currently trying to figure out other ways to fundraise too. What has happened in Haiti is giving me nightmares.
Your robins are charming little fellows, despite their grouchy personalities. I would love to see the birds at a feeder, but have not put one up because I don’t want to commit to the responsibility and because we have a big hawk who “owns” our yard. I wonder if it would be OK to just put food out occasionally, so they don’t get to counting on it?
Vicki, that’s a tough one. I bet local birds already know about and avoid the hawk, so feeding might bring in other, less clued up birds who’d be vulnerable to attack. I have no idea at all how you could hawk proof a feeding station, but I’d take a guess that the hawk is already extracting a bird tax from your garden if small birds are what it hunts. So the question would be – are weather conditions so bad that the birds in your yard need the extra food no matter what? And how upset would you be if you saw the hawk benefiting from your kindness? You could just take the attitude that you have the entire food chain in action out there and view the hawk as just another visitor coming for the food I guess…
I have a similar problem in that our garden is usually filled with cats; I took the decision to feed the birds because conditions were so bad, plus the cats were not around while it was so cold. Now there has been a thaw I’ve stopped feeding the ground foragers (they don’t really need me any more) and I’m just filling up the feeders. I’m fairly sure the birds on the feeders are not vulnerable to cats, so my problem isn’t as hard to solve as yours.
Anyone out there got any ideas?.
Keep in mind that many birds & squirrels will cache seed elsewhere, so they’ll still have something to eat if you don’t fill your feeders ALL the time. Also, feeders typically represent only 20% of a bird’s diet. I’m sure they appreciate the help, but don’t worry about them dying without you.
Hi Lana, yep, the squirrels are doing fine – in fact I knew it was time to stop strewing food on the ground when I saw one frantically collecting it all up to hide somewhere
And thanks for the reassuring words – I know the birds don’t rely on supplementary feeding around here because they don’t normally get anything, but it’s very good to be reminded that humans are not always the big fat deal we like to thing we are 
The snow has stopped now and the ground has thawed so emergency feeding isn’t quite so important, but after over a week of frozen ground many birds were truly struggling – our climate isn’t usually so harsh. I know they wouldn’t normally rely on feeders but this winter has been a bit different to others.
Hello,
A lovely post really describing how the birds in the garden descend during the harsh weather. You are right it is a responsibility, it can get quite difficult to maintain the feeding regime. I have noticed the Robin’s sharing too, although not the one that sits on my hand, he is a right bully, lol. I feed in two areas for the robins, they cannot patrol them both
Hi Chrissy, I learned pretty quickly that I had to move the food about a bit every day or put it out in several different places for exactly that reason – and when the pigeons discovered the food I had to make sure that it was spread evenly throughout the garden so that smaller shyer birds could get a look in. A good trick I found was cramming raisins or peanuts into forks of trees or holes in bark – I even saw a wren eating raisins that way!
I bet you wouldn’t get robins sharing on your hand – seems like waaaay too small a space for such argumentative little birds to get cosy
Looks like a food house. I had to give up mine because we started to get rodents up to our window trim scratching all night. It is also a responsibility, once they know where the food is, they will come back. Bird hope you are doing well. Anna
Lovely post. Enjoy your blog.