From the Feeder to the Field
by Alice Morgan
When familiar birds come to the feeder, look and listen closely. Your attention will pay off later when you're in the field!
Part of the allure of bird feeding is the close-up views you get of the birds that come to your feeders. Although these birds include occasional rarities, most feeder birds are regulars, with variations largely determined by the time of year. In winter you get juncos and white-throated sparrows; in spring you may have orioles. The benefit of feeders is in seeing the same species, and often the same birds, as they act and interact.
But observing birds at the feeder and in the yard can bring other important benefits when you are bird watching in the field. Most yard birds are fairly common, and you get really good looks at them from every angle. In the field these same birds are often furtive, hidden – hard to see. They can distract you from the less common birds, resulting in lost viewing opportunities – those other birds slip away while you're trying to determine whether that brownish bird is "just" a song sparrow or something more exciting. Similarly, in the field there are many competing bird sounds – songs, calls, chip notes, and the like. Some of these sounds are just variations of those made by northern cardinals, or tufted titmice, whereas others reveal passing migrants or scarce local breeders to someone who recognizes their sounds.
The birder who can use familiarity with feeder birds to separate them in the field from other birds that are the focus of a current quest has a great advantage. Unfortunately, as I know from experience, it is all too easy to just take note of that song sparrow on the ground - you recognize it from 10 feet away and can readily see its definitive striping and size as it enjoys the birdseed you've set out for it. But suppose it never turned around, and you could see only its back? Would you know it was a song sparrow? Suppose you could see just a bit of its lower front, and the rest was hidden in leaves? Or suppose you saw only an outline in fading light at a distance? These are some of the ways birds can appear in the field, and you don't want to spend all your time determining that the bird sitting up at the end of the meadow is a song sparrow, and perhaps missing the chance to identify a rapidly moving vesper sparrow (rare where I go birding) just a bit to the left of it.
If a tufted titmouse or a northern cardinal comes regularly to your yard, you want to be sure to note all its vocalizations. Then when you're walking through a wooded area, you will be able to single them out on a busy spring morning when dozens of birds are singing. You can focus your attention on new sounds that signal the arrival of passing migrants or summer residents. In short, the feeder can be a wonderful training ground, allowing you to see and hear common local birds so that they become totally familiar. Then you can more easily identify the less common ones in the field.
I should add that, although I'm now aware of this advantage to feeding backyard birds, I am only just becoming able to put it into practice. Some discipline is required, otherwise you just sit back and enjoy the sight of your birds taking their turns at the feeder - still one of the chief pleasures of backyard birding.
