Week of May 4, 2025 – May 10, 2025
by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator
After 26 weeks of counting the birds at our feeders, the Project Feederwatch season has come to an end. Every year, Baltimore Woods staff and volunteers record the birds that visit our feeders for this international citizen science project, which runs from November 1st to April 30th. Data from these feeder bird counts around the United States and Canada gives scientists valuable information about bird populations, which is crucial for bird conservation efforts.
Our bird feeders are in the backyard of the Interpretive Center, surrounded by native trees and shrubs, brush piles, and a nearby water feature. There are hopper, tube, and platform feeders- all filled with a variety of foods including black-oil sunflower seeds, mixed nuts, dried fruit, cracked corn, and millet. There are also two suet feeders. The area is easily viewed from inside our big program room, which is very convenient for close-up viewing and cold days!
This season, we saw a total of 27 different bird species in our feeder area on count days. Some species visited our feeders almost every week, like the red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, American goldfinch, and dark-eyed junco. Once we got deeper into the winter, we had some other species become regular visitors, like the blue jay, american crow, brown creeper and northern cardinal. Several white-throated sparrows stayed around the brush piles the whole season, and a pair of pileated woodpeckers visited us often again this year.
It brought us and our visitors joy to see all of the different kinds of birds at our feeders, but we were always excited by the possibility of seeing a new or less common species. Cooper’s hawks have nested near the building in the past, and we saw them flying around the feeder area in March. One blue jay also learned how to mimic the Cooper’s hawk, and it tricked us several times! It was nice to see some other sparrow species this spring, like the American tree sparrow, chipping sparrow, and eastern towhee. We saw purple finches more frequently this year, and big groups of American goldfinches have been around over the past few weeks. Last week, we saw a beautiful rose-breasted grosbeak and a bright indigo bunting. It was fun to record the mammals too- it was mostly squirrels and chipmunks enjoying some of the food, but we also saw a big skunk waddling through the area this winter!
Bird feeding is a great way to connect with nature right in your backyard. Combined with growing more native plants, it supports birds as they face their greatest threat of habitat loss. Anyone can participate in Project Feederwatch- if you’re interested in participating next season, all you need is a place to watch birds and an internet connection to add your counts to the website.
What interesting birds have you been seeing this season?