Suburban Sparrows

Yesterday my yard held no less than seven different Emberizid sparrow species.  (These are North American sparrows including juncos and towhees but excluding House "Sparrows" which are a different family, Passeridae.)  Birders will understand the value of this total, but let me make a few comparisons to put things in perspective for the non-birders.  When I was a kid I kept a bird list for my parents' yard.  In 15+ years of living there and watching birds I recorded just nine sparrow species.  After I got married I moved to another location for about four years. This location had definitively better habitat, but even here I recorded only eight species during my entire time living there.  At my current location I have recorded nine species in just three and a half months, including the seven yesterday alone.

Why?

Then answer is simple.  There is a wet area measuring about 20' by 20' in which I have allowed the grass and wildflowers that others would call "weeds" to grow to about knee height.  Nearly every sparrow I have recorded in the yard has used this section for foraging or cover.  My previous location had no such area and my parents' house had only a temporary habitat of this type when the garden had reached its wildest in early fall.  I have had three separate Lincoln's Sparrows in the section of the yard this fall.  Bird-saavy readers will know this is an uncommon species at best and many birders don't see three of them in an entire season.

It's the Field of Dreams mentality that says "If you build it, they will come."  In this case the adage is true.  Creating the correct habitat will draw the species that use it.  Without a doubt these birds would not appear in my yard, or at least not remain in my yard long enough to be readily observed, if not for the grassy patch. Consider that most yards in America could have a grassy patch, or a brushy patch, or a group of trees added to it in its least-used corner.  Image the value these patches could have for wildlife, particularly migrant wildlife who require stop-over habitat for cover and food.  Most lawns go unused 80% of the time, only occasionally playing host to a barbecue or party or a dog or game of catch.  If all of those homeowners who under-use and over-care for their lawns sacrificed a small corner and allowed it to grow wild or replaced it with native shrubs or wildflowers it could be a great asset for wildlife.

My backyard habitat will get a major upgrade next year when I will have access to my first complete growing season on the property.  My focus will revolved around adding understory plants in one region and replacing exotics with natives in other areas.  Without question, however, the grassy area will remain and even expand as I remove Japanese Knotweed and allow the grass to replace it.  The sparrows of this fall have convinced me this patch is too valuable to replace.

the Birds of the Backyard: Initial Observations

We've been living here for less than a month and I have a pretty solid grasp of the avifauna that are resident in and around the property.  If you have read some of my other posts you know that birds are my main interest and much of my other interest in backyard ecology revolves around and relates to my love of birds.

First off, the yard "life list" stands at 29 species right now.  Serious birders keep a list of all of the wild, free-flying species they have seen in their life and this is called a life list.  Many birders also keep a yard list, or a life list for birds seen in their yard.  When I was younger and lived with my parents in a suburban yard in a relatively high-density area with little tree cover I had a yard list of over 60 species.  That yard had almost no native plants and no trees.  When I got married we moved to a house with a little bit more property and plenty of hardwoods, but little in the way of native understory.  Still, the yard was a vast improvement over my parents' and was situated near lots of forested public land.  There I worked very hard to find every bird that put so much as a feather on the property and after four years I had amassed a list of 105 species.  I hope that my new property will solidly beat that total in time.  It is bigger and it is mine.  That means I can modify it as I see fit and "birdscaping" is a top priority.

Summer in the sub-taiga Northeast is often a boring time for birds.  We don't have a huge diversity of breeders and no signifiant migration is taking place in July.  There is a nature preserve very nearby and bodies of water within a mile or so.  I have heard a Wood Thrush, a relative of the familiar American Robin which is also present, singing almost daily from the nature preserve.  This is a woodland species that has declined in the last century like most woodland species.  I have not seen it in the yard, but I hope that will change in coming years as I install a planned native understory: The thrush is a ground-loving species that requires cover.

I have seen parents of the following species feeding juveniles in the yard; White-breasted Nuthatch, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker, House Finch, European Starling, and Blue Jay.  I have also seen juvenile Mourning Doves and House Sparrows, though not in the act of being fed.  All of these are common "backyard species" that should be expected in most yards in the Northeastern United States in summer.  Next year I plan to place a number of nest boxes to assist native species and increase the number of species that can nest in the yard.

All of these species and others have been using the feeders I have placed.  Right now I am offering suet, safflower, and a little thistle seed for no other reason than its what I have on hand.  In addition to the species already mentioned the feeders have attracted Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Downy Woodpecker, and the occasional American Goldfinch.  House Wrens and Carolina Wrens, Turkey Vultures, and Red-tailed Hawks have been present around the yard as well, though not at the feeders.  I have seen essentially no species that require special habitats or conditions above and beyond the typical backyard with two exceptions.  First is the aforementioned Wood Thrush which needs the right kind of habitat with understory.  The second is a Pileated Woodpecker I have seen once and heard twice.  This is the largest of our local woodpeckers and requires large dead trees.  Both have been heard from the nearby preserve but neither has physically touched my property, yet.

This morning I saw 22 species in a 75-minute observation session and two more later in the day, making a high day-count of 24.  I suspect most suburban yards can put up numbers between 15-25 on a typical mid-summer or mid-winter day.  In the fall I expect to conduct some multi-hour counts that may top 30 species.  It will be interesting to see how these numbers change as the exotic plants are removed and replaced with natives.  Overall this summary should provide a pretty good sense of what is and isn't it the yard right now.  Regular bird updates should be expected as summer progresses into fall and migrants start to arrive.