Invitations to the Birds

Do you love the birds? Do you wish them for your neighbors? Even if you live in a tenement you may delight in the companionship of the birds. And if you live in the country, a little effort, rightly directed, will give you the happy companionship of hundreds of the best and most helpful birds.

Every spring they come North by the hundreds, and they are all on the lookout for homes. They are more discriminating than we recognize. They know whether our door-yards give them a welcome or not. They soon know and seek the places where there is no gunning.

And they will not stay long where air-rifles and sling-shots do deadly execution. And it may as well be understood at the outset that we must choose between cats and the birds. The cat holds the foremost place as a destroyer of song-birds. It has been estimated that each cat is responsible, on the average, for the death of about fifty song-birds a year.

The cat mentioned in one of the chapters of this book was capable of destroying about twenty a week. If cats and red squirrels are banished from your place, you will be surprised at the rapid increase in the number of song-birds. The rats and mice can be destroyed easily by means of traps or poisons. English sparrows should be discouraged as much as possible, as they take up the nesting places of much better birds.

And, thus, you see, the first thing necessary in inviting the birds is to protect them from their enemies. The next thing is to provide them with suitable nesting places. Birds love tangles of bushes and shrubs; hence by planting a corner of the yard with sunflowers and wild berry bushes, we supply them with places for home, for hiding, and in which to find food. A vessel of water, kept always full, and safe from their enemies, is also a great attraction to the birds, and gives them a place where they may drink and bathe.

Place a stone in it and furnish the birds a place to stand upon. Martins, wrens, bluebirds, and chickadees occupy artificial nesting places. For such we can supply gourds, cans, and boxes. Bird-houses may be built, at once useful and ornamental.

In the winter you can attract the birds by nailing a piece of suet or fat pork to a tree or post. Last winter we enjoyed very much seeing the birds feed upon a piece of suet which we kept nailed to a standard of the grape arbor. It sometimes looked as if the blue jay would drive his bill clear through the piece of fat, so eager did he seem for his portion of the delicacy. A window shelf, protected by an awning, is a fine place on which to scatter grain or crumbs.

The birds may be fed hemp seed, sunflower seed, nuts, cracked corn, and bread made two-thirds of corn-meal and one-third of wheat flour. And now a word as to the things to plant. The orioles love mulberries, and you should have at least one tree on the place. Many other birds will feed on the mulberries, and thus you will keep them away from your fruit trees to a large extent.

Many farmers are planting mulberry trees, the shadbush, or June-berry, in order to protect their strawberry beds, the first of which ripen about the same time. Then there is the choke-cherry, another enticing tree for birds.

Let a few poke-weeds grow. The birds will eat the berries, and the weeds will do no harm, as they are easily controlled. If you have a corner that you can spare for the elder, you will find its showy black berries very useful in furnishing food for the birds. It is not necessary to go over the list of shrubs and trees that furnish fruit to the birds.

In every locality there are native fruits, and a little observation will teach you which ones are preferred by the birds about you. Such will be the fruits for you to plant and cultivate. But whatever you do, plant those that will ripen at intervals throughout the summer, thus furnishing the birds with a constant supply of food.

Do not forget to provide nesting places, water, food, and protection from enemies. This done, you will have plenty of bird neighbors, and they will furnish you with endless delight and much useful knowledge.