Tiny Birds of Spring

[bec_87rb]

The thistle feeder is basically full, and it is there for the tiny birds who benefit from such small seeds.  If you have never seen a thistle seed, it is mostly the feathery upper region which lets it float aloft on a breeze, with the tiniest of black seed acting as hanging ballast below.  However, for some reason, a small woodpecker has glommed

Comments

[suegypt]

Hey, just saw this! A woodpecker on your thistle feeder? How does he get anything out of it, with his beak?

After my photo of the male hummer who died, I found a female about 2 weeks later, again, no ostensible cause of death. Then, about 3 weeks ago, I found a juvenile male who had very definitely flown into a high window, breaking his beak, tearing his tongue, and losing what looked like his salivary gland from his mouth in the process. It was brutal. But I do have all kinds of others flying around, draining the 4 feeders almost daily.

OH NO, look out for the window!

[bec_87rb]

So the recent image of a deceased hummingbird was not one of the automated retread postings of which FB is fond, but another lost soul? That's a shame, but I guess birds do die. I have killed more since we finally put the new windows on the back of the house, where the majority of the trees and all the feeders live.
The old windows were partitioned, being 6 small panes of real glass, top and bottom, but the modern inert gas filled ones have none. Did not take into account the possibility of increased confusion of avian residents, and the resultant WHAM-induced morbidity and mortality. I imagined this multiplied across America, pressuring bird populations as cars do to squirrels, but in this case, evolving out the poor beings who are less able to either identify swathes of window or survive high-speed impacts.