Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding on a tiger lily bloom: I say feeding because she could be sipping nectar or eating insects attracted to the nectar. Hummers rely much more insects than it appears because we are spoiled by the sight of them on flowers. 60+%, depending on time of year, of their diet can be […]
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Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) trees are ‘super-natives’, in my opinion. They are native, hardy, have beautiful early spring white blossoms followed by colorful fruit loved by wildlife, especially birds, and eatable by humans, and glow in rich fall colors. They even have an interesting backstory. Serviceberry (or Sarvisberry if you prefer Old English) is but one common […]
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There is an Eastern Towhee family in the shrubbery at the foot of a native dogwood (Atlanta’s iconic flowering tree) in our yard. I’ve seen this fledgling out begging her\his parents for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks between meals. Being one of the 96% of the songbird species that need almost exclusively insect protein to […]
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Today’s (April 22, 2021) media will be full, and rightfully so, of proclamations calling for an urgent global response to the climate crisis. As you might suspect, one of my interests in these proclamations of goals and possible solutions is their impact on the impact of climate change on bird populations. Globally and my yard, […]
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And I think they are a great choice. Not because they’re colorful. Or, cute. Or, somehow exotic. I think the school children of Georgia, in 1928, followed many years later in 1970 by the legislature, made the right choice because Brown Thrashers are tough, good looking in a rough and ready kind of way, and […]
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