The Need and Value of Attracting Birds

Effect of feeding Birds

The important part of the report is that which shows the protection afforded the birds by feeding them. Mr. Forbush says: " Reports that have come in from all portions of the state lead to the conclusion that large numbers of birds have been saved from starvation during the winter by people who have fed them. Most of the reports indicate that where birds were well fed, nuthatches and downy woodpeckers wintered very well; elsewhere they had a hard time. The trees were frozen so hard that drilling into them for insects was difficult, and woodpeckers have been operating on cedar rails and posts, and under the eaves of log and slab shanties in the woods. My own experience indicates that nearly all birds were scarce except where they were fed. Many people were feeding them, and they were attracted to these feeding-places, so that they appeared at such places to be in their usual numbers.

" The mortality seems to have been least among those familiar species that seek the habitations of man, thus finding the food exposed for them ; and greatest among those like the meadowlark and quail, that have most reason to fear man and therefore usually keep at a safe distance from human habitations."

Value of attracting Birds to the Farm

The farmer will find it a profitable business undertaking to make efforts to attract birds around his dwellings and orchard for the return which the birds give in destroying the insects that attack his crops. The real practical value to the farmer, from a business standpoint, of taking the steps necessary to encourage the presence of birds around the farm, is generally unappreciated. The progressive farmer does not begrudge the expense entailed in securing a spraying outfit, and the annual outlay involved in its use. With an expense so small that it hardly needs to be taken into account, the farmer may have very efficient insect-destroyers in the flocks of birds which may be attracted around the farm, — destroyers which do not require the time and supervision of the farmer to render them effective, but which of their own accord are constantly at work from sunrise until sunset, freeing the farm from its insect enemies. Some enterprising farmers are taking steps to attract birds around their farms. A successful fruit-grower in Georgia has erected a series of tall poles in his peach orchard, from which are hung gourds for the martins to nest in.

Not only may there be freedom from large insect outbreaks and the expense involved in keeping them in check, but under the ordinary conditions, when insects may do only slight damage, undoubtedly even this slight amount is lessened and the quantity of crops harvested correspondingly increased, through the activities of the birds.

There are on record enough instances to show the resulting benefits, when systematic efforts are made to encourage the presence of birds.