Winter Bird Feeder Survey Offers Chance to Help Conservation

By Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation

First posted on 01-02-2009

Kids and adults alike can enjoy a hands-on, interactive outdoor activity and help wildlife at the same time this winter by participating in the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Winter Bird Feeder Survey.

Providing food for wintering birds is popular in Oklahoma in both urban and rural areas, and people in both places can help the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation monitor the state’s birds this winter.

By participating in the Wildlife Department’s 2009 Winter Bird Feeder Survey, Oklahomans can provide food for wintering birds and enjoy close-up wildlife viewing opportunities while helping biologists monitor bird populations.

Any Oklahoman with a backyard bird feeder can participate by choosing any two days between Jan. 8-11 to count birds at their feeders and record their observations. With participants observing birds across the state for four days straight, biologists can obtain important information that can help the Department better understand bird ranges and populations.

The survey includes counting birds at backyard feeders at least four times a day for two days during the survey dates and completing a form provided by the Wildlife Department. For detailed instructions and to take the survey, log on to the Wildlife Department’s Winter Bird Feeder Survey Web site at http://www.okwinterbirds.com has the survey period approaches. The Web site is an extensive bird-watching resource, providing information such as bird identification tips, diets, feeding behaviors and winter ranges as well as links to other birding Web sites. The site also provides detailed recipes that bird watchers can follow for making healthy, beneficial bird attractants that will draw birds to their yards.

While anyone who has a bird feeder can participate in the 2009 Winter Bird Feeder Survey, certain efforts can be made to attract more birds to feeders. Black-oil sunflower seed is a good choice for bird feeders because of its high nutritional value that birds can use during the winter and because virtually all seed-eating Oklahoma songbirds will eat it. Suet cakes, animal fat that is sometimes mixed with grains or peanut butter, are good for drawing in species such as woodpeckers and birds that do not primarily eat seeds. Finally, a source of water and cover such as brush piles or dense shrubs located near the feeders help to draw more birds.

Some of the unusual birds at feeders during the 2008 Winter Bird Feeder Survey included the ladder-backed woodpecker, snow bunting, black-headed grosbeak and even a ring-necked pheasant. Other interesting species that were found in yards included the American kestrel, Cooper’s hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, greater roadrunner, wild turkey, bald eagle, barred owl, turkey vulture, yellow-rumped warbler and loggerhead shrike.

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