As I wrote previously about my First Real Success In Hand Feeding Birds, I had taken my feeders down during the day and was experimenting with getting some birds to come to me just before I put them up again in the afternoon. I mentioned that, unlike my last attempt, the titmice were braving it and the chickadees seemed to have no interest.
This week, I’ve had breakthrough in my hand feeding career that I’d like to share with you.
Offering Food At My Back Door
I decided to test the limits of the titmice’s interest in hand feeding. I started standing on the steps just outside my back door and holding the ceramic dish of food for them to see. Almost immediately, they were squawking up a storm and letting me know they were interested but concerned for their safety. I just stood my ground and remained still. Eventually, I started seeing them flying from the trees, getting on the gutter and attempting to land on the dish. You have no idea how funny it is listening to them landing on the gutter and sliding over to be right above me. I had three successful land and grabs in about 15 minutes and I decided to call it quits. I even had one fly directly onto the dish from the backyard. It wasn’t 5 minutes after I came inside that I noticed they were landing on the railing outside the back door and trying to figure out where the new feeder had gone. I went back outside a few more times and fed them successfully again.
My Observations
Not surprisingly, as soon as the regular feeders were put up the titmice had no further interest in coming to me. I totally expected this. Heck, would you drive to a restaurant you’re not sure about when all you need is near to you? Neither would I. I have read accounts that after a while the birds will look for you and fly to you whenever they see you. I’ll wait to see if this happens. For now, I’ll just continue a somewhat regular schedule of back door appearances.
The chickadees are still not interested but I think I may know why. Because goldfinches are not likely hand feeding subjects I’ve left the upside-down thistle feeders up. Chickadees are extremely resourceful and can feed from those feeders so when I go outside they have no motivation to feed from me. I’ll try taking those down in the next few days while I’m outside and see if it spurs their interest. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for trying to make this a better blog.
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