The most important rule of
attracting birds to backyard habitat is
to provide as much locally native
vegetation, especially fruit-bearing
trees and shrubs, as possible. This
brings in many birds that don’t visit
feeders, including species that eat fruit
and those that feed on the insects
attracted to it.
Once you’ve attracted those birds,
how likely are you to actually notice
them? Some birdbaths, especially those
with bubbling water set close to the
ground, lure in a variety of birds that
never come to feeders, and birdbaths
can be as easy to monitor as feeders.
But many of the birds that visit our
yards stay hidden in vegetation. Getting
into the habit of carefully looking
through trees and shrubs will help you
build your yard list and give you
splendid closeup views of birds you’d
otherwise overlook. I’ve taken my best
photos of many vireos, thrushes, and
warblers during past Septembers and
Octobers while sitting on my front
porch near a mountain ash or walking
along the back of my yard where
dogwoods and other shrubs are covered
with fruits.
Migrants passing through spend
their days quietly replenishing their
body fat and resting. Sometimes they
make soft call notes, and one or two
Red-eyed Vireos may break out in song
now and then, but don’t count on your
ears to detect interesting birds in your
yard in autumn. The best hint that they
might be there is when a chickadee
f lock arrives at the feeders. Manysongbirds passing through unfamiliar
areas gravitate to inclusive chickadee
f locks to get the inside scoop on where
to find food, water, and safe resting
spots. Flycatchers and most warblers
won’t come to the feeders with the
chickadees. They lurk in the vegetation,
where some will remain even after the
chickadees move on.
If you have a row or clump of good
trees and shrubs, walk along the edges
slowly and quietly, listening for soft
calls but mostly looking for movement
within the branches. When you find a
small bird, track it. Keeping focused on
one bird for as long as possible can give
you photos of it from many different
angles, doing many different things,
and give you lots of insights about its
behavior that will improve your birding
skills. Fall warblers in some plumages
can be tricky to identify, but photos
allow you the leisure to study them.
Paying attention, you may notice
more regular action in some areas of
your yard than others. If a tree has a
few dead twigs, scan them regularly
— hummingbirds use those tiny
openings to rest, and f lycatchers often
hunt from them. Larger dead branches
rising up above healthy branches
provide perches for f lycatching Cedar
Waxwings. The more familiar you are
with each of your own trees and
shrubs, the more birds you’ll find in
them, and the easier it will be to see
each subsequent one. Autumn is the
season of richness when we reap what
we have sown, if we pay attention.attractingbirds BY LAURA ERICKSON
Laura Erickson, the 2014 recipient of the
American Birding Association’s highest honor, the
Roger Tory Peterson Award, has written 11 books
about birds and hosts the long-running radio
program and podcast “For the Birds.”Paying attention
Carefully check your trees and shrubs to spot birds that
can be easy to miss
WATCH ME: A Chestnut-sided Warbler in fall plumage peeks from a shrub in the author’s yard.
Laura^ EricksonDon’t count on
your ears to detect
interesting birds in your
yard in autumn.48 BirdWatching • September/October 2019