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Practical dispatches for getting closer to the birds: what to feed them and how, which plants to grow, the feeders and field guides worth owning, and the small kit that makes a morning at the water better.
97 dispatches filed under this habitat
Geese can safely eat raw unsalted nuts in small quantities. Peanuts, almonds, walnuts and pecans are all fine when chopped fine and offered as treats. Salted, smoked, or flavoured nuts are not. Bitter almonds and macadamias should be avoided entirely.
An 'all-black goose' in North America is almost always a Brant (Branta bernicla) - a small saltwater goose of arctic origin. Less commonly it's a feral Cackling, melanistic Canada, or domestic Chinese variant. Here's how to tell them apart by size, bill, and habitat.
North Carolina hosts six regularly-occurring owl species across the Blue Ridge, Piedmont and coastal plain. Great Horned, Barred, Eastern Screech, and Barn are the four you'll genuinely encounter; Short-eared and Northern Saw-whet appear seasonally. Here's where to find each, and how to identify them by call.
Swans can eat plain unsalted peanuts - never the salted snack variety. Chop or buy peanut pieces to remove the choking hazard. As with all nuts, they're high-fat treat food, not a staple. Skip them entirely if you're feeding at a park pond.
Ducks can eat tiny amounts of natural unsalted peanut butter, but it's mostly not worth the trouble. The salt in standard supermarket peanut butter is genuinely toxic to waterfowl, and the sticky texture risks beak feathers. Stick to cracked corn for everyday treats.
Cat food is too high in protein (30-40% vs geese's 10-20% need), too high in salt, and too low in fibre for waterfowl. It won't poison a goose that snatches a piece but it's nutritionally wrong as a regular food. Stick to formulated waterfowl feed.
Geese can safely eat ripe mango flesh in moderation. The pit contains amygdalin (cyanogenic, like apple seeds and cherry pits) and the skin contains urushiol - both should be removed. Chop into pea-sized pieces; treat as an occasional fruit treat, not a staple.
Geese do produce saliva, and they sometimes open the beak and let it visibly run during hot weather - this is gular panting, the avian equivalent of sweating. Persistent thick or yellow drool with swallowing difficulty is something else: usually trichomonosis (canker). Here's how to tell.
Five plants do most of the work in a duck pond - sago pondweed, wild celery, smartweed, duck potato, and wild rice. Each one feeds different parts of the duck guild. Here's how to establish them, what depth each prefers, and what to skip.
Wild ducks need four things: shallow margins for dabbling, submerged food plants, predator-proof cover, and nest cavities. Get those four into a one-acre pond and you'll have Mallards, Wood Ducks, and Hooded Mergansers within a single season.
Three swan species occur in North America: the native Trumpeter (largest, with a clarion call), the native Tundra (smaller, more numerous), and the introduced Mute (Eurasian origin, common on parks and waterways). Here's how to tell them apart by bill, voice, and behaviour.
North America has 34 diurnal raptors and 19 owls. They split into five working groups - hawks, falcons, eagles, kites, and owls. Here's the per-group breakdown, how to tell them apart in flight, and the eight species you'll see most often.
Cauliflower is safe for ducks - florets, stems, and the outer leaves are all edible. Steamed briefly is easier to digest than raw. As with all brassicas, feed in moderation to avoid loose droppings. The outer leaves alone are a useful free treat from kitchen prep.
Cabbage is safe and excellent for ducks - raw or cooked, chopped or whole (hung on a string as a tetherball game). Green, red, savoy, all fine. The single best winter enrichment for a confined flock.
Ducks can eat almonds in small amounts but the rules are stricter than most fruit and veg. They must be raw, unsalted, chopped fine, and a treat not a staple. Bitter almonds are toxic. Here's the safe-feeding breakdown.
Apple flesh and skin are excellent duck treats. Apple seeds contain amygdalin, which breaks down to cyanide - a real risk if a duck eats the core. Chop apple into small pieces, remove the core entirely, and a few times a week is fine.
Bird seed isn't shelf-stable forever. Sunflower hearts go rancid in six months, suet in three, and even whole sunflower spoils inside a year if stored badly. Here's the shelf-life table, the smell test, and the storage that doubles the lifespan.
A moving-water birdbath pulls more species than any feeder upgrade. But most fountain birdbaths sold online are too deep, too steep, or pump too hard. Here's what to look for, what to avoid, and the solar-powered setup that's worked for us three summers running.
A new feeder can take six weeks to get its first regulars. But if it's been months and nothing is happening, one of eight things is wrong - and most of them are easy fixes. Here's the diagnostic checklist.
Squirrel-proof feeders fall into three working designs - weight-activated, caged, and pole-mounted with a baffle. Each one defeats squirrels by physics rather than gadgetry. Here's how each works, what they cost, and which fits your garden.
In winter the equation flips - birds need high-fat, high-calorie foods, not cheap mixed seed. The four winter staples are black-oil sunflower, suet, peanut butter, and high-fat peanut pieces. Here's what each one does and which species it pulls.
Four DIY winter feeder builds we've actually tested - drilled hardwood log, pine cone with peanut butter, half-orange shell, and mesh stocking for sunflower hearts. Cheap, work, and the kids can help.
Bread is the wrong answer. Cracked corn, frozen peas, oats, and chopped greens are the four foods that actually feed ducks and geese without harming them. Here's the per-food breakdown and how much to bring.
Feeder placement decides how many birds you get and how many die hitting your windows. The right spot follows five rules: distance from glass, distance from cover, height, sun and wind, and squirrel jump radius. Get them right and the same feeder pulls three times the traffic.
You can't buy or build a hummingbird nest - they make their own from spider silk and lichen, and they choose the site. What you CAN place is the feeder. Here's where to hang it for maximum traffic and minimum aggression.
Red-breasted Nuthatches are conifer specialists - they want spruce or pine within sight of your feeder, sunflower hearts or suet, and a pitch-rimmed nest cavity. Get those three and you'll have one of the most charming small birds in North America working your trees upside-down.
Raising ducklings is mostly about three things: warm dry brooder, niacin in the feed, and patience with the water. The mistakes that kill ducklings are predictable, and so is the timeline. Here's the four-week schedule we use.
Most wild-bird mix on the supermarket shelf is filler. Here's the seven seeds that actually work, the species each one brings, and the two bags we'd buy if we were starting from nothing.
Flickers are the odd woodpecker - they feed on the ground, eat ants by the hundred, and ignore most standard feeders. Here's the suet + lawn + nest-box combination that pulls them in.
Chickadees are the most willing-to-trust songbird in North America. A sunflower-seed feeder, a small nest box, and a dense shrub will give you a resident pair you can feed from your hand inside a season.
A working backyard bird station is five feeder types and three plant layers. Here's the per-feeder species mapping (who eats what), the seed inventory, and the cleaning rhythm that keeps the whole thing healthy.
Owls almost never attack humans, but when they do it's almost always nest defence by Great Horned, Barred or Snowy Owls. Here are the species that account for the documented incidents, the locations where joggers get struck, and how to avoid being on the wrong end of an angry parent.
Goldfinches are seed specialists with strong preferences: nyjer, sunflower hearts, and the right perch height. Plant a coneflower bed, hang a sock feeder, and you'll have them in a fortnight.
Garden birds eat their body weight in aphids, caterpillars and slugs every week of the breeding season. Here's the per-species accounting, the trade-offs (yes, some fruit, some seedlings), and how to set the garden up to favour them.
Ducks make excellent pets for the right person and absolute disasters for the wrong one. Here's the honest breakdown: noise, mess, lifespan, housing, predation risk, and whether your garden, neighbours and patience can take it.
A naturalist's read on hummingbird aggression: who defends what, why a single dominant male can monopolise a feeder, and the four-feeder layout that gets you the most birds visible at once.
A naturalist's honest answer: bird feeders are net-positive in winter, net-neutral the rest of the year, and net-negative only if you don't clean them. The risks are real but every one is solvable.
A naturalist's guide to feeding wild ducks - the eight foods that are genuinely safe and useful, the five that cause real harm, and why bread is the worst thing you can hand to a mallard.
A naturalist's guide to what bird seed actually works - the six staples that attract the most birds, what each one is for, and the two things you should stop putting in your feeder.
A naturalist's guide to the right time to install an owl nest box - late autumn for most species, before squirrels select winter dens, in time for owl scouting in late winter.
Baby ducks are called ducklings. A field naturalist's read on what that actually means - the timeline from hatch to fledge, how to tell a duckling from a gosling or a cygnet, and the brood biology that decides how many survive.
A short, practical guide to safe and unsafe foods for pond ducks - what to bring, what to leave at home, and how to feed them properly without harming the pond.
A naturalist's read on what bird research actually shows about colour aversion - which colours genuinely deter birds, why, and how to use the information practically.
Owl eyes are tubes, not spheres. They can't move. The bird turns its whole head instead. A naturalist's read on the anatomy and what it costs the bird.
The five things that actually keep squirrels out of an owl nest box - pole choice, baffle type, height, entrance hole, and timing. A field guide for backyard owl-watchers, with the products we use.
Ducks bond with calm, low-postured humans who feed the right food. A naturalist's read on building trust with wild or backyard birds.
The thirteen animals that hunt wild and domestic ducks - ranked by where they hunt (water, air, ground) - and the eight protections that actually work. A field naturalist's guide for pond owners and small-flock keepers.
Bread is the worst thing you can feed a swan. It causes angel wing, water pollution, and crop impaction. A naturalist's read of why, and what to feed instead.
Bread is the single worst common food fed to wild geese. A naturalist's read on why it causes angel wing in goslings, fouls park ponds, and what to feed instead.
Ducks won't use songbird feeders. They need low, open, easy-to-access setups. A naturalist's guide to the four feeder types that actually work for waterfowl.
A naturalist's planting guide for a duck-friendly pond - the four plants ducks actually eat, the cover plants that keep ducklings alive, and where to put each one.
A field naturalist's guide to the 14 blue and blue-tinted bird species you'll actually encounter in Alabama - which habitats, which seasons, and how to tell the Eastern Bluebird from the Indigo Bunting.
A field naturalist's guide to Arizona's blue and blue-tinted birds - which to expect in the Sonoran Desert versus the Sky Islands, when each is most visible, and how to tell the three bluebird species apart.
If you're a bird enthusiast, you may be wondering whether or not you should put millet bird seed in your feeder. Millet is a type of small seed that is often included in birdseed mixes. While some...
If you're an avid bird feeder , you may have noticed that milo is a common ingredient in many bird seeds mixes. But what exactly is milo and what purpose does it serve in bird seed? Milo, also known...
If you enjoy the lively display of squirrels in your yard, building a DIY squirrel feeder can not only bring joy and engagement to your family but also offer a reliable food source for these...
If you're interested in providing a safe haven for Barred Owls to nest and raise their young, you've come to the right place. This article will guide you through the process of building a barred owl...
Keeping your hummingbird feeders clean not only helps attract more hummingbirds to your yard but also ensures that the birds stay healthy and disease-free. Vinegar is one of the most effective and...
If you love watching birds, then you know how important it is to have a suet feeder that will attract them to your backyard. However, choosing the right location for your suet feeder can be tricky....
Barn owls, those ethereal hunters of the night, have specific owl dietary requirements that fuel their nocturnal escapades. Whether you're a bird enthusiast, a wildlife rehabilitator, or someone...
While owls are adept at managing life in the wild, they sometimes encounter challenges, such as dehydration, especially in particularly hot or arid conditions. Dehydration can pose severe threats to...
The Short-Eared Owl, with its distinctive appearance and unusual habits, stands as a captivating figure in the avian world. This guide sheds light on this remarkable raptor, giving enthusiasts and...
A naturalist's field guide to South Carolina wetlands - the four major types (bottomland hardwood, Carolina bay, freshwater marsh, salt marsh), the species each supports, and the access points worth your time.
A naturalist's identification guide to the 24 water bird species you'll actually encounter in Indiana - which lakes, which seasons, and the three refuges where most of the list happens.
A naturalist's field guide to Florida's 27 most-seeable water birds - which wetlands they prefer, when they show up, and the four locations where you'll see most of them in a single morning.
If you're an avid bird watcher, you know how frustrating it can be to have squirrels constantly raiding your bird feeders. One solution that has been suggested is to use pepper bird seed as a...
A naturalist's guide to feeding wild birds peanut butter - which species actually take it, which jars are safe, the homemade winter mix we use, and the three feeders that survive squirrels.
If you're reading this, chances are you love birds and you're interested in providing the best possible care for your feathered friends. One of the simplest ways to do so is by making your own suet...
Bird feeders come in various types to cater to different bird species. Tube feeders are ideal for small seed-eating birds like finches and chickadees. Hopper or house feeders attract a wide variety,...
From the 5-inch Elf Owl to the 25-inch Great Grey, the US holds 19 owl species. A naturalist's read on what's where and how to tell them apart.
Holding a duck may seem like a simple task, but it can be quite challenging, especially for those who are new to handling them. Ducks are delicate creatures that require proper handling to avoid...
A naturalist's illustrated tour of duck anatomy - the bill, the feet, the feathers, the digestive system, and the adaptations that make a duck a duck.
While ducks and rats may seem like unlikely bedfellows, the truth is that these two animals often end up sharing the same space. Yes, ducks can potentially attract rats, but not directly. It's the...
A small-flock keeper's guide to the 12 duck breeds that handle winter genuinely well, the three that don't, and the housing and feed setup that keeps any duck alive through January.
Ducks love fruit, but can they safely eat fruit? Yes, ducks can eat fruit, and many fruits can be a nutritious treat for them. Offer fruits like berries, seedless grapes, chopped apples, and melons...
Backyard ducks are becoming increasingly popular among homeowners who want to enjoy the benefits of raising their own poultry. However, many people are unsure about what to feed their feathered...
A balanced and varied diet is crucial for a duck's health, and feeding them the right seeds can provide essential nutrients that help them stay healthy and maintain a strong immune system. So what...
Ducklings require a balanced and nutritious diet to grow into healthy adult ducks. While commercial duck feed is widely available, some duck owners prefer to make their own food at home. Creating DIY...
Ducks are lovely creatures that can be found in many parks, ponds, and lakes around the world and feeding ducks can be a joyous activity. However, not all foods are safe for ducks to eat. In fact,...
Ducks are pretty common in our nation's parks, gliding in the water and feeding in ponds and lakes. But many people have wondered — do ducks have knees? Despite the common perception that ducks don't...
Female Mallard, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Muscovy, and others. A naturalist's read on the orange-billed ducks and how to tell them apart.
Redhead, Canvasback, and Common Pochard drakes all have red eyes. A naturalist's read on how to tell them apart at a glance.
Ducks are a common sight in ponds, lakes, and even backyard pools. These feathered creatures are not only adorable, but they also play an important role in the ecosystem. If you're lucky enough to...
A naturalist's guide to Oregon's 39 duck species - the year-round residents, the winter visitors from the Arctic, and the four locations where you can see most of them in a single trip.
A naturalist's identification guide to the Common Shelduck - distinctive bottle-green head, chestnut breast band, red bill knob. Where to find it, how it differs from other ducks, and the British coast as its stronghold.
A naturalist's overview of the 40+ duck species that breed or winter in North America - the dabblers, the divers, the sea ducks, the perching ducks, and how to sort them in the field.
Are you curious about what geese can and can't eat? Do you want to provide the best diet for your feathered friends? Look no further! You may be surprised to learn that oats, often seen as a staple...
Geese are classified as omnivores because they eat both plants and animals. However, their diet consists mostly of aquatic plants, leaves and grasses. Fruits and vegetables can also be a part of...
Geese are fascinating creatures with diverse diets. They eat mostly aquatic plants in the wild, including roots, stems, leaves, and seeds. They will eat small insects, worms, crustaceans, and fish as...
Geese are fascinating creatures, known for their honking calls, webbed feet, and sociable nature. But when it comes to feeding these feathered friends, many pet owners have questions. For example,...
Geese are omnivorous animals, meaning they eat both plants and animals. In the wild, they typically feed on a variety of items including aquatic plants, grains, insects, amphibians, small reptiles...
Why geese hiss at you, what the V-formation actually does, and how to read a Canada goose's body language. A field naturalist's notes on what's really going on with the most misunderstood bird in the park.
A small-flock keeper's guide to goose housing - what geese actually need, the dimensions that work, the materials that don't rot, and the predator-proofing that matters most.
Unfortunately, ducks can be preyed upon by birds of prey like hawks. Hawks often attack ducks because they see them as an easy meal. Ducks that are not protected from hawks can quickly become...
Geese feed on all kinds of solid, tough food. And the teeth-like structures on their tongues and beaks help them do that. They can pull roots, stems, grasses, and water plants out of the ground...
Hawks are known for their good eyesight and excellent depth perception that allows them to can spot movement from far away. Red-tailed hawks, in particular, have binocular vision, meaning they can...
A naturalist's identification guide to the seven goose species that breed or winter in North America - which is which, where they migrate, and the differences most field guides understate.