Buena Creek Gardens

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A Garden for Birds - part two of a four-part series
by Steve Brigham

     Many of the most enjoyable animals in any garden are our little feathered friends. Although I'm not an "expert" on birds, I have gotten to know some of them pretty well over the years, at least from a layman's point of view. And so here's the second in this series on birds in our gardens.

The "Bug Squad"
     Don't get me wrong -- I've got nothing against bugs. So many of them are so beneficial to us in so many ways, and all are part of our ecosystem. But if it weren't for some key species of birds in our gardens, there would just be too many bugs! And that's why (in addition to their obvious cuteness) our feathery friends on the "Bug Squad" are so important!
     Like humans, some birds are strictly vegetarian, some are mostly meat-eaters, and many are a little of both. Birds also have enormous appetites (the term "eat like a bird" is not very accurate) -- pound for pound, we'd have to eat 20 times what we usually do to match what some birds can eat in a day! Most carnivorous birds get their meat from "bugs" (I use this term here from the birds' perspective -- meaning anything that flies or crawls that they can manage to eat, including insects, worms, grubs, etc.) Some birds catch 'em in the air and some get 'em on the ground -- but whichever method they specialize in, they are all very good at what they do (and with their appetites they really eat a lot of bugs!)

No Bug Is Safe!
     Of the birds that catch 'em in the air, my favorite is the Black Phoebe. This is a charming 6" (total length, including tail feathers) black and white flycatcher that is a master at catching flying insects. It loves to perch on sprinkler heads, fences, or wires and dart into the air after an insect, which is quickly dispatched with a loud snap of the beak. The Black Phoebe has a cute call, and a cute habit of always flicking its tail when it makes its sharp one-syllable tsee -- loud enough perhaps to startle insects within range and make them take flight, which is an effective method that some birds use to hunt. Another very entertaining Flycatcher is Cassin's Kingbird, an 8" gray and yellow bird with black wings. These always seem to hang out in pairs on telephone wires (what did birds do before telephone wires?!), and are great airborne bug catchers. Colorful and comical, they call to each other all day with a loud chi-BEW (maybe celebrating each bug they've caught!)

The Voice Of The Chaparral
     Not all of the birds in the Bug Squad hunt from perches, and there are even some that hunt at night. One summer night a number of years ago, I first heard what sounded like a broken cuckoo clock in the native chaparral adjoining our garden. It just kept going and going. I knew that most birds went to sleep when it got dark, but was there actually a bird besides the owl and the occasional mockingbird that stayed up all night? Well, there is, and it's a charter member of the Bug Squad. The Common Poorwill is one of those birds you hear but seldom see. It calls a loud repeating poor-WILL, poor-WILL, poor-WILL that pierces the silence of the night. This 7" brown and grey nightjar is a "little-beaked bird", which like the more-familiar Swallows opens its mouth in flight and "vacuums" up bugs as it goes. The Common Poorwill is a ground dweller that is so well-camouflaged it is almost impossible to spot as it sits motionless in a patch of dirt at dusk -- but if you wait, you might see it suddenly pop into the air to catch a bug, then return to its spot.
     Although the Common Poorwill may own the night, there is another bird that during the day anyway has earned the title "Voice Of The Chapparal", and it visits in the garden as well. This is the Wrentit, which is a little grey-brown bird that is likewise often heard but seldom seen. The male's loud piercing call is heard year-round and is distinctive -- it begins with a series of accelerating notes, then runs into a descending trill -- PIT, PIT, PIT, tr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r... It is a real joy to hear this bird sing, and also to see if you can see it!
     One final chaparral dweller that sometimes visits us in the garden is also a singer, but often a shy one. The California Thrasher is a fairly large brown bird (12" long, including its long tail feathers) that has a long curved beak which it uses to dig for bugs. Thrashers are really kind of comical as they "thrash around" with their beaks, tossing aside sticks, leaves, and mulch as they go -- and in late summer and fall when there's not much food left in the chaparral, they often come into the garden and are rather tame. A member of the Mockingbird Family, the the Thrasher can imitate other birds and sounds when it sings, but unlike mockingbirds is a little shy about performing.

Hunting Techniques
     In the never-ending search for bugs, there are a number of effective hunting techniques that birds use. And speaking of mockingbirds, have you ever seen one hunt for bugs? Famous for its virtuoso singing performances, the Mockingbird has white patches on its wings and tail feathers that it flashes in courtship and territorial displays. But I have also seen mockingbirds hopping along the ground stop and extend their wings, then pick up a bug. By flashing those patches of white underneath their wings, it is thought that they actually can startle insects or worms into movement, making them easier to catch (sounds unusual, but it works for them!).
     Another hunting technique that I've mentioned as used by the Black Phoebe is the "loud noise technique". This is also used by our friendly California Towhee, a medium-sized brown bird that is common in gardens as well as in the chaparral. The Towhee is a cheerful little bird that hops along the ground looking for bugs. Every so often, it emits a high-pitched cheep! that can startle bugs into movement and even bring worms to the soil surface. The Towhee also digs for bugs like the Thrasher does, but lacking a long beak does so with its feet in kind of a backwards hop, thereby moving leaves and mulch around and effectively uncovering dinner.
     Wrens are charming little garden birds that busy, brave, and make a lot of chatter despite their tiny size. They will search anywhere for bugs -- including spider webs, which is a hunting secret shared by a few other small birds (including hummingbirds) that are maneuverable enough to do so. (With so many birds using their webs as "grocery stores", it's no wonder that many spiders spin a new web every day!)
     If you ever see a large flock of really tiny little grayish-brown birds in your garden (they're almost as small as hummingbirds) that are peeping up a storm, then you're probably seeing Bushtits. These are about the cutest birds imaginable, and they always travel in big groups. This in itself is an effective hunting technique, for if one bird moves ahead and finds some bugs it will tell the others. Because they feel safe in numbers, the Bushtits are rather fearless and will twitter all around you if you remain fairly still. They are very focused on their relentless examination of every single plant for bugs, and they often find bugs too small for us to notice. When you see a flock of Bushtits busy in your garden, you can bet that they're ridding your plants of aphids and the like, and you should thank them for this valuable service!
     Finally, no discussion of bug-eating birds would be complete without mentioning the Woodpeckers. Entertaining and extremely specialized, they do their "shopping" in the trees, either by peeling bark away or actually drilling holes to find the bugs within. Woodpeckers even have specialized neck muscles and brain padding that prevents them from getting headaches! Our noisy and colonial Acorn Woodpecker has developed an entire culture based upon our native Oak Trees -- in the fall, they harvest and store acorns in trees so they can continue to eat them all winter. But they eat bugs, too -- and one of the reasons they store their acorns in trees is that they're actually "farming" native grubs that mature inside the harvested acorns (when the grubs emerge from the acorns, they're history!)

They Work For Free
     All the members of the "Bug Squad" do a great service to us by keeping insect populations in check. They are also just plain cute and fun to watch and live with. Although it would be nice to give them something in return, it's pretty difficult to feed them bugs! But you can help them simply by providing as complete an ecosystem as possible, with lots of different trees and shrubs. Big, old trees are essential for the happy life of so many kinds of birds, and so mature trees must be preserved and cared for at any cost. Other birds need our native chaparral vegetation, which also must always be preserved and may even be successfully imitated in the garden through the use of chaparral-type plants from around the world. By carefully observing and getting to know the birds in your garden, you'll realize that each one has its favorite foods, perches, routines, etc. -- never forget that they depend on you to maintain the quality of their habitat!

Part Three...
     Some of our birds take summer vacations, and some take winter vacations -- but where do they go? Which birds are nectar-lovers, and what garden plants do they like the best? Are some birds better singers than others? All this and more in Part Three, when "A Garden For The Birds" continues!