Expert birder offers advice for backyard bird watching during COVID-19

The president of Waterloo Region Nature says his organization is taking a conservative approach to provincial COVID-19 rules and is not doing field trips of any kind at the moment.

But David Gascoigne says people can still watch birds in their backyards.

"If you feed stuff like black oil sunflower seed and Niger seed, those two seed types alone will attract most of the species you're likely to encounter in a backyard during the winter," Gascoigne said. "And if you add a block of suet … that will attract things like downy woodpeckers and nuthatches."

Other species people might see in their yards during the winter include mourning doves, American goldfinches, hairy woodpeckers, house finches and house sparrows, he added. 

There's some debate about whether feeding birds actually helps them, Gascoigne said, but he believes it does, particularly after ice storms when their natural food sources are coated in ice.

It also contributes to the food chain, he noted.

'naturalize' your yard

"It's an old adage that if you feed songbirds, ultimately, you're feeding raptors," he said. "Once in a while, a Cooper's hawk or a sharp-shinned hawk will start to hang around your neighbourhood, and you'll notice everything goes very quiet. And those raptors will pick off the odd songbird."

Gascoigne recommends placing a brush pile or another form of ground cover in the garden to provide birds with protection from predators and from the elements. 

For those who want to carry on backyard birding in the spring and summer, he suggests "naturalizing" one's yard as much as possible by planting native plants and trees that birds have long-recognized as food sources. 

"Plant sugar maple in your backyard," he said. "Plant a balsam fir, plant an American linden plant. Plant native trees that will attract birds, and you will be astounded at what will patronize your backyard then."

Gascoigne also recommends that those new to bird watching join a group like Waterloo Region Nature or reach out to experienced birders for guidance on identifying species and behaving ethically.

Leave owls alone

The American Birding Association also has a code of ethics posted on its website, he said.

Recently, controversy erupted online due to requests from new birders for guidance on locating owls.

Owls, Gascoigne said, are vulnerable to harassment.

"If you find them in daylight hours roosting, the best thing you can do is leave them be," he said, "and what you find is unscrupulous photographers and birders will get too close to them, they'll disturb them, they cause the owl to fly, then they're expending energy that they don't need to."

Nowadays, if Gascoigne sees an owl, he doesn't tell anyone, he said. 

"You should always have the welfare of the bird uppermost in your mind," he said.

"If you can't get a good picture, that's the way it is. If you can't get as close as you might like, you've got to accept that."