Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Reducing Stress on Feeding Birds

Two years ago I established a second feeder station at the southwest corner of our property. This station is a good distance from the original tree (and out of its sight line,) and provides exactly the same food offerings. This provided the opportunity for reducing traffic. I've read that by forcing too many birds into one location can create significant stress. I wondered if doing this would lead to many fewer birds at the original station: a concern because we can't really see what's going on at the new location from the house. But as it turns out, based on photo evidence, that is not a concern. We get plenty of visitation at both stations. A three day run of BirdCam photography at the second station showed ten species using at least one of the four active feeders, none of which is absent from the original station. I have no way to actually measure the change in stress over time, but I am willing to bet that my visitors are at least a little more relaxed when they can spread out some, selecting which feeders to use based on who's where and what feels safer at any given moment. Now, how about a third tree?

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