Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Pennsylvania Game Commission: Backyard Bird Oases

by Joe Kosack.

A surefire way to attract songbirds - and often other wildlife - to your backyard is by adding a birdbath or small pond, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission biologists. During the dog days of summer, water has almost magical powers of attraction on many birds, because it's something they use regularly.

It's not that birds are big drinkers, or hygiene extremists. A belly full of water and wet feathers definitely are not conducive to flight, a bird's chief mode of transportation and first line of defense. Drinking and wading in water can help birds manage their body temperature when the sun is baking backyards and suburban settings. In fact, water can be as or more important than food to some birds when the heat is on.

Birds typically do just fine regulating their body temperatures through breathing; they do not sweat. As cooler, fresh air circulates through a bird's respiratory system, it shuttles away the warm, moist air that radiates from its overheated body tissues. As a general rule, the smaller a bird, the greater its body's loss of water via breathing - and need to replenish what it has expelled. This can be accomplished through eating juicy fruits and berries, or bugs, or at a puddle or backyard birdbath.

"Adding a water source to your backyard will almost always draw birds and provide countless hours of bird-watching pleasure," said biologist Doug Gross, an endangered bird specialist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "Water will pull in everything from bluebirds and American goldfinches to ruby- throated hummingbirds and robins.

A water source can be made more attractive to birds by adding a water dripper, mist sprayer or a cascading trickle. Birds seem to key on moving water and the sound of it, particularly when it's found or heard in an area where water is hard to come by. Once located by birds, a properly maintained water source rarely sits idle. Birds usually wait in nearby trees for their turn to access the water for drinking or bathing.

Created in 1895 as an independent state agency, the Game Commission is responsible for conserving and managing all wild birds and mammals in the Commonwealth, establishing hunting seasons and bag limits, enforcing hunting and trapping laws, and managing habitat on the 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands it has purchased over the years with hunting and furtaking license dollars to safeguard wildlife habitat. The agency also conducts numerous wildlife conservation programs for schools, civic organizations and sportsmen's clubs.

...thats a great bird  program...

Pennsylvania Game Commission: Backyard Bird Oases: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

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