“Out Back”In Our Yard
Welcome to our backyard!
We’re located in North Massapequa, New York, about 35 miles east of New York City on the south shore of Long Island. It’s not very large, only 70’ x 100’, but it provides incredible enjoyment to us. We happen to be lucky in that our home is located next to the Massapequa Preserve. The Preserve, over 400 acres of woodlands, ponds, streams and fresh water wetlands, is home and a stopping-over point for a great variety of birds. We’ve been able to bring the “habitat” of the Preserve into our yard through plantings; by providing food, water, shelter and cover, we have been very successful in attracting many of the birds that live and visit in the Preserve’s woods and fields.
We have a variety of feeding stations - tube, hopper, platform and suet – to accommodate all the different bird species’ feeding preferences. Different birds feed in different ways. For example, the Northern Cardinals will feed at a hopper and platform but not on a tube. They don’t like to sit on short perches and “sway” in the wind while dining. It’s important to know what the birds prefer, as they are more likely to visit repeatedly, and stay longer when they do if conditions are to their liking.
Knowing what different birds like to eat is important information to know when choosing the food to be offered. Black oil sunflower seed is at the top of the list, with peanut pieces and prosso millet close behind. Our feathered friends enjoy all three. We’ll sometimes feed cracked corn in a part of the yard away from the other feeders when pigeons are a problem. Rendered suet cakes are primarily for the woodpeckers, though the chickadees and titmice are often found feasting on them. Last spring we had a Northern Mockingbird feeding daily at a berry-flavored suet – a first in our yard! We shy away from the suets mixed with seeds, preferring to offer the suets flavored with or containing fruit and peanut. The suet seems to “seal” the seeds, making them difficult for birds to crack open. The birds often just pull the seeds from the suet and drop them to the ground. We also use plain suet cakes. The squirrels generally ignore these pure white cakes, though starlings can’t get enough of them.
We also provide different locations for water to cater to different birds. We have a large pedestal bird bath and two smaller, ground level baths. Some birds, white-throated sparrows for instance, never use the pedestal bath, but prefer the ground level baths. All three baths are in the flower garden and are surrounded by plants and shrubs with trees close by. After bathing, birds love to shake, dry and preen in the trees and shrubs. The plants are not dense and offer a “buffer zone” from predators. I’ve also found that water attracts certain birds that don’t ordinarily stop at feeders - American Robins and Gray Catbirds for example.
Flowers and shrubs, in addition to some oak trees, also attract birds to our yard. We have plantings of Coneflowers, Black-Eye Susans, Thistles, Bachelor Buttons and Asters, all of which attract a number of different species to their seed heads. We also plant a lot of annuals - red / pink / purple Impatiens and bright red Salvias attract hummingbirds. The plantings also naturally attract some common garden insects, which in turn attract birds that feed on insects. The perimeter of our yard has some very dense shrubs, mostly Arborvitaes, which provide excellent cover from predators. All in all, we think that we’ve made our yard into a very peaceful and bird-friendly habitat.
Backyard Bird List
Regular Visitors
Northern Cardinal..................American Goldfinch
Black-Capped Chickadee.......Bluejay
Tufted Titmouse.................. American Robin
Downy Woodpecker..............Common Grackle
Hairy Woodpecker.................American Crow
Red-Bellied Woodpecker....... European Starling
Gray Catbird.........................White-Breasted Nuthatch
House Sparrow......................Brown Creeper
House Finch..........................Northern Mockingbird
Mourning Dove.......................Chipping Sparrow
Rock Dove.............................Song Sparrow
Semi-Annual Visitors (migration stop-overs)
Northern Junco...................................Fox Sparrow
Common Flicker (yellow shafted).........Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
White-Throated Sparrow......................American Tree Sparrow
American Redstart..............................White-Crowned Sparrow
Northern Oriole.................................. Rufous-Sided Towhee
Sharp-Shinned Hawk..........................Red-Winged Blackbird
Myrtle Warbler...................................Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Common Yellowthroat Warbler.............Cowbird
Very Occasional Visitors
Pine Siskin
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Black and White Warbler
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Purple Finch
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
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