When I started this little bird series sharing our avian neighbors antics and adventures with you, I wasn’t humming the tune “Twelve Days of Christmas.” Funny thing though, the number of birds around the house are very close to fitting the tune and turning into our version of a Christmas bird count. We have One Hermit Thrush, Anna’s Hummingbird and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Counting heads today, we have Two Canyon Towhees, Two Bewick’s Wrens, and Two Bridled Titmice. You see where I’m going here, right? Today’s spotlight is on our Canyon Towhees.
Canyon Towhees like each other’s company. They also love to fly into the shed or be found hopping contentedly singing softly on our front and back porches. I always have to look before locking up the shed or opening the front or back doors. Mi casa is their casa. Very friendly birds that will land on my pant leg if I’m sitting to close to the mealworm bowl. Daily flights to our suet and seed feeders followed by a mealworm bowl visit chatting happily together upon landing on the nearest perch. They are ground foragers scratching the earth backwards with both feet in the hopes of revealing an earthworm or grub. We leave the oak leaves that have fallen under our bushes to provide ground cover homes for these earth dwellers. Birds adore a bit of higgledy piggledy-ness in the garden. Leave some leaves and a few pruned branches in a small pile over the winter for them to scurry under and search for insects. And please remember a bird’s Christmas stocking is a full seed and suet feeder. Need a recipe? Check out our resources page www.mawcenter.org/resources and enjoy the fun and good feelings of winter bird feeding!
