How do birds "find" the bird feeder?
Asked by
josie (
30934
)
February 20th, 2011
I have a bird feeder hanging outside the doors to my patio.
I do my best to remember to keep it filled, but the truth is, I run out of bird food, or forget to fill it up, sometimes for a couple of weeks.
When I finally do fill it, it hangs there for a while and no birds come around.
But then, a few hours later, no more than a day later, the birds are all over it.
This tells me that for a while the birds are not aware that the bird food is there. Then, somehow, they become aware of it, and not only that, a whole lot of them become aware of it. And not just one type, who certainly flock together, but all sorts of types of birds.
So how is it that the birds “find” the food? Is it by some coincidence that they fly by and see it? So they smell it? When one type of bird arrives, do the other ones see the action and join in? Or do they chirp at each other? Or what?
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11 Answers
Yep, it’s all a matter of discovery. If a food source is reliable all animals will make it part of their foraging rounds.
I have a mama raccoon that has been bringing her babies around every summer for 3 years now and she tries the cat door into my kitchen EVERY night!
She has gotten lucky on quite a few occasions and enjoyed bountiful bowls of cat food, sooo, even though she only gets intermittent rewards my place is part of her nightly routine, just in case.
I live on property in a rural area and I am being wiped out of goose feed by the wild turkeys that fly over the 6 ft. fence every morning and clean out the chciken feed and scratch grains I feed my pair of geese.
I chase them off several times a day and make sure I always keep a huge pan of feed out for my geese.
Same is true for predators such as Coyotes and others.
I kept chickens for about 8 years and might go months without an issue but…once ‘they’ ( fill in the blanks, Foxes, Coyotes, Bobcats, raccoons ) discovered the birds ‘they’ would come back nightly or every other night to kill anything that was not locked up in the barn.
There is no predicting, but, once a food source is discovered it will be repetively sought out & consumed until it is removed or depleted.
I know crows (and maybe ravens, I can’t remember) have a particular call for when they’ve found food, which brings the rest of the group over for meal time. I would guess that other species of birds, at least those that live and work in groups, have the same thing and what’s happening is they are searching for food in their territory separately, they come across a plentiful source, then they start calling for their group-mates.
Birds in areas with a high concentration of feeders learn what the various kinds of feeders look like. Even when yours is empty, they’re probably still giving it the occasional glance when they’re nearby because its shape offers at least the possibility of a meal.
Birds watch each other intently for signs that one has found a food source. You can bet that as soon as one begins eating, every other bird within visual range knows it. @MissAnthrope is right that if the food source is more than enough for one bird, particularly social birds will sound the dinner bell. But even less social birds will start trying to warn other birds away with threat calls, which is a sign to other birds that there’s something being protected.
Not any different than us. If I know the cookie jar is always full, I’ll stop by it every night. lol
I think they make their rounds,have excellent eyesight and good memories
I have a feeder at home and I also feed them on the path that I walk on through the woods every day.They are so trained that the chickadees will sometimes land on my hands to take seed. They are so cute! :)
How do they find it? They look around. They got nothing better to do. Guaranteed.
By noticifying it. Birds are good at that.
They notice each other feeding more than they notice the food itself. Then all the other birds in the neighbourhood follow to see what the fuss is about.
Yep, like all the little human McDonalds birds.
They all follow each other to the drive through to see what the fuss is all about haha
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